I was simply curious as to what enables all of us newsviners to spend the time we do on newsvine.

This question is obviously skewed towards repeat visitors. Those of us who over time grow to know each other - at least through the words we write.

Here is the poll

So one ticket costs one US dollar, and you could by as many as you want, by paying one dollar more for each.

Been hearing a lot again lately about putting the death penalty on the table for child rapists & molesters.

The debate always takes the turn to costs to taxpayers. It is in fact more expensive to put a convict on death row than handing down a life sentence. The appeals process and years of legal wrangling, dictated by the constitution is costly.

So what is the goal?

The cost of sex crimes against children is like an unknown giant. The therapy, educational problems, behavior breakdowns and adult criminal activity are obvious to anyone that looks. The costs in victim's compensation, insurance claims, courts and mental healthcare are likely equal or more than the cost of the death penalty appeals process in this country.

These offenders do not stop the desire and eventual behavior for fear of a prison sentence. The incidents of re-offenses is astounding. Their lives behind bars are not as "movie" like as we would like to think. Many states now house sex offenders together, separate from those that might do them harm, they are in many ways better protected than our children.

The Supreme Court's current rulings are that the death penalty cannot be considered in crimes that do not include murder. As we know the views of the SCOTUS change over time.

What is more important Cost, Justice, Life or Protection of the most vulnerable among us?

Just My Opinion,

Thanks for your time and comments.

Maddad

Here's some fun polls for this gorgeous fall weekend. Have fun!

Inevitably I will have left out someone -but I'm sticking mostly with the players in this

coming election.

I've left out the comedians since they would win hands down!

Vote and encourage others to vote - it should be interesting if we get enough

people to participate in the poll.

There's a few notables I overlooked Hillary and Bill - so I made a poll of husband & wife combos

Nominations for anyone I left out are welcomed as well.

Cheers.

I just took in a strange and a bit troubling story on television.

Apparently there is a new trend in the United States of teen girls as young as 16 years old getting Botox treatments for lines and wrinkles.

WTH? What kind of society are we becoming where a 16 year old would be allowed to start a medical treatment for wrinkles? Have we really become such a skin deep nation? Have parents who are signing the consent forms gone completely freakin' nuts?

I will not go on with the rest of my opinion about this insanity, I am more interested in yours.

Thanks for your participation & comments.

JMO

Maddad

Whoa is me, I hear "Stormy Weather" on the radio. Early snow squalls is driftin' in from the North high plains, the blood is getting thick and heavy down there near the border, the South is rising once more just so it can sit right back down and have a sweet tea and the Eastern Seaboard is aflame with passion and bells tolling "STORM WARNING"...... BONG...., and the Mid West just waits for a breeze.

Yep, faces are staring towards the sky, hands shield eyes from blinding sun and passionate winds, storm's a brewin', yep, I can see it comin', I can smell the rain. We all see wind, rain sleet and clouds, we know what it means, change in season, change in weather, change in day, change in status, change of clothes and underwear too.

So why did it take so long for the media to change what it was reporting? Why was the story not about the continued struggle of the American worker not the top story? Why were banks a priority in the media, why were industries of more importance than everyone who wanted to work? Where was the voice of the media from the very damn beginning? I am mad as all hell and I am not going to be manipulated for my vote again. The Television media was a part of the drive for war in Iraq! PERIOD!

I quit listening to television broadcasts a while back (13 weeks now). I have not lost a moments information since I was unadvertised.

Now I know this is a hard thing and that many of you would have me committed if you had to live with that life but we are doing it as long as we can, as an experiment. It is one of our living with less experimments. (we will never give up toilet paper and chocolate though).

Now, I am not telling you what to do, but I was wondering if anyone would like to experiment and not listen to Television news, only news, until after the elections.

Now remember to sing da blues ya gotta pay your dues, so it don't go easy. TV or no TV, honk yyour horn and vote.

the dog is no longer in the yard.

So, this openly liberal attorney outs her client as an illegal alien, living here and working on a false social security number for years.

Both so called "liberal" & "conservative" media seem to be going against this move as a "smear campaign" in an election for governor.

Should the former employee of this candidate, Ms. Diaz be detained and deported? Do we uphold our laws and border rights as just and necessary? Or, is she the victim of a failed border policy that has basically gone unchanged through several administrations.

Thanks For Your Participation and Comments. CoH Please.

Maddad

Today starts Constitution Week. Do you like our USA Constitution or would like to change it?

I came across an article this morning about a hypnotist amazing people on the street.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/os-hypnotist-lake-eola-new-20100820,0,4686346.story

I have some tolerance for the idea of hypnotism in a therapy environment, administered by a professional. But these street acts give me pause. I do think there are those that are more easily "suggestible", but generally I am left unconvinced. I have never been and am not planning to try it personally any time soon. Some things are better left uncovered if it is real.

Just My Opinion,

Maddad

Was just curious...

Amazing, I came across this story the other day about a toddler that was left in a day care van by the driver. The child died.

http://maddad0467.newsvine.com/_news/2010/08/06/4830951-toddler-found-dead-in-hot-van-at-day-care-

The 1st follow-up story I come across asks the very important question.....Do we have enough state regulations when it comes to not leaving children in secured vehicles ever, but especially when it is freakin' hot.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/fl-folo-delray-baby-death-20100806,0,7911447.story

Seriously??!! I am just above average in intelligence I think. I have managed to get 4 children to the point where they would get themselves out of this situation. That means for a long time I checked the vehicle to make certain I had not left a kid behind. I did not need the government to send me a reminder card! Maybe the question they need to ask is....Are we licensing day cares that employ incompetents??

Generally the question is, Are we giving up personal responsibility for a nanny state? Looks like it to me.

Just My Opinion,

Maddad

Another article I seeded today raised this issue, so...what do you think?

Should women have the same rights to go topless as men do, in appropriate places..ie..beach, working out..etc?

I say abso-tutin-lutely!

JMO,

Maddad

We all have them, some set of morals that we live by. Some of us may not like other people's moral values, but they are still theirs.

Where do we develop these moral ideas from? Our parents, peers, church or some other source of thought and setting the lines one will not cross in life?

Most of what I learned from my experiences with organized religion was how to judge others and feel better than other people. I also learned how to sneak out at the right time to smoke a cigarette behind the building. Bad Maddad!

My parental figures were a mix of fanatical religious zealots and a drunk. I am not certain I learned more then the boundaries are farther than you may think, when it comes to what people are capable of.

The few peers I have had relationships with throughout my life, usually split before I got out of hand. My lines in the sand were a lot farther in the desert sometimes than they were willing to go.

We are all moral beings. Where did the influences come from that gave you your moral standards?

Maddad

I have friends that have degrees from multiple Universities and Colleges that are dumb as rocks. I also have friends with G.E.Ds that have some life experience that are some of the most intelligent people I know.

I always wanted to go to college, but life happens.

I lived a pretty rough childhood, quit school in the 8th grade. Then at 17 I joined the United States Navy. They put me on a very old guided missile destroyer, USS Lynde McCormick DDG8, commissioned in 1961. I jumped on board in 1985 as a storekeeper. They woke me from a drunken coma one morning and said..."wake up sailor! it is time to take your G.E.D." HA HA, I couldn't even see good enough to read through my bifocals. I could see the little bubbles you have to fill in and did it in a pattern. Guess what? I passed the damn thing! I stayed in the Navy another 3 years after that. We served during the Iran-Iraq War in the Persian Gulf escorting oil barges through the war zone, with the Iranians using us for target practice with what thank goodness turned out to be lousy land to sea missiles. Hell of a "Cold War".

I came home and went to work for the state as a correctional officer at several maximum security prisons. After a couple of years of that I went to the Community College and took a couple semesters. I did well, I just couldn't do the student thing.

The next several years were spent managing and bouncing in adult bars.

I read a lot and write, some may not think well, but I enjoy it. I can think fairly objectively and would consider myself minimally intelligent.

So what is best for the development of a mind? Self Education through life experience or a degree from this university or another? Does it depend on the person?

MD

The United States Postal Service runs a debt from year to year. I cannot help but suspect that the franking privilege that allows members of Congress free postage to mail political-themed literature creates a fair amount of this debt since they are required to carry tons of this mail at the USPS' expense. Franking is one of the major advantages that incumbency confers on a candidate running for a House or Senate seat because it allows every member of Congress to compose brochures and and other literature extolling their virtues and listing the objectives they have accomplished for their district or state and then mail all of those to each of their constituents at no charge to them but, rather, on the taxpayer's dime. In the age of the Internet when the members of Congress have websites that can be accessed and have the ability to e-mail their constituents for little to no cost if they are able to collect their constituents' e-mail addresses.

So, should members of Congress retain their franking privilege or should it be revoked in the age of the Internet and other technologies?

To go along with the poll question, there is a related story about two members of Congress that abused their privileges, Senator Ernest Lundeen of Minnesota and House representative Hamilton Fish of New York. A Nazi spy named George Sylvester Viereck had originally made the acquaintance of Senator Lundeen in early 1940 after Viereck had been given the mission to ensure the failure of a massive armaments bill before Congress that would put billions of dollars into rearming the United States and improving its military which had withered and become weak since World War I. Viereck was also trying to halt support in Congress for aiding Great Britain militarily. Viereck spent the first half of 1940 trying to accomplish this. Presenting himself to Lundeen as a publicist and speech writer, Viereck began working closely with the Senator, writing vicious isolationist speeches that Lundeen would deliver in the Senate and on the floor of the House of Representatives. Viereck started out using Lundeen's franking privilege but it quickly became apparent that Lundeen's Senate office was not nearly large enough to accommodate the propaganda operation. Enter Representative Hamilton Fish, also a rabid isolationist and, conveniently, the chairman of a political committee named the National Committee to Keep America Out of Foreign Wars. The committee had a mailing list that consisted of 125,000 names and addresses whom Viereck proceeded to shower with all manners of propaganda. Anything and everything with an isolationist slant was sent out using the franking privilege of Representative Fish and 24 other isolationist members of the House of Representatives. This included anti-Roosevelt and anti-war editorials and transcripts of isolationist radio programs. However, where Viereck really soaked the American taxpayer was when he instructed Lundeen and Fish to connive to have Viereck's speeches as delivered by Lundeen read into the Congressional Record which Viereck then requested over a million copies of over the course of his propaganda campaign. He got these reprints for free from the U.S. Government Printing Office courtesy of the American taxpayer as well. In the end, Viereck had printed and mailed millions of pieces of isolationist propaganda at the cost of the American taxpayer. His campaign nearly worked with the armaments legislation passing by a narrow margin. However, when the United States government discovered what Viereck had been doing it sent him to prison for a term of 2-5 years. It was not illegal to make one's living distributing Nazi propaganda, but it was illegal to do so without revealing to the United States government that you were and who was paying you to.

Source: Top Secret Tales Of World War II by William B. Breuer

Vote for the 100 most influential Americans.

This article is also a poll, because I am huge fan of Newsvine writers. Some of the written articles either journalism or human interest are fantastic for a good read when there is nothing on the tube and all the good books are just too heavy to get into to.

"We must always think about things, and we must think about things as they are, not as they are said to be." George Bernard Shaw

Recently, I have written two articles about the experiences of an abuses childhood. They are titled:

Adult Survivor Of Child Abuse: The Consequences In My Life Part 1

Adult Survivor Of Child Abuse: The Consequences In My Life Part 2

and I am concerned.

I have tried writing these articles in such a way so as to not impart any potential for embarrassment or pain for my parents. I have also striven to write it in such a way so as to mot to be revengeful, dishonest, or disrespectful.

I have tried to write them so that I express only the facts in a way to show my experience with them, but to not spread hate or contempt toward them.

I am also aware that due to my past, my intentions my be hidden in self righteousness and justification. Please, be brutally honest with me. In regards to my trauma, I have been diagnosed with mental illness. Major Depression. PTSD, and Social Anxiety can taint the perception in various ways.

This actually leads to another question. Do abused adult children need to respect their parents? Do non abused adult children need respect their parents?

For some the answer can be found in religious texts, others can be found in philosophy. But what do most people think? Can I respect someone who does not respect me? What is repsect?

"In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane." Oscar Wilde

Tuesday the tires meet the road. Talk is over, now it will take ACTION to gain traction. This is your last call for alcohol, go on the record, SpEaK now or forever hold your piece.

The majority of the pundits say that the Democrats will blow it out. On Sunday the talking heads give the Democrats the Electoral College, the Senate and the congress. The Next President needs 270 of the 538 Electoral College votes to become President Elect. I have heard Electoral College estimates from 333 – 378 for Obama. Oddly enough the 378 came from George Will a hard core conservative Republican. Estimates for the Senate are plus 5 - 8 seats and the congress gains of 21 -40.

The only problem with this is that the pundits and the MSM are the only ones that have been consistently wrong in the primaries regarding Obama.

30 million have already voted in early voting and tens of millions will go to the polls tomorrow. In the popular vote, the polls have Obama ahead double digits in some states and 6 – 7 points nationally with Obama's lead shrinking.

I was going to put up just a simple popular Poll but I have decided to have us go on the record in both the Electoral College (EC) and the Popular Vote (PV), so we get no wiggle room on Wednesday. In your comment put your EC & PV then your Senate and house prediction. Naturally I will take the lead with the first comment.

WARNING, it is possible here at Newsvine that those who bet wrong may take some heat on Wednesday. Don't forget to come back and take your beating like a man/woman as the case may be.

The Mississippi Presidential debates have been turned into a drama like the thriller in Manila. McCain being near the bottom of his class, and Obama being at the top of his, put McCain in the underdog position from the start. Then McCain said he would not come to the debate, creating for himself a rock and a hard place. This is your last chance to go on the record and vote for who you think will win on Friday. Then come back on Saturday-Monday and see who was right.

The reality is McCain does not show up people will think he is a trickster to important to make his case to the people. If he does show up his honesty may still be in question. Did he plan to show up all along? Was this a political drama trick?

If you are not sure if McCain will keep his words regarding the debate, click here. for additional information.

Now, we will meet you back here on the weekend.

WARNING, it is possible here at Newsvine that those who bet wrong may take some heat.

For more polls, click here.

Update Breaking News - 1010 WINS reports that McCain is heading to Mississippi and will participate in the debate.

Vote for who you think is the better Christian. The nice guy next door who praises the Lord and respects other people's beliefs or the political Evangelical who does everything in his power to spread the word and laws of his belief into all corners of society?

What's your Sun sign? In this article I'll be taking a quick look at all twelve signs of the zodiac, and offering some brief insights into each one.  To give fair warning: these descriptions are by no means complete.  I'd also like to add that an individual's astrologi …

There have been A LOT of bad politicians. And no one would argue there have been more than a handful of bad presidents. BUT What are some of the worst plunders for nomination?

The Whiz

You have to go here to jdiller82's column to get the link to the voting page. (And it's his seed so do him the courtesy of going through that way please.) We need all Newsviners to get over there and vote in the Open web Awards thingy.
Go on then!

I was always told to be wary of any comet that doesn't show a tail. That's because the tail is streaming out directly behind it, opposite to its direction of travel, so you just can't see it.
Of course, that may not be the only reason for the absence of an observable tail.
Comet Holmes orbits the Sun once every 7 years at a distance of about 200 million miles (compared to Earth's 93-million-mile orbit). As a result, it was re-observed in 1899 and 1906 before being lost for nearly six decades. Based on a prediction by Brian Marsden, of the Minor Planet Centre, the comet was recovered in 1964.
It just so happens that there was a large impact near Tunguska, in Northern Siberia, around the time of the second observation in the early 20th Century, which coincided with a similar outburst from this very comet.
Given that the resources required for tracking and compiling trajectories for these objects are mostly in the hands organisations and/or institutions which are capable of withholding calamitous information from the general public, the question must be asked:-

Would 'They' tell us if it was going to hit?

In the last episode, AunkBot was improving Human's Cultural Health by helping him figure out his ethnicity. In this episode, AunkBot is helping Human set good physical health goals.

How long did your last new car last? If it died at 50,000 miles you would not be a happy camper and rightfully so. Your car would have fallen far short of its design specification. But that never happens because we have a maintenance plan and we take care of our cars, right. Well, what about our bodies, aren't they as important as our cars?

Teach your children about their bodies early and help them make a good maintenance plan. If you are an elder like me, then you know that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

The purpose of AunkBot the comic strip is to make learning about
Cultural and Physical health fun.

In this episode:
AunkBot is helping the Human set his health goals.

Here is a link to the on-line 24x7 Live AunkBot, go talk to him!

Help train this young Artificial intelligence robot
Ask short questions and don't curse at him

For more Newsvine polls, click here.

Note: Problem Fixed -- In case you clicked on the "THIS EPISODE" link during December or January and could not find the comic strip for this article, we had a problem. In late December 2006 and January of 2007 the web site that hosts my comic strips did a complete redesign, causing all the original strips to disappear. The problem has been resolved as follows. I recreated the original comic strip associated with this article on January 17, 2007. The Strip name is Best Plans of Mice and Men

This is my first comic strip. The name of the Strip is AunkBot and it
is based on the adventures of an artificial intelligence entity that I built a number of
years ago. Its purpose was to live on-line and talk to my grand children when I have
transitioned from this earth.;

It is still learning. However, since I took the project live, many
people older then my grandchildren, have told me that they like AunkBot and learn from him, I hope you will too.

The purpose of AunkBot the comic strip is to make learning about
Cultural and Physical health fun.

In this episode:
AunkBot is helping the Human find his lost ethnicity.

Here is a link to the on-line 24x7 Live AunkBot, go talk to him!

For more Newsvine polls, click here.

Note: Problem Fixed -- Incase you clicked on the "THIS EPISODE" link during December or January and could not find the comic strip for this article, we had a problem. In December 2006 and January of 2007 the web site that hosts my comic strips did a complete redesign, causing all the original strips to disappear. The problem has been resolved as follows. I recreated the original comic strip associated with this article on January 16, 2007. The Strip name is Mirror Mirror on the wall.