Pertainate  things. Like Health care, The Wars. Poverty. Not tabloid stuff like Paris Hilton or Sara Palin or the latest Hollywood garb,  not what I call News! My family and friends now refer to The News According to…It would be so nice if all the replaying of things like MJ,  would stop. Our News has become nothing more than hearsay full of miss leading things.

I wish there was a News place with just the facts. And one with Good Happening that replay over and over.  A whole lot of today’s problems are do that our Mass Media,  it has has so divided people. Coupled with a society that is so easily swayed by a boob tube! Mob mentality is leading …Now that is sad…

excerpt: "Let’s get a few things straight:   

• Until last year, Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s health care bill (co-authored with with Rep. John Dingell) was a bill known asMedicare for All.   Not expensive private insurance for some, but Medicare [a public insurance plan] for All.

• Let’s get another thing clear:    

  • Republicans don’t want a deal.  They want to kill health reform.

  • Let’s get a few more things straight:

    • The public insurance option is consistently very popular in every poll, including the most recent ones, when you ask if people should have the option of choosing a public plan which competes with private insurance companies (which are very unpopular).
    • The public insurance option is popular even among the supporters of conservative Democrats.
    • The House will pass a very progressive health plan — with a strong public option and enough funding to make health insurance affordable for most Americans.
    • Support for a public plan is growing, not shrinking, in the US Senate. 

    • Blue Dog Democrats in the House have already made a deal that accepts a pretty large health reform plan — and a public option.  Senate Democrats are coming together around a health reform program that is big enough to do the job.  And they are embracing a public insurance plan that controls costs — and keeps the private insurance industry honest. 

      In other words, Democrats are coming together around the kind of health reform very much like Senator Ted Kennedy’s HELP bill. "

I know many people are down on the Cash for Clunkers program and the newly launched appliance rebates. But the DOE says last year Americans saved 19 billion on their utility bills because of savings from Energy Star products.  Replacing an 8 year old washer will save $ 78 a year.  (Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers).   Also, this really isn’t a new idea. It was included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 but was never funded. Many people involved will benefit other than the purchaser: stores selling the appliances will avoid lay offs, delivery people who usually get a tip, and the creation of new sales… badly needed by an industry that has been down 15% .

The DOE says Energy Star products use between 10% and 30% less energy than standard models , especially heavy pullers like central air/heat, hot water heaters, and refrigerators.

Of course, many people need to spend their money elsewhere, and many simply cannot afford to make changes now. But for those who can, it’s something to consider.   

I found this at Yahoo.  

A four-time gold medalist subdued and help capture a teenage intruder at her home in Australia. It’s a pretty impressive story before you consider that the would-be victim won the first of those gold medals in 1956.

Dawn Fraser, who won eight Olympic medals for Australia from 1956 through 1964, was at a home in Australia when a man grabbed her by the front gate. Bad idea.

"This guy came out of the gate and grabbed me and I grabbed him by the ear and I kicked him in the groin.

So he had to let me go. He threatened my life and I got really annoyed about that and just grabbed him by the ear and the hair."

Grabbing an ear and kicking a groin? That sounds like a scene from a Three Stooges movie. It’s bad enough to be a burglar. It’s bad enough to be a bad burgler. But to be a bad burglar that gets caught after being kicked in the groin by a 71-year old? Ouch, on multiple levels.

Fraser’s attitude doesn’t seem to have changed from her swimming days. She was always considered cocky (especially when she broke the Australian record in the 100m freestyle and told reporters that she wasn’t impressed with her time) and once smacked a teammate with a pillow during an argument at a team meeting.

What news matters…news that is relavant and pertinent without being sensationalized.  I like hearing about positive things as well (which is one of the reasons I enjoy MSNBC so much, I guess)  I wish we also had more International news (besides Iraq and Afghanistan) I subscribe to Der Speigel and BBC, Madre, and other newsletters to get that.  I enjoy hearing about oridinary people doing extraordinary things to lift themselves and others up.

As an aside, I too was much saddened by Ted Kennedy’s passing. He (and his family) was a principle motivator for my decision to work with adults with developmental and/or psychiatric challenges for some 25 years and a passion for social justice. The Kennedy family has given and continues to give much to our Nation and the world. We have been so quick to judge them for their all too human human foibles…would that we were all so generous as this family. Unlike them, we have the luxury of grieving privately; making poor choices and dealing with the consequences in the same way.