Ark. school official to resign after posting anti-gay screed

 In a facebook posting, a member of an Arkansas school board stated that he thinks all gay youths should kill themselves. He read a facebook campaign asking people to wear purple in honor of the gay and lesbian youths that had commited suicide, and wrote that he would only wear purple if all of "them" killed themselves. Several school officials called attention to his post and agree that his posting does not represent the school when he posts on his facebook page. He has agreed to resign after public disapproval of him.

This man makes me very angry. How he can be a public school teacher, and have such radical, homophobic thoughts is beyond comprehension. He creates a bad example of himself. Students should look up to their teachers, not be embarrassed by what they have to say. Instead of ranting about how much he hates gays, he should have just kept his mouth shut. I'm glad that he will no longer have a job on the school board, but i think the faculty should have fired him. He shouldn't have been able to say all that he said, and then just been able to quit. He should have been reprimanded, or punished in some way. He could have had an effect on the students that he taught, and one of them may have killed themselves. Everyone has an impact, no matter what they think, or where they write it. Facebook has become a highway for cyberbulling, and even teachers can't escape it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39888918/ns/us_news-life/

Disabled N.C. girl vanishes; stepmom questioned

     A young girl with hearing loss in both of her ears and a prosthetic leg from a battle with cancer dissapeared last Saturday from Hickory, North Carolina. Her stepmother was later arrested in the same day on unrelated charges, and those close to her believe she could somehow be responsible for Zhara's disappearance. Her old neighbors say that the stepmom had a quick temper, and would often punish the child for no reason. The child's own father believes that the stepmother could have somthing to do with his daughter's disappearance.
   
      I think that the police should really come down hard on this woman. She may be a stepmother, but she has no right to abuse or hit a child. The neighbors of the girl say that they stepmother acted odd that saturday and if she had something to do with Zhara's disappearance, I'm sure she did act odd. Police say they found a tree burning in their backyard with what could be clothing hanging from tree limbs. That is certainly suspicious enough for me to seriously consider that the stepmother could inadvertanly be responsible for this little girl's disappearance. Her stepmother never seemed to care until she was close to tears when Zhara was fitted with her hearing aids. Zhara had lost hearing in both of her ears and her left leg from chemotherapy because of bone cancer. It had a deep impact on her father. Why should her father have to suffer the loss of his little girl this way, when he was so close to losing her in cancer's death grip?

Information and source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39617740/ns/us_news-life/

100,000 kids in pakistan face starvation

 A young baby is laying on the dirt floor of a small un airconditioned hut with her stomach bulging out from malnutrition. Her mother cannot get food to feed her because her husband forbaid her to leave the hut until he returns from work. That means that she has to wait up to 6 hours a day with 2 4 day old babies with no food and no means to keep the babies cool and comfortable. These children are hardly anything different than normal in Pakistan since the floods came and wiped nearly every home from the face of the earth.

 It is so terrible how children only 7,000 miles away from me are dying from starvation and all i see is a tiny little news article in a news website. These children go through perils that never cross my mind in the worst nightmares. How can you look at a child whose skin is sagging and stomach bulging from malnutrition and not want to do something that can help make them better? People in UNICEF need to make families that have starving infants a first priority, because they are the most in need. These little innocent babies have done nothing other than being born at the wrong time because of a flood. Houses should be built to help protect these little guys, and people blessed with the little things in life that they take for granted should contribute and help out these families in need.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39257268/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

Issue #2: Spending what we can afford

 In 2007, Congress passed the pay-as-you-go budgeting measure. Another name used for it is "paygo", which means that when the government makes any tax cuts, they have to be offset with any spending reductions somewhere else. This law was passed to help cut down the national debt, which is currently more than $8.8 trillion. The government gets all of the money from the U.S. population, foreign countries, and nost notably the Social Security trust fund. The government's debts form a yearly deficit, which increases the national debt by nearly $2.9 trillion a year. The paygo rule tries to show that the members of Congress care about fixing the nations' debt. Paygo tries to hold the Government to the same standard as the american people and business', that they can only spend what they can afford. Supporters argue that paygo will eliminate wasteful spending, and can be suspended in times of crisis, such as an recession. Oponents argue that paygo will hike up taxes to pay for new programs, and will hurt the American people and the economy. They say the debt should be paid off with industrial growth rather than budget cuts and tax increases. It will not help the government stop the growing reach of the Alternative Minimum Tax, and  it can restrict Congress' ability to respond to national emergencies.

 I think that the paygo rule can be both beneficial and harmful to the American economy. I don't see how oponents can say that its a bad thing when the only counteract they can come up with is "industrial growth will help stimulate the economy and help the debt." Sure it would be nice to have industrial growth but how do we do that exactly? You have to actually make a plan instead of just saying something as vague as "industrial growth". Make a legit plan people! Supporters show some good points of how the paygo plan can be helpful. I like that it holds the Congress to the same standard as the people of the U.S. President Obama praises the return of the paygo budget legislation that he thinks will get the government out of a destructive pattern of overspending.

Issue #1: War Dollars

Issue #3: Social Insecurity