High school is brutal. No where does that seem more true at the moment, then in Lakeland, Florida, a town that has become a media hot spot recently due to the brutal attack of a high school girl by six cheerleaders. Why has this story gained such a huge array of media attention? It’s not because of the incident itself, although it was vicious, cruel and pre-meditated. It’s not because the victim was an honor student and her abusers were blonde haired, blue eyed cheerleaders. The reason this story is worse than the countless others that are reported every day is because the attackers primary motivation for video taping the incident was so they could upload the video to MySpace and YouTube.

In the days since this heinous story came to light, a lot of media shows have been concentrating primarily on that fact. I even heard MySpace referred to as the “anti-christ of this generation.” Call me crazy, but if six teenage girls and two teenage boys (they were standing guard outside to make sure no one caught on to what was going on inside) have no qualms about tricking a fellow teenager into coming over to their house, ganging up on her and beating her until she’s unconscious, waiting until she comes to and then beating her some more, leaving her with a concussion, partial loss of hearing in one ear and partial loss of sight in one eye, I think there are some people a little closer to home that need to be taking the blame.

Not only did these teens commit these horrible acts, they also showed no remorse and no concept of how severe their actions were. One girl was quoted as asking police officers if they would be out of lock-up in time to go to cheer leading practice. Obviously the parents of these kids need to step up to the plate and take on a little responsibility. I’m pretty sure it must take years of parental inaction for children to reach this level of selfishness and cruelty. Let’s put the blame where it is deserved, on these children, who have no respect for human decency and on the parents and families who created them.

Political scandals are nothing new. Whether it is having not so appropriate relations in the oval office, sending scandalous instant messages to under age boys, getting caught literally with your pants down in an airport bathroom or being involved in a high end prostitution ring, it seems politicians never think they are going to be caught.

With the hundreds of political scandals that make the news everyday, I’m not sure why countless politicians assume they are above the law, and that they will never get caught. When it comes to public figures, someone is always watching, and few people are going to miss the opportunity to rat you out.

Perhaps these people aren’t afraid of getting caught because they feel they can get away with it. I guess generally, that is the case, but as a voter, I feel the American people deserve a little more from our political leaders. I’m not asking for perfection, just honesty. If you’re going to fight adamantly against something in the political world, try to keep your nose out of it in your private life.

Finding a person who understands all of the intricacies of the voting system in the United States is like trying to find a winged unicorn that can sing, dance and grant wishes. It’s nearly impossible, and I have to wonder if the reasons for the intricacies aren’t a little out dated and frankly, ridiculous.

This year I will have the chance to vote in my second presidential election, and since that critical first vote, I’ve picked up a lot of little tidbits about primaries, caucuses, delegates, super delegates and the electoral college system. Do I understand why it works the way it does? Not a chance.

When you write a newspaper article, your always encouraged to remember your audience and write so people can figure out what you’re talking about. I don’t understand why politics doesn’t have the same guidelines.

Instead of having primaries and caucuses months apart all over the country, why can’t we designate one day (or week or month) and schedule all the races for that day. (I know it would cut down on all the campaign stops and heart to hearts in each area, but it would also cut down on some of the money that is thrown away on campaign ads and mud slinging and foolishness.)

Why can’t both parties take that first step toward bipartisan relations by agreeing to the same rules. (Does a primary winner take all of a state’s delegates or a proportion based on the percent of the votes they received? Are primaries open or restricted by parties.) I don’t think the world would end if Democrats and Republicans agreed on the basic rules that run the system.

Would it destroy Democracy if we were to have a system that made sense to the average person? Would it really be so bad if it didn’t require 3-D pie charts, touch screen computers and eight hours for the anchors on MSNBC to explain why a candidate is in the lead?

I know there are a lot of reasons for the way things are done. I know the system is meant to protect smaller states from being looked over during election season, but there has to be an easier way.

There’s been an awful lot of stuff going on lately, so maybe that’s why I completely forgot about my birthday until I looked at the calendar yesterday. Honestly if our day care didn’t make you sign and date a sheet every day when you pick up and drop off your child, I would probably have let my birthday slip right on past without even noticing.

I’m now trying to decide if my lack of birthday related cognitive function is a good thing or a bad thing. The last time I can think of when I was so clueless that the big day was drawing near, I was five. It worked out great at the time, because my parents were able to throw me a surprise party, and I didn’t even consider the possibility of it. Possibly because I didn’t know what a surprise party was, but that’s not the point.

The point is, I’m not sure if my sudden forgetfulness means that I’ve matured into a person who is not quite so obsessed with presents and parties and cakes and all that hype, or if it just means that I am starting to become even more spacey and forgetful than I previously was; a feat that I previously would have dismissed as impossible.

I guess regardless of the reason, the point is, it’s my birthday, so give me presents. Just kidding….unless you were going to send something really good.

It’s that time of year again. Are you ready? January first is just a few days away, so I guess that means we have to decide what we want to change about ourselves or what bad habit we want to give up or what goals we want to achieve, and even if we’re not all that serious about them now, we better make those resolutions now.

If you can’t tell, I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. I’m not sure what it is about them, but every time I hear someone talk about them, I have to roll my eyes just a little and let out a louder than necessary sigh.
Now let me explain that I am all for making changes in order to be exactly what you want to be and in order to achieve exactly what you want to achieve, I just don’t like the idea of making a decision to do something on an arbitrary date, just because that’s what everyone else is going to be doing.

There are several things I want to accomplish this year. I want to be less stressed, more organized and less dependent on other people to accomplish the things I want to get done. I want to make more of an effort to be happy, and to always remember that I am the only one I can blame when I’m not, and I want to put my mind to every task I’m working on and give it my best. But I know that just because January first rolls around, that doesn’t mean I’m suddenly ready to organize my house, my office and my car and keep it that way for the next 365 days.

To me January first is just an arbitrary number, not unlike May 16 or July 8. It’s not the day that is important, it’s being ready to do what you want to do, and being dedicated to doing it.

I can say I want to lose 10 pounds, but unless I’m really ready to push myself to do it, I know it probably isn’t going to happen. So make your New Year’s resolutions if you want, but remember, if you aren’t willing to put in the work, you’re probably going to be making that same resolution in 2009.

Few people would argue that young children are watching too little television. In fact, in the last few years the childhood obesity rate has skyrocketed, partially as a result of increased time spent watching television and playing video games instead of playing sports and enjoying outdoor activities.

With the staggering statistics on childhood obesity (the numbers have tripled since 1970) and television time (most kids watch an average of four hours of television a day) it doesn’t seem likely that children need any encouragement to watch more television, but that’s exactly what they are getting.

A couple of months ago, a satellite installer came to my house to set up my television. When he saw my one year old son, he immediately started telling me about the new television station they offered just for babies. Apparently there is an educational, commercial-free television station targeting children from six months to three years of age.

As if that wasn’t enough, video game makers are now targeting the same age group. The concept behind these things is to provide an opportunity for parents and children to interact while playing these games or watching the television, which is fine, but it seems to me that children get addicted to television and video games quickly enough on their own. Do we really need to spoon feed it to them before they have any interest in it at all?

Sitting kids in front of the television from the time they’re 6 months old is only going to teach them that that is an acceptable habit and something they should do all the time.

I guess if these programs are used as an alternative to traditional television and video games, this is definitely the better way to go, but wouldn’t it be even better to interact with your kids rather than letting the television do it for you?

I don’t know why, but I always expect a lot more mature behavior and attention to the issued from politicians than they are ever willing to give.
A couple of nights ago, I turned on the television and settled in to watch a little of the Republican debate. It’s always interesting to hear what the politicians who could soon be leading our country have to say.

While I was hoping for some brilliant responses that would give me hope for the future, instead, all I heard was a lot of finger pointing and bickering. Immigration, plans for Iraq and the pro-life-pro-choice question were all topics that the candidates used to point their finger at someone else on the stage and place blame for something.

The democratic debates haven’t been any better, with some candidates blasting others for their stance on the war in Iraq, or their support or absence of support on any possible issue.

I know that this is really what politics is all about. For years and years and years, politicians have tried to gain a foot hold by bad mouthing their competition. The future rulers of our country insult and name call more than snotty teenage girls. Instead of inspiring me to want to vote for one candidate more than another, it mostly makes me so disgusted that I end up trying to pick the lesser of the evils.

We’ve still got time, since campaign season is just warming up, but let’s hope that before this thing is over, one of the candidates takes a stand and actually sticks to the issues instead of bashing the front runner in order to bring him or her down a peg.

• I was getting gas the other day and of course I came across some more scary cause they’re so bad signs at the gas station. (Just to refresh your memory, I’ve also complained about the “Pumkins” sign, the “We love are business” sign and signs everywhere with misplaced  apostrophes.) The newest sign on my you suck list says “We no longer except checks.” Now I know that everyone makes mistakes, but come on!

• There’s an all white deer in the woods behind my house. It’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s just a little tiny baby, but I heard a couple of years ago some hunters shot one in a neighboring town because they thought it would look cool on the wall. Now, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with hunting (as long as you only shoot the big, ugly looking animals), but I hope no one shoots the cute, little deer.

• As a quick tip to anyone out there planning any form of home improvement: make sure you know where all important lines and wires are before beginning. This is of course, just a random tip and has nothing to do with any real events, but hypothetically it would suck if you were talking on the phone and it suddenly cut out because someone accidentally hit the phone line with a fence post.

I’ve always been a kid at heart. I guess that’s pretty obvious. I wanted to stay a kid forever. I was terrified about becoming an adult and missing out on all the fun that goes along with having few responsibilities, but it was unavoidable.

One of the biggest things I missed was the fun of Halloween. As a child, Halloween was one of the best holidays. After the big parade and party at the school, we would go home and wait (not so patiently) until dinner was over and we could finally go trick-or-treating.

Well, on Wednesday night, all that fun and excitement came rushing back. My husband and I both hurried home from work, made a quick and easy dinner and got our little boy all dressed up in his Halloween finest. The poor little guy had no idea what was going on or why he was in a chicken costume, but the minute he saw himself in the mirror he began waddling around the living room making quacking noises. (I know ducks quack, not chickens, but he’s only 18 months old, so I think that was pretty impressive.)

We walked up to the first house, and although my little chicken had no idea why we were going to random houses, knocking on the door and then leaving, once he realized they were doling out candy, he was running from house to house and saying “treeeat” as soon as a face appeared in the door.

Of course after about one block, he was done and just wanted to dig in, but our 15 minutes of fun was enough to put a big smile on my face, and the little chicken was pretty happy too.

Every family has there own brand of special traditions. In my family, the tradition is to be as spacey and forgetful as possible.

I don’t want to imply that we’re careless. It’s not that so much as the fact that there are always a million things going on, and you’re bound to forget one or two. Generally speaking, I like to think I do this less than the rest of our family, but every now and then I slip and realize I might just be the worst of all.

On Friday, I laughed as I recounted a story about the time my mom went 3,000 miles past when she was due for an oil change and found out when she dropped the car off that her car was due for an inspection six months ago, not good for another six months as she had thought.

I giggled and snickered as I thought of how silly it was to let these types of things get so out of hand.

Until Saturday morning that is. Saturday, I took my car in for an oil change. I’m not going to tell you how far over I was, because if my husband saw this he would cry himself to sleep, but I will say it wasn’t good. When I returned to pick my car up, I was informed not only that my inspection had expired, but also that the car would never pass inspection without new tires, because I was basically driving on the belts. (I have no idea what that means, but it sounds pretty bad.)

I guess from now on I should try to  refrain from picking on my family about the crazy things they do, because it’s probably only a matter of time before I inherit another family tradition.