The Senate approved a bill to expand and reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program in a 66 to 32 vote and President Obama plans to sign this legislation into effect. The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) provides health insurance to children from low-income families who cannot afford private health care but do not qualify for federal Medicaid. SCHIP currently provides health insurance to more than 7 million children and passage of this legislation expands the program to cover 4 million more children, including for legal immigrants.
In the most blatant of terms, SCHIP provides health insurance to children of families who are stuck in the middle–Not poor enough to be considered for federal insurance, but too poor to even think of the possibility of purchasing insurance from private and major companies. It has been an unfortunate situation, to say the least, to exist in the middle of the spectrum as far as income goes, so often putting families in damned if you do, damned if you don’t positions.
According to the New York Times, the SCHIP Expansion Bill is a version of the same bill that was vetoed twice by ex-President Bush.
About a week ago, CatholicVote launched a national media campaign titled “Life: Imagine the Potential” where they combine an ultrasound, kick-you-in-the-gut sappy music and our newly elected and inaugurated pro-choice president, Barack Obama.
CatholicVote was prepared to pay NBC $1.5 million for a commercial slot in the Superbowl and while NBC is home to MSNBC and left-wing political pundits like Keith Olbermann and my personal favorite, Rachel Maddow, it’s no surprise, really, that NBC rejected to air the controversial and in my opinion, completely out-of-left-field ad, considering it puts a pro-choice president in a pro-life campaign. However, NBC does not discriminate against distasteful ads, unluckily for us, but they do refuse to air commercials that promote political or activist agendas.
Brian Burch, President of CatholicVote.org reacted saying:
“There is nothing objectionable in this positive, life-affirming advertisement. We show a beautiful ultrasound, something NBC’s parent company GE has done for years. We congratulate Barack Obama on becoming the first African-American President. And we simply ask people to imagine the potential of every human life.”
Keep in mind that the people of CatholicVote and the Catholic and other major religious people and organizations as a whole were the same people warding the masses not to vote for Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign against John McCain based on the fact that he is pro-choice. This ad is hypocritical for the fact that they are congratulating Obama on becoming the “first African-American” president; not just for becoming president, but for becoming the first African-American president that they merely see as an opportunity to use in a campaign without a second thought that their message completely goes against their “star’s” personal beliefs in the first place.
I used to go to a lot of shows… a lot. A problem that I ran into most frequently was trying to get tickets to a particular show or event that I was dying to go to but found out about it too late or there was such a demand for tickets that I wound up having to settle for seat tickets for general admission shows or not being able to get a set number of tickets that I needed. I was also forced to pay outlandish fees to the ticket provider themselves just for the fact that I bought tickets through them; while understanding the basic fact that these companies need to make money, some of the fees some providers want you to pay are laughable.
It can sometimes take a great deal of time to find a respectable and trusted ticket company. A company that you know will have what you need and at the price you want to pay, especially when it comes to sold out or hard to get tickets and that is exactly what you will get with TicketFeeder.
TicketFeeder prides itself on providing quality and reliable Concert Tickets, but that’s not all. They also provide event seating and tickets for sports events and theater. Even if the event you want to go to is sold out, chances are you can find it on TicketFeeder’s website. Whatever event you want in on, you’re sure to find the tickets you want which is why this company goes as far as to offer a 100% guarantee for all of their services. There’s no more worrying about if the tickets you purchased are legitimate or if they’re going to come in time. TicketFeeder has eliminated all of the worrying leaving you to only pick the perfect outfit for the event.
Although influenza can cause headache, cough, sore throat, and a stuffy/blocked nose, it’s not the common cold. A cold can feel like a cake walk compared to the flu. Influenza is a serious viral infection that can spread quickly through a home, school or office and cause severe illness, like pneumonia and sometimes even death. It hits you very suddenly, usually with high fever, aches and chills. Children can also have ear aches, nausea and vomiting. It’s not pretty.
How bad can it really be?
You’ve heard the phrase “hits you like a ton of bricks.” People use the word “flu” loosely, often to describe a terrible cold or a stomach virus. But flu is more than an inconvenience; it can wipe you out and it can lead to some pretty severe complications. When a person has the flu, he/she will probably spend at least a few miserable days in bed, miss work and not be able to perform other normal day-to-day activities. You really don’t feel well for about 2 weeks when you get influenza, and longer if you develop complications. Flu in children can be especially severe – young kids are hospitalized as often, or more often, than any other group, including the elderly.
But nobody in my family has gotten the flu before. Why should I be worried?
If nobody in your family has gotten flu before, you’ve been very lucky and we are very jealous! But unless you plan on hibernating at home during flu season with your flu-free family, you’re at risk like the rest of us. Some people mistakenly think that hand washing completely prevents influenza, but this virus travels not only on hands but in the air. The absolute best protection is annual vaccination.
Isn’t it too late to be vaccinated?
Influenza is just rearing its ugly head in the U.S., so if you haven’t already been vaccinated you can still do so. The flu typically peaks in February and cases can continue for many months after. Make some phone calls to see if your health care provider or other health centers in your area have flu vaccine, or use the flu clinic locator or flu shot finder. Note that children younger than 9 years of age who haven’t been vaccinated before will need two vaccine doses at least one month apart for full protection.
Who should be vaccinated?
Basically anyone who doesn’t want to get the flu. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention specifically recommends influenza vaccination for all children 6 months through 18 years of age. Everyone around a baby who is less than 6 months of age should get influenza vaccine to prevent what can be a deadly infection in the very young. Get vaccinated for the baby and get the benefit of protection for yourself. There’s a great tool available on the Childhood Influenza Immunization Coalition’s Web site called the Flu Risk Calculator, where you can input information about yourself and your family to find out who is recommended for vaccination.
Can I just chance getting sick?
Sure, but why? Influenza can really knock you for a loop. And many people, including children younger than five and anyone with chronic medical conditions, like asthma or diabetes, are at increased risk for complications. Chances are there’s no reason you shouldn’t get yourself and your family vaccinated, so ask about the flu vaccine.
But my family was vaccinated last year!
That’s great…but as with taxes, it’s something you have to do every year. The influenza virus likes to reinvent itself each year, so the vaccine changes too to provide the best protection. Even if you are vaccinated early, protection lasts throughout the entire yearly influenza season.
What should I do if I get the flu?
If you suspect you or someone in your family has the flu, check with a doctor right away – there are medications available that may be able to help you feel better faster if they are given in the first 2 days of illness.
The Hitachi Magic Wand is known as “the Cadillac of Vibrators” and for good and obvious reason–The Hitachi cannot be shipped or used outside of North America as it runs on 110 volts of power. The power the Hitachi packs is insane; the first time you use this vibrator, you will know that you have a true blue bedroom companion that will not fail you and your needs.
The Hitachi is perhaps the world’s most famous vibrator but the first time you see its box, you’ll notice that it is also used as a straightforward massager. It has a soft flexible head and does an excellent job of massaging sore muscles. If you’ve seen Sex and the City you may remember that not made the Rabbit Habit famous, dedicating an entire episode to the sex toy, but they also featured the Hitachi Magic Wand poking fun at the fact that it is also sold as a neck massager, ending with Samantha selling the women in the store different “massagers” based on how well they perform in the bedroom.
The Hitachi is probably the most powerful vibrator you can buy; so powerful in fact that I have found it more comfortable to use over a towel because if you use it for too long it does have the ability to be too powerful and wind up hurting you. It is also quite loud, so if you’re trying to masturbate while still living with your parents, I wouldn’t advise using the Hitachi while they or a roommate or anyone else you don’t want to know you’re masturbating are in the vicinity.
The Hitachi also has a few attachments made specially to fit over the soft flexible head such as the Off With Your Head, Deluxe G-Spotter and the Gee Whiz. And if you’re really looking to get off quick, check out the Get Off Quick Kit which includes the Hitachi Magic Wand, the Deluxe Gee-Spotter, the minty Flower Balm that will lead to some of the best sensations you can have. The kit also includes Babeland Toy Cleaner and Entice Lubette.
I absolutely love my Hitachi; it has never failed me and has become the vibrator I turn to most often. My boyfriend on the other hand, loves the Hitachi for its muscle massaging roots. Whether you need something to get you off quick or get the kinks out of your neck, back, or even your legs, the Hitachi Magic Wand is what you need.
No matter what your plans are for this upcoming Valentine’s Day you can always make it a little sweeter and your sweetheart will be glad you did. This delicious chocolate body paint will have your honey clawing the bedsheets as you lick it off.
You will need:
17.05oz high quality dark chocolate (semi-sweet or bittersweet) chopped
13.5oz cream
1/2 bunch mint, finely chopped
1 chili pepper, finely chopped
double shot espresso
1. Divide cream into 3 indivdual pans.
2. Add mint into 1 pan, chili into the second pan and espresso into the third pan.
3. Slowly warm each pan to a near simmer and remove from heat allowing flavor to infuse for 15 minutes.
4. Place dark chocolate in a small bowl and set over a small saucepan of barely simmering water. Stir this constantly until chocolate melts.
5. Remove pan from heat.
6. Divide chocolate into 3 small pots.
7. Return pans of cream to heat and once hot, strain each pan of cream into 1 chocolate pot, creating 3 separate flavored chocolate body paints.
Get a soft paintbrush and let your imagination take over!
Breathe My Name is both an electric and terrifying story that you can’t help but devour in big, heaping gulps.
Frances Robinson is a quiet, mouse-like eighteen year old living in a beautiful house with a loving and devoted family. She has a great best friend and a charming (and completely cute) boyfriend named Nix who recently moved from Louisiana. Her life is the definition of a full and happy but Frances has a secret. A secret about her past; about her childhood, her three sisters and a mother and father she had before being adopted by the Robinsons. She and her childhood family lived in the country of Fireless, a country that was beautiful, mysterious and made up by her birth mother. But as much as Fireless was make believe, the lure of the country led Frances’ mother into a maddening depression until she one day, in the quiet of a morning like any other, she suffocated her children one by one with a pillow. Frances’ mother led her into the bedroom where she would suffocate her too and when Frances saw her three younger sisters laid out on the bed, their eyes open and their bodies limp with the life snuffed out of them, she began to fight. She fought until she escaped and she escaped all the way to Alabama with the Robinsons; states away from her childhood home, her deranged mother, her father who was hardly around due to working long and strenuous hours, and away from her three sisters who had been murdered at their mother’s hand.
Frances starts noticing a man in a car several times outside of her house and outside of her school and one day she comes home to find the man standing in her kitchen with her parents. He tells her that her mother, who plead out of jail time for murdering her children due to mental insanity, is in a halfway house and has sent a letter for her. When Frances opens this letter, it is filled with several blank sheets of paper–Except for one that simply says “I need to see you. Please come right away. We have to finish.”
Frances makes the decision to travel the few states away from her family in Alabama to the halfway house her mother is now located in. In typical “curiosity killed the cat” fashion, Frances needs to see what happened to her mother and most of all, what ‘We have to finish.” means.
Her journey leads her back to her childhood–The good times that she had with her mother and also the last day that she saw her. It sends her through a mix of emotions and also feelings she never knew that she could have. Breathe My Name is a beautifully written novel full of surprises that intrigues you with its story the moment you start reading it. I loved the story and found it to be better than I thought it would be when I first read the synopsis on the inside cover. It also brought me back to my own childhood, having been abandoned by my own mother after six years of emotional, physical and sexual abuse. It arouse feelings and thoughts inside of me that I didn’t know I could have and I found myself instantly sympathizing with Frances and the mixture of feelings she was having and the nightmares that awoke her night after night about her childhood.
Breathe My Name is a novel that will chill you to the bone and then console you.
Crackberry, Barackberry, we’ve all heard several different nicknames for the Blackberry and we’ve also heard that President Obama simply cannot–and will not–live without his.
The minute that Barack Obama took the oath of office, people started to question his tech habit, asking if he would conduct official business via the device, especially considering we are a country at war and all official presidential business is mandated to be performed under a microscope. With the media and the public’s speculation, President Obama has decided that he will keep his Blackberry for personal use only; anything government-related will be handled on a NSA-approved phone, a Sectera Edge smartphone.
While the specifics of the Sectera Edge aren’t widely known, CNN made a short video explaining the capabilities of the device.
This should definitely work well with a president as tech-savvy as President Obama, but only time will tell if he carries both of the devices.
Childhood hunger is a multi-layered epidemic that affects approximately 13.4 million children in America, representing roughly 1 in 6 children. Childhood hunger impairs children’s health in significant and long-lasting ways. It results in poorer mental health, impedes growth and development, causes more illnesses including stomachaches, headaches, colds, ear infections, fatigue, weaker immune systems, behavioral issues and countless other lifelong consequences. Hunger also makes children unable to learn and perform academically, impairing cognitive functioning and causing children to experience school absences, tardiness, school suspensions and failing entire school years.
Hunger is not only an epidemic in America, but it is also a pandemic throughout the entire world. There is strength in numbers and together, we have the ability to not only fight but end childhood hunger.
Share Our Strength started Operation No Kid Hungry where they are asking us to join in the national text campaign and food drive to end childhood hunger in America.
You can help end childhood hunger by making a text donation by texting “SHARE” to 20222 on your mobile phone. AT&T will match the first $100,000 in text donations to Share Our Strength.
Hold a food drive. Meet the growing need for food by teaming up with food banks in your area. Check the list of most needed foods and start asking friends, family and neighbors for those foods. If your area does not have a food bank, start a food drive on your own. Start a movement in your area and get the residents of your town interested in helping out.
Lastly, help spread the word about Operation No Kid Hungry. You can spread the word just by using websites and web services you frequent daily. Leave comments or do guest posts for your favorite blogs or post about this movement on your own blog. You can also spread the word through Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and any other web services you frequently use.
President Barack Obama’s list of Bush administration reversals have been all over the news lately and the Obama administration has wasted no time making the changes that were promised to all of us doing the 2008 presidential campaign.
The Global Gag Rule, which was reinstated by President Bush his first day in office, prohibits any organization that receives US funds from counseling women on abortion as an option to an unwanted pregnancy has been overturned. The Global Gag rule also prohibited providing referrals or discussing the dangers of unsafe abortions. The impact of the Global Gag Rules has been deadly for women all over the world, given that approximately 70,000 women die each and every year from unsafe or illegal abortions. This number could be lowered significantly just by giving women the access to information that they desperately need and thus reduce the need and the number of abortions performed in this country.
This is hopefully the first in a long series of positive changes for our government and for women in this country. It is so very important and mind blowing, really, to have a president that represents responsible leadership and has a plan for reducing the need for abortion in this country by looking into preventative health care services.
No matter what your plans are for this upcoming Valentine’s Day you can always make it a little sweeter and your sweetheart will be glad you did. This delicious 
Crackberry, Barackberry, we’ve all heard several different nicknames for the Blackberry and we’ve also heard that President Obama simply cannot–and will not–live without his.
Childhood hunger is a multi-layered epidemic that affects approximately 13.4 million children in America, representing roughly 1 in 6 children. Childhood hunger impairs children’s health in significant and long-lasting ways. It results in poorer mental health, impedes growth and development, causes more illnesses including stomachaches, headaches, colds, ear infections, fatigue, weaker immune systems, behavioral issues and countless other lifelong consequences. Hunger also makes children unable to learn and perform academically, impairing cognitive functioning and causing children to experience school absences, tardiness, school suspensions and failing entire school years.
