Find News Fast

Find News Fast. Check out the website.

AJ

Everything is a lesson. If not, it's an achievement.

I came across this great t-shirt website while looking for an image on Google. If you're like me and enjoy off color political humor, you'll find some sayings that will just make you laugh.

Interesting News Story in Former Town I Called Home

This story...

S.C. Thief Targets Cancer Donations

2006-03-30 A thief threw a brick through glass at a convenience
store and headed straight for a donation jar to help the family of a cancer patient, according to a security video.

Lewis Boniface, the store manager at The QuickWay, said the jar is
emptied weekly and probably only had about $10 in it when it was taken Monday
night.

"It takes a pretty sorry person to do something that low," Boniface
said. "Somebody in need was crying out to the community for help and someone came in and stole from them."The donations help former Greenwood resident Christine "Chris" Lawson Oden, 32, now of White House, Tenn.

The mother of two has leukemia and underwent a bone marrow transplant earlier this year. She is expected to be released from the hospital next month, but owes more than $500,000 in medical bills.

Greenwood police are investigating the theft.

I found the story on the Find News Fast website. I used to be a newsman at one of the radio stations in Greenwood. That was some nine or ten years ago.

Total Solar Eclipse

One day, I hope to travel somewhere there is going to be a total eclipse of the sun so I can see, in person, one of the things that have cause man to question his place in the world.

When I was in Junior high school, my Dad took me out of school one day to go view the eclipse from home. We used a telescope with a sun filter. I've always be interested in the solar system and our place in this universe.

I find this eclipse interesting because it seems to last much longer than past ones and seems to be a complete eclipse over much more of the world than ones in the past.

AJ

What's Wrong?

???

Gay Marriage

I'm not one who is for or against gay marriage. I find the debate interesting and I often wonder when people became confused about the laws of this country. Jamie Raskin took the issue head on...

"Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You didn't place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible." -Jamie Raskin, testifying Wednesday, March 1, 2006 before the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee in response to a question from Republican Senator Nancy Jacobs about whether marriage discrimination against gay people is required by "God's Law."

What I wish is that the powers that be in this country spend more of their time debating things that made more of a difference instead of using the Bible to hide behind their biases.

What a Difference a Town Makes

In my years covering news and doing radio in small towns, attitudes can differ greatly from town to town. Anyone who says people are the same where ever you go has never really traveled or taken the time to learn a community.

Take for example, the people of Rabun County, GA and Union County, SC. People living in both communities claim to care about their children and want the best for their children. Be it education, recreation, community or culture. But they go about it in very different ways.

In 1999, Union SC was asked to vote for a 50 million dollar referendum that would have built a new junior high school, added enough new classrooms to eliminate the more than 50 portable (see trailers) classrooms used through the county and would have consolidated efforts and would have saved money long term as far as transportation costs were concerned. More than 80 percent of the population voted against the referendum. Most said...'our kids are doing fine...why should we spend the money when our schools are fine.' When the truth was and remains the same today, the schools in Union County, SC need improvement. I'm not saying they don't have fine teachers because they have great teachers. But the building needs are gigantic. Schools that have never been taken care of have such serious issues that when USA Today did a retrospective on poor classroom conditions across the country in 2000, they focused on Union County, SC schools. What an embarrassment.

In Rabun County, GA; the view is much different. There is a referendum on March 21st to extend a one percent local sales tax to improve our schools by building a new gymnasium, building a new fine arts center and converting the current gym and fine arts center to additional classrooms. I've heard no one speak out against the referendum. Not one person. I bet it will pass with 90 percent of the vote.

Once again, I'm not saying one community cares more about education than the other, one just sees the value in providing state of the art facilities and the other does not.

Great Start for HBO

I watched the Sopranos and Big Love last night and thought both shows were great! The Sopranos started of a bit different that I had thought...they made as if the same amount of time had gone by in the characters life as had gone by since the last season. And that added a new feeling...Johnny Sack has been in jail more than a year, Christopher's been on the mend for more than a year and Tony is back with his wife for more than a year. Interesting.

The thing that added the biggest twist was Tony being shot, a new soldier hanging himself and a hit...all in the first episode of the season.

Big Love is very promising. Probable one of the best series premiers in years. This show, about polygamy, is going to have humor and drama and may replace Entourage as my favorite HBO comedy. It was off to a great start.

The best part about Big Love is them making these Utah compounds seem like the mod in the way they're run and how they handle those that have left the compound for a more 'normal' life. I'm guessing the Mormon Church will be up in arms about this show, if they're not already.

AJ

The answer to illegal immigration

This is no lie. Our very own state senator Nancy Schaefer is quoted in a the Hartwell Sun Newspaper with her idea to fight illegal immigration...

50th District Senator Nancy Schaefer, who serves on the economic development committee, mentioned jobs, industry and tourism as issues needing attention. She said we need to ‚“make Georgia a destination.‚”

Commenting on illegal immigration, Schaefer said 50 million abortions have been performed in this country, causing a shortage of cheap American labor. “We could have used those people,” she said.

Nancy Schaefer is an embarrassment.

AJ