I was 12 or 13 years old, back in '72 or '73.   It was summer.   I played outside with my friends and did whatever young boys do, with time on their hands and no supervision.   My friend Bob and I were outside goofing around.  We ran into Jimmy, a man that lived in the neighborhood.  He was tall, thin, had a mustache and long hair, in his late 20's or early 30's.   He often said hello to me as he walked by.   Bob and I saw him and we got to talking.   There was a forest preserve across the street from my house, where I often played.   As we walked along talking, we entered the woods.  I had no reason to be suspicious.   I was always in those woods.

(Cross-posted at The National Gadfly

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I hope everyone else here is as shocked and angry at NBC's latest "reality" show, "The Baby Borrowers." NBC has gone right past taking advantage of unfortunate adults for entertainment purposes and directly into child abuse by taking children who are far too young to understand what's happening away from their parents for 3 days.

If you have any shred of doubt that this is actual child abuse, below the fold is a letter from people who know about child abuse first-hand, those dedicated to taking care of children.

Please contact NBC, and especially it's sponsors, and tell them how outrageous it is for a national TV network to engage in child abuse. List of sponsors and contact info is below the fold.
NBC makes it difficult to just e-mail them. you go to this page:
http://www.nbc.com/Footer/Contact_Us/

crossposted at Big Orange Satan

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The Every Child Matters Education Fund has released a report called "Geography Matters: Child Well-Being in the States." It assesses the vulnerability of children in all 50 states according to a dozen metrics.

As the mother of two small children in the Des Moines area, I had a particular interest in Iowa's ranking (seventh overall, mixed bag on the individual metrics).

But when I clicked on the page ranking all states in terms of "overall child vulnerability," one thing jumped out at me: the bottom 20 states all voted for George W. Bush in 2004. Of the top 20 states, only three voted for Bush (including Iowa, which he won by a very slim margin).

Follow me after the jump to learn the specific reasons that blue states are better places for children to be born and grow up.

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