DAYTON, Ohio  — 

If convicted of aggravated murder, China Arnold, 27, could face the death penalty.

Police investigators believe Arnold killed 1-month-old Paris Talley by putting her in a microwave at her Dayton home in 2005. Coroner's officials said the baby suffered high-heat internal injuries and had no external burns. They have ruled out scalding water, open flame or other possible causes of death that could have damaged the skin.

Defense attorney Jon Paul Rion has said Arnold had nothing to do with her daughter's death and was stunned when investigators told her that a microwave might have been involved. Arnold took the baby to the hospital after finding her unconscious and does not know how she died, Rion said.

Visiting Judge John Kessler began questioning potential jurors in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Monday, asking them if they would be able to serve at a trial that may last three weeks.

During a pretrial hearing in July, police Detective Michael Galbraith said Arnold told him she arrived home in the early morning hours after drinking, fell asleep and was awakened at 2:30 a.m. by the baby's crying.

She said she warmed a bottle in the microwave oven, tried to give it to the baby, changed the child's diaper and then fell asleep on the couch with the baby on her chest.

Arnold said she and her children were the only ones in the apartment until her boyfriend arrived several hours later and noticed something was wrong with the baby.

Galbraith said Arnold told him: "If I hadn't gotten so drunk, I guess my baby wouldn't have died."

When cross-examined by Rion, Galbraith acknowledged that Arnold told him she did not know how the baby suffered the burns and that she had nothing to do with it that she could recall.

Earlier this month, defense witness Robert Belloto, a staff pharmacist at Good Samaritan Hospital, testified he does not believe it would have been possible for Arnold to place the baby in the microwave because the woman was so intoxicated.

Belloto said Arnold told him she had consumed about 40 percent of a pint of high-proof rum in 90 minutes. But he acknowledged that he had no other corroboration for her claim.

Hollywood shows that Pro-life sensibilities are very much alive.
by Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse

Hollywood has gotten the message that women are keeping their babies rather than aborting them, even if the news media has not. The surprise hit movie Juno is profoundly pro-life. The title character, a pregnant 16 year-old, turns away from an abortion clinic. One of her classmates picketing outside the clinic tells her, "Your baby has fingernails." Juno can't get the image of baby fingernails out of her mind. The movie tells the story of her determination to place her baby up for adoption. The story ends happily for her: her father supports her; her boyfriend comes to love her; her baby ends up in good hands.

While it is good news that the birthrate is up, there is reason for concern. The unmarried mothers' birth rate rose over twice as much as the teen birth rate; the birth rate rose 7% in 2006 to 50.6 per 1,000 unmarried women aged 15-44 years. And this increase is not just among teens: in every age group, the percentage of babies born to unmarried mothers increased. Over all, more than one and a half million children were born into the family form that is statistically likely to leave them in poverty, jeopardize their chance for higher education and give them tenuous relationship with their fathers.

But the rise in unmarried births did not make the headlines.

Why are increasing numbers of women choosing unmarried childbearing? Some women have not been able to find a spouse. Others have come to the conclusion that men are a nuisance and unnecessary for their children. Still other women have focused so much on their careers that they allowed no time for marriage and children until their thirties. By that time their marriage chances may be reduced and their fertility impaired.

It is hard to describe these women who have delayed marriage and children as irresponsible since they are following the prescribed cultural script. "You are an intelligent, gifted woman. You can do anything you put your mind to. Get an education, then an advanced degree. Establish yourself in your career. Pay off your student loans. Then get married. Buy a house. Only then should you think about starting a family."

By the time a woman has followed all these steps her biological clock is ticking. Loudly. Not all women will be successful at finding a husband and having a baby within the relatively small window of opportunity that remains open to her. With time running out, we shouldn't be surprised if some educated, affluent women decide to skip the Husband Step and go straight to the Baby Step.

There is something seriously strange when society can't bring itself to tell kids to postpone sex until marriage but insists that women postpone marriage until they are nearly menopausal.

Debbie Schlussel's recent blog post on embattled Detroit (MI) Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick points out yet another very sad fact about modern-day racial discourse:  Namely, how blacks of the victimologist mindset are lightning-quick to point out the faults and inperfections of "Whitey," yet are loathe to examine their own "dirty laundry?"  Also, when a white person points out black dirty laundry, he/she is immediately labeled a "racist," while a black (God forbid) who does so is labeled a "sellout," "Uncle Tom," and "White man's n_gger," among other derogations?

It's the same thing in Washington, DC, where the majority black electorate re-elected Marion Barry to a second term as Mayor, after he was busted and did time for smoking crack in a hotel room.  Black columnist Carl Rowan even had to gaul the say "Marion Barry may be a ... scoundrel, but he's our scoundrel!"

Go figure!

I must say that since I've resumed consistent weight training several times a week, I feel a whole lot better.  I have more energy, I'm not as tired or lethargic as I was before, and, dare I say, the muscles are slowly but surely starting to take shape.

To any old timers out there who may feel a little hesitant about hitting the weight room, take a look at ageless retired bodybuilder Albert Beckles.  Check out his picture and read his bio.  (Can you believe he was still competing and winning in his 60's!?)

By the way - that big grapefruit-looking mass on the top of his right arm is his biceps muscle - at age 60!

 

Albert Beckles (born July 14th 1930) was a three-time New York City Night of Champions Bodybuilding Contest Winner.

Beckles currently resides in Los Angeles and is a vegetarian

America is not czarist Russia or Iran under the shah, so that people might think that any change was bound to be for the better. Yet even in those despotic countries the changes -- to communism and to the ayatollahs -- made them far worse.

The time is long overdue for voters to demand specifics instead of rhetoric that turns their emotions on and their minds off.

Everybody expects politicians to lie, especially during an election year. You can bet the rent money on it.

Among the many lies we can expect to hear this election year, none will be bigger or more often repeated, in the media as well as by politicians, than the lie that there is a widening income gap between the rich and the poor.

Why is that a lie, when there are so many statistics that seem to substantiate it?

Let's start at square one and take it a step at a time.

First of all, there is a fundamental difference between statistical categories and flesh-and-blood human beings.

When there is a growing disparity between one statistical category and another statistical category over time, that does not mean that there is a corresponding growing disparity between flesh-and-blood human beings over time, since human beings move from one statistical category to another.

The statistical categories in this case are income brackets. There is no question that incomes in the top income brackets have risen both absolutely and relative to the bottom income brackets.

The joker is that millions of people move from one income bracket to another.

The even bigger joker is that taxpayers whose incomes were in the bottom 20 percent in 1996 had a 91 percent increase in incomes by 2005.

Meanwhile, taxpayers in the top one-hundredth of one percent -- "the rich" or "superrich" if you believe politicians and the media -- had their incomes drop by 26 percent over those very same years.

Obviously, when millions of people's incomes nearly double in a decade, many of them move up out of the bottom income bracket. Similarly, when other people who were at the top see their income drop by about one-fourth, many of them drop out of that bracket.

When we talk about "the rich" and "the poor" we mean rich and poor human beings, not rich and poor statistical brackets. Yet politicians and the media treat people and statistical categories as if they were the same thing.

Part of the reason is that data on statistical brackets are more numerous and easier to find, whether from Census Bureau statistics or from a variety of other sources.

Data based on following actual flesh-and-blood individuals over time are, however, also available. The statistics quoted above are from the Treasury Department, which has people's income tax returns, so it is no problem for them to follow the same people over the years.

You can check out the numbers for yourself in a November 13, 2007 report from the Treasury Department titled "Income Mobility in the United States from 1996 to 2005." You can find a summary of the same data in a Wall Street Journal editorial that same day.

These are not the only data that tell a diametrically opposite story from the usual political and media story that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

A previous Treasury Department study showed similar patterns in individual income changes between 1979 and 1988.

Moreover, a study conducted at the University of Michigan, following the same individuals over an even longer span of time, likewise found most people moving from income bracket to income bracket over time -- especially among those who began in the bottom 20 percent.

The University of Michigan Panel Survey on Income Dynamics showed that, among people who were in the bottom 20 percent income bracket in 1975, only 5 percent were still in that category in 1991. Nearly six times as many of them were now in the top 20 percent in 1991.

There was a summary of the University of Michigan data in the 1995 annual report of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, which also issued an excerpt titled "By Our Own Bootstraps."

Among the intelligentsia, it is fashionable to sneer at income mobility as a "Horatio Alger myth" -- and, as someone once said, you cannot refute a sneer. But, among people who have not yet abandoned facts for rhetoric, it is worth stopping to consider whether they are being played for fools by politicians and much of the media.

Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and author of Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy.

Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan residence in a possible drug-related death, police said. He was 28.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the Manhattan apartment believed to be his home. The housekeeper who went to let Ledger know the masseuse was there found him dead at 3:26 p.m.

The Australian-born actor was an Oscar nominee for his role in "Brokeback Mountain" and has numerous other screen credits.

Survey Highlights Managers' Roles in Job Satisfaction

By Tom Musbach, Yahoo! HotJobs
 

Is your boss driving you to consider looking for a different job? If so, you're not alone, as 43% of workers in a recent survey said a dislike of their boss' performance would be a main reason for taking a new job in 2008.

According to the Yahoo! HotJobs annual job satisfaction survey, more than 7 in 10 workers are open to landing a new job in 2008. After discontent with a supervisor, the next two reasons cited for making a move are higher salary (36%) and more growth potential (34%).

"It's clear from the survey that employers need to pay attention to the boss-employee dynamic if they want to retain talented workers," said Susan Vobejda, vice president of marketing for Yahoo! HotJobs. "In addition to factors like salary, competitive benefits, and good work-life balance, employees equate job satisfaction with knowing that their contributions are recognized and valued by their managers."

In fact, 55% of the survey respondents agreed with the statement, "People don't leave companies; they leave managers."

Here is a list (with links) of some very interesting articles by Townhall.com columnists that I hope you'll enjoy.

A Conservative Nightmare: Republican Nominee, John McCain
Writer John Hawkins hits the nail on the head in explaining why I hope GOP Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) does not become the Republican nominee.  Hawkins details McCain's conservative-backstabbing RINO (Republican In Name Only) status as follows:

Amongst grassroots conservatives, John McCain's name is an expletive -- and for good reason -- because he has made a name for himself by knifing conservatives time and time again for the amusement of his liberal pals in the mainstream media. McCain supports amnesty for illegal aliens, was behind the Gang of 14, is a gun grabber, opposed the Bush tax cuts, ran roughshod over the Constitution with McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform, opposes a Constitutional amendment to protect marriage, was rumored to be considering switching parties multiple times, talked with John Kerry about being his Vice-President, lines up with the global warming alarmists, wants to close Gitmo, wants to coddle captured terrorists -- you can go on and on with this. In essence, John McCain is hawkish, he's fiscally conservative, he has a solid pro-life voting record that is at odds with his previously stated opposition to overturning Roe v. Wade ("I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade." --John McCain, 1999) -- and on everything else, he's a Democrat. In other words, we're talking about a man who could fairly be called a Rockefeller Republican, a Country Club Republican, a RINO, or just a toweringly arrogant, out of touch D.C. insider who seems to assume that any position he takes is right solely because he happens to hold it. However, what John McCain cannot fairly be called is a conservative.

Dying A Slow Death: The Politics of Race
by Harry Jackson, Jr.
Some old school politicians read racial prejudice into every comment made about an African American. In these folks’ minds, it’s okay for them to be hypersensitive. The net result is that no one can attack [IL Senator and Presidential candidate Barack] Obama’s record or lack of it without being attacked on some trumped up racial prejudice. There is something inherently un-American about that.

Also, check out Mr. Jackson's previous article.

One of the questions I have asked myself is whether the Obama phenomenon has more to do with the uniqueness of the man rather than signaling a major social transition. The greatest power of Obama’s candidacy may be symbolic. He and his family look like the fictional Huckstable family that Bill Cosby created decades ago. They don’t have to win in order to change the nation. They simply have to run well. To prove my point, let me cite a recent event in pop cultural history. The day after the Caucus, Al Sharpton appeared on Jay Leno, surprisingly extolling Obama’s virtue and wisdom. What a contrast the Leno interview was compared to his disparaging comments just a few months ago. He and Jesse Jackson had conducted a tag team assault on the Senator. Jesse even went so far as to rail on the Senator in a major press conference. As a result, the nation was awash with commentary about the “civil rights warhorse’s” declaration that Senator Barak Obama was “being too white” as it pertained to the Jena 6 problem in Louisiana. Why was Jackson so upset with Obama? The answer is quite simple. It was an expression of a sophisticated turf war for the ideological leadership of the black community.

1.  Gain lean muscle mass;
2.  Lose body fat;
3.  Have more than enough physical stamina to get take of my "marital duties" [wink wink] with the greatest of ease.

Lofty goals, I know, but I'm gonna give it a shot.  In the meantime, let me leave you with Tim Lenczowski's weight loss tips:

1.  Find a plan that works for you.
2.  Build a support system.
3.  Set goals and track your success.
4.  Get out of your comfort zone and keep yourself challenged.
5.  Get your mind in the game.
6.  Have fun!

Happy New Year!

A Polish man got the shock of his life when he visited a brothel and spotted his wife among the establishment's employees. Polish tabloid Super Express said the woman had been making some extra money on the side while telling her husband she worked at a store in a nearby town.

"I was dumfounded. I thought I was dreaming," the husband told the newspaper Wednesday.

The couple, married for 14 years, are now divorcing, the newspaper reported.

Time magazine reports on some very interesting research findings on long-tailed Macaque monkeys in Indonesia (pictured).  For those who read my blog regularly (and you know who you are), I am dying to know your thoughts on this one. 

 

Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?

Click here to read the rest.