AMBER ALERT

San Diego, CA
1991 Chevrolet Beretta - Black - CA 4LYN138
Child: 3 month old hispanic male, brown hair
Suspect: 20 year old hispanic male, 5'7", 150 pounds, brown hair
Call 619-531-5000

$100 for a doll?

Would I spend $100 for a doll for Rachel? Maybe. This one sounds pretty darn, well, amazing. (NEWS.COM)

Left to die, deformed baby finds life in Britain

MSNBC.COM -- A Kenyan boy born with no arms or legs was left at a hospital by his parents and adopted by an aid worker. Video shows how he's able to roll around and notice his surroundings and talks about his future, including a special wheelchair and next year, artificial limbs. Very cute little kid.

D'oh

I have to laugh... there's a disclaimer on the package of Play-Doh that reads "Molded results vary depending on child's age and level of skill."

Were there parents out there threatening to sue because their kid who wasn't yet able to walk couldn't make items that matched the examples on the packaging? (You'd have a better lawsuit for false advertising... some of those creations would take six or seven containers of doh to make.)

War 2

I am a coward.

Years ago, I was so close to joining the Marines. It was actually, believe it or not, a dead watch battery. I missed my appointment to take the test and the recruiting office was closed by the time I realized my watch wasn't working. I left a note, but I'm guessing they're not interested in slackers who can't tell time, or they'd seen enough people chicken out that they believed I was just another one of them. There was still some concern on my part because my summer break wouldn't be long enough for Marines boot camp, but I figured I'd figure that out later.

They never called back, I really didn't pursue it.

Anyhow, tonight I called up the Week in Pictures and this was the first picture. I didn't look at it because I got busy and there it sat on the screen, covered by other programs while I ate dinner with my family and then put my little 14-month-old to bed. Then I came back out here and saw this picture. I just kept staring at it. There's another picture that I've kept on my computer at work and I look at it every so often, of a little girl, nine months old tugging at her dad's dog tags as he says goodbye before being shipped off. It's so hard to make sense of it all. Sometimes I wish I could just denounce war altogether as my friends Kevin and Allison do but that doesn't make sense either.

But I was staring at this picture tonight and I wanted to cry. I needed to cry. But I couldn't. This little boy probably couldn't really understand what was going on. And possibly, hopefully, he's too young to really understand that he'll never see his daddy again. Perhaps hopefully the time that his dad has been gone away at war has softened that. It's horrible to wish a baby would forget about a parent, but I just hurt for this little boy. Finally I was wracked with the pain and guilt of this picture and the tears came. It didn't really make me feel better, but it at least made me feel like I was responding appropriately.

Rachel was so cute and adorable tonight. Way more than usual, if that's at all possible. But I just could not telling her tonight how beautiful she was and how much fun she was. I cannot imagine going off and leaving her the whole time knowing that I might never see her again. But at the same time, I think of something Kevin said on my other blog. I recently commented about how I didn't think that terrorists had a larger objective other than to kill and spread fear and to that end, we needed to make it not in their best interests to continue doing that. In some ways, it was to improve the conditions in other countries so that there were alternatives beyond suicide bombing. In other ways, it was to go after the people who were spreading the fear and inciting others to their deaths.

He asked me, hypothetically, if he were to stalk my family, wouldn't I first try to figure out why? Wouldn't I want to know why? I figured that plenty of smart people around the world had already tried to figure out why. In this particular case, I figured my first response would be to circle the wagons, assess my options and maybe fire back where I thought I could do the most damage. Lori was even more blunt, she said that she wouldn't care why, but that if Rachel were put into any sort of jeopardy, she wouldn't hesitate to kill first and maybe, just maybe, ask questions later.

Which is why I feel like a coward. I am not out there trying to improve someone else's life. But I understand why it's important and I'm really grateful for those who have heeded the call. The downside just sucks beyond words.

What's the baby thinking about?

MSNBC.com -- Some fascinating research dispells some centuries-old myths about the mental development of infants. More...

Positive outlook for baby of brain-dead woman

“Her passing is a testament to the truth that human life is a gift from God and that children are always to be fought for, even if life requires — as it did of Susan — the last full measure of devotion.”

Wow. More on MSNBC.com

Firm Seeks Breast Milk

MSNBC.COM -- A company in Monrovia, Calif. wants donated breast milk so they can learn more about all the benefits and nutrients it contains so they can help more sick children. More...

Brain-dead mother gives birth

MSNBC.COM -- Follow-up to the earlier story... Susan Torres, whose brain stopped after complications due to a stroke in May, gave birth today to a baby girl. More...

Liquid medicine recall

MSNBC.COM -- Perrigo recalled four types of white-label infant/child medicine packaged with recently-redesigned syringes that had confusing dosage markers. There is no problem with the medicine itself. They are sold by national pharmacies and packaged under that pharmacy's name (like Target, CVS and Walgreen). More info...