You said, in part The Republicans hate anything that benefits the poor. That is why I truly believe that President Obama should give this to the poor, either for education or community building.

I totally agree with your statement, but the reason I cited ACORN (although I've been involved in many community and charitable organizations that are terribly deserving) is that it was the single organization that bore the brunt of rightwing craziness. Now they're hurting with private donations down and prevented from apply for federal grants because of the stupid vote of members of congress, many of whom likely never heard of ACORN prior to learning about its existence from anti-Obama sources.

Your Mom was way too young to pass. Please accept my sympathies.

Can't a challenge to his candidacy be done to dump him out of the race? Even Alan Keyes, when he was opposing Barack Obama for Illinois' U. S. Senate seat, made a show of "living" in Illinois.

I know some of you are going to comment saying something about "those old coots" but the FACT is that parenting today has taken on a whole different aspect than it did when my husband and I were raising our children. It wasn't at all unusual "back in the day" for a parent taking a child on a plane to request something from the doctor to knock out the kid. My mother used to say a little sweetened whiskey in the bottle filled with warm water works well for teething babies. And airplanes have both on board---no need to worry about TSA confiscating.

A few years ago, we began a practice of stopping in restaurants to compliment parents whose children behaved well, sat in their seats and ate their meals. It didn't matter if there was one child or four. Those parents were in control. The children weren't...and shouldn't be. Ditto for those on planes.

On one flight, I actually took over calming a little girl, travelling alone, who was leaving her father behind in the midwest after a summer vacation, and returning to her mother in the southwest. A young mother sitting behind her also helped, sharing paper and crayons that she had along for her two little boys--who were one of those examples of well-behaved children. The little girl, in this case, was clearly distraught, not misbehaving. And the flight attendant was most grateful for my (our) efforts in calming down the child.

TSA regulations are stupid! Parents travelling with babies and small children need to have some kind of a waiver that allows them to bring on the plane necessary items to feed and keep them calm. Or the TSA workers need to use some kind of plain old-fashioned common sense!

When I read about the Chicago restauranteur who posted that sign, I was thrilled thinking "It's about time!" And while I think that the ejection of the mother and 2-year-old from the Southwest flight may have been extreme, I must say that none of us know the extent of the problem that likely warranted the action. It's no different, in my opinion, than ejecting an obnoxious drunk from a flight leaving Las Vegas.

When you think about the ejection of the mother and child in terms of ejecting disruptive drunk adult, the action of Southwest makes perfect sense.

Now....how about we do something about screeching women! Or men using extremely foul language as they shout across the aisle to their travelling buddies? Or teen sports teams! Or, given that we're talking about Southwest, those few who purchase one or two higher-cost tickets, then get on board and save a dozen good seats for their friends and relatives who have "B" or "C" boarding passes.