Bellefontaine Examiner Blogs

In this day and age, taking responsibility for one’s actions seems to be the furthest from the minds of many.

If I were to build a $20 million debt while attempting to gain a job, I should be the one who meets that responsibility.

Hillary Rodham Clinton received a token gesture from Barack Obama, who has asked his top financial backers to help Clinton pay off her debt — $20 million. Obama and his wife even donated $4,600 as a step toward unifying the party — this is just precious if you ask me — not!

Why doesn’t someone say to our political officials there’s a lot of responsibility when running for public office — if they think this is OK, what will happen when they’re in office?

Adam Dunn may strike out a lot. He may not hit for a high average. He plays a lousy left field at times. But the Reds’ slugger did not deserve the criticism lashed out by Toronto Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi.

Thursday night’s edition of Sportscenter on ESPN revealed some comments Ricciardi made during a radio call-in show. When he was asked whether or not the Blue Jays would be interested in Dunn, Ricciardi said Dunn “doesn’t like baseball that much” and he “doesn’t have the passion to play the game” among other things.

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Over the past nine months, Sen. Barack Obama has repeatedly made two promises to the American public — change and unity.

With the Democratic primary looming close and his nomination as the party’s candidate sealed, it is time for him to start living up to those promises by announcing the person he will have as his vice-presidential candidate.

It’s becoming clear to a lot of people that Sen. Hillary Clinton — a remnant of her husband’s era that interrupted the Bush administrations — does not represent the kind of change Americans want. And having two Democratic senators on the ticket would not represent any real diversity in political ideology, although gender and race would be well reflected.

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Is there anyone besides me who is fed up with the ridiculous amount of false advertising, hidden clauses or surprise gimmicks used to lure the consuming suckers of this world like me into today’s market place.

It grates on my nerves when I hear a car commercial on the radio and at the end we have to hear a man’s voice go on for about 10 seconds reading the transaction disclaimer so fast that people (including me) have actually wished they could hit the rewind button on the CD player/radio hoping, just hoping the disclaimer could be heard once again.

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The world needs more good daddies. And so I convinced my husband to join me on a twoweek service vacation at a children’s orphanage in Peru this past March with the ulterior motive of providing the kids with the chance — maybe their only one — to have a positive experience with a wonderful male role model. Fully 70 percent of the 560 kids there were fatherless and the ratio of adult women to men caring for them was roughly the same ratio you’d find at a Nordstrom shoe sale. Read the rest of this entry »

I feel guilty. I’ve taken to driving again and it’s been over two days since I’ve walked anywhere at all.

I’m not even getting in a halfmile perambulating to and from work and general downtown locales.

Considering in recent weeks, I walked sometimes two to three miles in a single day, that’s a lot of exercise I’m missing out on.

And for what? So I can drive a car again? Read the rest of this entry »

In Saturday’s newspaper we featured a story of a local family whose neighbors came to their aid.

In this day and age of news reporting cycles and most trying to uncover the next big story, there are some stories worth repeating.

Here’s Examiner staff writer Mandy Hochstedler’s story on Janet and Bob Powell:

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Whether adults will admit it or not, the fearless disposition of children, which comes either from a lack of understanding consequences or pure bravery, can be inspiring.

This thought has been on my mind because of an experience I had when a friend and I traveled to Cedar Point last week.

As we approached the amusement park in her car, we were reminded of one of our biggest fears from the previous summer — a rollercoaster called Top Thrill Dragster, which loomed in the distance. Read the rest of this entry »

The idea that Big Brother might be watching us is slightly disconcerting, even in this age of homeland security.

One could say if you don’t have anything to hide you shouldn’t mind being watched. My grandma had a little different take on it: “If they’re going to look that closely, they might as well find something.”

Regardless of your reaction to monitoring, we all know it happens and one look at such 21st Century wonders as GoogleMaps underscores the reality.

“Big Brother” truly is but a faint blip on my life’s radar of concern. What concerns me much more, however, is the increasingly more persistent and pervasive intrusion of neighbors who take up arms against whatever they deem they don’t want to see and the clout those neighbors have. Read the rest of this entry »

One of my favorite classes when I was in college was music appreciation. Going into the class after looking at the rather vague syllabus — and 19 years after I’d graduated high school to boot — I truly didn’t know what to expect. After all, music’s pretty much been around since, well … the beginning of time.

But my fears were laid to rest during the first 45 minutes of the first class. The instructor — I can’t even remember his name anymore — turned off the lights, pulled the shades and told us all to close our eyes, relax and listen to his favorite “piece” of music. I remember being shocked at first, and then elated that his favorite selection was the entire Abbey Road album by the Beatles. Read the rest of this entry »