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An Idaho couple convicted of starving their adopted daughter before she went into cardiac arrest won’t serve any prison time for the sickening crime, a judge reportedly ruled last week. Byron and Gwendalyn Buthman were slapped with four years of probation and 300 hours of community service last Tuesday by Judge Darla Williamson, who ruled that jail time would hurt the four adoptive kids they still have. The judge additionally withheld judgment, which means if the couple follows the rules of probation their conviction could be vacated — a ruling that led to some gasps in the courtroom, the Idaho...

It is a very modern dilemma. Should you hand your child a smartphone, or keep them away from the devices as long as possible? As a parent, you'd be forgiven for thinking of a smartphone as a sort of Pandora's box with the ability to unleash all the world's evils on your child's wholesome life. The bewildering array of headlines relating to the possible impact of children's phone and social media use are enough to make anyone want to opt out. Apparently, even celebrities are not immune to this modern parenting problem: Madonna has said that she regretted giving her...

Some of the artists of the 60s are revising their hits with new lyrics to accommodate aging baby boomers who can remember doing the "Limbo" as if it were yesterdayThey include: Bobby Darin --- Splish, Splash, I Was Havin' A Flash Herman's Hermits --- Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Walker Ringo Starr --- I Get By With A Little Help From Depends The Bee Gees --- How Can You Mend A Broken Hip? Roberta Flack--- The First Time Ever I Forgot Your FaceJohnny Nash --- I Can't See Clearly Now Paul Simon--- Fifty Ways To Lose Your Liver The...

Old people are such a burden. Democrats seem to love death. Whether they’re yammering about abortion or “end of life” planning, they just can’t get enough of talking up the myriad ways people can exit life’s stage. They always claim this is simply a discussion about personal responsibility and individual choice but, since they despise those ideals in virtually every other matter, it’s a hard argument to buy. Enter Ezekiel Emanuel. Emanuel was one of the chief architects of ObamaCare and is, of course, the brother of Rahm. Over at The Atlantic, he’s penned an article about his own death...

THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG THE BLOG TUESDAY, AUGUST 4TH, 2009 AT 6:55 AM Facts Are Stubborn Things Posted by Macon Phillips Opponents of health insurance reform may find the truth a little inconvenient, but as our second president famously said, "facts are stubborn things." Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to "uncover" the truth about the President’s health insurance reform positions. In this video, Linda Douglass, the communications director for the White House’s Health Reform Office, addresses one example that makes it look like the President intends to...

Quality measurements raise concerns about conflict between best care, cost controls The new federal health care law is bringing additional demands by insurance companies that doctors and hospitals be held to higher quality standards. While insurance companies say quality is what gets the name of a doctor or hospital on its preferred choices list, cost is also a major factor. A doctor who manages his patient's medical care better and keeps costs low, for example, would be more apt to make the list. The American Medical Association is worried doctors could be penalized if they tend to provide services for...

AS I SEE IT Congress must repeal Obama's health-care rationing plan By SEN. PAT ROBERTS Special to The Star SNIPPET: "U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, a Republican from Dodge City, Kan., is a member of the Senate Health and Finance committees. He voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." SNIPPET: "It has scarcely been three months since the new health reforms, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), were signed into law. Unfortunately, as I and many of my colleagues predicted, the promises made to the American people by the president and the majority are already unraveling. The...

Note: The following text is a quote: www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/seniors-across-america-host-local-meetings-participate-health-care-tele-town-hall-m Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 07, 2010 Seniors Across America to Host Local Meetings, Participate in Health Care Tele-Town Hall Meeting with President Obama Senior Obama Administration Officials to Attend Local Meetings WASHINGTON—On Tuesday morning, senior citizens across the country will gather at a series of local meetings to participate via phone in a national tele-town hall meeting on the Affordable Care Act with President Barack Obama. Additionally, more than a dozen senior Obama Administration officials will...

Entitlements: Social Security's chief actuary reports that the social safety net will run a deficit for 2010, nine years earlier than predicted. Put down that big gavel, Madam Speaker, we're about to hit the iceberg. No sooner had House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, carrying the gavel used when Medicare was enacted, taken a victory lap around the Capitol Building after passage of the health care bill than did the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration report that his part of the social safety net had a big hole in it and would run a deficit for all of 2010. Stephen...

Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) warned Saturday that the Democratic health care bill could kill his dad. “As someone who has a 90-year-old father who has prostate cancer, this bill would put him in the grave – literally!” he said. “Because if you’re going to give somebody a pill because you can’t give them the kind of care they need when they are an elderly person – and you’re going to be rationing care – that’s not right.” Luetkemeyer was one of twelve House Republican freshmen at a 35-minute morning press conference intended to warn of dire consequences that will befall...

I’ve been driving Toyota Priuses since 2001. As a junior defense lawyer in the mid-90s, I litigated a number of bogus sudden acceleration cases that were brought against General Motors. So the recent kerfuffle over alleged mysterious electronic problems with the Prius and other Toyotas has certainly caught my attention beyond just throwing my floor mat in the trunk. I knew the public hysteria had reached unprecedented proportions when my father, a Ph.D. geologist skeptical of everything from George W. Bush to global warming (and that’s just the G’s), credulously emailed me repeatedly to demand I read a press release...

Barack Obama already has had a tough time with seniors on the health-care reform initiative, and for good reasons. The latest news from Social Security won’t make them any happier about it. The Social Security administration has canceled cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for the next two years, which means the fixed income on which these seniors rely will freeze at current levels. However, their Medicare premiums will still increase, which means they will get less money over the next two years, the first declines in SSA in more than 30 years: Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next...

Parody of "Short People" by Randy Newman, redone by Paul Shanklin as "Old People"

Washington bureaucrats hoped something wouldn't see the light of day until it was too late. Buried in the stimulus bill is the framework for rationing medical care to the elderly. The part Obama and his cohorts are talking about publicly -- electronic medical records -- sounds great: no more having to fill out annoying paperwork at the doctor's office or hospital when you are ailing. But according to the provision's author, former Health and Human Services director nominee (and tax cheat) Tom Daschle, there's much more, including the newly-created bureaucracy of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology. What will...

Everyone's always talking about how an aging population, with more retirees, is going to wreak havoc on Social Security and the federal budget. Here's my question: What impact will that have on the planet? After all, my grandparents don't seem to care much about global warming, their refrigerator is from the 1970s, and they use an awful lot of air conditioning at home. Give it to me straight: Are Grandma and Grandpa bad for the environment? "Do it for the kids" has always been one of the most popular arguments in favor of environmentalism: Older people need to get their...

The most important voters in close races are the ones that candidates can count on to show up on Election Day – and seniors may just become the new "soccer moms" in this presidential election. Older Americans have the highest turnout rate of any age group – 69 percent in 2004. And they'll wield clout in this tight presidential contest because a number of the swing states, like Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, have a lot of older residents. "Despite the media's focus on the youth vote, the most influential voters in the McCain-Obama matchup are likely to have some gray...

Anyone thinking of walking into Carl Muscarello's Plantation home had better knock first. The 81-year-old retired New York detective had just returned home with his wife Tuesday morning. LocalLinks His stepson, Army reservist Rob McCabe, 36, was eating breakfast. Muscarello regrets leaving his garage open, if only for a few minutes that morning. Two men slunk inside, one armed with a screwdriver, the other a golf club, a

I had planned to be a real writer and actually REVIEW the Rolling Stones concert. If my plan had worked, you would be reading a celebration of my wry observations, self-elevating negativity and clever put-downs – the lifeblood of CRITICISM. However, just like my attempts at lovemaking, I failed. First of all, seating was an issue. I sat in the anus of the arena about 37 feet from heaven. It was impossible to REVIEW anything from that vantage point, except your life. At 7:30 p.m., loud music issued from the speakers and a rumor metastasized that there was a band...

Strange crash: Pedestrian lodged in windshield, driver keeps going for three miles St. Petersburg, Florida -- Police are investigating a bizarre hit and run crash. Investigators say 93-year-old Ralph Parker hit a pedestrian on 34th Street and 46th Avenue South on Wednesday night. He then he drove three miles with the victim's body lodged in the windshield. Police found the victim's leg in the street at the scene of the accident. Parker was finally stopped at the southbound toll-booth of the Sunshine Skyway, with the body still in the windshield. The toll booth operator thought it was a prank, until...

SYDNEY - An 83-year-old Australian woman who was fined for crossing the road too slowly has had the ticket torn up following community outrage, reports said. Pensioner Pat Gallen, who uses a walking stick to get around, was fined 30 dollars (23 US dollars) for failing to cross a road in her hometown of Malanda in far north Queensland "in the most direct route," The Daily Telegraph reported. "She didn't know whether to laugh or cry," her friend Fay Millist was quoted as telling Australian Associated Press. "Everyone thought the whole thing was so wrong in the first place for...