Link to Video: Hillary Clinton's Cutting Edge Digital Diplomacy

Image by US Army Korea - IMCOM via Flickr

From Denny: In my ongoing effort to keep from cluttering up The Social Poets, after all, this is my third post today over there... here's a link over at Dennys Global Politics blog to what Hillary is doing that is quite popular now globally! It is so refreshing to have people in government who are actually serious about carrying out government in a way to connect with the people they serve...

Video: Hillary Clinton's Cutting Edge Digital Diplomacy, go here.

Thanks for visiting! Just got back from my out of town sales calls today and am back at the keyboard posting... :) Happy Monday!

Trial Charges Against Iranian Moderates Are Flimsy

Image by Yabe, Marcus via Flickr

From Denny: I'm starting to move the majority of my political writing - and many links to news stories around the world - to my new blog, Dennys Global Politics. Also developing a links companion to it called Dennys Global Politics Fav Links.

I'm starting to clutter up The Social Poets too much again and so developed a political blog to handle the overload. It seems there is so much going on globally that I thought a week's summary of important stories was warranted. Too often we get our news in such small daily bites that we forget the background or details of what happened days before the recent news and lose the continuity.

Dennys Global Politics blog is not straight news but news offered with the slant of a common sense opinion. Too many political agendas out there in news land and they have forgotten the main stream middle class approach and needs. I guess you could say I choose to write for the majority of people and not the news networks owned by big business who keep twisting the truth or stirring up controversy just to sell their brand of news.

If you find some news stories of interest to you and links to news sites you like and want me to include - feel free to leave them at The Social Poets or over on Dennys Global Politics comment section, even email me if you like.

For this short story just click on this title link or go here.

Thanks for visiting!



Politics, Society and Culture, Iran, Politics of Iran, United States, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Political blog, Common sense, Weblogs, Middle class, Directories, Dennys Global Politics, The Social Poets

Today's Six Menu Choices at Five Blogs

From Denny: Here's what's going on today at a few blogs. I so love a menu of choices! :)

Ouch Outrageous Obnoxious And Odd: Did You Hear About the Latest Funny Cat Study? This is the short joke quote version.

Beautiful Illustrated Quotations: Did You Hear the Latest "Study"? Cat Law of Selective Hearing. This is the joke quote with a little personal commentary about the cat people in our house.

Romancing The Chocolate: Recipes: Chocolate Alcoholic Drinks That Taste Like Favorite Foods! The latest trend in bar drinks and fooling the tastebuds.

Comfort Food From Louisiana: Recipe: Fast and Easy Sloppy Joe Biscuit Pot Pies - great for the busy cook!

The Social Poets: Video: Uninsured America - a few facts about health care costs you may not know and if you know of some others, please leave your comments.

Yesterday at The Social Poets for humor:
This Weeks Roundup of Sunday Funnies - Cambridge Cop Arrests Obama - OK, since I'm a blue voter living in a dwindling red state going Independent until the Dems show they are trustworthy, the late night comedians take a stab at the Blue Dog Democrats.

I've been seeing a lot of ads by the AMA about Charlie Melancon and wondered what all the fuss was about as they were claiming he wasn't voting for health care which isn't the truth. I went to the Louisiana site of Charlie Melancon. He plans to vote for health care; he just wants it nailed down as how to pay for it.

He's a straight talker and taken on the most vociferous of local Republicans hell bent on driving him out of office. While I'm not happy this health care reform is taking so long I can understand it's best to get it right. However, we the public cannot wait any longer as the issue is pressing hard on all of us, especially as the largest population in America is getting older: the baby boomers.

Image via Wikipedia

This is a really good book about four cases Edwards tried against big business. Rarely, do I read political books as most are just marketing. These are true life stories of what happened to people and children who needed some justice.

The way to light a fire under all of Congress is to take away their health care and that of their families that is government funded. I find it hypocritical how the Republicans refuse to vote for health care reform and deride government health care when they benefit from the use of it themselves. Like former Presidential candidate John Edwards said, "Take away their health care. Let them see how difficult and expensive it is to pay for out of their own wallets, bankrupting families. Let them see how many in Congress could not even acquire health care because of pre-exisitng conditions like diabetes or a former bout with cancer." Yeah, works for me! :)

To purchase the Four Trials, go here.

Customer Review on the Four Trials

"5 Stars from Amazon.com Four Trials, March 21, 2004
By Dan Whipkey (Omaha, NE)

This review is from: Four Trials (Hardcover)
If you are looking for a candidate's standard election year political manifesto you won't find it here. What you will find is a can't put down page-turner. Sen. Edwards makes no political pronouncements or promises in this book. He has simply written deeply moving accounts of four notable cases he litigated before he became a national political figure. This book rivals anything John Grisham has to offer and what makes these stories so compelling is that they are about real events and real people. Interwoven throughout the book, Edwards gives us glimpses of his own personal story; his blue-collar upbringing, his rise from a young unpolished attorney to a highly successful trial lawyer, and sadly, the tragic death of his own teenage son.

The reader will also discover much about the ins-and-outs of our legal system. If you think of personal injury lawsuits as frivolous pursuits by ambulance chasing lawyers this book may just change your mind. Each of the four cases is about deceit and truth, tragedy and triumph, and each is heartbreaking as well as heartwarming. It is encouraging to find that in the end, at least in these cases, righteousness and justice prevails."


Comfort Food From Louisiana, Comfort Food, Food, Alcoholic beverage, Chocolate, Charlie Melancon, John Edwards

Your Choice: Overview of Today's Various Blogs Posts

Here's a run-down of what's happening on 5 of the various blogs today:

Romancing The Chocolate: Recipe: Sour Cream-Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting and Chocolate-Peanut Butter Glaze

* If you are a chocolate and peanut butter fiend, then you simply must make this special cake. "I'm just saying..." :)

The Social Poets: Libations Friday! 24 July 2009

* A Louisiana coffee recipe in the form of a coffee shake for this hot summer and an original dream sequence poem.

Ouch Outrageous Obnoxious And Odd humor blog: Video: 8 of 9 Worst Products of All Time - Toilet Paper Foam Moistener

* Yawn, yet another weirdo butt product for you to "enjoy." Who comes up with these things? They claim this advanced product will make your ordinary toilet paper rise to the category of extraordinary! (You have got to be kidding.)

Basically, this is the American convenience fast food version of the French bidet. After all, to quote the salesman hawking this product in the video, "You control the wetness." Enough said. Toilet humor is a bottomless pit of available jokes...

Comfort Food From Louisiana: Recipe: Shrimp and Grits

* Valuable information on how to roast your own grits before making the recipe. Never seen this offered on the web (uh, maybe because I'm the guy who finally wrote down the simple recipes for this...) as how to roast your own grits, spiced up grits version for lunch or dinner.

Beautiful Illustrated Quotations: How Do You Test a Person's Character the Most? Adversity? No.

* Truer words could never have been spoken by President Abraham Lincoln! They apply to politics, religion, employers and parenting. It is easy to abuse your power over someone - "because you can." After all, who is going to stop you?

That's why it is so very important to develop true personal discipline in the cultivating of emotional intelligence to protect yourself from becoming an abuser so despised by others - and God. Who wants negative Karma slapping you in the face when you are at your most weak or vulnerable? No one who is sane asks for that intentionally.

How do you cultivate emotional intelligence? Start with ...

Sour Cream Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting Photo by kimberlykv @ flickr


chocolate cake, peanut butter, Chocolate, Baking and Confections, desserts, Society and Culture, Abraham Lincoln, Presidents, United States, humor

Bloggers Unite: Global Human Rights Abuses

From Denny: This is a post I ran over at The Social Poets Friday evening for the Bloggers Unite Human Rights Day post on 17 July 2009. Bloggers everywhere are all blogging on the same day about human rights.

***

Humanity is at a crossroads in our world history where we must make a profound decision. It’s time to live better.

Currently, human rights abuses are no longer exclusive to certain regions of the globe. There is a sharp increase in human rights abuses worldwide for decades now and situations are increasing in violence yearly.

Stories abound globally of the most heinous crimes to humanity. Nothing good is accomplished by mankind trying to annihilate mankind. Just what is going on in the world? Here are just a few areas:

• Hamas and Taliban Islamic terrorists and other terrorist groups worldwide are on a bloodthirsty killing spree with bombings of civilians, women and children in many places in the world.



Photo by azrainman @ flickr

• Rogue unstable governments, covertly cozy with terrorist groups, working feverishly to acquire the nuclear bomb so they can kill off their neighbors they don’t like because they are another religion, a different economic or another kind of social system – or just plain won’t give them what they want.

• Genocide in Africa because people of different tribes can’t work out their differences like civilized people.



• Jailing journalists - trying to report the truth - as political temper tantrums to get their own way: North Korea and Iran.

• Tortured prisoners worldwide with the most notable recent heinous acts perpetrated during the Bush years on terrorist suspects never given trials, mainly because there was no real hard evidence.



• Under Taliban Islamic law and culture women are still regarded as subhuman and not deserving of first class treatment like men.

• Here in the United States, during the Bush years, women were raped, often savage gang rapes, at our military universities yet went unreported.

• Then there are battered women worldwide from Islamic to Christian countries whose husbands will not stop pummeling them.



We, the majority, are allowing the few to terrorize us, our neighbors and our loved ones. We must mobilize to stop it. How? Education for starters.
In the end, in order for humanity to not come to an end, we must consider a working alternative to what exists today in the way of abuses. It is a basic human right to be loved. Loved, you say? Yes, loved. We all have the right to be loved.

Love comes in many forms. We have the human right to certain expectations of basic decency and civility. We have the human right to healthy drinking water and sanitation and affordable housing. We have the human right to expect our political leaders that are guardians of our country to be honest and get serious about addressing pressing social and economic issues.



Photo by alicepopkorn @ flickr

Human rights abuses worldwide, in our own countries, in our homes will continue until the average person stands up and says "No!" to it all. Human rights abuses will continue until we all get serious about connecting up to create a tsunami force to push humanity along until we all do better, choose better and, in the end, start living better. Now that’s Love in action! We all have the human right to be loved. Let’s give Love.

A few places you can go for education and plug in to help:

Bloggers Unite where you can help by blogging

Youth Movement For Human Rights - worldwide

Human Rights Watch

Amnesty International, dedicated to bringing world attention to human rights abuse


North Korea, United States, denny lyon, Human rights, Nuclear weapon, Africa, Amnesty International, Human Rights and Liberties, Sharia, The Social Poets

Video: Foreign Exchange Student Scandal

Update: This was such a great comment on this story that I just had to repost this story for you to read. I really like it when someone wants to seriously discuss a social issue. What comes out of any good discussion is more understanding and some new facts to investigate. I have an inkling that this story is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Time will tell as more reporters look into the veracity of the experts and the accusers.

Federal Agents Investigate Burger Kings Treatment of Foreign Students - An excerpt: "RIVERTON, Wyo. – Federal agents from the Department of Immigrations are expected to arrive in Riverton today to investigate a possible indentured service case involving foreign students. Five university students working in the states through an exchange program said they were fired from the local Burger King and evicted from squalid living quarters provided by the company after they complained about the conditions.

They described the 15x15-foot house as a boiler room prison, because the windows wouldn’t open, bunkbeds with air mattresses were the beds, a hot-plate on a counter sufficed for a kitchen stove and the toilet and shower stall were unsanitary due to corrosion.

Riverton police, who executed the eviction notice over the weekend, were appalled at the conditions found and reported the situation to immigrations and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Local Burger King management has refused comment and corporate officials in Florida say they were unaware of the situation. The students were matched with the local Burger King through the work/travel programs of Worldwide International Student Exchange (WISE) and Aspire Worldwide. They paid $3,500 to $5,000 each to participate, and were told adequate housing would be provided at an affordable fee.

They said rent for the house was $1,800 a month, paid to Burger King District Manager Peggy Handran. Her phone number listed on the work agreement is no longer in service.

The university students are all men, ages 18-21, coming from Turkey, Mongolia, Azerbaijan and the Ukraine. They have found temporary sanctuary with a neighbor, Donna Michel."

Click on the title link for the rest of the story.

The Discussion

Comments:

smbpott said...

This case is unfortunate and I feel bad for the kids, but the vast majority (95%) of exchanges are positive for the students and the families and communities which host them. I urge the press to investigate Danielle Grijalva, director of Committee for Safety and Chris Gould, a retired British police investigator and PURPORTED consultant to foreign exchange programs worldwide. They say mistreatment of foreign students is significantly underreported. What basis do they use to show underreporting? What is the board make up of the committee for safety? What foreign exchange programs is Chris Gould a consultant for? You will find these two people have NO basis for their setting themselves up as experts, and that they are acting together, but essentially alone (no real committee, no board oversight of organization, restraining order against Danielle...), just trolling the internet for sensationalized cases of exchange student abuse and posting them on one website repeatedly.

16 July, 2009 22:21
Denny Lyon said...
Hi, smbpott, thanks for visiting and leaving your comment!

As with most stories like this, it isn't about how well the majority has been treated but rather about the abused minority that went unreported or not investigated.

This story is really not about the concept of foreign exchange students as it is a great idea culturally. It isn't about the whole organization either.

What this story is about is the fact that nothing was done to address these problems, not enough or perhaps any oversight on the part of our government - most likely the vast majority of issues happened during the Bush years of "non-doing."

It was foolish for our current State Dept. not to fine tooth comb every project they had in operation during the Bush years looking for this kind of thing. As it was the GAO was prevented from investigating AND reporting by Bush and Cheney. Normally, they handle these kinds of investigations as these problems always follow one culprit: follow the money. Most likely, Bush and Cheney cut the funds for oversight and hired outside political cronies as payback for campaign funds.

BTW, do you have proof to back up the stats you give that 95% of the foreign exchange students do not encounter any problem? If there was no oversight, no reporting, no surveys, where did you get this stat?

In the end, we are both coming at this problem from different sides and meeting in the middle in complete agreement: not enough oversight to prove either the good or the bad satisfactorily!

I'm glad these people have finally gotten the courage to speak up and speak out about their abuse. It went pretty much the same in the religious community, especially Catholic, when for decades people complained about sexual abuse. The same arguments abounded that it wasn't that bad, it wasn't true, that 95% etc., etc. Since then the abused began to speak up and the whole truth came out: there were thousands worldwide who were badly abused for decades.

My policy is never to deny a listen to anyone who has been abused, especially when it was as a result of an institutional entity for which as part of the public I am partly responsible.

17 July, 2009 08:57

From Anonymous:

Hello:

Thought you may find this of interest:
Federal agents investigate Burger King's treatment of foreign students
Leslie Stratmoen KVOW/KTAK News Director
July 16, 2009

http://www.ktakradio.com/news/2009/jul/16/federal-agents-investigate-burger-kings-treatment-/

Too many exchange students leave our country with a horrible impression of America.

17 July, 2009 16:16


From Denny: This is a video story I tried to put up yesterday but CNN did not yet have it up on its site until today. Unbelievable what foreign exchange students have lived through when visiting the United States during the Bush years and recently. The truth is just now coming out.

It's a real horror story that our own government funded this abuse and did not take the interest to regulate these agencies that promote and place these students in American homes. Some of those homes were convicted felons, students were raped, starved, forced to live in filthy situations, even placed with known and registered sex offenders! How perverted can you get?



Politics foreign exchange students rape sex offenders starvation abuse America United States State Department investigation

Video: Foreign Exchange Students Abused in the United States

From Denny: This is a video story I tried to put up yesterday but CNN did not yet have it up on its site until today. Unbelievable what foreign exchange students have lived through when visiting the United States during the Bush years and recently. The truth is just now coming out.

It's a real horror story that our own government funded this abuse and did not take the interest to regulate these agencies that promote and place these students in American homes. Some of those homes were convicted felons, students were raped, starved, forced to live in filthy situations, even placed with known and registered sex offenders! How perverted can you get?



Politics foreign exchange students rape sex offenders starvation abuse America United States State Department investigation

Round and Round the Obvious: Republican Liars, CIA, the Speaker

From Denny: OK, this is rich and I just have to comment since I grew up in the CIA. What the Republicans are doing is unacceptable. What are they doing? Lying, lying and lying some more in the way of misdirection away from the guilty Party: them.

What I find almost as annoying are the media folks who can't seem to remember what they reported for eight years under the Bush administration. It's like they have a collective Who Me? amnesia.

Is the Speaker telling the truth? Yes. How do I know? I watched the news like everyone else during the Bush years and it was clear she and all other Democrats were pushed out of the small loop of information. Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rice and Gingrich were the main players, the true holders of power and dominance, policy and decision makers. When the CIA reported what they didn't want to hear, like the bald-faced truth, they demanded they rewrite their reports.

Remember the Valerie Plaume incident? They outted her (which is treason by the way even when they do it) because she came back with nuke info they didn't want to hear and she and her husband constantly contradicted Cheney and Bush's public lies with the evidence. By outting her they lost years of experience and destroyed a tough intelligence network to build.

Only fools would destroy an information-gathering network about the status of rogue nukes in the world and still believe they are patriots protecting the country. Protect us from people voting in these destructive fools who would not know a good decision if it jumped up in their faces and begged them to take it home and sleep with it for free.

How else do I know? I know the culture and the historical beginnings of the CIA. The CIA was originally created as "The President's Men" much like the Jesuits were created as "The Pope's Men." The CIA have always been the loyalists to whichever President is sitting in office, any party. They do what other agencies and public words cannot - whatever needs to be done, legal or illegal.

They basically can enable someone who is corrupted by absolute power and that's exactly what happened in the case of the Bush-Cheney years. After all, Bush and Cheney kept firing all the knowledgeable, competent and people of good character in the CIA, the Pentagon, and everywhere they had reach until they finally found enough weak and greedy people to carry out their bidding.

The short version is that Bush ordered them to lie and present false information. He ordered the CIA to withhold information from the Democratic members of Congress AND any moderate Republicans who just might share that info with Democrat friends across the aisle.

This fiasco belongs to the Republican Party and their minions (lobbyists) and enablers (voters). The press needs to grow a pair and quit forcing us to listen to the whiners who couldn't tell the truth if they tried. Maybe it's time to go to a one-party system as the Republicans have proven themselves useless to this country in our time of great need. They are too busy planning their next grab for power. The CIA has never truly been the issue today or in the past. They were just the reaction to the action set by Presidents.

Without the political party to direct and task them the CIA has no mission other than to gather information worldwide. What IS the issue are two events: the ruling political party who sets the policies and toxic politics into motion and the voters who enable that direction.



CIA Republicans Democrats Speaker Pelosi Gingrich politics Congress lobbyists voters Rove Bush Cheney information-gathering United States

Coming Soon: Photographic Memory in a Pill?

From Denny: This sounds too good to be true! The only problem I ask is this: So, do you have a pill for extra capacity brain storage? :) Because you know people would go wild with this, testing it by reading whole Oxford Dictionaries, encyclopedias, going to the Library of Congress and reading through the entire library - the largest in the world - just to find out how much they could retain.

From the folks over at Popular Science. Here's an excerpt:

"Scientists isolate a protein that significantly increases visual recall

"Wish you had a photographic memory? Well, Encyclopedia Brown, drugs may amp your brain up to that point soon. A group of Spanish scientists claim to have singled out a protein that can extend the life of visual memory significantly. When the production of the protein was boosted in mice, the rodents' visual memory retention increased, from about an hour to almost 2 months.

"Unlike the long-term memory creation that was imaged recently, this memory extension only applies to memories made through the poorly-understood visual cortex of the brain."

For the rest of this brief article just click here! Thanks for visiting!

Video: Independence Day Trivia

From Denny: This is well worth the watching! While I knew most of the dry facts - what I didn't know were some of the ancedotal stories that went along with those historical facts that spoke a lot to the personalities and conflicts of that time.


Watch CBS Videos Online

Independence Day Fourth of July America Thomas Jefferson George Washington Declaration of Independence people and society holidays United States CBS videos American history

Video: The Crown of Liberty

Then First Lady Nancy Reagan reopens Statue of Liberty on 100th birthday Image via Wikipedia

From Denny: This is a really good video on the updates to and the history of visiting the Statue of Liberty AND you get an inside view from the top looking out over the harbor - best video I've seen on the recent renovation project. It's nice to see we have an administration who promotes freedom instead of fear by reopening the Statue of Liberty and other federal buildings like the White House to the viewing from the public!


Watch CBS Videos Online

CBS Statue of Liberty freedom America United States travel renovation video Obama tourism New York Manhattan Society and culture

Fourth of July Quotes: Serious and Funny

Photo by Morgan Frederick @ flickr

From Denny: I just love the fireworks on this day. I also like to remember all the soldiers over the centuries who lost their lives preserving our freedom, whether they voted Democrat, Republican or not at all.

Courage is always to be respected and admired. We may not agree on whether there should be a war at all, how to conduct a war once started or how to end it. What we can agree on is to respect those who were sent to fight as our first line of defense. They paid a hefty price for the rest of their lives for those wars were always with them.

Here are some very serious awesome quotes and a few light-hearted ones as well to give you pause and a grin on this solemn national holiday.

Serious Quotes

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.” – President John F. Kennedy

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." ~ Thomas Paine

"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself." ~ Thomas Paine

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." ~ Elmer Davis

"Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have." ~ Harry Emerson Fosdick

"Let freedom never perish in your hands." ~ Joseph Addison

Image by photobunny via Flickr

"Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed - else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die." ~ President Dwight D. Eisenhower

"In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved." ~ President Franklin D. Roosevelt

"May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country!" ~ Daniel Webster

"We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls." ~ Robert J. McCracken

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." ~ Abraham Lincoln

"If our country is worth dying for in time of war let us resolve that it is truly worth living for in time of peace." ~ Hamilton Fish

"I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery." ~ Author Unknown

"Without freedom, no one really has a name." ~ Milton Acorda

"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." ~ Benjamin Franklin

Funny Quotes

The United States is the only country with a known birthday. ~ James G. Blaine

“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.” ~ Erma Bombeck

"There, I guess King George will be able to read that." -
John Hancock, after signing the Declaration of Independence with a huge signature well flourished to stand out from the crowd!

Stay safe this holiday; Happy Fourth of July! Thanks for visiting!

Fourth of July quotes funny quotes America United States John F. Kennedy Abraham Lincoln Franklin D. Roosevelt Erma Bombeck Daniel Webster Thomas Paine James G. Blaine John Hancock Declaration of Independence

A Spiritual Perspective: Michael Jackson

Featured over at The Social Poets today is a post about Michael Jackson with photo links from Flickr too:

A Spiritual Perspective: Michael Jackson

Photo by frdgr @ flickr

Iran Headlines 27 June 2009

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

How Quarreling Ayatullahs Affect Iran's Crisis

Iran's Crisis Posing a Problem for Its Mideast Allies

Iran: New audience for obscure U.S. scholar's non-violent protest guide

Iranian cleric urges executing some protesters

Key Players: Who's Who in Iran's Political System

Web awash in tributes to slain Iranian protester Neda

Tehran Tweets: Mourning Michael Amid the Crisis

Obama Headlines 25 June 2009

GOP: Barack Obama too political

Obama: Immigration bill coming soon

Video: Luau at the White House



Video: Michelle hulas, Barack ogles

Awwww Sniffle Sniffle Sigh Awesome Photos

From Denny: This is one of those endearing profound emails you receive every now and then. Thought I'd share with you these awesome pictures. Thanks, Colleen in New Jersey! Try making your own version of this idea of matching photos with meaningful words that strike a chord in your heart! Feel free to share this post with others to enjoy.

*****

The Real Meaning of Words

LOVE



SORROW



INNOCENCE



DEPARTURE



PAIN



SOLITUDE



RESPECT



COMPASSION



FRIENDSHIP



MUSIC



PATIENCE



RESCUED



BEST FRIENDS



DIVINE



"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...it's about learning how to dance in the rain."

Video: Update on Swine Flu Stats

From Denny: The health folks are claiming this swine flu is milder than expected - that's the good news. The bad news? It is spreading rapidly. One day it's 400 cases and the next day it's up to 700, almost doubling here in America.

What's a bit disconcerting is to look at the USA map showing the flu has spread all across the country. Then view the world map and all of North America is engulfed in this outbreak.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Ready Reference: Health News Links and Google Swine Flu World Map

Photo by Igor Zenin

From Denny: Considering how nervous people are getting with the growing negative news about the current (now global) pandemic of the swine flu outbreak, I've started a place of Health News Links and the Google Swine Flu World Map to track the most current cases above the posting area on The Healing Waters blog for your ready reference so you can stay up to date. As I continue to find more quality reliable news links they will be added.