Have You Zillow-ed Your House Lately?

Zillow.com is a real estate evaluation site that has some clever software program that give you the value of your house on today's market. You can 'zillow' your entire neighborhood as well if you care to. You can also find homes with similar characteristics as yours, their locations, and their prices.

It is a fun site to play around with. [I ought to get come compensation for this promotion]

The Out-of-Sync Child

There is a website called The Out-of-Sync Child which relates the story of certain children who, as the title suggests, seem to be just a little off the norm. In the introduction to the disorder, the author says:

Most children enjoy such activities because they have effective sensory processing—the ability to organize sensory information for use in daily life. They take in sensations of touch, movement, sight, and sound coming from their bodies and the world around them, and they respond in a well-regulated way.

Some children, however, such as Andrew, Ben, and Alice, did not enjoy coming to my classroom. Faced with the challenge of sensory-motor experiences, they became tense, unhappy, and confused. They refused to participate in the activities, or did so ineffectively, and their behavior disrupted their classmates’ fun. They are the children for whom this book is written.

As Carol Stock Kranowitz notes, many teachers become frustrated with children like this and are quick to 'label them' as lazy or uncooperative. They are the children who march to the beat of a different drummer who become the scorn of some in the teaching field. Kranowitz notes that a pediatric occupational therapist named Lynn A. Balzer-Martin was diagnosing and treating young children who had academic and behavior problems stemming from a neurological inefficiency – then called “sensory integration dysfunction.”

Today this disorder is called Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) and it "can cause a bewildering variety of symptoms. When their central nervous systems are ineffective in processing sensory information, children have a hard time functioning in daily life. They may look fine and have superior intelligence, but may be awkward and clumsy, fearful and withdrawn, or hostile and aggressive. SPD can affect not only how they move and learn, but also how they behave, how they play and make friends, and especially how they feel about themselves."

No doubt the parents of these children cry out for answers as to why their child is so 'different.' Unless the child is tested and diagnosed, the child remains just an enigma, a quirky kid with a dicey future ahead of them.

"Preschoolers, whose nervous systems are still developing rapidly, stand a good chance to benefit from therapeutic intervention. Lynn knew that if SPD could be detected in three-, four-, or five-year-olds, these children could receive individualized treatment that would prevent later social and academic impasses."

The author says that although early intervention is best, even adults with the disorder can be helped. The key is in recognizing the symptoms and getting a diagnosis.

The SPD Network has a website with much more information on this disorder including behaviors to look for in a child which seems 'out-of-sync.'

Gov. Strickland's Ban on Utility Shutoffs Too Late for One Toledo Boy

FirstEnergyCorp, Toledo Edison, shut off the power to his house and, for nearly two weeks, he lived in his cold house, heated by only a small kerosene heater. So did his 6 brothers and sisters and grandmother. They had the heater in the small dining room, closed off by some bed sheets. The smell of kerosene was ghastly, but the room was warmer than the cold house. At bedtime, he lay in his cold, unheated bedroom.

His mother argued with Toledo Edison that she did not owe the $600 electric bill, that it was from the previous tenant who left town with many unpaid bills. Toledo Edison said, 'No, it is your bill.' The mother said to my wife, "I've only been in the house for a month and couldn't have a $600 electric bill." Edison shut it off. The house went dark and colder with each passing day.

I met Elijah at the Padua Center, the former now-closed St. Anthony Church's rectory. The Diocese of Toledo opened it as a neighborhood resource. Sr. Virginia Welsh operates the facility which offers free bread and rolls and coffee to the neighborhood. Elijah's two younger brothers came over for tutoring and told Sister that they were cold at home. Sr. Virginia then investigated and went to the home and found the family cold and in the dark. The mother told the story to her.

Elijah is severely autistic and does not speak and has violent outbursts. He's 14 and strong. He and his mother, grandmother and the youngest children were at the Padua Center warming up and eating pizza that Sister had made for them. I was introduced and when I shook the boy's hand it was literally like a corpse hand; I never felt colder skin than his. He was restless and paced back and forth and only sat down when his mother pulled him next to her. His eyes were wild and darted back and forth. Clearly he was out of his element and, as such, is very distressing to an autistic child.

This was on a Friday morning, the 8th day of no power. The mother told us that she had gathered the $600 from relatives and friends and was going to pay the bill that afternoon. We provided electric camping lanterns and flashlights so that the family would not continue to use candles to light the house at night. The tragic death of 3 children and their mother a few days earlier prompted our action.

For the whole story click [here] to read my earlier post. Power, however, was not restored until the afternoon on Tuesday, four days later. Several phone calls to Toledo Edison by my wife and I were met with belligerence, incompetence and plain ignorance. When the power finally was restored, the furnace ran and ran, trying to heat the house whose temperature had fallen into the 40's. We thought the family's long nightmare was at last over.

The phone call on Thursday ended our happiness. Elijah was in St. Vincent Hospital's ICU with burns on his neck, arms, and chest. He had been so thoroughly chilled literally to the bone, that he pressed himself up against the oven in the kitchen and his clothes caught fire. His burning shirt stuck to his skin as he screamed in pain. I cannot imagine what went through a boy's mind at that time, especially a severely autistic boy.

He lay in the ICU for days, waiting for his skin-graft operation. His mother never left his side; she slept by his side and would quiet him when he would become agitated. He pulled out his IV's and bandages several times and cried quite a bit, his mother tells us.

Tomorrow Elijah goes home, his mother reported. It will be good for him to get back to familiar surroundings and it will be good for his mother to be able to sleep, once again, in her own bed. What a nightmare for this family. Oh, and by the way, Elijah's mother told my wife that Toledo Edison called her at the hospital and told her that they made a mistake! She did not owe $600, it was the bill of the previous owner. They would credit her for the money.

Can you imagine that? An error. An error by Toledo Edison that caused three weeks of pain and agony for a poor, inner-city family.

I applaud Governor Strickland's decision to stand for families like Elijah's and ban utility shut-offs during the winter. At least other Ohio families will not have to suffer like this one.

Mars: A close-up

Tonight planet Mars will be the closest to the Earth since 2003; the next time it will be this close will be in 2016. The red planet is now the brightest "star" in the evening sky, easily visible by mid-evening until dawn. It comes closest to the Earth today at 6:46 p.m. EST, when it will be 54,783,381 miles (88,165,305 kilometers) from us.

USA Today: 'Family values' lower on agenda in 2008 race

USA Today posts an article titled, 'Family values' lower on agenda in 2008 race. They say:

Religious and cultural conservatives, unhappy about the rise of abortion and divorce, have made "family values" a staple of Republicans' political strategies for three decades. The phrase took on new life in 1992, when then-vice president Dan Quayle blasted fictional TV character Murphy Brown for having an illegitimate child. Family values were at the heart of a 2004 drive to put same-sex marriage bans on state ballots and draw conservatives to the polls.

They mention that only Mitt Romney regularly talks about so-called 'family values.' They note that "there are signs that family values have lost their punch as a campaign issue. Most voters say family values in general are important to them, but a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds they don't care much about candidates' personal lives. Political analysts say voters and candidates have broader, more immediate concerns: the ongoing U.S. action in Iraq and Afghanistan, nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea, the threat of terrorism and an economy that's putting stress on low- and middle-income people."

Family values and the USA Today story was the topic of discussion on this morning's Washington Journal on C-Span. The phone calls on the Republican line seem to indicate the truth of this article. There were only two who talked about gays, pornography, and church. The others addressed the economy as more of a 'family value' to them.

Three-quarters of the voters in a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll last month said family values are extremely or very important to them. Asked what the term means, one-third said "strong families." Some called it a "ploy" by conservatives to win votes; others mentioned health care and abortion.

That one-third who mentioned 'strong families' is a key to the '08 election. of course, what makes a family 'strong' is up to interpretation. I would think that two items are of particular importance in creating a strong family: a roof and a job. Families disintegrate without either. Families without either or both don't care about a porn shop down the street or the gay couple two doors down. Or whether Mr. Jones is twice-divorced. Or religion, unless the church opened its doors to them and fed them.

What has this Republican administration done for families in the past 7 years? As reported earlier, they have foisted $450,000 worth of debt on them; they have watched the dollar turn into play money on the international markets; they have watched banks foreclose on their houses; they have watched factory after factory close and go overseas. They have seen the cost of drugs and health care rise like a jet taking off from the runway. They see roads, bridges and sewers collapsing. They see a gallon of gas and a gallon of milk at $3. They see Payday Loan shops mushrooming up all over town. They see more and more closed stores and shops. They see government waste and more and more corrupt government officials.

Family values. This is what it is all about, not some phony holier-than-thou crap about the Bible. Food, a house, a car and a job. That makes America a strong nation. After that, we'll worry about some trivial things like gay marriage.

Bush Nominates Fine-ridden Coal Executive to Top Energy Department Post

Stanley C. Suboleski is a former executive for Massey Energy, one of the nation's largest coal producers, which faces an estimated $2.4 billion in threatened federal fines for more than 4,000 alleged environmental violations in the past six years at its West Virginia and Kentucky coal operations. That's 4,000.

As is the custom with Bush appointees, their experience and moral character is not that important. If confirmed assistant secretary for fossil energy, Suboleski would oversee development of clean-coal technology and other fossil-fuel projects.

L. Paul Bremer. Donald Rumsfeld. Michael Brown. Harriet Miers. Alberto Gonzales.

It never ends.

Drunken Frat Boy's Credit Card Balance: $32 Trillion

Too bad we didn't elect as president somebody with a financial background like an MBA. Had we we may not have accrued $32 billion in debt during the Bush/Cheney Administration. Oh well, maybe next time we might be a bit smarter. Don't bet on it.

U.S. Comptroller David Walker, the only man in the U.S. Government with any real fiscal sense, reported that the federal government's fiscal exposures was about $20 trillion as of September 30, 2000. Now, federal government's fiscal exposures totaled approximately $53 trillion as of September 30, 2007. Do the math.

Not only has George Bush made a fool of himself with his international bungling and idiotic war, but he has bled the family back home. Walker reports that a typical American family has $455,000 debt to repay for his madness. That's $175,000 for every child in this nation.

A drunken frat boy. He still is. Why did we expect something different? The pattern was set during his adolescent years and that is very hard to change. A drunken frat boy with a credit card with no spending limit. And he still has another whole year to spend.

A Quizzical Drawing of Ron Paul

My son sent me the link to this drawing of Ron Paul The article accompanying it, author James Tiscione said:

"Every birthday and holiday my daughter, a successful graphic artist, poses the same question to me, asking “what present would I like?” Usually I request the same thing; either something from her portfolio or one of her elaborate custom greeting cards featuring a caricature of me. But this year, she took the initiative, drawing inspiration from the numerous conversations we have had about the Ron Paul Revolution, and created a visual statement of his message, one we both firmly believe in. I need not explain more, for the essence of what she has captured in this portrait of Ron Paul speaks volumes."

Speaks volumes to me too like, why is the baby wrapped in the American flag?

Lieberman the Chameleon [as if we didn't know]

Those Connecticut voters sure were dumb. They re-elected good old right-wing, warmongering Joe Lieberman, the former Democrat who ran on the Democratic VP slot. Today he endorsed Republican John McCain for president.

Democrat-turned independent- turned Republican. How's that for a U-turn in politics. Odd that we here in Ohio saw it coming, but apparently the folks in Connecticut were blinded by the man. Oh well, it just goes to show you that politicians can't be trusted [as if we didn't know].

Recall, Connecticut, recall.

Ohio Says NO to Abstinence Programs

The Washington Post reports that Ohio is one of several states who have rejected federal dollars for sex-ed classes that require teaching abstinence. in a piece titled, Abstinence Programs Face Rejection: More States Opt to Turn Down the Federal Money Attached to That Kind of Sex Ed. They report: 14 states have refused federal money for "abstinence-only" sex education programs in the past year as evidence mounted that the approach is ineffective.

Critics said they hope that if enough states drop out, Congress will redirect the funding to comprehensive sex education programs that include teaching about the use of condoms and other contraceptives.

A critic of the federal program said, "It's a canary in the coal mine of what's to come.
We hope that it sends a message to the politicians in Washington that this program needs to change, and states need to be able to craft a program that is the best fit for their young people and that is not a dictated by Washington ideologues."

No doubt those 'Washington idealogues' were prompted to legislate the abstinence program through pressure from fundamentalist churches as well as the Catholic Church. It seems that these two religious bodies enjoy crotch politics very much. After all, the Bible says...

Luckily there are more mature and wise folks behind this shift in sex education priorities in these 14 states, people who look at the data rather than some line in Leviticus to make a judgement on the health and safety of our youth.

Things like this happen when religious beliefs enter government. We have a grand example of this practice in the Muslim world. We ought not send representatives to Washington who have some religious agenda in their back pocket otherwise we may end up with the American Taliban operating in DC.