The Internet is chock full of "sisters are awesome" type stories because, well, we are (quick, someone go tell my little bro!). And thanks to two impossibly cute little girls who fought off a would-be kidnapper together, we've got another one! Because Chyna and Brianna Brown aren't just sisters; they're little spitfires!

The cuties were walking to school together with a couple of pals when a strange man grabbed 11-year-old Chyna, pulling her to the ground and clamping his hand over her mouth. Just thinking about it gives me chills. But Brianna, who is only 10, knew exactly what to do.

She started screaming for the man to get his hands off her sister! Between that and Chyna struggling, it worked. The creepy would-be kidnapper took off. And wait until you hear why Chyna fought so hard:

Did you hear that? She didn't want her sister to lose her? And little Brianna sounded like she was just so worried about her big sis. Sniff, sniff. Baaaawl!

I love and hate these kind of stories at the same time. Of course the hate comes from the situation: no one actually likes to think about some guy sneaking around a neighborhood trying to kidnap little girls. The fact that folks in DeKalb, Georgia have to worry about their kids right now is a travesty.

On the other hand, I love them because they give us these pleasant surprises of heroism from the most unlikely places: 10-year-old little sisters. We want to think that kids will stick together and help each other out, but you never know what will happen in the moment. Especially when they spend so much time annoying the pants off each other during the day to day (think: Mooooom, she won't stop touching me!). 

What's the most incredible thing your sister (or brother) has done for you?

Image via 11Alive

Let's see, it's been, what? Four whole days since we were talking about Jenelle Evans and allegations of criminal behavior? It seems like it's time for something new. And yup, here we go!

Jenelle's former boss -- and the guy who had charges filed against the Teen Mom 2 star for cyberstalking -- is telling the tabloids that she can't seem to kick her drug habit after all. James Duffy is facing cyberstalking charges filed by Jenelle, and he's filed some against her -- meaning he's not the most credible of witnesses. But Jenelle only has herself to blame that we're willing to take him seriously.

Remember, Jenelle is supposed to be on probation for a marijuana possession arrest during her Reefer Kieffer days. That means no pot, no alcohol, nothing. She even got into a fancy schmancy rehab free of charge to "help" keep her clean. So Duffy's claims that he's watched her take Ecstasy, snort Adderall, and get blitzed on E&J brandy are all pretty damning. That's the kind of stuff that could get her sent to prison for a probation violation if police find any of it is true.

But Jenelle is not exactly known for sticking with anything. There are the drug tests she has already failed -- several of them -- giving us ample evidence that she's had a hard time following court orders. Or how about that huge girl fight she was in last year ... soon after a judge had told her to keep her nose clean?

And on Monday, she vowed she was going to steer clear of Twitter for an entire month. She lasted a day. One day! And obsessive though we may be about our Internet fixations, it's hard to argue that typing 140 characters or less has quite the addictive qualities of the illegal substances Duffy is talking about.

If she can't stay away from that, how can we expect that she's really fighting the darker, deeper demons?

Image via MTV

Here I thought Kirk Cameron making an ass of himself was going to be the worst news out of our favorite stars of the '80s this week. But no, reviews from A Thousand Words, the new Eddie Murphy comedy, are proving his career's about as dead as the Twitter hoaxes of a month ago said he was.

When is Eddie going to learn? Happy, happy, rah rah schlock is just not him. We know too much crap about him.

We know, for one, that he made a baby with Mel B and then acted like a complete jerk, more or less abandoning his own daughter for the first three years of her life. Say it with me now: dooooouchebaaaaag. We know what he said in Raw. Every naughty, friggin hilarious word of it. We know about the transvestite prostitute.

And we liked him despite it ... but God knows we didn't want to share him with our kids. OK, except for Shrek. Donkey made our kids laugh. But there is an exception that proves every rule, and that was it.

We want the real Eddie Murphy back, OK? Please?

Because A Thousand Words doesn't sound like Eddie Murphy. The film directed by Brian Robbins -- who also steered Murphy's recent flops Norbit and Meet Dave ... surprise, surprise -- takes Eddie from being a literary agent who's a bit of an a-hole to -- you guessed it -- a literary agent who is kind and loving and just peachy keen, jellybean. I'm sorry for not giving you a spoiler alert, but the movie sounds so cookie cutter there was nothing to spoil. It's being called Liar Liar and Freaky Friday remixed and redone ... badly.

So how about we forget this little mishap? Go see John Carter so we can drool over the hot guy from Friday Night Lights, and Eddie starts shocking us again? M'kay?

Check out the trailer for A Thousand Words, and you be the judge:

What movie is on your agenda this weekend? Is A Thousand Words on the list?

I don't know about you, but when the warning went out a few weeks ago that everything you have ever plugged into Google could soon be fair game for advertisers, I got a little worried. I am a good girl, I swear! But ever since I became a mother, I've found my Google searches have been a little . . . odd.

It's both the blessing and the curse of being a parent in the digital age. When we asked bizarre questions, our parents told us to go read an encyclopedia or better yet, go play in traffic. But when our kid asks or even does something that's just a little off, we can't help ourselves. I mean, the Internet is right there, it would hurt to look, would it?

Well, that depends, does your Google search history look anything like this pile of bizarre entries from parents around the states?

Come on, you know you can top these. What's the wackiest thing lurking in your Google search history ... because of your kids of course (wink, wink)?

Image via Google

A $2.9 million payout for the "wrongful birth" of their little girl is sure to land Ariel and Deborah Levy right in the middle of the hottest parenting debates of all time. But the argument over abortion and the Oregon couple's right to know that their child had Down syndrome that will play out in the press over the next few weeks shouldn't overshadow the giant heads up this lawsuit has given every pregnant woman or would-be parent in America. Do you know what your doctor is up to?

Because the Levys didn't. They trusted Legacy Health System ... the way so many of us blindly trust that the people in the white coats care as much about the well being of our growing bellies as we do. And this was not some case of a test that may or may not have been 100 percent accurate failing to show fetal abnormalities.

The jury's decision to give the couple such a substantial sum came after court documents showed as much as five major mistakes, from Deborah's doctor taking an incorrect tissue sample to the lab screwing up analysis.

That means we can shelve the abortion debate right now folks. This is really about malpractice allegations. It's about being a pregnant woman who depends on health care workers doing their jobs right to plan for the future: whatever that future entails.

I don't know what I would do if I were pregnant and a test showed a fetal abnormality. I am blessed enough to never have been put in that position. But either way, a big part of pregnancy is preparation. We get ready for the baby. We set aside money and line up caregivers. We try to do what's going to be best for our family, best for the little person growing inside of us.

Can you imagine sticking with a doctor if you knew flat out that they were just phoning it in? That they really didn't care whether you knew everything about what was going on with your body or not? Me neither. I was one of those voracious readers during pregnancy, and I peppered my OB/GYN with questions. I wanted to know EVERYTHING because I wanted to be ready.

When a doctor isn't making sure they're doing everything they can to give parents critical information -- whether it's something that would have guided parents like the Levys to abort or the diagnosis of a heart condition that enabled my friend Nicole to have in utero surgery to save her son -- they can't prepare. No preparation means everyone suffers.

Even the Levys -- who have two older sons -- say they love and adore their little girl now that she's here, but the money from their lawsuit is going to be used to pay for her care. That's a pretty big deal, especially for parents of special needs kids who often encounter substantial medical bills in addition to the worry of providing for their kids even after they're gone, because the children won't be able to provide for themselves.

Finding a good caregiver during your pregnancy means finding someone who will tell you everything you need to know. EVERYTHING. What you do after that is up to you -- it's your body, your choice. But a good practitioner is the one who makes sure you can make that choice.

What kind of research have you done into your doctor or midwife to make sure they're the right fit?

Image via tofslie/Flickr

It's been less than a month since a little boy brought a gun to a Washington school only to have it discharge and shoot a classmate, and already the Evergreen state has another tragedy to add to its right to carry debate. A 7-year-old girl has died after being shot in the family van by her younger brother with their father's gun, a gun he owns because he's a cop.

It's such a sad story, I don't even know where to begin. What were two kids, 7 and younger, doing alone in a van? What were two kids doing with access to a gun? How could a police officer make a mistake like this?

And what does this say about the gun debate in America?

We tend to talk a lot about illegal guns and idiot gun owners, don't we? The first kid I referred to -- the 9-year-old boy who brought a gun to school a few weeks back -- is said to have gotten the weapon from a mother who sounds like a complete loser with her criminal record. It's not surprising she's been brought up on charges since then.

But this tragedy doesn't fit either of those criteria. The gun was registered, so it wasn't illegal. And it wasn't just registered to Joe Schmoe who managed to pick one up in one of those states where anyone with money and the ability to walk into a gun show can arm themselves for the zombie apocalypse. This was an officer of the law, a person trained to handle weapons. He had to have been trained on best practices.

And yet, it happened. We don't know how. Maybe this cop really is a bad dude. But then again, the parents were said to have been "nearby" when this happened, so maybe Dad popped out of the car to grab something, thinking his kid was strapped safely into the car seat ... and well, you know how that goes, parents, don't you?

I know a lot of responsible police officers, and I know they make it a point to talk to their kids about gun safety, and to keep the firearms under lock and key. Besides, I hate to beat up on a family when they've just lost a daughter and they have a little boy who is no doubt going through his own kind of hell. So I'd like to think this was just an innocent accident, albeit one that happened because dad's line of work brought something dangerous into the home.

Either way, this awful, horrible, terrible, devastating story is a reminder that when we talk about the danger of guns, we can't just talk about idiots and criminals. We need to talk about the good guys too ... and the very bad things that can happen.

How have you talked to your kids about guns and gun safety?

Image via robertnelson/Flickr

Get ready to feel old, folks. It has been just over 20 years since Magic Johnson stood in the Forum in Los Angeles and told the world he had HIV. Eesh, 20 years. Hard to believe, huh?

Since last night, when ESPN aired its documentary The Announcement about that big reveal, I've been racking my brain, and I have to admit I can't really remember a time when the name "Magic" didn't immediately conjure the word "AIDS" in my mind. The two have been intertwined since, well, November 7, 1991.

A big part of it is the fame, of course. Magic was (still is) one of the greatest basketball players ever. He was 6 feet 9 inches of ass kicking on that court. When he said he was walking away from that, the NBA stood still. I mean, there's a reason the documentary was called The Announcement and not "Magic Johnson's Kicking HIV In the Butt." That one moment reshaped the entire conversation about HIV and AIDS in America, and it's because of who he was at the time.

But as the documentary showed last night, Johnson could have ended it right then and there. That's what wife Cookie wanted him to do. She wanted privacy. I think it's more amazing -- he's more amazing -- that he went the other way. He made this his legacy. 

Magic has spent 20 years being completely open about his womanizing mistakes because he wants to help change the world for other AIDS/HIV sufferers. That takes some guts -- not only to admit that he did things wrong, but to allow your name to be tied to a disease that still fills Americans with fear. Even agreeing to this documentary is brave -- he knew it would bring people back to the story of how and why he had to give up the game.

He's a rich guy who can afford the thousands of dollars in drugs he has to take every month to keep the disease at bay, but he fights for those who don't have his money or his resources. Whether it's work with his non-profit foundation or showing up at schools to talk to kids, he has purposely kept his name and this disease linked in the media for decades. That's 20 years of serious ... magic? (Oh come on, you know it had to be said.)

Check out a look at what's in the documentary from ESPN:

What were you doing when Magic made his announcement? What do you think of when you hear his name?

Even in 2012, it's tough for gay kids growing up in America. So I can't imagine why a teenage girl thought wearing a t-shirt to school that proclaimed "All the Cool Girls Are Lesbians" was a good idea. Did she really think bashing her heterosexual classmates was the right way to fight the hate?

The shirt's been the center of a hot debate since a high schooler at Lynn English High School in Massachusetts was asked to turn it inside out because it could be deemed "offensive." I want to say the administrators were right, but with nothing in their dress code ... I sadly have to side with the kid. But that doesn't mean I'd let my kid wear it.

This is one of those tricky "I will defend your right to disagree with me, but I don't have to like it" cases. Because man do I disagree with a kid, any kid, who makes a point to let other kids know she doesn't think they're "cool." To me that's just ... well, uncool!

It's one thing to get past the "hate." I can't wait until we're there, and I'm a bit disappointed that it's 2012, and I sometimes feel like things are about as far along as they were when I was still in high school. But it's quite another thing to hate back. As our parents taught us way back in the olden days, "two wrongs don't make a right."

That's the problem with hating on straight kids. It's just as wrong as bullying a gay kid.

I'm raising a kid in a pro-gay rights household. That means she's learned that gay kids are just like her. They're equal. What doesn't it mean? That gay kids are "cooler" than her any more than it means she's cooler than the gay kids (my kid is 6, I'm assuming she's straight right now because she's kid of boy crazy ... if this changes, I'll still think she is the coolest kid on earth ... but that won't make her "better" than anyone).

Let's put this in any other context, shall we? Would you put your kid in an "All Cool Kids Are White" t-shirt? No. Hmm. How about an "All Cool Kids Are Black" shirt? Not that either, huh? If we want our kids to accept one another, it's up to us to tell them that means everyone, not just the people they like.

What kind of message does this t-shirt send to you?

Image via CafePress

OK, spill it. How much time have you spent listening to your baby trying to make sense out of their noises? I don't think I could put an actual number on it, but I distinctly remember (with appropriate embarrassment for this fact) sitting with the "child speech development" list of sounds trying to figure out if my kid was indeed making the consonant sounds for early speech.

Hello, my name is Jeanne, and I had way too much time on my hands. But not as much time as dad Sean Phillips. A documentary filmmaker and proud papa of the adorable Jonah, he managed to record enough of his little boy's babble and put it together to make his own baby beatbox!

If this isn't the cutest thing you've seen all day, I owe you a cupcake:

See what I mean? I can see why Sean would sit around videotaping that one -- you don't get cuteness on that level very often. And frankly, it doesn't matter if he was trying to say his consonant sound yet (for what it's worth, the first ones are usually n, d, p, b and come between the 3 and 6 months mark ... see, told you I was way too committed to that whole thing!) or if he was really telling the world that he had a poopy diaper.

He was communicating the best darn way he knows how! And quite well, I might add. See, all he had to say was "Dad, I'm being awesome, so look at me, look at me, LOOK at me!" Well done Jonah, mission accomplished! Now this baby beatboxer has the whole world watching!

What is the coolest sound your baby has made lately?

Image via Sean Phillips/HoopLaHa

Translated into English, the Marine Corps motto Semper Fidelis means "always faithful." So it's no wonder a US Marine who survived a roadside bomb in Iraq that ended her career is doing everything she can to be reunited with her faithful partner. What's confounding is why the corps has mired down the process in red tape. Maybe because Cpl. Megan Leavey's partner was a dog?

Rex was a bomb-sniffing dog, specifically, a German shepherd who served our country right beside the veteran for two straight tours of duty. But now that he's suffering a facial paralysis that's rendered him incompatible with military life, keeping them apart is coming off like a public relations nightmare for the armed forces. That red tape is more like a black eye!

To me, it seems like keeping these two apart flies in the face of a sector of the American government that's perhaps best known for its efforts to pull people together under one common goal (generally to fight enemies foreign and domestic). When I think the US armed forces, terms like "band of brothers" and "leave no man behind" come to mind. And of course there's that Marine Corps motto: it means once a Marine, always a Marine!

I made the mistake once, a long time ago, of asking an elderly man if he was a "former Marine." He set me straight immediately: there is no such thing. They are always Semper Fi.

That includes Leavey. She and Rex have been separated for five years -- not because she didn't care about her K-9 partner but because he was still combat ready even when that roadside bomb required a medical discharge. She could accept being separated because it was for the good of the Corps.

But now that Rex is out of the military, she is still faithful -- this time to him, her partner, the dog who helped her save lives. She's trying to keep him from being put to sleep! That's the kind of thing the Marines should be yelling from the rooftops, don't you think? Showing off the ever faithful spirit of their vets? Helping keep them together.

I'm going to go out on a big solid oaken limb here and make a bet. If these were two people coming back together after serving together in combat, no one would think anything of it. There are veterans groups all over this country because the tie that binds those who serve isn't broken by time.

I don't care how long it's been since Rex and Megan Leavey were last together. These two proud Marines deserve a chance to be together again. They were faithful to our country, now this county needs to return the favor.

How do you feel about the way the military treats its four-legged servicemembers?

Image via *Gunslinger*/Flickr

If you hate Tim Tebow, join the club. But expect that to change by the time you're done reading this story! The Denver Broncos quarterback's latest move shows he knows who real heroes are: the men and women who serve in our armed forces.

That's right, ladies and germs, Tim Tebow may have helped power the Broncos to the playoffs, but he'll get down on that famous knee and praise the heck out of guys like U.S. Army Ranger Romy Camargo. In fact, he wasn't too busy hobknobbing with The Bachelor host and checking out Taylor Swift to drop everything he was doing this past weekend and show up at the wounded war veteran's side.

Yeah boy!! Humility looks good on him!

But wait! It gets better. Tebow didn't just swing in from Hollywood and work the public relations angle while posing for pictures with a quadriplegic man in a wheelchair and an Army uniform.

If he had, I don't think I would have blamed him. I mean, the guy is facing possibly losing his job to Peyton Manning right now. Let me repeat that. Peyton frickin' Manning. He's got a few years in the league doing some nice stuff, but his competition is a legend. So let's just say the QB could use a Hail Mary pass right now. It wouldn't hurt to get out there and remind the Broncos that he is all that and a 40-ounce of Tebow Beer (alcohol-free natch). But he didn't.

Nope, it seems Timmy boy actually understands that you can win all the football games you want, but nothing will ever compare to taking a gunshot wound to the neck during a combat mission far from your friends and family ... while serving your country. That's what happened to Camargo -- he's now in a wheelchair -- and that's what brought Tebow to say one of the things that makes it impossible not to love him:

For me it's so humbling when you see kids and they're like "You're my hero" and really I do nothing special. Athletes do nothing special. We play a silly game, but here's someone who put his life on the line for our country -- that's a real hero.

Can I get a hell yeah? I actually think what athletes do is special; if it wasn't, we wouldn't have professional sports. Their talents amaze two-left-footed me every day. But what's even more special is being able to recognize that there's another level above that: true hero.

Check out Tim being a humble kind of famous athlete and tell us: did this change the way you view him?

Vet has surprise meeting with Tebow: MyFoxTAMPABAY.com

Image via Fox Tampa Bay

It's hard to say just why The Hunger Games has captured the national zeitgeist. But actress Elizabeth Banks has an idea. The actress plays Effie Trinket, who has the unenviable task of escorting young Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark from their homes in District 12 to face possible death in the Capitol. No wonder she was directing her words during the premiere at our own capital: Washington, D.C.!

Chatting on the black carpet (yes, you read that right) in Hollywood with CafeMom Studios and The Stir's Sheri Reed, the 30 Rock Star confessed the air was a little chilly in the City of Angels. And so is the political climate around the world. Check out what Banks had to say about fed up voters around the world and Hunger Games fans:

See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.

In case you haven't read the books -- first, get thee to a book store -- she's referring, of course, to the dystopian society created by Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins where an oppressive government forces parents from the various districts (think states) to send two kids every year to a fight to the death. Fortunately things aren't that bad here in America!

But if Banks isn't the first to compare Panem's politics to what's going on in politics around the world right now, she's certainly an interesting person to comment on the relationship. After all, she's the woman who played First Lady Laura Bush in Oliver Stone's W. a few years back, despite being a registered Democrat. She's an actress who knows her stuff! So maybe she's right ... this movie will be the hit of the year because it's taken our anger and put it up on the big screen, and in a place where we can show our kids!

Do you see a relationship between the two? What happens when you bring The Hunger Games up -- do political discussions crop up with your friends?

Image via CafeMomStudios/YouTube

Need a reason to take the kids to the see The Hunger Games? Well, other than the fact that they've read all the books and been begging you to see it since the countdown began? Mega roles like Katniss' little sister Primrose Everdeen were filled by child stars, and when The Stir caught up with them on the black carpet at the premiere, they couldn't stop talking about the books!

It turns out starring in one of the biggest movies of the year isn't just cool for the likes of Willow Shields (yes, she's just 11, and yes, she's the one and only Prim!) because it's a big-time film. The child stars and their moms dished with The Stir's Sheri Reed CafeMomStudios on their ulterior motives for auditioning for this film in particular and whether they're Team Peeta or Team Gale:

See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.

Wahoo! Let's hear it for kids who love to read! Not to mention a cheer for books that are worth putting in our kids' hands! Suzanne Collins' three novels are some of the best I've read in a long time, and I've set them aside for my kid to read -- just like these mom fans. I can understand why they did everything they could to make sure their kiddos got to audiction for this film, and worked schedules to make sure they could star.

In case you didn't catch all those, some of those moms are pretty big-time. That was Oscar Award winner Marcia Gay Harden hanging with her daughter Eulala on the black carpet, gushing about how Katniss is a good role model for girls. As Shields says, Team Katniss all the way!

How cool is it that celebrity moms and kids are passing these books back and forth just like the rest of us, and getting together to see the film as a family too? Who are you going to see The Hunger Games with?

Image via CafeMom Studios/YouTube

On a good day, I don't condone violence. But the day you run into the heroin dealer who has been slowly but surely leading your son down a destructive path is not a good day. In fact, it might be the day you pull a Sherrie Gavan and grab a baseball bat to take care of business!

Hey, I wouldn't blame you. I certainly don't blame Gavan, the St. Louis, Missouri mom who is facing charges of third-degree assault for allegedly taking an aluminum baseball bat to 21-year-old Joshua Loyd, her son's alleged dealer. Yes, she was wrong, and she deserves to be punished (sorry folks). But that doesn't mean she wasn't right too!

Confused? How can something wrong possibly be right and vice versa? Because this is life, and life is full of contradictions like fat-free ice cream and people who say they are seriously kidding (seriously?). One of my greatest struggles as a parent is teaching my kid how some things in life can be OK in some instances and not in others. And one of my greatest personal struggles is the hypocrisy of feeling one way but knowing I have to act another.

The brain inside my head knows that hitting someone isn't right -- I won't even hit my own child as a punishment. I know that taking justice into your own hands is wrong. We have a legal system for a reason, and vigilantes tend to make the job harder for the police instead of really getting anything done. I don't actually blame the judge who is refusing to throw out this case and demanding that Gavan face the charges.

But here's where the sympathy comes in. I wish it was always my brain that was guiding me, but it isn't. Right now I feel like going out and beating up your kid's drug dealer is the right thing to do. So I get it. I really do!

Can't you just picture yourself standing in this woman's shoes? Gavan said she took away his cellphone, had him change high schools, sent him out of the area to live with relatives, instituted frequent drug testing, and nothing helped her. Her kid just kept slipping back down the slippery slope of addiction. If you've never been around an addict, you may not understand just how frustrating it is, how hopeless you feel in the face of a monster that is literally eating away at someone you love little by little.

So maybe she snapped. Heck, even if this was a calculated plan, I still have sympathy. She didn't just sit there and let the hopeless feelings take over. She got 'er done! So here's hoping the judge punishes her ... but not too hard!

What do you think should be the punishment for what cops say this mom dad?

Image via LifeSupercharger/Flickr

Forget about the girl on fire for a minute folks! The news straight from the black carpet of the world premiere of the Hunger Games is the leading men of the hottest movie of the spring are absolutely smoking. Say it with me now: RPatz and Tay-Laut who?

Between Miley Cyrus' hunky boyfriend Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson, the Team Gale vs. Team Peeta match-up was raging out there! But when The Stir's Sheri Reed snagged some of the film's young actors for a chat for CafeMom Studios, they had a different take on what it was like filming. Along with Hemsworth, Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid's son Jack Quaid (who is in his first role as Marvel, one of the other tributes), and Alexander Ludo (who plays the villainous District 2 tribute Cato), the boys spilled the secrets on how all those tributes got along:

See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.

Aww! That sounds ... well, nothing like the real Hunger Games! No one dropped a tracker jacker nest on anyone? No one left out poison berries? Shees! Those guys were just so sweet. And although we didn't catch up with Hutcherson, we did notice Peeta Mellark himself flashing that sexy grin out there, making it even harder to choose ... Team Peeta or Team Gale.

More from The Stir: 'Hunger Games' Star Elizabeth Banks Knows the Real Reason We All Want to See It (VIDEO)

Hmmm. Decisions, decisions! I know who's out of my mind anyway ... Team Jacob (and Team Edward for that matter!).

So, spill it! Which one are you? Or are you Team Katniss like Primrose Everdeen herself, Willow Shields?

Image via CafeMomStudios/YouTube

There's been a lot of talk this week about the arrest of a University of Maryland student who threatened to go on a "shooting rampage." Alexander Song allegedly told folks on Reddit that he was going to do something so big and bad that it would make national news. He didn't get there, but that's news too. And I daresay it's news that we all needed to hear.

Because what happened in Maryland this week is proof that there are still good people in this world. Song's arrest after police were alerted to the scary online postings sends a message that speaking up makes a difference. These things can be stopped!

Thank.

God.

I don't mean to make light of such a serious threat, folks. I'm just glad I have a positive story to share with you today. Because I don't have to remind you that all too often, it goes the other way.

Each time a shooting takes place on a school campus -- be it public or private, elementary or college -- it feels like we lose another piece of our humanity. Even at the college level, the victims are generally kids, our kids. And more times than not, so are the perpetrators. And it's all done on purpose!

Even in war that doesn't happen ... or at least it isn't supposed to. Kids are supposed to be off limits. If a country actually follows the Geneva Convention, children are protected from deliberate acts of violence.

These school shootings defy our sensibilities of who we, the human race, prioritize. And they paint a troubling picture of our future, a future where angry young people are growing up thinking their best option to work out their feelings is by taking a gun to innocent people. It's kind of hard to put a smile on your face and just keep swimming along the river of life when you feel like the darkness is trying to drag you under.

But this week in Maryland, humanity won. A tragedy may well have been averted in Maryland with Song's arrest. And we don't have to do what we have so many times before -- mourn lives cut short too soon.

Check out more on this scary story and tell us, what goes through your head when you hear about school shootings on the news?

I have heard some pretty crazy excuses from backward school officials in my day, but here's a new one. Kids from a Colorado high school say they were told they couldn't include a photo of lesbian students holding hands in their yearbook because their advisor was anti-gay. So how did the school try to clean that up and make it palatable for the media? It was excessive PDA.

Excessive. Because two girls were holding ... hands? Holy grilled cheesus. Can you imagine what they'll do next? Maybe a few sly glances across the cafeteria? Or, OMG, maybe one of them will give the other one their pin. What a scandal!

Snort.

Apparently someone hasn't actually walked through a high school lately if they think that's excessive. I have. And it doesn't exactly make me feel ready for my daughter's teen years. I'd love a few pictures of happy kids -- of any gender -- holding hands to show her as a "what TO do."

The kids from Palmer High say they were kicked off the yearbook committee after building a page that was meant to chronicle "relationships" at the school. When they presented it to their advisor, former yearbook staffer Rudolpho Tribulio says they were told, "you either cut the gay couple or I cut the page." The claim that the problem was excessive PDA came after the fact, from a school scrambling to defend an act that sounds like blatant discrimination.

The way a school spokesperson told it: "If there's too much PDA, it's against policy. It's going to get cut."

Uh huh. So much for a "yearbook" that reflects the lives of the kids at the school (gay and straight). Maybe they ought to just order some stock photos of kids who fit their perfect picture and be done with the whole thing.

Or they could celebrate the good things in their community. Just a thought. You know -- lesbian girls who are happy and accepted by their peers (who were cool enough with them to ensure they were also represented in their yearbook)? Kids who are using age-appropriate, publicly accepted forms of affection instead of groping one another beneath the bleachers?

What's an acceptable level of PDA for teenagers? Would you be upset if your kid were holding hands?

Image via Vinni123/Flickr

Get ready for a blast from the past. The father of one of the most famous murdered children of all time -- 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey -- has a new book out. Sixteen years after his daughter disappeared from their Colorado home, John Ramsey has a message for other parents that may be difficult to hear.

Whoa. Wait a minute. It's been 16 years since the pictures of the gussied up little pageant girl were on the cover of every major newspaper in the country? Hard to believe, isn't it?

And it's even harder to hear John Ramsey beat himself up for allowing late wife Patty to put their little girl in pageants, to bring attention on her beauty. Ramsey told ABC's JuJu Chang that he doesn't know if it was the pageants that brought a killer to their doorstep. I'm no fan of pageants, but watching this poor man struggle to come up with the appropriate level of protection for our kids, I couldn't help feeling like he was being unfair to himself ... and seriously stressing out the rest of America for nothing:

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There he is, warning us to be aware that "regardless of where you live, there could be evil" in our communities, and telling us not to be "naive about it." But let's be real here. He doesn't know who killed JonBenet. The police don't know who killed JonBenet!

Every day we sit here debating whether parents are doing a "good enough" job of protecting their kids, but the fact is, there is only so much we can do about the evil that Ramsey is talking about. I know I check the sex offender registry list. I don't let my 6-year-old wander off in the neighborhood alone. I don't let her out of my sight when we go shopping.

But those are all evils we're pretty aware of, that we aren't "naive" about. The problem that the Ramseys faced, that we all face, is the evil we don't know about. The child sex abusers who are actually trusted by a kid (who, by the way, make up the greater number of offenders). The kidnappers who are known and trusted by a kid (again, kids are more likely to be grabbed by someone they know). The nice guy from down the street who has lived a quiet, normal life with a wife, and a dog and two beautiful kids who just up and snaps one day.

They're the fears that have created helicopter parenting and sucked a lot of the fun out of being a kid. I hate to say I ignore some of it, but helloooo, guilty! I have chosen to stop thinking about the stuff I can't control, because I can't spend my life sleeping in my kid's bed just in case some guy sneaks in during the night or up her butt when she just wants to swing on the damn swings. I could do all that ... and then some drunk driver could blow through a stop sign and ... no, honestly, I don't even want to think about it.

You know why? Because I can't control it all. Like most parents, I have enough balls to juggle between the ridiculous March Madness dress up days at the kid's school (seriously, every day for a month?), and the fact that they just dropped another day off on me with less than a week's notice, plus trying to get her bedroom repainted, and ... yeah, that's enough people. ENOUGH!

My heart breaks for John Ramsey that, 16 years later, he still doesn't have answers. But until he does, I just have to tune him out. Not to be cruel, but to stay sane!

How did the JonBenet Ramsey case change how you parent?

Image via ABC

Call me crazy, but I've always had kind of a soft spot for NFL wide receiver Brandon Marshall. The newest member of the Chicago Bears hasn't had it easy since telling the world he suffers from borderline personality disorder. But even that doesn't explain how he could have punched a woman in the face in a New York City nightclub.

Mental illness doesn't get you a pass on being an ass when other people are getting hurt. Sympathy? Maybe. But it's hard not to feel more upset on behalf of the people in his wake. People like Christin Myles, the woman who was celebrating a birthday at a Chelsea nightclub, only to tell cops she was sucked into one of Marshall's rages.

It took a lot of chutzpah for Marshall to come out and admit he's got a disease last year. I get that. Our society is still stuck with some outdated ideas about what it means to battle with demons in your head, and BPD doesn't make a whole lot of sense, even to the scientists who study it. Talk therapy and medicine only go so far in controlling someone's emotional outburst.

I can see how Marshall might have gotten agitated after being kicked out of a club and lashed out at the person nearest him. Sadly, Myles says that was her. Although the wide receiver hasn't been charged, police are investigating her claims that he hit her.

Now let's just walk through this for a minute, people. If a guy is that volatile, if it really happened, it means his aggression has not been controlled. It means his BPD needs more treatment. And the Bears want to put him back on the field this season?

What? So he can beat the snot out of someone else? If he can't control his rage over getting kicked of a club, imagine what he's going to do when the game is on the line.

We're walking a might fine line here between not judging a man because of his mental illness and letting him use it as an excuse. It is, at the end, an illness. Just as the Colts could kick Peyton Manning to the curb because of his neck issues, the Bears can expect the newest guy on their roster get his BPD under control.

Here's some more info on the trade from the Dolphins to the Bears. What do you think Marshall should have to do before the Bears let him play?

In this world there are good ideas. Then there is taking the face of President Barack Obama and slapping it on the American flag, then hoisting the thing up the flagpole at the headquarters of a Florida chapter of the Democratic Party. That, my friends, is the definition of a bad idea.

Oh, I know, I know, Mr. Obama is our nation's president. And the stars and stripes is a symbol of our nation. Putting the two together, with the president's face in the space where the stars generally sit, would seem fitting. But when are people going to learn that flag desecration by any other name is still a big fat no no?

A group of veterans put the folks at the Lake County Democratic headquarters in their place. They said they don't want to see President Obama, Republic Mitt Romney, or any other person up there because that's not the "real flag." And these guys got an apology from a suitably chastened chairwoman for standing up for what they believe in:

We were given this as a gift. We are proud of our president, we're proud of the United States, and we felt it was time to display that.

She sounds heartfelt. I'm willing to accept the party's excuse that they were trying to show pride in their nation. Case more or less closed ... except I did some searching, and those flags are out there, still being sold in many forms -- including the t-shirt above. It isn't this one isolated case in Florida that we have to worry about.

And as an American, that bugs me. I'm one of those corny people who gets all misty eyed on July 4, when they cue up the Lee Greenwood and everyone puts their hands over their hearts (seriously, it's embarrassing how weepy I get). When my kid's kindergarten graduation ceremony was patriotic themed, I got melty just watching a bunch of 5-year-olds pledging allegiance to our great land.

I have the same sense of pride as those folks in Florida, and that's why I am fiercely protective of our flag. I like it just the way it is for its simplicity. It represents the United States. And that's it. Not the president of the moment or the party that's "in charge" right now.

The flag is supposed to stay just the way it is because it represents the nation, not people's idealism or their partisanship. It's not about showing off how much you love your country to the people who use your bathroom with a stars and stripes toilet paper cozy. And it's not about Democrats or Republicans.

What are your thoughts on the flag being tampered with?

Image via Zazzle