Ever noticed that the older your kid gets, the less time you spend recording what they're doing? Ironic, considering how much more interesting they get as they age, but there it is. Most of the parents I know who have hours of videotape of their baby rolling over have next to nothing of their teenager. But this may send you scrambling for your camera.

Faron Butler lost his teenage daughter Rhema to desmoplastic cancer in 2011. He would cling to old voicemails from Rhema to keep her close until he says T-Mobile up and deleted the sweet messages without warning him. Say what?

The company says they are sorry for not giving ample warning about re-saving old messages, but there is nothing then can do. They're looking into "compensating" the family, but I don't know how they can really fix this.

Sorry, we lost your own connection to your dead child, here's a check? Really? Butler surely deserves something, but you can't make up for the way listening to the voice of someone you love makes you feel. People's voices are so distinctive, they've even been deemed to have legitimate medicinal value.

Then add in the parent/child connection, and there's no comparison. I know I've sat in a room full of hundreds of people talking and laughing, with dozens of kids, and been able to pick out which one is my daughter. We can just tell when that cry is our kid hurting or that laugh is our kid having fun.

I can't imagine losing a child, but I can put myself in Faron's shoes. While he used recordings of his little girl telling him that she loved him as a touchstone, I've done the same thing with the last message my grandmother left on my machine, left the day she died. I remember coming home once to find my answering machine completely dark, and the first thought that went through my head was, "Oh God, no, Grandma ... " Fortunately it had been accidentally unplugged (dang cat).

If my heart plunged like that over the loss of a voicemail from an 82-year-old woman, I don't think I can actually imagine the depths of despair this poor man is in. But I do know that I'll be doing a lot more voice recordings of my child from here on out -- and recordings of me for her. These memories are so precious, and this time is so fleeting.

How many voice recordings do you have of your kids? How old were they the last time you did it?

Image via Zitona/Flickr

It's something no child should see. Shaima Alawadi, an Iraqi immigrant, was found unconscious this past week by her 17-year-old in their California home. Alawadi was beaten to death with a tire iron in her own dining room, and the teen who found her says there was a note left near her body that labelled the mom of five a terrorist. "Go back to your country," it read. How ironic. Tragically ironic.

Alawadi didn't have anywhere to go back to. She was killed in her own house. She was in HER country. The note allegedly left by the mother's killer betrays not only the probability that this was a hate crime but the root of the immigration debate in America.

That's what immigrants do. They move. Just like I've moved from New York to Virginia, Virginia back to New York, in my lifetime, Alawadi and her husband picked up their lives and moved from the wartorn country of Iraq to  America sometime in 1993 to escape the war. They lived first in a predominantly Muslim area near Detroit -- the type of community detailed on the short-lived TLC series All American Muslim -- before moving to El Cajon, California.

By all indications, Alawadi's family is here legally. They are Americans. They are raising their five kids as American citizens, going to American schools. Just as my great-grandfather and great-grandmother did after immigrating to this country from Germany. Just as so many of our ancestors did. America is a country made mostly of immigrants, from the Pilgrims on. This is our country. We have no place to "go back to" because this is where we live, work, pay taxes, vote.

Just as the shooting of innocent teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida recently betrays the division between black and white that plagues us even in a post-Obama world, the tragedy in El Cajon is shocking evidence of anti-Muslim sentiment that is rampant in America a full decade after 9/11, and of the anti-immigrant fervor that's been building in the past few years. From the now infamous "show me your papers" legislation that swept through Arizona's legislature and has sparked other states to make racial profiling common, accepted practice, to the debate over the DREAM Act, nativism has once again become socially acceptable.

It's become acceptable to call a woman in a hijab a terrorist just because, to shout from the rooftops that our president must be "hiding something" because his middle name is Hussein, to think it's OK to kill an innocent woman of five children in her own home because you want her to "go back" to Iraq.

And this is American? This is patriotic? This is progress? Because a woman was beaten to death in her own dining room, left to be discovered by her child?

I can't help but wonder at the killer's ethnicity. Is he German? Perhaps his great-grandfather was called a worthless Kraut like mine. Is he Catholic? Perhaps his great-grandmother had a cross burned on her lawn like mine. Maybe he's Irish, and his grandfather was called a no-good Mick and not given a job. I could go on, but I don't need to, do I? Nativism has treated each ethnic group badly over the centuries, and each group has worked to overcome baseless stereotyping. And yet, for their successes in integrating into America comes follows a new generation with a new people to hate, a new group to castigate and feel "better than."

In this case, it's a Muslim woman, an Iraqi immigrant, an American.

Shaima Alawadi was one of the huddled masses who came to America yearning to breathe free. She became an American only to have one of her own countrymen strike her down in the name of his America.

His America is not my America. Is it yours? Do you see this story as a hate crime? Watch her daughter's sad story, and see if it changes your mind:

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Just this once, I'd like to see one of the Teen Mom stars keep their baby drama and their boy drama separate. And I've got the best of hopes for Maci Bookout. The star of the soon-to-be-ending Teen Mom series has a new boyfriend.

And she's done little Bentley at least one favor. The little boy won't have to wrap his tongue around a new name. Bookout's new moto-cross-driving guy is Kyle Regal ... not to be confused with her now ex-boyfriend Kyle King.

The couple have both confirmed they're exclusive on Twitter, including Regal's direct reference to Bookout as his "very sexy (girl)friend." So ... how long do you give it until she's trying to play happy families and treating this Kyle like an extra daddy to little Bentley?

More from The Stir: 'Teen Moms' Leah Messer & Jenelle Evans Make the Worst Decision on MTV Contract

Maci has developed a reputation as one of the most "together" and "with it" teens on the MTV series. When she got sick of Bentley's dad, Ryan, playing games, she packed up her car and moved out. She's always on the ball with the little boy, and never in legal trouble like some of her co-stars.

But Maci's downfall has been her constant need to try to make every relationship into "the one." Common for teenage girls, it's true, but not the easiest thing on a kid. Reading Kyle King's mournful messages about how much he missed little Bentley after the couple split earlier this year was painful because I couldn't help wondering how this little boy felt! This guy babysat him so mom could go to school. He helped potty train him. He wasn't just "some guy," he was a consistent presence in the little boy's life, in a very similar way to his real father. A 3-year-old doesn't understand that adults simply grow apart; they just want their buddy back.

Maci deserves to be happy, so I'm glad that she's bouncing back from this breakup. I'm just fearful she's going make a major mothering mistake here and confuse the heck out of her little boy. If you think a 3-year-old gets hooked on someone in their house, imagine a 4- or 5-year-old. This is an age when you start to form lasting memories!

Here's hoping she takes it slow and dates Kyle when Bentley's with Ryan. Maci talks a lot about how she's done Teen Mom because she she wants to make a difference in the lives of other teen girls, and in many ways she's been the closest to a role model the show can give ... but keeping the baby drama and boy drama separate wouldn't just be a gift to her viewers. It would be a big one for Bentley.

How long do you think Maci should wait before introducing her new guy to her little guy?

Image via MTV

I'm going to wager that everyone knows at least one woman who got pregnant thinking a baby would change their man. You know what I'm talking about. The baby would come, and he would stop going out with the guys every night and stay home to sing lullabies and change diapers and everything would go back to the days when you were dating and he made you feel like your bad breath smelled like a rainbow and your tears were ... wait a minute, what tears?

Only it never happens, does it? Usually it turns out more like the case of the dad who was arrested in Arizona the other day for allegedly urinating on his 4-month-old baby's face. Anyone surprised Sergio Velderrain's wife is already talking about filing for divorce?

Hold up now. I'm not blaming Jennifer Velderrain here. She called 911, she had her husband arrested, she did everything she was supposed to do. In fact, she sounds like a mom who cares about her son.

But let's just be real here for a second. Someone had to see this guy was not father material somewhere along the line, m'kay? A super duper, born-to-be-a-dad kind of guy does not wake up one morning and think, "Today is the day I turn into the kind of creep who pees on my precious little snookums for fun." I'm betting he's always been a jerk, and now he's a jerk and a dad. Because people just don't do something this vile to a baby!

Of course, Sergio is saying he was drunk and it was an accident. Jennifer is saying they got in a fight, and he did it to be mean. She added a particularly chilling twist when she told the news he said that this was something the little boy would have to "remember his dad by."

I don't know which one to believe, but it's bad enough she's filing for divorce here. DIVORCE. That doesn't happen over an accident. And you don't just flip a switch one day and accidentally pee on your kid, no matter how drunk you get.

Good dads don't take a wizz on their baby. Wait, scratch that. Good people do not pee on anyone's baby. Not drunk. Not in a trunk. Not with a fox. Not in a box.

Are you buying the "accident" story here? Do you think you can tell if someone will be father material (or mother material) before the baby is born?

Image via Dennis/Flickr

If there's one thing a mom is happy to get behind, it's a leading lady who actually gets to take the lead. And from what we've seen of the upcoming Julia Roberts flick Mirror, Mirror, the new live-action of the classic fairytale Snow White is one of those self-rescuing princesses every woman dreams of being.

Here at The Stir we were so excited to see Lily Collins (that's singer Phil Collins' daughter, all grown up!) and her dwarf buddies playing hero to the prince (played by Armie Hammer of The Social Network) that we arranged to for the exclusive debut of a sneak peek called "Break the Spell." Check out Snow White and her merry band of little men trying to foil a "puppy love" spell the queen has cast to make the prince fall in love with her:

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Yesssss! Let's hear it for girls who are in charge of the situation while the guy sits by helplessly! I know this isn't exactly like the original fairy tale, but I can't say I'm exactly crying for the prince because he's got to be the one caught up in a spell. How many princesses have been put through that indignity in the books and the movies over the years? We've been there, done that, have a library of it all ... we want to go to the movies to see something new and fresh.

Besides, isn't Hammer adorably clueless (not to mention just plain adorable)? And Collins just the right mix of sassy and sweet? Mirror, Mirror has taken a classic tale and made it not just funny but the kind of movie the modern lass watches and walks out of the theater feeling good about. I can't wait to see what they do with Snow White from beginning to end. 

It's probably going to take awhile for me to get used to Julia Robert as evil, but I have to say I am loving this new era of badass babes on screen. Real women don't need a man to rescue them thankyouverymuch so why should our counterparts on the big screen?

Why are you excited to see Mirror, Mirror?

The spanking vs. time-out debate is such a hot button topic, we tend to forget there's another discipline technique out there worth debating. Nasty tastes. Would you believe there are parents out there who won't spank their kids but think it's perfectly OK to dab some Tabasco on kiddo's tongue?

Heck, an article over at Nanny Net takes it even further than OK. The way they see it, dosing kids with something that tastes foul is a "better tactic than hitting your child."

Sorry folks, different body parts don't make this different, at all. You can hurt the tongue or hurt the tush, it's still all one big pile of hurt.

I'd say I hate to break it to you, but I really don't. I just hate that people are still fighting for the right to hurt their kids.

Let's get this straight: whether you're using lemon juice, femite, soap, or cider vinegar, you're still causing a child to feel discomfort. Sometimes it's significant, sometimes it's long lasting, but it's always uncomfortable, or you wouldn't be using it as a potential deterrent to begin with. Now what would you do if someone dosed your food with any of those tastes? Would you get angry? Would you feel hurt? Would you be upset?

So why would you want to do this to your child? I don't spank, frankly. And I don't discipline in order to make my daughter feel hurt or angry with me. I discipline because I know she needs to change a certain behavior.

I think the problem is nasty tastes don't leave the same physical scars on a child, and they're easier for a parent to do than spanking. That sounds better, right? No bruise means you "can't be hurting them" ... not really.

Scary to think this, but that may make this an even trickier road! The mom who can feel the sting of smacking her kid on the bottom gets a warning sign to stop! The dad who fears the mark on the butt will be construed as child abuse will back off. But a form of physical violence with no consequences for the adult? Now you're really asking for trouble with boundaries!

How about we just rule getting physical off limits and take it from there? Who's with me?

Image by Jeanne Sager

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty darn glad that the United States and Canada are more or less BFFs. If America's hat gets mad at us, can you imagine the new cold war (get it, losing our hat? OK, bad blogger pun, moving on ... )? Well, get ready! An American soldier and a Canadian soldier had faced off in a tug of war that's gone viral on YouTube and created a friendly rivalry between the two countries. 

Don't worry, it was all for fun. Justin Bieber and Alex Trebek don't have to hightail it for home now, eh. The guys from the 31 Canadian Brigade Group saw a bunch of American National guardsmen challenging one another at Camp Atterbury in Indiana, and they threw one of their guys in to see how he could do. Any guesses who won? We won't spoil it! Grab your flags, hoist 'em high, and take a look:

Heads up, our National Guardsman is on the right in his Army uniform, while Canadian soldier Master Corporal John Celestino of the Windsor Regiment is to the left.

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Aww man! What a heartbreaker! I was rooting for the red, white, and blue the whole way, and the National Guardsman certainly put up the good fight.

And in the spirit of friendly relations between our two nations, allow me to doff my (non-existent) cap to Master Corporal Celestino and congratulate him on his win. He won fair and square, and that handshake/hug combo at the end was classy.

But I still want to know when we get the rematch! This is the kind of USA vs. Canada "war" that I could get into seeing again!

How about you? Were you on the edge of your seat?

Image via 31CanadianBrigade/YouTube

Moms and Dads, sit down. We need to have a talk. It has come to my attention that Easter egg hunts have been cancelled in this great land because of "aggressive parents."

These parents, it seems, were absolutely terrified that their wee little snookums would not get a plastic made in China egg stuffed with the kind of chocolate crap that will smear all over their face and the backseat on the way home. Are you getting this? Cutie Patootie Pants would get a fun day out in the sunshine with some pals but no egg.

Awww, those poor ... parents?

I'm going to tell you something that may be hard to hear. Your kid will get over not getting an egg. For reals.

They will take that cute little 3-year-old mind that jumps from "Oooh, I want to stick my finger up my nose" to "Oooh, I want to play horsey with Mommy" in 5 seconds flat, and they will find something else to focus on. There may be a meltdown. But you will get through it. Trust me. I've been there, done that, have a 6-year-old who has not pierced my eardrums with her shrieks yet.

Our job is to protect our kids, but our generation of parents has taken "protect" to such extremes that we're afraid to allow a 3-year-old to taste even the smallest bit of everyday disappointment. Hence the parents rushing out into the egg hunt, wresting plastic ovals from the hands of 4-year-olds and hoarding them like they'd come from golden geese instead of China.

Let me throw on a pair of "look into the future" glasses over that set of rosy hued goggles you appraise your parenting through. You think you're raising a kid who is shielded from sadness. Now take a peek through those glasses. Behold the spoiled brat who will go to school and throw the daily tantrum in kindergarten because "I wannnnnna be the line leader. It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair! I'm gonna tell my Mommy on you, and she's gonna tell you that I always get what I want." See him? He's your kid in two years. He has no clue how to make the best of any situation, because you have fixed everything. Have fun fixing this.

Don't be too hard on yourself. You can still fix this. You don't have to be the type of parent whose kid goes to a birthday party and throws a fit because the presents aren't for him (seriously, you think he's cute ... the rest of us think he's a mini-jerkface). I'm not saying it won't suck. The first time my daughter's lower lip started to pooch out at one of these community "get lots of stuff" events, I felt like the crap, crap, crappiest parent ever!

But I send her out there alone -- even when there are other parents acting nuts -- because this hunt's for kids, not me. And if she's going to learn hard lessons, I'd rather it be over something that doesn't mean a hill of beans in the end ... you know, like plastic eggs you can buy at the dollar store.

If my kid comes out of an egg hunt empty-handed or somehow manages to be the one kid on the parade sidelines who doesn't get beaned with 300 lollipops, we've got a standing routine. First we remind her how much fun it was to be out with other people. We talk about the friends she ran into and the super cool sights she saw. Then we talk about the stuff, and why she wants it. Is it because someone else has it? Or is it because she really wanted it? Because we do have something that came out of a chicken's butt at home, and we can hard boil it. And really, who wants a lollipop that's been run over by five firetrucks anyway?

Oh, and if she walks off with a gigundo basket of loot? We look for a kid who doesn't have anything, and we ask our daughter how she would feel if she were in their shoes. We don't force her to give her stuff away, because what's the lesson in that? We ask her if she would, and 9 times out of 10 (because people, she's 6, it doesn't ALWAYS happen), she does.

Check out what's going down with these crazy parents:

What would you do if your kid walked out of the Easter egg hunt with nothing in their basket because some other parent was guarding the eggs? Have you actually let that happen?

Image by Jeanne Sager

A high school senior in Indiana was caught dropping the f-bomb on Twitter. And in other shocking news, the earth is round. What did you say? You're not shocked by either of these bits of knowledge? Well let me add to it! The cursing teenager has been expelled from high school for his use of the f-word.

That's right, ladies and germs. Austin Carroll cannot graduate with his class at Garrett High School, go to prom, or do any other normal teenager things because he acted like a normal teenager.

It seems some high school administrators have forgotten what it was like when they were teenagers, back when cursing was still fun. You remember, don't you? It was a little naughty, but that's kind of the point of building your cussing vocab when you're in high school. Teens start to test out words that were taboo for years, and it's going to take them awhile to figure out when and where to use them.

They will learn that cursing in most social situations ends up making you look like an idiot. And they will learn that there are times when a certain four-letter word makes you feel better.

In an added twist of irony, Caroll's Tweet, which I should note was not directed at someone (we're not talking Internet threats ... which falls under bullying), was meant to show just how versatile this particular epithet can be:

F---ing is one of those f---ing words you can f---ing put anywhere in a f---ing sentence and it still f---ing make sense.

I have to agree with him. I'm a grown adult, and I'll cop to some fanship for the f-word. What's not to love? I'm old enough that it's not an everyday word anymore. I gave that up when I was probably just a little older than Austin Carroll, when I had actual bills to pay and a job that required me to act with decorum. But sometimes, there is just no other word that will do. Like when you're on your fourth computer crash of the day. It is perfectly acceptable to inform said computer that it is a "f---ing" piece of garbage. Especially when you work at home. Alone. And depend on that computer.

Folks, I'm not about to sign my 6-year-old up for a "learn your four-letter words in one hour" course. We don't curse around her. But I've accepted that one day, when she's moved into double-digit age category, it's going to happen. She's going to use one, and instead of a reprimand, I'm going to roll my eyes and let it happen.

Kids have to learn some time. So I just can't see a reason to expel a kid for a little cursing -- whether he made that note while using a school computer (he says he didn't) or at home.

How about you? What age do expect cursing to start at?

Image via GranniesKitchen/Flickr

Most of us dog owners know what's waiting for us when we get home. Someone so deliriously happy to see us that nothing can stand between us and them? I mean not nothing, not nobody, not no how? But a boxer named Chuck is trying to put some of the most lovable mutts to the test on the "best welcome home ever" front.

Poor Chuck has been living without his soldier papa for an entire eight-month deployment. He's had his loyalty tested by time, but as the video of their reunion shows, he has refused to waver. Grab your tissues for this one, you're going to need them:

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Just imagine coming home to that every day! When people ask me what's so great about having a dog, I tell them it's one of the best self-esteem boosters in the world to walk in the door and see someone who is always happy to see me. And by happy to see me, I mean so excited that she is scratching at the front door (yes, we repaint ... often), thwapping her tail on the wall, practically peeing herself with excitement. She's like a freight train of loving coming straight at me.

But even my boxer mix doesn't come close to Chuck's energy level! Of course, she is lucky enough to see her favorite family members every day. Chuck, on the other hand, just went through his second deployment without his favorite soldier around to play fetch and cuddle on the couch (if I've learned anything about boxers, it's that they think they're lapdogs ... all 70 pounds of them).

Like the two-legged members of a soldier's family, their dogs make that sacrifice for our country. And they deserve that special homecoming moment with their soldier just like Chuck.

Who greets you when you get home like Chuck? A dog? A person? Anyone?

Image via Kdaisy84/YouTube

A 1-year-old child is in a medically induced coma right now, recovering from having her throat slit. It's likely because her mother called 911 and made sure she made it to the hospital that the little girl is hanging on. But Danielle Busby doesn't have one of those happy stories we can all cheer about.

When she called 911, Busby told police in Texas that she cut her own daughter's throat with a knife. And did I mention she suffers from schizophrenia? She's now facing charges of injury to a child, but I'm wondering if it's really fair to put all this blame on Busby's back.

I'm a blogger who makes her living talking about what's going on in the world, and I think I may have just found myself at a loss for words.

When you're a parent, you take stories about kids being hurt especially hard. We look at the news, and a picture of our own child (or children) flashes in our mind, and we see red. How dare they, we think.

As a mother, I want to say Danielle Busby is evidence of evil in this world. She said herself that she cut her child's throat. Her 1-year-old child! An innocent baby!

But then I read that her sister called the cops just a week ago, telling them that she was a danger to her little girl. Only the cops showed up, said everything was fine, told the family to call social services if they felt like Busby was going to snap, then left. I read that Busby has been on and off medications for her conditions. I read that police have been to her home before, brought her in for running through her neighborhood half naked.

I read the word schizophrenia once. Then I read it again. And again.

I am not schizophrenic. But I know people who are. I have lost people to a disease that worms its way into the brain and begins feasting on a person's logic, their personality, their humanity. This illness stole them away, and there was nothing they, their families, I could do about it ... and trust me, people tried.

It's easy to hate a sin -- especially when the sin is a crime against a child. It's harder to face the fact that we can't always identify the sinner. If Busby's confession holds up in court, she is to blame in a physical sense. But who else is to blame here? The cops who left her with the child? The doctors who didn't lock her up long ago? The family members who didn't fight harder? The disease that can't be hauled into court?

What do you make of this story? Do you have a clear-cut feeling one way or the other?

Remember when Alicia Silverstone was that actress from Clueless who didn't mind going naked for PETA. Hold that thought. Cherish it. Because once you hear how the mother of 11-month-old Bear Blu feeds her child, you're never going to be able to look at her the same way again.

In possibly the most disturbing video I've seen in weeks, Silverstone has shared with the world her habit of chewing up her kid's food, and then regurgitating it into his mouth. I'm trying to come up with something nice to say, and ...

Sorry. I've got nothing.

It's weird. It's disgusting. And in a world where you can pick up a food processor for $50 at Target, it's unnecessary!

So why the heck would a mom do this? Maybe she wants attention? I'm hoping?

It has been awhile since we've heard much from her, and the video of feeding time at the Silverstone household showed up on her website The Kind Life along with a description of the mommy/son meal, and her insistence that the little guy loves his eats so much that he busts his little butt to crawl across the room and get a taste.

I don't actually doubt the latter part. Most kids become very fascinated with what their parents want around that age. By 8 months, my daughter was more or less insistent on eating whatever my husband and I were dining on, and she wanted to feed herself. As a working mom who didn't have time to make her own baby food (congrats to those of you who do; I hear it's fab, I just didn't have time), I was relieved.

But I never worried that I should be chewing up her food so she could get it down. Why would I? I'm raising a baby human, not a baby bird.

And because of the beauty of opposable thumbs, I was able to hit my kitchen drawers to make feeding my kid easy. I grabbed a knife or my kitchen scissors -- the world's best invention by the way -- and scattered the food in front of her. She ate her food. I revelled in the delicious freedom of actually being able to eat my own food while it was warm instead of having to be at her beck and call before I got to take a bite out of my eats.

Wait, maybe that's it? Maybe she's not crying for attention so much as she is help. Maybe Alicia is one of those moms who just can't bear that baby Bear is becoming less dependent on his mama? If that's the case, honey, trust me, there are better ways to keep your little mama's boy tied to your apron strings!

Watch Alicia and Bear eating breakfast:

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Now come on folks, isn't that a mom crying out for help? Can you think of some better ways for this momma and son to bond? She needs help here people!

Image via thekindlife/YouTube

Warning. What you are about to read may keep you from ever climbing in an airplane again. A pilot was locked out of a JetBlue cockpit and the Las Vegas-bound plane diverted to Texas because the man was acting all crazypants.

Everyone is fine, including the passengers who restrained the unruly pilot as they say he yelled scary threats like "bomb" and "we're going down." Thank goodness! But it certainly makes you wonder, doesn't it? Why is everyone who says they're afraid of flying still talking about terrorists?

Shouldn't we all be more worried about pilots who are off their rocker? I'm not trying to send people into unnecessary hysteria here, but let's talk common sense. Boarding a plane means you put your life in the hands of the two people in the cockpit -- the captain and the co-pilot. What happens next is up to them.

Most of them are professionals who will get you there safe and sound. I grew up with a commercial pilot, and I trust him implicitly (at least when it comes to flying ... his taste in music on the other hand ...). But it's stories like this one out of Texas today that leave me wondering why people spend so much time talking terrorists and less on the people who have carte blanche access to airplanes!

The JetBlue pilot is now in federal custody after he had to be escorted off the plane in Amarillo, Texas. He was described by ABC as the plane's captain, meaning he was the head cheese in that cockpit. I can only imagine what would have happened if he didn't get up to go to the bathroom, and the other fast-thinking pilot hadn't hit the lock and arranged to land. Maybe it would have been fine, but maybe not.

Point being: the TSA can swab down as many wheelchair-bound toddlers as they want to ensure no bombs make their way onto airplanes. But all it takes is one cuckoo for cocoa puffs pilot who just broke up with his girlfriend and sees no reason to continue to live, and we're done for ...

So, are you still up for a trip in the "friendly" skies after this pilot's meltdown?

Image via Moto@Club4AG/Flickr

With some of the outdated references I've seen on the papers that show up in my kid's backpack (seriously, my first grader didn't know what a chalkboard was!), I wasn't surprised to hear there are plans to update tests in the New York City schools. But I was surprised to hear the directions the schools' politically correct planners gave the testmakers.

No dinosaurs. No birthdays. No Halloween. No terrorism. No slavery. No divorce. And none of dozens more words on assessment tests for English, math, social studies, and science.

Funny. I thought they were trying to educate kids? And they can't talk about dinosaurs? Or terrorism? Or slavery? I learned all of those words in school ... how about you?

The whackadoodle "off-limits" list of 50 taboo terms is said to have been put together by the city’s Department of Education "for fear the words could 'appear biased' or 'evoke unpleasant emotions' in students." After the troubling case of a Georgia teacher using examples of slaves being beaten and picking cotton on children's math homework, I understand setting down limits.

But they still need to educate kids here. And I'm not sure how you assess a child's knowledge of American history without the words "slavery" or "terrorism." Or talk about Henry VIII without the word "divorce." Or actually help kids grow into adults by skirting around words that might (or might not) make them uncomfortable.

This seems less about education than it does about feeding into this generation of parents' helicopter mentality. Like the parents who have sucked all the fun out of Easter egg hunts in their over-aggressive attempts to make sure their kid doesn't feel the disappointment of not finding an egg, these "educators" are sanitizing the education system to prevent kids from having to deal with any discomfort in life.

But life is uncomfortable. Terrorism. Slavery. Divorce. All that stuff sucks. But it's still real. We can't pretend it away. And I'm not sure why we'd want to. There's that old quote about the people who can't learn from the past ... they are doomed to repeat it.

If kids can't handle the reality of facts, like the fact that there are people who get divorced, and terrorism does happen, at 9 or 12, when are we going to break it to them? WHEN? And if you're too afraid of hurting kids' feelings, how can you possible teach them?

What do you think of these rules? Are they necessary?

Image via DaveBleasdale/Flickr

The JetBlue pilot who melted down during a flight from New York to Las Vegas this week has been identified. Captain Clayton Osbon will have his name in the record books, no doubt, as the guy who gave passengers something new to worry about: what the person controlling the plane is really up to. But the names that we may never know or will soon forget are the people who put the "friendly" into our skies. 

Let me put it to you this way: the passengers that you look at sideways when you're on the plane, worrying that they could be packing a bomb that the TSA missed? Those are the kind of people who became sudden heroes on JetBlue Flight 191 this week.

Here they were, on a trip to Sin City of all  places. They'd boarded their plane, they had their fun money all squared away for gambling, their plans set to ride that crazy rollercoaster and check out those famous fountains. It's the kind of trip that screams "lay back and let it happen.

And then.

All of a sudden.

Here is some guy in the middle of the aisles screaming about a bomb and cautioning them all to pray. The airway is calling it a "medical episode," and the FBI is investigating, so we don't know yet what really happened to Osbon. I do I know I would have been terrified if I were on that flight, but I'm going to bet there would have been a teeny weeny part of me going "Oh, come ON! I finally get a vacation, and this jerk has to ruin it?"

But those passengers kicked their ready to relax butts back into gear, and they helped take Osbon down. Along with the smart co-pilot who locked him out of the cockpit, and the crew that convinced him he had to go to the back of the plane, it was the passengers who turned a scary situation in the skies into something that will be just a blip on the radar in a few days when Kim Kardashian gets a new boyfriend or another celebrity tries to convince us that we should feed our kids like wild animals.

It turns out these everyday folks had to physically restrain Osbon -- JetBlue is reviewing its procedures after it turns out the restraints on board were flimsy pieces of plastic -- but they held it together. They. The people. Normal Americans who came together to work toward a common goal: keeping each other safe.

That's pretty impressive, isn't it? Knowing that, when push comes to shove, 10 years after 9/11, people still have that camaraderie and feeling for fellow man? That in the middle of one of the most divisive political seasons we've seen, people will simply do for other people?

Get a load of one of these everyday heroes talking about what went down on JetBlue Flight 191:

Wow. With all they've been through, and all they've done, here's hoping the airline industry is rewarding them big time. Those passengers may have just revived our faith in flying.

What would you have done in that situation?

Video game haters, listen up. It all ends today. Because a little girl in England has reminded the world that the police need all the help they can get to put the sickos who prey on little kids behind bars, and that includes smart as a whip 10-year-olds armed with nothing more than a Nintendo DSi.

Police are calling one 10-year-old smarty pants in particular a hero after she grabbed her game console and snapped photos of (now convicted) pedophile John Fisher as he tried to molest her. And just wait until you hear what happened next ... you'll be hitting up your local electronics store and buying out the video game console section and handing them out to every kid in the neighborhood!

Fisher denied he attacked the girl (of course), even though he'd done it twice -- once when she was 9 and again at 10. But when the cops showed him the photos from the game console, he had to fess up not only to hurting this poor kid but to his attraction to tween girls. Score! The grandfather (shudder) is now in jail, listed on a sex offender registry, and has been forbidden from spending time around kids ... all because this one girl had her wits about her and protected herself.

It's a big win for the good guys. But it's sad that this is the way it has to go down, isn't it? That in order for a pedophile to be pulled off the streets, we had to depend on a 10-year-old? That a girl had to be hurt by a family friend ... and figure out how to protect herself?

Even before I had a kid of my own, I always had an uneasy feeling knowing that there are creeps out there who want nothing more than to get hold of kids and do bad things to them. Living in society with these creeps is unsettling, and it gets downright terrifying when you actually bring a kid into the world. But what's scarier still is knowing that these sickos can't actually be locked away until they've done something. The police need evidence of their depraved ways in order to make a move and get them off the streets.

This child is a hero several times over: for surviving molestation (twice!), for having the presence of mind to fight back, and for potentially saving countless other kids from the threat of John Fisher. All it takes is that one child who fights back to change the lives of many. And thank goodness this one is a fighter!

Have you encountered one of these creeps in your community? What has been done to keep them away from kids?

Her name is Ace, and she just doesn't understand. People think her brother Archie is different. But Archie isn't different to Ace. He's just another little kid.

But to the rest of the world, Archie is a kid who was orphaned in his native Bulgaria because he had down syndrome. He was adopted by an American family, and along with Ace he's star of a video that I -- a jaded old mom blogger who has seen thousands of viral videos over the years -- can't get out of my head. Just watch!

See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.

Watching these two adorable siblings this morning on a friend's Facebook page, I couldn't help seeing my 6-year-old on the playground in the back of my mind. I always marvel when I take her out there. I watch her walk up to kids who are perfect strangers. They exchange names, and suddenly, they're friends, ready to take on the world. At this age, kids are just kids. There is no color. No gender. There are no "problems."

And then they go to school. And they meet kids who weren't raised by parents like me (and my husband), parents who don't teach their kids the everyone is equal and everyone deserves respect and everyone has value. Someone tells them different is bad ... and we wonder why we have bullies and wars and division in America?

We wouldn't. Not if kids stayed like Ace. Not if we still walked up to strangers on the playground and said "hey, you are cool, I am cool, let's be friends." Not if everyone believed like Ace does ... that kids like Archie are "just like any other kid." They aren't different. They just are.

What have you told your kids about kids who are "different"?

Image via eicherumba/YouTube

Think about when a mom welcomes home a new baby. They're perfect, right? Sure, they poop, and scream, and they all come out looking vaguely like aliens (yes, all of them -- don't kid yourself, honey), but to their mothers, they are just right. Now imagine the horror that washes over a mother when she hears the words "I'm sorry, but we can't reattach the tip of your little girl's finger."

That's what happened to Veronica Olguin. She took her (then) 3-month-old daughter Selena into the hospital with a high fever. When it was time to take her home, Olguin said she watched as a nurse allegedly snipped the little girl's pinky finger in half with a scissor as she cut through tape attaching an IV to the baby. OUCH!

Who's surprised to hear she's suing the hospital? Yeah, me neither. Normally, I'm not big on lawsuits, but I can't help it. I get it! I identify with this mom big time. These little babies come out one way, and it's our job to do whatever we can to keep them that way.

Maybe it's the memory of sitting with my newborn daughter in my arms, staring at her perfect little eyelashes and her perfectly plump little cheeks that makes me feel so strongly for Veronica and little Selena. I would be embarrassed to admit how much I gushed about how beautiful she was at that point (and still is, ahem!), but this is one of those ties that binds parents. We are our kids' first champions.

When they come out, we see a clean slate that we're terrified will be dirtied somehow ... by us or by someone else. We don't know how it will happen, just worry that somehow there is just too much perfection in our arms and it can't possibly last forever, like something too good to be true. We certainly don't think it will be by a trusted medical professional at a hospital where we take our sick child to make them BETTER! It is perhaps the ultimate breakdown of trust.

As Olguin told Tampa's Fox station:

She was born so perfect. And they just, they just cut off her finger.

Sniff. Sniff. Just look at this little beauty and listen to her mom's horror story:

Lawsuit: nurse severed infant's finger: MyFoxTAMPABAY.com

Has someone you trusted with your child hurt them? How did it happen?

Image via My Fox Tampa

Tell me if this sounds like a good idea to you. You enter a room of kids having a church youth group meeting. Brandishing guns, you put pillowcases over the heads of half the kids, force them to get into a van, then take off. It sounds like a good way to get your hiney sent to jail to me, but a church pastor thought it would be a great way to teach a bunch of teenagers a "lesson."

And Pastor John Lanza says he'd do it again in a heartbeat! Although he would "ask their parents" first next time. Hmm. Looks like we can add Lanza to the list of people who seem to think the rules of human decency don't apply to kids.

The bizarre fake raid and kidnapping -- which also included the teens being dumped at Lanza's where it look like he'd been assaulted -- was supposed to be a lesson on religious persecution for the youth of the Glad Tidings Assembly of God church. But parents have since complained that their kids were traumatized, and they've called in police.

Gee. Traumatized? By a harrowing ordeal that included guns and the kind of van your parents tell you to avoid like the plague the minute you're old enough to understand the words "stranger danger"? I can't imagine why these kids were upset. Snort.

Yes, that was sarcasm folks. I think Lanza and his pals should pay big time here. And those kids deserve an apology for the harrowing -- albeit fake -- kidnapping they endured.

When we send our kids to meetings like this youth group set-up, we expect our kids are in good hands, responsible hands. We don't expect someone to play with their emotional health because they want to "teach them a lesson." What these folks did under Lanza's direction is irresponsible at best, perhaps even criminal. And his plans to do it again leave me wondering what kind of parent would actually trust him around their child ever again.

As a mother, I want my kid to be respected the way an adult would be. I can't imagine anyone would "fake kidnap" an adult, and I wouldn't expect it be done to my child.

Kids aren't toys. It's time people stop treating their emotions like they are no big deal and face up to the fact that kids deserve the same respect as grown people.

What would you have done if this was your child?

Image via Balaji.B/Flickr

Ardent defenders of George Zimmerman have spent the past few days trying to paint the neighborhood watch captain who shot Trayvon Martin as a hero who was only trying to defend himself. But it seems their case is falling apart. Police surveillance footage said to have been taken four hours after the teenager was shot shows a Zimmerman who doesn't appear to have major head injuries. So much for Zimmerman "having" to shoot Trayvon because the hoodie-wearing teen was "bashing his head on the pavement," huh?

What will they come up with next to blame the victim? How much deeper into the sand will Americans bury their heads in an attempt to pretend that racism doesn't exist in America? Where will it end?

We've already read the "creative" descriptions of Trayvon that paint a picture of a hulking beast of a man, a 6'2" football-playing thug facing eeny weeny defenseless lil' George Zimmerman (and his gun), instead of the 160-pound, 6-foot-tall (he gained 2 inches!) 17-year-old described in the official police report. We've seen the photos of the shirtless black kid giving the camera the finger, disseminated across the web with a claim that it had been lifted from Trayvon's Facebook page. It was faked, folks. But it's still being shared on Facebook, pushed along down the river of denial.

We've heard the myriad excuses for Zimmerman's racial slur on the 911 tapes, each more ludicrous than the last. Among the worst I came across online last week: a claim that instead of calling the black teenager a vile epithet, the words "f---ing c--n" was uttered by the 28-year-old Zimmerman in reference to raccoons rifling through trash cans.

So. What's next? Will someone come out of the woodwork to describe the UFO Trayvon summoned with a click of his fingers, and the aliens that controlled Zimmerman's body? Perhaps the Skittles in Trayvon's hands, the candy that was his only defense against a man with a handgun who can be heard on 911 tapes stalking him down the streets of the gated community, will play a role in the next conspiracy theory meant to convince the world that a dead child is to blame for his own death, that there is just no way that a black kid could be racially profiled by a Hispanic man, that racism doesn't exist. Or maybe they'll skip out of that gated community entirely and again spout stories both real and imagined of slights by blacks against whites. Because somehow we're supposed to believe that one horrible, racist act by a black person against a white person makes up for a black teenager being shot by a Hispanic man ... as if it washes out the race "thing."

Trayvon blaming should stop, especially with this new evidence. But sadly, I don't think it will. The more ludicrous the stories told on Zimmerman's behalf, the more evidence we have that race still is and perhaps always will be an issue in America.

People would rather protect the racists than face the fact that they exist because admitting there is racism means asking yourself if you've ever been guilty of it. And the Trayvon blamers are. Big time.

Watch the police footage obtained by ABC and tell us what you see. Does it change anything you've thought about the Trayvon Martin case?

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Image via ABC