niibu_yaa comments

Awe.....what a nice story. The truth people don't give to help others as much as they do to feel better about themselves. I would never give to a homeless person. Mainly because I can't get a receipt and deduct it from taxes later. I give because I can benefit from it. I give because it makes me feel better about my sin of having a Starbucks coffee 4 times a week. I truly feel like there is nothing wrong with my giving for my own personal gain. Everyone else is doing the same, most just are not honest about it. So yes, nice story but having coffee with a homeless person sounds like a little bit of hell on my sense of smell. I can do without that.

I don't feel like smokers deserve to receive any money for damages from something they voluntarily did. I agree that the Tobacco Companies have probably changed risk data concerning cigarettes, and even took measures to make them more addictive. If you were to tell me the tobacco companies purposely geared marketing towards children,the poor, or less educated I would not fight your claim. But none of that means that people should receive money for buying into it. That is how Marketing works. All companies market their products or services to people whom they think they will be able to make the best profit on. People have known for a long time that smoking causes cancer and a myriad of other problems. We've known about this long enough, that people who didn't have this information are long dead.

No. Charging for it like the new york Times plans on doing, will just promote making it obsolete. And yes...ECHO ECHO........advertisements.

The child survived so I don't think he will stay in front for "Father of the Year 2010". Mother of the Year for 2009 has to be Sharon Hinojosa. She set her trailer on fire,got her 1 year old child out, but purposely left her 3 and 4 year old behind to burn to death. Her reason was because they were not fathered by her current boyfriend who was the father of the youngest, but had recently split up with her citing he didn't want to raise another man's children. She's my vote for mother of the year 2009!!

More than anything, I believe that this law has it's roots in Buddhism. More specifically the Law of Causality. Although my statement is certainly an oversimplification, I think that might be where this comes from. Another example of this would be if you were involved in motor vehicle accident and someone lost their life. Even if the other party was completely at fault you'd most likely find yourself in a mandatory jail sentence.

Call it what you will, and make light of the sport. That's you right, as it is something they are doing in public. I don't disagree with your right to be a nay sayer. But let's all look at ourselves. This really is something that most of can't do, at very least not to this level. The Olympics and events like this are there more to reward people for the work they put into their particular activity. It may be a waste of time to others, and certainly will not change the world or fix many of the ills in todays society. But it is still a positive activity. With obesity becoming more common, not just in the United States, we should be more supportive of people doing what they can to be active. If seeing her perform gets one more person off the couch or futon and active, then I think it's all worth the effort put forward. I for one applaud her on her efforts.

Blaming Pachinko Palours doesn't solve anything. Maybe we should blame Grocery stores, hair salons, and other business's as well. I think it's sad that some people are quick to try to place blame elsewhere. As far as someones suggestion to leave the responsible parent in the car for 3 hours as a form of punishment, that wouldn't be very effective. Children's body temperature doesn't regulate itself as well as adults. A child's core temperature can can rise 3 to 5 times faster than an adult. That is why it is even more dangerous for a child. Not to mention an 11 month old might not quite have the cognitive ability to figure out ways to cool themselves down. That said I wouldn't feel bad if this woman suffered a similar demise, but that still won't take this infant's suffering back. I would be much happier to know that she got a clue, and spends the rest of her life being reminded of her mistake and suffering from that.

That is a nice story. The weather here (I'm in Fullerton near Anaheim) was much better than it was a few days ago...but it's still cold. Good thing he didn't come earlier this week as he would have been met with rain and snow in the mountains. The high today was only 16 C/42 F. It is supposed to be the same tommorow.

I use to help my neighbor collect bottles and things when I lived in Japan. She wasn't homeless just a neglected woman in her 90's. I did this for completely selfish reasons. Firstly, it made me feel good like I was helping the elderly. Second, it made me look like a caring person in public. She ended up being nice and full of interesting stories. But that wasn't why I was trying to be helpful. I found out later that the proceeds of her bottle collecting went to buying liqour for her neighbor and cat food for all the stray cats that hung out at her place. Anyone that has lived in Japan knows there is a bit of a stray animal problem. Anyhow, I agree it is difficult to truly help the homeless and change that situation. Most people that try to help them are not doing it for the greater good of humanity but to make themselves feel better. It is very self centered and self righteous reason to do this. I don't see anything wrong with that way of thinking. That said I also understand that I'm not really helping anyone but myself by doing that.