Here’s a round-up of things I have heard, read or watch on the TV news today that stuck in my head long enough to get mentioned. No links. If you want more information, you can look it up yourself. I’m feeling like poo today. I think I have a cold/flu/other gross bug involving a stuffed up head and upset stomach. That somewhat unhappy stomach I had all last week took a turn for the worse today. Yuck.

That girl that wore an anti-gay t-shirt to school on the Day of Silence, during which schools across the country spend some time silent to protest harassment of gays in schools, has declared she will be wearing an anti-gay t-shirt the day after the Day of Silence this year. Well, she isn’t so much planning to do it as filing a lawsuit to win the right to do it. While I don’t know how I feel about schools having a day of silence for gay harassment, probably an OK idea, I do know that if she had any true conviction in her beliefs, she wouldn’t have filed a lawsuit first and would wear her t-shirt on the actual day. Otherwise, she’s lacking guts. I’d compare it to me not wearing an anti-war t-shirt until after we have gone to war or not wearing an anti-toll road t-shirt until after the things have been voted on and passed … and demanding permission to do so first. If you want to protest something, do it while it’s happening, stick to your convictions, and damn the consequences. All the same, she’s a nasty little brat, isn’t she?

In Texas, there has been much talk about who gets to decide to stop treatment for patients deemed to be terminal … on life support, etc. …the hospitals or the families? As it stands right now, hospitals have the right to declare a patient terminal and remove treatment, then allowing the families ten days to find another hospital willing to take them in and continue keeping them alive. I know personally what a hard decision something like that can be for a family, though I knew what my decision would be before I had to make it, having thought it out long and hard in advance. You don’t want to let them go, no matter how certain death is, but sometimes you have to let them go anyway. All the same, I don’t think the decision should be left to the hospitals as to when to discontinue life sustaining treatments. Here’s hoping the legislature passes the law that says hospitals have to continue treatment until another hospital or care unit can be found to take them rather than just pulling the plug after ten days regardless of the family’s wishes.

Florida has moved its presidential primary to January 29th, with the option to move it earlier. Look, why don’t we all have the presidential primaries right now? Let’s just get it out of the way so we can listen to the top talking heads only for the next year. The way I see it, if states keep moving up their primary dates to try and make themselves more a more powerful voice in the decision of who gets to run for president, we will be having the primaries this November. I mean, we are already up to January. They’d only need to bump them up yet two more months. It’s ridiculous. How about this? All states have their presidential primaries on the same damn day! Nah. That would be too easy and fair.

John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, announced today that her cancer is back and has been found in one of her ribs. He’s going to continue to campaign for president. My heart goes out to them both, and I wish them the best. Unlike some people I have heard (or read) today, I don’t think it’s crappy for him to continue his run for office while his wife is fighting for life. I’m sure they talked about it and came to a decision together about what to do next. She’s worked just as hard to get him where he is today as he has, and just maybe she thinks he’d make a great president. All we need to do is respect their decision.

Speaking of the Edwards family: Some political news blog broke the story and got it wrong. He got the cancer part right, but with the information of one source, he loudly declared that Edwards would be pulling himself out of the race for the White House. I hear a lot of grumbling about “new media” vs. “old media” these days. New media gets the news out more quickly, they say. It’s more organic and able to adapt to changing stories, they say. They also say that old media dallies and takes its time, and that old media is prone to being too careful in breaking stories to the public. Look, I don’t see a whole lot of difference between news bloggers and “old media” anymore. I can’t count the times I have heard or read something from an established news outlet only to have it be rescinded a few minutes later when they get the actual facts. Both old and new media are guilty of the same thing … going to “press” with a story that is under-researched, under-developed, and not ready for prime time. Here’s a little journalistic advice: Always have two reliable and confirmed sources for any story to attempt to verify the facts, and wait until the news happens (and can be verified) before putting the story out there. Basic common sense journalism rules that anyone wanting to be a journalist should take to heart. It isn’t about who’s first with a story. It’s about who’s got the story and has the facts to back it up. So new media vs. old media? They are both lacking in journalistic integrity as far as I am concerned.

And in closing, all I have to say about the current goings on in Washington, due to the federal judge firings is this: If an elected or appointed official in my government isn’t willing to give testimony in public, under oath, and with an accurate transcript left it the wake, then I have the right to assume anything they may say is an outright lie.