Obama: New Book Examines If Barack Is Like His Father

the two Baracks, Image via WikipediaFrom Denny:  Author Sally Jacobs shares details from her new book which focuses upon the life of President Obama's enigmatic father. Barack Obama, Sr. was profiled as bold and reckless. The book is called "The Other Barack."

Barack, Sr. lived large, drank heavily and had multiple wives because he had come from a polygamous background. To him it was socially normal.

President Obama is rooted, extremely cautious, responsible, monogamous and an attentive father.  He's the typical profile of the child of a raging alcoholic.

You see a lot of this reaction from the next generation in politics, the military and the intelligence community.  Even President Bush 41 reacted in a similar fashion to his father, Senator Bush, who was an alcoholic.

First Lady Betty Ford: Remembered Dancing On White House Table

From Denny: Betty Ford. What a lady. She hails from a time when people didn't hate each other in politics; they only disagreed. She was a great lady of humble attitude, practical in how she approached life and graceful in how she danced through life - no matter the obstacles.

Betty Ford was best known for her pioneering candor of bringing cancer out of the creeping shadows and on to the national stage. Back then absolutely no one talked about a cancer diagnosis because so often it was considered a death notice. She spoke about it publicly when it was also a social norm that doing so was in bad form.

Yet, it was her stalwart candidness that won her the support of women on both sides of the political aisle. Women started going in droves to their doctors to get breast cancer check-ups. Women picked up her call to actively address their own health issues rather than waiting to get patted on the head by a patronizing doctor to whom they would obediently acquiesce.

Betty Ford saw to it that the times were definitely changing if she had anything to do with it. My favorite photo of her was this one taken where she expressed to the White House photographer how she always wanted to dance on the table in the White House cabinet room. It's that same table where all the men of the Good Ol' Boys Network elbowed out women in the national leadership.

Funny Colbert Interviews Janny Scott About Obamas Mother

A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack  Obama's Mother

From Denny: Colbert tries to nail down the mysterious  person of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, since the President has so far been unwilling to talk about her. It sounds like he had, perhaps still has, mixed feelings about his relationship with her.

A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother


Apparently, she met and married Obama's father in Hawaii when she was only seventeen years old. Hawaii is a multi-cultural state where interracial relationships are not the scandal as on the mainland. Though even back in the 1960's it raised some disapproving eyebrows. But she was a trail blazer.

Video: Biographer Talks About Kennedys Memoir and the Man

From Denny: This is Kennedy's biographer commenting about the book and the man. He had some interesting things to say about Kennedy's stand in history, something I haven't heard the news folks talk much about lately and it's quite obviously true from Kennedy's body of life work.

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Video: Honoring Eunice Kennedy Shriver Who Honored Special Needs Kids in America

From Denny: Saying goodbye to Eunice Kennedy Shriver who brought the vulnerable in our society out into the open and gave them long awaited respect and care. Since I have a mentally challenged sister-in-law who became so because of a woefully mishandled hospital birth this lady meant the world to my husband's parents. They were thrilled with the Kennedys and Shrivers when they championed this cause.

Since my sister-in-law's speech center was injured at birth it can take her as long as two weeks to get out a sentence regarding her wishes. Usually, I just take the shortcut and read her on the spiritual level to divine her intent, ask a few short questions to narrow down her intent and then she sighs with relief and nods her head. Virginia is a lot like having a happy 5 year old around with OCD Monk behaviors along with autism. She's great fun, though her facial expressions rarely show it. We get her to laugh often.

I could go on and on about Virginia as I enjoy her immensely as many people do who have "special kids" in their families. The medical challenges can be daunting as it has for Virginia who suffers from severe epilepsy. She's required outrageously expensive medication since she was two years old, the doctors fearing as she's grown older that the next epileptic seizure will kill her.

Well, we just can't live in fear. She's lived longer than the doctors told the parents when she was born. They advised they lock her away in an asylum and forget about her. The parents were horrified and refused. That was too callous an attitude for my very cool mother-in-law, Bonnie, whose Irish was up and marched forward to do something about it. Can I tell you that my mother-in-law was the first special education teacher in Louisiana and helped organize education in the state for others like her daughter?

The terms like retarded, mentally disabled, mentally challenged, special have evolved over the decades yet Virginia remains forever the same. When she was younger she had a baseball arm like a cannon. The family and Virginia loved the Special Olympics that Eunice Kennedy Shriver founded. Virginia always won first place in any throwing competition. The woman was fierce! :)

A lot of families across America and the world over have gratitude towards Ms. Eunice for bringing so much understanding into the community and relief to families who no longer had to hide their special family members in shame. Take a look at her remarkable life.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Biography, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, mentally challenged, NBC, remembrance, society and culture, kids and teens, Special Olympics, special needs

Does Your Poetry Come From Your Soul?

"Poetry is the doorway to the soul." - Floria

For a few months now I've been planting the majority of my favorite quotes over on yet another blog: Beautiful Illustrated Quotations. In the early weeks of The Social Poets I did a lot of art photo illustrated quotations and soon realized it required a separate blog of its own.

Quotations are what I consider the ultimate writing prompt! You can always get a good 500 to 2,000 word essay out of a really good quote, especially if said by an historical person with a great biography people will find interesting.

Hike on over to my quotes blog for a dose of creative writing inspiration for yourself! Know that blog is always available to you as a writing resource.

Photo by alicepopkorn @ flickr

Below are some useful links, especially of the cranky assistant in the publishing business explaining why 95% of your query letters get rejected when you want to publish.

The more pleasant links are fun like the poetry 4 kids and informative and descriptive about writing like the gointothestory blog from a screenwriter who now teaches at a college.

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• Let poetry feed your soul (gointothestory.com)
• My Chicken's On the Internet at Gottabook (poetry4kids.com)
• Poetry of Comedy (seedlingsinstone.blogspot.com)
• Poetry Credits (rejecter.blogspot.com)