Looking For A Bone Marrow Donor

Lots of local stories playing out for me today.

A friend of mine emailed yesterday to ask that I include a mention on my blog. There is a 13 year old girl in need of a bone marrow transplant. She attends the middle school of which my son and my friend's daughter are alumni. Her heritage is south Asian so she is in that division of the national search list. If you or anyone you know may be able to be tested - it is crazy easy to do, just a swab inside your mouth - I ask that you check out her web site:

www.samiahssaviors.com/home.html

She, her parents and her school community thank you.

There were a few minutes this afternoon that were a bit surreal around here. I was watching television, with the sound muted, as a car chase was shown on a cable news channel from here and I was listening to a local radio talk show waiting for a blogging pal to be interviewed. Fellow blogger, Incognito, was contacted by a local radio talk show host and decided to be interviewed by him and his co-host. When she emailed me about the authenticity of the request, I confess I wasn't familiar with the station. The station is mostly a sports station but I was familiar with one of the co-hosts. He is a columnist for the Houston Chronicle, writing about pop culture and also does fast food reviews. He's been a regular on different radio talk shows and I have heard his political views. He is a self-professed liberal. He isn't, though, mean-spirited as a general rule.

So, I tuned in and listened a bit of the show. When I did, it was usually sports talk. So, I told Incog what I heard and gave her the heads up on the one guy.

Today she was interviewed and I was able to listen. It was good to hear her voice. The angle of the interview was that she's an actress who is in the closet as a Republican. She gave her point of view that she'd be losing work if those with the hiring power knew her politics. The show host asked the usual questions - does she really think all entertainers are liberal or Democrats? No, but the majority are. And on and on in that area. She was a good match for him. After the interview, however, his attitude was showing a bit too much for me, so I emailed the show and put in my opinion.

Mr. Liberal, so open-minded and accepting of others, thoroughly delighted in ridiculing the fact that Incog is a stage actress in regional theatre. As if that is a qualifier for her opinions. As if that makes her a lesser actress. Typical. This went far to make Incog's point about acceptance, if you ask me. Mr. Liberal travels a good bit, originally from New Jersey, and loves to talk about his annual treks back to NYC. Maybe he thinks he's Mr. Broadway.

His co-host answered my email. He was respectful, as was I, and said that since she was 'anonymous' they weren't really discrediting her personally and felt it was ok to 'joke'. Yeah, ok. Whatever. It got unnecessarily rude and they know it.

And, the last item was the outcome of the trial of Victoria Osteen. The wife of mega church preacher Joel Osteen and a co-preacher in the church herself, she was being sued for damages by an airline flight attendant from an incidence two years ago. The attendant claimed Osteen shoved her, screamed at her and also was racist towards her in demanding her seat be cleaned of the liquid on it. She claimed Osteen caused her emotional distress, loss of faith in religion, and hemorrhoids from the stress. Yeah, you read that right. She was playing heavy on the racist charge. The attendant is black with two black attorneys and claimed Osteen sought out a white attendant to help her.

Fortunately, the jury was on to her. Osteen was found not guilty today and not one penny to the attendant. She originally demanded 10% of Osteen's net worth and yesterday one of her own fellow attendants, who was suppose to back up the story, went on the stand and said the attendant was not truthful. The incident and the 'assault' didn't happen. The pilot said the same, too. Suddenly today before the trial ended, the attendant wanted to sue for $400,000. I guess she saw the writing on the wall.

Joel and Victoria Osteen lead what is being called the largest church congregation in the country. Lakewood Church is huge, with the number 24,000 usually mentioned as the total worshipers. The new location of the church is a renovated former basketball stadium. It's huge. And, now Joel Osteen is a successful, best selling author. So, I suppose the attendant thought she'd fabricate and cash in. Her attorneys should be ashamed of themselves.

Just another day in paradise.