A real life "Angel" in Queens, New York

Toan Lam, founder of GoInspireGo.com, recently wrote about Jorge Munoz, a bus driver who provides the homeless in his neighborhood in Queens, New York, with 120 to 140 meals every night. Over the past four years, Munoz and his family's personal outreach program has prepared an estimated 70,000 dinners.

On a basic level, Munoz's decision to make dinner for 120 derelict strangers every night is not just kind; it constitutes an almost radical belief in shared humanity. Munoz doesn't make one meal for his family and another meal for charity. Instead, he makes 125-145 dinners every night, and serves 120 of them to people outside his household. In a very real way, he brings dozens of strangers into his home on a daily basis. In fact, he still speaks with regret of the one night in which bad weather made it impossible for him to share his food with others.

As the recession swells the ranks of Queens's homeless, and ever-increasing numbers of people find themselves wondering where the next meal will come from, many people may be inspired to recoil from people in need. Whether out of fear that their bad luck may be contagious, or a subliminal recognition that the distance between success and homelessness may be only a couple of paychecks, it's all too easy to turn away from the needs of others. As Jorge Munoz demonstrates, however, the distance between the ability to help and the need to receive help may be no broader and deeper than a plate of food. This is a wonderful example of a shared community environment and I only wish that this small example could be followed by all the governments of the world today.

My hat goes off to Jorge Munoz and I nominate him my Good Samaritan of the week! What say you all?

Jon & Kate Plus 8 Ratings Drop 61 Percent After Hiatus

Amy Sussman/WireImage for Discovery Communications
Jon and Kate Gosselin returned to TLC Monday night, but many of their fans didn't.

After a month-long hiatus, last night's back-to-back episodes of Jon & Kate Plus 8 brought in less than half the audience of the show's previous episode, which earned a record-breaking 10.6 million viewers. (In that episode, which aired on June 22, the couple announced they were separating after 10 years of marriage.)

Last night's first half hour, which featured Kate and the kids vacationing while Jon supervised their kitchen renovation, drew 3.9 million viewers. The following show, in which Kate went camping with the kids without Jon, was watched by 4.1 million.  Both episodes were also down significantly from the May 25 premiere, which brought in 9.8 million viewers.  

Guess the money train has left the station and the backlash has hit the fan!

Straight up: Paula Abdul exits 'American Idol'

Well, it's official - my only real reason for watching American Idol anymore is gone.  I'm a total Paula Abdul fan and have no qualms admitting it.  STRAIGHT UP now tell me, WHY would FOX let an original member of the team go?  No doubt they brought in Kara to test the waters and God bless her Kara has talent BUT she is no Abdul!   I think FOX just shot themselves in the foot with this and I guess we'll see when it comes to the new season.  I for one will not be tuning in as regularly as I had in the past.  Maybe just for the finale.

Here's hoping that we see Ms. Abdul either releasing a new album of materials OR on another dance like show.  OH OH OH - HEY Dancing w/ The Stars, Paula is available!!!!

Obama 'Joker' Picture Pops Up In Los Angeles and Across the Internet

You might not expect liberal Los Angeles, of all places, to be ground zero for anti-Obama sentiment, but that appears to be the case with a new, apparently grassroots campaign in the city. Posters have been spotted on utility poles and walls around town, depicting the president made up grotesquely as The Joker, the infamous Heath Ledger character in "The Dark Knight," with white face paint, dark eye shadow and smudged red lipstick. The word "socialism" is printed in bold, dark letters under the image of his face.

Nobody has come forward yet to claim responsibility for the posters, which, of course, only adds to the mystery and fuels Internet speculation.

The poster has also gone viral online, crashing the Web site that first posted images of it and rising to the top of Google's "Today's Hot Trends" list.

Whoever is behind the posters has to be thrilled by the sudden media attention and especially the breast-beating overreaction by certain Democrats. Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson was especially melodramatic:
"Depicting the president as demonic and a socialist goes beyond political spoofery," says Hutchinson. "It is mean-spirited and dangerous.

"We have issued a public challenge to the person or group that put up the poster to come forth and publicly tell why they have used this offensive depiction to ridicule President Obama."

For some reason Hutchinson wasn't nearly so upset when President George W. Bush was depicted with devil horns. Now I ask you, where was that kind of outrage when people were posting up life size figures of Palin and hanging them? You got it, now where! Yet now because it's being done to Obama everyone is outraged? Newsflash; he's a public figure and well he's fair game. Or at least that is what such ones said when the shoe was on the other foot and it was Palin being smeared.

A bigger question than who's responsible for the poster is what does The Joker have to do with socialism? Isn't he more of an anarchist?