Today, during a meeting of the Baltimore's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, Mayor Sheila Dixon and prosecutor Jen Rallo reacted to a video that shows two girls laughing as a customer at a carryout restaurant is robbed.

As reported by Scott Wykoff and the Associated Press, the incident took place on August 6th at Chinese Cuisine in northeast Baltimore.  The video clearly shows the teen girls laughing as a man is faced by two armed assailents.  Perhaps even more disturbing or at least equally so, the video also shows the restaurant continuing to serve customers after the man was shot.

Mayor Dixon said of the video, "It's like business as usual." Dixon continues to say about the individuals shown in the video, "Clearly ... we have some very mentally disturbed individuals in the city."  The two teens responsible for the robbery and assault were charged as adults.

What does this say about our society when our children laugh at blood and violence and adults ignore those in need? 

{tab=This Just In: There is a Santa}

For me, this time of year is more than just a time to over-eat and bask in the glory that is Christmas morning at the house of Joeprah. This is a season to rediscover what it means to believe. There is much in the adage, “child-like faith,” that I admire and I think that protecting the innocence of our children and promoting faith is one of our primary functions as a parent--that and keeping them alive. It is so refreshing,

Florida seemingly has some of the craziest headlines from across the country, but this one just may take the cake.  Let me set the scene, a twelve year old junior high school student rips one off.  It creates a stir in the class so he unleashes another and another.  It isn’t clear how many disruptions (eruptions) there were but from the report all we know is that there were a lot of these outbursts.  Either following or in addition to disruptive gas the twelve year old also could not control his penchant for turning off computers, which during a computer session tends to be a source of distraction.  All this adds up to discplinary action from the office--the Martin County Sherrif's Office to be exact.

I think it is best to come right out and say to all of the friends I have made over the past few years through writing online that I am sincerely thankful for your friendship and I am embarrassed to say that I am a cyber bum.  Over the course of the last few months I have basically stopped blogging for a number of reasons but I think the main one was stress.  After our family put on hold any thoughts of moving I came down from a bit of an emotional roller coaster

Good afternoon Joeprah fans! Just a quick note to let you know that Joe is currently in a heated battle with Windows Vista, which has been causing some major problems for him.

Fortunately, he has not lost any of the 200GB of data. Unfortunately, he has been crashing every 32 seconds, which can become frustrating pretty quick. As a result, the process of re-formatitng and re-installing is underway, with an ETA of who knows when. But I assure you, Joe is not being held under duress by Internet trolls or an army of vigilante children.

He's just got issues.

Computer issues.

Trust me, you will know when he returns. :) 

-pete