How pathetic. I think "Hug Nazi's" is too polite a word to describe these school officials. Then again, Bend IS in a very Republican / Conservative part of Oregon, and well the words Nazi, Republican and Conservative all mean the same thing. It might as well be Ruby Ridge, Idaho (in a VERY conservative Northern Idaho I may add), or Waco, Texas. I also want to point out another pathetic statement from this article: "Kids hug, they hug hello and they hug goodbye, but if you take it farther, you make people uncomfortable." Excuse me, but as a Libertarian minded thinker--those who know me know I voted for the Libertarian in the last Presidential election-- that is a bunch of BULLSHIT. How can a friggin HUG make anyone else feel uncomfortable? This is saying that we are responsible for other people's feelings, when in fact we are NOT! We are responsible for our actions but not how anyone else responds to our actions! BUT thanks to the Dummycrats and their "politcal correctness" ideas, and the Republinazi's and their closed mindedness, we might as well live in a friggin shell so that we dont offend the other with our choice of deoderant. AHHHHH it feels good ripping Communists, I mean Democrats, and Nazi's, I mean Republicans, in the same post

Hugging Ban Sparks Dispute at Ore. School

The Associated Press
May 16, 2005 12:22 PM EDT

BEND, Ore. - A 14-year-old girl received detention over a lingering hug she gave her boyfriend at school, infuriating her mother and putting school officials on the defensive.

School officials said they had warned Cazz Altomare that lingering hugging was unacceptable, but she continued to disobey the rule when she received the detention earlier this year.

Rules at Sky View Middle School in Bend permit "quick hello and goodbye hugs," but administrators said some students have been taking advantage of it.

"It's not like we are the hug Nazis," Laurie Gould, spokeswoman for the Bend-La Pine School District, said Monday. "Kids hug, they hug hello and they hug goodbye, but if you take it farther, you make people uncomfortable."

Cazz got detention after giving her boyfriend a protracted hug in the hallway at Sky View Middle School in Bend.

Her mother, Leslee Swanson, was infuriated by the punishment. When she went to pick her daughter up from detention, she gave her a good, hard hug.

"I'm trying to understand what's wrong with a hug," Swanson, 42, said in a story Sunday in The Bulletin of Bend. People should not "blindly accept these fundamental rights being taken away from them," she said.

Gould said "usually kids don't get detention just for hugging."

All middle schools in the Bend-La Pine district restrict hugging to some degree, as well as hand-holding and some other forms of physical affection.

"Really, all we're trying to do is create an environment that's focused on learning, and learning proper manners is part of that," said Dave Haack, the principal of Cascade Middle School, also in Bend.

Students only end up with detention after repeated warnings earlier this year, he said.

Outside Pilot Butte Middle School on a recent lunch break, two seventh-grade girls said they disagreed with the policies.

"I think we should be able to hold hands or hug at least," said Annie Wilson, 12. "Because it's not doing anything bad."

So THATS why CK and Alex refused to set up shop in Columbia, South America....

Colombian Town Makes Gossip a Crime

The Associated Press
May 17, 2005 7:10 AM EDT

BOGOTA, Colombia - Malicious gossip often results in tears and anger, but in Colombia it had lead to murder - and officials say they've heard enough.

Fed up with people targeted by false rumors turning up dead or wrongfully arrested, the mayor of a small Colombian town has made gossip a crime punishable by up to four years in prison.

"Human beings must be aware and recognize that having a tongue and using it to do bad is the same as having dynamite in their mouths," says an official municipal decree issued last year in Icononzo, 40 miles southwest of the capital, Bogota.

While some residents may denounce the decree as ridiculous, Mayor Jesus Ignacio Jimenez insists that in a country as violent as Colombia, gossiping can have serious consequences.

"It's a tradition for gossip to spread through small towns and it's a part of life, but what is worrying is that people are going to jail or being murdered due to gossip," Jimenez said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Monday.

Jimenez recalled a case when a man was killed because somebody claimed he belonged to a leftist insurgent group. Others have been thrown in jail based on similar allegations.

Sometimes, many of the town's 11,500 residents will leave work or school early and lock themselves inside their homes simply because an unfounded rumor had spread that members of an illegal armed group were on their way, said Milton Patarroyo, the town's human rights official.

Icononzo resident Edelmira Giron said the decree, which also calls for fines of up to $150,000 for spreading false rumors, has had an impact since it went into effect six months ago by making people "think twice" about what they say.

So far nobody has been arrested on gossiping charges, Jimenez said, while insisting that sooner or later it will happen.

"They just haven't yet been caught," he said.

Not a good night. Tonight, my DSL internet connection decided to go MC on me and NOT work !! What happened was that there was a problem in the network cables. Thats besides the point- I missed my SWEETIE tonight, and she's bummed and Im bummed. The good news is that 25 minutes ago I got my internet connection back, and its so far so good !! The bad news is that my SWEETIE had to go and I miss her so much!! I'm so pissed right now that I'm seriously thinking about filing a complaint to the Better Business Bureau (the BBB). Yes, my SWEETIE means the world to me, and I miss her LOTS! I got to go now.....

Since Friday night Ive been struggling with a cold. Tonight I'm feeling very feverish, so I'll be taking max-strength Thera Flu and going to bed earlier than usual. When I got home earlier tonight, I got a letter from my Dad's life insurance company, and what I read made me even MORE sick. I'll talk more about that later. Goodnight everyone.

For health reasons I am taking the night off