Last week, Joe Biden, with the irrepressibility and impulsivity that mark the behavior of both adolescents and older people, announced his support for same-gender marriage. Barack Obama, who would have preferred to keep his views to himself for a while longer, felt compelled by the nature of American politics to say the same thing, just as he was leaving for a Hollywood fundraiser. The events, of course, have less to do with sexual orientation and civil rights than it does with the unsatisfying way in which American politics have evolved.

No matter how strongly one feels about the issue of same-sex marriage, no one should be surprised about President Obama's position on the matter, and it is startling that it became a headline-grabbing announcement. He is a social liberal, and we would be astonished if he were against it.  But all media were filled with surprise that Biden was foolish enough to announce it before Obama, that the White House didn't wait to announce until the president was comfortably ahead of Romney, that Biden had to apologize to the president for the gaffe, and a host of other trivialities. And therein lies the sad shallowness of American politics: what is said seems to be far less important than how it is said.  

Although one should never confuse coincidence and causation, a major poll shortly afterward showed that the president now trails Mitt Romney by seven points, more than the margin of error. It is affecting to the sensibilities that it matters to people how the White House announces its support for anything that everyone knows it supports. Indeed---and this is crucial---whether or not President Obama supports the marriage of same-gender couples will have no impact on whether or not they can be married. That is the province of legislatures, and it is legislatures that warrant the voters' attention.

If you want a compelling example of how flaccid a president can be when the Congress decides to flex its considerable musculature, consider what quietly occurred, also this last week, at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue: despite an agreement with the White House about the size of the defense budget, the House Armed Services Committee added $8 Billion that it wants but the White House does not want. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, complained bitterly that the House's decision will adversely affect readiness, but their professional opinion and their logic are irrelevant to the political process here. And it's not just the amount of money that is important to the Congress. The Congress also dictates how it is spent and, most important to the Congressional leadership, where it is spent. You don't get re-elected by reducing government money that flows into your district.

We all gain a certain satisfaction from observing conflict among professional politicians. We have our favorites, and we want them to prevail. When they err, we agonize, and when the opposition makes a mistake, we rejoice. In many respects, the process is not unlike sports. Watch a dugout when the opposing shortstop boots an easy grounder: the players are high-fiving as if they all made a game-winning play.But for the nation, there is a great deal more at stake in politics, and we do ourselves a disservice when we regard events in Washington with only the amusement it seems to generate.

Oh, and same-sex marriage? If there were significant money involved in it, you can bet that the Congress would be all for it.

________

** Col Jacobs's new book, Basic, was just released by St Martin's press. See him on Morning Joe: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/ns/msnbc_tv-morning_joe/#47352038

**And if you have a good story from basic training or boot camp, be sure to share it at http://real-basics.coma

Cause Celeb highlights a celebrity’s work on behalf of a specific cause. This week, we had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Ruth Westheimer about her charitable acts for the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City.

Dr. Ruth is a very unique “triple-threat,” known as an American sex therapist, media personality and author. Dr. Ruth’s enthusiasm has created a more open environment for talk about sex on both television and radio. Dr. Ruth’s breakout moment was in 1980 when she was offered a talk show to be aired on Sunday nights at midnight called “Sexually Speaking” (the same title as her new book that just came out!). Dr. Ruth has taken us by storm educating us all on the topics we’re afraid to ask about.

Dr. Ruth has taken her success and used it to benefit charities. Most recently, Dr. Ruth has been hosting events to benefit the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Having very close ties to the Holocaust herself, Dr. Ruth gives back to the Museum of Jewish Heritage to help preserve her culture.

Intro written by: Gabriella Palmieri

Interviewed by: Giacinta Pace

Q: How did you get involved with the Museum of Jewish Heritage?

Dr. Ruth: I started [as] a member of the museum of Washington of Holocaust, but when the museum here asked me, I immediately became a member and also a trustee, because this is part of my background of making sure that the Jewish heritage and the horrible happenings of the Holocaust are being commemorated. Part of it has to do with my personal experience having left Nazi Germany with a group of children in 1939 and living in an orphanage in Switzerland and then going to then Palestine that became Israel. So for me, the museum has another meaning because when I came to this country, I stayed up all night not to miss seeing the Statue of Liberty. The museum is at 36 Battery Place, and every time when I go to a meeting the first thing I do is go and say hello to the Statue of Liberty.

Q: Why did you decide to donate some of the proceeds of your new book “Sexually Speaking: What every woman needs to know about sexual health” to the museum?

Dr. Ruth: Patti Kenner, She’s on the board, did a fundraiser at her house on Park Avenue. She’s on the board and I’m on the board, we decided we would do something for the museum. Also, my birthday party is going to be like a fundraiser for the museum, that’s why I’m doing it there. It’s wonderful because the film, the BBC film, it’s going to be the first showing ever in the United States. I can show it for a fundraiser. It’s called Extraordinary Women. I am one of them, Katharine Hepburn, [Indira] Gandhi is another one. We will be the first ever to show that in the United States.

Q: Is there a particularly moving moment that you’ve had while working with the museum?

Dr. Ruth: Yes, my son-in-law’s uncle who I liked very much, he was a shoemaker and he had a pair of shoes from Vienna- that’s where he worked and where he did a double sole so that people could hide diamonds in their shoes. I arranged for them to give that shoe as a memorandum. He passed away not too long ago.  [It’s] from the Holocaust and that shoe is in the exhibit. I don’t have anything to give to the exhibit, because you will see in that film, and the play about me that’s coming up.  All I have from Frankfurt - from my home - is a doll that I gave to another girl who was crying on the train when they left Germany and the other thing I had was a washcloth with my initials on it. That one [the washcloth] I still have but I can’t give it up to the museum because it’s the only thing I still have. The play is called, “Dr. Ruth All the Way.” And it’s going to be up in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. That will have its opening on June 30^th and Debra Jo Rupp from the television show, “That 70s Show”, she’s playing me. The writer [is] Mark St Germain who wrote “Freud’s Last Session.” That [show] had over 600 and some performances off Broadway. Then we are also coming out at the end of April with a wine called Vin D'Amour.

Q: So tell us a little bit about your book and why you think it’s important for all women to read.

Dr. Ruth: It’s important. I did the book “Sexually Speaking: What every woman needs to know about sexual health,” I talk and Pierre [Dr. Ruth’s minister of communications] puts it on the page and then it comes back to me. It’s a wonderful book! Wiley [the book’s publishing company] did a great job with that! It’s very famous up in Massachusetts. It’s very important because today, doctors have very little time for patients. And what happens usually with women is that very often they have questions that they ask at the end. He doesn’t have any time anymore, the folder’s already closed. I’m teaching women to come in with their questions ahead of time so that she gets the answers, maybe sometimes her partner goes with her. Especially, we have to teach women to ask the questions, but we also have to teach men and women doctors, it’s even true for women gynecologists. [It’s] very important that women and their partners know that they must initiate the conversation. And that’s why I did the book “What every woman needs to know.” There are things in that book that I didn’t believe that I would ever write about. For example, on page 61: “Ten Top Tips from Dr. Amos Grunebaum [chief gynecologist at Cornell Medical Center] on shaving the pubic area.” I didn’t know that the Brazilian shaving was so prevalent among younger people today. There are many things in here, a wonderful compilation of all of my experience with the experience of the gynecologist.

After years of investigation, denials and delays, jury selection was set to begin Thursday for the criminal trial of former presidential candidate John Edwards.

Edwards was expected inside a Greensboro, N.C., courtroom to face six criminal counts related to nearly $1 million in secret payments made by two campaign donors to help hide the married Democrat's pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008.

The money flowed to Andrew Young, a former campaign aide who initially claimed the baby was his. Young is expected to be a key witness for the prosecution. The mistress, Rielle Hunter, may testify as part of Edwards' defense.

Following years of adamant public denials, Edwards acknowledged paternity of Hunter's daughter in 2010.

The trial is expected to last about six weeks.

A key issue will be whether Edwards knew about the payments made on his behalf by his national campaign finance chairman, the late Texas lawyer Fred Baron, and campaign donor Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, an heiress and socialite who is now 101 years old. Both had already given Edwards' campaign the maximum $2,300 individual contribution allowed by federal law.

Edwards denies having known about the money, which paid for private jets, luxury hotels and Hunter's medical care. Prosecutors will seek to prove he sought and directed the payments to cover up his affair, protect his public image as a "family man" and keep his presidential hopes viable.

If convicted, Edwards faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and as much as $1.5 million in fines.

___

Follow AP writer Michael Biesecker on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/mbieseck.

A 26-year-old Washington state man who has eluded an extensive police search has been making time to update his Facebook page as authorities continue their efforts to catch him.

His first day on the run, one friend of Travis A. Nicolaysen posted to his account: "Cops all over you." Nicolaysen responded the next day with: "ya got away thanks bro."

Nicolaysen has been on the lam since two foot chases Wednesday and a dragnet that included a police dog tracking him through a Port Angeles neighborhood. The dog came up only with a blue bandanna that Nicolaysen had been wearing.

Nicolaysen has been convicted of five felonies, including domestic violence, burglary and theft of a firearm, police said. He is wanted by the Washington state Department of Corrections for failing to check in with his community corrections officer since January.

A Facebook post from another friend told him to be careful. Another urged him to surrender and set a better example for his children. "You're not getting any younger and you're looking at a lot of time," the friend writes. A picture on the Facebook page shows Nicolaysen with two toddlers.

He's also been accused of assaulting his girlfriend on March 28, police said.

Better make that his ex-girlfriend. In a post Saturday, Nicolaysen changed his relationship status to single, the Peninsula Daily News reported (http://is.gd/dpnPtm ).

Police are among those checking the page. "Absolutely," Deputy Chief Brian Smith told The Associated Press on Monday.

"We're used to pinging databases and sources of information," he said. "It's normal for us to look at Facebook accounts."

Smith also saw the growing number of comments on Nicolaysen's account — some of them mocking police — as he remained at large Monday.

"I don't think it's going to make it any easier for him," Smith said.

A lot of people communicate openly and can remain beyond the long arm of the law, at least for a while, he said.

Facebook tells its users that it may share certain information if it gets requests from law enforcement, and that it does have some ability to track people via IP addresses and GPS location.

Serving Facebook with a search warrant is a possibility, but there are no immediate plans for that, Smith said. For now, police hope the publicity alone may be enough to flush him out in a city the size of Port Angeles, which has a population of 19,000 and is about 65 miles northwest of Seattle on the Olympic Peninsula.

"In a smaller community, it's harder to disappear and be anonymous," Smith said. "We're hoping people who know him call police."

"People are giving him advice" to surrender, Smith said, "and he might want to follow it."

While police find the fugitive Facebook posting a little frustrating, it's a source of glee for Teri Newell of Port Angeles who says she helped raise Nicolaysen and describes herself as his aunt.

"I think it's hilarious," said Newell, who confirmed the Facebook account belonged to Nicolaysen.

"That's my boy, Travis," she said.

"Every single time he gets out of jail, he doesn't check in," said Newell, who also complains that police are heavy-handed.

She said she doesn't know where he is.

"If he's smart, he's hidden away, tucked away safe," she said.

An email to Nicolaysen from The Associated Press bounced back.

Port Angeles attorney Robert Vienneau, who says he knows Nicolaysen, says the fugitive does what he has to do to get by.

"Travis comes from a rough background, but he's got a good heart," Vienneau said.

___

Associated Press writer Phuong Le contributed to this report.

As I've previously written, I am hosting a Vinemeet in Roswell during the UFO Festival. As, I get to know how many are interested, I will gladly give you the names of hotels, motels, camp grounds and RV parks in the area. Book early, if you are planning on coming...the closer to the Festival, the more expensive things get!!!

Here are a few links to show you what will be going on in town that weekend:

http://www.ufofestivalroswell.com/

http://www.roswellufomuseum.com/museum/2012festival/speakers/speakers.html

http://www.prlog.org/11835828-roswell-2012-conference-marks-65th-anniversary-of-roswell-ufo-crash.html

For those of you not interested in aliens, UFOs and such..we have parks, swimming, a free zoo of indigenous animals, many many art galleries, antique shops,  Carlsbad Caverns nearby, Ruidoso and Sierra Blanca nearby, Lincoln County with a lot of history about Billy the Kid and the Inn Of The Mountain Gods Indian (Apache) casino.

Let me know if interested and definitely let me know if you're coming!!!

Thanks!

Newly added- in case the other weekend doesn't work for you!!

http://roswell.famousmonstersoffilmland.com/

Liz Slayback can trace her decision to pursue a divorce to a precise, painful moment.

"I knew my marriage was over and the divorce proceedings were about to begin when I came home and I found my husband in bed with my two best friends," said the 33-year-old dental hygienist from Staten Island.

How do we know that? Because Slayback declared it so in a video recording booth set up by Huffington Post during a rare, two-day event — an "expo" for people just starting divorce proceedings, in the middle or looking to rise from the ashes in the aftermath.

Slayback, positively bubbly after a fancy but free haircut, was among about 300 people to attend "Start Over Smart" last weekend, most of whom were women. A smattering of vendors set up booths offering everything from a divorce planning binder to advice on long-term insurance, with seminars on such topics as "Sensuality Secrets" and "My Formerly Hot Life."

Unlike mega-expos put on by the multimillion-dollar wedding industry, this was a not-so-jubilant affair — save an evening mixer — at an elegant, intimate venue.

The divorce counterpoint to wedding marketplaces was the idea of a mother-daughter team from Westport, Conn. The younger, Nicole Baras Feuer, is a divorce mediator and divorced mother. Her mom, Francine Baras, is a family therapist. They got the idea from a similar divorce expo in Paris, which they attended in late 2010.

"Americans need a place to come and meet professionals face-to-face and not get everything from a book or a website, to bring everything live and let people have all the accurate information under one roof instead of piecemealing it," Baras Feuer said.

Her mother added: "There is no coming together of people going through divorce as there are at a wedding expo, where you get your dress, you get your veil, you get an event planner, you pick out your invitations. Weddings are a known quantity. Getting divorced is an unknown quantity."

So where does divorce stand, anyway?

Deciphering divorce statistics to arrive at an overall rate feels a lot like breaking the Da Vinci Code when all factors are considered, but this much we can say: Marriages are at an all-time low, due in part to younger people delaying their nuptials, and divorce is high among baby boomers when compared to other age groups.

According to a Census Bureau analysis based on a 2009 sample of 3 million households, 19.1 weddings were performed per 1,000 men and 17.6 per 1,000 women across the U.S. that year, while divorces became final for 9.2 of every 1,000 men and 9.7 of every 1,000 women. That means that roughly, for every two people getting married, one gets divorced.

Southern and Western states ranked among the highest for wedding bells, but many in those regions also have higher rates of divorce than the Northeast, among other areas.

Roughly 1.1 million children, or 1.5 percent of all children, lived in 2009 in the home of a parent who divorced in the previous year.

Yet it might as well be 1950 all over again when it comes to the isolation and stigma of divorce.

"The culture hasn't allowed divorce to be something that we know is real and does happen," Baras said. "We sort of say it happens, but in your own house and not the culture itself."

The divorce of Hiromi Schaub, 32, was final on March 27, but the Queens accountant hadn't told her co-workers or any friends back home in Japan that she's no longer with her husband, an American lawyer she said racked up thousands of dollars in debt in her name.

"I don't have family here in America. I'm all alone. It is very hard," she said. "I wanted to come here and see other people, what they are doing and how they are getting through. I never thought I would get a divorce. I thought I was happy."

Schaub was among about 20 in the audience to listen to Stephanie Dolgoff share her own divorce experience and describe a book she wrote, "My Formerly Hot Life," about growing older and going through a divorce while in the public eye.

Dolgoff urged them not to bristle when the judgments begin.

"Even in this day and age. ... you get judged. You get judged left and right. I found that tremendously, tremendously difficult, especially because I knew what I was doing was the right thing," she said. "You have to walk through fire, basically, in most cases, to get to a better place."

Only 10 or so people showed up for sensuality expert Patty Contenta's session showing women — and some men — how to "replenish" by readjusting their body language. "Your energy and your aura need to open up," she offered.

For Schaub, who has no kids, the advice is spot on, and she wasn't the only one looking for help in the mojo department. "I was with this guy for eight years so I don't know how to date, or how to find guys," she said. "I don't know how to start."

Though in a different life stage, Diana Polonskaya, 48, felt the same. The information technology specialist from Brooklyn has two grown sons and is going through an amicable divorce with her second husband. "But still I need to start my life over."

She was especially inspired by Contenta and tips from the personal shopping service of Macy's on how to mix and match 10 wardrobe essentials.

"When you're married you stop thinking about this stuff and you get used to things," Polonskaya said. "There's no more passion, but now I need to go back to becoming more passionate with life and clothes and everything."

The expo, which follows similar gatherings in Detroit and Toronto, covered all the bases — from purveyors of wrinkle reduction, liposuction and breast augmentation to life coaches, a matchmaker and the writer of a book on how to investigate your date.

"We're taking a very holistic approach," said Baras Feuer, who got married at 24 and divorced 17 years later. "People need to be educated. People's lives get destroyed by divorce because they don't know everything they need to know."

How do you date after 20 years? How do you meet new friends when your married ones no longer want anything to do with you? They're the same questions people of divorce have been asking since divorce was invented, whenever that was.

"People going through this are still very isolated," Baras said. "People don't want to hear about it who aren't divorced. They're afraid it's contagious."

Situation is such, Trayvon Martin was well within his right to exercise his Freedom and Liberty to be where he was, do what he was doing, and, under Florida's law: to stand his ground and break George Zimmerman's nose.  

Plain and simple, regardless of what Zimmerman may have thought or suspected about Trayvon Martin he was wrong.  And Martin had good reason to believe Zimmerman was a predator based on the fact Zimmerman was aggressively following him for no good reason Martin could fathom. 

It does not matter if Trayvon had killed Zimmerman, a stranger armed with a deadly weapon pursuing him, which as a matter of fact Zimmerman did use to kill Martin.  Trayvon Martin had every right to try and protect himself.

Zimmerman would have us believe that after following Martin first in his vehicle and then pursuing Trayvon on foot down a sidewalk well in a corridor between a two parallel rows of connected apartments, he turned and retreated and suddenly Trayvon Martin attacked him from behind intent on killing him.

As if the unarmed lighter man lured the armed George Zimmerman to a semi-secluded spot to murder him for some unknown reason.  Perhaps Martin baited Zimmerman with the promise of Skittles and TEA eh?

Does being neighborhood watch captain license Zimmerman to challenge Martin's Freedom to wear a hoodie?   Was there some reason Trayvon did not have the Liberty to be on Zimmerman's turf? 

Did the State Prosecutor have reason to believe Zimmerman had reasonable cause to believe the Skittles and TEA were stolen in a break-in in ordering George Zimmerman be released without charges?

I am an " Angry Black Man".

I did not know I was an angry black man, until the winter of 1996, my very first winter outside of the very beautiful Caribbean island of my birth. I had never experienced 60 degrees in my entire live, outside of a walk in fridge at my high school cafeteria. Needless to say, I was freezing my tropical "ass" off.  My roommate, from Minnesota and very white, felt sorry for me and lent me his black, Chicago bulls jacket and taught me the art of layering.  I was able to purchase hooded sweatshirts and sweaters with my university's logo on it for what I thought was an amazing price of buy one get two free. Not knowing that it was still late September, and they were clearing out last years stock, so that they could bring in this year's new winter line up, once the summer was done. So that is how I would go to class, hooded sweatshirt, bulls jacket, blue jeans and high top shoes. As I slowly shuffled from one class to the next, I would notice the many other students running, jumping, playing volleyball and swimming in the various pools and I did notice that many actively avoided me in the hallways and walking paths. Eventually, I met other Caribbean and West Indian students, who were freezing like myself, and of course we began to congregate.

Since the others were completely enjoying the remains of the summer weather at 50 degrees, we would gather inside at student public areas. Many of us had common classes or would be required to walk in a common direction from and to another class and so we would walk together. My amazing sale find, was of course passed along to everyone and eventually we were all mostly dressing very much alike. A care package from home, brought a couple of sets of dominoes and fresh island music, which became the daily afternoon ritual in one of the many campus public game rooms. These were mostly empty because of the fantastic summer weather that was now stretching into October.

By November, when the first sign of snow arrived, we were the "Jamaican Mafia". Most of us were not from Jamaica, nor was there a real majority from any particular Caribbean nation, religion, region or social affiliation for us to be considered a mafia. The real and only unifying factor between most of us was that we were cold. If you have ever spent a little time in the Caribbean, or around West Indian people you would know that we really do not like each other very much. We are social and polite, but one island nation usually has several reason to hate another island nation. We argue about food, tourism, colonialism, language, dance, music, cricket, soccer vs. futbal and especially rules concerning dominoes.

I found out that I was apparently the Gang leader and the angriest of all the angry black Jamaican Mafia, when I was called in for a discussion about my grades, after thanksgiving break. I had taken organic chemistry and received a C- on my mid-term report. My advisor thought this was cause to bring me in for a meeting with her , a psych professor, a dean, the administrator for my scholarship and the residential life advisor. What they neglected to find out was that I was one of only eight students to actual pass the midterm organic chemistry exam, in a class of 65 students.  I will add that my organic chemistry professor was enraptured and overjoyed that so many had passed.

I learned a lot at that meeting. I learned that I was the most feared individual on the entire campus and that my anti-social tendencies were a concern, especially since I did not participate in any of the picnics or outdoor sporting events. That I and my Friends were being watched and observed . Apparently some kid had been caught with a massive supply of drugs on campus and had claimed he was working for and with the Jamaican Mafia, but they had no real evidence to approach us with. That we were preventing other students from using the games rooms through fear and intimidation, though there were eight game rooms on campus. We were alienating other student by speaking  to each other in a secret code language or slang that they thought were gang related. ( If you must ask, this was a very private and very expensive catholic university, with not a lot of diversity.)  Oh and my personal favorite, everywhere we went together smelt like marijuana was being smoked after we had left.

We all were F-1 status foreign exchange students. The rumor of any illegal activity would be enough for a review by INS. An unpaid parking ticket, that resulted in a suspended driving license could get us deported. Regardless of those facts, most of us were scholarship students trying to maintain GPAs high enough to keep our scholarships. We all were paying three to four times the price per credit as the average local student was paying, and when you are paying 300-400 a credit you do not waste your time. There was not a single car amongst us and at the the time none of us were old enough to drink legally.

It took my very amused, white, drug dealing, meth head, biker roommate to explain to me why I was so feared and suspect number one on campus. It was the way I dressed. The big black jacket and hoodie were frightening. Also being six feet tall and 300 pound did not hurt much for the image and being his roommate. He told me to get use to it, and use it to my advantage.

I bring all this up, because it all rushed back in to my mind today after watching FOX news. Geraldo basically explained that the young man Trayvon Martin may not have been shot dead had he not been wearing a hoodie. Geraldo continued to suggest that all African American and Latino parents should have a conversation with their kids about how wearing hoodies and such other clothes makes them look.

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/23/10830530-geraldo-rivera-blames-hoodie-for-trayvons-death-critics-tell-him-to-zip-it-up

The bottom Line was not that we were dressed a certain way, but the fact that we were black and different that made us the Jamaican Mafia. I eventually came to understand this late one night on campus. I was walking back to my dorm after midnight, on a cold, clear December night. There were other students around me, leaving the closing library as I was. I had a university logo-ed backpack, a huge organic chemistry and biology text book in my arms, and a half empty coke bottle in the other. I had just crossed the street in front of the library when two state trooper vehicles pulled up rather quickly , and three officers jumped out and started asking me rapid fired questions. Many of which I would have been able to answer had they not immediately told me to shut up every time I attempted to speak. The other students had stopped to watch and even began to gather around the cars. They were in the process of removing my back pack force-ably from me to search it and pushing me to toward the ground. When I was rescued by my roommate and his friends, who were very much high and drunk at the time. I was released after they vouched that I was a student at the school and was in fact his roommate. I had my college I.D. in my wallet, and my passport in my backpack, but no one had asked for either. 

The state troopers had been called that night by campus security, after a young lady had complained of a suspicious person lurking in the library parking lot , several hours before.  I guess being the only black person leaving the library that night was pretty damn suspicious. Maybe it was what I was wearing?

Top-seeded Baylor rolled through the Des Moines regional with such ease that the only stress the Bears had to endure was a late-game scuffle with Tennessee that saw Brittney Griner ejected.

Baylor can breathe easy knowing Griner won't be suspended for the Final Four.

The Lady Vols have much more to worry about in the weeks ahead.

Brittney Griner had 23 points, 15 rebounds and nine blocks before being bounced with less than a minute left for leaving the bench and Baylor pounded Tennessee 77-58 Monday night to advance to the Final Four.

The Lady Bears (38-0) are back in the national semifinals for the second time in three years and will face Stanford on Sunday night in Denver.

"Definitely happy that we got past this game. It's not over," Griner said. "It gets tougher as you go."

Should Baylor win it all, it'll become the first men's or women's team in NCAA history to finish a year with 40 wins. The powerhouse Bears are the heavy favorites to do just that, having dispatched of Georgia Tech and Tennessee by an average of 17 points.

Neither of those games ever seemed that close, either.

"We're so happy, but you can't relax," Baylor's Destiny Williams said. "We have two more games left."

Jubilation was the last thing on the minds of Tennessee (27-9), whose seniors became its first four-year Lady Vols class not to reach a Final Four.

But that was just a side note considering that their legendary coach Pat Summitt has yet to say if she'll return for a 39th season. She announced in August she'd been diagnosed with early onset dementia, Alzheimer's type.

"This team is about Pat Summitt. This team has battled all year," said Tennessee associate head coach Holly Warlick as she fought back tears. "I'm proud of them. I thought our team and coaching staff obviously was in a difficult situation. But I thought this team was responsive. I wouldn't trade anything that we did this year."

Baylor held Tennessee to just 30.3 percent shooting from the floor. Much of that was because of the inside presence of the 6-foot-8 Griner, who was just one block shy of her fifth career triple-double.

"Defense wins ballgames for you," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. "I guess learned from two of the best. I learned from (Summitt) and (former Louisiana Tech coach) Leon Barmore, you better guard people. And these kids are going to guard you."

A rather ugly game for a purist's perspective got even uglier in the final 46.8 seconds.

Baylor's Odyssey Sims, who led the Bears with 27 points, tumbled to the floor, and she and Tennessee's Shekinna Stricklen had to be separated and were each assessed a technical foul for unsportsmanlike conduct.

No punches were thrown, but Griner and teammates Terran Condrey and Jordan Madden were ejected for leaving the bench. The NCAA says none of the players will be suspended for the Final Four.

"She just took it the wrong way. We had a little talking back and forth," Stricklen said about Sims. "I know Odyssey Sims. We played together on USA Basketball. I apologized after the game if she took it the wrong way. It's just not me. I'm not that type of person."

As for Summitt, she was given a standing ovation from Tennessee and Baylor fans alike when she came out roughly 15 minutes before tipoff. But as defeat became apparent, she sat silently on the bench with her legs crossed.

Summitt has 1,098 wins, more than any basketball coach in NCAA history, but these Lady Bears were too much for her Lady Vols.

"It's not fun for me to coach against Pat," Mulkey said. "I don't take great pleasure in that. But I have a job to do."

Like most of Baylor's games this season, the Bears regional semifinal was more about dominance than drama.

Baylor led 35-20 at halftime despite a poor start shooting from Griner. Tennessee made a spirited charge to start the second half, highlighted when Glory Johnson scored a second-chance bucket on Griner and simply smiled when Griner tossed her to the floor.

But the Bears are unbeaten because they're much more than Griner.

Sims followed a layup through traffic with a 3 that helped Bears go back ahead 49-38 with 11:12 to go. Tennessee made one final run, cutting a 19-point deficit to 64-53 with 4:48 left, but Griner finished off the Lady Vols with six points in the next minute.

"I thought we did a good job on Griner early, I thought we did a good job on Griner the whole game. The sign of a great team is other players step up and make shots and they did," Warlick said.

Stricklen had 22 points, but she needed 26 shots to get there. Johnson finished with 19 points and 14 rebounds for Tennessee, which had a habit of starting poorly.

But the Lady Vols were ready for this one — at least for the first few minutes.

Tennessee double-teamed Griner with center Vicki Baugh and help defenders, and Griner hit just three of 10 shots in the first half. But the Lady Vols missed nine shots in a row after an early lead, and Baylor slowly built its edge to 26-16 on three straight buckets by Sims.

The Lady Vols hung close with Baylor in late November before losing 76-67. The rematch wasn't nearly as close, sending the Bears onto Denver and Tennessee grappling with the possibility that Summitt's career is over after 38 seasons and eight national titles.

"Obviously I would want Pat's health to be better. I think like Pat, this team never gave up and they never used it as a crutch for how they were playing and what they did this year," Warlick said.

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Cause Celeb highlights a celebrity’s work on behalf of a specific cause. This week, we had the pleasure of speaking with Alison Arngirm about her work with Protect.org.

Alison Arngrim is well known for her character Nellie Oleson on the hit show Little House on the Prairie. Since then, she has made many other TV appearances as well as being seen on film and stage. Alison was one of the original founders of Protect and is still on the National Advisory Board and the Board of Directors of The National Association to Protect Children helping to fight child abuse across the country. She also serves on the Ambassador Council of AIDS Project Los Angeles and on the Board of Trustees for Tuesday's Child.

The National Association to Protect Children is a national association that was founded in 2004. They work to protect children from sexual, physical and emotional abuse. They were formally known as Promise to Protect. Protect is also a national organization that works to gain legislation to protect children from sexual, physical and emotional abuse. They work on a national, state and local level. Protect and The National Association to Protect Children have a joint website as Protect.org 

Interviewed by Giacinta Pace

Introduction by Meg Zrini

Q:  Why and how did you get started working with Protect?

Alison: A family member convicted of raping a child would be out of the court house door five minutes later and have custody of the victim. Something’s not right! They [Protect] realized that there were extraordinary loopholes in the law, both at the state and federal level that allowed people who abuse children to go absolutely free. What if we had an organization which actually went into the state house and into Washington DC and advocated, lobbied, pushed for legislation and made functional changes to the law to better protect children and close these loopholes. I thought "what a brilliant idea." When [Protect] started they had already changed laws in North Carolina, Arkansas, and Illinois and they hadn’t even opened an office yet! They didn’t waste all their money on t-shirts and stationary and then try to do some work. I’ve been on the board of the National Association to Protect Children (Protect.org) ever since. In my case, indeed there is a personal connection, because as I’ve said quite publically on Larry King Live and in my book, I was sexually abused as a child myself. I completely understood the total short shrift that these victims get.

Q: How many states to date have they been able to change laws in at this point?

Alison: We’re up to seven or eight. We’ve done stuff on the federal level too. We have gotten legislation past that has allocated millions of dollars for law enforcement. We’re at least down to 30 states now with the change to the incest exception which is a law where if someone rapes their own child, if they’re related to the victim in any way, they can plead guilty and serve no jail time whatsoever. They have their record expunged as long as it’s their own child. In New York, your felonies are all by letter; you have ‘A felony’ and ‘B felony’ etc. So, people who rape their child, instead of being convicted of rape or sexual assault, they would plead guilty to incest which was an ‘E Felony’. That’s four years max, usually probation. In some states, rape would be a felony; incest would be a misdemeanor. It was based on a 17th century law that you shouldn’t marry your 30 year old cousin. It wasn’t a rape law; it was incest crime against the marital state. In California, a sex offender could have multiple victims and could rape  all four of their children, they could have continuous sexual abuse. But as long as it said: parent, step parent, grandparent, brother, sister, uncle or anyone living in the home like a family member, meaning: the mom’s boyfriend, they were counted as a relative. And then they were eligible for deferral of sentence, so the sentence was not only deferred but the judgment was deferred. They were not listed as convicted sex offenders or registered sex offenders and the victims were usually required to attend therapy with the person who had sexually assaulted them. We went in and said “You know this is really nuts. We think that if somebody rapes a child, somebody rapes a child and that just because the victim didn’t correctly choose their rapist, they shouldn’t have to see them go free.” We successfully changed this law. We changed it in North Carolina, Arkansas, West Virginia, New York, California and Illinois. We also see that in states that haven’t encoded it, there’s a terrible push to try to reunite the family under even the most egregious bizarre circumstances of abuse. It’s sort of an uphill battle. We have been pleased because on the federal level we have been getting a lot of money allocated for the ICAC ‘Internet Crimes Against Children’ task force. There are people who are able to trace the uploads of child pornography. We’re seeing that so much of child pornography is made by the child’s own family or people known to the child. When these videos are uploaded of children being sexually assaulted, the police trace these to that computer, they have an address and they can actually remove children who are being actively abused.

Q: Do you deal directly with any of the victims?

Alison: No, We fight and try to educate law makers, lawyers, judges and the general public about these issues. As an organization in changing laws we’re not providing direct service to the victims. Now mind you, several victims from some very extreme cases have decided to come forward and speak. We have a thing called Alicia’s law. Alicia Kozakiewicz was kidnapped, assaulted and tortured, and she was only found because they were able to trace the internet connection of her kidnapper. Had they not been able to do this, they would not have found her in time. She goes and speaks around the country about the need for these kinds of teams to be able to form child rescues.

Q: Is there anything else that you’d like to add?

Alison: Anyone can go to protect.org. We have a whole thing on the website on how people can get involved in the local level, the state level and the county level. Right now our big push, we’re calling it ‘not one more child coalition.’ Right now the child exploitation and child pornography situation has exploded so severely. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of people. This is in fact a state of emergency. We’re trying to get money to give to law enforcement teams and there is money available for the ICAC [Internet Crimes Against Children] teams but it isn’t being given out. We’ve heard from police departments that know where these people are. They have their addresses, they know what they’re doing, they’ve seen these videos of them abusing these children in the home and they simply don’t have the wherewithal and the man power to go and arrest them!

Our dear friend Sydney-5 passed away last night, very early this morning. 

My prayers are with her family, and my heart is with her, my dear friend.

I will be writing a memorial/tribute article.  A celebration of her life-- I'm working on a video, and hopefully will have it up soon.

Right now, it is all I can do to talk...  So, please forgive me, but I won't be around much this afternoon and evening.

Our dear friend Grisham, has also suffered a terrible loss-- his father passed away yesterday.  My thoughts and prayers are with he and his family today, too.

The last words I said to Sydney-5 were, "I love you."  I still do, my friend, that will never change.

His Facebook post read, in part, “I’m so sick of reading about this dumb stupid N - - - - - Whitney Houston.”

“I didn’t even realize I put it in until after I sent it,” he said.

 

. . . See answers in chart right.

Question #7 addressed the core issue we were investigating when we devised an instrument to attempt to gauge sentiment and style of expression about the controversy that erupted featuring the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops versus the Obama Administration over the rules for standard coverage for women's reproductive health under the Health Care Reform passed into law in March, 2010.