Today on my radio show (1410AM WRJD) the main topic of conversation was….what else?  The $150,000 spent by the Republican National Committee to give Sarah Palin a makeover.  Her makeover included a $50,000 shopping spree at Saks Fifth Avenue and a $75,000 baby boomer diva trip to Neiman Marcus.  According to reports, she also bought her children and husband lavish outfits as well.  She continues to receive an $18,000 clothing allowance per week until the campaign is over.  After that, her hand-me-downs will be donated to charity.

Callers were outraged over this action by the RNC.  They couldn’t understand how Sarah could portray herself as a Hockey Mom.  Don’t they all shop at Wal-Mart and Target they said?  How dare the Republican Party say they are about helping the middle-class and trying to fix the economy when they frivolously throw away that kind of money!

Personally, I don’t see what the fuss is all about.  As I told them, if they didn’t make a contribution to the Republican campaign then they should have no beef.  Let the Republicans spend their money any way they choose.   And if you did make a contribution and it upsets you that much, just ask for a refund.

Needless to say, I wasn’t very popular today.

The most famous person in America is not JOE-Mama.  It’s Joe the Plumber.  As soon as presidential hopeful Barack Obama mentioned his name during the last debate, opponent John McCain grabbed hold of it like a pit bull and wouldn’t let up.

Joe the Plumber became the voice for every hard-working “wanna be self-employed” man in America. Initially I was proud of Joe because he represented my home state of Ohio---but then, as all good journalists do, I started looking into his background and what I found now makes me think he was a “plant” for the Republican Party.

First of all, Joe said he was a plumber and would like to buy a plumbing business but was worried about Obama's planned tax increases on small business owners earning more than $250,000.  Well, what Joe failed to mention was that he makes no where near $250,000 and, furthermore, he doesn’t even have a license to do his job.  The county Joe and his employer live in, Lucas County, requires plumbers to have licenses. So what’s up with that Joe?

Another thing, Joe admitted later on that he doesn't have a good plan put together on how he would buy Newell Plumbing and Heating from his boss.  He said he's worked there for six years and that the two have talked about his taking it over at some point.  Just how long is “some point?”  It could be next week or it could be in 10 years.  Surely Obama won’t be in office by then.

"There's a lot I've got to learn," Joe the Plumber told a reporter.

Joe, you said it right.  There’s A LOT you need to learn so here’s my advice:  Meet Joan—The Teacher.  She’s someone who went to school, got a degree (license) and could certainly teach you a thing or two---especially if you’re required to take some kind of test to get your plumber’s license.

She was having a stroke. Doctors later concluded the stroke probably was due to several related factors, including birth control pills, a venous blood clot, sexual intercourse and a heart defect.

Doctors at Loyola University Medical Center describe the unusual case in the Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Disease.

Birth control pills slightly increase the risk of blood clots. Doctors believe a small clot formed in one of the veins in her thigh, broke loose and traveled to the right atrium (the heart's upper right pumping chamber). Normally in such cases, the clot will get pumped out of the right atrium and travel to the lungs, where it may harmlessly dissolve.

In this case, there was a hole in a wall of the heart separating the right atrium from the left atrium. Pressure changes in the heart, triggered by sexual intercourse, enabled the clot to travel through the hole from the right atrium to the left atrium. From there, the clot traveled up to the brain. It lodged in a narrow blood vessel, blocking blood flow to an area of the brain that controls movements on the left side of the body, said Dr. Jose Biller, co-author of the report and chairman of the Department of Neurology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has sent a letter to the founders of Ben and Jerry's asking them to replace cow's milk with human breast milk in the products.

The 'People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' say using human breast milk would lessen the suffering of dairy cows and their babies on factory farms and benefit human health.

The letter read, in part:  Storchen restaurant (in Switzerland) is set to unveil a menu that includes soups, stews, and sauces made with at least 75 percent breast milk procured from human donors who are paid in exchange for their milk. If Ben and Jerry's replaced the cow's milk in its ice cream with breast milk, your customers-and cows-would reap the benefits.

Using cow's milk for your ice cream is a hazard to your customer's health. Dairy products have been linked to juvenile diabetes, allergies, constipation, obesity, and prostate and ovarian cancer. The late Dr. Benjamin Spock, America's leading authority on child care, spoke out against feeding cow's milk to children, saying it may play a role in anemia, allergies, and juvenile diabetes and in the long term, will set kids up for obesity and heart disease-America's number one cause of death.

So would you prefer chocolate or vanilla?

When it’s raining cats and dogs—like it was today in my neck of the woods—there are just some things you shouldn’t do:

1)  Don’t waste time:  Rainy days are perfect days to just lounge around and do nothing.  What better time to just stay in bed all day and listen to the rhythm of the falling rain?  But that is certainly counterproductive when you could be doing other things like:

a)  Making business calls

b)  Scouting for new clients

c)  Working on outstanding projects

d)  Clear out and respond to emails

e)  De-clutter your office space

2)  Don’t stop thinking:  Rainy days are a good time to go back to the drawing board and take a look at your business.  You can give thought to better ways to doing some things and even come up with ideas for future projects.

3)  Don’t stop dreaming:  “Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you.”

4)  Don’t go to the beauty salon:  Who, in their right mind, would spend $50 plus to look like a “Diva”; only to step outside and risk a complete curl collapse? 

I hope it didn’t rain on your parade (or your hair) today.

Did you know that only 36 of 2,380 delegates seated on the Republican convention floor were black, the fewest since the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies began tracking diversity at political conventions 40 years ago.

Each night, the overwhelmingly white audience watched a series of white politicians step to the lectern — a visual reminder that no black Republican has served as a governor, U.S. senator or U.S. House member in the past six years.

Nationally, two-thirds of Americans are non-Hispanic whites, 12.4 percent are black and 14.8 percent are Hispanic, according to the Census Bureau's 2006 numbers.

BEAUTY PARLOR: A place where women curl up and dye.