Why To Vote in the Mid-Terms

It's simple - anyone who tells you "it's not worth voting since all politicians are the same" is lying!

Are the Democrats perfect? Well, no. But the Democrats:

• Believe in raising the minimum wage - Republicans do not.
• Believe in stronger gun background checks - Republicans do not.
• Believe in supporting the Violence Against Women Act consistently - Republicans voted against it in 2013, but enough supported it in 2014 that it was finally renewed.
• Believe in keeping the government up and running - Republicans do not.
• Believe in government support of peer-reviewed scientific research - Republicans do not.
• Believe in bringing rapists in the military to justice - Republicans do not.
• Believe the US must pay its debts - Republicans do not.

So I will vote for the party who cares more about supporting the people than what the Koch Brothers and ALEC tell them to do - I will vote for Democrats. I used to vote Republican regularly, but, over the years, the Republicans have become the party of the rich and cares little about this country as a whole. And that's very sad.

Don't Stay In a Relationship When Someone Beats You

I have always known about abused women because, as early as in high school, I knew girls who were beaten up by their boyfriends. As much as I wanted a boyfriend, I swore I would never be in a relationship where a man beat me.

While my parents were argumentative, I never saw either parent ever lay a hand each other. And the same is true of Jim and me - we certainly argue (especially when we were younger) but we don't beat one another.

People need to expect to be in relationships that include mutual respect. If it includes beating, the person needs to leave.

Now, I certainly understand why women, in particular might stay - status, financial issues, if there are kids involved...but that goes back to needing to have a positive self-image, which, sadly, many women don't have. And I'm sorry if this comes off as being too judgmental about women like Janay [Ray Lewis's fiance now wife]...but I'd rather work in WalMART (and I despise WalMART) than be in a relationship where a man treated me badly.

But, the fact is, women are trained, particularly by many religious, to be subservient to men. That leaves men thinking that they have the right to abuse women, that they have ownership.

Enough already.

So how to we raise our children to know:

• You don't beat people
• You don't let yourself be beaten
• You don't stay in a relationship where you are beaten

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What City Has the Most Bridges and Why Is This Fact Unfindable on the Web?

I am a trivia fanatic. I grew up glued to College Bowl, Jeopardy and almost memorizing the '70s version of the Guinness Books of World Records.

When I was younger and had a better memory, it was easy to memorize trivial facts because they are facts. Tom Hanks won the Best Actor Oscar for Forrest Gump the year after winning one for Philadelphia. Easy. The Union beat the Confederacy in the Civil War. Clearly a fact though some people might still argue that particular one.

I do a little work for a company that gives tours of Pittsburgh. I know one trivial fact about Pittsburgh we always said was "Pittsburgh has the second most bridges in the world after Venice." Makes sense. Both are cities with rivers/canals and loads of bridges that go over them. I visited Venice in 1974, and saw many, many tiny bridges that were walkways over narrow canals all over town. The next year, I moved to Pittsburgh to go to college and saw a very different landscape - bridges over much wider rivers, and bridges that went between the many ridges and hills in the area.

But yesterday I was talking to a woman from Hamburg, Germany who was insistent that Hamburg had the most number of bridges of any city in the world. I really don't know anything about Hamburg, so I tried to look it up online...And found it was really hard. Because the first "fact" about "most bridges in a city" was from ask.com - and it was completely wrong. Ask.com claims that Pittsburgh has the most bridges of any city - more than Venice, even - 446. Venice only has 409. So Pittsburgh has more bridges than Venice.

But, after digging a little more, I found that Hamburg has at least 2300 bridges. Maybe it's a geographically huge city, because that's a lot of bridges.

So vis a vis bridges, Hamburg was #1, Pittsburgh was #2 and Venice was #3.

But then someone said "What about Amsterdam?" so I looked - and Amsterdam has 1281 bridges.

So that means ask.com is at least doubly-wrong about the number of bridges; Hamburg is #1, Amsterdam is #2, Pittsburgh is #3 and Venice is #4.

Ask.com has no obvious place to send corrections.

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And I am curious about this, so if you know about a city that has at least 400 bridges and a way online to verify this fact, send it to me and I'll keep a running tally here.

Cities with the Most Bridges

last updated 4/15/2016

• Hamburg, Germany: 2,300
• Amsterdam, Netherlands: 1,281 -- a site in Dutch seems to say Amsterdam has over 2,300 bridges
• New York, New York, USA: 788
• Pittsburgh, PA, USA: 446
• Venice, Italy: 409
• Seattle, WA, USA: 149

Cities that probably have loads of bridges but I can't find a specific number:
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Live in Southcentral PA & Know a Person with a Dark-Colored Ford Ranger XLT Pickup with Recent Damage?

Just read of a tragic gun murder in Pennsylvania, yet another example of crazy people having access to guns.

If you live in southcentral Pennsylvania, northcentral Maryland or northeastern West Virginia, and you know someone with a dark colored Ford Ranger XLT pickup with damage on the driver's side from ramming another car on 1/5, you may know a murderer.

CNN's coverage of this story.

Please share this information around if you live in the region - you may know someone who'd murder a random motorist, and who may be connected to one or two other shootings in the region over the last few months. You can help find the murderer of Timothy Davison if you share the CNN story with others, and if you be on the lookout for a dark colored Ford Ranger XLT pickup.

Of course, if you do know a gun owner who owns this kind of truck, talk to the cops. Don't try to be a hero or, for that matter, accuse an innocent person of a murder.