All Night Long (All Night, All Night) All Night Long

I'm back after having spent time out of the country, I mean, hiking along a famous trail. No, just kidding. But I will have to decide whether to go back and look at the episodes I missed, watch them and then give my take on what happened, or just throw in the towel and move on. Time will tell, probably in a few days.

Moving on.

Stephen is angry and I don't blame him. As a result he is turning his back on South Carolina. This is because Mark Sanford beat up, I mean won the Congressional seat in South Carolina meaning that Elizabeth Colbert Busch lost. (You're still a winner to me, Lulu.) You may remember that Stephen is from South Carolina. No more. He's now from North Carolina. Wait, no, he's changed his mind again and he is from South Carolina because he loves it so much.

Why or why did his sister lose the race? What is wrong with the political landscape? There were a whole lot of things said or implied about his sister that were as far from truthiness as Pluto is from the sun. (Oh stop it blogger. Don't underline truthiness and try to tell me it's not a word. Can't you see I'm just as angry as Stephen is?)

The analysis continued with Stephen admitting that the First Congressional District of South Carolina (the Fighting First) is solidly Republican and lots of times, people just vote the way they always have without paying attention to the candidates. However, partisanship is hurting all of us. Congress can't decide if they are gridlocked or deadlocked. Some people are blaming the Republican Party because it's kind of splintered, or in a rift as Stephen said. Here's some proof. The GOP controlled House took two days to pass legislation that helped save helium. The Democrats would have been fine with just a unanimous voice vote.

Pause here for some commentary from Stephen about a voice vote about helium and also a suggestion for the next Representative from South Carolina. Just think balloons, helium balloons and you'll understand.

I thought I understood what partisanship was, but Stephen made me realize how really crazy it is. And how absolutely funny it sounds.

If anyone is hip, it is Stephen Colbert. And he should know. But enough about that. Diapers. (Insert you own quirky pun here, mine were all too gross to use.) Apparently some parents have decided against using diapers. It will help save the environment by not having all those discarded disposables. It won't use endless amounts of water washing cloth diapers. Forget about annoying diaper rash. I can see no down sides to this plan. The plus side is parents will be able to figure out when the kid is going to go and hold them over the sink of toilet. Okay, I can think of one down side and that one think is now sitting in the bottom of the sink at that public restroom at _____ . (Please.... fill in the blank here and not with some favorite store or place that I frequently go to for books, groceries or fast food.)

This seemingly perfect system actually does have a down side. It's called the crib, in that the baby is going to be there all night long and of course you're not going to wait all night ready to hold the baby over the sink or toilet. Do I need to tell you that Stephen has the solution? Do I need to tell you that it's Kiddie Litter?

I'm going to go out here on a limb and say that there may be a few people who can see disadvantages to hordes of babies roaming the street with no diapers. Parents who are thinking this is a good idea, listen to some advice, please. "It stinks." There, I said it. You may think this is a loving thing to do to your wonderful child, but you are not really doing anyone a favor. You are going to have to clean up a lot of messes when neither baby or parent communicated or understood about the need now for a toilet. You are going to clean up that mess, right? Even if you are able to never show disappointment at accidents, you can't stop other people from being astounded. Read some books on child development, and not just by one author. Read a diverse group of authors about a diverse range of theories of how to raise a happy healthy child. Don't fall for the latest craze. Listen to that lady on the bus that tells you to put a diaper on that baby. She is obviously smarter than you.

Sure this may be a tried and true practice that is centuries old and done in many cultures. But is your day care mom going to be able to do this with the four kids she is taking care of? I mean, no one can hold four kids over the toilet at the same time if they are all on the same schedule. What this turns out to be is toilet training Mom to be ready to hold baby over the toilet a lot. If that is all you have to do each day, this may just work. If you have other things to do, such as cleaning, cooking, driving the dog to the vet, then this may not be the path you want to take. Here's something I found with a little bit more info about what really is involved.

Here's something that is kind of nice. Stephen had a doctor on the show - Dr. Richard Besser - Chief Health and  Medical Editor for ABC News. He had good advice for all of us, maybe not for Stephen who is such a perfect specimen, but for the average Joe. Diet to help lose weight, exercise to build a strong heart. So, do both regardless of the advice Stephen is trying to give us. Now we see the benefit of having experts on for the guest portion of the show. Stephen found out from Dr. Richard Besser, that, for example, supplements that claim to improve parts of your day to day life don't have to be approved by the FDA. Dr. Besser is not a big fan of everyone taking multi-vitamins, pregnant women, yes, but as Stephen was quick to point out, he (Stephen) is not a pregnant woman! Yearly check-ups? Also not a fan of that. He says it is better to be in tune with your body so you know when something is wrong and then can go to the doctor. Stephen brought up several good points. Good for you, Stephen.

And here I go out in a limb again. It goes without saying that a doctor would be in tune with his body and know when something was wrong. But the average Joe does not know, perhaps, what is normal an what is not normal. Stephen had an example. A doctor would most likely know the range of normal for blood pressure, weight, hearing, and a whole bunch of other health conditions. Some people just don't know what makes a body tick. Here's an example. Surely you've heard the joke with the punchline, "You want me to put that large pill where?


Next, Stephen wanted to talk about doctors on TV. (I wonder where this is headed because I think Dr. Richard Besser is a doctor on TV, or at least he was while he was on The Colbert Report, right? (Zing!) They had some nice chit chat about doctors on TV. Should we trust them? Should we believe them? Ah... Dr. Richard Besser told Stephen that some doctors on TV may be just trying to sell you something. "I assume you are giving this book away." (Double Zing!) Oh, yeah. Stephen just scored a free copy of the book "Tell Me The Truth, Doctor."

Now if only they would have had time to talk about diapers. sigh...