An analysis was released this week by the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Sounds like a real snoozer, eh? But it found that nearly half of all children in the United States will be on food stamps at some point during their childhood. Considering the current recession, those numbers could be even higher. The study suggests that nearly every American knows a family that has received food stamps or will in the future. Broken down on racial lines, 90% of black children are expected to be on food stamps at some point during their childhood compared to 37% of white children. No other ethnic groups were included in the study.

Much of this is about expanding food stamp eligibility and thus teaching Americans how to become part of our culture of dependency. And ... to open this bag of worms again ... much of this is about adults having children that they know they cannot afford to raise. But who's watching, right?

One step at a time, in the days leading up to an Obama presidency .. we are getting closer and closer to government healthcare in this country. The latest step is the House passage of the Children's Health Insurance Plan bill (SCHIP). Now it's off to the Senate for approval. Then it is off to Obama's desk for him to sign once he is sworn in.

Don't forget that this is the bill Henry Waxman says, "This bill is a down payment, a down payment on health care for all Americans." Healthcare for all Americans is just another way of saying "healthcare that is run by the government."

Forty Republicans in the House said yes to the bill, despite some of the following criticisms ..

First of all, Republicans had little to no input into the bill. There's something they are going to have to get used to. Republicans claim that the bill would allow states to enroll families with incomes upwards of $80,000. Another reason they opposed the bill was because of "a provision in the measure that would lift a ban on providing the benefit to legal immigrants who have resided in the United States for less than five years." And finally, they were upset with a provision that would prohibit doctors from referring patients to hospitals that they (the doctors) have an ownership interest in. So we are talking about physician-owned hospitals. The private sector shall have a limited role in health care - how dare these providers of medical care actually own a facility for providing medical care? This makes about as much sense as forbidding a mechanic from owning the garage where he works.

As Waxman says, this bill is a down payment. This gets the foot in the door. And it is all happening without many Americans even batting an eye or picking up a phone to call their Senators.

You are going to love this one. In fact, when I first read it I wanted to call BS on the whole thing. I looked at the website, and it wasn't The Onion, so I'm going to operate on the assumption that this is true. Hey, I can be fooled so go figure this one out for yourself.

A Republican state senator in Utah is really putting his public service and taxpayer salary to good use. Michael Waddroups, of Taylorsville, wants to make sure that minors in restaurants do not see alcohol until it reaches the table. Children should be forbidden to see liquor bottles or drinks being poured by bartenders. Waddoups says, "Restaurants are turning into bars" .. oh no! .. "It's making it look attractive. Kids see it and wonder what they're missing. I think we need to be a little more strict." So his solution is to create a physical barrier that would block the view of any alcohol or bartenders in restaurants. Or he wants to require that all restaurants have a separate room, which the customers can't see, where bartenders can store alcohol and prepare drinks.

Now Utah is already pretty backwards when it comes to their alcohol laws. They already have this thing restaurants call the "Zion Curtain" which is a glass barrier that separates customers from bartenders. Utah also has a law that requires customers to fill out an application and pay a fee for the "right to walk into a bar." There's a new right to add to the books.

There was supposed to be a legislative meeting about this proposal last night. We'll let you know if we find out any more details ... in the meantime, join me in saying "Give me a freakin' break."

If you're a long-time listener to the show you know that I'm not a big fan of out-of-control, screaming kids. I prefer restaurants that do not have high chairs available, and I would love to see an airline ban children under 12 from first class. Constantly kicking the back of someone's seat should be treated as seriously as smoking in the lavatory, and the captain should land the airplane and kick the offending little brat off.

Actually, I shouldn't call that wonderful child a little brat. After all, It's not his fault that he is an out-of-control misbehaving menace. The fault lies with the parents; parents like that hideous woman I encountered in that Mackinac Island restaurant a few years ago. You remember her, don't you? Every time her toddler would utter a long, ear-piercing screech, would lean over and softly say "Are you through making noise now?' Dammit woman! Shut that kid up!

OK ... here's the latest. Kids in club-level lounges at swanky hotels. This is an adult lounge folks ... not a freaking day care center. They serve drinks there, not chocolate milk. This time it was a great hotel in Las Vegas. We were spending New Years in Vegas with friends, and we managed to score rooms on the Club Level. This was a great place to go after dinner to have a cordial or a cup of coffee and unwind. Well --- it would have been a great place if it hadn't been for the toddlers. There was one particular family at this hotel .. an extended family .. that had about five toddlers in tow. These people seemed to spend virtually their entire day in the lounge. I'm sure they were saving money on meals big-time, because every breakfast, lunch and dinner there they were ... with dishes piled high on a coffee table. As soon as their kids finished a stack of appetizers they immediately set about making a complete pest out of themselves to everyone else in the lounge. They would get out some board games and sprawl right in the main walkway through the lounge. To get from your table to the bar you had to step over about three game boards and countless game pieces. Through it all the adults just sat on their butts stacking up more plates on the coffee table.

What in the hell is the matter with parents out there? Are they blind? Can't they see that their children are creating a problem for other people? Now I can tell you exactly what would have happened if someone would have said something to the parents. The mother would immediately have started yelling "We're paying for a room here just like everyone else, and our kids have as much of a right to be in here as you do." Yeah, lady; you're right. Instead of complaining about your misbehaving children we should be congratulating you because your womb works.

We really do need a better breed of parents out there.

Here's a little study that came out of Berkeley ... the brains of higher income children function differently than the brains of low-income children. What they did is they tested the brain activity of 9 and 10-year-old kids. They were split into two groups - those who come from evil rich parents and those that come from so-called "less fortunate" households. Then they sat the children down and made them watch sequences of triangles on a screen. Every now and then, a slighted skewed triangle would flash on the screen and the children were instructed to click a button when they saw one. Meanwhile the researchers measured their brain activity in their prefrontal cortex. This is apparently the part of the brain that affects "executive functions" like personality, decision making and social behavior.

You can imagine the results. The children from lower incomes did poorly on the test. Not only did they perform poorly, but in some cases the lower income children responded comparably to "people who have had a portion of their frontal lobe destroyed by a stroke."

What conclusion does this lead us to? The evil rich have highly privileged children not just because of money but because the children are able to develop their brains.

I have at least two guesses here. First, children growing up in wealthy households have their minds challenged more often than children raised in poor households. It simply comes with the territory. If, as an adult, you earn your living (such as it is) with muscle power rather than with mind power .. then it should be no surprise that your children might lag just a bit when it comes to intellectual abilities. By the way .. those who make their livings with their minds are referred to as "privileged," while those who use muscle are referred to as the "working class."

The way to solve this, of course, is to take some of the money away from the "privileged" children who were raised by parents who made their living with their brains, and redistribute it to the children of parents from the so-called "working class."

I'm gonna buy ten kids a bicycle for Christmas.  Details in a moment ... but let me tell you why I'm doing this.

I think I was about 14 or 15 years old when this fateful Christmas came to pass.  I woke up Christmas morning and rushed into the living room, there to find two brand-new shiny 10-speed bicycles.  Now these 10-speeds were something new back then.  To have a 10-speed was to be one of the most bitchin' kids on the block ... and there they were!  Two of them under the tree!

I immediately recognized that something wasn't quite right. Two brand-spanking new 10-speeds, and three kids.  One of us was going to get screwed.  One of us wasn't getting a 10-speed. ... and I had no doubt who that someone would be.  It was then that I noticed an old black bicycle sitting to the side of the room.  It was a 3-speed with the shifter on the handlebars.  Not cool.  The paint was old and faded, the tires worn.  How in the world did Santa belch out this wreck along with those two 10-speeds?  Surely this must be some sort of a huge mistake.

Well .. you know exactly where this is going.  My brother and sister were the proud owners of the new 10-speeds, and the sad old wreck was mine.  Devastation!  I couldn't believe it!  I don't think I rode that bike three times max ... and the last time I rode it I "accidently" left it somewhere where it was sure to be stolen.  It was such a sad looking bicycle that I think it is probably still right there where I left it. 

So ... sometime in the next week or so I'm going to go out and buy ten brand new bicycles.  I already have mine (a Trek Pilot) so I'm going to give these away.  I need to find 10 kids who aren't looking forward to all that much on Christmas morning, and I'm asking you to be my elves.  Logistics demand that we have to limit ourselves to the Atlanta area.  I'm not shipping a bicycle to San Francisco.  So if you know a young curtain climber who is facing a glum Christmas perhaps you can send us some of the details.  Click here to send an email to the Boortz show. Tell us about the child .. and give us the necessary contact information for his or her parents.  We're going to get thousands of emails here ... and poor Cristina and Web Guy are going to have to go through them, verify and choose.  We'll try to get some pictures and let you know how this works out. 

Seriously! Ten dollars? A hundred dollars? If you were taking an 8-hour flight somewhere ... or heck, even a little puddle jumper for 45 minutes ... what would it be worth for you to sit in an area of an airplane that is guaranteed to be lacking in screaming, crying, misbehaved ankle biters?

There were rumors that an airline based Canada, WestJet, was considering a $10 fee for people who wanted to be guaranteed a seat in a section without infants. Question ... why just infants? There are a lot of parents who can't control their 4, 5, 8-year-old kids! And how about the fleshy fliers? You know, the big brutes with arms the size of your thighs covered with tattoos and wearing sleeveless shirts! But you will be sad to hear that the airline says the rumor is false. They say the notion is so ridiculous that they wouldn't even considering asking their guests if they would want something like this.

Let me send a little message to WestJet - go for it. This could send your business over the edge. Think about all the publicity. More importantly, think about all the people that would want that option!