A strong earthquake as hit Japan and shaken Tokyo and surrounding areas.  A professional baseball game was halted for a time, and trains were shut down temporarily until the earthquake subsided.  According to reports, the earthquake hit at 7:56 p.m.  The quake has been measured at 6.9 by the Japan Meteorological Agency, and 7.1 by the United States Geological Survey.  It hit about 200 miles south-southwest of Tokyo.

At this time no reports of injuries or deaths have been reported.  Japan is prone to earthquakes; in fact, about 20% of the world’s earthquakes occur in Japan.  Some experts believe Japan has a 90% chance of being struck by a major earthquake within the next 50 years.  An earthquake that struck Japan in 1995 measured 7.2 and killed 6,400 people.

Mark Sanford’s affair with an Argentinian woman is wrong, of course.  After all, he’s Governor of South Carolina, a married man, and a father.  What was he thinking when he ran off to Argentina to see his girlfriend?  I think he should resign.  But then, I also thought Bill Clinton should have resigned after his affairs were brought to light.

Sanford’s lying is wrong too, of course.  The leader of the State of South Carolina should be held accountable for his behavior.  Whatever happened to governors and presidents being held to a higher standard of behavior?  Sanford has brought shame on himself, his family, and the great State of South Carolina.  That’s what I say anyway.

Yes, Mark Sanford had an affair with Argentinian woman but the real problem is his lying.  He left the country and presumably no one knew where he was. As a governor, I’m sure he knew he was accountable to the people of his state for his actions or missing in action as you will. His staff had to lie for him since they had no idea where he was.  His affair is the least of his problems. I have more problems with the way he behaved by leaving the country, not telling where he went, and forcing his staff to lie for him. That is totally unacceptable for a leader.  I don’t care what party he is with (BTW, I’m a strong conservative). 

Mark’s and Maria’s emails are written well and beautiful to read. It sounds like they are really in love but he still had commitments to meet. I’m talking about professionally not even mentioning his family at this point. Just focusing on his governorship.  Family is a whole other subject. I never even heard of this man until this scandal broke out yesterday. Early in the week, I was aware of his missing. I personally was thinking something horrible happened to him. Boy was I wrong.

My opinion - his affair isn’t as bad as his lying.  Let’s face it many people have affairs so at least it wasn’t with a prostitute ring. The emails read like they really do love each other. 

Sanford should step down as governor for his lying to his staff and not capable of thinking clearly. Just my opinion

Bill Maher went on a rant on his HBO television program Friday night, and he criticized President Obama for being obsessed with appearing on television. Maher accused Obama of not doing enough — or hardly anything — to get our country on track. Amazingly, Maher said Obama should be a little more like George Bush, but it still turned into a backhanded insult to Bush.

More and more people, including Obama’s supporters, are starting to stand up and criticize him for his lack of leadership and socialistic policies. And people are noticing that every time you turn on the television, Obama is on it!

The media, other than Fox News, act like Obama’s cheerleaders and just keep giving him a pass for making bad decisions and being out of touch with middle America. As more and more people continue to speak out, maybe the media will start to hold Obama accountable for his actions.

The David Letterman, Sarah Palin conflict is still in the news, and some are calling for the firing of Letterman, saying he should be held accountable for the inappropriate jokes regarding Palin’s 14-year-old daughter.  Letterman did backtrack his raunchy comedy somewhat on his show, but he didn’t actually come out and apologize to Palin.  In fact, he made more jokes about it.

There is said to be a petition calling for Letterman’s firing that is going around the Internet with 3,000 names.  I did an unscientific survey among family members and acquaintances to find out if they believe Letterman should be fired or his inappropriate jokes about Palin’s daughter.  The majority did not think Letterman should be fired.

David Letterman told his audience last night that he regrets the tasteless joke he made earlier this week about Sarah Palin’s daughter. The joke was about Palin’s daughter getting “knocked up” by New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez while attending a game at Yankee Stadium. Many took the joke to mean he was joking about Palin’s daughter getting raped. The daughter he joked about is only 14 years old, although he said later he intended the joke to be about the 18-year-old daughter.

I think the reason this incident has infuriated so many people is because they feel politicians’ children should be off limits to this kind of behavior. Comedians have always poked fun at politicians and public figures, and the belief is that people who are public figures are fair game. But their children are not fair game.

Although Letterman said he regretted the joke, he made light of it and didn’t actually apologize, and he should have at least done that.