Bully

Some of us drove out to St. Joseph Hospital the other day to see the old boxer Joe Finazzo in his final hours. But it felt all wrong. There was Joe, lying on his back, which is a place no fighter wants to be found.''Let's get the hell outta here,'' somebody said to Joe. ''This place is for sick people.''It was a last, lame attempt to cheer him up. You think of the Finazzos, you think of boxing. You think of strong men who triumphed in a hungry time. You do not connect the wasted figure lying in the bed with the man of fight legend.

Del. Jon Cardin's recent comment on bullying suggesting that "kids were hurting kids" while "parents and teachers hadn't a clue" was remarkable ("Journey in grief leads to new curbs on bullying," May 2). Where has Mr. Cardin been? As a mother of three since 1980, my children and I can attest to the escalation and prevalence of bullying over the past 30 years. Teacher training on bullying in all its forms, including cyber-bullying, is provided at the start of every school year. Anti-bullying assemblies are held annually.

BOSTON - And so once more, we dip our ladle into the alphabet soup of character. Only this time the letter that keeps coming up is B for Bully. Ever since John R. Bolton was nominated to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, he's been described as abrasive, brash, difficult. He's been called a "serial abuser" of underlings and a "quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy." Questions about whether he has the T for Temperament to be our diplomat to the world body now have his nomination teetering.

Bryant's men's lacrosse team is one step closer to winning the Northeast Conference's first automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament after knocking off Sacred Heart, 11-9, on Thursday in Providence, R.I. For the Bulldogs, one of the more impressive turnarounds is nearly complete after the preseason NEC favorite started 0-7, losing six of those games by one or two goals, including two near misses vs. likely tournament teams Bucknell and Albany....

Q. I read your advice to the woman whose grandchild was being picked on at school. As chairperson of the Parent Focus Group for the Ribbon of Promise National Campaign to End School Violence (www.ribbonofpromise.org), I disagree with your solution. Children cannot handle the bully's behavior by themselves. They need the positive reinforcement of an adult to show the bully that such behavior is unacceptable. What parents should do when their child comes to them about bullying is support them and praise them for coming forward.

Based on the number of televised GOP candidate debates in 2008, we are just about halfway through the process with tonight's CNN-hosted debate on foreign policy. I am encouraged by the big audiences of up to 6 million tuning in for some of the debates. But I am dismayed by some of the show biz priorities the cable channels are surrendering themselves to in hopes of getting a piece of that tasty Nielsen pie. I am thinking here of CNBC using Jim Cramer as a moderator, and him sounding like Gilbert Gottfried in his first screaming, squawking question to the candidate.

WHAT COULD HAVE possessed 73-year-old John Chaney to do what he did? To send a student into a basketball game with instructions to give students from another school a lesson in how to act like a bully, a strong-arm enforcer, a thug. "I'm sending a message," Temple's coach said after a game last Tuesday night against Saint Joseph's, a rival Philadelphia university. "I'm going to send in what we used to do years ago ... send in the goon." Put yourself in the place of Nehemiah Ingram, a 22-year-old Temple senior.

SKIDMORE, Mo. - The people in this small town wonder how such horrible things could happen in a place they treasure for its friendly rural charms. First came the notorious "Skidmore bully," Ken Rex McElroy, whose death made national headlines. When somebody gunned him down in broad daylight in 1981, nobody would admit to having seen a thing. Then on Oct. 16, 2000, Wendy Gillenwater was stomped to death by her boyfriend. Local residents take comfort in knowing that the killer is serving life in prison.

Nearly 30 percent of U.S. teen-agers -- more than 5.7 million -- are involved in bullying behavior, either as a bully, a target of a bully or both. -- Journal of the American Medical Association

NORBIT Rating -- PG-13 What it's about -- A nerdy orphan marries an obese bully, of a family of obese bullies, only to have Ms. Right roll back into town. The Kid Attractor Factor -- Eddie Murphy in a fat suit. As a woman who swears, punches and breaks wind. Good lessons/bad lessons -- Don't marry out of gratitude. Violence -- Comic, involving beatings and harpoonings. Language -- Too blue to be a family film. Sex -- Implied, lewdly discussed. Drugs -- None. Parents' advisory -- OK for 13-and-older, but not as family friendly as Murphy's Nutty Professor, Daddy Day Care or Dr. Dolittle.

More than a year after a Howard County teen committed suicide following months of online harassment, county officials unveiled a program Wednesday meant to discourage bullying via computer and in person. "We know we need bold steps to really, truly take on this issue," Howard County Executive Ken Ulman said. "We need a full community solution. " The effort — which could start in the fall if the County Council approves a funding request of $250,000 —would use a mobile application called Sprigeo, an online reporting system that's already in use in about 20 school systems around the country, as a way to make it easier for witnesses to report bullying.

The mourners followed the coffin of 15-year-old Grace McComas out of the church and into the morning sunlight of a beautiful Easter season. Christine McComas carried her child's stuffed toy in the crook of her arm. Grief made her look almost wistful. As Grace's parents and her three sisters left the crowded St. Michael's Catholic Church in Mount Airy a year ago, they weren't thinking that their journey of grief would take them to Annapolis. But the determination of that grief-stricken mother to tell her daughter's story - powered by a Ravens player, Maryland's first lady and a state legislator - resulted in "Grace's Law," which Gov. Martin O'Malley is scheduled to sign Thursday.

Your editorial "Tyranny of the minority" (April 19) provided a clear and convincing picture of how poorly Americans have been served by a minority in Congress that has been bullied by the NRA. Most Americans realize that a sophisticated, well educated society needs to move beyond a vigilante, cowboy-like environment. They also understand that we are a diverse society that guarantees individuals the right to own a gun to protect their home, to hunt or to engage in sporting activities.

In what possible way is Dr. Ben Carson's belief that marriage is between a man and a woman "in conflict with [Johns Hopkins University's] core values of diversity, inclusion and respect," as Hopkins Dean of Medicine Dr. Paul B. Rothman put it in a letter to colleagues ("Hopkins chides Carson for gay-marriage remarks," April 6). Has it never occurred to Dr. Rothman and the left-wing progressives that redefining marriage is offensive to the vast majority of us who believe that marriage is, as Webster's puts it, "the state of being unified to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship.

The Cartoon Network continues its conversation with kids and families about speaking up against bullying with a special presentation of "The Bully Effect" at 5:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 28. Produced as part of the Cartoon Network's "Stop Bullying: Speak Up " initiative and presented commercial-free, the show is a half-hour CNN original documentary abridged for family audiences featuring additional original content, including a...

A federal lawsuit has been filed against the Harford County Public Schools and two school officials on behalf of a disabled student, who the suit claims was subjected to years of continuous bullying and threats from other students beginning when he was a student at Church Creek Elementary School and continuing when he was a student at Aberdeen Middle and High schools. The suit contends the school system not only failed to address the problem, but also failed to protect the student from the abuse.

An Anne Arundel County Circuit Court jury chose the middle ground yesterday and convicted an Annapolis teen-ager of manslaughter and a gun charge for fatally shooting a man he described as a bully who he claimed had threatened and tried to rob him.The conviction of Dante Ricardo Mitchell, 18, of the 1900 block of Copeland St. for killing Edward Jerome Scrivner, 24, of the 600 block of Chapelview Drive in Odenton gave a sense of hope and justice to the...

"In 'The Ant Bully' by John Nickle, a boy named Lucas is bullied by another boy, Sid. Just as Sid picks on him, Lucas picks on ants by squirting them with. The ants shrink Lucas to be as small as them and teach him a lesson: not to bully someone smaller than you." -- Jason Davis Jr. Cross Country Elementary "The book 'Demolition Derby' by Jeff Savage is a terrific book. The story is about cars crashing into each other to get the drivers out of the race. One reason I like this book is because I'm interested in demolition derby cars."

State lawmakers pass budget The General Assembly gave its final approval Friday to a $36.9 billion state operating budget for next year that whittles down Maryland's long-term revenue shortfall without raising taxes. The House and Senate signed off on a compromise reached by a conference committee. Their approval of the budget bill, which does not require Gov. Martin O'Malley's signature, came with little drama — a stark contrast with last year's passage of a budget in the session's final hours.

A bill inspired by the suicide of a teenage Howard County girl who was a victim of a harassment campaign over social media passed the House unanimously Saturday. The legislation now goes to the Senate. The measure seeks to outlaw the use of Internet-based sites such as Facebook and Twitter in the practice known as "cyber-bullying. " The bill is named "Grace's Law" after 15-year-old Grace McComas, whose family testified in support of the bill at its hearing this month. The Glenelg High School student took her life last Easter Sunday after months of malicious postings about her on social media sites.