Dark Ridge: by LL Rucker, ISBN;1589614607 Available by order at: http://www.bn.com/,

http://www.amazon.com/, and at the PageFree Publishing website at: http://www.pagefreepublishing.com/

I put these links, and a picture of my latest book up here because I need your help. Well, that's not strictly true. I'm not the one who needs the help, at least not this time, all though I think this idea will benefit me as much as it does others.

Yesterday I watched the Oprah show and Bono was on there, as was Alicia Keys and Kanye West. Everyone who has ever heard of Bono knows that he is passionate about the AIDS pandemic in Africa, as we all, as human beings should be.

The AIDS virus has reached terrifying proportions in Africa and the number of infected is staggering.

Sub Sahara Africa bears the brunt of the AIDS epidemic with almost three quarters of the deaths from Aids in 2006 happening there, and nearly two thirds of those living there are infected with the AIDS virus.

UN AIDS sources report that there are over 39.5 million people now living with AIDS. Sources report that there were 4.3 million new HIV cases reported this year (2006) with 2.6 million of these new cases reported in Sub Saharan Africa.

In 2006 alone some 2.9 million died of AIDS related illnesses. 2.9 million people. That is the population of a moderate sized city. Imagination an entire city the size of Chicago wiped out in a single year.

The numbers are absolutely staggering, but even more frightening is the number of newly infected people. Women are becoming more at risk now because of unprotected sex . Men who use prostitutes, or have sex with other men, then go home to their wives and pass the deadly disease on to them.

Rape in the war torn countries in Africa have caused widespread AIDS among younger women and girls and even younger boys and men.

Below is a graff which shows the numbers we, as a world community are dealing with.

As you can plainly see, the numbers are staggering, but in Africa it has become very close to extinction level in it's spreading.

So, we have to help. We have to do something to try and stop the spread of this deadly disease.

With that in mind, I am trying to create a relief fund called, W.H.A.T. that will not only help those infected with this deadly disease, but also promote literacy as well, not to mention bring the talents of some wonderful writers to the attention of the world.

I am trying to form a group of writers to help me with this battle. I want to get as many self-published, or small press authors together, and offer portions of our royalties to the AIDS relief fund, either through Bono's Debt AIDS Trade Africa, or DATA, and/or through Oprah's Angel Network to keep a child with AIDS alive. The name of this group of dedicated authors is: W.H.A.T. which stands for: Writers Helping with AIDS Treatment.

Not many people actually know how much money an unknown author actually makes off their books.

In my case, I make $1.27 off of every book I sell. Not a huge amount by any stretch of the imagination. But, I don't write for the money, so much as for the story. However, this time, with this book, Dark Ridge, I AM doing it for the money.

My goal is to sell 100,000 copies of my book worldwide and I pledge fifty cents, approximately 40% from every copy sold to the AIDS Africa fund. That comes out to roughly $50,000.00 for medicine to keep children infected with AIDS in Africa alive.

I will instruct my publisher to cut a check for Bono's DATA or Oprah's Angel Network for that fifty cents per copy sold every quarter for a full year. That is my pledge to do my part to help keep the children, the mothers, of Africa alive and to provide as many of them with the necessary medicine as that fifty thousand dollars will supply.

Okay, so now I need your help. If you are a reader, please, go to one of the above websites and order DARK RIDGE. If you are a writer, self published or small press published and you want to extend a helping hand by contributing a portion of your royalties for a full year to this cause, please contact me at: writersforaidsrelief@yahoo.com

Please help. May your life be free of this deadly disease, and remember, but for the grace of your God, go you.

I wanted to comment about the recent execution in Florida and the hue and cry that has been raised about it.
Okay, granted, it was botched and the person or persons responsible for the error need to be re-assigned, but come on folks get real.
So it took the murdering scum thirty minutes and two doses of the lethal injection to die. Are we supposed to feel sorry for the guy? He took a life; coldly, brutally, and without remorse. He made children orphans, a spouse widowed and for what? A few lousy bucks? And we're supposed to get all weepy eyed and outraged because he took thirty minutes to die?
Sorry, I don't. I think we have shown enough humanity for these people by giving them lethal injections instead of making them ride the lightening, as Steven King so eloquently called it in the Green Mile. Old Sparky has been retired, and a kinder, gentler way of doing away with baby raping, child murdering scum has become the accepted norm.
Well, maybe not accepted, because there are still opponents of the death penalty on both sides of the aisle.
But, are we really expected to feed, clothe and house these idiots for the rest of their lives? Do we really have to provide them with cable TV, libraries, three hots and a cot, laundry service, an education, games, entertainment, and a myriad of other diversions, at our expense, while their victims and the victims families struggle daily to survive the heartbreak and the loneliness for the rest of their lives?
Bullbutter!! I have always maintained that the punishment should fit the crime and I still do. If some bastard rapes, tortures and murders a child, he dies, painfully and slowly would be best, but he dies regardless, and not in ten, or twenty years, but as soon as his appeals have been denied. And why should he be given ten twenty appeals. If the supreme court or the court of appeals says no, then he's done. Why try to garner sympathy from another court? Did that murdering bastard offer any sympathy for his victim or the victims family? Nope.
I, for one, am not willing to spend a single dime giving comfort to a murderer, or a drug dealer, who deals poison and death to children, or a kidnapper, who tortures an innocent or murders him because he might be able to identify him a few years down the road.
Terrorists, deserve no sympathy, and no lengthy prison sentence. Execute the bastards before they get the chance to take the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of Innocent people.
We, as a nation have become far too weak and wimpy in our own defense. Political correctness has all but crippled us and made us a nation of weaklings and whiners. We think it better to molly coddle suspected terrorists and make sure their rights are not violated, but give that same terrorist a bomb and see how much he will coddle us.
We have a right to bear arms, We have a right to protect our homes and our families, We have a right to the pursuit of happiness, and we have a right to expect to live in peace, unmolested.
I for one am not willing to let political correctness ever put my family or my way of life in jeopardy.

Is it just me, or have people lost their freaking minds? What on Earth would possess three intelligent men to actually set out to climb Mt. Hood in the freaking winter for crying out loud? Why would they put their families through that kind of hell and ruin the holidays for everyone who loves them?
I don't get it. I know folks climb mountains because they're there, but wouldn't it have made a hell of a lot more sense to wait until spring? Why do it now, in the the winter or actually the late fall, when they had to know the weather was iffy at best?
What was it that these three guys had to prove that couldn't wait until spring?
So, now we have friends and families waiting, praying and hoping that they will see their loved ones alive, and well, and all praying for a Christmas miracle, that sadly for one family will never come. And why? Because it was there? Is that sufficient reason to put your family and friends through this agony of waiting, hoping and praying? I can't see it.
NO matter how good a climber you are, no matter how experienced you think you are, Mother Nature is stronger and will not be denied. So why challenge her in this way?
All I can do is shake my head in amazement and send good thoughts to the families of the two remaining climbers.