I don't know if the timing was planned with Mother's Day in mind but TIME magazine sure got some attention this weekend with its current cover. This week's issue shows a pretty blonde woman, 26-year-old Jamie Lynne Grommet, breastfeeding her 3-year-old son, Aram. The child, wearing Army camo pants, is standing in a chair so he can better suckle, as both mother and son look intently into the camera, the accompanying words read, "Are You Mom Enough?" 

As you can imagine, there has been a furor over fact a 3-year-old is still nursing and mothers across the country are weighing in on what we learn is "attachment" parenting.  "We knew what we were getting into and I expected a backlash," the mother/model told the Los Angeles Times, "but I've had total strangers walk up to me on the street and say they are going to call social services or it is child molestation." 

While it is a hot topic on the websites were I do my morning reading, breast-feeding is the most natural thing in the world and I figure it is up to each individual mom when they wean a youngster. What little I know, I am convinced that when a small child starts getting nourishment elsewhere things work themselves out. 

Then again, there was a touching article out of Kansas City where a young mother has a child who is nearly three and a baby who is six months. The younger child is still breast-feeding but, sometimes, when the older one needs comfort and love, he'll still nurse a bit. What's wrong with that? 

A mother knows what is best for her kids. I remember watching a dishelved homeless man cross the street once and Ben Haden, who was riding in my car, remarked, "That guy's mother still thinks he'll one day become the President of the United States." 

So let's simply let the kid's mother decide, just like other moms do so wonderfully with more important things in a young child's life. That said, here are some other things that catch my eye as we pause to thank mothers everywhere .... 

* * * 

Did you see where the polo magnate from Florida, millionaire John Goodman, will serve at least 11 years in jail after being found guilty of a DUI that left a victim dead after Goodman's Bentley automobile knocked the guy's car into a Florida canal? 

Goodman, you'll remember, legally adopted his 42-year-old girl friend in an effort to secure his financial empire and make her a beneficiary of his trust before the trial. Goodman, also charged with vehicular homicide, didn't stop after hitting young Scott Wilson and the jury, deliberating just over five hours, found him guilty on all counts. 

* * * 

President Obama will award the nation's highest honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor, to an Army soldier who was killed in 1970 on Wednesday. Spec. Leslie Sabo, Jr., will be honor posthumously at the White House for bravery in Cambodia 41 years ago. Apparently the paperwork for the Medal of Honor citation was lost back then and finally Sabo's widow and brother will accept the award on the rifleman's behalf. 

* * * 

There is a huge Billy goat in Norway who just got a blessed reprieve after he terrorized a mother and a child, running them up a tree, and then ferociously butted a Constable who answered the melee. Blessed? Yes, the goat is named Jesus. 

The owner, farmer Tor Launes, was going to roast the goat but a throng of animal activists got involved. Farmer Launes offered to sell the goat -- or trade Jesus for some "altar wine," but the goat, suspecting something was ominous, escaped, causing his owner to go all over the tiny island where they stay and ... well, call out for Jesus. 

Well, it now seems Tor worded the ad to sell the horned goat in such a way a winsome farm-girl answered, thinking the ad was for a female instead of a goat.  So now Farmer Laundes is following up on the romantic offer and says if love will win in the end, Jesus did a noble job. 

* * * 

A Florida entrepreneur decided to get some gun-range targets that looked like a hooded prowler. The targets -- 8 for $10 -- had no face but the similarity to the Trayvon Martin tragedy was unmistakable. The targets sold out in just two days. 

* * * 

A friend told me the other day he had heard things were slow one day in Heaven so God called the devil to find out business was slow in Hades too. God suggested a dog show and the devil scoffed, "You know all the dogs are in heaven!" God replied, "But all the judges are down there with you." 

royexum@aol.com