So, why am I going on about this again *now*?  Well, two reasons.  The first is because they have once again been pushing through with some bloggers on additional “Thank You Mom” posts, but the second is much more personal.  I have gone on (and on and on) about LatteGirl and her Ice Skating, here, on Twitter, IRL and anywhere else I can, and I know some of you at least are probably tired of hearing about it by now.  This week however, while LatteGirl is up in Boston competing at the ISI World Team Championships 2010, I am back at home, and it is this that is currently making me (despite my tag line), just a bit bitter.

As many already know, I take a very active interest in her skating.  I attend every competition I possibly can, I cheer her on as much as anybody can, heck I started taking ice skating lessons just to be able to have a better understanding of terms, and be able to spend some time with her in her element.  But just as important (I believe), I fund all of this.  So, no I am not in Boston right now, not because I don’t want to be there, but because we cannot afford for me to be there.  Besides the additional expense of me actually taking the trip, then we would have to board the dogs, and I would have to sacrifice income… Income that we need for her to be able to be able to participate in these events.

Tell me the truth, isn’t that worth a little appreciation for what Dad does?  No, I am not there, but that doesn’t make me any less of a supporter in her interests.  The title of this is a bit off, but I don’t know another way to put it.  I am not necessarily looking for a pat on the back, nor do I think most mothers do it for that reason.  They do it for the benefit of their kids as I do.  But, I guess it seems that marketers these days are falling all over themselves nowadays to ensure they are pitching to Mom, that Dad sort of gets forgotten in his role.  Don’t forget Dad, he cares too.

But I must admit, it has been a long time since I have really enjoyed the holiday.  People talk about Xmas losing its “meaning” (don’t get me started on that one), but I don’t know if any holiday has lost more of its true meaning than Memorial Day.

What is Memorial Day?  Memorial Day (originally Decoration Day) is a day set aside to Honor and commemorate those that lost their lives defending this country in a time of war.

Now I am not saying that people need to sit around and mourn or be solemn on this day.  I actually think and like the traditions of Barbecues and festivities that often take place.  Think of it as a giant Irish Wake to celebrate the lives of these brave men and women that have given their lives.

What Memorial Day ISN’T.

It isn’t JUST the “unofficial start of summer.”  While you are enjoying those burgers and cold drinks, don’t forget to remember those people that gave their lives so that you could enjoy those things.

Just as importantly (though some may not realize they are doing this), Memorial Day is most definitely NOT a day to use the military as your political pawn.  It is not a day to try and tell people how much more patriotic you are than somebody else.

It is not a day to make a statement about policies you would like to see enacted (or repealed).

Using these brave souls as a tool on this day is a disgrace to their memories… but yes, you do have a right to do it if you want, thanks at least in part to their sacrifices.

Remember those that have died in defending our country.

Celebrate in their honor.

Thank those living that continue to carry on those missions.

Leave the rhetoric until Tuesday… don’t worry, it isn’t going anywhere.

It was really a fairly innocuous tweet from Lucretia M Pruitt (@LucretiaPruitt on Twitter), that really got me started again… but I really guess I should start with a little back story first, so insert the wavy screen filter and dreamy music as I bring you back a couple of years ago.

Here we are, circa 2007 or so.  My daughter whining about wanting a cell phone.  After all, “all her friends had them,” and she wanted one too.  It was also a time when you couldn’t open a newspaper without hearing stories about kids texting in class, and schools banning cell phone, and other such stuff.  I was honestly confused at the time.  Why were parents buying kids cell phones at such young ages?  I wasn’t indignant about it (more on that in a minute), but just couldn’t see the rationality of it.  Then slowly people started giving some rally valid points.  Kids in more than one place at more than one activity, was one of the first that really resonated with me.  But surely I didn’t have that issue since I only had one to worry about.  Some pointed out the GPS feature in case of a child being abducted, but that to me was more about marketing attempting to scare folks into buying a phone, because more than likely that phone would get tossed by the abductor.

Fast forward to 2009, and my daughter would be finishing her ice skating camp approximately 1/2 before anybody could get there to pick her up.  Now there was plenty of things to do and to keep her occupied for that half hour.  But there was something missing.  Something that didn’t fit in with our “in case of emergency plan” of making sure she had change to call one of us should the need arise.  That problem… there was no pay phone.  Look around.  There aren’t many left, and even fewer that actually function.

We thought about it… not for very long, and I went out and picked her up a Pre-paid mobile phone.  I sat down with my princess and explained the rules to her.  I explained the charges, and what limits she had to abide by.  A year later, she has followed those rules quite well… and it has worked out that we feel quite comforted that she can get in contact with us at any time in case of emergency. (Quick Pimp… This is what lead me to review the new Kin Phones from Microsoft, which I have done on my new Review Blog)

So now, we are considering the next step, and that is giving her a better phone.  Back in 2007, I was dead set against this, but in reality, it was trying to keep her little, and not acknowledging that times are different.  Markedly so.  There isn’t a pay phone everywhere.  And (provided you set down the rules and they listen to them), it teaches responsibility as an added bonus.  So really, it really is a great thing all the way around.

Now, I am a rather opinionated fellow (hey… I heard that).  Of this I do not and cannot argue (oddly enough).  Certainly, Lucretia and I have disagreed on things before (aha… you thought I forgot that I had mentioned her earlier didn’t you?).  But disagree doesn’t mean anything but the fact that we have varying view points at times.  What got me started on this was her Tweet that went:

You can curse me all you like. We got the kidlet her own cell for emergencies. Tired of loaning her my ‘droid

Curse you?  For giving a kid a cell for emergencies?  WTF.  And as is not uncommon, somebody else stated (better than I ever could) what was on my mind (in this case it was BusyMom)

@LucretiaPruitt Ya know? A phone is just a tool, not sure when it became some sign of parenting superiority. Don’t even start me…

There it was, something that has been bugging the ever living hell out of me lately.  Snooty, who the hell they think they are people with some sort of superiority complex.  There are some places, that it is just as equally inappropriate, but more expected, like in political conversations… but in parenting?? If you are a parent presently… then guess what… you are still going through on the job training, and that job isn’t done yet.  You haven’t graduated.  You do not have a “proven method” regardless of how well Muffy and Chad are doing at the Academy of Really big Important Sounding Name School that I use to show how great my kids are and rattle off to get adoration and hear sounds of jealousy from others.  You not not done.  So please, stop and think for a minute before you open your mouth.  Consider for a second that somebody else’s situation may be different than yours.  Consider the oh so slim possibility, that you may not be correct.  Shocking, I know.  But it is possible.  So just climb down off that high horse.  This doesn’t just apply to cell phones, or any one particular issue, but your overbearing, unwanted “edict” of trying to rein down your superior knowledge.  If you are still parent… your job is not done yet… and that means, you still do not have all the answers.  You have opinions.  Nothing wrong with sharing them.  But before you are going to start lecturing somebody else about their parenting.  Stop, sit down, and shut up, until that feeling passes.  Then try talking to somebody as an equal, share your opinions (if they are wanted), and don’t forget to listen as well… because you just might learn something.

Recently, I’ve learned that it is not always what I say, but how I say it that makes a big difference.  Tell me, what have you learned that you didn’t know before.

It apparently starting rolling out last week, but it finally hit my profile today.  A popup notifying me that it now links things in my profile.  My hometown, my likes, my previous employer information, etc.  OK, on the surface, it is not a horrible or particularly evil feature, I could link and find other people that went to my same high school, or worked at some of the same previous employers.  Except, all of that information is public to the world once I do that.  Not than any of this information is “top secret” stuff, but still, I would rather have some sort of filters against what I make easy for Phishers and other scam artists to cull, or at least make them work for it, and not provide everything a would be thief needs for identity theft to be served up to them for free.

OK, fine, so I will need to pick and choose what I am going to allow Facebook to link to, this way only what I don’t mind being public is out there.  Right?  Nope!  That doesn’t work either, and this is why I say Facebook is broken.  If you are not willing to make the information public… then Facebook will no longer allow you to have it as part of your profile… period.  They won’t just leave it unlinked… no, after you go through this process, anything you don’t allow it to link IS REMOVED FROM YOUR PROFILE!

I don’t mind ads, and I realize targeted information makes for better advertising dollars, and since Facebook is FREE (despite what all those stupid groups “warning” about Facebook starting to charge May 1, May 15, July 10th and August 33rd, prices from $4.95 to eleventy billion dollars a month are saying) and I don’t mind Facebook making money, they have simply gone from bad to downright evil in their attempts to coax people into making information public.

Now please don’t tell me something stupid like I could go back to using Friendster or MySpace.  Let us be honest for a second, MySpace is for bands and people that want to decorate their pages like a 12 year old with a poster fetish, and does ANYBODY use Friendster anymore?  Didn’t think so.

Yes, I know and am well aware of the privacy settings, and will turn off what I don’t want to be public.  But that prevents me from sharing things that I wish to with my friends and family.  Worse, now I also feel like I need to start a help group for those that may not be as tech savvy or are unaware of what the implication are of these moves.  Incidentally, if you feel unsure about what is being made public by any of these new changes, feel free to e-mail or leave a comment and I will be happy to help.

For those old enough to remember Hill Street Blues, at the beginning of every episode the Seargeant would warn them, “Let’s be careful out there.”  That now definitely applies to Facebook.  Be careful, be aware, and beware of what you may be exposing to the world.  Facebook is now broken.  Pass it on.

’ My job first is to entertain and do what I love, and if you don’t like it, then change the channel. I’m not forcing you to watch me. I’m not forcing you to talk about me. I would do that pole dance a thousand times again, because it was right for the song and that performance. But, dude, if you think dancing on top of an ice-cream cart with a pole is bad, then go check what 90% of the high schoolers are really up to. It’s funny. I don’t know if a lot of parents remember what they were like as kids. But I’m like, ‘Dude, as if you were an angel!’”

She sighs. “I’ve learned I can’t live for what people are going to say. People are so judgmental—especially parents.

That is right Miley, we are judgemental. We are the ones that decide what concerts our children go to see, and what music they buy, and we decide what they watch because we are concerned parents.  And, if you don’t like that… then fine, I am taking my child AND my wallet and going home.

Yes, it is true that you are just a kid (despite what you probably think right now, being a rich, snot nosed teen), and of course you are going to make mistakes.  But, treat the people that spent the Billions of Dollars on you… and make no mistake about this… because Disney packaged you and sold you perfectly, those people are not going to be there after you keep up the “I don’t care about you attitude.”

Now, some of my anger is probably not Miley’s fault really.  I remember sitting with my little girl, excited that a new episode of Hannah Montana was coming on.  The songs didn’t make my ears melt (like Jonas does now), the acting wasn’t awful (unlike That’s so Raven) and I actually liked and felt I understood Billy Ray’s caring and worrying about his little girl.  I was on some level able to connect with the show almost as much as my daughter.  And having those times together is something I will always cherish.

But time does move on.  My daughter outgrew the show… I guess.  Either that or she (like I) realized that the show now stunk and was no longer entertaining.  Of course, I had  placed most of the blame on the writer’s strike thinking it took the show out of its rhythm.  Little did I know, it was thanks to the fact that you had turned into a prima donna that “hated” being a popular actress in a hit television show, because you didn’t like the outfits you had to wear.  It is called acting.  Not all your roles (assuming you get any more), are not going to “allow you to be who you are.”  I had a point.. oh yeah… time moves on, and it was time for the show to say good-bye.  And I will fondly remember the 1st two seasons, and the time I spent with my daughter watching Hannah Montana.  For that I say Thank You, and Hannah… you will be missed.

But Miley, you are now the pompous ass people have been saying you are turning into.  Something I refused to believe originally, when people were comparing some of your indiscretions into the same sort of self-implosion that  marred Britney Spears.  I fought and defended you, certain that your parents would be able to help you navigate your way through and avoid the big headed pompous attitude that ruins so many people that get fame too fast and too early.  But apparently, you know better since your parents “aren’t stoked” about your choices, but you don’t care.

I hope, for your sake I am wrong, but if you are paying attention, you are already starting to fade.  Disney is going to get whatever last bit of juice they can squeeze out of you with this stint as a “mentor” on American Idol.  I know you “don’t care” what people think, but you just might want to take a peek at the Entertainment magazines and just find out how much of a joke the general public and entertainment experts think of this idea.  But Disney might get a quick boost of viewers for Idol like they did with Dancing with the Stars when they milked your fandom multiple times with you, your dad and Cody Linly.

In one of those conversation you have with you dad, you just might want to ask him how fleeting stardom is.  Without Disney, you would just be the best singer at the Tennesee State Fair, and if you don’t mind you business and fans a bit better, that is where you might be again.  Good Riddance Miley… not that you care.

After all, I am certainly not an “authority” on blogging, I am not a “social media expert” or any of the other titles that float around so freely these days.  I’m just a guy that blogs (and for the past year or so barely that).  But then again… my *brand* is “extra large, extra strong … without being bitter.”  I am an openly (and probably too loudly) opinionated blogger.  So, if I am going to own my brand… I need to stay loyal to it.

But it also puts me in a bit of a quandary.  I signed up to attend BlogHer this year, for a couple of reasons.  One… for the entertainment factor (I can’t wait to see what this years drama and controversy will be).  Two, to finally get a chance to meet and socialize with some people that are so spectacular in personality in their blogs, I just had to sieze the opportunity to finally get to put a live face to the words (I would love to do that with everybody that I read… maybe someday when I am rich and powerful, but in the mean time  this is at least an opportunity to meet several at one time).  And third, is to learn a bit more about what I am missing is the blogging world.  The “brand building” that I have heard so many people talk, blog, tweet, about in past events.  I want to learn a bit more… at least I think I do.

I say “think” because, I don’t know if it was the pithy title that set the mob over the edge, but the New York Times article “Honey Don’t Bother Mommy.  I’m too busy building my brand.” certainly got a section of the MommyBloggers circling their wagons.  The funny part is, for the most part, the article describes quite well, how MommyBloggers HAVE in fact built their brand… how as a collective they have become a force to be reckoned with (more on that shortly).

But instead, some clearly skimmed the article, others picked it apart selecting passages, others put words in that didn’t exist, and made a story about MommyBlogging to mean no woman can be taken seriously as a writer, and one or two I don’t think read it at all, rather took their cue from others and just wrote based on what they heard was a “wronging” and went from there.

Now, sure I am certain somebody would say, “but you are a guy, you have no idea about being a woman and the struggles it entails.”  And physically yes that is true, but I also know I pay a lot more attention to those details and am more aware of them than I suspect most would think, because I do worry what barriers of entry my daughter will face in the years ahead of her.  I also read a lot more mommyblogs that about anything else (well… except for tech blogs… but you get the idea).

My question becomes to these people is… are you trying to build a brand?  Have you attended panels on how to do this… or have you spoken at them?  Then why are you so offended by somebody pointing out that this is what you are doing?  Yes, I will admit the headline was corny… but really, building a brand is what you are doing… own it.

Now maybe I am starting to get a little annoyed because over the past 4 or 5 years, I have watched a certain amount of devolving going on, and it is disappointing.  Two items in the recent past still stick like a thorn in my pad… The first was the Bullshit “TSA kidnapped my baby” debacle.  If you dared question this Mommyblogger because her story did not sound right… you were ridiculed for it, how dare somebody question a Mommy Blogger.  How date the TSA do this!!  Except none of it was true.  No apologies to the beast just moved on looking for its next meal.

The other was the absolutely insane #nikonhatesbabies hashtag party that took place because “how dare Nikon not allow a mother to take an infant to a party… at night… at a bar?”  These are the same people that try to claim that Bloggy Boot Camp, and BlogHer are “no different” than any other technology conference.  Really?  On one side of the coin, I read demands of “if you are going to throw a BlogHer party as a vendor, you should know your crowd, and provide for children at the events.”  And then, out of the very same mouths comes “this is no different than SXSW or any other tech conference, and shouldn’t be viewed any differently just because it is a conference for women.”  Make up your minds ladies… Which one is it?

And… once again, one or two twitter messages went out from a couple of people about how sorry they were about the #nikonhatesbabies thing… but for the most part, the beast moved on to its next feeding ground.

Perhaps the arguement several years back at BlogHer was correct, and there needs to be a better definition of what is a “MommyBlogger.”  Just because you write, and you happen to be a mom, doesn’t necessarily make you a “MommyBlogger.”  At the same time, just because you are a mom and happen to have a blog, doesn’t make you a MommyBlogger either, nor does it give you an automatic right to ask for things.  I have now started unfollowing people that have put up tweets such as “I can’t afford to go to BlogHer, what airline wants to sponsor me and send me?”  and I would think anybody that wants “MommyBloggers” to be taken seriously to spend as much time beating down a person like that as they do when they feel slighted by some corporation, because it reflects poorly on all MommyBloggers.  Maybe if this can be broken up, then the pieces can each get the recognition they deserve, and each can have their own battle lines drawn, because right now, it looks like MommyBlogging has become the beast with an appetite for destruction that is just insatiable.

(Quick Reminder… Comment Approval is turned on because of spammers… but all non spam comments will be approved)

State Senator Sean Kean (R), who lives in what he calls “the gayest district in New Jersey” voted “No” on gay marriage.  I guess, voting in a way that represents the people of your district isn’t important in his and others eyes in the Senate.

I just want to make sure I have it on record, the 20 people that voted no, the 20 people that think that being bigoted is OK, that think “all men are created equal… except those faggots.”  This way, when election time rolls around again, and they say they want to represent the people of New Jersey, we can return the favor and say “NO” to them.

The Republicans that Voted NO:

Bateman, Branchburg
Beck, Red Bank
Bucco, Denville
Cardinale, Demarest
Connors, Surf City
Doherty, Washington Township, Warren County
Haines, Springfield
S. Kean, Wall
T. Kean, Westfield
Kyrillos, Middletown
Oroho, Franklin Borough
O’Toole, Cedar Grove
Pennacchio, Montville
Singer, Lakewood.

The Democrats that added to the embarrasement by voting no

Girgenti, Hawthorne
Madden, Washington Township, Gloucester County
Rice, Newark
Sacco, North Bergen
Turner, Trenton
Van Drew, Dennis

Why? Well, heterosexual marriage doesn’t need to be “legalized,” interracial marriages, which was like the last generation’s version of this issue doesn’t (and didn’t) need to be “legalized.” And along that same lines, I don’t see why “Gay” marriage needs to be legalized.

Now, for all you religious freaks that are quick to judge others (despite supposedly following the teachings of a book that says, “Judge Not, Lest you be judged.” Nobody says your faith MUST recognize or perform ceremonies that you do not believe in. My guess would be that any homosexual couple that wanted to get married would rather not be associated with a bunch of closed minded bigots like yourselves anyway.

So why is it that you can’t just let it go? Nobody is asking you to “like” or even “approve” of something you do not. I know several Jewish people that have been considered the “black sheep” of the family for marrying outside of their faith. I have a cousin that endures a lot of flack from people because she married an African-American man. Some people are tolerant, and others continue to have their beliefs of what is right and “wrong” but there is nothing that actually prevents them from doing this.

So why are people struggling so hard to make it “illegal” for two people who love each other to show their commitment, simply becuase they are the same gender? It is just so wrong… or as the homophobes would say… It is so gay.

OK, awkward segue, I admit, but while I am on this topic, I love the new PSA commercials from ThinkB4youspeak.com. I remember (but can’t find) a story recently where a student was suspended for saying somebody was “so gay” because she (and her parents) couldn’t understand what was so wrong with what she said. Unfortunately if you look at some of the “replies” and “comments” on YouTube to the campaign, and it seems that the only people (so far) who “get it” are the people that already know it is wrong. Others continue their homophobic tirades, or just show their ignorance is supporting “free speech.” Still, I am hopeful that maybe it will reach at least some people that picked up the phrase without actually understanding what they are saying.

Finally, I missed this initially, but apparently identifying yourself as a Lesbian gets you banned from Xbox Live, because others find it “offensive.” I realize Microsoft is a big corporation and that within their ranks there are some people that are probably not the brightest bulbs on the planet within their employ… but I am completely confounded by a corporation founded by what could be considered the original “nerd squad” (see not funny if you are a nerd) allowing a policy of intolerance. I don’t own an Xbox, thus I don’t participate in Xbox Live. But until this policy changes, Microsoft can be damn sure, they will not get a dollar from me until that changes.

It just continues to boggle my mind.  I keep hoping that someday soon, this whole silliness can be put to bed, so we can all have a a yabbadabba-doo time,  A dabba-doo time, We’ll have a gay old time.

I find it “particularly idiotic” because he is clearly transparent in his attack.  He blames “a handful of secular progressives who loathe Christianity and any celebration associated with it.”  Apparently, it would never pierce his thin skin to realize that a Jewish person may not want to be wished a “Merry Christmas” any more than he would like to be wished a “Happy Kwanzaa.”  He doesn’t want to appear quite this crass, so he tries to bury the whole thing as people out to “destroy Christmas.”  While I do not doubt or deny there may be a few nuts out there that have this thought, most simply would like to be recognized for their beliefs even if they aren’t Christian.  Recognition that while a majority of people may in fact be Christian, we are not a theology, and that their rights and beliefs are not any better or worse.  

For all his claims to the otherwise, nobody is actually attempting to stop anybody from having a Merry Christmas, or for Christians to celebrate and recognize Christmas as the high holy holiday that it is for them.  They just don’t want to participate (and perhaps that is the problem for single minded morons like this).

He forgets, while claiming that it is “a birthday not a holiday” that the holiday has been around much longer.  I won’t go into the details about previous silliness or the historical moving of  Jesus’ birthday to coincide with the holiday, I have documented that previously, and most rational folks already know this.  But apparently he doesn’t see the irony in his own statements:

My fellow Christians should join me in pledging never again to shop in any commercial establishment where the clerks greet us with that “Happy Holiday” greeting as an insult to our religious beliefs, just as we must defend the exhibition of the menorah or other Jewish symbols at Hanukkah.

Just what Jewish symbols is he supposedly defending by demanding that it is “Merry Christmas” or nothing? And am I the only one that finds it humorous that he complains that about people being “forced” into saying “Happy Holidays” but now he wants to blackmail commercial establishments by threatening to not shop their unless he is greeted as he expects. And he goes on to say, “Have a Merry Christmas. And don’t be afraid to say that loud and clear to everyone.”  That’s right.  Don’t give a damn about who you may offend, because you are a Christian, and as such have a right to offend whomever you wish, at least according to Reagan.

So why is this?  Why is it that being inclusive to spread love to everyone so darn “offensive” to some Christians?  Does “Peace on Earth and goodwill toward man” only apply to a select few?  As the old saying goes, “Can’t we all just get along?”  Do you really need to have a crusade?

Whether it is Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas, Blessed Yule, Happy Kwanzaa, I wish you and yours the best for a happy and healthy Holiday Season.

So who will disappear quicker?  Joe Wurzelbacher or Joe Lieberman

Honestly I don’t care as long as they both go away.

This will mark the end of politics on this blog (your welcome).

Those that may from time to time want to see the political talk, I will be starting another blog just for that purpose, The Daft Dem.  Because I don’t believe yesterday was the end… it was only the beginning.

But I will be happy to bring this blog back to a more cheerful and stop be “sooooo serious”  (see Liz, I’m trying)

Next Week will mark the Return of TechParent Tuesday.

1.  He is a Muslim.  No, he is not.  No matter how many times Sean Hannity swears it to be true.  No matter how many times somebody slowly stretches out HUUUUUUUU SSSSSAAAAAIIINnnnnn to try and draw some sort of mental image in your head to connect him with Saddam Hussein.  It is a flat out LIE.

2.  He is black.  Well, I can’t argue this, he is.  But that is not a reason to not vote for him.  C’mon man, it is 2008, are you still a racist?  Put the frickin’ KKK robes away, take a slug of moonshine and realize that, “that thar colored fellow” is a whole lot smarter (and probabaly better educated) than you.

3.  He is gonna raise my taxes.  I am going to go out on the limb on this one a bit, and say blankly… No he isn’t.  If you are making $250K or more a year, you are not sitting around reading blogs.  You might have a blog, but you probabaly have somebody write it for you (or at least type it).  Somebody explain to me please, how all these people that are actually going to get a tax cut under Obama’s plans are screaming about socialism, and fearing spreading the wealth around?  Let me tell you something sparky, your one of the people he is spreading it to… because like I said, if you were making $250K +, you would have better things to do with your time than to stand around an be a “Joe the Plumber” clone.  You remember Joe, he is the self important twit that exibits my point so clearly.  He isn’t in the same city as the ballpark of making $250K, but goes to rallies and likes to pretend he does, and gets indignant about spreading the wealth, when his dumb ass would be the one that benefits.

I could go on, but you were going to get the point, you would have done so by now.  Both sides have stretched the truth, as politicians running for office often do.  But one side has done nothing but smear and flat out lie.  And if you are going to not vote for Barack Obama, at least do it for something better than being caught up in the lies.  Prove you have a brain and think for yourself.  No matter which way you end up voting.

And regardless of how you vote, it should (but doesn’t) go without saying.  Be sure to vote.  Be sure to encourage others to do the same.  It is not a right, it is a responsibility of being a citizen.

I’ll see you on the other side of what will probably be 24 hours of hell and fail whales as we await the outcome.

However, in all the negativity on the subject, something has gotten lost, and I don’t think (well I know, but I didn’t want to overstate it) many quite understand the gravity of the situation, and why it wasn’t just an “easy” decision for lawmakers to just tell these companies to, “go ahead and fail,” or  ”you made your your own bed.”  It just isn’t, as much as we would like to think it is, to untie these situations from the rest of the economy because of the scale of it all.

A car dealer not far from my home, Bigelow Motors, had been in business for 66 years.  It had weathered upturns and downturns many times over the years, but they were basically forced to close their doors this past week.  The reason?  They lost their line of credit.

In my own business, there are times that I need credit to cover the time between when I secure the supplies I need and the time my client pays me.  Without that line of credit, I am seriously hampered in what I can do and what orders I can complete.  

This is a common way of doing business for companies big and small (only the size of the line of credit changes).  From small corner delis that need to cover stock to mega corporation deals, there is very little that is done “in cash” because income and outlay do not always line up nice and neatly.

Obviously, the impact on business also affects employment as well.  Everybody at that car dealership I mentioned earlier is out looking for a job now.  Unemployment is up all over the place, and would only get worse as businesses need to either cut back or shut down because they are not able to conduct business as usual.

So, just understand, it was not a “no-brainer” to just vote this bill down. (Well, it was in that crazy first draft sent over from President Bush, but that was pretty much obvious to everybody except I guess President Bush and Treasury Secretary Pauson).  Is it ideal?  No.  Did it have to be as quickly as it was?  Unfortunately, Yes.

While people joke around now about how it hasn’t fixed everything already, this plan it going to take time to actually start having an effect, so even now we are still in crisis, but everyday that it waited is more time until implementation takes effect, and the more business that are apt to fail if this wasn’t passed in some form.

What I think a lot of people are shocked with, it that they got a good look at how Washington works.  The sort of wheeling and dealing (and pork additions) that happened here goes on constantly.  It is “how things work” and while this is no secret, it was clearly (and expensively) on display here.

I guess what I am trying to say here is, that I am not saying you shouldn’t be angry about what is going on.  I sure am.  But be angry at the right people, for the right reasons.  Look to former Texas Senator Phil Gramm and his slipping in of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) that enabled things like the Enron collapse, and the bundling of “derivatives” that helped make this mortgage crisis possible.  Be angry that this same Phill Gramm is on John McCain’s short list to be Treasurer of the United States.  Be angry at those that politicized this process and demanded pork for their vote.  But don’t take a “yes” vote in and of itself to be the whole reason.  This really wasn’t an easy situation for anyone to swallow, and there are valid reasons to have voted for the bailout.  The damage has long since been done, and now it needed to be fixed to keep the situation from getting worse.

The part that was most galling (to me anyway) was a statement by Kirk Saville, a Hershey’s spokesman, who said (emphasis added by me):

There are high-quality oils available which are equal to or better than cocoa butter in taste, nutrition, texture and function, and are preferred by consumers.

Preferred by consumers?  Preferred? I don’t think so, Kirk.   Oh, yeah take out the Cocoa Butter which actually has some nutritional benefit, and lets replace it with hydrogenated corn oil instead.  Screw the fact that we take chocolate and actually make it unhealthy… it is healthy for profits.  What this really means is, I think we can get away with it, and nobody will notice.

In the Biography of Milton Hershey that can be found at hersheypa.com

He took great pride in the growth of the school, the town, and his business. For the rest of his life, he always placed the quality of his product and the well-being of his workers ahead of profits.

Well, obviously Milton is no longer in charge of the Heshey’s chocolate company.  Hershey has done an end run around the issue.  So, they can’t call their imitation chocolate “chocolate” but that didn’t stop them from making the change in a number of their products.  According the the post on CandyBlog, a number of Hershey’s products are no longer milk chocolate, but instead are now “chocolate flavored candy.”

Look at the list of ingredients from a package of the original “Milk Chocolate” Kissables.

Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, nonfat milk, milk fat, lactose, soy lecithin, PGPR & artificial flavors), sugar, red 40, yellow 5, yellow 6, blue 1 & carnauba wax.

Now look at the “Chocolate Candy” Kissables:

Sugar, vegetable oil (palm, shea, sunflower and/or safflower oil), chocolate, nonfat milk, whey, cocoa butter, milk fat, gum arabic, soy lecithin, artificial colors (red 40, yellow 5, blue 2, blue 1, yellow 6), corn syrup, resinous glaze, salt, carnauba wax, pgpr and vanillin.

See anything missing? Yup, that is right, no Milk Chocolate in it any longer. The same is true for Whatchamacallits, Milk Duds, Mr. Goodbar and Krackle.  Why hasn’t anybody noticed?  Because Hershey went to great lengths to make it so that it is difficult to notice.  (And in part, thanks to a slight change in labeling law on what has to be called “imitation” ).  Products that once bore the words “Milk Chocolate” now instead are listed as “chocolate candy,” “made with chocolate” or “chocolatey.”

Actually, it seems in once case apparently it did get noticed, where Almond Joy was returned to Milk Chocolate after comsumers complained.

Fortunately (so far) Hershey Bars, Kisses, and Reese’s Peanut butter cups remain unaffected and are still Milk Chocolate products. Tell Hershey what you think of their faux chocolate, because messing with our chocolate is just plain wrong.

 The situation has gotten so intense that we in the media have slipped our normal rules as well. Usually when a candidate tells something less than the truth, we mince words. We use euphemisms like mendacity andinaccuracy … or, as the Associated Press put it, “McCain’s claims skirt facts.” But increasing numbers of otherwise sober observers, even such august institutions as the New York Times editorial board, are calling John McCain a liar.  

I mean, how bad is it when Karl Rove is questioning your practices? No, Sarah Palin was no “accident.”  

The Times reports that using webmail for official business was Standard Operating Proceedure in Alaska:

While Ms. Palin took office promising a more open government, her administration has battled to keep information secret. Her inner circle discussed the benefit of using private e-mail addresses. An assistant told her it appeared that such e-mail messages sent to a private address on a “personal device” like a BlackBerry “would be confidential and not subject to subpoena.”Ms. Palin and aides use their private e-mail addresses for state business. A campaign spokesman said the governor copied e-mail messages to her state account “when there was significant state business.”On Feb. 7, Frank Bailey, a high-level aide, wrote to Ms. Palin’s state e-mail address to discuss appointments. Another aide fired back: “Frank, this is not the governor’s personal account.”Mr. Bailey responded: “Whoops~!”

She has shown herself to be willing to make up her facts as she goes along quite nicely.  Whether it is her claim that Alaska provides 20% of the nations energy (Alaska provides about 3.5%), or flat out lying when she says she told Congress “Thanks but no thanks” for funding the bridge to nowhere.  After all when she was running for Governor she said during an Interview:

Yes. I would like to see Alaska’s infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now – while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.  

 Oh she eventually threw the project under the bus, but not until it had been all but killed in Congress, and had become the poster project for pork barrel spending.She has also shown the same cut-throat expectation of loyalty and will fire anybody that does not give her 100% support, that we have come to know during the Bush years. In other words, refuse to give Sarah the right answer when asked if you would ban books from the library that Sarah Palin doesn’t like and you are gone.  When I first saw Sarah Palin, I likened her to Geraldine Ferarro, a poor choice done out of desperation.  I was so wrong.  While Ferarro was a poor choice, and her inept run probably hurt the cause of women in politics more than anything, Sarah Palin is far more dangerous than that.   

What has upset me more though is Flickr’s response, or more correctly their lack of response.   After all, this wasn’t a common, grab a picture and use it sort of thing (which, btw it amazes me how many big corporation have been caught doing this).  This was a company using Flickr’s own API, to download images and sell them.  I expected some sort of response, even if they didn’t plan to make changes to the API, at least to clarify that this company did things wrong and didn’t use the API correctly.  Instead… silence.

Now, I love Flickr.  I have a pro account, I have bought pro accoutns for other people as gifts.  But I am uncomfortable with them right now.  I am certainly not, until they do or say something, going to upload any high res. photos to their site, and I am debating on what I should do with the photos that are already there.  Do, I pull them down?  Take the time to make low res. versions of all of them and replace what is there?  What about you?  Have you changed how you have used Flickr?

Perhaps that is why then I am utterly shocked and amazed when something like this comes along.  It seems that Pemberton Republican Club in New Jersey thought it would be cute to try and link Barack Obama and OJ Simpson with the slogan, “Obama loves America like O.J. loved Nicole.”

The club’s Web master, Ed Kuck, didn’t respond to a message left at his home but told The Philadelphia Inquirer that he saw the slogan on an Internet site and copied it onto the club’s Web page as a joke.

“I just want to apologize to anybody who was offended, because that wasn’t our intention at all,” Kuck told the newspaper.

Racism, is apparently still “funny” to some people.   While this fact does not shock me, and I fully expect to see more pathetic attempts to inject racism into the race, I never expected it to come from here.  Just goes to show, narrow minded people live everywhere.

I honestly didn’t think about it a couple of years ago, when my father passed away.  I was too concerned with mother dealing with Islet Cell Carcinoma (which she is battling quite well so far) to have started putting the correlations together as my Sister-In-Law whipped Breast Cancer into submission.  However, a sneaky suspicion started when my step-father-in-law passed away 8 or so months ago.

My string of “victims” continued when my uncle finally gave up, his body riddled with cancer.

Perhaps I should find myself a nice lead lined Panic Room, and stash myself in there.  Before somebody else contracts cancer.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Last week, the Associated Press sent the Drudge Retort seven DMCA takedown notices, demanding that the site remove excerpts of AP articles ranging from 33 to 79 words that were linked through to authorized copies of the AP stories.

See what I did there?  I quoted another source, attributed it to them, and linked to the full article, providing potentially more traffic to them.  I did not steal their story, I followed what has been considered Fair Use, even before the days of the Internet.  Before you would have a Reference Page, Foot Notes, etc.  You needed to ensure your credited and cited your sources, but it has always been fair use to quote another source.

Not so according to the AP.  They want you to link to them, AND NOTHING ELSE.  After the inital lashback against their tactics, the A.P. backed off (sort of) according to the New York Times.

 After that, however, the news association convened a meeting of its executives at which it decided to suspend its efforts to challenge blogs until it creates a more thoughtful standard.

“We don’t want to cast a pall over the blogosphere by being heavy-handed, so we have to figure out a better and more positive way to do this,” Mr. Kennedy said.

Mr. Kennedy said the company was going to meet with representatives of the Media Bloggers Association, a trade group, and others. He said he hopes that these discussions can all occur this week so that guidelines can be released soon.

Now, reading this at first, it sounds like maybe they learned their lesson, but in “hopes that these discussions can all occur this week so guidelines can be released soon” tells me that they are only trying to find a new tactic, because after all there are already guidelines in place as I said earlier.  It is known as Fair Use and it is already codified by the U.S. Copyright Office.

On a bit of a side note, I would love to know who decided that the Media Bloggers Association should have the right to negotiate this.  I mean, no offense to Mr. Cox and those that are already members, but I don’t know you.  You stopped accepting memberships, because you don’t even have a clear set of policies (by your own admission), and while you may very well have the best interest of bloggers in general, I do not find this to be an acceptable situation.  Suffice it to say, as an independent blogger, and not a member of your organization, I do not find that I will feel obligated to follow any guidelines set forth by this meeting and your “agreements” with the Associated Press.

It is also probably germane to point out that the Associated Press is owned by its 1,500 daily newspaper members… those very same people that have not yet been able to find a way to use the web properly and continue to bleed red ink (while blaming the Internet in general and Bloggers specifically for their eroding fortunes).  These same people that fight and attempt to keep bloggers from getting credentials because they are not part of the media.  Seems to me, they want to have their cake and eat it too.

They point to things like the old outdated definition that a “recession” is 2 or more quarters of decline in the country’s Gross Domestic Product.  Most economists however do no like this definition since it does not take into consideration unemployment rates or consumer confidence.  There are of course a couple of problems with this.

First and foremost is the fact that “domestic” companies no longer directly reflect on how strong the economy locally is since so much production has been moved overseas or “outsourced.” So while Mattel can can reap huge profits selling us lead paint based products, the benefits are not seen in the domestic job market since all these toxic products are made in China where they can pay slave wages and not worry about silly little things like safety standards which only “erode profits.”

Finally, any attempts by workers here to try and unionize and earn a fair wage are thwarted by union busting activites. Wal-Mart is well known for hiring consultants that threaten workers trying to unionize, and even (as much as it pains me to say it), Starbucks has seemed to taken to firing employees that are active in unionizing efforts there. Wal-Mart doesn’t surprise me since they tend to be ruthless with everybody, vendors and employees alike. Starbucks on the other hand makes a big deal over their “fair trade coffee.” So essentially, they are concerned with workers getting a “fair wage” in some third world country for picking the beans, but here at home, well that is a different story all together.

I am getting a bit off topic, but really the point is, I am not surprised that the “well to do” (and those that blindly follow them regardless of their own reality) do not see a recession. They look at their stock portfolio, and as long as Mr CEO is turning in 15% and up growth in the stock, they couldn’t care less how it is done. Unions have garnered a bad reputation (some of it admittedly it deserved), but are really there to even the playing field to give the workers some bargaining strength against these large corporations that couldn’t care less about workers. Workers here are viewed, not as assets, but as “expenses” and that is just wrong. And of course, if you are not struggling to make ends meet, you don’t care that your meal dollar isn’t stretching because food companies are making products smaller while keeping the prices the same, because as long as those stocks are profitable, well you will just buy more food.

By these definitions, there will never be a “recession” again. Idiots will continue to tell us how we are doing “well” but just don’t know it. There used to a joke that went something like, a recession is when your neighbor loses his job, a depression is when you lose yours. It is overly simplistic, but I think explains the chasm in opinions quite well.

Maybe the government should have just let Bear Stearns fail and go insolvent. Maybe then some of these people would have gotten a clue that there is a problem. As a parent this lack of vision scares the hell out of me. Not only for me, but for the children of tomorrow. As we become a “service” society, we are heading towards a two tier model. There will be those that “have” (the bosses, CEOs and other executive types) and those that serve them (wait staff, valets, security guards, etc) and nothing in between. The middle class will be wiped out, outsourced overseas and be told that it didn’t happen.

Rafe Needleman of Webware.com came up with a solution… Shut the site down.  His reasoning.  The site is too unreliable, and hence “nobody” is using it any more anyway.

Now, I as an “uneducated non media type” could get away with this sort of logic (or lack thereof), because well… I am not a member of the media.  I am not an expert.  Right?  He is supposed to be the respected authority, yet to me (the unenlightened) this makes absolutely no sense.

There used to be a stupid old saying that goes something like, “Nobody goes to that restaurant any more because it is too crowded.”  It was a joke, and (most) people seem to readily get the irony of it, but apparently for Rafe, this sort of “logic” can be applied to a website on the Internet.  I guess things work differently in the Web 2.0 world.

My question is, how do I find a way to make idiotic statements like this (lord knows I am good at making them), and still find somebody to actually pay me to make them.  Inquiring minds want to know.

According to White House Press Secretary Dana Perino:

“Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House,” Perino said. “For those of us who fully supported him, before, during and after he was press secretary, we are puzzled. It is sad. This is not the Scott we knew.”

Then White House counselor Dan Bartlett:

“We’re hearing from a completely different person we didn’t have any insight into,” he said.

Now, first of all, when McClellan was thrown overboard in favor of Tony Snow, the President spoke in rather glowing terms if I remember correctly:

One of these days he and I are going to be rocking on chairs in Texas, talking about the good old days and his time as the Press Secretary. And I can assure you I will feel the same way then that I feel now, that I can say to Scott, job well done.

So, it is going to be interesting to watch these desperate attempts to try and discredit him, and still have Bush maintain an invitation to that rocking chair.

It seems to me that what is “puzzling” them is that they thought they had this guy gagged, and are trying to figure out how he slipped out with a proper brainwashing.  I guess they expect complete loyalty to even those that they have thrown overboard.

What is going to be even more entertaining, is to watch as this is just another former official stating how the White House played fast and loose with anything that looked like the truth.  Just how many of these people can be discarded as “disgruntled” liars before even the Faux News Channel has to admit that there simply must be some truth to it?

But this isn’t really about that fight. No, this is something that has been simmering since my Step-Father-In-Law passed away from Lung Cancer last year. It bothered me at the time, but I wasn’t completely sure why, but there was a gnawing at me about this. Mostly, I guess because I felt it was so unfair that by the time it was “discovered” he was given six-to-nine months and didn’t last that long, that I dismissed what was bothering me as just the sort of bitterness you have when you lose a loved one to illness.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, my uncle was diagnosed with Lung cancer. Fortunately, in his case, it is currently considered early enough that while the long term prognosis is not good (can it ever be?), there actually IS so far, a long term prognosis. Something, that my Step-Father-In-Law never “enjoyed.” I started rethinking it, and using “the Google” to seek some others information and similar type of incidents and stories. I probably shouldn’t be shocked in this day and age to actually find a Blog dedicated to the topic of fat prejudice in health care. This is exactly what was bothering me all this time, and a couple of delicately placed questions to my mother-in-law confirmed this.

He had complained of shortness-of-breath and several other symptoms for quite some time before his diagnosis. Every time his Primary Care Physicians “diagnosis” was that he needed to lose weight, and that then it would no longer be an issue. Symptoms overlooked, simply because, well if you are fat… that is the problem and the end of the effort by the physician (in these cases).

I would love to think that this is infrequent and isolated with a few “bad seeds,” but when you see things like, UNC-Chapel Hill: Obesity May Keep Some Women from Getting Screened for Breast, Cervical Cancer it seems clear that this is not the case, and Kate Harding has a excellent breakdown of this story and how (and why) this issue exists. (On a side note, Kate’s Shapely Prose blog is an excellent read.)  There are even studies published on the Stigma and Discrimination in Weight Mangement and Obesity.

Of course, the media is not much help in this regard either.  Yes, there are some articles that point properly at some causes and issues, but doing so is “too politcally correct” for some writers, and just a lifestyle choice for others.  Of course even some governments get involved as well when they do something like tell a person that they are ‘too fat to adopt.’

It is like continuing to get picked on by the school yard bully for being overweight.  Only the sonsequences to your health could be far more severe.

When TheWife and I were first married, it was the constant (and somewhat typical) question of “when are you going to start a family?”  The fact that we waited 6 years was almost unconscionable to some people and family members.  I won’t even get into what my poor sister has to go through since she and her husband have opted to not have children.  For these people, can I just point out that people actually get married for reasons other than to start pushing out children.

Of course, fortunately the reason that we did not have a child right away was because of choice.  I know (both in real life, and many others that I have come to know through blogging) that haven’t because of medical problem.  This of course serves to act as a big slap in the face, and can (and usually does) open some painful emotions in people struggling to have a child, when these reproductive nazis…er… well intended individuals, come along and decide to poke their noses in and demanding answers.

Lately, the new question has come up about when are we going to have another child (now with the extra bonus of them reminding me that I am not getting any younger). The incredulous looks and shocked to downright snarky replies we get when we say we are done with one is a sight to behold.  You would think that I had just put an end to the chances of the human race’s chance of survival.  Then they begin the prodding, because they all need to know the “real” reason.  Is it physical problems?  Is there something wrong with LatteGirl that makes of afraid of another child?  Is it money? (because apparently when you have enough kids, you can live on love) Wouldn’t it be easier to have more if TheWife didn’t work?  (That one of course is insulting on assorted levels and goes into other issues I am not going to touch now)  They just cannot accept that this was the choice we made.  I had somewhat jokingly come up with the response of “We can only afford to raise and spoil one properly” just to try and head off the amount of time I would have to deal with their probing questions.   But to be honest, I am tired of using it as an answer, because I see no reason that I should feel compelled to answer.

The answer is “Just Because” and I am done with it.  LatteGirl is quite well adjusted thank you, and I know plenty of other only children at various stages of life to know that being an only child does not guarantee that they will not know how function in society as you seem to like to claim.  While I like to use the term, somewhat loosely “spoiled” she certainly isn’t.  She knows and has boundaries, she can play well with others, and is able to wait her turn, and doesn’t expect to always be first, just because that is “what she has always known” without competition from siblings.  I don’t question your choice to have more than one child, even if it means going beyond your financial means  (well, except for you Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar!!  17 kids?  WTF is wrong with you people?) .

While I am busy annoying people today, let us take a side rant here.  Why is it that people are against the use of condoms, or birth control because it “messes up” some divine plan, and that if “god” (or your personal choice of term) sees fit to bless you with a child, you should not “interfere” with this plan… but yet these same people seem to have absolutely no problem with fertility clinics and drugs that attempt to help in difficult situations (just to be clear, I do not have a problem with EITHER situation, I just don’t understand why messing with “the plan” is OK when you want to have a child, but not when you don’t).  Simiarly confusing to me is why there is nobody protesting, bombing or trying to shame men that go to a place that offers a vasectomy.  Doesn’t that mess with “the plan” as well?

What does this little side rant have to do with anything?  Well, it really all ties up quite nicely in the end… Stay the hell out of our choices.  My wife and I will choose what is best for us.  And the only reason I will give from now on is “Just Because!”

Why isn’t that the case any longer?  Why do special interest groups always get their way?  (Yes, I know it is all about the money and re-election funds… it was a rhetorical question.  Just follow… OK?)  An excellent example is the recent first in the country RFID laws passed in Washington State.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, RFID chips are being put into and used in “everything” now, or at least they will be very soon.  That “touch-less” Gas-N-Go card you have from the Station?  RFID,  Those new “intelligent” passports that are coming?  RFID, the new digital Drivers Licenses that are being rolled out?  RFID.  Even some of those frequent shoppers cards.  You have a lot of information that is now accessible, just by walking past an RFID reader set to grab that information.

Now rightly, there is cause for concern, and the laws they were pushing in Washington made sense.  There were basically two parts; the first is making it illegal for anybody to attempt to access your information for fraudulent purposes.  Rather obvious, and somewhat redundant, since fraud is already illegal, but I guess this would be another tacked on charge, or perhaps you can simply be arrested for “attempted” fraud.  Whatever, I don’t have a problem with that.  If somebody is “skimming” my information, then sure he should get in trouble for it without me having to be an actual fraud victim.  But then there is the second part of the law, or more correctly, the original bill… because it never made it into the law.

That part, required retailers and other businesses to only gather information about you on an opt-in basis.  As is always the case… it seems, the retailers and their lobbyist fought this part of the law, and eventually got it pulled out.  So, now skimming is only illegal for an individual; corporations that are skimming are free to gather information about you, how long you shopped in their stores, where in the store you went, how much time you spent in each section, just by strategically placing some RFID scanners, and you will be none the wiser as they gather this information.

But don’t worry, I am sure some company will come out with some sort of RFID blocking wallet, that will be ugly, cumbersome and expensive, but will “protect” you from the “snoops.”  Yup that is right, to have the privacy you should expect by default… you will have it.  As long as you pay for it.  (Maybe!)

On the heels of this incident, in December Congress approved legislation to “ban the manufacture, sale or distribution of drain covers that don’t meet anti-entrapment safety standards.” It was called the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act [pdf], the named for the granddaughter of former Secretary of State James A. Baker, III, who was killed when she was trapped by the suction of a drain in 2002!

Now, I don’t understand why this wasn’t already a law, because it seems so brain-dead obvious to me as a parent, but can somebody explain to me, even after the first incident, and when people started lobbying for this law in 2002, it took 5 freakin’ years to get this written into law?  Now, I am willing to bet if I left it at that, I would have somebody come along and say “there’s a war on and Congress had ‘more important’ things to contend with.”  But if that is the case, then can somebody explain to me why Abigail Taylor had to die when over those same five years Congress sat back,  played IM games with Pages, stuffed freezers full of cash, taking bribes, and making medical diagnosis via videotape.  They had “the time” to do it, but it seems unless there is enough dead children for them to stop taking donations from corporations that are too cheap to manufacture these things safely, they just allow it to go on.

But it certainly seems that those days of propaganda planting being kept out of our news streams is history. Oh sure, it has been blatantly obvious for some time that the Faux News Channel is little more than “right wing mouthpiece” and tries to twist things to fit that image, but certain talk shows hosts aside (*cough* Hannity, O’Reilly *cough*) the data is usually twisted but not typically made up. Not so in this recent false article planted in Time Magazine. Glenn Greenwald over at Salon.com has done a nice job of comparing the unsubstantiated (false) claims in the Time article piece, with something that the author of the Time article couldn’t be bothered with, facts and numbers.

It is really sad, that you now have to be critical about everything you read.  It is at a point where I trust very few sources of information outside my blogroll.  I may not agree with all of you all the time, but at least there, I know if people don’t know, they don’t know, they don’t just make up the facts as they go along.

It really is a sad place we are in right now.

Superintendent Reginald Mayo said Wednesday that the principal was just trying to keep students safe, but that he would review the decision to suspend Michael.

Yes, of course, we must keep our kids safe… from Skittles.  Are you kidding me?  The punishment has now been rescinded (he will have his record cleared, and given his position on the student council returned, but of course he now missed the honors dinner he was qualified to attend), I suspect that the school did this about face while staring down the business end of a lawsuit by the parents.

Look, I am all for the schools not selling candy and soda in the schools, but what the hell are these people thinking?

First I found the post about the Hannah Montana movie. When I saw that, it clicked.  They were planning on ending Hannah Montana.  It is just the way Disney does it (Well, except for Phil of the Future, which they quite abruptly ended with a single episode at the end of Season 2).  The Lizzie Maguire Movie, The Proud Family Movie, The Even Stevens Movie, and even Kim Possible: So The Drama (though fans managed to wrangle an extra season out of that).

Of course, if I had just gone back a few more posts first, I would have found this post.  Now  there was a  rumor  flying around lately (I wouldn’t be surprised if they were started by PerezHilton, which seems to have it out for Miley) that Hannah Montana was already canceled.  That was patently false.  The show is still going on… at least until that movie is aired.  Even the premise as reported, that the Stewarts were going back to Tennessee, sounds like the type of storyline that would end the show.

Now I realize that many of you (and I certain “should be”) are a bit tired of Hannah Montana, and her seeming overexposure, but if Hannah is to survive the end of season three, it is time to start now thinking about writing a letter or giving a call to Disney and tell them that they have got to stop arbitrarily axing shows after  3 seasons.

I am totally not telling LatteGirl until the show has completely ended, and I guess hope that she is “over” Hannah by then.  I don’t want it to break her achy breaky heart.  (aww, c’mon, you knew I had to do it sooner or later)

Why I hate people from Alaska – You remember Sen. Stevens (R-Alaska), of “The Internet is a series of tubes” fame?  Well, he is at it again, along with apparently equally dimwitted Senator Bill Nelson (D-Florida) and Senator Olympia Snow (R-Washington), who have introduced a bill to outlaw the already illegal practice of phishing.  Sounds a bit like yet another Bridge to Nowhere.  Of course I can’t but wonder, if it doesn’t pass if Stevens will throw another one of his hissy fits and threaten to quit the Senate.  Of course, I can always dream.

Your rights trampled in the name of profits – It seems Monsanto is on a tear again, pushing for lawmakers to get rid of your right to select milk not tainted with synthetic growth hormones.  Whether or not you believe or care about the rBST/rBGH controvery or not, you should care about your rights, as this is not the only product that is being targeted by large companies to get labeling stripped to keep the consumer in the dark.  Contact your representatives, and tell them, you have a right to know.

Emeril going green – Emeril is coming to the Discovery Channel with a new eco-friendly food show.  The show reportedly will be set in Whole Foods Markets and will feature organic, free range and natural foods.

And how about now? – Yes, I know I can understand if you are tired of me mentioning TheMeatrix, and Sustainable Table, and other food “activist” type things, because how could farms possibly be as bad as it is show in that little animated movie… right?  Well what about this video?  That is not fiction!  That is not “a demonstration” or even a theoretical re-enactment.   No cute little animation here.  This is the actual goings on that lead to the single largest recall of beef (to date) in the United States. [Via Sustainable Table Blog]

Look if you happen to live in one of those places where the “corner store” is “follow this road five miles, make a left where old man Fogarty’s barn used to be, and head down the mountain,”  well then maybe you have some justification.  Or, of course if you are say advanced in years, where the thought walking on snow and/or ice instills visions of broken hips and nursing homes, well maybe you should prepare to be inside a bit longer.  I even understand everybody running to Blockbuster, because of the potential of kids at home for a snow day, and needed something to keep them occupied.

Other than that, honestly people, what are you thinking?  That the horse drawn carriage isn’t going to be able to get Bessie’s milk to the market? That old Mrs. Pumpernickel won’t be able to find enough fire wood to bake some bread?   Just why is it that this insane habit continues today?

First of all, can we talk about money for a second?  It is reportedly going to cost between $40 – $60 million dollars to shoot down this satellite!  Many people joke about the conversion rate of the U.S. Dollar to the Yen or the Peso, but it seems that we are quickly approaching a similar status, where the value of the U.S. Dollar is a joke.    Any undertaking, seems to now require millions and sometimes billions of dollars.

And speaking of a joke, thanks to the “Wild West President” that we currently have in office, other nations, most notably Russia and China are not happy about this.  Russia is claiming that these manuevers are part of a space arms race program, and China while not actually insinuating that this is a cover, has warned the U.S. against the plan to use the missle.  We could really do without another cold war right now, don’t you think?

The White House’s argument has been that the 40 some odd law suits currently pending in the courts could cause finanacial hardship for the telcos.  Well gee, how does the old saying go?  Don’t do the crime if you can’t pay the fine?  (yea I know, I am paraphrasing).  Perhaps they should have thought of this before they went ahead and broke the law.

So what Senators do the telcos own?  (And if your Senator is on this list, you may wish to contact him/her and ask Why they are supporting and providing immunity for criminals!)

Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Carper (D-DE)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Inouye (D-HI)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)
Mikulski (D-MD)

P.S.  Regardless of what your political leaning are… YES!  The Telcos are criminals.  If they weren’t, they would not need the cover of being given immunity.

After this year, I have personally given up on the Superbowl being “the” day for the best commercials.  Sure there were a few cute ones.  But nothing along the lines of the great days of the past.  The Bud Light series was cute for about one commercial, but the ongoing gag became tiresome real quick.  I liked the one of the horse training for the Budweiser Clydesdale Team.  But the fact that I can remember the E*Trade spots with the “baby” stock trader, goes to show how low the creativity has come.  Oh, and am I the only one that misses the “I goin’ to Disney World” commercial?

Now… about the game itself, the pundits, talk show hosts, and so called “experts”

To Tiki Barber – Former Giants Running Back and now big mouth that mocked Manning saying that it was “comical” that he was “trying to” be a leader.  hmmm… what do you think now Mr.  Barber?  (He has been Maybe Eli was having a problem being a leader with a mouthy malcontent veteran running back! 

For all those experts that questioned Eli Manning all season, and laid the blame for Giant losses squarely at his feet, despite the fact that the Giants had the most dropped passes of any team in the NFL all year.  Do you still think it was Manning that was the problem?  Can you stop comparing him to Peyton now?  He did in 4 years what took his brother 6 years to do (and with a more talented cast around him). 

Is anybody going to call Bill Bellichick, the “geneius” on his performance, both on and off the field?  First of all, has there ever been a less gracious coach that lost the SuperBowl?  I mean would it have broken him to give some credit to the Giants?  Of course you are disappointed Bill, everybody knows that.  But how about giving the Giants some credit for picking your team apart.   And could you possibly stay on the field until the end of the game?  Sure, I realize you were like a deer in the headlights, as I am sure you could still not believe that you lost, but the NFL should fine Bellicick for leaving the sidelines.  “Innocent” mistake or not, it was bad sportsmanship. 

Of course, he should be bitter in some respects.  His arrogance is at least in part, some of the reason his team couldn’t put the Giants away.  If he goes for the field goal in a low scoring contest rather than going for it on 4th down, the Giants touchdown only ties the game.  But Bill was so worried (or so it seemed), about his defenses performance on the first drive, he was too busy making adjustments there, to realize Tom Brady was gettin his head handed to him all day long.  Bill just assumed that they would eventually break out for 30 points, and figured even if they didn’t get that score with the field goal, they would just march right down again and score again.  Whoops.  The geneius got caught without an answer for the defensive display, and hurting the Giants defense put on his team.  Granted, despite him making zero adjustments, it was still almost enough to pull out a victory.  But of course, the keyword is… almost.

Is anybody going to mention the pundits who agreed with Tom Brady, lauging at Plaxico Burris’ prediction of a 23-17 final?  I mean, sure the prediction was a bit off, but the part that was so “insulting” to Brady and laughable by the writers was, wondering how Burris could possibly think that the Patriots were “only” going to score 17 points.  Turns out, they didn’t score that many.   They were quick to knock him… anybody gonna be as quick to give him props now?  I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Just, in case you think this is coming from a Sore Winner Giants fan.  That is simply not the case.  As embarassed as I am to say it after the season they had, I have always been a Miami Dolphins fan.  I started keeping track on the Giants when LatteGirl was about 18 months old, and was cheering for the Giants (though at the time, she really had no idea who she was cheering for, she just knew that people around her were cheering when the Giants scored, since I am a Dolphins fan in a family of Giants fans, and married into a family of Giants fans as well).  I have just never been a big fan of some teams that come across as arrogant (think St. Louis Rams right up until they lost to the Patriots, or the Dallas Cowboys during the Jimmy Johnson era).  I guess it comes down to disliking arroagant coaches.  And Bellichick, certain fits that description.  Though perhaps a bit less so today.

We have clothes, dolls, I was one of the fortunate parents that was able to get tickets (at face value) for the concert, and  Santa Claus even came across with the Digital Blue 718 Disney Mix Stick Hannah Montan Mp3 Player (a compromise between me wanting her to have her own music player, and TheWife thinking she was too young for a “real” MP3 player).

Now of course, since our TV rarely leaves the Disney Channel, I of course knew that the Hannah Montana 3D movie was coming.  I was somewhat hoping (fine I was in denial) that since she went to the actual concert, she would not be interested in going to see the movie.  Of course this was NOT the case.  But fine I thought, it is just a movie.

What I didn’t anticipate (and did not see in the commercials until this past week) is that this movie is being release for “1 week only.”  Which in many of the theaters (at least around here) means they are only showing it 1 or 2 days.   Then TheWife informs me that tickets are $15!!!  $15 for a movie that is barely over an hour long!  But things don’t stop there.  No, since there are only a total of 6 shows over two days, the closest theater to us that is showing the movie is SOLD OUT!  TheWife was actually considering (before I found tickets at another theater) trying to buy tickets through a ticket broker.  Can you imagine this?  Scalping tickets to a movie?

Fortunately as I said, I was able to find tickets at another theater, because there was no way I was “paying up” for tickets to the movie.  So, TheWife and LatteGirl will get to see Hannah in 3D (Noooo, I’m not going… not at $15 per).  And I am left to ponder, is Disney out of their freakin’ minds?  Or am I?

This of course leads to the potential for labels from those that do not use cloned animals to mark their products as such. But let us look for a second at an issue that I have mentioned here before, the use of synthetic hormones in milk. Dairies that have chosen to not use Monsanto’s rBGH/rBST should under the same theory be “free” to let consumers know that they produce a product that does not use these hormones, giving consumers that would rather not use them a choice. Simple enough, right? Wrong! Monsanto tried the court route, with mixed results, certainly not good enough for them. Suddenly now there appears to be a genuine campaign to get these labels removed, so that consumers will not be allowed to chose for themselves.

Is this what the FDA means by “free to label or mark their products?”  The simple fact is, that they assume an uneducated consumer is the best consumer, because that means more profits at the expense of your health… not that you would know it, because the FDA… who is supposed to be watching out for the best interest of the people, are all too quickly giving in to pressure from politics and big business.

It is coming to a point, where regardless of how careful you are or try to be with what you feed your family, these corporations have the money to take away your right to know what it is that you are eating.  If this all sounds “anti-business” it isn’t.  It is about anti-corrupt-businesses.  Businesses like Monsanto that have no ethics and cheat and lie to the public and try to buy off politicians.  Heck, I have all the respect in the world for companies like Burger King.  Are they selling products that are, well questionable in nutritional value and awful in regards to fat?  Of course.  And they make no bones about it.  They tell you simply the way it is.  We cater to fat people with big appetites.  Sure, a bacon cheeseburger is loaded with fat.  But if you are a big person, with a big appetite, and want something that has 5 layers of cheese, burger and bacon, and want to consume all that fat in one sitting, then we are happy to serve you.  It is not healthy.  It is not smart.  But they aren’t trying to get lawmakers to ban health food stores for “misleading customers by claiming that their tofu is a better choice” as their defense.  It is disgusting… but it is honest.   You want to eat that… you know what you are getting and are making a choice.

Unfortunately, when it comes to cloning (and unless we can stop it soon milk as well), you can’t make such a choice.

No, not the politics.  There is nothing really new there.  While I get frustrated with things like the Faux News Channel pretending to be fair or balanced, or Chris Matthews of MSNBC, who can’t seem to find a nice word to say about any female politician, and seems to take great joy in finding new ways to insult Hillary (for the record, I am not a Hillary supporter, but Matthews is way out of line).  No those things are just part and parcel for politics today.

What has gotten to me, is once again, we are starting to see a rash of stories, on parents that just are… broken.  The woman that confessed to suffocating her autistic child,  The mother that was found in the house with the decomposing remains of her 4 daughters, whom she claimed were ‘possesed’ when she was arrested on murder charges, the search continues for 4 children allegedly thrown off a bridge by their father/step-father after he has a fight with his wife.

On top of these, today I read the story about a woman, that was out on $10,000 bail for child endangerment (she left her 9 month old alone and unattended in a car), has now been charged with murdering that same child.

I just can’t take these “parents” any longer.  I’m so glad I’m on vacation.

Since, my most recent faux pas of antagonizing a poor PayPerPoster brought up the same old points, and questions, I thought it was worth the time once again to cover these issues.

PayPerPost sounds good… on paper. Companies pay people to write reviews and commentary on their products and services, and hope to generate some sort of “buzz” out of it. Sounds good. And I have seen a couple of people actually use the product in this way. (Maybe 2 of them) But by and far this is simply not the case. It seems that what most people do is look to see what is the highest revenue product they are eligible to write for, and write about that. Regardless of what experience they have …often none, other than maybe… MAYBE taking a peek at the website before they write up a post on the subject.

What, really however gets my goat about this whole scheme, are the people that try to mask this in their regular posts. Now in theory, I guess PayPerPost originally sort of encouraged this sort of misleading practice because the whole “point” was to create buzz, and to appear less like advertising. There is no telltale affiliate code in the link, you just directly link to the website in your post. I have heard that PayPerPost is going to change this policy, in an effort to clean up their image (presumably at least in part to the backlash that they saw at BlogHer, and presumably other events), and start requiring people to disclose this. I think it is a step in the right direction. But I am biased. Because where I seem to most often put my foot in my mouth is when I have called bloggers on a post being a PayPerPost posting. Those that don’t currently disclose, are more often the same ones that get quite indignant about being called on their practices.

I have seen and heard things like, “You have GoogleAds and Affiliate Link.” Yes. Yes, I do. And everything about them is above board. Every single product or company I link to via an affiliate code, is because I believe in or like the product, service and/or Company. (I also have a Policy and Disclosure Page, explaining just that). There is nothing here that I promote, without it being something I believe in. If you happen to pick up a DVD from Amazon, based on my recommendation of it, then I think I have earned the few cents I make on an affiliate link. I am putting my opinons and my credibility on the line in doing so. If I tell you about a bunch of films you don’t like, well then you are not likely to buy them, and I am not going to get paid for them. If you can’t tell the difference between that, and writing a quick couple of paragraphs about Fly-By-Night.com (Not saying that all PayPerPost website are Fly by Night, but…) because that is the one that will pay you the most money to sell your credibility this week, well then there really is no reason to carry on the conversation any longer.

But please. Don’t stand there defiantly, and get all high and mighty. You are right, I am free to go my own way and not read it. That is true. And on many many blogs that is simply the case. I will just click next and move on. If I have commented to you on it. One. You are hiding your true intentions. And (more importantly in this case), you have sold your credibility and disappointed me in the process, because you had some credibility in my eyes. I thought you were worth reading. I thought your opinion was worth something, I thought it mattered. But since your credibility was worth $2.5o (or whatever you got for that post), I guess I felt bad that I had so misjudged you in this regard.

Blogging has for the most part moved past the days of having “donation buttons” and “wish lists” and for that I am sad. Heck, I would donate something to a blog I like (and have). I have used the wish list. I don’t begrudge anybody for trying to make a dollar. I applaud you if you can find a way to make a career out of this. When the day is done however, in the written world like this, all you have is your credibility. Think twice before you pawn it off for such measly sums.

Corrections:  I was corrected by the people at Wirefly.com for an incorrect view of the company.  Wirefly is not an affiliate front as I believed it to be at first pass, and I apologize for this misunderstanding.  The incorrect information has be removed from this post.  I will be taking them up on their request to take a closer look, and will (without PayPerPost compensation) be reviewing them properly when I get an opportunity.

Bush’s buddy and “supporter” President Gen. Musharraf is only still in power, via a declaration of Marshall Law, and he has now gone from President to Dictator, thus leaving the U.S. looking bad to the people of Pakistan.

And now, Bush’s second vocal ally, Australia’s Conservative Prime Minister John Howard was handed a stunning defeat in Australia. What turned voters to the Labor Party (Liberal) and against Howard? Promises to remove troops form Iraq, and the promise to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol. Something Howard and President Bush were both staunchly against.

So it seems while we in this country somehow continue to elect boneheads that are denying global warming or still lying about the war in Iraq, it seems that the rest of the world has caught on. I only hope when the elections roll around next year, we don’t continue to show our ignorance to the world, and get somebody into office that is willing to stop the insanity.

First of all, she asks the question(s),”Is your tot a gamer yet? Ever? Never?” and in there is I think some of the problem. Commenters also played along and went with the same language and theory. However, “gamer” certainly draws a certain connotation to it (whether you believe that connotation is good or bad is wholly dependant on your POV) that I don’t think applies to kids. They play a game. In the case of some games like V.Smile or Leapster, they even LEARN while they are “playing” (not “gaming”).

I think the fear that every kid that knows how to use a computer is going to turn into some sort of computer zombie slayer is quite overblown. If anything, my bet would be that the exact opposite would often play out to be the truth.  Much the same way that kids that are completely denied sugar are the ones that often hit the candy racks the hardest when they are able to do so, the kid that is denied the opportunity to use computers, whether purely for learning, or even for some amount of entertainment, would be the ones that I would be on to become gaming addicts later as they attempt to make up for lost time.   Not to mention the fact that in this day and age, you are putting your child at a distinct disadvantage if you do not introduce them to technology in a society that whether you like it or not is technology driven.

Of course, like everything else, there needs to be limits.  Limits on the amount of time spent on the computer.  Limits to what they are allowed to play or use, and other common sense rules apply here as well as with anything else.  The fact of the matter is, if you keep it age appropriate, at a young age, whether they realize it or not, while they are playing these games they are learning something… colors, numbers, associations… there is learning going on there, interactive, touch and work with it learning.  Even Seasame Street can’t compete with that, let alone anything else that they might happen to watch on the “idiot box.”

Of course, TV has been outed for the most part as not necessarily the best baby sitter in the world, but most parents do employ it as least once in a while in an effort to get something done, or to find a couple of minutes to get in the shower, maybe get dinner ready without somebody hanging at your heels crying “I booooored.”  And to be honest, again if you keep it smart, and within limits I don’t thing there is anything wrong with that.  And “computer time” could simply be used as another way to not only teach but entertain.  Given a choice, I would rather my daughter grab her Reader Rabbit game, or log on to Playhouse Disney and play some games that teach her something that to give in to another hour or even half hour in front of the TV.

In the second grade, this has already paid off dividends for me and LatteGirl.  She had a science project last week (Don’t get me started on already having week long projects in the second grade), where she needed to look up different types of animals and find out facts about them.  With no help (but WITH supervision), she logged into Encarta, pulled up facts on each animal, and even copy and pasted the URL for each animal and pasted it into notepad so she could print out her bibliography.  I don’t know if I tasked TheWife with this project, if she could have completed the reseach any better or any faster than our seven year old.  That is not a knock on TheWife, but it is a telling scenario of just how proficient LatteGirl has gotten at using her PC.

Sure, when we were in school, we had to walk uphill both ways in the snow, get permission from Mrs. Shushman to go and dust off a seventy pound Encycolpedia to do our research.  But those days are gone.  Your not protecting anybody by keeping technology out of your kids hands.  If anything, you may be hurting them.  If they are going to turn into a gamer (not that there is anything wrong with that), they are going to do it whether or not you let them play an interactive game when they are young.  Our society is to technologically advanced to sit back and try and deny it is there.

On the other hand, when I look at an animal like Jack Fuller, a “family acquaintance” that murdered Brittney Gregory, and he only got 30 years in prison my blood begins to boil. Here is a case where this guy admitted in court that he punched the girl at least twice in the face and head because she tried to stop him from smoking crack while he gave her a ride to her boyfriend’s house in July 2004. Her unclothed body was found in a shallow grave some two weeks later. In 30 years he will walk out of prison a free man. Brittney on the other hand will still be dead. I can’t even imagine what it must be like for her parents to know that he will one day be free again.

But, I am getting away from the point a bit, because here in New Jersey, the death penalty has been nothing short of a joke. It was reinstated in 1982, and since that time, the number of 1st degree murder convicts put to death remains at 0. So what is the big deal of voting it out now? Well, other than the fact that people argue that the death penalty is not a deterrent. Well no, not the way it is implemented here in New Jersey. Hell, the appeals process could probably last longer than some of these people will survive in jail.

I would hate for New Jersey to be held up at the beacon of those that are against the death penalty, because we saw fit to abolish it. Because here, it proves nothing other than our own incompetency on whether we are actually going to use it or not. So New Jersey may abolish the death penalty… so what? It is nothing here but a blue law, that has no teeth. The argument is pointless.

Now we have students getting suspended for “spreading rumors” when they report a teacher for having sex with a student. What is worse is that rather than admitting that they screwed up the school administration says, “they had no hard evidence at the time, because both the teacher and student denied it” (gee… can I get a “duh” here?) so the only “logical” step they had was to suspend the student for the “rumor.” Only I wouldn’t have been quite as smug as these administration officials when the teacher was later arrested for having a sexual relationship with the student (which police discovered on their own, since the school never reported this “rumor”). I guess we should be happy that the school administrators finally saw fit to suspend her.

Things can’t get much more stupid can they? Well yeah, they can. How about getting a days detention (each) for hugging two friends as you say goodbye before heading home for the weekend? Stupid? But of course. And once again, you have a school official, in this case District Superintendent Sam McGowen rushing to defend school officials saying that the penalty was appropriate because the school policy handbook states:

“Displays of affection should not occur on the school campus at any time. It is in poor taste, reflects poor judgment, and brings discredit to the school and to the persons involved.”

I defy this clown to tell me what is in more “poor taste and reflecting poor judgment”… being, friendly and polite with friends, and giving them a hug goodbye?”  Or giving the girl detention for doing so?  That you have kids that would rather hug and say goodbye discredits the school?  No, I’d day that job is done quite well by idiotic school officials that apparently don’t have the critical thinking skills necessary to be able to discern  what would be deemed inappropriate or reflecting poor judgment.  The poor judgment is how these people got these jobs.  If I was a parent of this girl, I would be having a “hug in” on school grounds.  But I am vindictive that way.  (hat tip to Doug for this)

So, they screwed up, and got caught. Now they needed to find a fall guy, and that was publicist John Philbin. This is the way our current government works. They find the lowest person they can leave twisting in the wind, and sack that person. Again, not much of a surprise there. What I do find so astounding is the unwavering loyalty after the fact. I mean, Mr. Philbin was quite willing to accept all the blame, and says “I should have canceled the FEMA press briefing.” Nice and neatly packaged. Except, it seems to me that it is just a continuation of the lie.

C’mon, are we really supposed to believe that nobody, including Vice Adm. Harvey Johnson, who took the questions from the staff, and clearly from the tone and the actually addressing at least one person by name, had no idea that this was staged? Were these little nobody staffers that perhaps the Admiral was not aware were members of his office? Doubtful, since the questions were asked by people like, Cindy Taylor, FEMA’s deputy director of external affairs, and by “Mike” Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs as well as Director of External Affairs John “Pat” Philbin (yes the man fired, the man that put the news conference together. Let me just make this clear, in case it isn’t already. Vice Admiral Johnson contacts Philbin to put together a news briefing. Philbin is in the “crowd of reporters” asking a question at that news briefing… and Johnson suspects nothing? Even if that were actually true… aren’t you scared to have somebody so inanely curious in such a position?

If you look at the Terms and Conditions that have been modified since they were sued (and lost) for terminating customers for using “too much bandwith” on their unlimited data plans they now clearly specify:

Anyone using more than 5 GB per line in a given month is presumed to be using the service in a manner prohibited above, and we reserve the right to immediately terminate the service of any such person without notice. 

They have apparently stopped using the word unlimited on some of their advertising, but when you go to sign up (or renew) a plan, the price still includes “unlimited” in their offerings (with the disclaimer of defining what unlimited means.  Now, to some extent I can understand and appreciate what Verizon Wireless is trying to do in that this service (especially on a consumer account) is not designed for this purpose, and 5GB is a LOT of traffic to be pulling down to a mobile phone or PDA in a given month, but then why not just STOP CALLING IT AN UNLIMITED PLAN.  There are plenty of words in dictionary, can’t the folks at Verizon Wireless, stop redefining the meanings and just work with what is already there?  Hello!?!  Can you hear me now Verizon Wireless?

* Full Disclosure – I am a Verizon Wireless customer.  What that means… I don’t know, other than I am willing to call out even companies that I like when they are doing wrong by their customers.

Of course, it is easy for most any reasonable person to applaud this. But there is some concern. Some, while in no way attempting to support Phelps worry and wonder Is Phelps Loss, a Loss for All? And I understand and appreciate the concern. Being on the “wrong side” (read in the minority) of issues like women’s rights, gay rights, and against the war in Iraq, I can say that I, as much as anybody, worry about anything that can erode free speech.

That being said (although admitting I am no lawyer), think that this has already been well established by the Supreme Court, that First Ammendment rights, does not allow a person to infringe on the rights of others. In Cox v. Louisiana (1965) the court stated, (c) The rights of free speech and assembly do not mean that everyone may address a group at any public place at any time. (Pp. 554-555). and (d) Communication of ideas by picketing and marching on streets is not afforded the same kind of protection under the First and Fourteenth Amendments as is pure speech. (P. 555.). These two statements go right to the heart of the matter. While Phelps may certainly have the right to say whatever the hell bile he wishes, he is not guaranteed the right to do it “at any public place at any time.” and picketing and marching is NOT afforded the same kind of protection as pure free speech. So the court has clearly drawn some lines already for exactly this sort of situation.

There are other cases as well, if you really wanted to dig into them you could check out, this synopses of Supreme Court Cases.  I am not going to, because I feel like I have already dedicated more time to Fred Phelps and his band of vile idiots than they are worth.

And speaking of uncaring idiots – Next time you look at your politician, that one that says he cares about you and what is important to you ask yourself this… “Why did he (and all these clowns) subvert the American people with the wiretap bill that will grant retroactive immunity to the telephone companies?” For all their talkabout caring about you, the constituent instead it seems that all they care about is the dollars from the telephone companies. The same telco companies that broke the law, and got caught. But rather than have to pay for their crimes in court, they opted to pay off the politicians that “forgive them” for their indiscretion with YOUR privacy.

Can toys just be toys? – Look, I am the first one to admit that since having a little girl that I have become far more tuned into and far quicker to react to stereotyping little boys and girls. Matter of fact I was quick to knock the Daring Book for Girls, just based on the description that what is “important skills for a girl to learn” include pressing flowers, how to put your hair up with a pencil, etc.

That being said, I have been caught somewhere between amused and shocked at the some of the complaining about things like a Tonka Truck ad, because it is targeted towards boys (also another one can be found here), and the horror shown towards the Hasbro’s Rose Petal Cottage, which has {gasp} Rose Petals on it, and is marketed to girls. Horkin Ramblings says it quite nicely when she asks Aren’t There More Important Things To Complain About. She even picked out the most amazing comment, which lamented that this toy was, “polishing the glass ceiling instead of breaking it.”  Seriously?

C’mon folks.  Little Suzy has plenty of time to recover and be whatever she wants to be, and her furture is not going to be dictated by a toy kitchen set, nor will she be irreparably harmed because the ad for a toy truck is not “equally” promoted directly to her.  If she wants a toy truck… guess what, she will play with one, or ask for one, regardless of whether they are advertised for “boyhood.”  Similarly with the kitchen, I laughed at one comment (which I am admittedly too lazy to go back and find) that said because the Rose Petal Cottage has flowers on it, it precludes any boy from playing with it.  Well um, dare I ask, who is defining gender roles now?  Can a boy not play with a toy that is pink?  Can he not like flowers?  You argue against a stereotype but using a stereotype.

In the end.  It is a toy.  And as Freud didn’t quite say, sometimes a toy is just a toy.

Now the first, is the question of is there an age limit for Trick or Treating?  Personally I don’t hold it against older kids to go trick or treating.  I do sort of have my own personal “rules” on it though.  I will usually indulge them less (one piece of candy whereas I tend to give the little ones a bit more since they will not be walking as much, and hence not getting to as many houses), and secondly, I “expect” a costume.  Walking around in your street clothes and carrying a pillow case doesn’t cut it for me.  If you want the spoils of the holiday, you have to at least make an effort.  So do you have an age limit for trick-or-treaters?

The second point was raised, as sort of an aside where Chris ranted “about parents who let their kids run wild on Halloween night with no supervision.”  Now this one I really have to admit struck me as odd.  I guess because my thinking is  virtually opposite.  In a way, I feel sorry for kids today.  When I was a wee lad (granted this was quite some time ago), I think I was six the last time my mother took “the walk” with me to go trick or treating.  After that, she decided it was entirely too much walking, and I was off on my own to go trick or treating from the time I got out of school until dinnertime, and then (when I was a bit older) again for another couple of hours after dinner.

Today, it is so much different.  Going trick ‘o treating after school is a virtually fruitless endevour (at least around these parts) as most people are in work, and even half (or more) of the kids are in some sort of aftercare program.  So the time to gather goodies has become relegated to an after dinner event.  And then after a long day of work, preparing dinner, etc.  a parent has to then waltz their kid around the neighborhood, and they more often (except for the littlest of frolickers) worn out and tired first.  Thus limiting how much time the child has to “make the rounds”

Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand WHY parents do it.  I do it as well.  We worked out a bit of a plan, where TheWife takes LatteGirl out first, and I stay at home to give out the candy, and then we switch roles, this ensures we are home for those looking for candy, while allowing LatteGirl to get her fill of Halloween fun without one of us getting too worn out to continue.  But I still feel sad that I don’t feel safe to let her just traipse around the neighborhood on her own.  And if you live in an area where you feel comfortable with that sort of arrangement, I must admit, I am a bit jealous.  Halloween is about candy, but it is also about a bit of mischeif, mindless frolicking about.  And these days, that is completely lost.

The public transportation is spotty in the best of times in that area, as New Jersey Transit is lacking in foresight. I really am afraid of what that is going to look like, at least until they get a clue and add more buses and trains on event nights. For example, I am actually lucky in that there are two separate bus routes that happen to pass my block. At around 10:30 or 11:00 pm (typical time for a hockey game or a concert to end), one bus is running at about 1 every 45 minutes, the other is about every hour or hour and 15. Bus full? Oh well wait another hour and hope you can get on. While it is easier for them to add a couple of cars to the trains, they also are running very intermittent at that hour. So if the event runs a bit long, or you have trouble navigating the crowd out and miss the train, Oh well, now you can wait another hour before you can even start your ride home.

But as a hockey fan, the hardest part for me to swallow, is something that I’ve known was going on, but tried denying it (to myself) for the longest time. Professional sports don’t give a damn about the fan. In today’s local paper (I don’t link to them, because they remove their stories behind a paid archive after 2 weeks), the headlines about the new arena read, “it is built, but will they come?” Referring to the “illusive fans” that it was believed did not attend the games in the Meadowlands because it had almost NO public transportation or easy access. But, rarely was the trouble in the Meadowlands really the fans.

With Tickets upwards of $95 (last time I went a couple of years ago), sure there were some seats empty. But the perception was really off. On a typical non “event” (i.e. playoff, games against the Rangers, etc), when TV cameras panned around, you saw a lot of empty seats. A lot of empty high priced or corporate owned seats. If the camera ever went up to the upper level (where the best seats were about $50), it looked far more “packed” But camera crews don’t pan the upper deck, all you see are the seats around the ice.

Fast forward to the new arena, those seats that were expensive (I think) at $95 in the old arena, now carry a face value of $200. Yes, you read that right. $200 for a single ticket for a single game. A regular season game. But this is exactly what I mean, when I say they don’t care about the fan. These seats are mean for “making deals” These are the seats that Prudential, and other corporations will own and give as perks to clients, partners, elected officials (did I say that?) etc. As a matter of fact nothing in the arena, short of an “upper balcony” seat goes for less that $65.  Yes, there are actually a few $10 and $20 seats in the upper corners.  But you better bring binoculars if you want to see anything more than “dots” moving around the ice.  Any story about the new arena talks about the Two club lounges, the “goal bar”, terrace area, as well as the 350-seat gourmet restaurant, and 76 luxury suites that are all off limits to “ordinary people” that can’t afford Season Tickets.

So where does that leave “the fan?”  Will they say “it is New Jersey”  (again) and that New Jersey just doesn’t support its local team?  Or will somebody realize that they are just pricing out the regular fans?  Tell me… honestly… am I wrong?  Can you imagine bring a family of 4 to a hockey game, getting mediocre balcony seats, and being out $260 on tickets alone?  How many games would you be attending a year?

I know other sports have done it too.  Football has been that way for quite some time.  But unlike football, hockey doesn’t not have football’s following.  Nor does it translate as well to television.  And now they are cutting out the fans actually going to their games.

Is there nothing anymore that is just for normal people?  Does it all have to be about corporate sponsorships, and corporate boxes, and corporate whatever else?  What about the fan?

First, there is the issue of the “Helicopter Parent.” This is a tough one for me because I straddle such a thin line. LatteGirl is always initially shy around new people, once she warms up she is fine, but she will rarely do it without encouragement and would tend to withdraw if not prompted. Secondly, she wants to much to be accomodating to others she will often wind up rather unhappy when certain kids (including her cousin) tend to take advantage of this “weakness” and boss her around. I don’t want to wind up being (or even appearing to be) a Helicopter Parent, so I have in the past, not exactly fed LatteGirl to the wolves, but I didn’t step in, where I think I probably should have in the past, because of this.

I have also made her be the “bigger person” when another child is rude or such, because it was not my place. This can be quite frustrating. Particularly with some of her friends, that apparently are children of parent’s that don’t seem to see anything their child does wrong, or give the “kids will be kids” explanation.

I still don’t want to be seen as what is (really) a Helicopter Parent, but I also no longer want it to prevent me from being my daughter’s best advocate. One question that goes along with this however. How do you deal with kids that have parent’s that won’t take charge of thier kids ever? For example, is it proper to ask another person’s child to stop screaming? Or to tell them to share? I’m not talking about scolding, but more about playing peacekeeper. What do you do, when it seems like it is always your child that has to make concessions, and “be understanding” with other kids, who apparently are raised by people that don’t have the same common courtesy?

The other issue, is “bragging.” I have read plenty of books, articles and even blogs of people that do a lot of complaining about how much parents talk about (or brag about) their kids. Yet, I know as for myself, and virtually if not every single blog I read, the parents while certainly proud of their kids, often keep it very subdued, if not downright humble. We tend to minimize everything. Or we decide it is “no big deal.” We keep conversations about our kids “short and sweet.” Yes, I know there are people on the other end of the spectrum, people who are sure that their kids are gifted and bound for greatness and already enrolled in the Albert Einstein Program for the Gifted by the time they are 6 months old. But that doesn’t mean I need to compensate by keeping the spotlight off my own daughter at all times.

So, now as he suggested, I am going to put an end to that. (And I of course invite you to do the same, either in comments or your own blog).

LatteGirl is incredibly bright. She is disappointed when she comes home with a less than perfect score on a test (even though we do not in any way put any pressure on her in that way. Matter of fact, we are usually having to tell her that nobody is perfect).

LatteGirl is a good sport. She is not necessarily good at all sports, but she enjoys playing just about anything. She is not the most athletic, her athsma often hampers her, but she gives it 110% always, and has fun while doing it.

LatteGirl is a sweetheart. She has compassion to spare for anybody, everybody, and every creature she encounters. She is friendly (when she gets past her intial shy stage), she will do anything she can to try and make somebody else feel happy, loved, and welcome. She doesn’t hate anybody, and in her 7 year old philosophy, there is nothing in this world that is so bad, that it can’t be fixed with a hug and a kiss.

Your turn.

Look, I appreciate the work that these shelters and rescue places do. I can even appreciate that they have some sort of review process to try and find a suitable home. But, it seems to me that they have all just gone a little crazy and overboard with their “guidelines.”

This was just highlighted again just how out of control these places can get, with the high profile case of the dog that was adopted by Ellen DeGeneres. She apparently adopted a Brussels Griffon terrier mix. The dog did not get along with her cats, so she found the dog a new home with her hairstylist’s family. But it seems that the place that DeGeneres adopted the dog from didn’t think, “this is the type of family that should have the dog” and removed the dog from that home.

Now first of all, who the hell made them god of dogs, and decided what “type of family” should have a dog?  Second, if they showed up at my house to take my dog away, the only thing they would be leaving with would be my shoe firmly planted in their ass.

It seems that the agency, Mutts and Moms (located in Pasadena, Ca.) has a rule that NO FAMILY can adopt a dog that has children under the age of 14.  This is the most arbitrarily  loony rule I have ever heard.  Of course there are some dogs that can not be placed with children because of temperment, or because of how the dog was treated at a previous home that makes certain dogs not suitable.  How many people would not have dogs at all if everybody enforced this age limit?  How many childhood memories would go up in smoke if you had to erase the dog out of the picture?  And in this case, the children were 12 and 11, so while they did not make the “predetermined” age, they were certainly close enough for consideration, I mean you are not talking about a couple of toddlers where you are worried about them pulling on the dogs tail or fur or some other poor treatment.

Unfortunately, in this case (as in many others), these rules, as arbitrary and random as they are, become hard and fast denials that give no consideration for that family that is just looking to give a dog a home.  These people really need to get a clue.

The devil is in the details – The RIAA wins a key victory against file sharing. It is not the generality of the case that bothers me, as I can see how a court can rule that distributing files hurts their income. It is the small details of the case that are quite disturbing. Fact one: In this case, the argument was made that the file doesn’t actually have to be downloaded, but just by making it available constitutes damages. There are lots of things that often made “available” either accidentally or uknowingly through file shares, etc. that can now be attacked as “piracy.” The second was when a RIAA lawyer argued that even RIPPING a CD constitutes piracy. So that CD that you ripped into iTunes (or Zune)… that according to this clown is piracy. These are some really scary people, and now they have a court case on their side.

Favorite Blog Quote of the week comes from Cynical Dad:

The Hi-5 girls are wholesome; they should not be hawking birth control. That would be like a former Mouseketeer being ordered by a judge to take parenting classes and undergo drug testing.

Oh wait. My bad.

(from the post How Birth Control Destroyed Two Childhood Memories)

Verizon Wireless plans on selling information on you, such as “quantity, technical configuration, type, destination, location and amount of services you purchase.”  Together this is known as you “Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI).”

They are going to do this so that may “better serve your communications needs and to identify, offer and provide products and services.”  In other words, so they can sell you more sh– errr… stuff.

Now even the FCC and other regulatory bodies realized how important it was to safeguard this information, and Verizon Wireless is required to do so by law.  But now they are seeking your waiver so that they may use this information to sell you stuff from them, their parent companies, affiliates, partners, and anybody else they can profit from.  They also however are using the standard sneaky ass backward “opt out” method of permission.

You have 30 days from the time the letter was sent to you to “opt out”  and unless you do, Verizon Wireless “will assume that you give the Verizon Companies the right to share your CPNI”

In case you didn’t save the letter (or don’t feel like waiting for it to come), you can call 1-800-333-9956 and follow the recorded instructions to opt out.

Then came the request for tickets for Hannah Montana.  It would be an early Christmas present for LatteGirl.  OK, I thought.  No big deal.  But imagine my surprise when I discovered that tickets for this concert would cost MORE than a Broadway show!  It took about 1/2 hour once the tickets went on sale before I was able to secure tickets.  Upper Level at the new Prudential Center that will be opening (theoretically) this week.  Read that again… UPPER LEVEL!  Cost? $120 a piece.  For Hannah Montana!   Now, I understand I am old now… but I don’t think if I add up the cost of every concert I have ever attended, that it would cost more than the $240 I had to lay out for this one event.

I was even more shocked when I heard that the concert sold out in a hour, and that tickets were now being given away on local radio stations, just like “real” concert tickets.  I guess at these prices that this is a real concert, but somehow it just doesn’t seem the same thing to me.  I saw this much more like a “Kiddie Concert” but I guess I was wrong.

HSBC Bank has come up with a new way to reach new lows that will be  difficult  (I won’t say “impossible”  any longer)  to  beat.  Tonight I answer the phone, and get what starts to sound like a typical sales call, and I am ready to quote the law and the fact that I have already asked to be placed on their do not call list, when I realize that the person on the other end of the phone isn’t exactly replying exactly to what I am saying, but something I can only deem as “close.”

At first I think, it is just some new guy that is sticking a little too close to the script and not listening.    But then he replies to one comment with a completely different reply and a chuckle.  And I think to myself, “Wait a minute.”  So, I ask “Are you a real person?”  The line gets static and after a pause, he says “Yes, this offer is real.”

Bingo!

There wasn’t even a telemarketer on the other end of the phone.  Now I can’t even try and feel sorry for somebody that is just trying to earn a living and doing their job.  Now it is nothing but a talking computer with a voice recognition algorithm trying to “understand” what I am saying.

Tomorrow I am closing all my accounts at HSBC.  That is just plain wrong!

Now my normal liberal way of thinking says that I should support anything that is going to help people out of a bad situation. And in general I do believe that. Rebuilding the areas worst hit by Katrina? Absolutely! Help an area after a Tornado wracks an area? Of course. But bail out some guy who took out a questionable mortgage deal, so he can get more house than he can really afford, and gets caught because that floating mortgage that enabled him to buy a house bigger than mine with more land than me has now gone up (as everybody but the sap that actually signed for this loan knew it would do)? Um… Hold the phone a moment will you please?

Look. I don’t want to sound mean. I realize that these are people we are talking about. People that could very well lose their homes. That is of course a very sad situation. It also hurts the economy, so I understand that there are some widespread consequences that lawmakers are hoping to stave off by this maneuver as well. But I have a hard time rationalizing how I need to pay taxes for my own home, and then watch my tax dollars go to help pay for somebody that is not paying their own taxes and mortgage. Not because of some natural disaster, not by act of war or terrorism, not because of changing boundaries or zoning issues, not even because of illness or even job loss, but because they got caught. They got caught trying to bite off more than they could chew.

Want to lay blame somewhere? Lay it at the feet of these mortgage companies that came up with these “sub-prime” loans. Interest Only loans? Who plays that game? Somebody that is trying to flip a home for a profit? Well, that is why it is called speculation, let them absorb their loss. Somebody that was conned by a mortgage broker that this was an excellent way to get “more house for your money?” Well then hang the broker out to dry for swindling this hard-working individual out of their “American Dream” by convincing them to do the ill-advised, after all it was the broker that profited from these loans.

But please, don’t ask the hardworking men and women that work hard and find a way to pay their mortgages and taxes on time to foot the bill for somebody else’s mistake.

It was back in 2005 when I went on my first (public) rant about this, after a Op-Ed piece at the Philadelphia Inquirer by Christine Flowers compared Breastfeeding in public to urinating in public, smoking, and blaring hip-hop music and suggests that women who breastfeed should use the bathroom.  This initial rant really caught me off guard, when Ms. Flowers actually responded to my post, calling me an “Alan Alda Femenist” (whatever that means) because she has every right to sip her Latte at Starbucks in peace, and women should just use the restrooms to breastfeed. (Yeah, that sounds sanitary… why don’t you go sip your Latte in there?)  But it did illustrate to me, exactly how pathetically dense these people are, and thus made me far less likely to ignore them… because they are not going to “just go away” or “have an epiphany” since light will likely not dawn on their marble heads.  (My apolgies, but philly.com apparently decided to pull this from their archives, so I can not link to it any longer).

Last year brought us another two incidents of stupidity.  The first being Victoria Secrets, where an employee insisted a woman use the employee restroom to breastfeed her child. Now, we can not blame the entire chain since according to Limited Brands (the parent company), policy certainly allows women to breastfeed, so it was apparently only a particular employee, but still was certainly a telling example of how even at a store which you would think knows a thing about women’s breasts, you can still run into this sort of silliness.

Of course last year also brought us the melee that started when LiveJournal decided that Avatars depicting breastfeeding were offensive.  Not being a LiveJournal user, and not exactly being a big fan of Six Apart in general, I did not find this all that bizarre (LiveJournal seems to have a history of finding ways to upset their users), but upsetting none-the-less.  Since it was “only LiveJournal” this really didn’t get all that much attention (outside of a few blogs), but of course that lack of attention comes back to bite when now Facebook has decided to go this same route and ban breastfeeding pics.  Proving once again, that just by ignoring a problem it will not go away, and will even manifest itself elsewhere, as it has done in this case.

But this pales in comparison, to the hairy chested machismo offered by Bill Maher in response to a story about a Mother that was humilated to tears, while attempting to breastfeed at an Applebee’s in Kentucky and is now trying to get Applebee’s to change their policies.  To be honest, I guess I don’t find it all that strange.  Much like LiveJournal, Maher despite being a seemingly progressive person, is prone to proving himself to be a jackass frequently.

I’m not going to break down his stupidity point by point, partly because it is so indefensible, it baffles me how he can try and  justify this.   Breastfeeding is no different that masturbating in public?  Really?  I’d say Mr. Maher needs some serious therapy, I mean either he has a seriously twisted view of breastfeeding… or of masturbaring.  I don’t know which, and in all sincerity, I really do not wish to know the answer.

But the reason, I will defer to others is really because you can already find it done better than I could hope to (and without the caveat of it coming from “some guy that shouldn’t be getting into women’s issues”…. hmmmm… I wonder if that is what an “Alan Alda Femenist is supposed to mean).  So, for the complete lowdown you can start with Sarah over at Suburban Oblivion.  Then go get the view from the Velveteen Mind who credits Sarah this time rather than stealing her idea  (I’m just kidding of course).  And the Huffington Post has chimed in as well.  And admittedly I fully expect to find something over at Domestic Psychology soon. (But no pressure Cathy :wink: )

You can see the YouTube video here.

I couldn’t forget this day if I tried.  I documented a lot of my own personal post traumatic stress disorder last year, when a lot of bad feelings came rushing back after the terrible accident that took the life of Yankee Pitcher Cory Lidle.

Admittedly, I tend to try and point out what it wrong NOW, since 9/11 on this day.  I have pleaded with the people in Washington and in the news to  just stop with the fear mongering and playing with our emotions. I like others (and documented quite nicely this year by Newsweek) wonder why 6 years later, there is still just a whole in the ground where the World Trade Center once stood.

But as I sit here this evening, looking at the lights reaching into the cloudy evening, lights meant to represent the buildings that once stood there, the people that lived and worked there, and the rescue workers that perished, I am angry.  After the WTC bombings in 1993 it was known that there were issues with the FDNY radios communicating in this area due to the amount of steel and such.  The “fix” was so flawed that they could not get it to work properly that day and did not use it (9/11 Commission: Chapter 9 ).  USA Today first reported in 2003 that the money from the Department of Homeland Security is not going where is should.  I found it interesting and infuriating at the same time, when I read this article in Newmax that showed GOP leaders complaining about too much money going to Democratic areas, as if that should have any impact on where the money should go.  The response from this… more politics.  Just last year, the DHS slashed the funding to NYC by 40% because it determined that New York City has no National Monuments or icons.

So now, as I look forward, rather than spending my time dwelling on what was, my focus is more to how can we deal with it now?  It is time for each of us to stand up and demand that we stop playing games in the name of security, and to actually have something done about it.  We need to make our elected officials actually put together something meaningful in the way of a plan.  Let me stress that again… MEANINGFUL.  I don’t feel safer because airport security is “so perfect” that they make little kids take off their flip flops and walk barefoot through the x-ray machine, since they obviously can’t tell by looking that a 99 cent piece of rubber can’t possibly hold the explosives to take down a jetliner.

We deserve better.  And I for one am going to start demanding it.

Oh Vanessa – In case you missed the shockwave that went around the Internet yesterday, it was confirmed by one of her representatives  that the nude picture of Vanessa Hudgens that was going around was real. (No, I am not linking to the picture… sorry Google Searchers)  Shall we start the bets now on whether or not she will be in High School Musical 3?  If rumors were true that she (and Zac Effron) were holding out for more money… this may have just cost her in more ways than one.

Coffee Comrade? -  I was a bit surprised that this was done so low key, considering the fanfare some corporation gets when they open overseas operations, but farfare or not, you can now get Starbucks Coffee in Russia.

Come Out Already – Say what you want about former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, when his day of reckoning was upon him and he was caught, at least he had the decency to admit it and resign.  Larry Craig now saying he may not resign, because he needs to “prove” he is not gay.  So far all he has proved is that he is an awful liar, and desperate.  I mean to have your kids (well not actually his, his wife’s from a prior marriage) out there stumping that they believe your “I’m a wide guy so I brushed the foot of the guy in the stall next to me because I am so big” excuse is just plain mean.  It was bad enough when you used that sad excuse.  But to make them go out there and appear just as dumb (if not dumber) by believing it and claiming you were a ‘victim of circumstance‘.  Well… That is just sad.

Well would you? – Wendy over at Things in Your Head asks the tough question on the validity of sites like eHarmony with their “29 levels of compatibility.” That question of course being, would you wind up with your same spouse if you had to try and “match up” with them?

Now, since we are all Kim Possible fans here, we are both excited about the marathon and sad at the same time.  The reasons for excitement are obvious of course.  But the sadness stretches in two directions.

The first of course being that at the end of the marathon is the series finale.  It felt like such a long hard battle that was waged to get the fouth season out of Disney, and suddenly it is here and already gone.  There are those that are striving to get a 5th season out of the folks at Disney, however according to rumors  on SaveDisneyShows.org, the creators of Kim Possible are leaving (or have left) Disney World.  So the chances of that happening are slim.

The second reason for sadness?  What brain trust a Disney runs a kids show from Noon to 6 am during the first week (at least around here) of back to school?  I mean do these people not have children?  Do they not know how hard it is to get kids back on a school friendly sleep schedule?  And even if it wasn’t… what KID is going to be watching this throughout the night?  Or are they hoping (as LatteGirl was) that I would just blow away everything on my Tivo in order to record every episode that would be missed?

Kim, I will miss you when you are gone, but just understand when bedtime comes around tonight, I am not going to be your biggest fan.

Well, today LatteGirl returns to school.  Yesterday she was of course lamenting the end of summer vacation as we were going through the checklist of back to school items to pack in her backpack.  So, as we were doing this she complained, “I can’t believe that summer is over already.  I mean, we didn’t even get to do anything yet.”

After retreiving my jaw back off the floor where is landed, I asked her to explain.  Now I should point out that last summer, she went to Day Camp 4 days a week, and Fridays she and TheWife would do something together (usually).  This year however, she requested to go to camp 5 days a week because she felt that she had missed out on so many things that her friends got to do on that day that she wasn’t there.  So, she felt that there were a lot more trips that should have been made.

That being said, this was a rather expensive and busy summer around here.  Since school got out we have made trips to Buskill Falls, Disney World, a couple of trips to the beach, Chestnut Grove Resort in the Poconos, Mountain Creek Waterpark and Six Flags Great Adventure (where we will also be returning this weekend as well).  She has visited Adventure Aquarium, Turtleback Zoo, and the Bronx Zoo.  With camp she has gone swimming at 4 different lakes, been ice skating, bowling, roller skating, and more.

Hell, as we slip into September, I am starting to regret the purchase of the new pool, because between feeling like we were always on our way somewhere, LatteGirl being “all swimmed out” from trips to the lake, and weather that kept the pool a little cooler than we had hoped most of the year, the amount of use pool saw this year was nominal.  I spent more time keeping the pool clean than anybody spent actually in the pool.

Now I know that when back to school time arrives, no kid is happy about it, and summer always is “too fast” and the knee jerk reaction is to say they did “nut in’” all summer.  But park of me is thinking, if she felt she was bored this year.  I better get a second job to start paying for next year, because what the heck are we going to do for an encore to try and improve on this summer?

I have of course learned over the years that there are plenty of “The Dads” out there as well that strive much harder than previous generations to do more with our kids, to be a bigger part of their lives from the outset, and not just be, “The Provider,” that comes home from work looking for his Pipe and Brandy, then patting his kids on the head as the nanny whisks them off to bed.  Nope, we got the message, and we have made sure we have time to tell the kids, “Lets go fly a kite.”

Then I ran across this article on msn, about Paving Memory Lane, from Best Life Magazine, and by the time I was done, I was… I don’t know annoyed?… sickened?… generally pissed.  It seems that in the eyes of this author, the only way for a Dad to ingrain his place in his children’s head is to trick them into it.  He offers “tricks” such as giving names to events so they are catchy, family slogans, the buying of “tourist-trap junk”, and even hookey day to “prove” you are cool.

I like many men want to create memories with our children, but if the only way you can create them it to trick your kids into remember it, then I say either you aren’t trying hard enough, or often enough.  Just being there for your kids is a gift your kids will cherish.  Being there for that soccer game, or dance recital, or whatever else is important to them when they are young is far more important and will be remembered far longer, than the trinket you indulged on the one time you actually did something for them.

Just being a Dad for your kids is enough.  No slight of hand required.

Now don’t get me wrong, some of my in-laws are very nice.  However, I can count them on one hand.  As for the rest of them, well all I can say is the best feeling I ever had about them was when my mother-in-law moved 1/2 way across the country one week after our wedding.  (She has unfortunately since moved back).

These are people that are difficult to take in small doses on a one-on-one basis.  Get them together, and it could send the strongest willed people screaming for the hills.  So bookend them on successive weekends, and you have a recipe to send me straight to the nut house.

I have never understood the facination with the family reunion in the first place.  Yes, there are times that you sort of lose contact with one or two people because everybody is too busy with their own lives, raising kids, etc.  But you can pick up the phone and call those particular people.  Invite them over for dinner, or drinks or whatever.  Why the whole big event with EVERYBODY including the people that you haven’t spoken to years.  If you were honest with yourself, there is probably a reason that you haven’t spoken to them.  And it will all come rushing back, most likely several minutes after they arrive, and now you will have to deal with them for the rest of the day  (or worse if they are the “never leave” type… think Cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation).

Family Reunions?  Just say No!

So not only do we need to prepare for Back to School, it is also, back to Soccer, Back to Dance Class, Back to Karate, and so on.  Am I the only one finding this daunting?  Isn’t there a chance that they could, you know, spread things about a bit?  Maybe somebody start, oh I dunno, maybe the SECOND WEEK in September!  Is that really too much to ask?

Forget the Holidays, Labor Day Weekend is turning into my new version of “Black Friday.”

Oh, and while I am complaining about this, would it be too much to ask to have the stores run their back to school sales, somewhere closer to the school year?  Last Week of July?  First week of August?  Do none of these people consider that some people actually take vacations in the summer?

Now I understand there are those of you that plan ahead and don’t wait for the last minute, but to make room for all the back to school stuff, they have to close out their “summer sections” way too early.  And somehow, it has become impossible to find a pool toy or back yard game after 4th of July weekend.

I know, I know, I am all over the place.  But suddenly I feel like I am hunkering down to do battle with the “overscheduled” monster again, and I am just not ready.

And while I am at it… Where the heck did summer go?

It is 90 degrees out, and I guess you are afraid of smelling bad, but what the hell did you do, take a bath in that gawd awful Dollar Store knockoff swill you were wearing?

You were almost clear across the bus, and I was still overcome by the toxic waste smell eminating from you. Does you nose no longer work? Can you not smell that?

I am not talking about the fragrence as everybody has different likes and dislikes, but do you think perhaps you could use several gallons less. On behalf of all your fellow commuters, we would really appreciate it.

Before I start, if you would like to see a more levelheaded response, you could look at this one.

Now I will start with the “violence.” Violence in cartoons as a cause, is sort of a pet peeve of mine. As I pointed out yesterday, countless Bugs Bunny and other cartoon that have been yanked because they are “too violent” while other subject matter which is just as questionable (if not more so) is given a pass.

Worse, there is no clear cut definition as to what constitutes violence. It follows the “I know it when I see it philosophy. The complaint against Ratatouille revolves around a 10 second scene where a woman is apparently threatening a man with a gun. You hear the gun go off (fired through the ceiling apparently), and then see them kissing. It is a quick nod towards noir type films, and perhaps a quick “shot” at the French. This is his “assault” on G ratings. He somehow manages to overlook the point in the movie in which Collette pins Linguini to the cutting board with carving knives, one after another. Or when she is preparing to spray him with Mace. The fact that there is a character that is in this movie that “killed a man, using just his thumb” is also neglected.

Now, I am not suggesting that the film IS too violent for these reasons. It is striving at a difficult balance to make a movie that appeals to both adults and children. Most of these things (if not all of them) go right over a child’s head. Think back to when you were a child. Did you think it was violent that Wile E. Coyote was using Dynamite to try and kill the Roadrunner? Did you contemplate how Elmer Fudd constantly using a shotgun would make you want to go out an own a gun? No, of course not. There was easy slapstick laughter that you saw as a kid. And only when (or if) you saw it again later as a teen or an adult did you “catch” these things.

Is there violence I would rather not see in “kids” stuff?  Of course, as any reasonable parent would.  And yet, I don’t here anybody complaining that a movie like “West Side Story” is shown, very often on a Saturday afternoon, which is “prime children TV time.”  But you will say, West Side Story is a classic musical.  You are correct.  But it also shows graphic violence,  street fighting and stabbings.  Why isn’t the Parental Television Council looking to get that banned?  I don’t hear anybody clamoring for Snow White to be rated PG, and yet here a hunstman pulls a knife and (half-heartedly) attempts to stab her, and the Wicked Queen tries to poison her.  That is far more violent, and clearly part of the basis of the movie.  But again, that is “classic” so it gets ignored.

I realize this is running in several different directions, but lets be honest for a second