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It is not a day to make a statement about policies you would like to see enacted (or repealed).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

’ 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.

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

The weekend started out, with the news of a college student that committed suicide “live” via webcam, while some audience members either egged him on, and others tried to talk him out of it.  While my thoughts go out to the family, I have to admit that the immediate speculation of potenteial lawsuits I find bothersome.  It is a tragedy to be sure, but speculation that you could blame the web host just smacks of opportunism.

Here in my home state of New Jersey, and actually not terribly far from me, only a couple of towns over, came an incident where a man drove across the country to confront and then shoot is estrange wife and two other victims in a Clifton, NJ church.  The woman recently moved from California to New Jersey to escape her estranged husband and even had a restraining order against him.  He drove… drove!  That is what, five days worth of premeditation?  He is still currently at large, but when they catch this clown, my only regret right now is that New Jersey has suspended the death penalty here in New Jersey, because if anybody deserves it, it would be an animal like this.

Then we have the sword weilding maniac that was shot and killed at a Scientology Church in California.  Apparently, he never saw Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indiana Jones shows quite well what happens when a man with a sword threatens a man with a gun.

Like I said I can sympathize, or at least empathize.  I know the sight of just a little field mouse can send TheWife, normally a relatively tough and not easily scared woman, scurrying up onto a table, counter or chair.  So when dealing with a rat infestation problem, which of course brings the fear of all sorts of diseases, I can’t fault anyone for being willing to take extreme measure.

But a pellet gun?  Well, I can see the Red Ryder BB Gun jokes/comparions coming along when somebody gets their eye put out in an unfortunate accident.

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.

Comparison shop on the fly – So you are shopping in a store and see something you like, but you are thinking, “I could probably find it cheaper online” but that requires you to avoid the instant gratification of buying it “now” right?  Well, not anymore.  Amazon has now started the TextBuyIt program, which people text the name of a product, its description or its UPC or ISBN to 262966 (that’s “Amazon” on the keypad) from anywhere their cell phones work — including from inside physical stores.”

And you thought it was just to wake you up – According to a new research report, coffee may cut the risk of dementia.  So, as it turns out, not only will coffee enable you to keep up with your kids, it will help keep them from driving you nuts.  (I’m joking, please no e-mail defining what dementia really means)

Not Just Wrong, well beyond it - Every time I think I can’t see anything new that parent’s do that would bother me… bang… there it is.  This time, it is an article in Philadelphia  Magazine about mothers taking their pre-pubescent daughters in for Bikini Waxes, eyebrow waxing and other spa beauty treatments.  Tell me, what are the odds of these girls not growing up with severe body issues?

Rounding out the Dumbass Picture – So while we waste billions of dollars in a war of questionable value (to anybody that is not an oil barron, the value to them has been immense), the NASA budget was kept so tight, that when the Shuttles are retired 2010, that the United States , during a 5 year (at least) window will have to rely on Russia to send people to the International Space Station. By the time he is done, is there anything Bush will not have screwed up?

Craptastic Comcastic – I am so glad that I was able to drop Comcast, first for DSL, and now for FIOS. Of course, the immediate benefit was lower cost for superior service (despite it claims, I never got the upload/download speeds the claimed unless I was online in the middle of the night). But, now new bits continue to leak out how Comcast is screwing their customers. Back in early 2006 many Vonage users were having problem that were using Comcast. At the time it was (mostly) assumed that it was just the quality (or lack of it) that received most of the blame, and the possibility that it was done on purpose, was considered a conspiracy theory. Since then of course, is the fact proven by the Associated Press that Comcast is forging packets and blocking P2P programs like BitTorrent. Then yesterday came news about being charged $2 to get Comcast to stop sending junk mail. Now in fairness, once this was exposed, Comcast quickly issues an apology and credit for the “mistake” to that customer. But I would love to know how many people made a similar request and did not notice or did not complain about the fee. And people wonder why Net Neutrality Laws are so desperately needed?

The end if “Smiling Bob” (I hope) – The founder of Berkley Premium Neutraceuticals, distributor of products like Enzyte, the “male enhancement” product seen with those annoying “Smiling Bob” commercials, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, bank fraud and money laundering.  The charges stem predominantly from refusing to cancel orders  (once people realized they had duped), and not from the fact that they preyed on idiots that actually believed the stupid and outlandish claims made.  I suspect those that have been duped are too embarrassed to file a claim in civil courts that they had been duped and bought pills looking to “enhance” themselves.

It is still legal tender… isn’t it? – When you get on a bus, or pay a toll on most roads, there is a sign that says “No pennies.”  I doubt there was such a sign in the school cafeteria, where students, protesting over having their lunch period shortened, paid for their $2 lunch in pennies, and then received detention for it.  The school district finally backed down, after complaints from some parents  that the punishment was too harsh, although I fail to understand on what grounds there was punishment at all.  Yes, they slowed the lunch line down, that was the whole point.  But it was done in a non-violent (a big deal these days it seems) and legal way.  Legal.  While not worth much, the penny is still legal tender, so what did this kids do wrong?  The principal said that it was a “prank” and not a “protest”  (presumably to try and justify the detention), but what exactly is a “prank” about it, other than it being annoying?

I don’t know what is worse, them tricking the kid by stashing clothes in an Xbox360 box. Or how hysterical they found it (even to continue to videotape it) after the poor kid starts crying.

Look, I understand that gaming consoles these days are expensive, and not everybody can afford them. There are plenty of things that rate much higher in the priorities of life. But, regardless this is just plain mean and wrong.

P.S. Yes, I know that the Video claims that the kid actually got an Xbox 360. However… First of all, I don’t believe the story posted with this. First the poster says they went out and got it the night before, but somehow the kid “peeked” and thus the reason for the “joke.” If you got it the night before, when did he have a chance to peek? Second, the look of shock on this kids face when he opens it and sees (thinks) he got the machine… well, if he knew, then this kid should be in Hollywood, because that would be the best job of acting surprised I have ever seen. Third, the promised “follow up” video was never posted. But even assuming that I am wrong about all of that, and this was a “joke” to me it was taken waaaay too far. How do you just allow the kids to continue to sit there and cry? No matter how you slice this… it still stinks.

[via Engadget ]

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?

ATLANTA –What to do when the rain won’t come? If you’re Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, you pray.

The governor will host a prayer service next week to ask for relief from the drought gripping the Southeast.

“The only solution is rain, and the only place we get that is from a higher power,” Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said on Wednesday.

Perhaps when he is done, he can host an alchemy class to help clear up federal debt.

You know, I have always wondered if these brain trusts ever considered… if they believe god can exert his power in this fashion… they who exactly is it that they think sent the drought?

Update:  I think I finally figured it out.  Clearly Gov. Perdue must have just watched Leap of Faith. (An excellent movie, by the way, but hardly worth putting your… uh… faith in, to solve your States water problems).

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?

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.

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.

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.

But as it goes, anything worth doing is worth doing until your near death… or something like that.

But in it all, a single moment of guilt.  Something, I never thought I would do.  Between the time she got her presents, and the time she opened them, I noticed that in one of her presents, she got… gah… the dreaded Bratz Doll.  And I am a very lenient as parents go (I think anyway) but there was no way this scourge was going to start populating and invading our home… and…  I stashed the offending present.  I saved the card, will buy her something else, place it in the same bag from the child and let her “get” that gift instead.

One small problem has snuck into the plan.  We normally (we… TheWife does it, not me… too lazy), always has LatteGirl mention the gift in the Thank You. (Why is this?  Is it supposed to make it a more “personal” Thank You by mentioning what you were given by that particular person?  So, now we will have to omit that step on one child’s card.  My sneaky suspicion is that LatteGirl will catch on that something is different… why not list the present on this child’s card.  All I can say is that I am glad that I am not the one helping fill out those cards.

Now, I want to cut the mother some slack here because… well because she only has boys, and I am guessing she had no clue.

Now, please indulge me and those that are a bit more used to dealing with children’s parties than I,  Let me ask a couple of questions here.   First, is there anybody in this day and age that doesn’t give a gift receipt along with the present?  I feel petty asking this, but I mean particularly for a children’s party where you may not know the other people well enough to know what the child wants or needs… or may have already received two of, why wouldn’t you give a gift receipt?  I mean hell, Target gives me one whenever I buy a toy there, whether I want it or not.

The second one is far less clear.  How would you deal with an inappropriate parent?  Allow me to give some needed details.  One child’s mother shows up at the children’s party (which was held indoors, at a place where no less that 4 different child’s parties are going on at the same time.  (Children from toddlers to tweens. )  First of all this lady shows up where a criminally short micro-mini-skirt and a top with so much cleavage showing, if you looked straight down from above, you could probably see her navel… and her shoes.  If that wasn’t enough on its own to be a bit embarrassing to have her associated with “our party” she (apparently being divorced), took it upon herself to take a crack at each of the dad’s that were there with their kids (no, she did not take a crack at me, which would be why I am not currently busy trying to raise bail for TheWife).  So what would you have done with the lady that has now been not so affectionately been known as Desperate-Slut-Mom?

The only benefit I can see from such humiliating circumstances, is the ability to continue to embarrass your child for years to come with the retelling of the story. But I’m not sure I would have had that much forethought as I have to somehow explain just HOW my son got his head stuck in a toilet seat.

Is it wrong to assume that if she is a blogger, that immediately upon returning home, you saw one of those, “I’m the worst mother ever…” posts? While children and accidents happen, the can really sometime take an emotional, and character assassinating toll on your ego.

That is the only reason I can figure that, in times of crisis like these, you start to see  some of the nuttiest  people in America come out of the woodwork to start spewing divisive, hurtful, and yes even just plain nutty things.

Exhibit A.  Debbie Schlussel.  Even as the reports were coming out that there were no terroristic ties to the events, Schlussel wasn’t satisfied.  Even as the reports came out that it was an “Asian Male” that was the shooter, she continued to justify her rantings because, “there is a large Muslim community” at Va. Tech and “Pakis” are considered “Asian”  She doesn’t actually say who equates “Pakis” to Asians except for herself.  Schlussel has obviously been overexposed to VP Cheney talking points, and “clearly sees” connections where none exist.  She was so convinced that the “liberal” media was ready to cover this up that even has the experts provided information, she continued to believe her own interpretation of events.  This pathetic Ann Coulter wanna-be should now hopefully go back under the rock from which she crawled.

Exhibit B.  Ken Ham, President of Answers in Genesis offers this “reason” for the tragedy:

We live in an era when public high schools and colleges have all but banned God from science classes. In these classrooms, students are taught that the whole universe, including plants and animals—and humans—arose by natural processes. Naturalism (in essence, atheism) has become the religion of the day and has become the foundation of the education system (and Western culture as a whole). The more such a philosophy permeates the culture, the more we would expect to see a sense of purposelessness and hopelessness that pervades people’s thinking. In fact, the more a culture allows the killing of the unborn, the more we will see people treating life in general as “cheap.”

Regardless of what your belief or religion is, to rush out and try and tie these horrific events to what you are taught in a science class, is nothing short of pathetic.  He couldn’t wait 24 hours after the shootings to get this “evidence” out there.

Exhibit C.  Fred Phelps, from his own Website (Link not safe for Sane People)

WBC will preach at the funerals of the Virginia Tech students killed on campus during a shooting rampage April 16, 2007. You describe this as monumental horror, but you know nothing of horror — yet. Your bloody tyrant Bush says he is ‘horrified’ by it all. You know nothing of horror — yet. Your true horror is coming. “They shall also gird themselves with sackloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads” (Eze. 7:18).

Why did this happen, you ask? It’s simple. Your military chose to shoot at the servants of God today, and all they got for their effort was terror. Then, the LORD your God sent a crazed madman to shoot at your children. Was God asleep while this took place? Was He on vacation? Of course not. He willed this to happen to punish you for assailing His servants.

Is there any commentary really needed for this loon?

Exhibit D.  Representative Ron Paul (R-Tx) told the Politico

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) has a simple solution to future shooting massacres such as the one that ripped apart Virginia Tech university Monday: more guns.

“People are a little more cautious if somebody might have a gun there,” the GOP presidential candidate told Politico reporters Tuesday. “A concealed gun carried by a responsible person — that might have ended the problem that they had at Virginia Tech with one person being killed or two people being killed.”

Guns!  The answer is more guns!  Now I don’t really have a stance on either side of the gun argument (no, really I don’t).  But to suggest that MORE GUNS is the answer.  I don’t think so.

Exhibit D:  With a hat tip to Froggies Lillypad for finding this piece.

Advocates of gun ownership rights saw Monday’s massacre as evidence of the need to relax gun laws rather than tighten them.

“All the school shootings that have ended abruptly in the last 10 years were stopped because a law-abiding citizen — a potential victim — had a gun,” said Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America.

Another pro-wild west solution.  Again, I am on the fence on this issue, and more than suggesting more gun control, I would like to see the rules we have better enforced, but the suggestion of more guns, and a “vigilante solution” would have prevented this situations is sadly short-sighted.   I think Froggie summed this up better than I could when she said, “Somebody, please tell me that I’m not going crazy for thinking that this is one of the most retarded things ever uttered.”

How did that song go, The freaks come out at night?  Well I guess… unless they have something to pedal to us during a time like this.  Then they come out during the day as well.  I rest my case.

(Side Note:  Why is it that if a male teacher “sleeps with” a female student, the headlines use words like rape, molested, took advantage of, etc.?  Which they should by the way.  But when it in involves a female teacher they say she “slept with”, “had a relationship with”, and so on.  In either case, it is statuatory rape of a minor, and should be judged just as harshly.)

In the latest case, which is way too close to me (in terms of driving distance),  Newark School Teacher Tracy Booth is accused of having sex with a 13 year old student.  13 years old.  Now I don’t think I need to go into the obvious and primary reason this is wrong.  But let me extend it even further.  How many times have you heard (or do you know) women that prefer older men because even at 18 or 20 years old, that men are just clumsy testoserone machines, and have not really grown up yet sexually.  Just what does a 31 year old woman get out of a 13 year old boy?  (Never mind, I don’t think I really want that answered.  Sick freakin’ people.)

Worse than even I thought

If you have the stomach for it.  Just try what I did, and see what comes up.  I went to Google News and just typed in “Teacher Charged” (without the quotes).  You can see the results for yourself here.

Originally, I thought I was going to list some of the more recent cases, but do you see how many came up in that news search?  I didn’t make it out of April 2007 before I realized how in over my head I would be to even try!

I don’t know what should be done, or could be done… but it seems obvious to me that something… SOMETHING has to be done to stem this tide.  Because this is just clearly out of control.

Douglas Willy, 40, was arrested Saturday after police received a tip from a person who saw the family at a gas station, authorities said. He was charged with two counts of reckless endangerment.

Willy, his fiancee and their four children were taking a trip but the vehicle did not fit all six passengers. So, police said, he decided two of the children would ride in the trunk to avoid taking a second vehicle.

I guess he was dumb enough to not realize what he was doing was wrong, and actually let the children out temporarily while at the service station.  Now, it may seem callous to some but the fact that the mother was later able to take the children home irks me.  She was in the car as well!  She knew what was going on.  But I guess, since he was driving the vehicle, only he could be charged in the case.  Perhaps, we need to come up with a special law for these types of situations.  Felony Stupidity. 

The second case this weekend, the more I think about it is less dumb, and more just plain sick.  A woman arrested for offering sex with her 7-year-old daughter, just made me quite ill.   I mean, my daughter will be seven years old this year, and while I lament that she is no longer a “little baby” in some respects, she is still an innocent child.  I still rack my brain trying to understand how some sick people can look at a small child like that and see a “sexual being.”  But there is nothing in my head that even come close to trying to figure out what goes through a mother’s head in attempting to cater to these freaks with her own daughter!

The woman was prepared to offer her daughter “for pornographic photos and anything else that was available if the price was right,” Sheriff Warren Evans said. “She had indicated very clearly that that child would do whatever it was that the person who was going to meet the child wanted to do, and that she would see that the child complied.

According to the story, she is being held on $1 million dollars bail (I’m guessing that they felt they couldn’t refuse bail, so they set an amount she probably can’t obtain), and can face up to 20 years.  Now based on the MSNBC report, she showed up at the hotel with a duffel bag full of adult toys, and assorted dresses for her daughter to wear.  Somehow I am guessing that this is not her “first time” pulling this stunt, and 20 years, is no where near long enough of a sentence.  Or maybe, after she serves her time in prison they could remand her to a psychiatric facility until they can determine what is broken in her brain.

Even the suspect Eric McLean’s father seemed almost matter of fact, when speaking to the press about the situation:

“You see all this stuff with teachers involved with their students. It just comes up time after time on the national news,” said Norman McLean, father of suspect Eric McLean. But this time, he said, someone “actually died over it.”

He even went on, and fell just short of attempting to justify his son’s actions in killing the teen:

“Now, I am only talking about myself. But I can personally only take so much,” Norman McLean said. “Everybody has a breaking point, and there is only so much you can endure before you get to that place … where you lose control.”

Not that I am condoning killing anybody, but wouldn’t you think that if he was going to “lose control” that he would do so with his wife, that was having an affair, rather than taking it out on the teenager?

But the real icing on this cake, came from McLean’s attorney, Bruce Poston according to the article:

Poston said McLean is in a “state of shock. Like watching a deer caught in the headlights. Literally wondering, ‘Have I made a decision that will ruin the rest of my life as well as others?’ “

Well, Duh! He has to wonder?

First off, your PC. Microsoft has an update for Windows, but you may need to actually go and get it (especially if you have Automatic Updates turned off). Using Outlook? That needs a patch too. Your cell phone? That may need an update as well, check with your carrier.

And while this may sound silly to some, if you have a relative in the hospital, especially one that has something like a digital drip I.V., or other “smart” devices that are time dependent, it might be worth asking the staff what updates and/or contingency plans they have to deal with issues that could arise. It may sound silly, but if one computer (or device) is out of sync with the others, and medications are given at the wrong time, or not give when they are supposed to, the effects could be devestating for what amounts to the hospital as a small “glitch.”

There is no love loss when it comes to me and Dell Computers, and it would take a lot for them to turn me into a buyer of their computers, but as somebody that wants us to do something to improve our environment, I have to applaud their Plant a Tree for Me promotion.

PC Magazine

From now on, whenever you buy a Dell PC, you’ll have the option of donating a few dollars toward the planting of new trees. And it’s not for nothing. A PC requires electricity, and generating electricity typically involves spewing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. As Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth makes pretty clear, this is a big problem, especially for people living at sea level. New trees can offset some of those carbon emissions. Read the full article.

DirecTivo disappointment – Every so often I hear news about something really cool coming to Tivo, and then come to the realization that the DirecTV version of Tivo is not included. Such is the case for the new Amazon Unboxed program which lets you buy a Movie and download it directly to your Tivo. You have a to have a Series 2 or 3 Tivo recorder (I do), and a network connection for it (which is not available for the DirecTV version). Rats. For those that have a “normal” Tivo though… it sounds pretty cool.

From the Who is Suprised? Department – Lisa Nowak, the astronaut that drove 900 miles to go and attack the woman that “stole” her boyfriend, was fired from NASA on Wednesday. My only real question is, What took them so long?

Drop that Corn Oil and put your hands in the air – 79 year old David Wetzel converted his car to run on Vegtable Oil and Diesel. He gets the Vegetable Oil from a place that is discarding it as Fryer waste. Well now the State of Illinois wants him to pay taxes as a “Fuel Supplier.” So much for being concerned about lessening our dependency on foreign oil.

What is YOUR school sweeping under the rug? – I have talked here about our school system and how it tried to sweep under the rug the story about a teach that was preaching during class, but at least that story was public. Somehow school officials were able to keep quiet for 4 months a story about two 6th graders have sex in a classroom; while the teacher was in the classroom (but apparently unaware). And even now that the story has broken, and parents are (rightfully) outraged, the school officials continues to refuse to comment or tell anybody what happened or what is being done to rectify the situation.

Sperm on a Plane – I was having serious questions about the validity of this story at first, but apparently an off duty NorthWest Airlines worker is alleged to have ejaculated on a female passenger during a flight from Tacoma, Wa. to Minneapolis, Mn. The Consumerist has a copy of the full complaint, here.

What a Chauvanistic Pig – Well yesterday was apparently Blog Against Sexism Day, and being the man that I am… I totally missed it, until I caught this nice litle article on Pandagon about why Corporations seem to think the only thing they need to do to market a product towards women (epecially technology items) is Make them PINK.  Ladie’s forgive me, I have only been a true fighter for women’s causes for 6 years now (opps my daughter reminds me that it is ALMOST 7) and I am still a little slow on the uptake. (I wonder if this will get me another “Your an Alan Alda Femenist” comment.  I wonder if anybody can really explain to me what it means?)

Grab a drink and sit down to watch… a cartoon – Cynical Dad regales us with what could potentially happen if you don’t pre-screen what your children are watching.  It reminded me of when LatteGirl was about to lose her first tooth, and we were watching The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, when Zach says, “Yeah, like that was gonna happen.  What do you still believe in the toothfairy too?”  Not outright horrible things, but enough to make any parent a bit uneasy.

Parents are (naturally) always looking out for their children, and very often try to be good citizens that spread useful information on to others. (To a certain degree, isn’t that what many parents are doing with their blogs, sharing their experiences, to not only entertain, but to potentially inform others from their experiences).

However, in this age of Instant Information, far too many people are far too quick to help disseminate mis-information (unintentially of course) in the name of warning others.

Clues to mis-information that winds up in your e-mail inbox.

1. Lack of details – In order for these mis-informations to last as long as possible, and not be proven false, they usually lack details. Things like, “in the mid-west” or “a suburban household” rather than “in Chicago” (or others narrowed down location).

2. Lack of real people – A story that is actually run in a newspaper, or actually sent from “the friend” of a supposed victim (there is almost always a victim), would not receive an e-mail saying “my dog died because my child used a Swiffer.” Think about if you wrote this letter to your friend warning him/her about the horrors that have beseiged your home. You would tell your friend, “Timmy washed the floor with a Swiffer Wetjet, and now Lassie is dead.” Again, the, “I know a guy” helps perpetuate the myth by omitting details that would help somebody verify (or more likely debunk) the account.

3. Seemingly odd “facts” – Yes, it is true that there are some facts that are odd when you first hear about them, which I guess is what makes these slip by as true so easily. But when someething sounds overly technical, and yet implausable. It is worth thinking twice about it. Using my Swiffer example again, the claim was “the product is one molecule different from Anti-Freeze.” Ummm… yeah. Because when I want to get a tough stain off the floor, I consider Anti-Freeze as a source.

What to do, when confronted with such an e-mail.

1. If it has more than two or three FW: in the subject. Trash it. Most people have probably already seen it.

2. Unsure about the veracity? Take a momment to check out one of the fact checking places such as Snopes.com which have a great database of these types of Urban Legends and Myths.

3. Think before your hit that send button. When you are forwarding an e-mail such as this, it is essentially your reputation that you are now putting behind that e-mail. If you are unwilling to bet your personal reputation on the story or source. Then just move on.

On behalf of everybody with an overloaded Inbox full of junk like this, I thank you for your support.

OK, now there is clearly no shortage of idiots in the world.  And trying to decide who is the biggest idiot is certainly difficult.  But this guy has got to be in the running.

According to the article, he couldn’t find a pair of clean underwear in his drawer, so he took all his clothes out, threw them out into the garden and set them on fire.  Bad enough right there.

But wait there’s more.

The fire spread to the house, which  burned to the ground!  (At this point it was probably a good thing he didn’t have clean underpants as I am sure he soiled himself as he watched his antics cause his house to burn down).  So there we can now classify him into a “Super Sized” Asshat.

But before you answer yet, the cherry on the top…

He now faces up to 8 years in prison for endangering family members that were in the house. (Though fortunately nobody was physically injured).

 Kill for an erection?

So, maybe that wasn’t her actual intention.   But that was certainly nearly the outcome, as the man suffered a massive heart attack after she slipped two Viagras into her husbands wine.

The man, Frederico di Angelino has said he holds no ill will against his wife, and thanks to the heart attack, he has cut back his stress and workload, and that their love life has improved because of it.

Well allow me to finally put this issue to bed. The bag on the right is an actual bag of Salted Peanuts from the Marlow Company and has not been altered in any way (other than the box added to highlight the stupidity).

(You may need to click on the picture to enlarge to clearly read the writing on the bag.)

Update: Link to full picture is fixed (h/t to Doug)

But now comes the story of a 35 year old man. Smart enough to be able to escape from prison and avoid detection since last June. Until that is, he started checking his Myspace Profile, consistently from a PA. Library, which enabled the police to track him down and capture him there.

Let’s run down the stupidity shall we?

1. He used his real name.
2. He consistently checked it from the same location
3. He didn’t think to use an anonymizing web site to mask himself at all.
4. He was facing auto theft charges when he escaped, he is now facing aggravated battery, burglary, auto theft and entering in auto charges plus I’m sure there are some charges for the escape itself on the books somewhere.

Perhaps it would be best if we kept him behind bars for a long time so that we can remove him from the gene pool.

Apparently blogging has become popular enough and important enough that MSNBC, CNN, Faux News, and most other media outlets include blogs in some fashion or another. But apparently that is not good enough for Mr. Ross, that “instead” of a blog, as he describes it:

“It’s meant to be our take on the old-fashioned police blotter, where events of note were recorded as they unfolded…”

If Mr. Ross had done some investigation, what he would have found that when you LOG events like this on the WEB, that is called a Web Log, or for short a BLOG. Of course to make this even funnier, when you follow the link to his “blotter” the URL is http://blogs.abcnews.com/blotter/ and is in fact powered by TypePad.

Call it what you want Mr. Conceited Journalist Man Ross. It is a BLOG. Get over it.

It has been a while since we have actually done one. And they say that “time heals all wounds,” so I guess that could also be a reason that having a yard sale once again sounded like a good idea, but once the day came, I remembered why we stopped having garage sales.

Now, we didn’t have a whole heck of a lot to sell to begin with, short of the toys that LatteGirl was finally ready to part with when the concept of “turning them into cash” made her “realize” that she doesn’t play with them any longer.

We had a few large items, like LatteGirls toddler bed (that she NEVER slept in) as well, but by and large, over the years, anything that could be sold for any real cash value that we no longer wanted, TheWife put up for sale on eBay. But my women wanted to do this.
So the day came, I brought out everything as TheWife had to take LatteGirl to dance class.

Self-Reminder One: “Early Birds” will show up a full two hours before the stated time of the sale. Do not be shocked when you find one (or two) camped out on your lawn waiting for you.

Self Reminder Two: It is an awful lot of work pulling all the old junk out and putting it on display. It will inevitably take you longer than anticipated. Especially when you are being watched over by the “Early Birds” that wind up slowing you down.

Once the early birds leave, you usually have enough time to get yourself together, maybe even slugging down a cup of coffee before the next batch of merry shoppers comes along.

Self Reminder Three: Nobody want to pay for anything at a garage sale. Always ask for a bit more because no matter how much you ask for something, they will want it for less.

Look, I’m not fooling myself. I understand this is the “junk” that I (mostly) don’t want, and I am not expecting “retail” or even “fair value” for this stuff, but come on folks let us get real for a minute. For example. For Christmas LatteGirl got the V.Tech V.Smile System, and we purchased a couple of extra games for it. As it turned out, she did not like it very much, and we instead replaced it with the LeapFrog Leapster which she enjoyed a lot more. So the game unit had been taken out of the box a grand total of once. Everything including all manuals and registration cards were in the box, along with two additional games. Now I didn’t expect to get anything close to full value. Hell, I didn’t expect to get half of it. But I didn’t think $10 was too much to ask. I would have taken a couple of dollars less even, just so I didn’t have to cart it back in the house and store it again. But when people start offering $1 for it, now I am nothing short of annoyed.

Look, I know there are plenty of people out there these days, either looking to get something for nothing, or trying to find gems themselves that they think they can resell on eBay. I don’t begrudge that. But let us get real. $1? C’mon will you?

We had children’s book. All in good shape (read: look like new or were new). Asking price? A quarter. Lady walks up and tells me how “outrageous” that price is and offers me ten cents a piece. I think some of these people really need to get a grip.

The biggest sucess of the day LatteGirl selling Lemonade for charity. Rather than buying her a the Lemonade stand that she wanted, TheWife found something through some organization that would give you a lemonade stand if the proceeds went to charity. So LatteGirl spent the afternoon hawking Lemonade for Second Harvest. And even with that we got a couple of comments that a lemonade stand shouldn’t have the “audacity” to charge a whole quarter for a (16 oz) glass of lemonade, and should be charging no more than a nickel.

My wife complains that I live “in the past” plenty of times, but at least I am stuck in the 80’s. Some of these people still must think it is 1955.

When all was said and done, LatteGirl raised about $20 for Second Harvest. She made $28 on the sale of her books and toys (which we told her would go to her bank), and TheWife and I cleared around $30. Figuring there was three of us working for 7 hours we earned (not counting the money going to charity) about $2.76/hour each. Suddenly that job a Wal-Mart sounds like big bucks in comparison.

But come next spring (I have already been informed that we will be doing this again in the spring), I like an Alzheimer’s patient, will probably again think “A yard sale. What a great idea”

But then I read his posts (which are now gone, the domain points nowhere, and only a test post is up at husbandonstrike.blogspot.com), and then I read the interviews he gave to Fox News, KUTV, and Good Morning America, the only issue he has with how his children are being raised is that they are in in his bedroom. It really got summed up for me in this quote from KUTV:

When asked what the biggest problem with his wife is, James said, “No intimacy,
that’s number one.”

This is not, as I see it, even about a “family bed” situation. That I can understand more if she wanted the kids to always be there and he didn’t. The baby is 2 freakin’ months old, and I am willing to bet that this poor suffering husband isn’t the one to get up for the middle of the night feedings.

What I see here is a guy that marked the “six weeks after” on his calendar, and decided, that’s it six weeks, and everything else be damned, “I want my sex life back”. So basically he has been waiting, what 2 weeks? Let me ask you, was sex on the top of your priority list immediately after you “could”? (Or was your wife? – for the one or two male readers I have) Do you think maybe he could have spent a LITTLE more time trying to work this out before “going on strike” and calling the media about it? Give me a break! He is making a “statement” for all other husbasnds suffering in silence? He may have to stay on that roof, because with his ego, he may never get back in the door.