I sat and pondered this for a day, deciding whether I dared to write it.  I mean, first of all the few people that still may actually read this are not the people I am talking about.  (Unless by some chance this gets spread to a few of the “wrong” people… then it may very well become an example of what I am talking about).

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)

Embarrassingly, yesterday the New Jersey Senate voted down the Same Sex Marriage Act, because with an incoming, proud bigot coming in as Governor, it became OK to hate “teh gays” again I guess.

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

In talking about Amazon.com earlier, I mentioned how Twitter has not exactly had the best record of being up and running lately.  Of course, most people know by now that predominatly the cause is that the site is simply “too popular” and the site was simply not built to scale to the size needed for the number of users.

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.

CHO me the outrage - I have to admit that I am more than a little surprised at the lack of lashback against Yahoo! and their new Shine.  Ask.com recently decided it was going to be a niche search engine, dedicated to “married women looking for help managing their lives” and now Yahoo! has seemingly taken the steps to create a sight dedicated to the “Chief Household Officer” (CHO).  According the story on Yahoo News, Yahoo said the site will have “attitude,” “personality,” and humor, while providing advice and secret tips like “a friend.”  Maybe it is just me (and am I really the right one to be offended by this?), but about the only way I could see Yahoo! making this a bit more misogynistic,  would have been if they added to that saying something like, “would be just like your best friend, only it won’t steal your boyfriend.”  The only thing I can figure is that the content is good enough to keep people from being annoyed by the marketing mis-steps.

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?

Abigail Taylor died Thursday from injuries sustained last June when when she sat on a wading pool drain; the suction so strong that it suck out part of her intestines. It is always a tragedy when a child dies, and always there is some knee-jerk reactions, some good and sometimes even some not so go. But when it happens for something incredibly stupid, it is all that much more infuriating.

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.

Not all of them of course, but as we push forward into an era of “zero tolerance” policies, it seems that school officials use this as an excuse to not use their heads in far too many situations. The latest one of these seemingly over the top punishments was a kid that was suspended from school for a day, barred from attending an honors dinner, and stripped of his position on the student council, because he… what? Threatened another student? No. Made unwanted sexual advances towards another student or teacher? Na Uh. No, this kid received this punishment because, he bought a bag a Skittles from another student.

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?

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 ]

What is it going to take to stop people from packing a supermarket the day before a snowstorm, and shopping like they are going to be homebound until spring?  Does everybody just happen to need bread and milk the day before a storm?

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?

I consider myself a tech junkie, but even so the world of music somewhat eludes me.  Between myself and TheWife, we have gone through untold numbers of earbuds and such for her iPod.  For me, I have stuck with the earbuds that came with my Zune since I acquired it, and was satisfied with them.  However, our Basset Hound, which apparently thinks he is part goat, decided they were a midnight snack, and ate them.  Literally ate the buds right off of the wire.

So, now I am in search of new earbuds.  (Since I generally stuff this in my coat pocket, I would rather not go with full headphones.)  But am having a heck of a time deciding what to get.  I don’t want to go too cheap and get some lousy sounding, or poorly fitting buds.  But am not an audiophile enough to want (or even be able to discern the quality difference) to spend a hundred dollars (or more) on a new set.

So I am curious, for those of you that use third party or aftermarket earbuds… what do you use?  Are you happy with them?

OK, so unless you don’t read or watch the news, like ever, you know that there is a “dead” spy satellite that is coming down to earth.  You probably have even heard that the U.S. Government is planning on shooting it down.  But that is not the end of the story apparently.

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?

In 1988, I was a young “rebel.” Rebel, in a Alex Keaton kind of a way. I didn’t understand politics nearly as well as I thought I did, and (at the time) certainly thought that Ronald Reagan was far and away better than anything that the Democratic Party was offering in the way of leadership.

That was not the scary part. Stay with me here.

1988 was also the year that I got a letter to the Editor published. Fine, it was in the Jersey Journal, a local newspaper that barely has a readership in its own area. But I was happy about it anyway. So, apparently was my mom, who unbeknownst to me, kept a copy of the paper that the article appeared.

Several months back, she had given me a box of different papers and such that she had saved over the years (since my father’s passing in 2004, she has slowly been “getting ready to die” by ridding herself of things that she had saved over th years and given them to me or my sister). In there were old report cards, clipping from sports stories about Little League, “reviews” from local play productions I was in, and among that I found the letter to the editor.

I won’t bore you (or embarrass myself) by revealing everything the young naive version of myself wrote at the time. But in there was little snippet that I thought was quite interesting (and scary in its accuracy. The emphasis added is mine now, and not in the published letter). “… and Geraldine Ferraro was a complete embarrassment. Not that I saw anybody else that could help Mondale actually win the hearts and minds of the country to a point that he would’ve stood a chance, but if I were a woman, I would have be absolutely flabbergasted by this. She is going to throw the woman’s movement back so far, that it will be 20 years before a woman can actually hope to run and have any real chance at the White House.”

And here we are exactly 20 years later.

Update:  I should have been clearer on this.  The article was written in 1988, in reference to Michael Dukakis, but went back and referenced this as series of lousy contenders put forth by the Democratic Party. (Now you know why there is a discrepancy in the years.  Thanks to those who e-mailed me for clarification)

New Jersey is getting set to vote on abolishing the death penalty. It is a charged subject that many people have very strong opinions on. I am not one of them. The whole issue has left me rather cold and unsure. On one side of the coin, I have seen enough cases of people that have had long standing convictions overturned on DNA evidence that wasn’t available at the time of their convictions, to know that the system is clearly flawed, and that despite the best intentions we simply have not held up the notion that it is better to set 10 guilty men free than that one innocent suffer (English jurist William Blackstone).

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.

That is the only response I have heard when I’ve mentioned to a few people that GA. Gov. Sonny Perdue, announced he would have a prayer service in an effort to help stop the drought in Georgia!

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).

OK, so last year students learned that even a 4-1/2 year old can get suspended for “inappropriate physical behavior interpreted as sexual contact and/or sexual harassment” by giving his teacher a hug. OK, I said then it was stupid, and nothing has changed my mind. But what I didn’t see then was it seems that it was only the start of stupid suspensions kids would be getting at school.

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)

I thought I had seen (and heard it all) when it came to telemarketing.  Every time I  think they have sunk as low as they can possibly go, the prove me wrong, and reach a whole new level a sleeze.

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!

I wish I could say that this is a freak thing, but unfortunately I have run into one of these streaks before.  When they hit, I always wind up feeling quite foolish, because I can’t help wondering if other people are thinking the same thing I am.  And what I am thinking is, “How can all these events seem to just come one after another?”

We started a few weeks back, while on vacation.  There is was first the banged up knee, then the concussion, followed by getting strep throat.  All in that one week span.  And while I have not blogged about it really, things haven’t been all that much better since our return.  Stupid little things.  Ripping off 1/2 a fingernail somehow by getting it caught on a splinter of wood.  Twisting an ankle in a gopher hole while walking from the office to the bus, and taking a shortcut across the lawn.  None of which are all that noteworthy on their own, but string them together and I have to start wondering what the hell is wrong with me that I can’t avoid some of these things.

This streak seemed to continue as I was heading home the other evening.  I had just gotten on the bus, and was pulling out my wallet and pass as the driver pulled away.  It was drizzling, not enough to hamper vision, but enough to make the roads a bit slick.  A car decided that the stop sign on the corner didn’t apply to her, and decided to try and beat the bus to the intersection and make a turn in front of the bus.  I guess she thought she could make it.  She was wrong.

As the bus driver sounded the horn and swerved, it drove right into the front end of the turning vehicle.  Me of course standing, with one hand in my pocket attempting to retrive my pass was in no position and not quite ready for this, so I went flying into the rail, twisted my ankle as I tried to keep my footing and smacked my wrist into the bar I was attempting to grab hold of.  A little soreness, nothing serious fortunately.  But just another one  to add to my series of unfortunate events.

As, I am checking my Gmail account this morning before heading off to work, amidst a nasty thunderstorm, what ad does Google see fit to display?

Dangerous States for Lightning Strikes

Dear obnoxiously “smelly” lady,

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.

OK, so I have seen it on sitcoms before, and I guess the best comedy is based on real life and all that, but never did I ever believe it would happen.  But it did.  Just let me say if you have money in Provident Bank, you may wish to rethink that choice, because today in the mail, LatteGirl (age 7 for those that haven’t been playing along) received a “Pre-Qualified offer” for a credit card.

Now to be honest, I am not sure what troubles me more.  The fact that she got a credit card offer.  Or that they offered her a better rate than I currently have on my own cards.

Now to doubled up on my “Punk’d”edness, as I was joking with TheWife about how they gave a 7 year old a credit card, LatteGirl walks up and asks me, “Dad what do you do for money?”  I tell her that I thought she already knew that I work as a Computer Programmer, to which she replies, “I just wanted to make sure, because if you told jokes, I don’t think we’d have enough money to go to Disney World”

She is obviously feeling far more fearless now that her birthday present season is behind her.

that is GLAD that American Idol is DONE?

Seriously.  Some of people take this show waaaaay too seriously.

At this time of year, there are two things that you often fine floating around the blogosphere in abundance. Tributes to Moms, and self-depricating Mom’s that tell “what horrible” mothers they are because this little incident, or because they don’t do something that is “ideal” based on some standard written by somebody, somewhere in an abstract bubble.

Well, in order to make the Mom’s that come by here feel a bit better about whatever guilt they may harbor for some reason or another, I present to you, the list of mothers you are guaranteed to be better than. Just thing how lucky your child is to have YOU as their mother rather than these folks.

Mother arrested for throwing her 4-year-old daughter out of a car – beside the charges of injury to a child, the mother was also arrested for felony DWI. Anybody surprised?

Mother arrested in son’s death ruled incompetent to stand trial – Some people say they are crazy. Unfortunately, those that really are don’t tell anybody.

Houston Mother Arrested for Infant’s Death – What is it that makes a person think “My child is crying incessantly. Shaking it until it stops crying is a solution.”

Newborn baby found in dumpster; Mother arrested – There is nothing that can make me have compassion for somebody that can throw their newborn baby in the trash. Yes, I understand that their are emotional and hormonal problems that can occur, but unless you give birth alone in an ally somewhere, doesn’t anybody around you notice anything odd?

Mother arrested after giving prescription drugs to kids – You want to kill yourself. Fine. Why do you feel the need to take out the kids with you.

So, when you really get down to it… you kids are pretty lucky by comparison, aren’t they? On the other side… I am feeling more appreciative of my Mom right about now.

I forget who it was, that pointed out that “A while fly in your Chardonnay” along with just about everything else listed in the song, Ironic by Alanis Morrisette is actually unfortunate and not actually ironic.

So, I thought I would provide a really good example.   President George W. Bush, today signing the Law Day Proclimation that in part says,

Generations of Americans have served the cause of justice and shaped our legal institutions to ensure that the blessings of liberty extend to every citizen. The men and women of America’s legal community have worked to defend the Constitution, protect the innocent, and secure the rights of their fellow citizens. Their efforts have helped make our Nation a shining example of justice.

Now THAT is irony.

Imagine having to walk into the fire station, with your 2-1/2 year old toddler in tow, looking for assistance, because the young lad got a trainer toilet seat stuck on his head!

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.

Yes, I am back with another opportunity to pick on Brian Williams. As I was reading (along with the rest of the world) about Va. Tech shooting, I ran across this article (which I guess was inevitable) linking together this story with the Columbine Massacre. In it, I found the following passage:

Authorities did learn that Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold played violent games, made violent videos at school, and were the victims of bullying because they befriended the Trench Coach Mafia, a group of students who clashed with school athletes.

Perhaps somebody on the staff of MSNBC could, oh I don’t know, run a Google Search, or do some background checks on your information. Perhaps you may like to take a peek at this Salon article which states in part:

Five months after the massacre, investigators also refute other key allegations about the pair: that they were members of the Trench Coat Mafia, raised by negligent parents, practicing Goths or frustrated gays.

Harris and Klebold are still routinely referred to as belonging to the Trench Coat Mafia. As recently as Wednesday, in a report on Sears’ decision to stop selling a trench coat-wearing action figure, CNN Headline News was referring to “the two Trench Coat Mafia teens who were responsible for the Columbine High School massacre last April.” But sources unanimously and unequivocally confirm that the group had nothing whatsoever to do with the murders, and very little to do with Harris and Klebold.

So if Vinny in the Bronx (or Jay in NJ in this case), can find this information for his stupid little blog, why can’t the respected journalists at NBC (and their sister stations) get the story correct? I mean after all, you did talk about how you are the only credible source… right?

The saying goes, “the cream rises to the top.”  In times of despair and tragedy, you see the good come out in people.  And for the most part, I do still believe that is true.  However, after Columbine, Sept. 11th, and now the Va. Tech shooting, I have come to another conclusion.  Insanity rises to the top as well.

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.

I skipped over the easy jokes, and chose to ignore the Time Magazine Person of the Year Award, naming “You” the bloggers, as Person of the Year.  Many cracks were made (and at the time, I admit, I thought it was kind of dopey as well), and for the most part, the whole thing was laughed off as a silly publicity stunt, where Time just didn’t know WHO to make Person of the Year.

But as this year as worn on, I am starting to think more and more that they were actually right.  Oh sure, there are just as many (if not more) “worthless” blogs out there, than useful ones, but the fact is that there are many, many very good to excellent Blogs that have literally changed the landscape of information available. (and by worthless, I mean blogs that “dead” or not updating.  What is “worthless” to one person is a “goldmine of information” to another, so any active blog is not technically worthless.)

I have noted this before, back when the White House Press Corp. went on this little bender attacking blogs.  Now, and this is not the first time by any means, Brian Williams of NBC is whining about bloggers:

“All of my life, developing credentials to cover my field of work, and now I’m up against a guy named Vinny in an efficiency apartment in the Bronx who hasn’t left the efficiency apartment in two years,” Williams said Wednesday. “On the Internet, no one knows if you’ve been to Ramadi or you’ve just been to Brooklyn and just have an opinion about Ramadi.”

Gee, Mr. Williams if you along with some of your other press cohorts hadn’t stopped actually being news people, maybe you would have more credibility than “Vinny.”  Maybe if you didn’t show yourself to be such a neo-luddite.  Maybe if Katie Couric would stop plaugerizing. May if it was NBC News and not the Blog Talking Points Memo that actually uncovered and broke the Attorney Purge Scandal.  Even the LA Times points to this story as proof that blogs can top the press corp.  Unfortunately not once did the LA Times, or anybody else  mention that unless you did a live remote from Ramadi that you aren’t allowed to do anything but listen to those that have.

So it seems that the blogging world, and that fact that people have a voice is unnerving quite a few of the talking heads in traditional media as their influence has obviously been challenged.  So in the end, maybe Time was right.  Maybe “You” are the Person of the Year.  Because with so many so afraid of the changes and shift in power and influence, that the blogging world is even more powerful than some would like to admit.

I am really getting tired of it.  Is it possible to go even a month without reading about how another female teacher “slept with” one of her students?

(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.

It was not a good weekend for dumb folk… fortunately for their kids.  First you have the story of an idiot, who wanting to avoid having to take two cars for a family outing, opted instead to have two of his kids, take the trip in the trunk of the car.

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.

It is one of those things that you never wish to see, but when I saw the story about the Teen killed after affair with teacher, I can’t say I was exactly shocked.  It is just one of those things that after the seeming pandemic of cases where teachers are engaging in sex acts with students, that it was inevitable that it would happen eventually.

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?

I am not one who has cared about the Academy Awards in a long, long time, and in particular, I am not one who cares anything about the “popular” awards as much as I like to see people get recognized for technical merit (the geek in me, I guess), things like best score, best animation, etc.

That being said, I will say two things about this years awards. One, does anybody believe that Happy Feet won for any reason other than to just NOT give it to Pixar Studios (again)? It is one of the things that make me disliked the awards so much in the first place. Happy Feet was by most accounts a “fair” at best. Not an overly great story, average all along the line. So why did it win? Was it to neatly fit in a “Politically Correct” night as some have suggested? Or more simply, that is was more “Academy-like” than Cars which would be more of the “Action” film that the Academy typically snubs?

Then of course, on to as the title alludes to, An Inconvenient Truth. I have to admit, I am quite happy on several levels that this film won. Fist of all, because it is, I believe important enough that it deserves the recognition. Second, because it was quite well done and very interesting as documentaries go. Third, because I can’t help but be entertained by the hosts of the Faux News Channel absolutely losing their minds over this. I mean Josh Gibson alone was absolutely livid, and without a decent scientist (or anybody even remotely credible) to turn to, they used Ann Coulter as their “expert” on Hannity and Colmes, to claim that being earth conscience is Anti-Human.

Maybe someday, sombody can explain to me, why wanting to leave this planet to our children in better shape than we found it is such an offensive thought to these people. I mean, I can almost understand why Exxon would offer $10,000 to try and bribe some scientist to say fossil fuels don’t harm the environment. But that is a cold heartless corporation. Don’t these people have children, or neices and nephews or some reason to think outside their pea-brained little world?

Update: OK, we can forget everything those silly scientist have been talking about. It has now been made “clear” by Jerry Falwell:

The Reverend Jerry Falwell says global warming is “Satan’s attempt to redirect the church’s primary focus” from evangelism to environmentalism.

[...]

Falwell said the Bible teaches that God will maintain the Earth until Jesus returns, so Christians should be responsible environmentalists, but not what he calls … quote … “first-class nuts.”

With Jerry joining, I guess the “first-class nuts” quota is officially all full.

Some people it seems were skeptical back when I was giving away cookies about my disclaimer about nuts, and how it seemed that this warning needed to be on everything these days. I mentioned how the Marlow Company even took it to a seemingly bizarre extreme. But there were disbelievers that some company could be so incredibly silly as to put a warning on a bag of Peanuts that “this product may contain nuts.”

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)

OK, somebody explain this to me. The headline of the story says, ” US students believe the First Amendment guarantees too many rights!” However, it goes on to say 33% of students polled believe the First Amendment goes “too far” in guaranteeing freedom of speech, press, worship and assembly.

Now two things bother me about the article that appeared in USA Today (besides the fact that it is a USA Today article). First is, do these 33% of students realize that the very rights they use to express their opinion is allowed because of these rights that go “too far.”

The second, is the simple fact that if 33% do believe it goes “too far” doesn’t it mean that 66% DON’T, and since twice as many don’t believe it than do… shouldn’t that headline read, “US students DON’T believe the First Amendment guarantees too many right”?

Or am I missing something?

A 4 year old child was given an “in-school suspension” for what was termed according to this article on MSNBC.COM:

“inappropriate physical behavior interpreted as sexual contact and/or sexual harassment” after he hugged the woman and he “rubbed his face in the chest of (the) female employee” on Nov. 10.

Now, maybe it is just me, but if you view anything done by a 4 year old to be “interpreted as sexual contact” then you need to have your head examined, because you have some serious issues. Thus it should be the teachers aide that “interpreted” this contact as “sexual” that needs to be removed from the equation. Could it be considered inappropriate? Sure. A child resting or pressing their head against the breasts of a woman that is not their mother could be interpreted that way, but I think I would be hard pressed to find a well adjusted mother that would consider that to be the case. “Natural” or “Instinctual” are words that would more likely come to mind. But Sexual? I think that aide needs some serious time with a therapist, because there are issues there that have nothing to do with a 4 year old.

As I (and many others) often do, I was over visiting Busy Mom, and she had a post about those insipidly long, horrendously boring, “Family Christmas Letter”.

I mean seriously, if you are going to attempt to keep people up to date on you and your family, start a blog. Write it down while it is still fresh in your mind, and share it… then.

Now, I will admit that I am quite imetuous, and may be overreacting a tad, but I have never quite understood them. (Can it really just be me?) If I really cared about you, I would have kept touch over the past year (or if you had followed the advise above you I would have read your blog) , so I would already know everything in the letter… if not, then what makes you think I am going to carve out the time to read about it now? Honestly.

On a separate Christmas “tradition” that people either love or hate… the “child” Christmas Card. Back when I was a single lad, I was never a big fan of the “Here is my kid as a Christmas card” thing. Then of course life happens, and suddenly I find myself having done nothing but use my child as a Christmas card. I started to ponder this again this year, and threw out some feelers to family members to get some input. I swear, I thought my mother was going to lose her mind at the thought of not getting a LatteGirl Christmas card. So once again we relented, and have the “Child Card.”

So what do you think… or do? Do you turn your children into Christmas Cards every year? Is this just a cheap way out of sending some photos to family members (I read this somewhere, I just don’t remember where)? Do you like GETTING them? (I admit, I now actually do enjoy receiving them, and seeing neices, nephews and friends kids growing up). What do you think?

When you were young did you ever try and find your Christmas presents early? C’mon be honest now. Now… did you ever think you would get arrested for finding one? Well, apparently if you are the son of Brandi Ervin from Columbia S.C. that is the case as boy is booked for Opening Christmas Present.

The mother stated she did it to teach her 12 year old son a lesson because he has already been having so many problems. OK, so you have a child with ADHD that medication is supposedly not helping (by her own account), who took a swing at a security guard, and has been suspended from school pending an expulsion hearing, and your idea to straighten him out is to have him locked up and give him a juvenile record? Granted the child was only charged with petty larceny, but that is still going to be brought up in his expulsion hearing at school. And if he gets expelled, then what?

Sometimes I just wish I had the ability to dissect the brains of these people to see if we could identify some sort of flaw that turns off the logic in a person’s brain.

For those that thought the house in the picture was mine, I am sorry to say it is not. That is the house from Christmas Vacation, which by storyline is in Chicago, but in reality is somewhere in Colorado (explaining the existence of mountains in the background of some scenes in the relatively flat midwestern city.

GenBetween has a good article on Shopping for elders, with links to some other similar tips. Saved my butt this year.

What is it exactly about “San Francisco Values” that has the collective minds of conservatives and the nitwits at Faux News all freaked out? Is it the somewhat oxymoronic fact that the people of the City by the Bay hate judgemental people? Or is it maybe that people from San Francisco know that Almond, Champagne, Mocha and Salmon are colors as well as food? Or maybe they are mad because somebody from SF actually knows the difference between the colors of Almond and Champagne.

Why does Joe Barton hate autistic kids? And what were the people of Texas thinking when they re-elected him?

An 11-year old boy is currently hospitalized, but fortunately stable after battling e.Coli. Do you really need another reason to stop eating fast food? Although New York City has now banned trans-fats in all NYC restaurants.

OK, how embarrassed would you be, if it was your flatulence that was responsible for making your flight make an emergency landing. Perhaps next time she flies, she could check the Facts On Farts Web Site.

Have a friend that is Secular Progressive (besides me)? Want to get in the absolutely last word? Well then sign up so you can send him (or her) a Post-Rapture Message. Of course I hope it is a Secular Progressive running the site, otherwise who will be here to send the message?

When will these kids learn? If you are going to do something stupid, or (maybe even more importantly) illegal. Do not put it up on YouTube! The latest is a case in Norway where the Police were able to track down a Reckless driver that posted his antic on YouTube.

This of course is what happens when a 41 year old with ADD sits down to write a post, without having a clear plan ahead of time. So what have discovered in your world today?

Well, TheWife had a change of heart yesterday and decided to use the time we had to get some Holiday shopping done, which I was loathe to do, and it was a dreadful experience. But not for the reasons I expected.

We hit in our travels two of the three “Big Box” retailers in our area. Wal-Mart (not my choice) and K-Mart. (Sorry Target we will get to you soon) What hit me hardest was how empty these stores were. I fully expected hideous crowds and long register lines. Well the register lines were a little long but that was because neither store had more than 4 registers open. This is the holiday shopping season isn’t it? So that made the shopping much easier to take.

What did wind up scaring me was what I saw while shopping. Now I am no prude, and am more than happy to poke fun at people that consider this nonsense “appropriate” clothing, but people come on now. Some of this stuff looked more like it belonged in the back of a magazine that comes in a brown paper wrapper than something that any reasonable human being would put on their child. Now that set me back a bit, but not all that much, because there is always some level of tastelessness in clothing, and it really is a matter of opinion. The same way I view these clothes, I would assume is the same way that people who would actually buy something from the Wholesome Swim wear company would view what I allow my daughter to wear.

But then we went over to the toy department. Now I am not going to talk about the “Worst Toys” such as those on the W.A.T.C.H. list, you can find that here. There are plenty of toys of questionable quality and safety, and I personally consider it the job of the parent to take those things into consideration.

Can I ask a question here? Is there anybody that doesn’t think Bratz dolls are the most hideous dolls in the world? I mean, I know plenty of women that for years have railed against the “horrors” of Barbie with her thin waist and unrealistic proportions, but when you compare poor Barbie to these micro waisted, frighteningly big eyed, dressed like street walker dolls, Barbie is a dream by comparison. At Barbie has some clothes that don’t make her look like a hooker. And I am not buying any doll for my daughter where I will wind up explaining (and I heard this already from another child), “Why does this doll have a “earring” in her belly button?” Of course not to be outdone, Mattel has added a similar line of junk called “My Scene” which are equally ugly but (from what I saw anyway) a little less trashy in the clothing area. I guess I should feel thankful that Hasbro (under much pressure from parenting groups) pulled their planned “Pussycat Dolls” which was due out now.

While I am on this, lets talk a moment about fashion heads, shall we? Do we really need our daughters “learning to apply makeup” to an over sized head? And again, what are they “learning” with all the “bling-bling” and out of style (I hope) horribly bright colored eyeshadow.

I used to think that Polly Pockets was the bane of parents everywhere with their tiny parts and little plastic clothes. “How much worse could it get?” I wondered. Well it seems I got my answer in the “Littlest Pet Shop” series of toys. How much worse…uh… never mind… I don’t want to know.

Specialty TV sets now seem to be all the rage, and I see people buying them, for prices far more than a standard 13″ set (since they are for “kids” they are all 13″ sets). Disney of course started this with the Princess TV and DVD player a few years back, but now we have Dora, and Sponge Bob (a bright yellow colored set which is scary enough in its own right), Winnie the Pooh, Superman and more. Do any of these parents understand that these sets will live long past the time that their children will be willing to allow such childish things to remain in their bedroom? What do you do with it then? Oh, and just for the record (before somebody says it), I will not allow my daughter to have a TV in her room at least until she hits her teen years.

Now let me preface this last one by pointing out that I actually do like a lot of LeapFrog products. But now let me ask… Do they need to make them ALL so darn noisy? Every one? And if they do, could they at least start adding a volume button (not a switch to “high” and “low”)? I swear some of them are just bought by people to passively get back at a child’s parents for something.

And, no I am NOT being Grichy. I am not Grouchy (which is surprising after shopping last night), but I just think sometimes a modicum if common sense could be applied. Is that too much to ask?

Today’s article, For kids, is 10 the new 15? from MSNBC finally lets us know we as parents are not losing our minds, or just “turning into our parents.” That teen/tween line has been breeched and kids are in fact doing more sooner.

I guess it is in some senses not really all that strange, I mean my daughter is doing school work in the 1st grade that I didn’t do, probably until the third grade (or later). We (society) learned that children are sponges that absorb knowledge at an extremely fast pace, so we encourage that. What it seems we haven’t considered is where that acceleration could lead.

(Now I am not advocating slowing down the learning process. I think it is wonderful that a child can absorb so much and we should feed that thirst for knowledge. )

Now as the Associated Press article states, some of it is currently attributed to nutrition. As an outspoken critic again hormone laced milk products, I of course will lay some blame here as well, though exactly how much is easily debatable.

External stimuli is of course also a factor. I mean regardless of the fact that I control what and how much television my daughter watches, or what she reads, etc. Outside influences (ie. school friends, etc) still have an effect.

So what do we do? How do we stop them from trying to grow up too fast? At least I now know it is not just me.

In a Sunday article that not many probably noticed (except those looking for such things… and I am not one of them, I just happen to read them), the Washington Post had what may, from an educational standpoint, be the scariest article I have read in some time.

It would be easy to dismiss the article, Science a la Joe Camel as “just politics” on the surface. The initial points drawn out is how the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) turned down 50,000 free DVDs to screen An Inconvenient Truth in classrooms.

In their e-mail rejection, they expressed concern that other “special interests” might ask to distribute materials, too; they said they didn’t want to offer “political” endorsement of the film; and they saw “little, if any, benefit to NSTA or its members” in accepting the free DVDs.

The key however is in that last little statement. “little, if any, benefit to NSTA or its members.” Because, as Laurie David the author discovered, it is all about the “benefits.” Exxon Mobile has given $6 million to the NSTA and holds a seat on the board (so much for steering free of special interests). Shell Oil and the American Petroleum Institute (API) are also large donors, and the
API also produced the film “You can’t be cool without Fuel” which was distributed by the NSTA.

But this doesn’t stop at just the oil companies, I mean the article goes on to point out Forestry Lessons that were, get this, written by Weyerhaeuser (a lumber and paper company) and Internation Paper as well as information in Biogenetic Engineering by Monsanto.

I don’t know about anyone else, but to me this makes about as much sense as the Roadrunner asking for a safe route of travel from Wile E. Coyote. He may give “information” but you have to question the value and motives of the information.

Couple these things in with the all too well documented assault put forth by trying to pass off Intelligent Design as science, and it seems that today’s text books are less like science, and more like science-fiction, or just plain fantasy. As the article concludes, “In the meantime, Mom and Dad may want to keep a sharp eye on their kids’ science homework.”

The decision handed down by the Maryland Appeals Court states that “No” doesn’t mean “No” if it follows a “Yes”.

Where are the screams from the White House? Where are the Congressional Leaders screaming at the top of their lungs how this must be changed?

{{ crickets }}

Nowhere. That is where they are.

Talk about going backwards.

So in essence, according to Maryland Law (and I can’t help but wonder what other states have this same flaw in their legislative logic), once a woman says yes, she no longer has the prerogative to change her mind. That’s it. End Game. Because after all once a man gets all “worked up” you can’t expect him to just stop, can you? What just because the woman got cold feet. Baloney… She said “yes” and that is that. Is that really where we are? Really?

I gotta say… that is really pathetic.

Every morning, I make my way through Newark on my way to work. Somehow, in the early morning hours, my brain still suffering from an insufficient caffeine reserve, and of course being so immune to shock and surprise anymore, apparently I find it hard to even notice a bull running around downtown Newark.

Yes, a bull wandering the streets of the biggest city in New Jersey. I was there, and didn’t see a dang thing.

Some ideas sound great on paper. This is one such idea. The premise is simple. Take the cars from “drug dealers” and use the proceeds to help fund the “war on drugs.” But when you read stories like how a New Jersey County Seizes Family Cars, it becomes clear how these “good ideas” can go terribly wrong.

Unfortunately this is just the “latest” example that I have seen where overzealous prosecutors elect to “follow the letter” (but not the spirit) of the law, and seize three cars from a family because of the (alleged – remember he hasn’t actually been convicted yet of anything) misdeeds of their son. Not one car. Not just the car he was driving (he wasn’t even driving at the time, this was after a “raid”).

Much like eminent domain (a rant for another day), it is power that needs to be dramatically curbed or stopped, because local government officials do not seem to understand how to wield this power judiciously and more often than not seem to only care about it in the sense of a profit center.

I enjoyed bragging yesterday about how Parents spend more time with their kids today than they did 40 years ago. But as Barry correctly pointed out, there are still problems. Problems that seem to start in the teen years, where I don’t know why, but parents seem to lose control over their kids, and the parents seem out of touch.

There has been plenty of blame going on in the news, with the “dangers” of MySpace, so much so that places have actually taken to trying to ban it. Of course, plenty has been offered in the way of blaming the Internet for teen smoking. To prove their point, The American Cancer Society enlisted kids 11-15, according to this article, to go and buy cigarettes online. And of course the kids were able to get them because the site did not “verify their age.” Back in August, this article points out that kids as young as 14 according to the study cited have purchased alcohol online. I will return to that age verification in a momment.

The latest today, is article about how Teenagers are turning to the Internet to buy Prescription Drugs. At least in this article the examples they give are teenagers that are 18 and 19 years old, so in theory at least, the parents can be given some benefit of the doubt because the kids could have possibly already had their own credit cards, and were of legal age. But of course despite the examples given, what the article is hinting at is again that underage teens are acquiring these items via the Internet.

Now wait a minute and think about that. Underage kids buying things on the Internet. (See I told you I would get back to it). How exactly does an underage kid go about purchasing something on the Internet like cigarettes or Prescription drugs? After all, they would need a credit card to complete their transactions. The Credit Card companies don’t (generally, unless a mistake is made, but that usually only happens in TV sitcoms) give credit cards to minors. They are not of legal age to enter into the contract for a credit card. So are they using Mom and Dad’s Credit cards? Hmmm. Maybe if the parents were paying attention. You think?

Somewhere along the line these parents seem to want to abdicate responsibility for raising their kids to legislators. Well we need to stop the sale of Prescription Drugs on the Internet because 11 year old Tommy is buying Xanax. Well, dumbass don’t give a credit card (or don’t leave it where he can get it) to you underage kid. And maybe it might be a good idea to take a look at the bill every so often and see what the hell is on there.

I don’t know if this was nationwide or not, but around here, one television station use to run a PSA every evening. “It’s 10PM, do you know where your child is?” I used to think it was a stupid ad (especially when I was a teen), but you know what? Most of the time, (hey I’m not perfect, and sure I fibbed once or a dozen times) my parents did know where I was.

Nobody is going to raise your child for you. You can legislate the world away. Even as a teen (and probably especially as a teen), your parenting skills and guidance are needed. It is easy to stay in your child’s life when they are young, they really can’t stray all that far away from you. But as they get older, their needs for you don’t diminsh… they just change.

Like many people, I was to say the least unnerved on September 11th. It was 4 years before I set foot back in New York.

Becoming unnerved at the sound of an airplane can be a difficult think to overcome when you live not all that far from a major International Airport (In my case, Newark Liberty).

In a way it was quite odd. Those few days after September 11th, I remember how spooky it felt to not have the sounds of planes around. Nobody taking off, nobody landing. In the evening I can almost always see a tiny string of lights in the sky, the planes that are circling the area that lining up for their turn to land. But not on those days.

Then flights resumed, and I became consumed with anxiety. I nervously watched many planes taking off and landing. Watching for any sign that things were amiss. Is that plane flying too low? Too slow? Too Fast? Does it look like it is banking correctly? (As if I had any way of really knowing).

Not long after (and forgotten by most outside this area) was a second incident that occurred over Long Island. Immediately at the time of the accident, it was feared terrorism, but that was quickly deemed an accident, so most people just turned away and said, “Thank God it was an accident, and not terrorists.” Of course that fact didn’t make the people in the plane, or the people on the ground that the plane landed on (and their homes) any less dead or devestated from the events. After that, I never allowed LatteGirl far from me when I was home. Just in case something came raining down from the skys and we needed to evacuate the house. I often allowed her to fall asleep on the sofa in the living room, because I didn’t want her to be upstairs all alone at night while I was downstairs. Only when I was ready to go up for the evening would I put her to bed.

It got worse after the company I was working for closed up shop the following January. I had less to keep me distracted. Plus now I was home more, with those “flying gas cans” circling all day long. Topping that off were funerals, or more precisely memorial services for people I knew. People that had their services put off, with the hopes of finding a body, or even part of one to put in a box. But by this time, recovery efforts were for the most part over, and the greiving went on without them. I attended several. Several more than I wanted to, but less than I perhaps should have. I avoided some, because I just couldn’t handle attending them all. I made excuses, sent condolences, but had to just save some sanity.

Several years of anti-depressants, and anti-anxiety medication got me through and somewhat back to normal. As normal, as normal can be for me anyway.

In 2005, I found myself back in New York City. I managed to keep my wits, but everyday I had to remind myself that those were events of the past, and that I needed to move on. Fortunately my anxiety never really got the best of me, and by the end I didn’t really realize how much that stress was actually still with me.

That is until I left there earlier this year. As much as I was disappointed at losing the position, I don’t think I was ever quite as relieved leaving a job, as I was when I finished packing up the last of my things, and left the 42nd floor that day.

Which of course brings us to yesterday’s events. No, it wasn’t a terrorist attack. By the time, I had gotten wind of the story, it had already been deemed an accident. But that uncomfortable feeling returned. And last night, as the rain fell, I caught myself straining to listen against the background noise of the drops hitting the house, listening for the sound of a plane, that wasn’t flying “quite right.”

I amazed myself, when I was able to fall asleep and stay asleep last night (without any outside assistance thank you very much). But I guess, if you live out your nightmares in your head during the day, there is not much left for your unconscience can do to you once you fall asleep.

The funny thing. I am not afraid to fly. We are planning on going to Disney World next spring, and the thought of getting on that plane doesn’t scare me in the least. I just don’t want to be under one of them.

(Why is this called “Picture Perfect Thursday”? Well you have to go visit Liz over at This Full House for more details. If you do join in, please let me know)

At first glance, “Brainless” looks like a book I could have enjoyed writing. If only I could find somebody that would actually pay my expenses to write a book (Hey, unlike Ms. Coulter, I would have facts to back things up… and research costs money). However, when Joe Maguire wrote the book, he certainly didn’t think it was going to cost him his day job at Reuters. As a matter of fact, he even got “conditional approval” to write the book from his bosses. But now that the book is done Reuters has decided to fire him over the book.

Now, I am not one to often go and buy a book soon after it comes out. Why? Honestly, I don’t know. But I suspect it has to do with me being cheap and waiting for it to go on sale, or to pick up a copy on eBay’s Half.com.

However, this one I think I need to go and get now. I will review it when I am done, and see if it lives up to my anticipations (the “Lies” part). The Lunacy part is just obvious. I mean if you just go over to Joe’s Blog and read her quotes, it becomes quickly clear how far “out there” she is. (In case you don’t feel like clicking over, I will share my “favorite”)

“I think [women] should be armed but should not [be allowed to] vote.”
– Ann Coulter on Politically Incorrect, 2/26/01

Of course if you had followed my suggestions in the past and stopped over at Sweet Jesus I Hate Bill O’Reilly, you are now thinking, as I am, that the second book in the series, “Brainless: The Lies and Lunacy of Bill O’Reilly” practically writes itself. Oh wait, I forgot… that would probably be considered plaguirism, since Bill put his own lunacy in print with his pathetic “Culture Warrior.”

I don’t like Apple (the company) because of their proprietary “own it all” nature. TheWife doesn’t care, and currently purchases music from iTunes along with several other companies. I guess it really doesn’t matter, and I am sure all downloadable music companies will be involved, but they specifically mention iTunes when in the recent article about New Jersey law to tax iTunes sales.

There are certain things that I agree with. With its $45+ billion dollars in debt, that New Jersey needs to start doing things to whittle that down. And with our property taxes being some of the highest in the country, they need to look elsewhere. Personally I support that if they have to raise taxes, to raise them on non-essentials.

However, Internet sales fall under Inter-State Commerce, which makes it (in most cases) prohibited from taxing. If Gov. Corzine manages to find a way to slip this through, it is going to be a damaging thing. First of course for consumers that will have to pay the taxes. (You can be sure that if this gets through, every State is going to make a beeline to this cashflow. ) But just as importantly to businesses, particularly small one, and even people who sell things on places like eBay, as you will now not only have to work as a tax collector, you will need to know the rates, rules, and proceedures from every State that you sell (or even potentially sell) products to. And that can be a real mess.

I still think Gov. Corzine was a better option than the man he defeated. But 10 months in office, and he has come with some real clunkers that are not endearing him to anybody. I have always assumed that he had long term aspirations on running for President, but if he is going to just keep throwing things out there just to “see what sticks” he won’t stand a chance.

Alright, this is a bit old… but it is still one of the 5 “top stories” on the page. If you check out Brian Ross and the Investigative team on the ABC Website, one of the five “prime” stories on the site, is this one. It seems that “blogging” is beneath Mr. Ross because he is a “journalist.”

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.

Need proof that the GOP and their “cut and run” claims against Democrats is so much rhetoric that they just spout it out, regardless of whether it is true or not?

Well here it is. In a debate for a Congressional Seat from a retiring Congressman, the GOP contender, Peter Roskam decided to invoke the Rovian stategy to claim that his opponent, Tammy Duckworth was an advocate of the “cut and run philosophy.”

The problem with that? Tammy Duckworth is a double amputee that lost both legs in Iraq. She served our country proudly, and certainly sacrificed of herself for our country. Roskam, was obviously not thinking when he made this remark, and just following the GOP Guide to “talking points” whether they are real or not.

Every time I see something new on the Rep. Mark Foley scandal, it gets more and more reprehensible.

OK, the first e-mail came out in the press, and he resigned. It was in poor taste, and certainly questionable. He was right to resign, but I didn’t think much about it.

Then I turn around again, and read about the IM conversations that he had, and am now absolutely aghast at the now blatant nature of it. It crossed that line of questionable, and went straight into clearly inappropriate and questionably legal ground (Questionable, only because it the transcription has not been independently verified as yet).

Then I find out that this Virtual Child Molester, was member of the Missing and Exploited Childrens Caucus! The blood is starting to boil.

Come to today, only to find that GOP leaders KNEW about this for some time… and not only did they attempted to sweep it under the rug (par for the course – and I expect no less from either party), but they did not even force him to resign his position on the Missing and Exploited Childrens Caucus! They left him there.

I like the following analogy from this article in USA Today:

Beverly Pepe, 67, of Lake Worth, drew a comparison to the Roman Catholic
Church’s scandals. “That’s the same as when the church knew about all those
priests molesting the boys, and they just kept moving them from church to
church,” she said.

Of course no GOP scandal would be complete without some spin justification from Ann Coulter, Brit Hume and of course Bill O’Reilly. But the best (or worst depending on how you want to look at it) has to come from Newt Gingrich who justified the GOP sitting on the issue and not reacting to the Foley scandal in a timely manner because:

House Republicans would have “been accused of gay bashing” if they had
“overly aggressively reacted” to Foley’s allegedly inappropriate email
communications with a 16-year-old male congressional page when House Republicans reportedly first learned of Foley’s actions in late 2005.