My take on the Crowley-Gates Fiasco.

I've resisted commenting on this news story because it's very tender and sensitive and I don't do that very well. I worry about offending people and tend to back off of my true opinion in an attempt to avoid confrontation and drama. But I think I need to share my warped little perspective on this.

First things first. I have to guess that the questions weren't submitted to the press secretary before the press conference. It was just dumb luck that the President called on Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times with three minutes of air time left. But even so, don't you think the very intelligent people that our President has around him thought to prepare for this question? Yes, the press conference was intended to discuss the healthcare issue but come on! Such meat as this for media and you think they are going to blow right past asking Obama about it? Didn't you put any talking points together for him ahead of time just in case? You're fired!

Secondly, Mr. President, you are the most powerful man in our nation and you are garnering a lot of respect from around the world. You don't HAVE to give your opinion on every issue. A simple, "I think we'll leave that up to the fine folks in Cambridge to sort out" would have been sufficient.

And now finally. beer in the Rose Garden. I'm pretty sure Mrs. Wilson would not be giddy about her garden being used for a boys poker night but then again you drew the line at the pretzels and brewskies.

Please tell me that we are finally done with this. The charges have been dropped; the gentlemen agreed to disagree on whatever the initial issue was; and Joe Biden stuck to non alcoholic drinks at the poker game. I think we're safe to move on now. Oh and Lynn, next time you do your homework, please try not to pick such a shiny object. We Americans are easily distracted from the real issues at hand - especially when they twinkle.

Wow! I'm glad they cleared that up!

From the same people who brought you the Finger Length Study and the Apostrophe Crusade we now have Tell me the Obvious!

Study: Tanning beds definitely cause cancer

England, you are definitely climbing my V-8 list! Now if you didn't read the article (because we all know how often people REALLY click on the embedded link) let me give you the run down. Tanning bed use is on the rise. Incidents of skin cancer are on the rise in the same age demographic. Therefore what we have always known to be a pretty obvious truth has been confirmed. Now we have just thrown enough money at "research" to claim it as a fact.

But here's one of my favorite parts of the article.

The new classification means tanning beds and ultraviolet radiation are definite causes of cancer, alongside tobacco, the hepatitis B virus and chimney sweeping, among others.

Well there goes my life long goal of being a chimney sweep! I find it very hard to believe that climbing inside what is pretty much the same thing as preburnt cigarette guts could cause cancer. How could that be?!

Oh, but there's more!

Cogliano said the classification means experts are confident that tanning beds cause cancer, but he noted they may not be as potent as other carcinogens like tobacco or arsenic.

Huh. Imagine that. Tanning beds are safer than arsenic. Good to know.

Now I know that some humans are just downright oblivious and pretty darn stupid. But isn't anyone else a little offended that science still thinks that we are too stupid to put together that UV rays from the sun can cause cancer so therefore UV rays from a machine will probably do the same thing?

Someday common sense is going to make a comeback. I hope it's not too soon! What would I blog about then?

I Blame OJ.

Yesterday I mentioned that I would be revisiting this nagging media circus issue. I blame it all on OJ.


I was a junior in high school when the infamous Bronco chase took over TV's across the nation. I remember this because I was in the hospital at the time and was actually watching a baseball game when I got interrupted. I was pretty ticked.


I was a freshman in college when the verdict was handed down. That means the fiasco covered 3 years of my life. 3 years!! And it was all televised. Remember? Court TV made their mark and the news media provided an update on the days proceedings every. single. day.


Prior to that I can't say that I remember there ever being any kind of fuss over a celebrity's indiscretions or law enforcement issues. There may have been because I grew up without TV so I may have missed it all - well, not missed it but avoided being inundated by it. But just the same, I don't think it was ever glamourized like it is now.


But I question the integrity of these "public" court cases. The Scott Peterson and Casey Anthony cases are prime examples. Just how impartial can a jury be when every newspaper and television is blaring details about the case that may or may not be official, confirmed or even a shadow on the investigative picture? Nancy Grace gave Casey Anthony a black eye before the police even got to her and while it panned out this time, what would have happened if it hadn't? Would my pal Nancy have given a third of the time to her apology?


I guess my point is that until the public makes it clear that we don't want all the nitty gritty details until they are substantiated, I don't think we can really have justice. Look one more time at Michael Jackson's case. The media made a big deal about the doctor's staff removing boxes from the storage unit. Who's to say those weren't files for completely unrelated patients that were being referenced for completely unrelated reasons? And yet it was immediately all over the "news" and more suspicions were raised.


It's nonsense. If I was a great activist I would stage a boycott of the news organizations. I would slam their in boxes and mailboxes with mail asking them to refrain from glorifying criminals to celebrity status. I would insist that celebrities and sports figures who commit crimes be blacklisted and never allowed to appear on TV, a movie screen, or a sports field until they had done years of community service and proved themselves to be respectable role models worthy of being admired.


But I'm not all those things. So instead I will sit here at my computer and blame OJ. He started it all.

Playing Catch up - Good Try Fans!

I know what you were trying to do. You almost succeeded too. But I am strong.

You tried very hard to draw me out of my bloggy vacation by providing ridiculous amounts of absurd news stories for me to comment on and rail about. You almost got me with Michael. I was teetering on the brink of breaking blog silence to rant and rave but I kept it together. I had to turn the TV off for 3 weeks but I resisted the urge.

Well no more!! Bloggy silence has been broken so here it comes!

Well done in commemorating his musical legacy and life. I did not watch the memorial in its entirety but I did catch the highlights on the news several million times. Very well done.

Now let go.

Seriously! I do not need to know every detail of the will. I don't need to know when his mother sneezes in court while trying to sort out the custody issues. I don't want to hear about the TP that fell off the doctor's administrative assistant's foot while she was getting boxes out of the storage area. I hope for his children's sake there is enough to cover his debts and still leave them something to provide for their care and future but quite honestly that's up to his family and his estate. I don't need to hear about it!

He was a man. He could have died at 50, 72, or 96 by natural or unnatural causes but he was going to die and I think with his history we all knew there wasn't going to be anything too terribly natural about it. But he was going to die either way. There is absolutely no reason for the media and the nation to turn itself inside out like this for A MAN.

Four other celebrities have died. Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Billy Mays, and Walter Cronkite are no longer on the planet. I haven't heard the first thing about their estates, autopsies or final arrangements. They each got a 15 minute tribute on the Today Show and CNN and it was done. I was barely around for Elvis and John Lennon so someone needs to weigh in and let me know if this same circus took place for their demise. I'll retract the whole thing if someone can demonstrate for me that it's a musician thing.

Until then, I'm over it.

But I have a nagging question (and I'll probably revisit it tomorrow). Wouldn't the investigation into any shady circumstances go a little better if the media wasn't reporting every move the investigators made? I mean when my children have a look out in position they can hide all manner of evidence of wrong doing and they are only 5, 4, and 2. How much stuff do you suppose the medical staff has been able to hide when the media is giving them a perpetual heads up on every aspect of the investigation?

Enough is enough. Let the investigators handle the circumstances. Let the family handle the estate. And move on to more important news stories. Like how contagious are VP and Pres gaffes in the media and press conferences?!

Yeah it was me! What are you going to do about it?

That person who just unfollowed you? That was me.

Trust me; it's for the best. I wasn't reading you and you weren't reading me so we're even. Now you have room on your blog roll and I have room on mine. We'll call it guilt reduction surgery. Or blogroll bypass.

And while we are on the subject. All those networks that I was part of? You can take me out. I'm not interested in playing the games anymore. I'll write; the people who feel like it will read. The networking thing is garbage anyway. I don't want to listen to you whine and I certainly am not in the mood to pander to your ego. Numbers don't really mean anything in the long run for me anyway because I don't do all the crazy PR stuff that was supposed to take over the world and have a thunderbolt impact on marketing and business. I really can't tell you the last time I read a review that wasn't on a business site so you have a lot more selling to do before you get me to buy into your power trip.

Let's see. What else can I highlight as a complete waste of blog time? Oh yes!! The lecturing people to be nice. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. Well, it has been proven in the bloggy world. People are going to envy people who are bigger and better than them. If they are small enough to try to tear the big people down they will stay small. You can't change them if you lecture them every single day of thier itty bitty lives. So move on. Be responsible for you and your attitude.

Wow. That felt good. I think I might be ready to return to bloggy land. I think I have a better grip on my goal now. Write. Read. Learn.

All it took was one good Flush!