News Notes

• Sign that you are a questionable candidate for political office: a commercial that opens with you stating emphatically that you are not a witch.  I mean unless you and Doc Brown went back to Salem circa 1692 or if you were part of Bill and Ted's school project and the phone booth broke before they could get you back to your own time period, this should not be an issue.
• I have a feeling that Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity is going to be far bigger and produce a more far reaching and serious impact amongst the people than anyone in the media or politics is willing to acknowledge.
• Brett Favre... if he did send these pictures he's an idiot.  But I have to question the timing, this happened and it doesn't become and issue worth reporting or making public until 2 years later and in the weeks prior to the Vikes vs Jets game?  Not saying sending unwanted pics or making unwanted advances on a woman is ever okay, but 2 years and right before a matchup of new team vs old team, all I'm saying is this has to raise a few red flags.
• Justin Bieber talking smack on Tom Brady?  Yeah Brady's hair looks girlish, but are you serious, the man is a Super Bowl Champ, MVP, with one of the hottest women on the planet, he on the other hand is a kid, who's voice sounds slightly girlish and will, by historical accounts, be another one hit child star who is a nobody once he hits puberty and his voice goes Peter Brady.
• Bill O'Reilly is pulled a pinhead move last week on the view, by referring to Muslims as murderers of 9/11.  Now grated that was their religious affiliation, but making such a broad and sweeping generalization is something that someone who is as critical as Bill is should not make.  Everyone has a religion, a race, and beliefs that are shared by many - painting the masses by the actions of some is a slippery slope that shouldn't be perpetuated by someone who is in a position of influence.  Every group has people that live on the extremes of their beliefs/principles these people should not be used as examples of the norm though.  Bottomline, he should know better.
• Chilaen miners, so nice to actually see a good story in the news...  Gotta love that these guys made it out alive and largely unharmed.

News Notes

 Not a slow time in news, but I'm short on time so I'm just taking two things right off the top.

• Albert Haynesworth, ya'll remember him the guy who got carried away and acted out a scene from American History X during a 2008 game against the Cowboys.  The most recent highly sought after free agent, and more recently the guy that couldn't pass a conditioning test.  As a side bar, in college we had to do a 300 yd shuttle test and as college students our times were substantially faster than his required time.  You'll say well, he's older... he's also a world class professional athlete that is one of the highest paid in the game we were NAIA college football players.  Anyway, not talking about that today,  since the season is 3 games in and Shuttle-gate buzz has died down and McNabb is now getting all the DC media attention, Mr. Haynesworth was interviewed about Shuttle-gate on DC's 106.7 The Fan,  Here's what he said:  “I guess in this world we don’t have a lot of people with, like, backbones,” Haynesworth said. “Just because somebody pay you money don’t mean they’ll make you do whatever they want or whatever. I mean, does that mean everything is for sale?  I mean, I’m not for sale. Yeah, I signed the contract and got paid a lot of money, but … that don’t mean I’m for sale or a slave or whatever.”  Yep, he made reference to being a slave.  Albert, slave (n) a person who is held in servitude as chattel of another.  Albert, Albert, Albert.  You have a 7 year, $100 million contract with $41 million of that guaranteed in the first 3 years.  Having to switch to a new position, show up to practice, and do a conditioning test doesn't exactly make you Kunta Kinte.   
• Congress still sucks.  I just can't believe that our "Democracy" (I'm going to start referring to it in quotes, so picture me doing the standard "air quote" gesture)  It's more of the same, infighting and bickering amongst the parties that stalls out meaningful legislation.  I think there should be a new rule that would help them out.  Items must be passed one at a time.  Now initially this will be more work for them, but it is nonsense some of the things that get passed and don't get passed simply because they are attached to a no brainier bill.  Can't remember if it was Simpsons or Family Guy, but they did an episode where something idiotic got approved simply because of a paper clip.

News Notes

Pretty interesting happenings in news these days, I mean it's all totally insane but still remains interesting.  So here we go

Burning of ... anything.  This whole thing is just another situation that baffles me.  The media reporting on something by saying that they shouldn't be reporting on something.  Just because we have Freedom of the Press doesn't mean that it's a good idea to give everything national attention.  I think that Freedom of the Press should come with some inherent responsibility to take a look at the bigger implications of what you are reporting.  How does reporting and publicized some whack job in Florida's antics do anyone any good?  All this is going to do is send an already volatile situation further into a tailspin.  It's fruitless.  I'm not saying we need to tiptoe through the tulips on the issue of the Middle East, Terrorism, etc. but there's little sense in unnecessarily fanning the flames by giving credence to a movement in BFE Florida that would have otherwise been attended by maybe 8 people and maybe made the local rag on page 2.  Now it's a global issue and I'm sorry but questioning if you should be giving this guy publicity won't unring the bell.  It's just irresponsible and dumb and that goes for the idiots in Florida too, but that's an entirely different rant all together.  I'll just say this:  Painting everyone with the same brush is a dangerous game.  There are lots of whites, Christians, men, women, hell pick any dividing characteristics who have done morally terrible things... but you can't judge the entire group by the misguided actions of the few.

Along the same line Fox News... wow.  I truly feel sorry for any American who gets their news 100% from only one media outlet (i.e. Fox News, MSN, etc) because the slant on things these days is absolutely unreal.  I know I've mentioned this before but the most recent interpretation of an interview takes the cake.  One of the leaders of the Muslim group working on the Mosque in NY, said basically he was concerned about the actions that extremists might take if these burning took place, were publicized, etc.  Fox reported this the next day as him making threats of violence against the U.S., which based on their soundbites sounded credible, but if you actually read/watched the full interview, it couldn't be further from what was actually said.  Bottom line it is just plain sad that there seems to be no where in media today where one can get a true report of what has happened.
  
Jets and sexual harassment, this has potential to get me in hot water so I'm gonna step lightly.  First and foremost, harassment is never okay and the situation should be dealt with and disciplinary action should be levied.  But.  This is a two way street.  The NFL needs to seriously, evaluate their policies on women in locker rooms.  They preach and preach to players about avoiding situations that have the potential to result in something that is undesirable.  Placing a young, attractive, provocatively dressed woman (and for that matter men) but women especially in a locker room with 53 men most between the ages of 24 and 35 is a recipe for absolute disaster.  Should they be able to control themselves, absolutely.  Some of these guys put their foot in their mouth on a regular basis with zero provocation whatsoever, you but this woman in there and it's like taking an alcoholic on a brewery tour, it's just not smart.  Furthermore, I Googled the reporter, before forming an opinion I recommend doing the same and watching some achieved interviews and judge for yourself.  Again... not justifying what they did and if they did something there should be actions taken, but come on, the Jets are the only ones guilty in this.


Politics... still can't care... still want to care, but it's just so very hard.  When your solution to stop a brush fire from spreading is to pile more brush in front of your houses, I really don't know that I can get behind the logic. 

Tax cuts... I don't want to pay taxes anymore than anyone else, but with the Bush tax cuts set to expire soon, increased taxes for some segments of the population are likely on the way.  I think the appetite for some modest increase in taxes would be better received if the Gov wasn't walking around with a blank check.  Government spending is absolutely out of control at all levels, local, state, federal.  You can't expect people to willingly pay into a system that is digging a hole of debt that appears to be deeper than any ladder in existence, yet they keep digging.  Furthermore, tax burden needs to be spread more evenly I think that everyone should pay some form of income tax.  If it's 1%, 0.5% or 0.25%, everyone should pay into the system, there should be no free lunch.  Everyone lives here everyone must contribute something. 

News Notes

Brett Favre... he's going to play, he just wants a bit of an fawning over him for an ego boost.  He was one play away from a Super Bowl and had a career year, he's not walking away from that.  We just need to let him go on his merry way.

Cali and Prop 8... Gay marriage has been in the news a lot in recent years, ya know church and state they're separate, a bulk of the arguments against same sex unions fall back to religion.  While I'm not going to share my opinon on it, I think there are two fundamental pieces to a marriage: 1) the religious sacrament and 2) the legal courthouse issued piece of paper.  Religion should decided whether or not to honor the union as a "religious" sacrament.  The courthouse should decide if it's okay to buy family health insurance and be considered a "legal" family.

BP Oil... About time.  You'd think if you were undertaking an operation, you'd have plans for the worst possible scenario, like say a rig explodes.  I mean they are in hurricane alley, I can't believe they'd never once considered the possibility of a rig explosion and a massive leak miles underwater.  One more in an ever growing list of reasons why we need to find something else.  The internal combustion engine was invented in 1823... hear that geeks 1823, in the 187 years since then we've not come up with something better?

President... Don't even care really, I tried to care I really did, but the constant bickering back and forth between the red guys and the blue guys has grown tiresome.  Until Government starts serving the people instead of acting in its own self interest the road to improvement is going to be a very long one.  Nothing makes sense and if one of your guys didn't think of it, it's a bad idea no matter what.  It's just plain sad.

Palin's... I swear if I hear any more about this kid and her on again off again, which magazine will pay me for this story, life I'm gonna scream.

Jersy Shore... in Miami is as popular as ever.  I wonder if they realize people watch this show and are laughing AT them, not with them, AT them.