Learned while surfing

It is amazing what you can learn if you spend an hour mindlessly surfing on blogexplosion while while watching TV (also mindlessly):

A surprising number of people blog about their cats.

There is a guy out there who said that the discovery of that new planet this week is the the most important story in history.

Speaking of planets, many people are very worried about ours. Come on guys, earth is a big boy who can take care of himself.

Apparently being a geek is a big selling point if you have a blog because a lot of people are touting their geekdom in their title or blurb thingy.

I had no idea there were so many blogs out there taking pot shots at Christianity.

Why do blogs focusing on technology and web development look so unattractive?

Downside of digital photography: I saw at least three blogs made up mostly of pictures taken around the blog owner's house (snack boxes on the couch, socks on the stairs, etc.).

Blogs with a more liberal leaning have a lot more cuss words on them.

Blogger really needs to work on adding some new templates; there are too many McBlogs.

Favorite name: My Karma just ran over your Dogma.

Most people make their paragraphs way too long, discouraging me from reading.

Ninety-nine percent of the time I don't bother watching videos that many bloggers are so fond of posting.

I'm a bad, bad man

While watching 20/20's Earth Day Special, I found out just how horrible I am:

I use paper towels. 20/20 just told me about the obscene amount of paper towels I will use in my lifetime. It's a big number.

I am a bad, bad man.

Diane Sawyer also said I use too many of those plastic grocery bags. Well, I do have a whole cupboard full of them. They are just waiting there in a big clump for their turn to go walk the dog with me and be turned inside out to pick up poop. After I throw them away, the bags last thousands of years, but the poop doesn't. Poop is good.

I am a bad, bad man.

I like cheap stuff and that's bad. I should desire to spend much more money on my stuff, but since I am so darn cheap, I am forcing China to make my stuff. When China makes my stuff, they pollute the world. If only I didn't want cheap stuff.

I am a bad, bad man.

I occasionally take a shower. Diane says (I feel like she talks to us like we're kindergartners) that if I (and everyone else) lop one minute off my shower, than the state of Texas can have drinking water for a month. I sometimes just bask in the warmness of the shower for my own selfish satisfaction--it feels good.

I'm a bad, bad man.

Turns out I use electricity too. Now I thought Diane liked electricity better than gas, not enough for me to stop worrying about using it. I felt real bad when Diane took me on a tour around the world and showed me how they turned the lights out on all the landmarks. It's not as pretty with the lights out.

I am a bad, bad man.

In China they have a lot of bicycles. They are good people. I have a bicycle and I even considered riding it to work, but I found out it would take me a whole 20 minutes and I'd arrive all sweaty. I like cars.

I am a bad, bad man.

Sorry.

Sharpton Calls for Santa Claus' Firing!

Maybe in his ignoble departure Don Imus will have finally accomplished something worthwhile.

If his firing means that all media will now be scrubbed clean of the filthy, rude, and vulgar, then he will have died a hero. A brave warrior fallen on his microphone. A sacrifice to give us all a better life.

Riiiiight...and Sanjaya will get voted off American Idol before the bald guy.

Unless the father, son, and holy spirit of political correctness--the mainstream media, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton--put their clout behind getting folks fired for flouting foul and faulty speech, it just ain't gonna happen.

Not that there aren't plenty of people who need their mouths washed out with soap.

Just google lyrics and ho and you will get an eyeful of the earful our youth are getting.

On my first try I got hits with those who are doing the most ho, ho, ho-ing (among other things): Ludacris, Trick Daddy, Kurupt, Nappy Roots, Poison Clan, and, finally, Don Ho (psych).

Since it is obviously not difficult to find offensive speech in the public sphere, it is mysterious as to why Al Sharpton and friends haven't taken care of this "ho"rrible problem already, since these artists all get airplay on the same channel as Sharpton's own radio program! Shocking!

A cynical person would think that Al Sharpton has some other agenda. But that's just really cynical people. I don't know anybody like that.

Blast from the past: Read my old post about the Bay Area sports radio personality who got the Imus Treatment before it became all the rage.

Global Warming: Who you gonna call?

Kudo's to Laura's Miscellaneous Musings and guest blogger Gategirl for pointing out a new hysterical over-reaction to the completely natural and cyclical changes in worldwide climate, otherwise known as Y2K, er, Global Warming.

It turns out that a new bill is being introduced requiring the CIA and the Pentagon to assess national security issues that will elevate Global Warming to a national defense issue.

The Washington Post reports: "The measure also would order the Pentagon to undertake a series of war games to determine how global climate change could affect US security, including 'direct physical threats to the United States posed by extreme weather events such as hurricanes."'

That's right, folks: they want the military to be ready to fight the weather. And you thought finding Osama Bin Laden was tough.

There is no word yet on the type of weaponry that might be required in such a battle, but I would like to suggest we look into the "unliscensed nuclear accelerators" that Dan Akroyd and Bill Murray used in Ghostbusters.

As I recall, the Ghostbusters had a whole arsenal of weapons that were effective against make-believe menaces.

Let's see, there was an ectoplasmic trap which might prove useful for sucking hurricanes right out of the sky (or hot air from a room full of politicians), and the proton pack, which took pretty good care of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

Hey, if the proton pack works on giant product spokes-cartoons, maybe we can make Global Warming take a hike just by using the weapon on Al Gore, AKA, The Pillsbury Doughboy!

So, I Guess I'm a Racist

Today's protests over a new proposal to manage illegal immigration caused me to reflect on my own racist tendencies and those of my family.

As I write this, my wife and son are spending their Easter holiday in Mexico working with impoverished children, but I'm for much tighter border control so I must be a racist.

Our family is looking forward to the attending the quincinera (kind of a Mexican sweet 16 party for 15-year-olds) of our neighbors' daughter, but I am a racist because I think businesses who hire illegal aliens should be fined.

One of the coolest things I have done at my church is worship in the Spanish service--it's awesome to see the passion in their singing and praying--but I'm a racist because I think babies born to illegals should not be U.S. citizens.

The same next-door neighbors have had a series of undocumented brothers live in a trailer in a side yard right next to our house. We have had nothing but pleasant dealings with these hard-working young men who often help me when they see me working outside, but I am a racist because I think illegals shouldn't be allowed in our public schools.

My wife reached out to my Mexican neighbors on the other side of us and has met with the wife on a regular basis to help her learn English, but I am a racist because I don't think illegals should be granted drivers licenses.

My son has a "band" which practices in our house, meaning we often feed dinner to his friends Fernando and Panda (a nickname), but I am a racist because I think proof of citizenship should be required at polling places.

I could go on, but I think by now it is abundantly clear that I harbor deep hatred toward an entire people group. You probably shouldn't be caught reading anything I have written if you have a shred a decency in your soul.

The Curtain Incident: A Study in Prejudice.

I was very close to a recent situation that helped me get a small glimpse into what it might be like to experience discrimination.

The situation involves a gay man acting in community theater with what is otherwise a group of straight actors. By all accounts, everyone got along fine and the cast really gelled as the production moved along. Also involved were several evangelical Christians, including the producer and the director.

You have an idea of what is coming next, don't you?

It was the final showing of opening weekend when The Curtain Incident occurred.

Actually, it wasn't a curtain, but an old blanket. By pure oversight, the production team had neglected to factor in that there would be middle-aged men changing their clothes backstage in the vicinity of 10- to 13-year-old prop girls. By the third show, the producer and director decided to pin up an old blanket behind which the men could strip to their skivies in relative private.

The mere hanging of this curtain/blanket caused an uproar when the gay man refused to go behind it and said that he was personally offended that a curtain would be put up.

After two or three confrontations over the curtain raised concerns for the show's future, the producer took the man aside to see what was bothering him. The conversation went something like this:

Producer: "I hope there isn't anything we have done to offend you, but if there is, I hope we could talk about it."

Actor: "There is. I am personally offended by that curtain. This is theater, you don't bring religion into it."

Producer(apologetic): I am sorry, I am confused; what does religion have to do with this?"

Actor: "Look, I am not an idiot; I know that you go to that (name deleted) church where everybody is in the same little box and you have to be a Christian. This is theater, you don't need to teach kids that there is anything about the human body to be ashamed of. This is theater, this is theater, this is theater..."

So what do you think about my little story? Did it turn out the way you expected?

Bad education memories

I was reminded today of a very unpleasant experience that I had to endure in order to change careers and become a teacher: the state-required brainwashing otherwise known as a credential program.

The vast majority of a teacher's training in California is pure B.S. that in no way prepares one for the real world of the classroom teacher, but I digress. What really got my dander up today was a co-worker's recollection of one particular professor.

I am going to tell you her name because the rot she preaches simply can't go unpublicized: Dr. Mary Salisbury at Cal State Stanislaus. This lady is so left wing that my left wing friends were stunned at her comments.

Ms. Salisbury had some interesting things to say in order to prepare us as educators. My co-worker recalled how much of her required training consisted of telling the class how the U.S. deserved 9/11.

And I guess that while she ranted about the big bad evil U.S., she practically worshiped at the feet of a Middle Eastern student in the class who was also very vocal that we had it coming to us.

By the time I had to take the class, she had moved on from the subject of 9/11, but the America bashing continued. I mostly remember how she talked incessently about her recent trip to Uganda and condoms--that's right, Uganda and condoms.

I remember the overall message went something like this: "Uganda good, U.S. bad; condoms good, U.S. bad." It was pretty heady stuff, as you can see.

Oh, how I wish I had the time to go back and take another class from her now that I don't need her approval to get my credential. It would be so much fun to say all the things that I couldn't say then for fear of retribution.

I did actually disagree a lot compared to other classes where I kept my mouth shut and toed the company line.

I remember her going off on evil corporations--again, what this has to do with teaching 8th graders I will never know--who operate "sweat shops" in third world countries.

She never had any answer for me when I pointed out that the people in those countries are ecstatic about those jobs and communities actually lobby to have the opportunity to host such shops. (Logic is not a required subject in the credential program.)

Oh, how I wish I had a blog back then. You wouldn't believe the stuff they try to pass off as education these days.

Diversity: gotta love it

So my local school district is looking to hire a new superintendent and the local paper has an the rundown on the fantastic possibilities that await as the interview process begins.

I read the article anxiously to see what marvelous qualities they must possess. Maybe they have experienced success turning around under-performing districts; maybe they have some innovative ideas to boost student achievement; maybe they are financial wizards with plans to better allocate taxpayer money.

Maybe not.

It turns out that the main thing the newspaper seemed to be touting was that half of the candidates "represent minority ethnic groups" and "one woman was chosen."

How exciting.

No mention of accomplishments, no trumpeting of their superior abilities, no glowing testimonials of effective leadership.

Imagine if your favorite sports team operated on such a silly system (fake quote coming):

"The Yankees announced today that they are looking for the pieces to build their next championship team. Owner George Steinbrenner has ordered GM Brian Cashman to pull out all the stops to find a Pacific Islander and perhaps a Norwegian or two in order to improve team chemistry."

We live in a crazy, crazy world.

A few questions

I am probably going to catch flack just for asking the questions, but here goes:

1. Why does nearly everybody leave out the fact that Joint Chief's of Staff Chairman General Peter Pace called adultery immoral before he said homosexuality was immoral?

2. Why doesn't an organized group of adulterers rise up and demand an apology and Pace's dismissal?

3. Why does America care more about what people think--and occasionally say--more than they care about what they actually do?

In case you are not sure what I am talking about, a quick recap: This past week Gen. Pace discussed the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the armed forces with the Chicago Tribune. In the course of that interview he said he believed homosexuality was immoral. Here is the entire quote:

"My upbringing is such that I believe that there are certain things,
certain types of conduct, that are immoral. I believe that military members who
sleep with other military members wives are immoral in their conduct and that we
should not tolerate that. I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are
immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts."

So that is what he said. I have my opinions--of course--concerning the questions I posed above, but I will probably wait until a later post to address them.

"Yeah, that would be why."

Maybe I just expect too much.

Maybe I am just too far removed from 8th grade to remember that I too was once clueless.

Maybe.

So I have about 10 minutes left in my advanced language arts class and I decide to use the time to discuss some deeper questions associated with the short story we have just finished reading.

"We need to dig deeper into this story and I think it would be good to have an intellectual discussion about our opinions on some of yesterday's questions," I began.

"I don't see why we can't spend more time having intellectual--

--"WHAT'S INTELLECTUAL MEAN!" interrupts a student.

"Yeah, that would be why."

Isn't it Ironic? No, it isn't

Everybody makes errors, that's why pencil have erasers.

But you might want to be a little more careful if you are a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist.

Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald wrote about the recent discovery that the Rev. Al Sharpton had relatives who were slaves of the late South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond. Mr. Pitts was tickled at how ironic that was--only problem is, that's not irony. Neither is one of the photos on this post. (Do you know which is?)

People often mistake coincidence with irony. It is a mild coincidence that two people loosely connected in these modern days would be connected 150 years ago.

Now, if Thurmond's people were owned by Sharpton's people, that's a doosy!

There are actually three types of irony: situational, verbal, and dramatic.

Situational irony is when something is the opposite of what you would expect. It is not unexpected that a Southern white guy had Southern-white-guy relatives who owned slaves.

Situational irony is when the fire station burns down, when the police get robbed, and when Donald Trump acts humble. You don't expect these things.

Verbal irony is a weird one. It is when you say something that is the opposite of what you mean. We usually just call this sarcasm: "Well, that was a smooth move," when what you actually mean is, "you are a total klutz."

Dramatic irony occurs in books and movies and such. It is when the reader or viewer knows something that the character in the story doesn't. Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" has this. The reader knows that the narrator is crazy, but the narrator doesn't know it.

Actually, figuring out what is irony and what isn't is somewhat of a mental exercise. Does anybody out there have any examples of things that are supposed to be ironic, but aren't?

A New Attitude

I can't promise I'll never talk politics again.

It has been 17 months since I gave up the blogging and I might give it up again, but for now I am back with a new look (isn't it pretty?) and a new attitude: it is a waste of time to debate politics on the web.

I set out in 2004 to have a blog that tried not to take sides and most of the time I got accused of taking sides.

Yeah, I was a failure.

Sure, I had a couple of really good conversations with my limited readership, but for the most part a "respectful dialog of ideas" did nothing to nudge neither me nor my readers to a different point of view.

I know people do change their political alliances--I've met actual converts--but it doesn't occur because somebody witty and intelligent wrote something on a blog. It doesn't occur because I wrote something either.

Life is by nature political and we all have our distinct worldviews that filter how we assess situations and events. I remember being a young teen, not knowing what conservative and liberal meant, but I somehow related to one commentator over the other in the days with actual editorials on the local Eyewitness News. It's like I was born that way.

So I am giving up talking politics as in candidates and issues. I will talk about life and my opinions and things that don't make sense to me and anybody is welcome to help me out, but I really want to leave out the Republicans and Democrats and the us and them.

I promise I will try.

New Year's Resolution: How am I doing?

I resolved to stop drinking Starbucks Coffee this year.

You probably think I have developed some kind of vendetta against this corporate giant. Nope.

I don't like the coffee.

Not much of a resolution, you say, to stop doing something you don't like?

Oh, but it is. You see, for some reason Starbucks has had its hooks in me for years now. As soon as we got one in town, it became the thing to do. It was such a big thing that I guess I didn't take the time to consider whether or not I liked the product.

Turns out that "cool" and "trendy" will sell you a lot of coffee if people are not paying attention. When I did wake up, I realized that I had somehow been brainwashed into drinking something that I had to pour a quarter cup of sugar into before I could stand.

People say that Starbucks sells an "experience" as much as it sells coffee. I still haven't figured out what that means. Normally a joint that only sells the New York Times is one that I would avoid. If anybody knows what the experience is, please tell me.

Nowadays I can be found drinking coffee and reading the local newspaper at one of the oldest and most revered of American instituitions--McDonalds.

He Picked the Wrong Cereal!

Yesterday was not Larry Krueger's day.

The San Francisco talk show host stumbled upon not one, but two new ways of offending people and will certainly lose his job as soon as the caterwauling becomes shrill enough or congress gets involved--whichever comes first.

In the same commentary where he coined the ethnic slur, "Caribbean" (see previous post), he tried to improve upon the common metaphor, "his brain is mush," used to describe someone who doesn't think clearly.

Instead of the word "mush," Krueger got fancy and used the actual name of an actual mush, Cream of Wheat, when describing Giants' Manager Felipe Alou's brain.

He picked the wrong cereal.

Cream of Wheat packages have the picture of a smiling black chef offering up a bowl of steaming cereal to entice us. Apparently Krueger saying, "You have a manager in Felipe whose mind has turned to Cream of Wheat" is some sort of code for "Felipe Alou looks like that subservient black fellow on the box of Cream of Wheat.

Good thing he didn't use Count Chocula.

He could simply have said that Alou was a Fruit Loop--that's a cereal. And come to think of it, Fruit Loops have the advantage of being many different colors. They have diversity, yeah! You could call into question a persons mental processes and imply that they are part of the rainbow coalition all at the same time! Not to mention that a toucan is part of the rain forest.

It seems that Mr. Krueger needs to attend some sort of sensitivity class for serial offenders. Maybe local supermarkets could expand their businesses by conducting such classes right there in the cereal aisle. Certainly if you are going to be in radio you would need to know all the various connotations of foods in your grain group.

I wonder what would it have meant if he used Quaker Oats Instant Oatmeal as his mush of choice. Wouldn't it be more offensive for a Dominican to be called an old white guy with a wig?

Somehow I don't think anyone would have even noticed if that was the cereal he picked.

Update: Surprisingly, Larry Krueger was fired today.

"Caribbean" is an "Ethnic Slur"?

To be sure, it probably wasn't a wise thing to say if you live or work in the Socialist Republic of San Francisco.

Larry Krueger of the San Francisco Giants' flagship station KNBR is under fire today after criticizing the style of play common among players from certain Latin American countries. Angry at the team's play, he cited the "brain-dead Caribbean hitters swinging at slop nightly" as one of the club's problems.

Apparently, you can add "Caribbean" to the list of "unapproved" adjectives in the Bay Area. Not only is it dangerous to discuss religion and politics, but hitting characteristics of ballplayers from certain geographical regions are taboo too.

Apologizing for KNBR, Senior Vice President Tony Salvadore said that the station takes offense that Kreuger "defamed our Latin players with an ethnic slur."

Move aside, n-word, there's a new slur in town: the c-word. Go ahead, you can call someone "brain dead," but don't dare call them "Caribbean".

What the knee-jerk slur police are missing in this case is that Krueger was simply criticizing a style of play that he felt was not working for the struggling Giants. Players from the region are brought up in systems where they are trained to be free swingers, just as players on the Oakland A's, for example, are trained in a farm system that emphasizes plate discipline and the value of working the count.

If Krueger were an A's talk show host, would it be alright for him to pin blame on players from that farm system who take too many pitches? Of course it would! Why then can't he say something negative about a group of players whose training emphasizes an aggressive style of hitting?

In fact, it is certain that he would not be in any trouble today if he just left out the word, "Caribbean". He could have said that the team had "brain dead hitters who swing at slop nightly." Would it be better to criticise the whole lineup instead of being more specific? Apparently so.

So far they say Krueger will not lose his job. Yeah, right.

Irony of all Ironies!

Okay, so I exaggerate a bit, but what I describe below is at least worthy of mention on one of those "Murphy's Law" posters.

My family does not have the neatness gene. We've all heard the old line about "being a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest." Well, that is about the scope of the disadvantage I find myself in when it comes to keeping our family van clean.

It seems that no matter how often I grab trash out of the car after using it, there is still mounds of trash there the next time I get in. The problem is simple math: one person takes trash out of the car and five people put it in--there is no way I can win against those numbers.

So I had this plastic Target soft drink cup in my car (the clean one). The day I bought this drink at Target the drink machines stopped working after I had poured but three-slurps worth of my slurpee-like drink. Right then and there I vowed to right this injustice by saving the cup and getting what was rightfully mine on my next trip.

That was today. When I reached for the backseat cupholder where I had placed the cup, I came up empty-handed. Since this is no trifling matter to me, I called my wife on my cell to ask her if she had seen my cup. Well, you guessed it. My wife--who only takes old cups out of her cupholders when there are none available to use for new drinks--helpfully removed the trash from my car, leaving me slurpee-less.

Make that Murphy's Law number whatever: If you are saving something that is valuable only to you, someone will turn neat freak at precisely the wrong time.

Why I Should be in the NBA

I really want to play in the NBA. I have no skills, I'm past my prime (a prime that, sadly, included no skills either), and I don't have the time to work out in an attempt to develop some skills; still,I really want to play in the NBA. Isn't that good enough?

Is it outrageous that in spite of my total lack of apptitude I am not able to play the sport I love? I bet Modesto, California's Karen Cox would be on my side--she might even vote me onto the all-star team.

How do I know? Well, Karen wrote a letter to The Modesto Bee in support of 8th graders who fail their U.S. Constitution test. It seems that failing said test--a requirement for graduation--bars one from "walking the stage." These kids are not special ed, but do have some learning disabilities that make it difficult for them to pass the test. According to Karen, there needs to be "respect for individual differences" and an end to discrimination in Modesto City Schools.

Here, here! I've got some "individual differences" that separate me from the typical NBA player: I'm only 6-feet tall, can't dribble, can't shoot, and certainly can't jump. What kind of country do we live in where somebody with little or no talent is systematically denied the same opportunities as elite world-class athletes? I am ashamed to be an American!

I want to come out 100% behind Karen's proposal to give non-graduates the same benefits as graduates; after all, we're all different and different is good, it's just that we all deserve the right to use our differences to be considered the same. See you in the NBA!

Wendy's Chili tale just tip of finger, er, iceberg.

As most of blog-reading America chokes on the sordid tidbit about the finger for hire, the ever-growing mental and moral underclass of this country undoubtedly chortles its approval at the near success of the dirty trick that took more than a few digits off of Wendy's sales totals for two months.

In our whatever-you-can-get-away-with culture, Anna Anaya and her family are the modern equivalent of a band of gypsies, playing us all for every ill-gotten cent they can. The Las Vegas woman's near-miss screwing of Wendy's would be as funny as it is disgusting if these people were an aberration, but even "decent" folks these days are unabashedly "working the system" any way they can.

Even people who have neither seen nor heard of shows like Jackass and Viva La Bam have experienced the trickle down immorality and disrespect that is infecting this nation. The Springer-ization of our culture flashes big when we learn about the lady giving the finger to Wendy's, but millions of other people do the same thing every day without any headlines.

You only have to work retail for a short time to see just how dishonest and low people can be in their everyday dealings. We're not talking out-and-out thiefs--though there is plenty of that--but supposedly upstanding citizens who think nothing of socking it to the retailer with their lies and deception.

There's the nicely-dressed couple who very clearly and deliberately order new windows "with grids" at Home Depot, only to insist later that they didn't want grids; later, they complain and scream enough that they get them for half price. On the off chance that screaming and yelling doesn't get them what they want, they just refuse the windows and purchase them at a fraction of the real cost when they appear later in the clearance bin.

Or how about the nice old lady who orders a whole new kitchen of cabinets and decides later that she doesn't like the grain in the natural maple that she picked out. After ordering new drawer and cabinet fronts three times to find a bunch that met her liking, she finally demands and receives her $10,000 back.

And here's one: A customer gets a whole new hardwood floor installed at the store's expense because he insisted that the installer put in the original floor in a manner contrary to the manufacturer's recommendation. The installer and the store told him it wouldn't work, he pitched a fit and demanded they do it anyway, he signed a disclaimer putting the responsibility squarely on him, then pitched another fit to get a new floor when it turned out the store and the installer were right.

I could go on! (Help me out, do you have some more examples?) Suffice it to say, customers are lying dogs. You can tell that they are lying when they open their mouths. So just because you don't know anyone who used a finger to try to extort some cash, don't assume that the general public is any different.

The Attack of the Knuckleheads

Where have we gone wrong in this society where it is generally accepted that a paying customer has the right to be rude, obnoxious, and hurtful?

From the frustrated shopper who mercilessly unloads on the minimum wage cashier at Home Depot, to the fan who purposely picks seats with a night of verbal harassment in mind, the leeway we have given because “the customer is always right” has gotten to be a bit too much; customers in America have been given so much power that they treat the hired help as something less than human.

Just look at the reactions to Friday’s NBA brawl. In a nutshell, most of the response has been: players bad, fans good. Certainly the players should not have gone into the stands to fight and deserve to be punished severely, but let’s have some consequences for the fans too. If I am the D.A. in that town I examine every available video tape and prosecute anyone who so much as threw a popcorn container that night.

And I must confess that I love how that knucklehead in the Pistons jersey got clocked--more than once--when he walked menacingly toward players on the court. I really think he got what he deserved. I am not advocating violence (I don’t think I’ve hit anyone since I was 12), but there is a measure of satisfaction in seeing knuckleheads getting their just desserts.

Sadly though, even this pummeling will be the highlight of the knucklehead’s life and he will wear it as a badge of honor. There will probably be a large cash settlement and tons of media attention thrown his way, while the players he goaded into defending themselves may be banned from the NBA for life. Years from now, Mr. Knucklehead will be showing that video to his knucklehead grand kids.

When I worked at Home Depot I always said that I wished I had a hidden camera to show the world how poorly customers actually treat people. Now we have a video on how the customers in Detroit acted, and all we hear about are the big bad thugs in the NBA--it’s just not right.

I say we hold people equally accountable for their actions, whether they make millions or they throw things at people who make millions.

If You Have an Erection for Over Four Hours...

Can someone please tell me what all the screaming and shouting is about over the Monday Night Football Promo? Since when is it out of the ordinary to feature sex on television?

Don't get me wrong. I would have been DIVING for that remote had my children been watching MNF with me last Monday night. It is ridiculous that we are constantly bombarded with the sleazy values of Hollywood. But as bad as it has become, I find it interesting that NOW someone is getting upset about it. Why is that?

There has been plenty to be upset about for a long time. One of my favorite (meaning I hate it the most) groping-for-the-remote-and-singing-loudly-moments are the many ads for Viagra, Cialis and other "erectile dysfunction/ enhancement" products. I am waiting for the moment when one of my younger kids ask me what it means when they say, "If you have an erection for more than four hours, seek immediate medical attention." Okay...

Anyway, my bottom line here is that there is way to much sex on TV. I am hoping that the outcry over the MNF promo will spill over to some of the other problems that normal (not thinking about sex 24/7) families face on the tube.