Well, let’s hope so!

The Athens (GA) Banner-Herald reported last week that a 52 year old man was treated for a crotch laceration before being taken to jail.

A cop with a heart, I’m moved already.

Police officers were responding to a ‘domestic disturbance’ near a mall in Athens, GA, the home of the Dawgs!

They heard  him threaten to kill someone – no wonder – and then beg for help – again…no wonder!

The man was found in a pool of blood on the bedroom floor covered with a blanket.

His story kept changing…

…”a woman kicked me”…

…”I slipped and fell”…

…”…a screen door…”

The third just might be the truth.  After all, the screen door was broken.

The officers called for an ambulance, and then found that Mr. Slicedsac was wanted on felony probation violation.

Hmmmm.

When the paramedics screeched in, the man told them he had “a big problem down there” YA THINK!

But he refused treatment asking, “Is this really necessary?”

I’m thinking yes, yes it is necessary.

He became so combative that the officers had to handcuff him and put him, bleedingbalz and all in the back of the squad car.

I’m thinking some lucky dealer in Athens has a new Impala to deliver Monday!

Once at the hospital, the injured man dragged his feet in the wheel chair to stop it from rolling.

Maybe it was the loss of blood, you know, it can keep ya from thinkin’ straight!

He spit on the cop! 

Could this get any better?

Wait for it…

He shouted profanities in the waiting room, and cussed so badly at the female nurses, that a male nurse was brought in to sew him UP!

He’s now charged with simple battery for spitting on a police officer who was brought in the relieve the first officer who was obviously worn out and worried about his car.

He was also charged with disorderly conduct and criminal trespass for breaking the door.

Oh, yes, and a probation violation.

In related news, the President of Numnads Screen Door Company, Lorena Bobbit announced today that it is recalling Model B-1765!

I don’t know why I’m so pumped, I usually don’t look forward to things like this, but this time, I am.

I suppose it’s because (A.) It’s been 40 years, and( B.) I look so darn good!  You know, the gym, the diet, the tan!

Can’t wait!

But in preparing and thinking and planning, I’ve thought of a few people along the way.

There are some that won’t be there.

Some old friends are gone, taken too early, and many of our teachers are gone as well.

Several had a tremendous impact on me.  One doesn’t realize until later in life that the teachers you had in school do make a difference.

I may do more of this, but today  – It’s Mrs. Carson.

Like I said, it was later in life when I realized that this tiny Texan had a serious impact on my life, and the way I looked at life as well.

She seemed to be a hundred years old when were in school, but not so.  She was only in her late 50s.  Just like we are guys and gals, and she seemed to have been teaching since Shakespeare wrote the first sonnet, but again, not so.

Some things I remember: 

She loved Shakespeare and she loved Richard Burton.  She took her Senior English classes to see Anne of A Thousand Days as a field trip…because she loved the Tudors, English Lit, English History, and she looooooooooved Richard Burton.

She taught me that reading wasn’t just a past-time, but could be a vocation, a vacation, an escape, and a reality.  She taught me to read for fun.

She told me who Alexander Pope, Tennyson, and Oscar Wilde were and introduced me to wit, humor, and good taste in literature.

She pushed me to write, told me I could, and let me know in no uncertain terms when I was off base.

About 15 or 20 years after I graduated from high school, I was in a meeting with several co-workers.  It was “facilitated’ (80s word) by some seriously expensive speakers and trainers.  One of them quoted Oscar Wilde.  The quote, which I no longer remember, was not one of Oscar’s best, and he had some great ones.  During the course of the meeting, the trainer said, “I don’t know who Oscar Wilde is, but I think this quote says it all.” 

I was speechless!

After discussing the quote for a few minutes, I realized that out of 30 or 40 people in the room, I was the only one who knew squat about Oscar. 

And that was because of Mildred Carson. 

How all those college-educated-high-dollar sales people missed out is beyond me.  But Oscar, Will Shakespeare, and Lytton Stratchey were not beyond Mrs. Carson.  She made sure we knew who they were.

I found her address, sat down, and wrote her a letter thanking her for what she had taught me.  It started a correspondence that lasted until her son called me to tell me she had died;  at the age of 88.  He told me she had given him, and his sister each a list of people to call when her time came.   I was honored to be on it.   Her daughter read a “passage” (her words) from one of my letters at Mrs. Carson’s memorial service.  Ever the friend of mankind, she donated her body to science.

We wrote each other about once a month.  I always expected my letters to come back with red marks all over them, and labored over each word, sentence, phrase, and punctuation mark. 

But they never did. 

We shared books, sent birthday gifts, recipes, and rememberances.

One of my most prized possessions is a Roseville Pine Cone pottery nut dish she sent me when she knew she was dying.  It has a special place in the curio, and a special place in my heart.

So, thanks Mrs. Carson, for what you taught me, and for the fact that you cared if we learned, and cared what we learned.  You were a teacher who had a great impact!

Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer  cells do not show UP in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.   (It’s not because they did crummy in med school.)
 
Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a  person’s lifetime. 
 
When the person’s immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.   (Yeah!)
 
When a person has cancer it indicates the person has nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic,  but also to environmental, food and lifestyle factors. (Boo!)
 
To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing one’s diet to eat more adequately and healthy, 4-5 times/day and by including supplements will strengthen the immune system.  (This does not mean you can eat all day long.)
 
Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells 
in the bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc. 

It’s a take no prisoners kinda thing.

 
Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.   Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction. 

It still sucks!
 
When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications. 
 
Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. 
Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites. 
 
An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.   And a recent report from Johns Hopkins says that chemo isn’t the only way to fight cancer.

Which is what this is all about.

 
CANCER CELLS FEED ON: 
 
Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made  with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses, but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color Better alternative is Bragg’s aminos or sea salt.  (I have no idea what that is, or where to find it…so, I guess I’m screwed.  And thank goodness they didn’t mention Sweet n Low!)
 
Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in thegastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting 
off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk cancer cells are being starved.   (OK, I’m sure the “Milk does a body good” people are gonna’ be pissed, and since soy milk makes men grow boobs faster than smoking pot, I’ll take the risk…who wants to look like Simon Cowell?)
 
Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. We’re not talking Jefferson Airplane and Jethro Tull here.  A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little other meat, like chicken. Meat also contains livestock   antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all  harmful, especially to people with cancer.   (Again, screwed!  Fish has mercury, BP has totally hosed the seafood for a while, and chickens have breasts the size of a couch pillow…and I’m sure I’ve got enough parasites in my body already.  Anyone want to go to Texas Road House?)
 
A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment.   About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live 
enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance 
growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building  healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most 
vegetables including be an sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at 
temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).  (A diet made of 80% fresh fruits and vegetables will bankrUPt a family.)
 
Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine Green tea is a better alternative e and has cancer 
fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap 
water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it. (Oh, crap!  Seriously, screwed here, and on coffee alone, I should be totally dead by now!  Chocolate…hello, cheaper than therapy, and quite frankly, I’ll take the risk!  And green tea, well that’s just for hybrid driving, earth shoe wearing, compost heaping hippies!  Avoid coffee, like that’s gonna’ happen!)

Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes.  Undigested meat remaining in the  intestines becomes putrefied (gross) and leads to more toxic buildUP.  (I could have lived the rest of my life without hearing this, but since I read it, you have to know too.)
 
Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. (Little boogers!)  By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body’s killer cells to destroy the cancer cells. (Note to enzymes, work smarter AND harder!)
 
Some sUPplements build UP the immune system  (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, 
EFAs etc.) to enable the bodies own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other sUPplements like vitamin E are known 
to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body’s  normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.  (Seems that vitamin E gets credit for everything, and as to suplements, I take enough crap already, I’m sure I’d lose weight if I just took fewer pills.  Maybe my lovely niece, Mackenzie, who’s a Doctor would like to weigh in on this one!)
 
Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit.  A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, un-forgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to  have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life. (Ok, something I can live with.  Grouchy people are sick people, and they make others sick too…be happy today!  Find your moment of Zen.)
 
Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells. (Finally, something I do!  Maybe there’s hope afterall!)

And according to the doctors at Johns Hopkins, which is where I stole all this from read this, there are some things we can do around the kitchen to help ourselves out.

  1. No plastic containers in micro. 
 
  2. No water bottles in freezer. 
 
  3. No plastic wrap in microwave.. 
 
Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well. Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially breast cancer.  Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don’t freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic. Recently, Dr Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital , was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soUPs, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn’t bad but you don’t know what is in the paper. It’s just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper the dioxin problem is one of the reasons.  (So much for cutting a slit in the plastic top!)

Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead.

See, I told you those green beans tasted funny!

UP is a big fan of Sirius/XM radio.  Specifically, 60s on Six, Classic Vinyl, and Classic Rewind. I listen to it all the time in the car, and it brings back memories.

Johnny Carson said while introducing Genya Ravan one night, that the top three female voices in early Rock and Roll were Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, and Genya Ravan. 

Very few people know who Genya Ravan is, and that’s a shame.  And, he left one out.

Ronnie Spector – Born Veronica Yvette Bennett in 1943, she started singing early.  Her family encouraged it.  She was part of the Ronnetts, a multiracial group, which was very rare for the  1960s.  She said in her autobiography, “I never knew if I was black or white.”  Her mother was African-American and Cherokee and her father was Irish.  She married crazy man Phil Spector who is famous for his Wall of Sound music, and his recent murder conviction.  You know, “the gun just went off” and all that.

She’s most famous for “Be MyBaby” which we all danced to at sock hops at Germantown and Valley View.  She’s been covered by everyone from Bette Midler to John Lennon and Linda Ronstadt.  And produced by every one from Phil Spector to Genya Ravan.

Click here to hear Be My Baby.

Speaking of Genya Ravan, she’s one of the greatest voices in rock and roll.  I’m often amazed that so many people have never heard of her.  Born Genyusha Zelkowitz in 1940 in Lodz, Poland, Genya’s family came to the US when she was an early teen.   She was a member of the first successful all-girl band, Goldie and the Gingerbreads.  By that time, her mother had changed her name to Goldie.  Her real career started in the Lollipop Lounge in NY in 1962.  She joined a band called the Escorts, and moved on from there.  She has her own website, an autobiography, several recordings with Ten Wheel Drive, and hosts two Radio Shows on you guessed it, Sirius/XM – the Underground Garage channel. 

Her song, The Whipping Post, a cover of an Allman Brothers hit, is a wonder.  Check it out, here. It was during her “real name” phase, identiy crisis and all that.  And Stay With Me, which was recorded with Ten Wheel Drive has been covered by Bette Midler and just about every one else.

Then there’s Grace Slick.  Born on Beggar’s Night, 1930 to a well-to-do upper middle class family in Illinois.  She is a a direct descendant of passengers of the Mayflower.  Her father was promoted and transferred a lot, and they wound UP in Southern California where Grace attended a private all girls high school.  She went to Finch College and the University of Miami in Florida.  Truly a wild child and 1960’s ICON, she claims she never did drugs, and says her addiction was Dom Perignon Champagne.  She said, and I quote, “talk about a drug problem!”.

Her music and her career are legendary.  First with the Great Society, then Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, she’s recorded 30 albums, including four solo products. 

White Rabbit is what most of us know her for.  Yes, it’s a drug song, and yes, it’s strange, but it was the 60s.  Sorry about the crappy recording, and please ignore the Smothers Brothers, it was their show. 

And of course, the list would not be complete with out the one, the only, the best, the top of the line, Janis Joplin.

Janis Lyn Joplin, died way too soon.  It was her fault, and she deprived us of a muscial legacy that could have been much deeper than what it was.  I was, and remain, crazy about her.

Born in Port Arthur, Texas in 1943 to an engineer for Texaco and registrar at a business college, Janis was an emotionally needy child.  Her mother said, She was unhappy and unsatisfied without getting a lot of attention. The normal rapport wasn’t adequate.”  I identified with that early.

She was an outcast,  Other kids at high school would routinely taunt her and call her names like “pig,” “freak” or “creep.  She was rebellious, cultivated an outre personality, and wore “crazy clothes” and a bee-hive hair-do.  Didn’t everyone back then?

Her voice was noticed by the acid rock group Big Brother and The Holding Company with whom she recoreded several albums.  The attention Janis got overshadowed the band, resentments grew, and she announced in 1968 that she was leaving.  She started her short-lived solo career by forming Kozmic Blues Band.  Her drug and alcohol abuse escalated and the Kozmic Blues got the blues and quit. 

Janis actually got “clean” for a while in Rio.  She’d met a man, they were in love, and things looked UP.  Once back in the states her drug abuse and addiction to alcohol came back, he couldn’t take it, and they split UP.  She started singing again, formed Full Tilt Boogie Band and recorded her most famous album, though not her best, Pearl. 

Her most famous songs are Me and Bobby McGee, Piece of My Heart, Cry Baby (my favorite), and Mercedes-Benz.

Her drugs of choice were Heroin and Southern Comfort.  She drank it from the bottle while on stage and their sales skyrocketed.  Her addictions finally caught UP with her, she died of an overdose and complications from alcohol sometime the night of Saturday October 3rd or Sunday AM October 4th.  It was a total waste of life.  I miss what she could have been.

Who’s your favorite Rock and Roll Woman?

Jessica Simpson said in an interview recently that she ‘only brushes her teeth 3 times a week, because I don’t want the whiteness to go away.’

That’s ok Jess, leave your teeth alone and they’ll leave you.

Ok, so is this girl stUPid or what?

She also said “she’s ready to give love another try.”

Well, maybe she should brush more.

Poor Tony Romo, and I never thought I’d feel sorry for John Mayer, but alas…I do!

I understand Nick Lachey a little bit more now too.

She’s also admitted her addiction problem as well.

Nicorette gum.

She’s never smoked.

Wah?

Since I never got over the “is Chicken of The Sea Chicken or Fish” question, it got me to a wonderin’.

And alas, Google has not let me down.

So, I looked some things UP.

Here are some more jewels from Jessica.

“At school my boobs were bigger than all my friends’ and I was afraid to show them. Now, I feel they make my outfits look better. They’re like an accessory.”

“Twenty-three is old. It’s almost 25, which is like almost mid-20s.”

Yeah, almost!

“I respect knowledge of the psyche. I would be a therapist if I weren’t an entertainer.”

I’m sure  therapists worldwide are clearing out office space for her!

“My next album is probably going to be with Willie Nelson. I’ve been wanting to do a country record, because its just my roots.I aspire to be Patsy Cline.”

Oh, no, she did-ent!

And when introducing herself to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton in December 2004 she said, ”You’ve done a nice job decorating the White House.”

It is pretty, ya know.

and my favorite…

“I don’t want people walking out of a movie thinking I was trying to act.”

Seriously, honey, there’s no worry there.

But, it’s dangerous.

Matt James, one of the nation’s top high school football players who was headed to Notre Dame this fall, died instantly Friday night after falling from a fifth-floor balcony during a spring break trip in Panama City, Fla.

And he’s not the first, and probably won’t be the last.

“Witnesses and friends indicate he had become drunk and belligerent,” Humphreys said. “He had leaned over the balcony rail, was shaking his finger at the people in the next room over. He fell over.”

He was 17.

There were about 40 students from St. Xavier and a half-dozen parents were on the trip to Florida, police said.

Where were the parents?

Spring Break started by some reports as early as 1935 when the Colgate Univeristy men’s swimming team went to practice in Ft.Lauderdale during the break from classes.  Ft. Lauderdale became the Mecca for college students then, and was the be all and end all for them from the end of WWII until the 1980s.  The film Where The Boys Are, a cult classic filmed in Ft. Lauderdale depicts Spring Break as fun and carefree. 

It’s not.

There’s pressure to party, pressure to out do, and pressure to ‘play’.

When Ft. Lauderdale (some called it Ft. Liquordale) got more angry about the trouble Spring Break brought than happy about the money it brought in, Spring Breakers moved UP the coast to Daytona. 

Daytona Beach, a nortorious party town, the home of NASCAR, Bike Week, and more, got tired of it too.

So, there’s Panama City, Cabo, Cancun, and a thousand other places to go.

Places for underage kids to go and get wasted. 

And year after year, we hear of at least one high school or college kid getting so drunk they don’t realize they are 15 stories UP and jumping from balcony to balcony or hanging over the rail is unwise.

And they die.

Many make life changing moral mistakes.  Some resulting in critical decisions that have serious emotional impact.  And that Joe Francis dude has his crew everywhere just waiting for some drunk girl to lift her shirt and make Mom and Dad “proud”.

I’m all for having fun, and I think Spring Break is a great thing.  BUT…shouldn’t the parents of these kids be with them? 

Assuredly, many are not, and sadly, many parents live their lives vicarously through their children.

It’s just wrong. 

UP is totally opposed to underage drinking, and totally opposed to the use of illegal and recreational drugs.

And totally opposed to unsupervised teens hundreds of miles away from home…no restriction, no guidance, no control.

And too much cash.

There are things out there many parents of today’s high school and college kids didn’t know about or have to worry about. 

Look at Natalie Holloway.

I”m not so naive to think that teenagers aren’t going to try things.

Spring Break should be fun, not dangerous, and should be supervised.

Mom and Dad, where are you?

Essentially, I did.  Have a job for life that is, not screw UP.

I’m sure I screwed UP many times, but not in a big enough way to cost me my job or my career.

I was lucky for 30 years, escaped layoffs, down-sizings, survived divestiture (the break UP of the Real AT&T for those who were born after 1984), several economic downturns, technology advances, and on and on and on…I was lucky.  I had a job for 30 years, or life.

I never understood career hoppers, I was much more interested in ’security’

I escaped in 2001 with a pension intact, a part  little bit trace  smidge of my 401k left, and benefits – for life.

It’s a good thing.

Things just aren’t that way anymore.

Unless you’re in education – and that’s looking iffy,  law-enforcement, or medicine, you will probably have to change careers once or more in your life time.

Some jobs we thought would be around forever just won’t be.

So, we have to say good bye.

Bank tellers come to mind.  With direct deposit, which is required by many employers, ATM cards, Check Cards, and Credit Cards, who needs to go to the bank?

It’s kinda sad, I remember going to the bank with Dad when I was a boy.  Mr. Oblinger, the bank President, treated us both like we were his largest depositors.  We weren’t.  Seriously, we weren’t!  They had candy on the counter for the taking.  The Bank Tellers always offered me some.  It was an adventure.  And it’s going away.

No one has the title ‘file clerk’ any longer.  Imaging and faxes and email have seen to that.  Everything is scanned.  Our copier not only copies, it scans, and sends to corporate.  Pretty amazing really.  Image over light.  (Thank you Alexander Graham Bell, he didn’t invent it, but he talked about it over 100 years ago.)

Very Jetsons and all.

And wouldn’t you just love to hear a voice when you call a company?  “Press 1 for English” instantly makes me want to shop elsewhere. 

Answer the phone, say “thanks for calling” and ask me how I’d like my call directed.  Don’t put me into Voice Mail Hell.

So we are saying goodbye to telephone operators.  Voice mail and call routing are taking jobs away. 

Data entry clerks are no longer necessary.  Every teenager can type, even if they can’t spell.   Back at Ohio Bell, we had a room full of people who were “order entry clerks”.  Or data clerks.  We wrote the order with codes in the business office and sent it to order entry, via the mail boy.  Well, no longer.  5th or 6th generation software has allowed us to nuke that job and enter the order ourselves.

And speaking of the mail boy.  Most mail is electronic now, remember the old days when the mail boy came by, and people said,  ”I got my start in the mail room”.  Well no more, say ta ta to him too.  He’s going away, or already gone.  The guy on “Drop Dead Diva” who drops stuff off to the fancy schmancy lawyers; he doesn’t exist anymore.  Scanners, email, and photo processors make him obsolete.

Ever use a travel agent anymore?  Well, not for long.  Travel agents are being replaced by the internet, Priceline, Expedia, and the like.  These days only large corporations planning huge trips with hundred of employees use them.  And with the economy in the toilet, and it is, that’s not happening much. 

Unless you get bailout money from Washington.

What about a watch repairman, or watch sales man.  My first job was at B&L Jewelers in Germantown, Ohio.  John Brower was a true watchmaker, and a darn good one.

He hated Timex watches because they were “disposable”.  Now watches are fashion.  If you need to know the time, you can look on your I-pod, I-phone, I-computer, and soon, your eye-ball!   Unless it’s a Piaget or Rolex you can buy just about any watch  at Wal-Mart.  Nowadays, watch repair consists of replacing the battery!  Or shopping for a new one.

And video store clerks, well, bye-bye.  Netflix and On Demand have nuked those as well.

What I’m sayin’, things ain’t what they used to be.  That Summer job or part-time job may not be there.

And things are probably always gonna’ be changin!

So, be flexible, go to school, get an education.

You want to have a lot on your horizons.

I know we expect too much of our ‘heroes’, but really…win a bronze medal and simulate sex in public?  No.

Scotty Logo’s street behavior after his Bronze Medal winning half-pipe run was an embarrassment to him, the stuffed shirts at the IOC, and the the American public, to say nothing of the girl, who’s gonna’ have a hard time explaining that picture to the grandchildren in 20 years.

Joe Francis made millions with GGW videos, but BGW – I don’t think we’re ready.  Ok, so it’s a double standard.  But the trampelettes on Joe’s videos aren’t Olympic Medalists.  They’re drunken college coeds with too much money, too much time, and not enough inhibitions.

I don’t mean to be all moral and pontificatious, but we all know what was implied. 

Half-pipe and most snowboarding events are little more than skate ratting on snow.  I love the sport, I’m not impressed with the mentallity and the attitude.

It’s bad enough that Shaun White and his coach can’t say two sentences without the “F” word and can’t remember that every word they say is being recoreded, and it’s bad enough that Shaun White and Scotty acted like fools during the National Anthem while on the medal platform – (just a reminder to anyone else winning a medal for the US:   hand over heart, learn the words, I know it’s hard to sing and musically bad, but it’s OUR national anthem, SING IT!), but really, Scotty and the girl…is that necessary?

And  Scotty, millions of kids are watching you, and you do have a responsibility to behave decently in public.  You may want to Text Tiger for details.

So behave.

Oh, yes, good job on the ABS, BTW!

I actually agree with Jay-z!

Jay-Z doesn’t like the new version of “We Are The World”, and neither do I.

As a matter of fact, Jay-Z said it shouldn’t have been remade.  Again, I concur.

The first version, no matter what anyone thinks of it was an iconic classic filled with great singing by great singers.  It was a novel idea at the time…Farm Aid aside…thank you Willie!

Mr. Beyonce told MTV News Saturday night at the 2 Kings Dinner in Dallas, “I know everybody is gonna take this wrong: ‘We Are the World,’ I love it, and I understand the point and think it’s great. But I think ‘We Are the World’ is like Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ to me. I don’t ever wanna see it touched.”

Not only did he marry well, he’s very wise indeed. 

The Original, was great, included such greats as Dianna Ross, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Kim Carnes, Huey Lewis, and my all time fave, stuck over in the corner next to LaToya, Bette Midler!

The new one has a rap section, and features a bunch of thugs and criminals including Justin Beiber and Barbra Streisand.

And you know, you can’t spell crap without rap!

The producers decided this time around to remove the only Biblical reference, you know, the one about “turning stones to bread”.

I don’t mean to be insensitive or unkind…wait for it…but how in the name of Lindsay Lohan did Wyclef Jean get a recording contract?  And wasn’t it nice of Lil Wayne to take time out of his dental appointments and court dates to pop in for a solo?

And the nerve of Celine Dion doing the Cindy Lauper part!  Really…take that whiny dog whistle of a voice back to Montreal!

Frankly, if it weren’t for Jennifer Hudson and Pink…it would be worthless.

What did Jay-Z want to do?

He says they should have made a new song.  Says the Jayster, “I think it’s time for us to make a new song.  I tried to do that with ‘Stranded,’ (the song he, Rihanna, Bono, and the Edge premiered at the “hope for Haiti Now” telethon.  He added “I didn’t try to make ‘We Are the World,’ but I tried to make our take on how we felt.”

Jay-Z’s right, the orignial was a classic, it should have been left to stand, and it’s not just because Jay-Z wasn’t there.

Thanks Tim.  But I don’t remember asking.

In case you haven’t heard, Rahm used the word “retarded” to describe a proposal made by a group of liberal Democrats.  Actually, he said “f****ing retarded”. 

Naughty, naughty Rahm.

I have been working with Special Needs students since 2003.  I spent 30 years in a telecommunications career that wasn’t as rewarding as one day with those kids.

Not all of the children I work with are impacted by “mental retardation”, and BTW, Rahm, that’s what you say, it’s not, “he’s retarded”, it’s “he has mental retardation”.  Get your terms straight.

But back to Tim;  According to a joint statement from Shriver and five other disability advocates who attended a meeting at the White House, Emanuel “sincerely apologized for his mistake and the pain it caused in our community.”

Emanuel also committed to signing an online pledge to make the word obsolete.

Stop it!

An online pledge, yeah, that’s gonna’ work.

Mr. Shriver said in a statement that “we are thankful to Mr. Emanuel for his apology”

Who is we?

Rahm made his statement months ago, but it just hit the fan came to light this week.

“Our community has earned the right to be respected instead of ridiculed. We have suffered injustice for generations and we are demanding that it end,” the advocates said. “This is another small step on the road to a country that accepts the gifts of all.”

According to The Wall Street Journal,  Emanuel met with liberal groups at a weekly strategy session in August, that highlighted the issue of health care reform. Emanuel used the term “f—ing retarded” after hearing from a group of liberals that they planned to run television ads against other Democrats who were not falling in lock step on health care reform.

Regardless of what the spat was about, the words were wrong.

And thanks Rahm, you’ve pissed off former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.  Like we need that!  She said that President Obama should fire Rahm for his remark.

Maybe, maybe not.

She also said it was the “equivalent of the N-word.”

Maybe, maybe not.  I’m sure there is about 14% of the population who might disagree.

Palin said in a statement:  “Yes, Rahm is known for his caustic, crude references about those with whom he disagrees, but his recent tirade against participants in a strategy session was such a strong slap in many American faces that our president is doing himself a disservice by seeming to condone Rahm’s recent sick and offensive tactic.”

Of course, I would pay to see the President slap someone.  Why not Rahm Emanuel, he’s a good as any!

Palin added: “Rahm’s slur on all God’s children with cognitive and developmental disabilities  — and the people who love them — is unacceptable, and it’s heartbreaking.”

Let’s not bring God into this Sarah.

Most of the children will never know, but it does hurt the people who love them and work with them.  And it shows a lack of restraint and calousness of a man who should know better.

I agree with Kirsten Seckle, a spokesperson for the Special Olympics when she said. “Tim can’t do that. He can’t accept an apology on behalf of all people with disabilities.”  And frankly, no one can.  It’s an individual decision.

A Special Olympics official told the Huffington Post on Wednesday that all six of the people in Wednesday’s meeting accepted Emanuel’s show of contrition.  Six down, millions to go.

Accompanying Shriver at the White House meeting were Andrew Imparato, president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities; Peter V. Berns, CEO of The Arc; Hannah Jacobs, a disability right advocate; Julie Petty, former president of Self Advocates Becoming Empowered; and Ricardo Thornton, a Special Olympics athlete.

Ok, none of these people speak for me.

Here’s my take, and sorry in taking so long to get here.

Most of the time I work with students who have learning disabilites, and I work with a  few who have mental retardation.  When the kids in my class use the words retarded or “f***ing” in anyway, they get detention.

Rham should get detention.

Is Gitmo still available?