Random Thoughts

I continue to be shocked by the stupidity of others. I know I don’t have any children of my own, but I do have common sense, and I have been inside a hot car before. I am disgusted by the fact 2 more children were tortured to death inside their mother’s Dodge Neon so she could get her hair done. Every summer we see the news reports of these senseless deaths that were easily preventable. Last year, I even remember one mother got angry with the police because they busted out her van window to rescue her children from the heat inside. In the case of Tara Maynor, she didn’t even crack a window; her children baked to death pawing at the windows for air, her three year old son desperately trying to save his 18 month old sister. What makes this story so sickening is when she returned to her car after 3 1/2 hours inside the hairdressers and found her children dead, she didn’t even rush them to the hospital or cry out with remorse. She drove around with their bodies for over an hour while she made up a story about being abducted and raped, forced to leave her children in that car and desperate to get back to them. I can’t begin to describe how angry this makes me; I wish we could lock her in a car for even one hour and see how much she likes it. I would still be angry if she hadn’t lied, but I would also have compassion; I would hope her story would be an example to others about the dangers of leaving your children inside the car even for a few minutes so that nothing like this would ever happen again. For now, I just can’t fathom how anyone could think leaving their children unattended anywhere for 3 1/2 hours, especially locked in a hot car, was acceptable, and then to deceive the police in a pathetic “Susan Smith” attempt to clear yourself from guilt just makes it seem so much more despicable. I support the district attorney’s choice to try her on murder one charges, and I hope the jury will see the heinous nature of this crime and sentence her to life, that’s more than Adonnis and Acacia got.

The President of the United States of America paid a visit to C-town today and gave a speech here at my work; it was a traffic nightmare, and the talk of the town. Like him or hate him, it was an honor to have him here. The best part of the day was the lively bunch of people excercizing their 1st Amendment rights by protesting out front. I have nothing against protesters, ok I do, but they do have the right to express their opinions just like me. I just find it odd, today’s group couldn’t pick a single subject to objest to. There were about 20 of them total and from what I could tell, at least 15 different subjects were being protested from the war in Afghanistan to school vouchers, and NAFTA to social security benefits; there was definitely a myriad of groups represented. Too bad the President never saw them. Doesn’t everybody know dignitaries never enter through the front doors? On top of that, they were the most pathetic group of protesters I ever saw. To make themselves seem like a larger group, some of them had double sided signs, others simply traded signs with the person opposite them, so when they were on camera it would look like there were more of them. It was quite humorous from above. It almost made me wish I had a water balloon, but I am not that mean and they did have a right to be there, so I can’t be but so mad. Actually, I kind of miss their incessant chanting of “fast track is a slippery slope, fast track is a slippery slope” especially since they all kept getting tongue tied and it sounded more like “far um et um sery soap, far um et um sery soap”. Way to make C-town look good on the evening news! These guys were one very small step up from my favorite picketers, the lazy, beer drinking, slovenly protesters outside my local K-mart (they are bankrupt guys, what else do you want?). I can’t wait to see these jokers make the evening news. God Bless America…

Sometimes, I get so unbelievably angry with our justice system; there is a man here in Northeast Ohio who has been convicted of 17 DUI’s and he is about to stand trial for his 18th! How is he still a member of society? Free a few pot heads if there is no room for him in the jails, or better yet, stop spending my tax dollars to build sports arenas and start using them to build more jails to house idiots like him. This man did not make one or two bad decisions in his life; he is not seeking rehabilitation. He has been a habitual offender since 1984. Thank God he didn’t kill his latest DUI victim, but what about next time? I know he doesn’t have a license and soon the State of Ohio will begin confiscating vehicles driven by drunk drivers(regardless of whether it belongs to them or not), but what about protecting us, the law abiding citizens in his path? It is not okay by me if he continues to go free, and I am sure it is not okay by the Holtzheimers whose daughter was struck down in her own front yard. He just left her there to die and drove away. He has shown no sympathy or remorse because he clearly doesn’t care about the consequences of his actions, and he continues to get away with a slap on the wrist. I don’t think we will see any real sorrow from him or his family until we throw his sorry ass in jail for the rest of his life, and he pleads for his freedom so he can do it again. Unfortunately, we probably won’t get to see that day until someone’s dead body is involved and a grieving family demands justice. Too late, I demand it NOW; there has to be a better way to stop this man without having to wait for him to murder someone with his car.

My mother called me yesterday and said, “get on your website and start writing about the Pledge of Allegiance, and make sure you tell that man in California to give away all of his money because it has “In God We Trust On It'”. Before I could even address her frantic plea, I hear a pounding on my door. I told my mom to hold on, I had to go and see what was going on outside. To my surprise, it was Kristen Anderson from “news that’s more local;” she and her cameraman saw my flags and God Bless America sign in front of my house and thought I would be the perfect person to interview about the 9th District Federal Court of Appeals ruling the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional. Thus began my one and only chance to lead off the news. I was stunned to be sought out for my opinion, but pleased to offer it. Now, I will post the unabridged version of my opinion here for the curious (and yes, for my mother as well).

The Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional? Aren’t we at war, aren’t we in a recession, aren’t people trying to kill us? With all our country has been through in the last 200 years, more specifically in the last 9 months, don’t we have more important things to worry about? I am sorry Mr. Newdow’s second grade daughter was injured by her classmates recitations of the Pledge (he does not allege that his daughter’s teacher or school district requires his daughter to participate in reciting the Pledge, rather, he claims that his daughter is injured when she is compelled to “watch and listen as her stateemployed teacher in her state-run school leads her classmates in a ritual proclaiming that there is a God, and that our’s [sic] is ‘one nation under God.’ ”), but you can not remove all references to God from our country just so she is never affected. God is specifically referred to in our Declaration of Independence, it is a part of many of our State mottos and seals, most notably, it is on every piece of currency we spend. Even if you could wipe away all of those references, his daughter will still have to at least acknowledge the concept of God exists in our culture. God is in our dictionary; our country’s landscape is dotted with churches, mosques, and synagogues; people preach the gospel on street corners; even the non-religious study the Bible for its historical signifigance. God is an unavoidable part of our culture; it makes no difference whether you believe in one or not. I don’t believe Mr. Newdow or his daughter should have to worship any God or even have to recite the Pledge of Allegiance if they don’t want to, that is their right as Americans (and a big part of what makes this country great), but what I do believe is The Pledge of Allegiance is not about God, it is about country. It is about honor and respect for our nation and the freedoms we are so fortunate to have been given by the countless numbers of Americans who have sacrificed their lives to defend our country and these same freedoms we hold so dear.

“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation UNDER GOD, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

If there is one thing good we learned from September 11th, it is, most people have a really good heart and want to help each other. The outpouring of support and donations was astonishing. The distribution of those gifts of generosity was not. Now the country is faced with raging fires in the West and President Bush is delivering Federal Aid, which is great, but what about the local donations being collected. The call went out for people interested in helping to provide necessities like toiletries, cots, chapstick, sunscreen, dog carriers and supplies, toys for the children, etc. Now the Salvation Army is running ads to counteract these donations claiming they have more than enough supplies, now they need cash. I do see their point and I understand they need cash to help, but every night there are people without these items on the news appealing for our contributions. Why isn’t their “stock pile” of supplies being delivered? I know money always helps and it will be distributed to people in need, but after September 11th, I find myself asking when? There are millions of dollars that have not been dispersed to the victims and their families. I have heard the arguements and the red tape involved, but I can see why people are now more inclined to donate actual things instead of cash. At least then you can hope your donation will be put to good use. I do value charitable organizations like The Salvation Army and The Red Cross, and I believe they do good work (most of the time), but I wish they were more upfront about where our donations are going and when they will be dispersed. As a skeptic, I can’t help it, I want to know.

For constantly bugging me about making this site more profane. It’s about my ideas and opinions, Matt, not about how many creative F-bombs I can drop. Can’t you fucking understand that?

It’s the most hotly contested race of the season; no, it’s not a sporting event, it’s a box office tally. Americans have become obsessed with being number one, so much so, our children are now discussing box office grosses before they will consider going to see a picture. I miss the good old days when you went to a movie because you thought it looked interesting or your favorite movie star was finally on the big screen again. People don’t care about that anymore; it’s all about the numbers. The most disturbing example of this happened over the weekend when Fox distribution, so confident of Minority Report’s success, annonounced themselves champion of the weekend box office. Disney immediately fired back claiming it’s Lilo and Stitch was actually rightfully number one. The two ended up conceeding it was too close to call until the final tallies were in today. I will grant you no one will remember what the second best movie in America was three weeks from now, but honestly, who cares? Personally, you couldn’t pay me to see Lilo & Stitch (don’t write me, I am sure it is a fine film and lots of hard work went into it; it’s just not my cup of tea) being number one at the box office won’t change that. It could win an Academy Award, and I still probably wouldn’t see it. So why all this nonsense about numbers? I know, we are all greedy and obsessed with money, right. Then why isn’t it a bigger deal Scooby Doo made almost twice as much money last weekend than either one of these films? Does anyone remember The Waterboy? It had a phenomenal opening, but that had nothing to do with the film (I like Adam Sandler and the movie, but let’s face facts) and everything to do with the trailer before it (hint: Episode 1). I guess the same could be true for our friends at Scooby Doo, the ad in the paper now suggests you should see it again for your first glimpse at the new Harry Potter trailer. Is it just me or is this system starting to sound a lot more like our unreliable friends over at the Nielsons? Crunching the numbers is embarrassing, especially when you have a “sure fire hit” on your hand. If there is one thing that is for sure, it’s nothing is ever for sure in Hollywood. This should’ve proved that, but I am confident we will all walk away from this having learned nothing. The studio’s will continue to pay the media to tell us what we like and we will all watch faithfully until the numbers are posted. Then, we’ll all speak out in one accord, “I saw it, it’s the number one movie in the country, and by god, I liked it”.

American’s are so fickle. Suddenly, we are all World Cup fans and consider getting up ungodly early in the morning to watch team USA “battle” Germany normal, when a few weeks ago, half the country couldn’t even tell you we had a soccer team. As soon as they lose, they will all go back into soccer oblivion. Why are we such fairweather fans? Is it the media? Do we really bore that easily? Are we that shallow? Sadly, for most of us, the answer is yes. Think about it, a few years ago, you were a social outcast if you didn’t like the Chicago Bulls. Once Michael Jordan “retired,” the torch was passed to Shaq and the Lakers. We’ll see how long that one lasts. Closer to home, when I first moved to C-town 6 years ago, you couldn’t beg, borrow or steal your way into Jacob’s Field (home of the Indians); it was the envy of the league for its great fans. Where are they now? Sure, the Indians suck, but where have all these “true fans” gone? It certainly hasn’t been to see the Cavs, Browns or Rockers because they all suck, too. Wait, that’s right, I know where they are; they’re at Firestone Country Club watching Tiger Woods play golf! Did anyone actually consider spending a beautiful Sunday indoors watching golf on television until that witch came along? His talent is amazing, that is no question, but can you really be a true fan when the only things you know about golf are the name Tiger Woods and the word bogey, even if you can’t define it? When is the last time you watched tennis when one of the Williams’ sister wasn’t on the court or Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi weren’t battling for bragging rights? I am beginning to think the only real fans left out there are NASCAR fans. Oops, that one got away too. When are we going to learn? We are all being manipulated like puppets on a string. Sometimes I wonder if any of us are actually fans of anything, or if we are just too afraid to admit we don’t care because the rest of the crowd might get us. The only people you can trust are the fans you have when you are down and out; unfortunately, they usually have a sickness or some sort of unhealthy obsession. I don’t have to be the last man standing, I just want to be the one who had the guts to stand up for what I believe in.

Colorado’s notorious firestarter

As long as I live, I will never understand Terry Barton. I don’t know what was going through her mind when she started the Hayman Fire, and I can’t begin to speculate on whether she did it accidentally by burning a letter or on purpose for attention; but either way, I hope she pays. In addition to financial restitution and prison time, I believe she should have to face each and every firefighter who risked their lives to control this blaze and every man, woman, and child who lost their home or were forced to evacuate because of her stupidity.

I was ready to string up the moronic “male camper” I envisioned starting this fire, but I am so much more disgusted now that I know it was a forest services worker who knew exactly what she was unleashing when she started this fire. I don’t believe in capital punishment, but cases like these make me wish I did. Wild fires are a part of nature and every year, we will have to face them, but when people carelessly start them without regard, they must be held accountable. I don’t care if it is an accident or not. “Well meaning lack of knowledge is not an excuse.”