Random Thoughts

Who can watch the news anymore? Everyday, something else is going to kill us. Guess what people…every single one of us is going to die (some sooner than others), but it is curtains for all of us eventually. Stop obsessing!

The latest study warns of the dangers of carbohydrates after they have been fried or baked (i.e. potato chips, french fries, and bread). It’s not that I don’t believe the study, but I am just sick of hearing about it. Everything causes cancer from cell phones to deodorant, even our bras are suspect. We can’t even have any vices anymore. People hate you if you smoke, if you drink you need to be in rehab, if you’re overweight you must get skinny, if you’re out of shape, it’s time to join a gym, if you have sex, you need to get a blood test and a signed waiver. I don’t even bite my fingernails anymore. I am not advocating just lying around and eating what ever you want, not exercising, drinking and smoking all day and then having sex with a junkie whore, but I do think you should have what you want as long as it is in moderation. Don’t worry about dying, worry about living. Death comes too soon for all of us and if you spend your life bargaining for a couple extra days here and there, you may realize you missed all the good stuff life has to offer. So be healthy, but stop sounding the death knoll; we have a lot of living to do. Most importantly, don’t forget to look both ways before you cross the street, even healthy people are no match for a speeding bus!

This just in…(courtesy of E! online)

“Meanwhile, in cable news, the FX network this week announced it’s picking up a second season of its controversial cop drama The Shield, despite defections from some advertisers and complaints from family TV watchdog groups”.

Ok, this news is a little old, but you will have to forgive me because I went out of town just after the story broke, and I didn’t get a chance to tell you about it. For those of you who don’t like my takes on local politics, stick around for this one; it’s worth it. P.S. you also probably shouldn’t move near C-town. We only get news with a “Cleveland Connection”. If somebody from C-town’s sister’s mother’s cousin had a flat tire in Omaha and got stranded, that is WAY more important than the war in Afghanistan, unless of course the Indian’s won a baseball game. Alright already, on with the story…

Last week, our fair city’s fearless leader, Jane Campbell, was in England trying to drum up tourism and encourage people to take non-stop daily flights here for their business and travel needs. While she was away, the computers at City Hall crashed and the staff was working diligently to correct the system. They finally got it back up and operational the morning Mayor Campbell returned. Everything’s fine, right? Wrong. City Hall doesn’t have a back-up server and they lost all of Mayor Campbell’s schedule and her appointments because apparently it never occurred to any of them to write it down or at least store the information in two different places. This, in itself, is embarrassing enough, but then, they get on the news and tell everyone about it. They ask everyone to forgive Mayor Campbell if she has an appointment with them and missed it, and they suggest anyone who did have an appointment with her call her office and let her staff know the date, time, and location. Wait a minute, just let me check one thing, yep, THIS IS THE MAYOR OF MAJOR AMERICAN CITY NOT MAYBERRY! Good Lord, how stupid can you be? I hope a bunch of nut jobs and convicts phoned up to get appointments with the brain trust, err…mayor’s office; it would serve them right. What leader gets on the news and says, I have no idea what I am supposed to be doing for the next month, so call and remind me! Then, just like all the other times something has gone wrong while she was in charge, she tried to blame the previous administration saying, no one informed her they didn’t have a back-up server. This from the woman who on her first day in office, whined and complained our former mayor (Mayor White) and his staff didn’t stay behind to tell her how to use the phone! A.) Shouldn’t you already know by then? B.) Does that ever happen? Remember the “W’s” at the White House? It is the nature of the game. Out with the old, in with the new. C.) What do you have an assistant for? (Hint: for taking care of things like this and making sure they don’t end up on the news, so you don’t look stupid). Too late. Thank goodness Office Max stepped in and set the mayor’s office up with new computers and some temporary tech support. My advice to Mayor Campbell, get a new staff, fire your media advisor, hire permanent tech support people (notice people not person), write down your schedule, stop blaming former Mayor White for your ineptitude, and most of all stop embarassing us; we are still trying to live down that whole mistake on the lake thing and the BURNING RIVER! You are NOT helping!

When did church become fun? Did I miss something? As an adult, I enjoying going to church (for the most part) or I wouldn’t be there every week, but as a child I do remember it being a little boring and sometimes confusing. I certainly do not remember it as play time. I think it is important to bring your children to church, but only if they know where they are. If they are eating Cheerios, coloring in a Harry Potter coloring book and driving a race car around the pew, it is not helping them any to be there, and it is certainly not helping me. I applaud parents for bringing their children to church, where they should be on Sunday mornings, but please don’t bring them because you can’t think of anything else to do with them. Those of us who choose to attend are being seriously annoyed by your little hellions.

Before you start yelling at me, I am not talking about infants and very small children with a bottle and a graham cracker or something. I am talking walking, talking 4-8 year olds who can’t be bothered to pay attention. The parents are just as bad; braiding hair, talking about where they are going to lunch after church is over, encouraging and often times participating in the play activities, allowing the same child to make three or four trips to the restroom during a one hour period etc.

Here’s a little FYI from yours truly. I will concede a child could have a bathroom emergency during church (illness aside), but certainly a child who needs to pee more than 3 times an hour needs a doctor’s assistance immediately. Again, barring illness, I am certain one can go before church and not have to go again until it is over. I am equally confident your child will not die of hunger during a one hour Sunday service. If your child really can’t follow along with the service, consider a prayer book designed for children to read. If your child is old enough to walk and talk, but doesn’t read yet, consider a religious coloring book or a biblical story book containing lots of pictures. This way your child will get the idea he or she is not at playtime, but at a sacred religious ceremony even if they don’t yet understand exactly what is going on. As an added bonus, you won’t face that awkward conversation when you tell them they are too old to play with toys at church anymore and they don’t understand why. The people around you will thank you too, not because your children are suddenly going to become less annoying, but because we know your children are trying to learn how to be a part of the community; even if they are not perfect angels, we can see they are trying, and you are trying to guide them not just ignore them because it is too much trouble to help them learn.

You don’t have to take my advice, but if you do, you’ll see a difference when your kids grow up. And the best part is, my kids won’t have to write this rant because your kids will have taught their kids by example and this problem will have taken care of itself. I know, I know, FAT CHANCE, but it worked when I was a little girl and it could still work again. There I go being overly optimistic again, but I can’t help it. If you can’t believe the world can be a better place, what can you believe?

I know Yahoo! provides a free service, but it has gotten out of hand. First, they decided to convert all clubs to groups. What was supposed to take days ended up taking weeks and in some cases a month or more. When we finally did get our newly converted clubs online, we discovered they were now filled with advertisements. I’m not talking banner and pop-up ads here, I am talking ads that physically impede the reading of a post and break displayed links to other sites. To add insult to injury, Yahoo! decided we all wanted our marketing preferences updated, so we could be innundated with junk mail.

Personally, I used to love Yahoo! I used their billpay function, joined clubs, and switched to their e-mail access. Now, it has been over a week since I have even been able to check my e-mail and it is impossible to contact them. They never list addresses, e-mail links or phone numbers to reach them at because they don’t want to be bothered with us. Yet, they expect us to allow them to make money off of us by selling our personal information to marketing firms and research groups. I did find a feedback form to use, but I have received no response to date.

Free or not, it is time we joined together to end this gross misuse of power. We have the right to access our e-mail or they shouldn’t claim to provide the service. They do have a right to place ads on our groups because they host them for free, but not if the ads make our content unreadable or unaccessible. And most importantly we have a right to be able to contact them regarding our service, and in turn we have a reasonable expectation someone within their organization will respond. Until these improvements are met, I encourage you to end your affiliation with Yahoo! and its subsidiaries. Close your e-mail account, drop your membership from a group (or if you are an owner consider switching your hosting site), stop using Yahoo’s search engine, discontinue use of their added services, or at the very least search high and low for a way to contact them and tell them you’ve had enough. It’s time they listened to us for a change. One angry person won’t change Yahoo!, but all of us together will make a difference! We will be heard.

Ok, I have to address two major areas of local news this morning. One, the Cleveland Heights City Council has voted to offer city employees who are gays and lesbians in committed relationships of one year or more the same opportunity to receive health benefits as married employees. Two, the teachers union is on strike against the city of East Cleveland for unfair wages and improper working conditions.

I’ll begin with Cleveland Heights. Props to you for passing this groundbreaking law, now stand behind it. As for those opposed to the ordinance, what are you afraid of? A gay person getting a $5 co-pay at your doctor’s office. I don’t get it; the city expects no more than 5 individuals to take advantage of this new legislation because the benefit is taxable according to Federal Law, and suddenly there is an influx of people who don’t even live in Cleveland Heights up in arms about it. This isn’t an attack on marriage and family. Remember, we still won’t “let” gays and lesbians get married. This is an opportunity for people to receive benefits because they can’t get them the “traditional” way. All the cohabitating heterosexuals crawl out of the woodwork to say it’s unfair. My ass, go down to the courthouse and get married if it is that important to you, at least you have the right to. I am not going to debate the morality of homosexuality because it is not my place. We will ALL own up to the way we lived our lives on judgement day (that includes you bible tappers). But I will say this, if you object to health care benefits for anyone, you need to seriously re-evaluate your thinking. One last thing: No, grandparents, parents, adult siblings, and random strangers do not apply, but keep working on it, maybe someday; for now though, butt the hell out of this debate.

On to the strike. If you know me, you know I have no use for unions and I wish they would all go away. The many union members I have met in recent years seem to think the world owes them a job because they happen to be in a union (with no regard to whether or not they are actually good at said job). My favorite picketers are those outside K-Mart, who drink beer and play cards all day. Yeah, they are inspiring me to shop a union store to keep their benefits protected. Get a life. Get a job. And STOP WHINING. However, I do think the East Cleveland school teachers have a small portion of a point. They are underpaid (if they are paid at all), East Cleveland is notorious for not paying their bills, and their working conditions are hazardous. You should see the schools here; they are all falling apart, but it costs too much for the unions to rebuild them. Yet, consistently East Cleveland is one of the lowest scoring districts in state tests for aptitude and proficiency. With this level of ineptitude, how is it that they are able to demand 6% raises over the next 3 years? Show us some improvement and we will THINK about it. Last night there was a rally to try and get the district to settle with the union, and a mother got on tv and said her son needed his teacher back because he is supposed to be graduating soon and he still has to pass the ninth grade proficiency test. His TEACHER is supposed to help him, not some substitute. Well, ma’am I hate to tell you this, but if he hasn’t been helped by now, it isn’t going to happen. Frankly, I am sickened by the fact he can graduate anything other than the ninth grade at all. Anyway, best of luck with that.

P.S. Remember Cleveland, keep on picketing! The rest of us who work for a living really owe you something.

Today, we say good-bye the the great Robert Urich. He was my hero when I was younger and he cemented that belief with the dignity he showed in facing cancer. One day, I hope we will be able to erradicate this horrible disease and keep it from robbing us of our loved ones. Until then, we can only promise to never forget those we loved who have died so young and so horribly. Although I never met him, I loved him very much both as an actor and as a man who helped make me feel safe in this world of chaos. Cheers. May you rest in peace…

Burn in Hell, you son of a bitch…

Since when did we stop living in reality? I thought movies were supposed to be fun escapes from the everyday hum-drum of our lives. Apparently, they are supposed to be an exact mirror of everything that surrounds us. At least, Manhattan Federal Court is expected to believe that. Last Wednesday, Sherwood 48 Associates filed a lawsuit claiming the Spider-man movie trailer and upcoming movie digitally replaced billboards in the famed Times Square. The billboards in question include one for Samsung (a competitor of Sony, the movie’s distributor) replaced by a Cingular Wireless board and another for NBC replaced by USA Today. The lawsuit alleges the removal of these billboard insults the integrity of the Times Suare business association and devalues the space these advertizers pay millions of dollars each year for. They claim advertisers are expecting their billboards to be seen not only by the millions who visit Times Square each year, but also in all movies, ads, television commercials and programs featuring the square as well. Really? Well, that is a very big claim for an owner to make considering he can’t control every tourist, amatuer filmmaker, and motion picture studio that films or photographs Times Square thousands of times each day.

If we were talking Dateline NBC altering the images, maybe I’d see there point, but this is Spider-man! We’re in the neighborhood of make-believe here folks. Let me clue you in, Spider-man does NOT exist, neither does the Green Goblin. Newsflash-this just in-Peter Parker and Mary Jane are not real high school students! I understand Times Square is an historical setting, but it is a fictionalized time and course of events. The only objection they have is about money; it has nothing to do with integrity or the moral question of whether it is right to replace the billboards, it’s pure greed. I’ll grant you, Sony isn’t looking to make their rivals any money, but they shouldn’t have to. They have a right to place whatever product or advertisement they want in their movie. Pepsi can’t sue if people drink Coke in a movie. Cities can’t sue when you film there and fictionalize the name of the town or the places in it, so why should a billboard owner get away with it?

Their attorney, Anthony Costantini, claims it is inappropriate for Sony to change the names on the billboards and the suit is seeking damages for any profits made by the companies whose billboards appear in the movie, but are not actually on Times Square. Exactly how do they plan on measuring that? Personally, I wouldn’t have even noticed the billboards if not for this lawsuit. Sony will likely settle this lawsuit out of court to avoid bad press and to keep the movie opening on schedule, but they shouldn’t have to. It is a sad world we live in where greed and capitalism rule and we can’t even escape it for two hours at the movies. Go see Spider-man and don’t think twice about these greedy assholes, but next time you need a stereo remember this moment and choose Sony, and next time you buy a paper, make it a USA Today. Revenge is sweeter when you beat them at their own game!

I don’t know about you, but I believe we all have a right to responsibly carry a weapon, and for that matter a concealed weapon. Not because we plan on shooting each other, but because it is one of our fundamental rights as Americans. I, for one, do not want to live in a world where everyone walks around with their guns where I can see them. I don’t want to be reminded of it everytime I’m at the mall, on a train or walking down the street. I prefer guns kept safely in a holster, secured in a purse, tucked away in a glove compartment, or locked in a gun case. Of course, I am not naive enough to believe this is always the case, but I don’t think it is reason enough to eliminate concealed weapons for private citizens.

However, I do believe in waiting periods and background checks. I also wouldn’t be opposed to mandatory firing range practice and gun safety courses in order to get your conceal weapons license. You could treat it like a driver’s license. It could be renewable every 4 years, require a test to get (both written and practical) and have a photo, so there is no question who is authorized to carry it. Of course, this won’t solve our gun problem on the streets, but hopefully, it will help honest gun owners be more responsible and still allow for concealed weapons. Of course, gun owners have powerful lobbyists, so this legislation would probably never pass, but it is the only way to truly comprimise. I won’t give up my right to carry a weapon (concealed or not), yet I am sickened by individuals who leave their guns unattended, allow children access to their guns, or don’t know how to properly use and care for their weapons. This is where the system has failed us. It is not the gun we can’t see that can hurt us, it is the way in which we allow guns to be sold. Until we finally decide to face this problem head on and more responsibly sell guns and issue licenses, we will continue to be plagued by improper gun use and no anti-concealed weapon law will ever change that.