Sanford's Follies

Governor Mark Sanford of my home state of South Carolina flew to Argentina for a week for an international booty call with an Argentine journalist. Should he resign? Yes. Should he even be given the option? No.

First, if his family can't trust him, how can we trust him? That's the first problem. Second, he flew, using my tax dollars, to another country for a booty call and did so without telling anybody. No one on his staff knew where he was or what was going on.

If I didn't show up for work for a week, I'd be fired. If I used workplace monies for something, anything, other than workplace spending, I'd be reprimanded and if it was as much money as it would take to fly to Argentina, I'd be fired. We need to stop having different expectations for politicians than the expectations that we in an average job are expected to uphold.

And bravo to wife Jenny for booting Mark to the curb. Enough of this tolerance for cheating political husbands...Bravo, ma'am...

Sensitivity Fail

So reading the newspaper this morning, I didn't see anything really interesting except the very cool horror novella by Koji Suzuki "Drop" printed on toilet paper (I blogged it here), when I came across an article where my local newspaper had a sensitivity failure.

So, as you see, sitting above the headline "Indigent Burials Swell in Bad Economy" it reads "Death and Taxes". This phrase from Benjamin Franklin, "Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes," was a tongue-and-cheek statement...it was a joke.

And my newspaper uses it in association with an article about the poor dying...

Twigi!

Here's the article, if you're interested.

How do you tell somebody, 'You need to feed your children’?"

Ok, look at that title..."How do you tell somebody, 'You need to feed your children’?"

That was not asked by an employee being trained to go into a home suspected of child abuse or mistreatment of a child. It was asked by Reggie Lloyd, director of South Carolina's State Law Enforcement Division. The director of the law enforcement division of an entire state. Let's look at the quote in its entirety...

"We can’t prevent everything. How do you tell somebody, 'You need to feed your children’?"

Aren't there laws about child abuse Mr. State Law Enforcement Director? Isn't starvation a form of abuse, Mr. Law Enforement Director? Are even prisoners of war, terrorists, or mass murderers allowed to be starved? No. No! NO!

So why should some parents be allowed to not feed their children?!

It's disgusting that the Director of Law Enforcement can't tell parents; "You have to feed your children" - almost as disgusting as letting your child starve - because that passivity is allowing parents to decide to not feed their children.

That's twigi!

The story: Four Deaths Bring State Probe

Ingestion of Library Books May Be Harmful

It's the ALA vs. the CPSC as libraries the country over are concerned the new lead limits applied by the Consumer Product Safety Commission will wipe out their children's book sections. According to the new regulations, public, school, academic and museum libraries would be required either to remove all their children’s books or ban all children under 12 from visiting the facilities as of February 10.

Ok, lead poisoning in children is pretty much the cause of ingestion. So, who's letting 12 year olds and younger eat books? Ok, you're right, a toddler might get a hold of a book and chew on it, but are toddlers toddling around libraries without supervision? Are parents leaving childrens' books checked out from the library out where the tots can munch on them?

Like most things where regulations affect childrens' products, it does come down to that supervision compnent, a notion seemingly outdated. Babyproof the rooms, babyproof the baby toys, babyproof the library books so we don't have to actually pay that much attention to the babies.

February 10 was the date the libraries would have to be up to code with their childrens' books, so hopefully the CPSC said, "Yeah, we're not talking about you guys...duh!" But I can't find proof of that, so I'll have to assume it didn't go full out twigi...

That or I missed the book burning...and I feel cheated that no one called me for that. Watching Nazis burn books on old videos would become so much more authentic if I got to see one in person.

http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2009/january2009/wocpsc.cfm

No Take Backs!

Richard Batista, ladies and gentlemen, donated his kidney to his wife. Supposedly she cheated on him. I say supposedly because her lawyer says it's not like Batista says, but they're keeping quiet for now. In his suit for divorce he says he wants his kidney back or $1.5 million.

Now, he's upset because she's not letting him see his 3 children, and I can sympathize, but you take that to the judge and say, "Hey, I demand visitation rights." You don't demand an organ or a large chunk of change.

Here's an article: New York Daily News

See, the key here is what the incident was called...everywhere I look says the same..."donate". He donated the kidney. Let's look at the word "donate."

The #1 definition of "donate" on the Merriam-Webster website is, "to make a gift of ; especially : to contribute to a public or charitable cause." The root of the word goes all the way back to Latin: dare - to give and donum - gift. Even way back in the way back time, it meant a gift...not a loan.

"Here, borrow my kidney." I don't think so.

You can actually watch Batista in this report and see that he is a petulant child in this YouTube video:



That's just twigi!

Check out some personal brushes with litigation twiginess here with links to George Will's take on the subject and a "Weird Al" Yankovic video.

Black Friday

Well, what a wonderful f***ing start to the holiday season. Merry Christmas, everyone.

Here's the story: Black Friday Carnage

Now, let me see if I understand this...Every year, people freak out the day after Thanksgiving and go on a Christmas spending spree. Every year people fight over toys and sale items and Tickle Me F***ing Elmo (you remember that, right?). This year, however, it gets worse. An employee actually gets trampled and killed. Other people injured, including a woman 8 months pregnant (although I have an aside about her twiginess in a minute).

What is WRONG with you people? Is the ability to give someone a TV for $200 less worth it? Are you kidding me?

According to the psychologists in the article, it's fear of not having stuff...stuff...I don't have enough stuff. I don't have as much stuff as the next guy. Which means, and this is what I thought when I heard about the story without all this info, is it's egotism. Rampant, self-involved, self-centered egotism running rampant through our society. Look at what I can buy you. Aren't I so thoughtful and caring?

And while New York is the only place where someone got killed, people were fighting over stuff all over the country. Well, God Bless Us Every One. Over stuff.

I guess Black Friday is the first day of the most hypocritical time of the year...falalala la la la la...

The Twiginess of the Holidays!

On Friday I entered a Rite-Aid. I was searching for this...



My wife is in love with Zachary Quinto, and while she prefers Star Wars, we both are big Star Trek fans. I didn't find the magazine...but I did find Twigitainment Weekly.

Rite-Aid had its Halloween items on sale. 33% off.

Whut?

Let me check the calender...Let's see...Friday was October 17. Halloween is on October 31. 14 days away...Exactly 2 weeks.

Why is Rite-Aid selling its Halloween items with two weeks until the actual holiday? Well, there were Christmas items encroaching on Halloween items. There were boxes of Christmas stuff waiting to be unpacked.

I'm sorry. No.

See, will Christmas items be put o sale and moved off of shelves to make room for New Years hats?

I find the movement of Christmas purchase items earlier and earlier to be grotesque. I love Christmas, don't get me wrong. But if Christmas is about family, and Jesus's birth, and compassion for all man, then why is it necessary to start selling Christmas items 70 days before the holiday? I don't put up Christmas decorations before the day after Thanksgiving. I don't listen to Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving. That's how I grew up. That's tradition. Spending money now on Christmas is not going to make my Christmas better. I'm going to celebrate Halloween. Have a great time. I'm going to then celebrate Thanksgiving. I'll enjoy it. Then I will look to Christmas.

Halloween is the second most successfully marketed holiday. Christmas is #1. If we start letting Christmas blur over both Thanksgiving and Halloween, then we're going to start loosing those holidays and those traditions. Then only the marketers win, because they've turned their largest sales season into two months of sales, and we'll have lost two holidays linked to our cultural heritage.

I'm sorry