Better Than Blog

Clinton, Obama, and Eminem and the Politics of Success

2008-04-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

So the race for the ‘08 continues on to May, with the possibility of even reaching into June. While this isn’t much of a surprise to anyone, it continues to captivate the news cycles of the 24 hour networks and most local news.

It is democracy in action, showing the good and the bad of politics. There is plenty of good things coming out of this long primary season, there are more people than ever before showing up to vote and getting involved in the process, and its likely for the first time in years every single state will likely get a say in who the democratic candidate it. (Even Guam-ish voters actually count this year, their primary is on May 3, with four super important delegates at state.)

But its also showing the ugly side of politics. In the six weeks between the last primary and the Pennsylvania one, things became rather nasty, in this morning’s New York Times, the paper that pledged its support behind Clinton attacks her latest ad, which includes an image of Osama bin Laden. "Mrs. Clinton became the first Democratic candidate to wave the bloody shirt of 9/11," they write, adding that it is a tactic that is "torn right from Karl Rove’s playbook."

This follows the notorious and much parodied “Three a.m.” ad, and the rehashing of Pastor Jeremiah Wright’s anti-American sermons.
The paper goes on to spread the blame over to Barack Obama; saying "He is increasingly rising to Mrs. Clinton’s bait, undercutting his own claims that he is offering a higher more inclusive form of politics."

So is this the end of the Democratic Party? Will they simply tear themselves apart from within, and as Stephen Colbert calls it the coming democalypse?
However I think all this nastiness can only help the eventual candidate. You want to know why?

“8 Mile."

Yes that’s right 8 Mile the crappy Eminem movie. (Stay with me on this I know where I am going, I promise).

If you have or haven’t seen the film – its about an aspiring rap star played by Marshall Bruce Mathers III – who raps his was to success sort of. The final showdown is with the reigning underground rapper in a free styling competition.

Get ready and provide your own beat – this is what Eminem’s character Rabbit raps. (According to IMDB I don’t know it by heart I swear.)

“This man ain't no mother-f**in' MC / I know everything he's got to say against me / I am white, I am a f*ing bum / I do live in a trailer with my mom / My boy future is an Uncle Tom / I do got a dumb friend named Cheddar Bob / Who shoots himself in the leg with his own gun / I did get jumped by all six of you chumps / And Wink did f my girl / I'm still standing here screaming "F* the Free World."

So what does this profanity ridden rap have to do with Democratic politics?
It’s simple.

Clinton and Obama are using all they have on one another. Where Rev. Wright’s sermons could have ruined Obama at the polls in November, they are already out, apologized for – and by Election Day – will most likely be forgotten.

Clinton’s fake sniper fire story –it’s already out.

Obama’s drug use from his books? Done.

Crazy scum bag landlord? Dealt with.

The Return of Monica? Discussed.

So the Democrats just like Eminem are taking all of the bullets out of the Republican’s gun. There won’t be a bone of a skeleton left in the democratic candidate’s closet while John McCain’s closet will be bursting at the seams.

So just like in 8 Mile McCain will be left holding the mic speechless.

Killing The Planet on Earth Day

2008-04-23T06:58:00.000-07:00

So it’s Earth Day, and the Polar Bear is still at risk, the planet is still warming, and developing countries are using more natural resources and polluting more than ever before.

So what is worth celebrating? Capitalism! Mainstreaming and commercializing of the “earth agenda.”

Every company from cars to soda is marketing a organic, energy efficient, low carbon foot print creating, products. It's like Santa in stores at Christmas, Hallmark Cards at Valentines day or Corona beer at Cinco De Mayo.

There are plenty of examples of this run amok; the ethanol disaster comes to mind, where the generally held belief is that it is having a more negative impact on the earth then positive.

Basically it's because Ethanol doesn't burn cleaner than gasoline, and it consumes twenty percent of the entire U.S. corn crop, causing the price of corn and everything from corn starch to corn oil - to double.

Another good example – of the way saving the earth has been commercialized and it comes from something that happened to me on Saturday at Trader Joe’s. I was walking into the store – when I saw a huge honking black SUV drive into the parking lot. A woman on her cell phone got out opened the back of the truck and pulled out a few reusable grocery bags – and went into the store.

The fact that someone could be conscious enough to use the re-usable bags but still drive a huge SUV shows that saving the earth is still just something people do when it is convenient. If gas does go up to five dollars a gallon will this woman – or all SUV owners park their trucks and look for alternatives? Not likely, but even if they do it’s because they can’t afford it, not because they want to help the earth.

When I was in China I saw the effect of the pollution on the Beijing skyline. There was simply a gray brown haze over the city at all times, when it rained the rain pulled dirt out of the air and coated everything in a brown sludge.

It’s a nation in the middle of its industrial revolution, a city growing as fast as it can, much like now dead mill cities here in the states, where factories up and down rivers belched smoke and poured chemicals into the river.

So what can we look as we approach the 40 anniversary of Earth Day in 2010? Simply that things may get so bad, that we can’t afford to ignore the problem, but who knows if we’ll even be able to make a change once we get to that point.

RIP Tower Records

2007-03-25T13:09:00.000-07:00

It has been going on for months, and finally after 46 years in the music industry this past week Tower Record officially disappeared forever. It’s funny because the chain of music stores had such an impact in my growing up, and then the first time I set out on my own, I end up in the city where it was founded, and got to watch as the once mighty music giant shriveled up and died. Now I know many of you don’t even know what Tower Records is, and the rest probably say good riddance it was overpriced, and outdated, a relic in the world of digital downloads, and cheap chains like Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

Now I have two special attachments to Tower Records. Most recently is my move to Sacramento, since Russ Solomon founded the chain right here on Watt Ave. in 1960. There are two tower stores in the city – each with a Tower books and video nearby. So at work we have been watching the story closely especially since Solomon tried to buy back the chain. So the stores death throws have been in the news on a daily basis as the auction went late and as two companies For Your Entertainment music stores and liquidator Great American Group battled for the property. The out come would have been very different if FYE had won, there would be no sell off and the famous store on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard would remain open. That’s not the tune the fat lady sung. In the end Tower Records was worth more in pieces then it was as a while. So in October, with ‘Going Out of Business’ signs going up in all of their stores. For a few months the percentage off dropped as selection thinned out and stores emptied out. People who hadn’t stepped foot in a tower records in years were going back to look for deals, going out of their way to make one last stop to look at the music dinosaur before it went extinct.

The Second reason I am upset and more importantly is that Tower Records played a major role in my childhood. You can laugh all you want. It’s true. I bought my first real CD’s there, The Offspring’s, Smash in and Green Day’s Dookie in the early 90’s. I remember walking up the counter with my neon Velcro wallet and shelling out thirty bucks, a small fortune to my 12-year-old self. I remember walking the aisles and looking through the CD’s, and being in awe of all the music. It was really the only music store on Long Island except for the equally as expensive and now also closed Sam Goody, and The Wiz.

But my fascination with the store didn’t end there. It was the only store on Long Island that stayed open late. In fact the Tower on Sunrise Highway was open till 11:30 during the week though you could usually hang around there till midnight. It was nearby the mall and diner that were our usual haunts. It had a Ticketmaster window where I bought my first concert tickets, there would occasionally be people camped outside waiting for that window to open for the hard to find tickets. It was a world when AOL was just creeping into homes, and the Internet was a mystery, and no body was buying music or concert tickets on there yet.

Me and my friends would walk the aisles look at movies and CD’s and I would usually end up getting candy of some sort, either Nerds Rope or peach Smints which became kind of famous with the girls I was dating at the time.

The 18 and over section as kids held all of the mysteries of sex a teenage boy could want. When I got into Punk and independent labels The only places I could find the CD’s I craved were at tower or the concerts in the East Village and NYC I could rarely attend.

As I got older I would wander around the toy section starting my obsession with urban vinyl, and also got my first Ugly Doll there. Every time I would come home from college I would make at least one stop there, I would take an hour roll down the windows and take a slow drive down Sunrise Highway to Tower , and look for rare stuff I couldn’t find in Syracuse. Right before I left for Sacramento I picked up the imported double disk edition of UNKLE’S Never Never Land, and a Tower Branded Toy.

Tower was a stable of any night out with the guys… if we were bored and it was early we would head to tower and simply loiter around. It was just a place to go for no reason, we had cool friends who worked there heavily tattooed older kids, who would tell us about new music, and the ways of life. In High School they were outcasts; at Tower they were gods.

We would rarely buy anything, and when we did It was usually a gag or a joke. Cheap bizarre Japanese Movies on VHS and DVD with bad dubbing and plots edited to remove continuity and sense.

So as the stores began closing I made a religious trek there almost every week. I wasn’t the only one awed by Tower’s closure. I met people who hadn’t shopped there in years, but who had grown up going there. They couldn’t even say when they stopped going, but they just kind of grew out of it. I met workers who had been at tower their entire lives, people who loved music and loved working at Tower. For them it wasn’t a retail job it was a way of life.

So eventually the stores closed up. The lights were turned off and the stores locked up.

On the Marquee on the flagship Watt store there was Tower’s final goodbye – “Thanks for the Memories,” On the store on Broadway, was a sign that read “Your still the boss – thanks Russ.”

While this was the end for many people my relationship with Tower was not quite over. Months after the store closed, there was word of an auction. So this week, I got to go down to the old Tower offices Warehouse. It was in West Sacramento, and there they were auctioning off everything left over from the once great Tower Empire. They were selling shrink wrapping machines, desks, tables, palates of left over CD’S and one very odd crate of un purchased porno DVD’s. They were selling gold and platinum records awards for sales they helped artists achieve. Going under the hammer were plaques and giveaways items from Tower’s more than two decades of service to the Sacramento Community. (Included was a plaque from News 10 for its role in the coats for kids drive as well.) The warehouse and offices were covered in band stickers and music posters, graffittied, cut and pasted by smart-ass workers over the years. In the art room there were drafting tables and paint used to create the images of the tower campaigns. Anyone even after everything had been boxed up, and shuffled into lots could see it was a very cool place to work.

Right before the auction was set to begin I saw him, Russ Solomon, the man who created the chain that so impacted my life. He was there to watch the last bits of his dream slowly sold off to the highest bidder. I went over shyly and talked to him said hello, and said sorry. That it must have been hard to watch the end, of the end. However I hear he’s not quite done with the music business. While there will never be another Tower Records, with its famous Hollywood Blvd. Store that was the place celebs and rock stars popped in to visit there will be new life. Solomon is working on a new store called Resurrection Records.

So here’s to the future. That from the ashes of Tower Records will birth a Phoenix of Resurrection Records. Here’s to the hope that music stores will once again be a staple of cities nationwide, and that some kids will get the experience of a store dedicated to music, a place where they can one day look through more music then they could ever imagine, actually touching the cases and seeing the covers, finally picking out the perfect record, and getting to take something home, that you love from a store that holds seemingly unending possibilities for musical exploration.

Good Luck Russ – There is one person in Sacramento pulling for you – and can’t wait to walk into your new store.

Race(ism) In America

2007-02-20T13:26:00.000-08:00

Recently the topic of race has been featured prominently in the news. There have been triumphs, and the breaking down of racial barriers, such as Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, and the ground breaking on the national mall of the Martin Luther King Memorial. However these achievements have been overshadowed – as the good news in the world often is - by the hate and intolerance that still lingers below the surface of our society.

In the last few months, I think we can all think of several cases of individual bigotry splashed on front pages and headlines worldwide. The top three that come to me: Mel Gibson, Michael Richards, and most recently Tim Hardaway. In these three you can see that the most historic hate and bias still exists, not only in the places we consider backwards and behind, and but in people Americans consider the upper echelon of society. These are the heroes and the celebrities of our movies, television shows, and sports.

Mel Gibson’s Jew bashing, brings back thoughts of Nazi rhetoric, and propaganda which led a country to believe that the a religion and it’s people could be responsible for all of it’s ills. Him claiming Jews were responsible for all wars, is something anyone could imagine Adolf screeching before lines of goose-stepping storm troopers.

Richards racial tirade against blacks and his the use of the N-word reflect decades of America’s Jim Crow society that existed for years after slavery, in the north and south, that pushed Black families into ghettos and slums, and spurred a white flight from America’s cities into it’s suburbs.

Hardaway’s deep-seated belief that being homosexual is simply wrong, and doesn’t belong in America or the world, seem extreme when broadcast all over the media but the same opinion and attitude is broadcast and accepted in churches and in the family first campaign.

Even here in Sacramento, a community with many different races and cultures, there is hate. These cases don’t make network news, but show that at all levels, there is hate. Since I have been here there have been a number of racial crimes – hate signs, carved into cars, and teens in an upscale Stockton community attacking minority security guards with fire bombs, and slurs.

All of these things show that there is a still deep intolerance that still exists in our country. In Obama’s new book Audacity of Hope he talks at length about race. He citing the divide that still exists, how a black teen on a street late at night could strike fear in a white couple, yet if their son or daughter had a black friend from school, they would have no problem inviting them over for dinner. However the same kid is left wondering why he is more qualified then his black best friend but he gets the scholarship, or the admission letter because of affirmative action.

Even the steps forward seem too be rife with setbacks. Obama’s presidential race will certainly show a spotlight on race, like when Joe Biden’s called him the first black candidate that is “clean” and articulate.” The media pounced on these words, reading into what Biden meant and if he was calling all other blacks dirty, and all candidates before him inarticulate.

I look at the money that will soon be spent on building a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. on the national mall. It will be a great achievement, the first tribute on the mall to a black man. Yet I can’t help but think if that is what he would have wanted. Would he want that money go to programs that help move his dream forward? Ways to eliminate racism and hate that is so clearly still prevalent in our society?

It is being built and will serve as a beacon of hope for racial equality, but it is being built at time where the KKK and neo-nazi parties are seeing their ranks swell, and it is not so far fetched to say that hate seems to be on the rise.

I think of the dream that King had, and if we ever will reach a place where children of all races and creeds will be able to call each other brother. Of course I think of the old joke that says we should just keep screwing each other until there is no Black White Mexican or Asian left just one mixed race…but I guess when we have no outward differences we can still hate one another for who we love, and what we worship.

Bah Humbug

2006-12-03T09:24:00.000-08:00

So it’s Christmas time again. So far I haven’t said anything about the holiday. Not the fact that ads started a week before Thanksgiving, or that it just doesn’t seem like the holidays to me since it is still 60 degrees and sunny here in Sacramento.

Though I would like to make a brief comment on mega store Wal-Mart. Since the chain drastically cut prices on toys and electronics the big box store may actually lose money this holiday season. This year’s loss would follow a gain last holiday season when the chain was actually protested by its decision to abandon “Merry Christmas” in favor of the more neutral “Happy Holidays.”

This year the company re-instituted the “Merry Christmas” message and it really seems to be working out for them.

However there is one thing this holiday season that is so absurd, so insane, it has me frothing at the mouth. So what toy could possible have pissed off me, the child slowly being dragged into the adult world?

Could it be the PlayStation 3 that had people losing their jobs to camp out for days for days in front of stores just to get their hands on one? Or that people were almost killed in trampling incidents when the store did open, and were killed in mugging incidents when the system was stolen? No…this toy is crazier.

Could it be the Nintendo Wii that in less then a week has begun to cripple many in our overweight, un-athletic, and obese, generation of gamers? The Wall Street Journal ran an article over the weekend describing the soreness some have experienced after playing the Wii. The article quotes adults and kids having soreness in their shoulders from using the motion sensitive controllers. One user said he was soaked in sweat and sore following a session of Wii boxing. Nintendo's response is quote: "If people are finding themselves sore, they may need to exercise more."

They also recommended stretching before playing. (Just wait in a year I bet the news will be lauding the Wii for helping our overweight generation lose weight.)

Still there is a more destructive force out there this holiday season.

The answer? Barbie. Yes that 11 1/2 -inch embodiment of every man and woman’s fantasy. But it is not just any Barbie. In fact it’s not a doll at all. It’s the Barbie ATM. That’s right. It’s a talking make believe Automated Teller Machine.

For too long Barbie has been creating unrealistic goals and dreams for our nation’s youth. Men will never find a girl who looks like Barbie, and girls will never grow up to look like her. Without massive and unrealistic surgery they will never match the dolls 39-21-33 measurements. They will most likely never own a dream house, or the hottest clothes that often stuff the diminutive blonde’s tiny closet in girl’s rooms around the world. She will never have the jewelry found on Bling Bling Barbie Styling Head or play on the Yankees, most likely won’t be an astronaut, and she will always have nipples.

Yes Barbie is unrealistic. However here have always been toys that have promoted unattainable fantasies. I know I played with Ninja Turtle X-men, and Spider-man toys my entire life. But no matter how many times I hung out in sewers rolling in medical waste or got bit by spiders I knew I would never become a mutant or a superhero.

On the flip side I doubt any child who play with Mc Donald’s make believe play sets dreams about working in fast food industry, despite that being the goal of the toys. Experts show if kids link flipping imaginary burgers with fun – they will be well groomed to take up the spatula when they are older. You can thank Spongebob Square Pants job at the Krusty Krab for spawning a full generation of imaginary and soon to be real life burger flippers.

However I don’t see what can be accomplished by playing with a make believe ATM. I mean, “Hey kids before you head out to the Barbie Mall don’t forget to get money out of the Barbie ATM buy more Barbie clothes and accessories!” I dread going to the ATM. I wonder will I get the dreaded INSUFFICIENT FUNDS message. All it reminds me of is how little money I have and I can’t see how playing with that could be any fun.

Barbie has always been the apex of materialism in the toy world. For every helicopter G.I. Joe had, Barbie had two cars and a yacht. According to Mattel’s website a Barbie is sold roughly every two seconds. After this Christmas Mattel and Barbie will be grooming a whole new generation of shoppers to take money out of very real ATM’s to go and spend at the very real mall, trying to live out the impossible dream of mimicking the life of their very plastic and fake childhood idol.

The Curious Incident of Walking the Dog in the Day-time.

2006-11-04T07:52:00.000-08:00

So this is an unusual story that happened to me this past week.

I was walking my dog near my apartment, when someone drove by and yelled out FAG! And then drove off.

I had no response. At first I didn’t even think the comment was directed at me. Though I realized I was the only one on the street.

So I was shocked. First because I am not gay, nor do I understand why walking my dog would make me gay.

At the outset this seems like an outright case of unprovoked homophobia.

The incident struck me as so odd I decided to think about it a little more.

First I do live a block away from the Lavender Heights area of Sacramento, which as you may guess from the name is the gay area.

Second I was walking my dog, which isn’t a Great Dane, Pit Bull, Bull dog or Lab. It is a tiny full-grown female two pound Yorkie Terrier.

Third she did have a bandanna, bow in her hair, and her nails were painted since she just came from the groomers.

So with this added information a 20 something man is walking down the street in a gay neighborhood, walking a tiny lap dog with painted nails ribbons and bows at about seven in the morning. So I guess I did look like a stereotypical gay.

So maybe the folks in the pickup thought it was an astute deduction, instead of a random slur.

Just goes to show you looks can be deceiving which is especially true around here on drag nights.

Me and George or Prime Time and the President

2006-10-09T08:36:00.000-07:00

There is a good chance that on Tuesday October second President Bush was watching my Five a.m. newscast. Impossible you say? Why would the leader of the free world be watching something I produced? Logic. Before you scoff, allow me to explain. Most producers of local news in this country (except for maybe Washington) don’t really have an opportunity to produce news that could be seen by the Commander in Chief. The President is either outside the coverage area, (98 percent of markets except Washington and often in the case of Mr. Bush Texas) or outside of the country. So for the second time in the last six years President Bush made a stop in Northern California, which let me step up to the plate to produce a show that could possibly logically be seen by the Leader of the Free World.

On Monday night the President arrived in Stockton California one of the three major areas my television station covers, (Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto). He arrived on Air Force One and rode in his motorcade to a local Radisson hotel, (Yes the President actually stayed at a Radisson Hotel.) There he spent what experts believe was a quiet night before his busy day of Campaigning on Tuesday for two local Republican Congressmen up for re-election in the mid-term elections. So Bush is (presumably) alone in his hotel room. What do any of us do when in a Hotel room the night before a business trip? We watch TV. Which is were most morning show viewers come from. Most people watch the same channel in the morning they were watching the night before. So I looked at the evening line up on the big four and said to myself what is George more inclined to watch before heading to bed?

I first looked at NBC the number one rated news station in our market. They were showing the new show by the West Wing creative team, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Somehow I don’t think that’s the show that Mr. Bush would watch. In fact I think he would hate that show for a few reasons. One it’s basically the West Wing except it takes place in a Hollywood studio instead of the White House. As Stephen Cobert constantly says Hollywood hates America, and our troops. So watching a show about Hollywood types would be un-American, hell it’s practically communist. Second I’m sure Bush just hates creator Allen Sorkin, for the West Wing and all the grief it cause and probably will mentally boycott anything he ever does.

Next I highly doubt he was watching Fox’s new drama Vanished for similar though different reasons. The show involves the disappearance of a Senator’s wife. I have to assume that he has enough politics in his real life, he doesn’t need to watch it when he is trying to unwind.

So maybe he turned to CBS to watch the CSI Miami. I can tell you that Bush may really have wanted to watch this show but I know he wouldn’t. Why I personally know Mr. Bush hates CBS, and that he would never watch anything on the network no matter how attractive or alluring the setting or sexy the plot of a CSI. How do I know he has a deep-seated resentment to the Tiffany network? First He hates Dan Rather, the former face of the Network News, and the fall guy of the Rathergate debacle that questioned our Presidents commitment to our country and its freedom. So the feeling there is a mutual hate. When I worked for CBS Mr. Bush also had passive ways to take his hate out on CBS. He always went on the air with a speech or a special report during the last ten minutes of Survivor, Big Brother, and to a lesser extent the Amazing Race. The special reports would come as the tribe member/house mate/ race team were about to be voted off and there would be a barrage of calls to our station saying who cares about the president – I want to see how they voted on Survivor, (which coincidentally explains why he got re-elected since most people cared more about who got voted off the island than who got voted into the White House.)

So this leaves only one option. The President was watching the two-hour season premier of the Bachelor. Its mindless TV and had beautiful women fighting over a guy in a castle, granted it was taking place outside of America so there is a chance he was watching something else on cable - but I doubt the Stockton Radisson has a huge selection of cable options. So that means when the President went to sleep his TV was still on ABC. When he woke up this morning the leader of the free world did the same thing that most of us do when we get up in a hotel. Blink a few times question where we are, and how we got there, then flip on the TV and go to the bathroom. So when that TV turned on, hopefully somewhere between five and six am there was my newscast – proudly airing before the President.

The Hands That Rock the Keyboard

2006-10-09T08:34:00.000-07:00

I am a famous actor, but you have never seen my face. On any give day you can see my work on a number of television stations, including some that run several times a day.

So who am I? I am the man behind the hands on the keyboard.

I am the hands that are videotaped with fingers clicking away on a keyboard for sexual predator stories. I am the man who provides the shots of the blurry computer with fingers clicking away trying to seduce underage kids into illicit sexual encounters. Anytime a news station does a story about a sexual predator on the computer they call me, and lately I have been getting a lot of work.

First this summer there were a number of under age MySpace stories that required my talents. Adults using the youth social site to meet kids then assault them. Though more of this work involved a mouse and that’s not really my main talent.

Then Dateline decided to continue its “To catch a Predator” series and again my digits were called in to action. It requires a slew of imaginary typing. Pretending to send messages to people and invite them over for sex only to be trapped by a camera crew and waiting police force.

But the real gold mine came last week when every station in the country was calling me to Washington for an emergency shoot to play the hands of disgraced Florida Congressman Foley. The number of times my hands were seen dramatically showing the sending illicit American Online instant messages and e-mails to underage House Pages was almost enough to finally let these hands push away from the keyboard.

But I am not in it for the money. I am in it for the art.

Don’t get me wrong I am not a one trick pony. Unlike most actors I have a range of talents, and over the years played a number of parts. I am best known for the black and white slightly slanted shots that twist around the blurry computer screen in the dark, my fingers seductively stroking the keys trying to lure kids or adults into taking advantage of one another that only scratches the surface of my work.

Recently the rise in computer crime has provided me with a steady stream of work. I have played the hands of a hacker, a diabolical set of hands craftily stealing people’s identities, or duping unsuspecting seniors out of thousands of dollars with phishing scams.

But I have done more than play the criminal, I was also the hands for a recent string of stories about You Tube and blogs, fueled by the film Snakes On a Plane, though I think I made more money then the film did in theaters.

But I digress most people know my ten fingers for their work connected to sexual perversion, and unfortunately sexual assault of often underage kids. So next time there is a movie of the week or a dateline piece on internet predators, think of my hands, and maybe when I am pretending to type dirty messages to 12 year old girls I will really be thinking about sending messages to you.

Tribute to the Simpsons or Worst Blog Ever

2006-09-10T17:38:00.000-07:00

This Sunday September 10^th The Simpsons will start an unprecedented 18^th season.

This means most kids who graduate High School this year – never knew what it was like to have a Sunday night without the show. The show has been through a number of Presidents – including George Bush Senior and Bill Clinton appearing in episodes – and even George and Jeb Bush as cardboard cut outs in “Two bad Neighbors.” It inspired a new age of adult animation – paving the way for South Park, The Family Guy, and most of the shows running on Cartoon Networks Adult Swim.

It was the show that proved animation could be for kids and adults, and could be profitable in prime time. It featured some of the best writers in television and some of the best talent – and guest voices – including (though not at the same time) all of the surviving Beatles, most of the biggest baseball players on the 1990’s, a slew of the most influential comics musicians and actors of the last 20 years and a few politicians. Check out IGN’s list of Top 25 guest appearances and then of course the list of fan favorites they missed for a nice recap)

The show started of course in 1987 – as seven shorts on the Tracy Ullman show – now next year 20 years since we were first introduced to Bart, Marge, Lisa, Maggie and Homer they will be seen on the big screen.

I know it’s not saying much – but I think the show has done more for me socially then I could ever imagine. I think about all of the Monday morning talking about the episode that ran the night before. My friends grew up talking about it before class growing up – and then over e-mail and instant messenger when were split up and in college. During my job interview here in California - my now boss picked up on an obscure Simpson’s reference I used casually to answer a question – a moment that made me somewhat confident I would get the job.

Its funny – how much I remember about the show. How many lines and inside jokes there are – and things that seemed almost throw away in connection to the episode became a part of the lexicon of our language.

Granted a lot of people think the show peaked in the sixth, seventh, and eighth seasons. But even now as I watch on Sunday nights as religiously as going to church – there are moments smart, sarcastic, satirical lines that make me at worst smile and at best outright role on the floor in laughter. It’s also great to go back and watch old episodes again thanks to the technology of DVD. David O. Selznick was the man who produced "Gone with the Wind" and "Rebecca" and several other award winning pictures .He was impossible to work with , Directors often walked off the set and actors and actresses had some sort of break down. Comparing him to the dog was funny - then showing he could be tamed with a sort of Vulcan death grip was hilarious at least to me. It was a refernce only a few probably got - and was even funnier since I had just learned about it.
It was a moment that showed me as smart as I was the show was still smarter, and could still teach me a few things about culture. It's the same reason I love going back and watching old episodes, since jokes I didn't get at 15 I do get now that I am 24.

It’s easy to have a favorite moment that is out and out funny – Bart and Homer chasing down a run away pig in Lisa the Vegetarian. Homer doing his best Fred Flintstone impression sliding down the side of the plant flying through the window of his car and starting to sing – to the prior animated shows theme song - “Simpson, Homer Simpson, he’s the greatest guy in history…Simpson Homer Simpson he’s about to hit a chestnut tree.” Or Ralph saying “Me fail English? That’s unpossible,” or “I bent my Wookie.” But there is a moment I think for all Simpson’s fans that they think is just for them. A joke that is just for them that no one in the room laughs at – or no one else remembers on Monday. It’s these moments and a wealth of these moments throughout 18 seasons – that make the show a classic while its still on the air. So I end this with a Thank you to Matt Groening and the entire team of producers and writers – far to many to name or list here – for 17 great seasons – and hopefully two or three years more – enough to beat Gunsmoke as the longest running American sitcom ever.

Race and Reality

2006-08-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

Race in reality television is nothing new. In fact reality television did wonders for integrating people on television since it was almost color-blind. Almost every reality television show had a minority on it. Many reality TV shows actually had a nice cross section of people you actually find in reality. In fact a study from University of Texas says reality shows contained more characters of color than any other genre of primetime programming. Adding it’s the only place in primetime where you can regularly watch an integrated “cast.” Not only has reality television featured a racial cast minorities often win the reality show competition. Vecepia Towery on Survivor: Marquesas, Jun Song on Big Brother 4, Ruben Studdard onAmerican Idol, Harlemm Lee on Fame, and Dat Phan on Last Comic Standing are some recent examples. So with all the good reality TV has done to integrate the races leave it to the Tiffany Network to segregate them again.

CBS announced this week for the 13^th edition of the hit reality TV show Survivor: Cook Islands contestants will be grouped by race, with the 20 competitors divided into four tribes consisting of whites, blacks and Hispanics. Critics are already saying its just a gimmick to exploit racial tensions – but CBS execs say no… that it is just good television. The shows long time host Jeff Probst, is praising the decision. Calling the exercise in segregation a “valuable social experiment,” rather than a stunt to dig up some controversy--and raise ratings. Probst went on to say that this is the most diverse cast on survivor. Saying previous seasons the Survivor contestants have generally skewed white.

So CBS puts together the most diverse set of contestants ever only to split them up by race. "It's not just 18 white people," Probst said. "Suddenly you have new slang, new rituals--people doing things like making fire in ways that haven't been done on Survivor. I think we have a season where people will say you can never go back to what you were before." He added that similar to all of the previous Survivors the tribes would eventually become united.

Syracuse’s own Bob Thompson, pop culture Dali Lama is less then enthused when he was asked about the new spin on the reality TV show. "If I had been a producer of this show, it is not an idea I would have come up with or given approval to," Thompson, told E! Online. "It's like a return back to segregated leagues in sports. The unseemly interest this will invite certainly is not worth the dramatic elements it's going to bring."

However this isn’t really the first time a reality TV show has split things up – though it is the most controversial. It may be less offensive than race but reality show have divided up contestants by gender (Survivor and The Apprentice) and also education i.e. class (High School vs., College on The Apprentice). I am just afraid this could be a slippery slope. What’s next? The Donald splitting up the next seasons contestants by religion? Are the greedy Jews really more business savvy than the other faiths? Or by stereotype? Can the Irish out drink other races? Mexicans out mow during a landscaping competition, Arab leave the opposition in the sand in camel races, or blacks out sell during a street pharmacy event.

I guess it’s not the first time race has been used for ratings. Minorities have also found themselves at the butt of many jokes. Two of the biggest and most glaring examples include William Hung the ‘Asian geek' whose singing and dance moves were exactly what we would expect them to be, or the derogatory character type of ‘the black bitch' embodied and edited to be presented so well in The Apprentice’s Omarosa.

Despite all of the networks protests I can’t help thinking this is a gimmick. The shows new plot was on all of the morning shows on this week often bereft with criticism. However the old Hollywood adage is that any publicity is good publicity. This controversial twist could just be the thing the lagging series needs. Season 12 of Survivor was the lowest rated season ever.

So to Survive Survivor is pushing the envelope of race. Will there social experiment be a display of racism teams resorting to racial epithets to make the show edgy. I guess only time will tell, and if the shows go down in flames then maybe Survivor won’t be able to survive its own experiment.

Interesting Phone Calls –or – Expensive Drugs, and Scaring Children

2006-08-23T08:56:00.000-07:00

This is an old post that never made it on-line but funny as hell from my days at Channel Five.

Earlier this week different member of the Central New York law enforcement worked together to pull off one of the biggest drug busts in the history of the area.

State troopers, local police officers, and members of a crack drug enforcement team were able to arrest 13 people breaking up what they were calling one of the biggest drug rings in Onondaga County, essentially crippling the local drug trade.

Lofty claims- but they did recover a few million dollars, several guns and over a 100 pounds of good old Mary Jane.

So the district attorney holds a major press conference and values the recovered weed to have a street value of 13.5 million dollars.

Hell I can’t imagine a 100 pounds of marijuana let alone how much it could cost, but apparently someone could.

The day after we run the story we get a phone call, from someone who will remain unnamed we can call “Smokey Mc Pot”– who is checked into an unnamed rehab clinic.

Smokey calls up irate, saying that the estimated price we are reporting is way to high, and that you could never get 13 and a half million for a 100 pounds of wacky tobacco.

I’m not sure how many phone calls you can make while in rehab – but let me tell you I’m glad that at least one of Smokey’s calls was to us – to let us know the D.A. is over charging for his stash.

Also this week there was a report on how terrorist may target the milk supply since it is relatively unguarded and an easy target.

This is also around the same time when the second case of mad cow disease was discovered in Texas, so basically cows and everything coming from them is dangerous.

So we get a call from a mother saying her son won’t drink his milk or eat his cheeseburger because he is scared of a terrorist attack and mad cow.

Her son is eight, which is a little young to have the weight of the world on his shoulders.

So this major mom goes into a tirade about how we as the media should have more responsibility to its viewers not to make them scared to go out and live.

So I tried to explain to her that fear is natural and that we can’t let it stand in our way of living a normal life, because that would mean the terrorist would win.

I continued that the two cases of mad cow were detected early in cows called “downers” which means they were detected before slaughter and never made it into the food chain – which thankfully means I can still go out and get a steak today.

So I figured I explained everything pretty well and was giving this woman more then enough of my valuable time trying to placate her sons fears.

Then she asks me one more question: “can you tell him for me?”

I responded with a wee bit of surprise. She goes on to say that he wouldn’t believe her since he think she is just trying to get him to eat his food and stop complaining.

But if I did it since I was “The News” he would believe me.

Which is funny since I think less people trust the news – but since he was eight maybe he isn’t as jaded as the rest of the world.

So I tell the mother I will call her son back and tell her just what I told her she says thanks and then hangs up – and never gives me her number and never calls back.

I guess now she trusts the media a little less.

Seaford, Syracuse, Sacramento or Hello from the City of Trees

2006-08-23T08:51:00.000-07:00

So for the third time in my life I have said good-bye to everything I know packed up my car and hit the road. This time I wasn’t heading north to Syracuse or overseas to London. This time I headed West – following the setting sun to the Pacific Ocean.

With 1500 dollars in moving expenses my brother and me worked out way cross-country driving a few thousand miles each day. We stopped outside Great Bend Indiana, Excelsior Springs Missouri, Colorado, Las Vegas and Los Angeles and San Francisco before finally finishing up in California’s Capital.

So I finally have settled into my new apartment with my girl – and am slowly furnishing it and making the place into my new home. It’s a brand new building and was only finished a few months ago. Its great since no one ever lived here before us – but it also means that we get all of the bugs, acting up washer and dryer, ceiling fan, and lights. There is also all solid steel appliances, granite counter tops and title (not linoleum) in the kitchen and bathroom. Along with a great building we live in a great neighbor hood, it is right in midtown Sacramento – stumbling distance from most of the local bars, and clubs. A bunch of good restaurants in the neighboring blocks too.

The biggest difference between Sacramento and Syracuse is the weather. It’s always hot and sunny here so far, which has been mixed. While its nice to see the sun every day of the summer, the heat is almost unbearable. I did live through the worst heat wave in Sacramento history. 17 plus days of 100-degree heat. The worst part was that it didn’t cool off at night; often it was still 90 plus overnight. It was deadly too 151 people died in the heat wave. It was kind of like a reverse Syracuse, since all winter in Central New York we reported on the cold weather and people dying form the cold, here in Sacramento we reported on the heat and people dying because of the heat. It was the same story except they were cooling centers instead of heating centers.

So why did I give up the state I have lived in all my life, the city I have lived in the last six years? Two reasons the Girl was out here, and also my new job. My new job is a lot like my old job sort of. I am working for News 10 the ABC affiliate out here in Sacramento. I produce the first hour of a two-hour morning show Good Morning Sacramento. That means I work overnights, going in around 10:30 at night and finishing up around 7:30 in the morning. The principal anchors on the shows team has been together for years and has a huge fan following. Its crazy people call and e-mail about everything, clothes they wear comments made on air, everything really seems to matter to the viewing public. It’s a larger staff, and my show goes to a lot more people. We cover most of northern California from just outside the bay area to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. North and South our viewing area is bounded by three huge counties: Sacramento Stockton and Modesto. It’s the 19^th largest market in the country to compare Syracuse was 73.

So that’s a quick up date on where I am right now. I just got Internet back so expect more posts more often.

The Naked Man – or - One Hell of a Last Day

2006-06-15T19:16:00.000-07:00

In my two years working at the news desk at WTVH in Syracuse I have seen a slew of tragic, inspirational and just plain stupid stories. So on my last day at work why should it be any different?

It was just before six o’clock on Sunday – when the scanners crackled to life with a 911 call about a man running naked around the University Area. That may not even be the most interesting part.

The whole case started around 2:30 Saturday morning. Rashon Delee decided to break into his ex-girlfriends house. She has an order of protection against him, so you can imagine it was not a friendly visit. According to Police DeLee climbed through the window and attacked his ex. She had armed her self with a kitchen knife when he came in. As he started choking her she stabbed him with the knife in self defense. He takes that as his cue to leave and takes off. She calls police who can’t find him though he is bleeding pretty badly. Five hours later Delee shows up at a local hospital looking for help. He gets admitted and arrested and arraigned in hospital. It looks like case closed.

Till about ten hours later.

Just before six Delee rips out an intravenous drip, monitors and a chest tube throws his hospital gown in a deputy’s face and bolted from a hospital bathroom into the street. Running through the hospital with a collapsed lung naked and handcuffed he manages to make it out of the hospital. Delee’s father, and the deputy who had been guarding him, slipped on the blood he left behind.

Then Delee naked and bleeding manages to avoid authorities for three hours. Police say he spent two hours of that naked in a trash bin behind a local restaurant.

He was eventually arrested at a relatives house wearing clothes. Not to bad for a last day.

Censorship Through Inclusion – Or – TOO MUCH

2006-05-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

“There is too much going on to know what’s important too many viewpoint to know who’s right to much going wrong to fix any one thing. There are too many people voting. No single vote matters. Too much awareness of one’s own mortality to get out of bed in the morning. Too much quality entertainment to feel that as an individual you will be able to create anything of importance. Too much crappy entertainment to do anything but waste one’s life filtering out the irrelevant too much complaining about the people complaining too many channels on the TV. Too many ingredients to know what’s really in something. Too much corruption, deception, disease, death and other stuff.” – Shannon Wheeler

How much is too much – Shannon Wheeler the creator of ‘Too Much Coffee Man’ the worlds first superhero who gets his powers from caffeine and cigarette abuse. Often satirizes how much is too much, even the name of the strip has the moral if your going overboard you might as well go to excess. He makes a very sharp and paranoid point at the state of media today.

“I feel overwhelmed and powerless”

“Our government wants you to feel overwhelmed and powerless. That’s why there is so much information on everything. Back in the day, it was hard to find stuff out. They tried to keep secrets. So when something was found out everyone would get upset. They’ve learned that if they release an excess of information to include everything, the truth and the lies, the right and wrong people will overload they’ll give up trying to understand any of it. It’s censorship through inclusion! And it makes me sad.” (Too Much Coffee Man’s Amusing Musings pg.12-13)

It’s supposed to be funny, and it is, but even funnier and sadder because it is true. You have more information available now than ever before. There’s your local news, and 24-hour news channels, and some markets even have 24 hour local news, like Central New York’s own News 10 Now. There are news websites, and news pages on search engines like Google and Yahoo. Then there are blogs, millions of blogs like mine telling people insignificant personal news of people and places around the globe. Sometimes the news channels even highlight blogs giving them even more news credibility. I love that any hack with a computer and half a brain can type up his opinion and get it on network news, but should every one with a voice really be heard? If everyone is shouting out his or her opinion is anyone listing?

I’ve written about my love/hate relationship with 24 hour news channels before. If you actually watch all 24 hours of news how can you know what is really important. You get on average you get about 40 stories an hour. Is the story that comes first most important? The story that has the coolest looking graphics? Or the hottest reporter? If you take a story live for five minutes does that make it the most important? If you go live to the scene with team coverage, and exclusive material does that make it important? There is no way to tell. Because when it comes down too it, I think of something my old news director said. “If you wanted to lead your show with the story that is most important to people every day, you would lead with weather every single time,” (thanks Lou).

So how much is too much? Because even the weather channel is 24 hours.

To check out more Too Much Coffee Man http://www.tmcm.com (Shannon I am a huge fan please don’t sue.)

A Passover Story

2006-04-23T22:44:00.000-07:00

I don’t know what happens to us after we die. There are a lot of theories and belief, most of which I only believe in when it suits me. I am also very lucky to have lived most of my life without losing anyone I was close too. Two years ago I lost my grandfather, a man who taught me how to play chess and also taught me lots about life, history, art, and the world. I feel its cliché or a lie when people say they can feel their loved ones watching over them, after they pass. But sometimes I can feel him with me. It may sound cheesy but last week I had one of those moments.

It was Wednesday night the first night of Passover. Despite a week of traveling I decided to drive down to Long Island for the Seder. I had been back and forth to Canada days before and Cornell only the night before. I logged close to a thousand miles in four days. I wasn’t going to go but decided I should, because my grandmother asked.

I remember my grandfather leading Seders, growing up. It was the best and the worst of two worlds. He was an amazing speaker and could draw all of the attention in the room to him. He would lead us in prayers; and go through the different stories of Exodus. Telling us about Moses Pharaoh the plagues, and the story of the three sons. Every year he would be something new to add, adding something he read or heard or learned to make the Seder more relevant, more powerful and remind us, that if had not been for Moses we would still be slaves in Egypt.

The downside was his Seders were long, and we were all usually hungry since we couldn’t eat until the service was over. We would savor the breaking of the matzo and the prayer over the unleavened bread it because it was the only food that we would get for the seder, though we did get to drink several glasses of wine.

So since my grandfather passed, my uncle has been leading the service. We hit all of the major points of the holiday but buzz through the service in about a half hour. The service has less gravity but it’s quicker to the grub.

So this year of the four grandchildren there are only two of us, me and my cousin Jeffery. Before the meal my grandmother randomly put out the Passover prayer books. My uncle gets ready to start the Seder when he sees in the margin, notes left by my grandfather. In his handwriting were names next to parts of the prayer noting who should be called on read what. However there were only two notes, two people chosen to read, Jeffery and myself.

Sure you can say it’s coincidence, but I didn’t plan on driving home, and I shouldn’t have been there.

To see that note, and the way it worked out makes me think he’s still with us, still there leading us, a hand from the great beyond point the way - just like the hand of God led Moses and the Israelites through the desert during the Exodus.

Rushing Home – Or You Would Have Done The Same

2006-03-20T22:20:00.000-08:00

When it comes to the news there are several types of stories. There depressing stories, feature stories, uplifting stories, and every once in a while a generally funny story.

This is a rare funny story that sounds more important than it really is. We get a press release from the local Sheriff’s department about a “Vehicle and Traffic Arrest for Unauthorized Use of Emergency Equipment.” So we think someone stole a fire truck, or ambulance, or event better a cop car. Not the case. Here’s what happened. Sheriff Rob Outhouse reports that at 5:30 PM Wednesday one of his Detectives while en-route home from his daily shift observed an Ambulance with lights and sirens speeding down Route 31. The ambulance was passing vehicles appropriately yielding to the emergency lights and sirens. The Detective wasn’t aware of any Ambulance calls in that area and continued to pursue the Ambulance to help with the emergency situation. The Ambulance made it to a residence at 2719 Bell Street in the Village of Weedsport. There he talked to 20 year old driver. He found out there was no emergency the driver was just trying to get home quicker. He was arrested and charged for the following Vehicle and traffic infractions: Unauthorized Siren, Unauthorized Red Lights, Unsafe Passing, and Reckless Driving. The kid worked for the “TRAC team” which is a voulenteer ambulance service. The vehicle is normally used to transport persons in need and to pick up charitable donations. He was operating the vehicle with permission of his employer. Sheriff Outhouse says “Untrained persons operating emergency equipment in this manner is certainly a safety risk. We are requesting that anyone with similar sightings contact the Sheriff’s Office.”

But lets be honest after a long day when you really just want to get home, wouldn’t you use your sirens on your car to get home a little quicker? Let me know. I know I would.

Breakfast Philosophy or Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk

2006-03-19T20:15:00.000-08:00

After two days of back to back 14 hour days - I start feeling a little metaphysical. So my brain while pawing through news of the day and the normal weekend drudgery came onto the question. What is worse: Pouring a bowl of cereal and opening the fridge to find there isn't any milk left, or pouring a bowl of cereal and then pouring a plop of chunky spoiled milk on top? I will entertain all interesting thoughts on the subject.
In both cases you have equal anticipation. Your hungry its early and a bowl full of sugared cereal would hit the spot. However the level of disappointment and blame is where the two scenarios differ.

In the first case of their being no milk, its immediate disappointment, since there is no milk your breakfast plans are ruined and you will most likely have to go to work or class hungry. However you have no one to blame but yourself, since you probably finished the milk and knew to buy more but just forgot, or didn't feel like running to the store, so you have no one to blame but yourself. However on the plus side you still have dry cereal you can eat, your meal isn't ruined, its just half assed.

In the second case the disappointment is greater because it is delayed. You have all the tools to create the meal, but one of them is tainted. The shock and dismay when that first clump of milk comes falling out is far greater then finding no milk at all. Also add in the stink of spoiled milk, and the situation is far worse. However you can place blame on others. You can blame yourself for letting the milk go bad, but you can also just as easily blame the cow, blame the dairy, and blame the supermarket that sold you the milk. If is not past its expiration date you may even be able to get a refund from the store. It's not your fault the milk is bad - so you can toss the meal knowing your free from any part of its failure.

So what is worse? Less disappointment and discomfort but all of the blame, or more disappointment and discomfort and none or some of the blame?

Happy Anniversary and Many More or Stupid War

2006-03-18T22:21:00.000-08:00

So it has been three years since American troop returned to Iraq. Much has changed, Saddam is on trial, there were two sets of votes, and a new inclusive government is getting ready to select leaders of the country. Yet American troops continue to return in flag draped coffins, car bombs and motor attacks still rip through Iraqi communities, and peace still seems almost impossible. On Saturday the President said there would be more bloodshed before the war in Iraq comes to an end. In his weekly radio address, President Bush defended the administration's record in Iraq, saying that the country's decision to depose the regime of Saddam Hussein was "a difficult decision—and it was the right decision." He pledged to "finish the mission" despite calls for withdrawal. Is life better for the Iraqi people? They no longer have a corrupt leader who would kill the people who oppose him. Yet they live in fear – a world where the simplest daily activities have become a life or death situation. A car idling in a market is it packed with explosives or deliveries to be made through the market? The President cites high voter turnouts, as proof democracy is something people want. However to look at the new Hamas controlled Palestinian legislature Democracy doesn’t always mean freedom. But despite being full of Israel hating terrorists the Hamas government is taking shape rather quickly. Democracy on the march, like it or not.

Meanwhile across the globe people of all races and creeds rallied against the United States. Protesters in London chanted, “U.S. go home,” as they marched. Yet only a thousand people showed up in New York’s Times Square to protest. It was a much smaller protest than the large-scale marches that preceded the war three years ago. So smaller protests despite lower public support for the war and way lower approval ratings for the President. The marches today were also not dominated by the war. Most protesters targeted Mr. Bush, his response to Katrina, jobs, welfare and big business. The protest wasn’t even the central message though it was the inspiration. A thousand voices each with a different message - and yet nothing is getting done. The protests haven’t brought home a single troop, or changed a public policy, or even stopped the possibility that America will invade Iran to stop them from gaining nuclear weapons. Here is what I know – a generation is growing up with war in front of them again. I have friends who graduated High School and went overseas to serve. We talk to the families and friends about 20 year olds who will never get to drink a beer legally in America. After Afghanistan, Iraq and eventually Iran there will be few countries in the Middle East we haven’t invaded in the last decade. Almost all of the countries that we haven’t invaded are considered allies and still have some level of American Troops. Three Years of war costing us thousands of American lives, billions of American dollars, and split this country. Despite his leadership role during 9-11 Bush will be remembered as a war time president, one who put this country hundreds of billions in the red, and left citizens to after Katrina. No matter what happens the situation in Iraq won’t be solved before he leaves office. There will still be violence, still be bloodshed. Even if American troops leave the country – streets will still be stained by blood of citizens. There should be no ‘cut and run’ but there should be a solution. Something I don’t see coming anytime soon and something I don’t think either political party has. Just like a birthday this anniversary seems to have the under lying message – one more year.

Sky Sharks - 0r – Follow Me Down the Food Chain

2006-03-14T17:23:00.000-08:00

So life sucks. Work sucks, stress sucks, love sucks, or your lover doesn’t suck enough, but you know how it is. Everyday it’s the same thing, get up shower go to work go home, sleep, get up repeat. Now imagine if there was another animal up the food chain. A Sky Shark five thousand pounds 12 feet long and three thousand razor sharp teeth, and wings. They move gracefully through the skies and swoop down snatching unsuspecting people off the street like a fat man going down on a buffet. It turns a boring commute into a daily dose of cheating death.
You would come running into work sweat running down your face panting and your boss would say: “Well Bob I see you made it to work today – guess there is a hungry sky shark out there this morning. Hope he didn’t get his teeth on those TPS reports! Ha!” Then he’d eaten by a flying crocodile, because that’s the way my world would work.
Just imagine if there were giant squid in the sewers. Your just walking down the street thinking about how much your home life sucks and a huge tentacle come out a storm drain and drags you to your death. It would sure as hell make you appreciate making it home – who cares if your dinner’s as cold as your wife, or the house is a mess or there’s a sink full of dirty dishes you made it home safely without getting attacked by a giant squid.

Get fired? – Still not lunchmeat for a pack of wild baboons.

Got Dumped? – Good chance your significant other could become an appetizer for a grizzly while trying to drag all of their stuff out of your apartment.

Gas Three dollars a gallon? – well it beats walking where you could be a target for blood thirsty street eels.

Life would be sweet if every day you really put things in perspective. Even though there isn’t a blood thirsty Sky Shark looking to snack on you doesn’t mean you can’t live that way.

MySpace is the Devil or It’s Full of Sexual Pray Too

2006-03-13T22:21:00.000-08:00

So by the time you read this half of the country will be on MySpace. MySpace, a division of NewsCorp., offers a free way for users to meet any of more than 60 million members. Searching by hometown, alma mater or interest, old friends can reconnect, musicians and filmmakers can find audiences and donors can find causes. Its also giving the perverts of the world a place to hunt down innocent girls, and bullies of the School yard a new place to terrorize people. There have been (to date) three major MySpace crimes (that we know of).

Most recently March 12^th Police in East Hampton Connecticut arrested a teen for threatening fellow classmates on the website. The 18 year old is charged with second-degree harassment and second-degree breach of peace.

While not releasing the full content of the threat – Authorities did say the threat included the phrase "Start saying goodbye to family and friends".

The student has no history of violence or behavioral problems. His father tried to defend him saying "It was a dumb, stupid move on his son's part and maybe a cry for attention" WTNH.com. Police didn’t find any weapons either but this isn’t the first time Connecticut and MySpace made headlines, the Middletown police – that’s one town with a population of only 43,000 is already investigating seven cases of underage girls assaulted by someone they met on MySpace.

This threat was the most recent and probably the tamest of the major incidents.

A week earlier in the same state a 21-year-old man was arrested after trying to rob a 19 year old he set up a date with over MySpace. The two met on a Friday night set up plans to meet the next day and when the woman picked him up – he became enraged when she took a call from another man. He then threatened her stole her cell phone and trashed her car.

At least both people were of age- but it’s not always the case. Lets move out west were earlier this month a 26 year old man was charged with allegedly making a date with a 12 year old he met over MySpace. Detectives say he carried on a sexually explicit cyber conversation with a 12-year-old on the popular Web site MySpace and tried to meet with her. He faces charges of attempted kidnapping and attempted rape of a minor. The 12 year old was smart – as soon as the situation escalated she told her parents and when the suspect arrived for the meeting police were waiting. That’s one smart 12 year old. But she’s lucky. There are two little girls who weren’t.

In the most high profile assault cases two men set up sexual encounters with underage Connecticut girls over MySpace. I have the details but ill keep them brief. In one case a 39-year-old man, molested a 14-year-old girl in his car while visiting from Elrama, Pa., in October, according to a FBI report. The report also says the man made several visits to see the girl between the summer months and January when he was caught.

In what is to me the most disturbing case a 22 year old traveled from Jersey City N.J. to Connecticut and molested an 11 year old girl in her playroom while her parents slept upstairs according to an FBI affidavit.

What would we do without technology? How would our sexual predators get access to our sons and daughters? No more driving around school yards around recess. The internet and MySpace has single handedly delivered our children into the hands of pedophiles and rapists. Many point fingers at the website – which holds its defense that it doesn’t allow children to register. But Kids lie, they lie pretend to be older same as these monsters lie to pretend to be older.

In a recent interview, MySpace Chief Executive Officer Chris DeWolfe said the Web site remains safe and encouraged parents to teach children the same commonsense rules on the Internet that they follow in the real world.

So it goes back to something I learned from a Bearenstien Bears book when I was a kid: never talk to strangers. It was something my parents taught me – and I managed to make it through puberty without being kidnapped. But all strangers could offer me was candy to try to get me into their car. Now kids have to deal with people pretending to be something their not. How paranoid do we make our kids? When your online in a seemingly safe environment talking to your friends how are you supposed to know who’s good and who’s bad? Is your new top ten friend really a criminal or just a friend you haven’t met?

…And Depression Sets In.

2006-02-20T23:02:00.000-08:00

Lately – I’ve been in a funk. It seems like nothing I do can shake off the chains that are holding my spirit down. The things that usually make me feel better aren’t, and I think I am too old to find new things to do.

A large part of my job is listening to the police scanners for news, keeping an ear out for fires, robberies, and serious auto accidents. It’s a chorus of tragedy that plays out every day, producing a similar tune in a different key. Often I catalogue the funny stories here – the ones that seem so unlikely and so unusual that they can be spun in a light hearted way. When you deal with misery every day you need to laugh or the weight of it will bury you. Lately I feel like I am getting buried. This is a heart-breaking story, so if you don’t feel like being depressed stop reading now. There’s no punch line, no witty wrap up, nothing at the end of this story but sadness.

It was a Saturday night a few weeks ago. The scanners were quiet except for a few criminal mischief complaints, the occasional domestic violence call, and one or two drug deals. I am the only one at work and settling in to the quiet of the night when it happens. A call cuts through the silence of the newsroom like a knife –a seven year old in full cardiac arrest. I pause and listen again – I think to myself that I could have heard the call wrong. Maybe the scanner crackle changed the age they meant seventy not seven, but then call goes out again. “Seven year old full arrest priority one.” Ambulances are speeding to the scene sirens blaring I can hear them as the responding E.M.T’s radio back to the station. I call 911, to find out more about the call. A seven-year-old boy went in to cardiac arrest after an asthma attack. It’s not news, so I don’t send a crew, but the calls keep coming and I keep listening. It comes together in pieces, Ambulance numbers arriving – codes barked out, a story told in the secret language of police officers and ambulances, then silence. There was no more calls, no longer a need for ambulances or first responders. There was no longer any need to rush, no need to get a hospital bed ready. Code White. There was just silence, the sound of nothingness end a seven year olds life.

But the scanners never stay silent for long. Like I said there is no end to the symphony of tragedy – just endless codas occasionally switching keys, the same story played out a hundred different ways, and my job is to sit there every day and listen.

Fear My Holiday Lantern! Or Politically Correct For The Holidays

2005-12-13T20:04:00.000-08:00

I guess the approaching holidays are making me bitter. Fresh on the heels of my tirade against churches canceling Christmas services comes another rant about the ‘Happy Holidays’ ‘Merry Christmas’ controversy.
The semantics debate reached an all time high this year. A group of Christian churches is calling on a boycott of retailers that are using the secularized ‘Happy Holidays’ term instead of Merry Christmas. Manuel Zamorano of the Committee to Save Merry Christmas says, "We believe it's political correctness gone amuck."
Meanwhile stores using the phrase like Wal-Mart with its “Home for the Holiday’s” slogan say they just want to make everyone feel welcome.
A Wal-Mart manger says they "just basically to try and cover Kwanzaa and Three Kings Day, to cover everything." Wal-Mart isn't the only retailer mixed-up in the Christmas controversy. Lowe's Home Improvement, Walgreens, Target, Sears, Best Buy, JC Penny, Office Max and Staples have all been criticized by the Christian group for taking the word "Christmas" out of their holiday campaigns.
I though Christians were out pushing the real meaning of the season, which last time I checked was the religious celebration of Jesus birth. What the birth of Jesus has to do with low low discount prices and slave labor at Wal-Mart escapes me – but I’m sure there is a connection somewhere. I feel that pushing Christmas into stores only reinforces the fact that Christmas is more focused on gifts rather then the miracle. Since some churches are going to be closed on the holiday I can see why the Christian group would want to get their message into stores, since that may be the only place the ‘faithful’ may actually see it.
Personally I don’t have a problem with Merry Christmas. During Passover I don’t want someone wishing me a happy holiday – which usually falls around the same time as Easter. Why those two holidays are able to peacefully co-exist and Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa can’t is another question I guess will just go unanswered.
The chain stores aren’t the only ones getting hassled by this war of words. There is one unfortunate and innocent victim in this battle of political correctness. The victims can be seen in front of city halls and libraries across the country. I speak of none other then the unfortunate Christmas Tree. Across this great nation firs of all shapes and sizes have been sacrificed for the tradition only to be stripped of their title and re-named Holiday. I can not find any reason to call any Christmas Tree a Holiday Tree. Again I wouldn’t want some one calling my menorah a ‘Holiday Lantern,’ or dredle a ‘Festive Top’ or my Latkes hash browns. The Christmas tree is part of the Christmas holiday; it has no place in the Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa or New Year’s. If there was no Christmas there would be no tree. We can all appreciate Christmas Trees all lit up they are an impressive sight. I remember seeing the massive tree all lit up at Rockefeller center before stopping at F.A.O. Schwarz as a kid. I didn’t need someone to politically correct its name for me to enjoy it.

'Taking the Christ out of Christmas' - Or - 'Maybe Christmas WAS Getting to Religious'

2005-12-08T19:41:00.000-08:00

For as long as I can remember religious groups have complained about the Christmas holiday. Many critics mostly evangelical Christians have said it has strayed to far from the true meaning of the holiday and instead focused on material goods. They say Santa, a tree, and presents have replaced the manger, the wise men, and the miracle of the birth of Christ. Finally this year the argument should be over. Christmas is officially a holiday not a holy day. Even though Christmas falls on a Sunday many will find the doors to God’s house locked. Several of the nations ‘Mega Churches’ are anticipating low attendance and are canceling services. To me this would be like shutting a temple for the High Holy Days because they land on Saturday. For us if the holiday falls on the Sabbath it makes it more important, not less. It seems counterproductive to shut a church on one of the religion's holiests days – and on a Sunday to boot – which is the day of worship.

So why are they shutting the doors on December 25^th? Many of the Churches are giving a list of reasons. Mostly dealing with attendance, but some churches say Christmas Eve services are less threatening to those who normally go ‘unchurched.’ Most of the Churches that are closing their doors are Mega Churches which feature stadium seating plasma televisions and seat thousands of worshippers every Sunday for regular services. Specifically a Mega Church is defined as “Non-Catholic congregations of at least 2000 people.” They are calling Christmas a family day and quote “ We believe that you worship every day of the week, not just on a weekend, and you don't have to be in a church building to worship." To me this seems self-defeating since the thousands of worshippers shelled out thousands of dollars to build these Mega Churches to worship in.

I did some research, and it is true that most people don’t go to Church on Christmas choosing a midnight mass or a Christmas Eve service instead. However apparently it is unheard of to not have services on a Sunday apparently. So many are seeing this as a bow to secular culture. Many in the evangelical community are stunned by the shut down. "This is a consumer mentality at work, Let's not impose the church on people. Let's not make church in any way inconvenient,'" said David Wells, professor of history and systematic theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a leading evangelical school in Hamilton, Mass. "I think what this does is feed into the individualism that is found throughout American culture, where everyone does their own thing." So it’s really America’s fault that a business pretending to be a religious entity decides to close when it’s not profitable. Well, I guess capitalism is better then the alternative.

Some Churches aren’t even hiding the fact that opening up on Christmas Sunday just isn’t cost effective. One church said it would be a waste of staff and volunteer time and money to open up the church and hold a service for the very few who will attend on Christmas morning. So it goes to show you that no matter what you believe or how you celebrate Christmas will always be about just one thing: the all mighty dollar – I guess the evangelicals can say at least there is the all seeing eye of God on every dollar we spend this holiday season.

Good News

2005-11-29T19:14:00.000-08:00

So often in the news business we are the bearers of bad news. We bring reports of deaths, accidents, and war. We often highlight the worst of humanity, the rapes, the assaults, and the murders. We bring you the psychos, pederasts, and pedophiles. Yet sometimes the news can do something special, it can inspire, and create a moment that can stand alone as a sign of goodness in a world the media often portrays as bleak at best. Last week before the thanksgiving Holiday one such incident happened. 23-year-old Marine Corporal Bill Kilian has been in Iraq for the past three months. He hasn’t been able to speak to his family in all of that time. A satellite company was making him available to news stations to talk about spending a holiday overseas. We took this interview that could have easily turned into propaganda for the war machine and turned it into a reunion. We brought his father and grandmother into the studio and let them talk via satellite link up. When Kilian found out it was his father talking to him from half a world away his jaw literally dropped. See for you self here Marine Reunion. It was a moment that could only have been captured on television thanks to technology. So often we see the horrors that can be captured on television it was amazing to see one of those stories that break the trend.

Good Night, and Good Luck

2005-11-29T19:00:00.000-08:00

In the movie “Good Night, and Good Luck” George Clooney writes and directs a film that perfectly captures CBS anchor Edward R. Murrow’s clashes with the leader of the communist witch hunt Senator Joseph McCarthy. The film is amazing and I recommend everyone should go see it. Since I am a newsman myself I felt especially touched. There is one line towards the end of the film where Murrow is defending his station airing the attacks on McCarthy. He says something along the lines of “a station is gauged by the strength of its news.”
This is something that seems to make so much sense in the 1950’s but not so much today. Look at the state of the network news organizations CBS in particular. I have spoken at length about ‘Rathergate’ and the other scandals that have put the reputation of CBS into question. Yet does anyone care? That is a question I am not sure I want answered. How do people define the stations they watch? Most people don’t get their news from networks anymore. If they want news they go to one of the 24 news networks. Gone are the voices that brought news to a generation. They are lost – their powerful performances lost to a generation. Even the anchor so many turned to just a few years ago during 9-11 Peter Jennings, has been lost to lung cancer. It seem appropriate since “Good Night, and Good Luck,” is shot in black white and smoke pours from every character wrapping the film in a haze that seems to keep it locked in the past and ended up taking one of the greatest of a generation.
How do we define the channels of today? We have gone from three to three hundred. When you think CBS do you think ‘Evening News’ ’60 Minutes’ or do you think ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ ‘CSI’ and ‘Survivor?’
I'll ask a simpler question, which is easier for you to name: three members of a nightly news team, (Andy Rooney doesn't count), or three members from a prime time broadcast? Nightly news may not be what it once was, but neither is the audience. I fear soon when it becomes unprofitable to keep a news team together, and when enough Americans finally have switched the dial, once and for all the source of news for millions of Americans will finally be silenced.

Excuses, Excuses...

2005-10-31T23:34:00.000-08:00

So I am back after a week in California – and one of the things I have noticed since Cecilia left is that I have been neglecting my blog space. I am sure tons of you figured well his girl is gone so now he will have plenty of time to fill us in on the nuances and minutia of his life, but seemingly not so. Granted I am not exactly sure who even reads it since no one really leaves me messages, (if you are one of the few who do thanks I read them all) but I figured I would list up some excuses to why I haven’t posted in a while. Granted there has been plenty of good news to talk about and stories that have pissed me off and I’ll get around to writing about one or two of them soon. So my excuse for not blogging, (beyond my trip to California) are in no particular order: good video games, good TV, and good books.

Dork

I currently have a stack of Game Cube games on my shelf still in the wrapping. Currently I am geeking my way through the first X-men legends game. Picked it up on the cheap from Best Buy and it is proving to be a solid investment. Decent role playing game, tons of characters, and its been fun opening a can of kick ass as Wolverine. The camera angles suck a bit – but it’s a problem I hope will be fixed in the sequel – which depending on my final verdict may be on the old holiday wish list. I also have Ultimate Spiderman waiting in the wings as well as an out of print original copy of the original Pikmin I picked up at a used CD store in California. So I will by staying up nights playing with myself in a non-sexual way for months with the video game stash I have accumulated.

More Dork

This past month has seen the sophomore season of "Lost" storm onto television and every Wednesday night I am more or less glued to ABC. Luckily, one or two fellow fans normally join me so I feel a little better. While the second season was slow to start, it has picked up. The first three episodes take place in the span of a day each overlapping – similar to a “Run Lola Run” kind of tribute. There are still plenty of hidden things to find like Walt’s being the missing kid on the milk box in Hurley’s dream sequence. Lost is still breaking boundaries and is currently in re-runs if you want to catch up. Also I have made a point to catch “My name is Earl” on NBC. Being a Jason Lee fan from his "Mallrats" days doesn’t hurt, but the show is funny, heartwarming (though occasionally predictable) all at the same time, a decent 30 minute comedy and worth catching if your home on Tuesday night.

Book Worm

So reading wise I have already torn through the 12 books in a series of unfortunate events, “The Penultimate Peril.” Being a long fan of the series, this was a nice lead up cliffhanger to the end of the series. Over the course of several years Lemony Snicket or better known as Daniel Handler fine tunes his satirical voice similar to the way J.K. Rowling has over the Harry Potter series. Granted the box have nothing to do with each other except they have plenty of cross over fans and are both found in the same section of the bookstore. I recommend them if your looking for something quick to and amusing to read. They will make you laugh out loud I promise. Also I am halfway through “The White City” by Erik Larson. I will let you know how that is when I finally finish it (I was going to read tonight but decided to post this egotistical blog instead). I am also catching up on back issues of the best magazine in publication – “The Believer” which I have two or three half issues left to finish up. I am also glancing through “The Long Distance Relationship Guide” which was a present from my not present significant other. So far all I have found out is our long distance relationship isn’t healthy, and I’m pretty sure it is entirely fault. I love self-help books.

What I am drinking right now

I am finishing up a bottle of Bear Republic Red Racer 5, which I carried home from California, a good I.P.A. (Indian Pale Ale for you non drinkers), though it is a bit hoppy.

Other then that life is good – and I will try to post more, but if I don’t I’m probably drinking, reading, playing video games or watching TV.

Help Still Needed

2005-10-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

For the last month the world has been focused on the worst natural disaster to hit America in years and possibly the worst disaster since September 11^th. This time there was no terror group to blame, no one to point fingers at besides Mother Nature for spawning Hurricane Katrina and Rita and possibly God for pointing both of them at the gulf coast. In the wake of this disaster there have been numerous issues from government mismanagement, to media bias, including displays that show the highs and lows the human race are capable of.

Working in local news much of my Hurricane coverage came from the network news, locally we touched only on the ways the hurricane hit here in Central New York: Interviews with Doctors and Red Cross volunteers heading down or returning, shelters getting set up and donations being packaged, talking with the united way and other local non-profits about donor fatigue and local companies donating.

Today more then a month after the Hurricane hit was the first day my newscast didn’t involve a single story about the Hurricanes or the relief effort. While news continues to develop there, the ninth ward twice submerged once by both storms being visited by former President Clinton, I think the world tires of the story. Here in Central New York and I feel around the country the stories legs have finally taken their last step, and until it begins effecting our wallets and pocketbooks again, this story may finally be dead.

It has been a long time coming, Network reporters slowly pulling out team coverage becoming a solo reporter, followed by just some file video. The media has packed up and moved on.

I have waited to make a donation to the Red Cross –because now is when it is going to be needed most. Now that the media is picking on the President’s choices for the Supreme Court, the vote on the Iraqi constitution, and the rising death toll the media has shown it has moved on – but people there still need help. The water may be gone, but the devastation remains. Just because we stop reporting it doesn’t mean its over. Just because the media has forgotten about it doesn’t mean you should. Fellow Americans still need your help, and they still will once the media has found a new top story.

“I Stole Sheriff but I did not steal from the Deputy!”

2005-08-23T23:42:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite stories that has come across the line in the last few months, so I figured I would share it with you.
Madison County Sheriff reports a deputy inadvertently found his stolen gas grill will trying to arrest a man on an unrelated burglary charge. The event started just before six in the morning Saturday in the town of Fenner. Deputies reported to a call of a man lying in the roadway. When they arrived they found not a dead body but a man extremely under the influence sleeping in the road. Deputies woke him up and took him home. After taking him home deputies found out he had an outstanding warrant against him for Burglary Charges. So Deputies returned to the man’s home, helped by a Deputy from a neighboring county. While on the suspect’s porch the Deputy saw his OWN gas grill that had been stolen from his home last month. So the Deputy finds his grill just in time for the end of summer right? It sounds like a happy ending but not quite. The Sheriff reports the Deputy still doesn’t have his stolen grill because, “the grill is now sitting in a Sheriff’s Office evidence room pending final disposition of the criminal charges against the suspect.”
So it seems the system even screws people in the system.

Amusing Musings –

2005-08-11T23:01:00.000-07:00

So the other day I was on my way to the gym when I saw a car circling the parking lot. This woman was searching for the perfect space – and was determined to find it. She was jockeying for a spot like Funny Side for the inside track. I park and she is still circling. Finally someone pulls out and she pulls right up – practically to the front doors. The woman gets out and goes into the gym. When I get upstairs to the cardio room – there’s the woman who spent ten minutes driving around to finding a parking spot on a treadmill. She wouldn’t walk an extra fifty feet to the door but she spent an hour walking on the treadmill.

Geek Chic or White Trash Paradise

2005-08-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

Here in Central New York the Last weekend in July means three things – roughly two months till it starts snowing again - one month to the Great New York State Fair and Oswego’s Harborfest.

So since I don’t plan on being in Syracuse next summer I decided to go this year and check it out. So the little lady and me head out to Oswego down a two-lane road and drive till we hit water. Harborfest is a huge festival stretched out over several miles of city streets with stages tents and booths set up down the sides of the canal and along bridges and shores.

People drive their boats up and dock usually three deep along all sides of the water. Stunt planes fly overhead and small local acts play on different stages and can be heard for miles. Then there is the food and drink – giant lemons, beer, and food stands dot the festival. The festival attracts thousand an estimated 300,000 attend over the weekend. With all of those families attending there are also lots of people getting drunk – you can see coolers chuck full of ice and suds on hotel balconies and on the backs of boats and I swear there was a funnel hanging over the side of at least one boat.

Sounds like a blast – but don’t be distracted by the scene – its all simply set up for the story. Oswego is about 40 miles East of Syracuse – quite a bit away from the “pulse” of the city if you get my idea.

So the cutting edge culture icon I am I was wearing a “Vote for Pedro T-shirt. Not a real Vote for Pedro shirt since on the back it says 45 Martinez – so it really a Mets shirt pretending to be “Geek Chic”– but I was still the center of attention.

As I walked around the festival teen girls giggled and pointed and at least more then 10 people commented on the shirt.

The comments went both ways – people yelling “Vote for Pedro! Or Skills! and others Saying who’s Pedro?

The apex of the comments came when a shirtless tan blond guy standing on the back of his boat saw my shirt and raised his arms to the sky and screamed at the top of his lungs Sweet!!! Lucky!!!”

It’s funny how films end up influencing everyone working its way into the zeitgeist and lexicon. People who in real life are more like Summer and her blond asshole boyfriend Don – (the one who hands Napoleon the Vote for Summer Button he chucks down the hall) end up embracing Napoleon. However I’m sure the real Summers and Dons of the world would much rather quote a fictional dork then dare be seen with one in real life.

Then I think maybe they are laughing for a different reason. They are laughing not with him – but at him. They don’t identify with Napoleon and what he faces but laugh at him the same way they would laugh at a dork in the hall.

Or maybe my two semesters of psych have me over analyzing and these popular kids are simply latching on to the newest fad – even if it is one started by a dork hero.

Back With A Vengance!

2005-08-03T23:10:00.000-07:00

For the last two months I have passed on posting - but it was not my decision.
I was temporarily evicted from my home - and forced to give up many of my 21st century luxuries including internet, tv, and a working stove.
So there are a slew of blog entries i have many need to be updated and im sure a few won't be good enough in my eyes now to post - but i will be working on putting a few up in the next few days - starting with the newest one - just two intresting news stories.

New Jersey Sucking the Fun Out of Summer

Residents in Belmar (about halfway between Manhattan and Atlantic City) are taking some fun out of the summer season by banning beer pong outside.
The borough council has banned all outdoor games involving alcohol.
The so-called "Beer Pong" ordinance, which goes into effect August 17th, prohibits alcohol-related games or contests on porches, decks, lawns, front and side yards, or anywhere that can be viewed by the public and neighbors.
Fines begin at $100 for a first offense.
Summer renters to the shore community were also fined for playing Whiffle Ball in the street.
If i was there i would play drinking games with kool-aid just to stick it to the man.

Lawsuit Challenges Copyright But May Stop Sucky Movie From Being Made
Can you copyright Zorro? That is the question film makers are asking a judge to answer. Sobini Films claims it owns the rights to a 19-19 book "The Curse of Capistrano," in which the character of Zorro first appears.
Sobini says it wants to take the classic tale and the classic crusader and use it to make a futuristic move called "Zorro 2110."
Sony which produced the 1998 film "The Mask of Zorro" issued a cease and desist letter - saying they owned Zorro and all of the exclusive rights to develop and distribute all films and TV programs based on "Zorro."
Now Sobini is suing.
I am all for challenging copyrights - especially with a classic character such as Zorro - plus looking at trailers and promo's for Sony's new Zorro film - I feel the rights should be stripped away and the producers whipped silly.
However - Sobini's idea of giving Zorro a futuristic spin? I think the judge should rule in favor of Sony just from keeping that crappy ass film from ever seeing celluloid.

Summer Sequels - or- The Revenge of Abu Ghraib

2005-05-21T16:22:00.000-07:00

It's summer! Well close to it anyway. That means its time for big summer movies and big sequels – and apparently its not just for the movies it’s also apparently true for international politics.

Just after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal may have faded from people minds – a new set of pictures shows the sequel also has to be bigger and better. So what do we get? Saddam in his skivvies! The butcher of Baghdad in his B-V-D’s!

Another photo display of what life is like for Iraqi’s in American custody. So once again the U.S. military needs to “aggressively investigate” how these photos were released to a London tabloid. Sure the pictures are pretty bad – but what is worse is that The Sun says and I quote U.S. “military sources said they handed over the photos in the hope of dealing a body blow to the resistance in Iraq.” Meanwhile back on this side of the pond Senior U.S. military sources have said the military did not give the photos to The Sun no matter what the newspaper says. So how much did the paper end up paying for the humiliation of the former dictator? The General Manger of The Sun would only say the newspaper paid “a small sum” for the photos. He would not elaborate except to say it was more than 500 British pounds, which is about $900. Hell, pictures of British Celebrities in their skivvies bring in more then that. Even with the price tag Saddam gets no respect.

So once again we are on the receiving end of Geneva Convention infractions, though we managed to side step them by saying “it was not a government release so it is not a violation of the Geneva conventions.” Just in case you were wondering under Articles 13 and 14 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions III Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, POW’s “must at all times be protected ... against insults and public curiosity," and also "are entitled in all circumstances to respect for their persons and their honor."

So these photos are once again tarnishing the image of Uncle Sam and who though we could have sunk lower then American soldiers smiling giving the thumbs up pointing to blindfolded prisoners genitals.

Also this week but not nearly as visual is the allegations by Newsweek, about the desecration of the Quran at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Yet the real question is what’s going on in Iraq? The war torn nation remains calm, possibly because they are all still tuckered out about the Quran desecration. While some say the pictures are offensive to Arabs and Muslims, other Iraqi’s are saying the humiliation is just what the 68-year-old former leader deserves.

It’s a violation of privacy – or is it just punishment for a terrible dictator? It seems the world is split once again on how people feel about Saddam, Kurds who were oppressed under his regime say he deserves worse, while political parties who flourished under Saddam say it is inhuman, and immoral.

So in the end, I guess it just goes to show you that with this sequel is really like so many movie sequels, this time around the buzz was bigger, the stars were bigger, but in the end – its another sequel that just isn’t as important as the original.

What is life - or - advice for the uninspired

2005-05-07T01:55:00.000-07:00

All too often my posts are about work – about the goings on behind the scenes at CBS, or some other pretending to be witty comments on this wacky modern world we live in. Today will be a little different.

Back in February we lost one of the greatest journalists and writers the world has ever seen when Hunter S. Thompson killed himself. The world may never know his last words – he had an ESPN column and the last posting was about a new sport Shot gun golf – yet this months Playboy had the ‘last’ writings of Thompson. SO I went out and picked up a copy to read the last words, which ended up not really being last words but the last interview. In it Thompson talks about several things including life and how to live it, what kind of guns kill what kind of animals, and basically every topic from being a gentleman to what drugs mix with what.

There is one particular section of advice I want to paraphrase here- if you want the whole words you need to go buy Playboy – and that’s right your buying it for the articles not the pictures. Thompson talks about driving on a road late at night and at a high speed coming across a deer. The deer freezes gets the ‘deer in a headlights look’ and what do you as a driver? There are several options each a parable for life. You can slow down – slam on the breaks- and the front of the car dips – you slam into the deer which in turn slams into the windshield and car head on and you will most likely become a statistic another person killed by a deer. Or you can swerve, and end up slamming into a tree and once again causing your self harm but sparing the animal. Then there is the third choice – you stay at speed – or speed up hit the deer head on and it bounces up and over you – wrecks your car kills the deer but you remain unscathed.

Sometimes the best answer in life is to simply plow ahead full speed, you know there are going to be consequences, but of all the options in front of you – it is the best choice you got.

Catching up of Platter of Poltics

2005-05-04T23:36:00.000-07:00

So I know I haven’t posted in a while and I’m sorry, I know I suck. Don’t worry its not because I didn’t have anything to say its because I have been fairly busy. In three weekends I have been to Canada, New York, and then Baltimore. So I haven’t been falling behind. So instead of my usual long post about something – it’s going to work more like a buffet. I’ll go reverse, starting with the most recent first and work back.

--Getting Paid for Nothing or Why I hate the Giant Hamburger--

So our station gets a call from the CBS Morning Show and they are looking for a freelance producer. They want a producer to head out to Oswego (about 40 minutes Northwest of Syracuse), for an interview with the family of a hiker who died while climbing Mount Everest.

Two brothers Mike and Chris O’Brien lost their mother and sister to a hereditary disease and were climbing the mountain to try to raise money and awareness of the disease.

So after much debate I volunteer for the job. I find out I will be getting paid the flat rate for freelancers $350 a day. Then I find out they want me to leave Tuesday night – to produce the Wednesday morning segment. So they are going to put me up in a hotel, and I was going to make 700 bucks for a few hours of work. Head out Tuesday night meet and greet the family, then around four am I would have to produce a look live package for The Morning Show and also Good Morning America. Sweet – double the contacts and still less then 24 hours of work. So I go into produce my own six pm news. Then I come out and I have a message from The Morning show. I find out the family of the dead hiker, which I worked to set up, had been talking to all afternoon just a day after finding out about Mike’s death had been bumped.

For what you ask? The Pope? A cure for cancer? Nope! A 15-pound hamburger. A Pennsylvania restaurant has created something called the ‘Beer Barrel Belly Buster,’ a burger comes with 10.5 pounds of ground beef, 25 slices of cheese, a head of lettuce, three tomatoes, two onions, 1 1/2 cups each of mayonnaise, relish, ketchup, mustard and banana peppers - and a bun. It costs $30. http://www.canada.com/news/story.html?id=b2903108-051d-488b-8f6d-3a7942508fea

That’s right a great story about two brothers working to raise money for a disease that took their sister and mothers life bumped for a giant Hamburger.

The good news – I still scammed my way to one day’s freelance pay – for 350 dollars in my pocket – but ill count that once I got it in my hand.

--- Prime Time and The President ---

So last Thursday night the President in his infinite wisdom holds his major speech on Social Security. What’s on CBS at Thursday night at 8? Survivor! So what a dilemma, do we dump the number one reality TV show Survivor for the President or do we skip the show and continue to show our obvious political bias? There were plenty of rumors that this was the President’s revenge for Rathergate. The ego on us… but every other network is going to carry the speech – so after first saying we wouldn’t take the speech CBS flip flopped and decided to carry the speech and push survivor back to nine.

Now this is my opinion. But here’s how I feel. Last time I checked CBS is a network – which includes news, but there is no news in our title. It’s not like CNN, which has News right in their abbreviation. I feel much like no one watches local news for sports no one watches local news for national events. If someone wants to know why they were backed up in traffic on their way home they switch on local news, if they want to find out what the president is doing they can watch CNN or MSNBC. At 8 o’clock people want primetime shows, not news. On the sinking ship of CBS why are we playing games with our best shows? The decision to show the speech was to pretend we are an unbiased news organization, which is a legitimate cause and I must say showing a speech is way easier then actually changing the way CBS does news.

Rewriting History –or- Don’t be Stupid be a Smarty Come and Join the Nazi Party

2005-04-19T23:10:00.000-07:00

So today in a tribute to inefficiency and the ridiculousness of old Italian Catholic men and their centuries of traditions, millions around the world watched a chimney and waited for bells to toll – simple signs that are the only signals a new pope has been chosen.

I will very rarely quote or reference CBS since I have lost respect for the Tiffany station after, Memogate/Rathergate and CSI/Arafat debacle. Yet I must give credit where credit is due and Bob Schieffer made an eloquent point in his Pope picking coverage this afternoon.

Smoke first started coming out of the Vatican chimney at about fifteen minutes to noon. Five minutes later all three stations were in special report. From the networks to the 24 hour channels across the board all stations were live with their shot focused on a static shot aimed at the roof. On that roof all focused from different angles on one single thing, the chimney. At first the smoke was white but no bells rang – so the thousands verging on millions waiting in Saint Peter’s Basilica cheered thinking a new Pope had been chosen and were simply waiting for the bells to ring.

Much like the Vatican reporting the Pope had died almost a full day before John Paul actually shuffled off the mortal coil, the Italian press once again jumped the gun and said the smoke was black. They reported though the smoke looked white it was really black meaning no new Pope had been chosen. Granted this was feasible since Monday night during the Cardinals first vote the smoke appeared white and then went black.

So for almost 20 minutes the world watched white smoke pour out of the chimney. I am not proud – I will say I watched it too, nonstop. Almost without blinking my eyes were trained on the coverage – watching to see if the smoke would darken, and then it would be at least another day before a new Pope is chosen, or bells would toll meaning there was a new leader of the Catholic faith.

Then it happened the first bell tolled – and the crowds rejoiced. People from all different nationalities chanted in union waving flags of their different nations supporting someone they didn’t even know.

Here’s where I need to give my props to Bob. In one of the many breaks when coverage craped out during their continuing coverage Bob made a remark about the age we live in and the abudence of technology. Here we are in the 21st century where the internet speed information across the globe – where mini commentators like myself can reach an unlimited audience, and yet sometimes traditonal methods mean more. Today when the Pope was chosen to some the most powerful man in the world, the message is sent out by a simple means of communication. A simple puff of smoke selects the leaders of millions. A tradition seemingly ancient, and outdated, and occasionally errous, some would say like our own electoral collage, yet it exists and works, at least to the somewhat confusing extent it did today.

Meanwhile in a showing of his techno savvy when the Pope John Paul died a message was sent out to millions cell phones. People across Europe received the news of the Pope John Paul the Second’s death by text message. A text message. Then to find out about the new Pope what are we watching? A chimney. Waiting for smoke. Smoke signs like we are back in the old west waiting for the signal to rob a stagecoach. Like Tonto trying to contact the Lone Ranger we wait and watch smoke.

So this afternoon white/black smoke is sailing from the chimney. Then it was official, the bells began to toll, around 12:10. However it wasn’t until just about 12:43 when he was announced. The Cardinals came out on the balcony and announced they had selected Joseph Ratzinger, a German, the bookies favorite at Ladbrokes, and one of the most polarizing figures in the Catholic Church. Meanwhile the pope chose the humble name Pope Benedict the sixteenth. He is against women in the clergy birthcontrol, and many fear he will threaten dissention in the church.

As a Jew what does this selection mean to me? Well here is the heart of the matter. Ratzinger being a German youth in the 1940’s was a member of the Hitler youth. Lets look at some quotes. First lets look at his memoirs. In 1941, Ratzinger, 14, and his brother, Georg, were enrolled in the Hitler Youth when it became mandatory for all boys. Soon after, he records in his book, "The Salt of the Earth," he was let out because of his intention to study for the priesthood. Thats not the ends of the Nazi ties. He was later drafted into the Nazi army. A Pope who served in the Nazi army and is feared in the Vatican world? Who would have guessed?

But how does the world report this? Lets find out.

CNN: “Ratzinger is pictured in his German army uniform during World War II after he was drafted in 1943.”

Fox News: In May 1945, thousands of German prisoners of war trudged down the highway toward the Bavarian town of Bad Aibling. Among them — tired but grateful to be alive — was 18-year-old Joseph Ratzinger, who just days before had risked death by deserting the German army.

Not the Nazi’s the Germany Army, which was the Nazi’s if I remember the World War Two section of my history book correctly. Not all were so kind as to white wash the history of Pope Benedict.

On MSNBC: “According to his memoirs, Ratzinger was enrolled in the Nazi youth movement against his will in 1941 when he was 14.”

Sure it was against his will but at least they say Nazi.

So pay attention there is a reason Jews are wary about the selection of the new Pope. Sure he deserted the ‘German Army’ but it was in the waning days of the war – when American troops were already closing in. Sure anything associated with the Nazi party usually sets off red flags with Jews; you know the mass genocide of six million might do that. It seems a stark contrast from Pope John Paul the Second who was one of the friendliest Popes to Jews in history.

So what happens next? Lets keep count, and see how often and on what stations use the term Nazi in connection to the new Pope Benedict. Who knows after years of interfaith dialogue under Pope John Paul II will the new Pope pull a Benedict Arnold on the Jewish people? Only time will tell, but this Jew is watching his back.

Calling 911 shouldn’t be a Joke – or – Don’t do That on Tape

2005-04-15T16:47:00.000-07:00

Interesting story out of Texas today making the national news wires along with the 24 hour networks.

Authorities in the lone star state say Mike Forbess who was working as a 911 dispatcher answered a call from a woman who claimed her two 12-year-old daughters were fighting.

She told him she needed help and she feared for their safety. Granted this doesn’t seem like a major 911 call, since sisters fight all of the time. I do fell it often isn’t anything more serious then a simple catfight. Also the caller doesn’t say there are any weapons involved so that would also downgrade the importance of the call. Anyway back to the call.

The woman on the phone tells Forbess: "The 12-year-old is completely out of control, she's as big as I am, I can't control her."

Forbess reply? "OK, Do you want us to come over to shoot her?" After a few seconds of what I can imagine is very awkward silence Forbess told the woman that the comment was a joke. "This is really not very funny," she responded.

She told Forbess that she would call his supervisor.

Authorities said Forbess has received two letters of reprimand.

If you don’t believe me here is a link to a Texas web site: http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=3212000

So what's my point? 911 Operators must know they are being recorded. So why the rude remark? Granted if I was a 911 operator and received hundreds if not thousands of calls a day often for domestics, the occasional bleeding out the rectum, and every once and a while a real call I can see where a worker can get fed up. There are plenty of instances of this in the past so I wonder how many of the joke 911 calls happen and aren’t even reported.

So to balance out this story I figured I would give you an amazing story about what a local Onondaga County dispatcher did. About a year ago dispatcher Greg Hoxie got a call. On the other end of the line there was no voice – but a beeping –according to him “like an alarm clock.” It takes him a few seconds (34 to be exact) until he realizes what the sound is, a smoke detector. He dispatches a full Syracuse fire crew. They arrive to see a two-story house almost engulfed in flames. Through the quick work of the fire crew – they are able to pull a family of four out of the burning home. The home is a total loss – but the family is safe. Their lives were saved due to the quick work of someone behind the scenes.

No moral to these stories and no punch line. Just two people in the same profession – one being a jerk the other saving a families life. What respect do we owe the people in charge of our lives? What respect do they owe us – no one suffered from Forbess’s joke – but still you never know. Just something to think about the next time you call 911.

No Signs of Visual Trauma – or – Why I Hate Cayuga County Sheriffs

2005-04-13T21:21:00.000-07:00

Let the record show that as of April 12, 2005 I have officially been employed for one full year in the real world. Let me reiterate – I still love my job. However every now and then an ugly fact rears its head. This weekend was one of those times. To start – if you are squeamish about satire, irony, and humor dealing with human suffering then stop reading right now (of course if you are you probably wouldn’t really be reading this anyway). So lets get started. We need to flash back to Sunday morning. An eight and thirteen year old come home to find their parents dead. They call police. Media come out to find a wall of silence surrounding the case. The family wont talk, neighbors say they are a quiet family off camera but clam up as soon as the red record light goes on. No one knows what is going on and no one is talking. Cayuga County Sheriff’s eventually they say they are investigating the case but have found no signs of trauma. Authorities say the couple were not stabbed or shot – nothing telling on the bodies.

Media begins to hypothesize: Carbon Monoxide? Murder-Suicide? It’s a long shot but synchronized heart attacks or strokes? Questions begin piling up. People stop talking. Fast forward to Monday. Reporters from all four stations are in the tiny town of Aurelius hitting the pavement working the authorities nothing all day. Just after five o’clock after live hits and top of the shows – Sheriff Rob Outhouse (real name), gives us an empty sound bite – saying they are still investigating and autopsies are still being done.

So Monday’s a wash lets head to Tuesday. Tuesday we are hesitant to send a crew out because of what happened Monday. So we wait – and as the afternoon begins to creep up and we inch closer to 5 authorities say they are holding a press conference. So we fly out to Auburn – where the Cayuga County Sheriff’s headquarters are – what do we find out? They are holding a news conference at five on the dot.

Nothing like making it easy on the news folks…thanks Cayuga County.

So many take the news conference live. Ok – no problem. So what do we find out – the couples death was ruled murder-suicide, according to autopsy results. Husband strangled his wife and then committed suicide by overdosing on a combination of prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Sheriff Outhouse then continued to say husband duct-taped a plastic bag around his head before he died.

So lets refresh. Husband was found with empty pill bottles somewhere and I’m sure deputies no matter how inept could miss the bag and duct-tape around his head. Granted what killed him probably need an autopsy. So I can forgive the lack of information about husbands’ untimely demise. However – the wife is where I start to have the problems. Something happens when you strangle someone. Strangling anyone even a small woman takes strength – and leaves bruises. If you do it by hand or with a rope or piano wire will leave a mark – which is what? Let me remind you a visible sign of trauma.

Poorly time news conferences – piss poor information and just treating the media like crap – way to go Cayuga County.

Just to show you what it really means when there is no signs of trauma let me give you an example from today – Wednesday April 13^th. This morning a man is walking his dog on the West side of Syracuse – and his dog goes nuts and jumps into a drainage basin. What do they find there but a body! So police are called in and the investigation starts. Rumors spread – though the body by smell factor alone has most likely been there a few days. No one is reported missing with his description most people lean towards transient, hobo, bindle bum, what ever you want to call him. On his body there are no signs of trauma since he most likely got drunk and fell in the basin and died. No bag on his head no knife wounds, no strangulation bruises on his neck no bag on his head no signs of trauma.

Officers just think before you speak – especially when we have it all on tape.

Dead Bodies Everywhere Or Just Another Day in the Neighborhood

2005-04-09T01:34:00.000-07:00

Violence has always been a part of life in Syracuse. It has gotten better and worse depending on the year and more importantly the weather.

Spring has finally arrived in the Salt City and that means one thing more shootings. There are plenty of shooting calls that go out all winter and occasionally the hit someone – but normally during the cold winter months temperatures drop down so low even the gangbangers end up staying inside. You can’t successfully pull of a drive by shooting when it’s to damn cold to roll down the windows. So temperatures are back up and that means so is the body count.

It is (technically) Saturday morning (1:30ish). In the last week there have been two murders – two injuries – and more shots fired calls then you can shake the crime stick at. The sad part is they aren’t really even related, despite how similar they seem. In the major gang days, with Boot Camp the Bricks and the like gangs shot each other to death. Shootings came in pairs. One gang attacks someone who was dealing in their territory – then the other retaliates.

This week we have similar sounding murders but they are most likely worlds apart. One was found on early hours of Sunday the other by garbage men Wednesday morning. Both men were shot to death and died in their cars. They were even found reasonably close to each other. The difference is found when we look at the two victims life style. The first was found in a parking lot after getting shot after a fight at Syracuse’s local biker bar the ‘Cuse Road Dawg. The other was a father of two, mixed up with drugs, who lived in a halfway house and had a lengthy criminal record. Two people two very different lives both meet the same unfortunate end.

Then Thursday on the north side of the city – a man walks in to a connivance store without id to try to buy beer. The clerk does the right thing and says no – so the kid says he’ll be back with his posse. He shows up a few hours later with a gun. He walks in fires three shots - grazing the clerk in the arm – and then walking off. The kids showed up just with an entire clip of friends, but I guess that really is all you need to make your point.

Then you have your average run of the mill shots fired. Just kids driving around hanging out and firing off their guns. They aren’t shooting at anything or anyone in particular. Just being stupid, but as the weather gets warmer and there are more people and kids out – it’s going to eventually be a little kid on the receiving end of one of those bullets.

When I first started one of the first major continuing stories was about a 7 year old kid who got shot by some idiot just driving by – luckily the kid survived – but next time we may not be so lucky. No matter who ends up getting shot – gang member, bystander, drug dealer, there will most likely be someone mourning them – someone who loves them. Be it a mother, a babies momma, an aunt, a grandmother, some family, even a fellow gang member pouring out a forty on the street, who will tell the media – that just before they were killed they started turning their life around.

Prime Time, Jane Pauly and the Pope

2005-04-03T14:20:00.000-07:00

This weekend the Pilgrim Pope, Pope John Paul the second passed. He spent most of Friday April 1^st, in grave condition, in fact everyone though he was going to die Friday afternoon.

This biased blogger thinks he did pass, since Italian news agencies reported his death around 12 and the Vatican spent the rest of the afternoon trying to refute that claim. In fact we were receiving reports his EKG flat-lined. Of course this means they could have restarted his heart- but again after going into septic shock most of his organs failing and the Pope refusing to be hospitalized his outlook was more then bleak.

If you watched any television this week – every station from Entertainment Tonight to CNN ran special reports, retrospectives, looks back at the Pope’s legacy. Take my advice don’t expect it to end any time soon. It will most likely continue throughout next week during his viewing through to his burial. It won’t end there for another week stations will provide ‘expert speculation’ on who the Cardinals will pick to lead millions and millions of Catholics across the globe.

You would think with the coverage the Pope is getting now - no matter what was on television the stations would have dropped everything and went into emergency ‘Pope-Passing’ coverage. Not the case. On Friday here was the plan from the network CBS head honchos. If the Pope died anywhere after four o’clock – the network would cut into Jane Pauly and take up our newscasts and cover to 7pm – right through the evening news. HOWEVER if the pope died anytime during prime time – the only coverage that would exist is a seven-minute obituary special report. Seven minutes. Decades of service, hundreds of trips around the globe, one assassination attempt, millions of mourners, the life of one of the most beloved Popes in memory – knocked down to seven minutes - so not to interrupt Joan of Arcadia, NCIS and the rest of CBS’s Friday night line up. Really puts things in perspective – a television station would love to cover the Pope but only if he dies at a time when nothing worth watching is on.

I wonder if the Pope would even have gotten seven minutes if he died during the last 90 seconds of one of the final four games. Somehow, I think the end of basketball would have taken precedence over the Pope. Right now I guess I’m just thankful we didn’t have to find out.

The End of the Terri Schiavo Case – or- Protesters Are Dumb.

2005-03-31T18:46:00.000-08:00

So after 14 days of court battles – the Terri Schiavo case has come to its eventual end. At 9:05 Thursday March 31^st, Terri Schiavo passed on into eternity. It was a story that could have no winners – and no matter who won or lost – it would end the same way. Granted her death came much sooner since her feeding tube removed, but she was never going to get better. Terri would never be the same and in almost every single instance the Terri that family and loved ones knew was gone. Medically she could have lived on – probably doubling her age, eventually spending more of her life in a vegetative state then as an alert person. But the sad fact is that as the story became bigger it became less and less about Terri. As soon as the media sunk its teeth into the story and a mob of professional protester came out, government leaders stepped in, and the Vatican sounded off she simply became a tool. The worst part many of those speaking out didn’t even know what they were speaking out against, many who were on the front lines protesting didn’t even understand what was going on.

The Bad

I’ll side with some conservative pundits here and place some blame on the media, especially television. The news media has really played a large part in the manipulation of the public. For the last three weeks video of Terri has aired showing her blinking at her mothers voice, and reacting to outside stimulus. However none of this video was placed into context. First it was all from 2002 and 2003. So at this point it is still two to three years old. Second the video was only glimpses at the Schiavo case. However I must give some kudos to CNN they began putting the date on the file video they were using. Yet it was a side note in the hours of video they repeated as the story took center stage on the 24-hour news channels. They were twenty and thirty second clips from hours of video – the clever work of an excellent public relation guy giving the media only what would support their cause. Since television is a visual medium pictures ran from years ago along side still pictures of her when she was cognizant. So when you looked at the coverage of Terri Schiavo – you see a woman who seems to be responding – fueling the family’s argument their daughter can be saved.

Live shots by reporters are on the front line with a wall of protesters behind them, the occasional sound from Michael Schiavo made him sound like more of an execution then a ‘loving’ husband who wanted to bring peace after 15 years to his wife.

The Ugly

Back to the protesters. Many collected outside carrying crosses - beating drums representing Terri’s heartbeat. People carrying signs calling Michael Schiavo and the doctors murders for removing her feeding tube and promising them a warm spot in hell.

On Easter there was a pair of zealous Catholics – who security forces stopped from breaking into to Terri’s hospice room and delivering her communion. This is the type of thing I am talking about. There was a protester arrested yesterday for trying to smuggle water in for Terri. The people just didn’t really understand the state Terri Schiavo was in. She has been (according to court doctors) in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years. While she was conscious none of her movements were voluntary. She could not swallow on her own if anyone had tried to give her water she would have most likely drowned – since her body could not swallow the liquid. More zealous people fighting for a cause blindly – rallying behind a call of murder – when to other it is simply seen as mercy – or the circle of life.

-and-

The government. There is a war on last I checked, an oil for food scandal, a gas crisis, inflation and the government our elected leaders intervened in this families personal affairs (and steroids in baseball but that’s another gripe for another day), and used her as a political tool. Would the President have gotten involved if his brother Jeb wasn’t governor of Florida? Who knows? But congress, the President and about every other political figure weighed in on the issue hoping to score points with moral value conservatives. I expect to hear her name brought up around election time – you can bet on that Terri is to good of a political tool to let go this easy. We will wait and see on this one.

The Good

Terri Schiavo has served as a wake up call for the nation. She was on the tip of everyone’s tongue in many people thoughts – and became a mini celebrity – and used it while unknowingly to bring words like living will and health care proxy out of hospices and senior homes and into the main stream. Will anything be learned from this? I’m sure there is a nice sized group of people that will sign up for living wills or proxies and make plans of their future. However this is still not something many think of till it is too lake. Terri was young – and most of the controversial cases in this field are – and when you’re young even in your late twenties early thirties you still don’t think it can ever happen to you. Terri Schiavo may have captured the nations attention for a few weeks but we will see how deep into the American psyche her case will really strike. Again, only time will tell, and of course – we will never find out about all of the people who have their wishes are carried out because they filled out a living will. All who learned from Terri’s situation will never have a voice in the media – we will only here from those who didn’t learn this lesson. Sad but true.

How the Mighty Have Fallen -or- Drink at Home

2005-03-29T23:26:00.000-08:00

This week - after 30 plus years on the Syracuse Police force and 9 months as Police Chief - Stephen Thompson stepped down, disgraced, after getting arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated after hitting a pedestrian.

There are several things that bother me about this one is level of irony in the story. It is more unfortunate then ironic, yet we see it as amusing. A man who’s job it is to serve the law and protect the public ends up breaking the law and hurting a pedestrian. Things like this break down how we look at police officers, similar to the way we would feel if a fire fighter’s home burned down. We think that because these people are iconic representatives of safety that they could never fall into the pits and traps of normal people. Cops bust drunken drivers not the other way around. Yet it happens cops drink and in this case got behind the wheel. Houses burn down and sometimes they belong to fire fighters. Yet when you or I were to clip someone while D-W-I it would have to fight to get press in a newspaper or be a very slow news day for it to get on air. Yet when an authority figure is treated like a common criminal everyone in society lines up to turn their nose down at them. For two days the local media has been airing file footage of a smiling Steven Thompson as anchors read copy about charges, trial dates, air 911 dispatch tapes where callers talk about an intoxicated driver. The video is from his first full day as police chief 9 months ago - now its being reused as we talk about his disgraceful exit. Thompson is expected in court at 5:30 p.m. next Monday I have a feeling he won't be smiling then.

Just a Jew on Easter

2005-03-27T23:20:00.000-08:00

Being Jewish I have a very interesting perspective on a lot of non-Jewish holidays. So today is Easter - which of course was a Passover meal - though now Easter dinner is celebrated with the least kosher thing imaginable - ham. Funny how that all works out. So why ham? Lamb would be more traditional; the Sicilian tradition is baby lamb - Abbacchio.

Ham seems to show contempt for the Jewish practice of abstaining from pork - so I went searching for the reason ham is eaten on Easter. No one seemed to know on-line either. I found one explanation dating back to ancient Romans. Apparently the Roman's buried pork near the sea to ensure salty, cured meat by spring, which was eaten - you guessed it around Easter. I found this doubly ironic since Jesus was a Jew a religion forbidding you to eat pork - (The carcasses of every beast which divideth hoof and is not cloven footed nor cheweth the cud, are unclean to you: every one that toucheth them shall be unclean." ~ Leviticus 11:26) and the Romans who killed Jesus and then they took a Roman tradition to celebrate the holiday.

Then I found a simple explanation from a Butcher - For serving at home Ham is not only tasty, Its easy to cook. "It comes pre-glazed or pre-flavored. You basically heat and serve," said Joseph J. Terrazzano, owner of Haverhill Beef Co. in Boston.

Then I found what my paranoid delusions wanted to read – I found this: “And those families who, by customs, eat ham on Easter Sunday are, unwittingly, following an old practice of the Roman Catholics of England, who ate a gammon of bacon on Easter to show their contempt for the Jews, to whom pork is forbidden.” [Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., Volume 7] (Since I wouldn’t believe it either – I decided to cite it.) So there you go. The history of the Easter Ham. Every family that unwittingly ate ham tonight is guilty of anti-Semitism. Of course me doing the " I killed your lord dance" probably is just offensive enough to make up for it.

Drunk Baby

2005-03-27T12:00:00.000-08:00

My last post was a little dark; I must be in a mood. Anyway there are some hilarious stories from the news too, and all tragedy is funny when it happens to someone else. Every once in a while I like to share some of the most hilarious stories with you – There is one of my favorites – and it goes a little something like this:

Drunk Baby

A good part of our crime news, (indictments, arrests, charges, busts, etc) come from press releases sent out by local law enforcement agencies. So it was a press release from police from a neighboring city. The release was about a father who was arrested after his toddler, was brought to the hospital with a massive B.A.C. Again most readers would say- that’s terrible! That poor baby! Its poor under developed kidneys and brain! Put away your pitchforks and torches the baby was fine. That’s also not what is hilarious, it’s the parents that are funny. The kids parents are split – so super dad picks the kid up for his visiting time. Takes the kid over to his buddies to watch football. So far so good. So the buddy and the dad start knocking back brews – good way to spend a Sunday right? So the little tot starts mimicking dad, and picks up a beer – and goes to take a swig. Dear old dad lets the kid have a sip – and that’s all – or at least that’s his story for the police.

So dad drops off the bundle of joy and mom finds her kid, “ smelling like alcohol and acting all drunk.” So she takes it to the hospital. Doctors then find the super high B.A.C.

What do we find? To get the kids B.A.C up as high as it was – it would take one and a half to two beers to get the baby’s blood alcohol up. Sip my ass. But a little kid still is standing after two beers? I know kids in college who couldn’t drink to beers. Dad gets arraigned on child endangerment charges – and then shuffled into the court system.

He has my vote for parent of the year.

Dont Understand

2005-03-26T22:11:00.000-08:00

Getting to the Point

I work for a news organization in Syracuse - and have worked for several news organizations throughout out internships, but this is my first full time job. When people watch the news they don't see everything that goes on behind the scenes everything that it takes to put on a 30-minute newscast. And the funny thing is that everyone in the news industry is going to hell. Simply put, we feed off misery and suffering, and its funny. Not because rape or murder of dead bodies are funny, (which they are not) but when your work puts you in close contact with the suffering - when you listen to interviews with crying mothers and family- wailing about the recently departed - you need to have a sense of humor.

Celebrating the Dead

When tragedy strikes, it’s very inconvenient for me. Of course its more inconvenient for the person it happens to, but when something bad happens all hell breaks lose in the newsroom. Reporters need to switch roles, change gears, trucks need to move, stories of the day re-shuffled. Of course on a slow day, where there is nothing going on - something bad happens turns into team coverage with live hits from the scene as police tape flutters in the wind or fire fighters scramble to keep a house fire knocked down. However that’s what makes for good television. The most memorable pictures in history the firefighter carrying the body of the child out of the world trade center, the execution of a man in Vietnam, the single protester standing up to the tank in China's Red Square they are all images of tragedy. There are no memorable pictures of success except on the sports page - and the success of one team is simply the tragic defeat of another. Call me a defeatist - pessimist - but look around you - at the news - on TV, in the papers, on the web and let me know what you find.

On A More Up Beat Note....

There is something I've noticed; when you read obits or talk to the family of the departed they always say something like " He was just turning his life around." "He was such a good (boy/girl), (he/she) was just getting away from (drugs/streets/significant other)." It seems to me and to many others that no one who deserves it ever gets killed. They never say "Man that piece of sh*t was nothing, he was never going to be anything, and they sold me bad weed." So (I’m stealing this) simple way to stay safe - "Don't ever ever ever turn you life around" - it basically guarantees you a trip to the morgue