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Apr
20 |
That's a FLOWER pot, and from the looks of it my two nephews were having a good go of it in RJ's backyard this weekend while their Uncle Danny and Uncle Chip and Auntie Taunt helped dress-up RJ's new yard for a very important guest due this week. That's Jacob holding Keegan, I wrote about him a few times a while back. My preferred short name for him is "Keg" and he's adorable; The kind of baby you'd like to bite the ears off of but I wouldn't recommend it. His mom's got a temper. Ouch.
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Apr
18 |
 I run a little on the conservative side but this shit was over the top, even for me. Having coffee and watching local ABC News coverage of Pope Benedict's departure from Andrews Air Force Base in D.C. on his way to New York, I choked-up when seeing a member of the U.S. Military's departure party bend down and kiss his ring, and not in a good way. There's a Founding Father turning over in his vault somewhere.
It might be easy enough to pass it off as a simple mistake of military protocol if it hadn't been for the officer making worshipful prayer hands and bowing to "His Holiness" not once but twice. Perhaps more. At that point, I was dry heaving. Just where does this man's alligiance lie and why hasn't the military made him aware of this gaff and its insult to those of us who don't worship foreign leaders in white gowns and Prada slippers? Shame on you!
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Click for Larger Image
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Apr
17 |
 When I say I'm sick of the long-toothed, tired and over-played phenomenon that is American Idol, don't tell me to change the channel: It isn't that easy.
True, its novelty has been that it's a good old fashioned talent show, or at least it was. Now though it just seems like a tarnished jewel in a giant marketing crown complete with seasonal cliches. Oh look, there's the boyish teen phenom who's adored and cried-over by chubby girls. There's the goofy looking guy who also seems to be adored while suffering some major family drama back home. He sings not for himself, but for his lawyer brother suffering from cancer. *eye roll*. There's the over-singing black girl who hits all the high notes and quivers her way down to the low ones, the small gaggle of pretty blond girls who became convinced they could sing by all their cheerleader friends back home in Atlanta/Omaha/Chicago. There's the tattooed hippie chick, watch her go from belting-out hard rock tunes worthy of making Pat Benator hold a lighter over her head, to a soft torch song dedicated to all her pub friends back home. She's SOOO 'edgy'. And there's my anti-favorite, the Earthy cool white guy with the face of an Aryan poster boy and "dreamy" blue eyes but look, he plays the guitar, wears tattered jeans, flannel shirts and one bad ass set of dreadlocks. If he doesn't make it here, he'll be king of Seattle. *YACK*
When will the flyover love affair with this mess be over? It isn't escapable. Buy a Coke and there it is, something being shilled for or by the marketing geniuses behind American Idol or, as fans refer to it, "A.I.". And no matter it's a Fox Network program, we get morning updates on NBC's Early Show, CBS' Today Show, ABC's Good Morning America. The network anchors are not immune from it's grasp, it must be mentioned, it's what American viewers expect.
Less than 25% of registered American voters cast ballots in the last presidential election but bet your sweet latte most every American with a television or Internet access can tell you who the three judges are on American Idol, and a huge percentage of those can give you an accurate lineup of the final 7 contestants. I can't name all 7, but I can tell you who the favorites are and what songs they sang last night. Yeah I know but it isn't my fault, it's Tom's. How can you miss something playing on a 70" hi-def plasma? It isn't like I had plans last night. Still, there's got to be something else, something non political to capture our national obsession. This one program has become like a bad song, the kind you can't get out of your head, or off your television.
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Apr
6 |
 I was talking to a friend a few days back about the Statue of Liberty and how after visiting New York since I was 19, I've never visited Liberty Island nor trekked to the top of the statue. He said he'd taken his nieces a while back but that the option to go to the top no longer exists.
As a junior high school kid I remember Lee Iacocca leading the international effort to raise money to restore her. It was a phenomenal success because back in the 80s, patriotism came easy and hadn't yet been hijacked by the rabid right wing, though it was well on its way. They got patriotism and the rabid left got network news and NPR. I'm not sure who came out better but those of us in the middle came up short: but that's another story.
It's a sad state when you consider all the once popular tourist destinations now blocked-off due to the omnipresent "threat of terrorism", or so we're told. Spineless paranoia seems to have spread, from the view atop Lady Liberty to Pennsylvania Avenue, recently converted into a pedestrian-only walkway, once a busy, functioning street where busy functioning citizens could drive by the Presidential mansion with as much disregard as wide-eyed Young Republicans now meander on the sidewalk out front. It's all about security we're told. But when you stop and think about all the changes taken place since September 11, 2001, it's enough to break your red-white-and-blue heart. Does anyone actually care about the Patriot Act anymore and the fact that dozens of our civil liberties, many guaranteed by the Constitution have been put on ice, perhaps permanently? Government can look into our bank accounts now, storm into our homes without more of a cause than "suspected threat to the homeland", all without warrants. Same goes for email communications, phone conversations, our mail and sadly even our homes, all in the name of protecting us from the ever present terrorists. I'm not saying the government hasn't done a great job of holding off more terrorist attacks since that day, but at what point does the price become too high? About six years ago I'll say. We're being watched and monitored unlike at any other time if our oblivious history. It's an argument I know many make but that falls on so many deaf ears. Even friends of mine have used the old "if you have nothing to hide, what are you worried about?" come-back during my constant tangents and tirades against this new protectionism. The sad truth is that the argument seems to be working all too well. No one on the left, right or in the middle for that matter seems to be paying much attention and the result is less privacy, fewer liberties and a slowly rotting free and open society, all because a group of Arabs hijacked some planes and ran them into buildings. It's the high price we have to pay we're told to "win" the war on terror when in fact, we've won nothing and lost so much.
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Apr
2 |
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-JD
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