Pay to Play

I was reading a couple of stories recently where the law practices conflicting comportment concerning  similar circumstances. And while I choose to believe both sets of  individuals facing the legal system made choices that I consider -stupid is as stupid does- questionable behavior –> one practice is actually illegal while a similar practice is not. My question becomes – in the eyes of the legal system, why is one behavior legal and the other not?

In the first case a Utah man -Kody Brown- has been facing charges of bigamy after TLC made a popular television show called Sister Wives, surrounding his polygamous marriage lifestyle with four wives. The family  also has 17 children. With four wives and 17 children  – I would need a large supply of pharmaceuticals including Aspirin, Viagra and some sort of happy pill just to survive.  I wouldn’t even want to think about how I could financially pay for the living arrangement- much less four women cursing at me for leaving the toilet seat up, hanging the toilet paper the wrong direction as well as my large collection of Moline Dispatch editions for reading material kept in the bathroom. (In my childhood days the newspaper would also have joined the Sears and Roebuck and Montgomery Wards catalogs in serving the extra duty of replacing toilet paper in the out house.) Fortunately for the family in question legal proceedings of bigamy by Utah authorities have been dropped.

In the similar yet different case (legally) another man -Desmond Hatchett-  whom  has fathered 30 children with eleven different women, does not have to worry about polygamy charges, as he has not bothered to marry any of the children’s mothers.  Yet he has faced legal problems for several years; due to the fact that he is incapable of keeping up with child support payments, for so many children. No doubt that is a problem. Payments of child support for 30 children would probably send Bill Gates into the poorhouse. The man is now seeking financial help from the government to meet his child support.

The conundrum for a poor simple hillbilly like me is – why does the law look at the man with four wives and seventeen children as a bigamist criminal, yet the man with thirty kids from eleven different mothers, is only a criminal when he can’t pay his child support. Now I don’t  personally care how many wives or children a man has or doesn’t have. I have been a lifelong bachelor my whole 29+ years on this planet. (Maybe it’s the toilet seat issue?) And one wife sounds  like more than I could handle at this stage. I do believe that if you are going to take the time and effort to make babies – you are personally financially responsible for them. Yet I do question a law that punishes one person while another skates on a technicality. Perhaps it is time to dump the bigamy laws. Or better yet, perhaps it is time to get government out of the marriage business altogether and leave it up to the churches and religious institutions that created it. The governments time concerning marriage is better off spent chasing down deadbeat dads and moms whom don’t like to pay to play.

Related articles

• Sister Wives Cast: Cleared in Bigamy Investigation! (thehollywoodgossip.com)
• ‘Sister Wives’ Bigamy Lawsuit Dropped (huffingtonpost.com)

Bring on the Bristol Beer and Levi Levitra

Potential political opponents for any future run for POTUS by Sarah Palin -  must furiously  calculating  hypothetical suggestive associative smear-campaigns, as they drool at the thoughts of a Billy Carter reincarnation when they read about the current  Bristol Palin/Levi Johnston  Big Top Circus. Flashbacks of Billy Beer and Billygate sugar plums dart possibilities to skewer any Sarah Palin campaign – are probably dancing in their bipartisan heads. Such is the misfortune of having fifteen-minute-of-fame seeking relatives when you are a candidate competing in a political world directed  more by media frenzy than durable goods. Live by the sword: Die by the Sword. Bristol Beer or Levi Levitra anyone?

MLB All Star Game Stupid is as Stupid does

I am an avid baseball fan. I don’t mind that it is thirty minutes of actual sporting activity – often jam-packed into a three hour time span. Like many-many baseball fans I am team-brand conscious.  In my case that means if the Chicago Cubs aren’t on the field I probably ain’t watching. That team-brand loyalty, is a reason that MLB requires both the American League and the National League to select at least one player from every team each league represents. To look at it from a business sense –> The All Star Game is an exhibition game and in order to draw and that helps keep the largest amount of baseball fans tuned in to the game. That helps MLB sell the game to Television corporations, plus it helps the broadcasting station to maximize dollars from advertising revenue. The fan hopefully gets to see the hometown favorite play the hero, the television station attracts a wider selection of viewers to expose their station’s product to while making money on advertising and the advertisers feel happy because they have a chance to promote their products to the captive viewer waiting to see their hometown favorite play the hero. It is a win-win-win for all parties. But like most big top circus events there is always room for “stupid is as stupid does” moments! In Tuesday’s game there was at least two such moments. One belonged to MLB the other to myself. Both of those moments coincided with each other.

I am a baseball addict. Like many foolish baseball addicts, I programmed my Direct TV box to automatically switch  to the game – which was 7:00 PM Central. That was my “Stupid is as Stupid does“ moment! I have been watching the All Star Game for most of my 29+ years on the planet. Any avid watcher knows MLB rolls out a Big Top Extravaganza  of entertainment before the actual game. It always lasts too long. That is their “Stupid is as Stupid does” moment. It is now  after 2:00 AM in the morning and I still cannot tell you whom I am more mad at – myself or MLB!

Most Baseball games are a lot like going fishing – a lot of lulls in between the action. Even for an avid baseball watcher -there are lots of slow time in between the offensive and defensive plays. That is why the cameramen often scan the audience for pictures of cute kids, sexy women and doofus guys; in order distract the television audience during those lulls in the field action. So as I walked in to my television room several minutes after  the scheduled time for the game, the pregame pomp was just getting under way. ZZZ-ZZZ-ZZZ! I walked in just in time to see a very ragged looking Harrison Ford in the middle of a feel-good MLB promotion. Sorry but MLB games are way too long for them too drag out such pregame spectacle. After a few minutes I started channel surfing. I returned to the channel at 7:45 PM figuring the game must be started. Nope, I arrived to a Direct TV commercial. When the commercials were over the game was still not ready to start! Finally a couple of charming kids came on the screen and did in about two minutes what MLB had failed to do in the previous forty-eight minutes – read the player lineups in order to start the game.  The first pitch of the game was not thrown until after the clock on my television registered 7:50 PM. Arghhhhhh!  Fifty minutes of mostly pompous spectacle in order to watch a game that lasted almost another three hours.  I don’t mind giving up three hours of my time to watch  a professional baseball game – I am a baseball fan. But fifty minutes of filler before the game is ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!! It is distracting from the game and wasteful of the fans time. There is not a promotion or acknowledgement included before a baseball game that could not have been worked in as filler in between innings or during down minutes of the game. Baseball fans tune in the All Star game to watch baseball not fifty minutes of grandiose self-promoting back-slapping by MLB, owners/management, players,  their affiliates and associations. Stupid is as Stupid does! If I were one of those MLB sponsors that paid mega-bucks for advertising in the time period between 7:00 and 7:50 PM – I would be demanding my money back!!!

Obama and His Weiner Attack Free Speech

When a politician and/or a political party is unable to win arguments with an adversary  they look for ways to buy off the individual and/or find a way to force the silence of the individual. A non-traditional source -Obama seeks to silence with legislation- is bloggers. Also, Barack Obama has been busy attempting the later on members of Fox News since he took office over a year ago. The individual Obama seeks to bully the most seems to be  Fox’s very popular on-air personality, Glenn Beck. Beck could be described as part entertainer + part newscaster + part modern-day prophet. Beck and his diligent staff tend to find videos that expose the Marxist infection, in their own damning words,  that is rampant among the Obama White House advisers and confidants. Obama and his staff have done their best to disparage Beck, his show and the information Beck broadcasts daily. The conflict between the two has reached the point that Beck actually installed a dedicated phone to offer Team  Obama the chance to discuss any broadcast information that Team Obama feels in not factual. I have yet to see or hear Team Obama  to call in to discuss where they feel the Beck information is erroneous. Instead Team Obama continues a pattern of attack-attack-attack in a manner they hope will silence the Beck media political program.  So much for freedom of the press. It makes you wonder just how much Marxist agenda information that is not getting found. The rest of the press does not even seem to be asking questions – much less looking to use their constitutionally guaranteed power of the press to search for answers. The most latest attack on Beck has come from a NY Congressman Anthony Weiner. Weiner has been busy doing the Obama dirty-work  of  Obama by attacking the Beck program while also trying to organize a boycott of the Programs sponsors. One Weiner attack has been against a Beck sponsor that sells gold investments. Weiner attempts to paint an unholy alliance between the Beck and Gold Investment corporation advertiser as part of a rightwing conspiracy. Perhaps Weiner should tune in the non-rightwing show Coast to Coast Am that deals with the paranormal and political conspiracy.  He will find that they to push Gold Investment companies advertising.  Beck does not seem to back down from an all out brawls even with the odds stacked against him. So  Beck has started a website to address the Congressman’s attacks called Weiner facts. The fight against Team  Obama’s attack against free speech and holding his administration accountable for their actions, continues.

Miss USA – Girls Gone Wild

The Miss USA contest is no stranger to T & A titillation. According to Wikipedia –> “The Miss USA pageant was conceived in 1950 when Yolande Betbeze, winner of the rival Miss America pageant, refused to pose for publicity pictures while wearing a swimsuit. Miss America Pageant sponsor Catalina (a swimsuit manufacturer) decided to pull their sponsorship off the pageant, and create their own competition.” Considering the current controversy surrounding the publicity photos of contestants in racy lingerie poses, used to promote this years pageant, it looks as if the Miss USA  Beauty Pageant has decided to up the shock-factor.

As a former raging hormonal teenager of the male species, followed up in the 90′s by running with a QC Wolf Pack chasing the local girls-gone-wild and with health permitting, a future member of the dirty old mans club – I can say that the 2010 Miss USA publicity photos definitely have the WOW-Factor!  If the pageant officials and  contestants were seeking to embolden a Caligula status to all  their reputations and increase television ratings – through the pictures of contestants clothed in come-hither attired Penthouse poses designed to produce pervert’s cramps among the pageants spectators, I am guessing that they have succeeded in that endeavor.

However, while capitalizing on the lust factor may increase the beauty pageants  television ratings – I am guessing the pictures will do little for any of the contestants not seeking to use the pageant as a means to jump-start a career in the porn industry or womens underwear modeling. If that is the hope of these Miss USA Contestants, then they have chosen wisely. They are certainly more honorable, dignified  and respectable professions than politicians and lawyers.

On the other hand if the contestants were hoping to use the pageant as a stepping-stone towards becoming the CEO of a fortune 500 company – the pageant  photo-op  is probably a bad idea. Large Corporations tend to be stuffy and prudish when it comes to men or women attempting to climb the corporate ladder. Men and women already sitting in the corporate penthouses tend to see Penthouse/Playboy posing women as carnal entertainment for behind closed doors. If climbing the corporate ladder were the intentions of these young ladies – the photos will probably only help create a more difficult road ahead of them, before they can become the next Martha Stewart.

I have never been a beauty pageant fan, even during my raging hormone days. Not my cup of tea. But I do wish the contestants luck and hope the photo-op works to their advantage. But I am guessing that the only real winner will be the pageant and the television station exploitation as they benefit from making girls-next-door into girls gone wild.

TV Series 24 to End this Season

The following is a quote from the television series “24″.

I see fifteen people held hostage on a bus, and everything else goes out the window. I will do whatever it takes to save them, and I mean whatever it takes. … Laws were written by much smarter men than me. And in the end, these laws have to be more important than the 15 people on the bus. I know that’s right. In my mind, I know that’s right. I just don’t think my heart could ever have lived with it.

Fox has announced that this will be the last season for their hit television show “24″, which had the fictional character Jack Bauer fighting fictional terrorist attacks being perpetrated in the USA! I was kind of a late comer to the television show. I did not have access to the Fox channel for most of the early seasons, so I had to catch “24″ on replay when it was broadcast on  satellite channels. Some of those seasons I missed part or all of the episodes. It was an easy  series to like that happened on the scene at a time period where the USA had been attacked by real terrorists.  The right show at the right time to captivate an audience.  Besides what was a ground breaking format for story telling, a crucial part of what  made the show interesting, was the Bauer character’s willingness to do whatever information extraction methods “he felt” necessary, to prevent  disaster. There will be a movie spin-off but I will miss tuning into the weekly series.

The last few years -in real life- the US populace has been split on the value of harsh intelligence agency  interrogation techniques.  In the fictional television series “24″, Jack Bauer has usually pushed the envelope of using harsh techniques to obtain his intelligence information. A trend of the series, was reflecting what was happening in real life US political scenes – in the real life battle between pro and con usage of extreme interrogation methods.  There are those that wish to make even harsher restrictions on what the US Intelligence Agencies can or cannot do during interrogation of terrorist suspects. My personal reflections are split on the real life issue. I can understand the moral objections and information value issues that can be argued by both sides of the conflict. But in the end I tend to agree with the Bauer quote I included at the top of this post. I think you have to give Intelligence agencies the ability to do their job when dealing with terrorists. I am a big believer in living life by the rules. But I am also am a believer that when terrorists/adversaries do not play by the current rules then – you change the rule book to level the playing field. We can only hope there are real life Jack Bauers – those willing to take personal and professional risks, by bucking the slow moving US  bureaucracy – that real terrorists count on-  that tends to hamper the safety of US citizens from terror attacks.

Derrek Lee Injured While Eating

In what was clearly a treacherous act perpetrated by either a St. Louis Cardinal or Chicago White Sox operative –> Derrek Lee was injured when a chair collapsed from underneath him, while he was eating. Early information is that Lee was not seriously injured from the evil deed designed to keep the Chicago Cubs star First Baseman from playing the 2010 MLB season. Should the injury turnout more serious I am sure that spin doctors from the rival baseball teams shall attempt to pass the injury off as, just another in a long history of bizarre injuries happening to star Cub players such as, the Soriano -hop, the Sosa -sneeze and the Zambrano -e-mail injury! The overall historical strangeness of Star Cub player injuries continues to look like a decades long conspiracy of treacherous acts committed by rival teams or perhaps another Billy Goat Curse. This conspiracy surely needs further investigation and it should be examined in detail by MN Governor Jesse “The Body” Ventura on his television show Conspiracy Theory!

Boys Will Be Boys

Over on the WQAD website they are talking about a recent assault on a student, perpetrated by fellow school athletes. The story is sparse in details – but it claimed that two of the attackers held down the victim while a third attacker placed his genitals on the victims face while they were also verbally humiliating the victim. Two seniors and one junior have been arrested and charged for the attack. The two seniors were charged as adults and the junior was charged as a juvenile. The individual they attacked was a freshman. The WQAD readership seems to have varied views on how to deal with the arrested students. Some want to slap them on the hands and say “boys will be boys”. Others want to throw the book at the three students for their actions.

Sadly the “boys will boys” statements are all to familiar of an occurrence. For some reason, despite the negativity and possible harms involved, it seems that school hazing rituals continue in one form or another. Some hazing events are well-intentioned welcome to the club trials, others are viciously crafted attacks/torments to drive away competition. Which column this event falls under, is not evident from information given in the article or reader comments. But I strongly disagree with those that say the students should just be slapped on the hand for their possible hazing actions. I have known of so-called “well-intentioned” hazing events that took place over the years, which affected the victims with extreme emotional and/or physical distress. And in most cases the high school students involved in the events received a “bad boy” condemnation or had their hands slapped by getting suspended from school for a short-time and/or temporarily relieved of their athletic privileges. The closest to a serious high school punishment I can remember, involved not a hazing, but a group of jocks that were involved in a disputed non-consensual “boys will be boys” sexual activity. But the jocks were all well-connected and the girl involved had a tramps reputation, so the jocks simply got suspended from school and school athletics for the remainder of the season, but all was forgiven come the following spring. Hardly a fitting punishment considering the age of the girl! The fourteen-year-old girl/victim involved was basically kicked to the side of the road by the system. Hazing perpetrators  generally received even less punishment. Hand-slapping was not the proper punishment then, it is not the proper punishment now. Hazing has the potential to become a devastating event for the victim. It is a stupid is, as stupid does moment for the perpetrators and they/all potential hazers/bullies need to be sent a message that hazing and/or physical attacks are not an act to be tolerated.

Network Television – Endangered Species

Is the life of free Network Television dying an expensive death? There are many sources predicting the death of free TV by as soon as 2011. Maybe the demise could hold off until 2012, which would be kind of ominous, maybe even ironic to those that claim television as a blight on our culture. It is not as crazy as it may sound to those whom have never considered paying – for the costs of cable and/or satellite television signals.

As an AP article points out network television is bleeding greenbacks and not showing the quality profits as cable/satellite stations. Plus some cable/satellite stations like HBO, Showtime, USA Network, SYFY Network, Lifetime, MTV etc. have began to create their own original programming and movies. With the prodigious procreation of new cable/satellite only stations with a considerable amount of quality original programming- the available advertising dollars are spread thin. And cable/satellite stations are more creative in their selection of advertisers. I can remember 1-800 phone-sex advertising was common in the early 90’s on cable shows like the USA Up All Night with Rhonda Shear late night movie programming. Cable/satellite has also progressed (regressed?) to numerous 24 hour and late-night home-shopping programs; some even consist of selling adult themed sex toys. Trust me there is something a little unnerving, when you fall asleep in your La-z-boy rocker/recliner watching a family oriented television show and wake up to two hot babes selling forearm sized dildos on your 48″ HDTV. The cable/satellite channels have many more advertising sources to create revenue than are possible for standard broadcast television stations.

It was just about nine years ago when I got into a heated discussion over HDTV versus Standard Broadcasting TV signals, with an individual whom preached that broadcast television would always be available in standard format. I said at the time HDTV was a mandated signal switch by the Government and that stations would only broadcast in non-HDTV format as long as it was profitable. Many people told me – that I was talking crazy talk. I was talking reality that has now come to fruition. So when I read an article like the above AP story, where it claims that free network television may be going the way of the dinosaur, I tend to believe them. Companies need profit to operate and as sources of advertising revenue grow thinner – the weaker stations will die off. I suppose they could all apply for a government bailout or for endangered species protection from Obama.

White House Meets Epicurean America

In an upcoming January episode of Iron Chef America – politics will mix with epicureans. It seems that first lady Michelle Obama has sought out the popular cooking show as a way of promoting her cause of healthy eating for children. The show will be a team effort of Food Network Icon Chefs Mario Batali & Emeril Lagasse versus fellow FN Chef Booby Flay paired-up with White House Executive Chef, Cristeta Comerford.  According to a Marian Burros article, the show visited the White House and the chefs wandered through the White House Garden to decide on vegetables that will be used in their creative dishes. The rules were that the Chefs must combine ingredients of the types grown in the White House garden with other FN supplied food components in every dish.

I am a regular viewer of Iron Chef America as well as the original Japanese version of the show. And while it should be an interesting battle – I do not foresee healthy eating habits coming from the creativity of these Chefs. Both Batali and Lagasse could sub for the Pillsbury Dough Boy should he call in sick. “Blue Corn” Bobby Flay, while not of Pillsbury Dough Boy material, is not known for serving health food either. They are all top end Chefs that serve gourmet taste buds, whom seek extravagant cuisine that does not come from healthy eating habits. The prepared foods are often large portioned high-fat high-carb high-caloric treats accompanied by more of the same side dishes. The favorite accompanying ingredient to any dish for the guest judges is usually – BACON! One of the media leaked not so healthy ingredients for this episode also happens to be baby-pig.  And though the some guest judges may look healthy to pencil thin – if they eat meals similar to those served on camera, when at home and away from the show, then they must be often practitioners of bulimia. Great Television Spectacle, you bet! Good politics, probably. Good food, no doubt. Healthy eating habits encouragement – not so much and only at a public pretense level.