My Sick Mind

News Item : On Thursday, the Kansas House voted 119-0 to approve a bill that would prohibit anyone under the age of 15 from marrying in Kansas, and would set strict limits for would-be brides or grooms under the age of 18. The Senate approved it a day earlier by a vote of 36-4. Four ? Who would vote against this thing? People of Kansas: Find those four Senators and have them severly beaten. News Item : WASHINGTON: Angry conservatives are driving the approval ratings of President Bush and the GOP-led Congress to dismal new lows, according to an AP-Ipsos poll that underscores why Republicans fear an Election Day massacre. Finally, the party is seeing the backlash from their association with people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly. While it is doubtful that supporters have seen the error of their ways (since they are steadfast in their beliefs) it is nevertheless nice to see that maybe now the party will have to take steps to distance themselves from those so-calle...

B arry Bonds and his rotund head are coming to Philadelphia this weekend to play the Phillies. Barry is a couple of home runs away from Babe Ruth's 714, and 40-something shy of Hank Aaron's all-time record of 755. For some reason, Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas told us tonight, to come to the ballpark this weekend "for Barry Bonds' record setting feat." What record, exactly? Since when is second place a record? If he hits home run number 714 and/or 715 here in Citizens Bank Ballpark, will they stop the game and celebrate ... second? It sounds a lot like Little League to me. Will Barry get a little trophy, CONGRATULATIONS FOR ALMOST BEING THE BEST . Complete with a little batter with a disproportionate head. It strikes me as another example of baseball shamelessly promoting itself for their own glory, drawing attention to something that really does not deserve our attention. Baseball is no stranger to this kind of treatment, and since its popularity has waned ov...

W hile I was peddling my bicycle through the neighborhood, a young girl, probably 6 or 7 years old, waved at me and shouted out, “My birthday is in the summertime!” What an interesting thing to say, I thought, at least as far as a six-year old is concerned. Children can get away with such oddities, and we write it off as just a kid being charming. At some point in our lives, the mysterious properties of youth sadly disappear into adulthood, and we are expected to act sensibly. If the roles were reversed, and I hollered some non sequitur to a kid, it might seem peculiar. (“I like apples!”) Nevertheless, I waved back, the way we wave at people we don’t know, just to be polite. Even so, it did make me smile, and isn’t that one of the duties of a child? “Just doing my job, sir!” With the advent of the Bluetooth headset, the public non sequitur is becoming commonplace, although it doesn’t sound quite as endearing coming from an adult, but more on the order of a mental patient wandering out ...

News Item: New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine has shelved his plan to allow self-serve gasoline pumps, saying Tuesday that while he believes it could reduce gas costs, the idea isn't worth the fight against overwhelming opposition. Corzine said he had received some 1,400 e-mails to his office on the self-serve proposal. By comparison, his plan to increase the state sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent has drawn only 200 e-mails. Corzine said the self-service plan was just an "idea" that he wanted to see tested in a pilot program. He said it would save drivers $5 for every 100 gallons of gasoline. Obviously, since it was a hairbrained scheme, it is now labeled merely an "idea". If it was more popular, it would have been a "great idea". I understand that, unless you are reading this in Oregon, you have no idea the level of angst that was created here in the Garden State. Gasoline is a product that is best served by others. We're a fat, bloated country...

Let's get back to this American Idol subject, since my surpressed rage over the present state of our government is spinning so far out of control that perhaps a light-hearted look at American culture will be just the thing to soothe my savage breast. Or not. As we know by now, there is a celebrity shortage. There must be, otherwise, why would shows like Idol be so popular? Apparently, there is a dearth of CDs for people to buy, so it naturally falls on television to fill the gaps in your collection. Meanwhile, there are thousands of discs at your local Tower Records store, several of which are in the $9.99 New Artist rack, but I know how difficult it is for Americans to latch onto anything new, so we will allow television the freedom to shape our opinions for us - and what could be quicker and easier than that? From what I see and (unfortunately) hear, the people who "win" on this show - or even the ones who lose and still "win" - are so AOR-Middle of the R...

A ll weekend (or at least it seemed like all weekend) otherwise healthy adults were held captive indoors by ESPN's televised coverage of the NFL draft. From noon on Saturday until 6pm on Sunday, we were treated to Chris Berman and his pals debating whether or not the Seattle Seahawks made a mistake drafting a fullback from USC with the 163rd pick. Oy. Meanwhile, the Houston Texans surprized the so-called experts by not taking Reggie Bush with the first pick, thereby rendering their expert opinions worthless. If they could not figure out who would be the first overall pick, what is the point of listening to them at all? They should be made to donate their paychecks to charity. I suspect that the reason the draft coverage wound up on television at all is the need to provide programming. After all, most of us with cable TV have at least 80 channels from which to choose, and providing programming for everything from the Animal Channel to MTV is difficult. And, there's only so much...

Nero Fiddles While Rome Burns President Bush, left, and Steve Bridges, a comedian and President Bush look alike, speak during the White House Correspondents' Association's 92nd annual awards dinner, Saturday, April 29, 2006, in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari) Personally, I think the country might be better off if Bridges took over.