My Sick Mind

I'll be taking a short blog break this weekend (insert stifled cheers here). Tonight, I will be in lovely Camden, NJ at the Fiona Apple show, in the 6th row, enraptured by her music. Then, Saturday, it's off to Connecticut for The Dave Matthews Band, with Gov't Mule opening. There may not be a better bill in all of music. That's probably a two-day event, since the drive to CT is over 4 hours, and the show will likely not be over until after midnight. So, Sunday would appear to be a washout. Monday, I have a take-home mid-term for my Auditing class that I will be spending some library time with. So, even though it's classified as a "Vacation day" from work, anyone who knows anything about auditing knows that this test will be no vacation. As a result of this expected inactivity, I have posted several essays. Don't eat them all at once. Save some for later, or else you'll get indigestion. And, stay out of the pool for at least an hour after y...

We spend a great deal of time, effort and money trying to change things which were given to us by our Creator. There are pills and medical treatments for conditions that did not have pills and treatments ten years ago. Drug companies are happy to supply them to us, since we would rather take a pill than admit that there is a bigger problem that requires more sophisticated treatment, and we believe them when they tell us that we have a "disease". Advertisements run on TV every day for some pill or other designed to treat something that we may not even know we have. Sometimes it's attention deficit disorder (commonly called "boredom") and other times it's the frequency of our urination (sometimes called "drinking too much coffee"). In each case, we are told to "ask your doctor if [pill name] is right for you." Chances are it isn't, since often the side-effects are more devistating than the ailment. Besides, isn't it my doctor's...

Proving that we are without racial prejudice is a bit like proving that you have not done something. There is no tangible evidence, and the idea is so foreign to some people, that it defies belief that someone could be free of racial or sexual bias. As caucasians, we are faced with an especially daunting challenge, since we are believed to be so locked into the "white community" (whatever that is) that we would fail to see any other race or support any person who isn't of like color. When I read Pam's post today, the thoughts were re-kindled. Can we be so narrow-minded that the thoughts we have would only be expressed in favor of our own race or religion? Perhaps. In these cases, the group is punished for the actions of one. That's racism, folks. I don't know much about what is going on in the Middle East, but I do know baseball. Earlier this week, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a story about Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard, who, you may know, recently won...

Whether you are a fan of Howard Stern or not, there is no denying his influence on American radio. His show began broadcasting in the Philadelphia area in 1985, and slowly, other stations began to be manipulated by the structure of his show. The fact that he killed them in the ratings didn't hurt, and those stations adopted a "kill or be killed" attitude toward their programming. Witness the ever-present woman news reader, who for some reason, cannot be in the same room as the hosts (almost always male), just as Robin Quivers was always in a separate room. The fact that it is radio didn't seem to matter. Listeners would know, somehow. Howard did wacky stunts, so the others followed. Howard had girls in the studio, and the others followed. All in the name of ratings. Forget the fact that Stern has a gift, and could entice listeners with women that his audience could not see, other hosts figured that all they had to do was bring women into the studio and the world would...

HOUSTON - In a dramatic turnaround from her first murder trial, Andrea Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity yesterday in the drowning of her five children in a bathtub. Yates' chief attorney, George Parnham, called the new verdict: "a watershed for mental illness and the criminal justice system." Damn ... a watershed for mental illness is the phrase I was going to use as the sub-heading for the blog. Now I'll probably have to buy it from that attorney. Aside from being a poor choice of metaphor, I don't know why the mentally ill needed a watershed moment, but apparently the criminal justice system does. In this instance, perhaps criminal justice is the biggest oxymoron of 2006. Unless you consider that justice has been given to the criminal, then it's just stupid. I just don't get the "not guilty by reason of insanity" defense. Either she is guilty or not. Anyone who commits a crime is mentally ill in some manner, and if someone is...

Somebody said, "Don't sweat the small stuff", to which the common reply is "it's all small stuff." That may be true, but in the end, isn't it the small stuff that adds up to big stuff? Here's a short list of 5 "small stuff" things that occur on such a repetitive basis that they add up to big stuff: THE PARKING LOT STALKER - I'm at the mall, walking toward my car. Usually (as faithful readers know) I grab the first space I see, which is generally nearer the road than the mall. Meanwhile, "fat-ass SUV" is riding my ass at 4mph waiting for me to find my car and vacate the space, so he can load up. Generally, they are disappointed and give up long before I reach my car. SECRET: Sometimes I pretend to forget where I parked, and wander over to the other lane, out of reach of the stalker. THE LINE JUMPER - I'm standing in line at the inappropriately named convenience store, when a new cashier checks in and shouts, "I ca...

There are water shortages, nursing shortages, trucker shortages, doctor shortages and OH MY GOD Veggies, there's a Lentil Shortage ! There's even a Toor Dal shortage (as if you didn't know). But the worst kind of shortage is going on right under our noses, and we are so numb to it that we haven't adopted a colored bracelet or a web site devoted to it. So, allow me, in my own sick manner, to alert you to the next crisis at our doorstep. Celebrity Shortage That's right, Mr. and Mrs. America, there is a celebrity shortage. You don't think so? How else to explain the current crop of TV programs devoted to nothing other than creating stars? Tonight alone, there are three programs that are dedicated to helping Hollywood and the entertainment industry solve this growing crisis. Rock Star: Supernova on CBS, The One: Making a Music Star on ABC and Last Comic Standing on NBC, which I credit with being bold enough not to use a colon in its title. How about this? Last ...

Finally, the schmoes from American Idol visited our fair city. Faithful readers will no doubt remember my rant on the aptly named Pop Tarts Present American Idol . You remember, right? For some reason, the Wachovia Center was sold out for this thing. No accounting for taste. A great review appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer this morning. A few excerpts: Throaty, bald Chris (no last names!) led his fellow boy-Idols through a calmly crooned take on Guns N' Roses' "Patience." Bonde's fireplug MC Marina Ribatski barked Portuguese rhymes to DJ Diplo's hyper-baile beats and rapid-fire G-N'-R samples when she wasn't spitting beer. What could the difference be, if not spittle. And it got even better (worse?) when it came time for the Ford Motor Company's nearly-famous spazzy spokesman: There wasn't much calm to Taylor. From running through the audience to a hokey "Jailhouse Rock" to his goofball dancing, he was a king of twitchiness. Mi...

I stumbled across CNN today, and saw that they were promoting the "Crisis in the Middle East - Day 12" as their lead story - which, of course it is. The thing I had a problem with was that they are calling it "Day 12". Isn't it more like "Day 12 million"? When haven't they had some crisis over there? Here's a story idea: Day 12 - Nothing going on in Israel. One religious group or another has been fighting another religious group since the dawn of time, and it isn't about to end anytime soon, Condoleezza Rice notwithstanding. The sad part is, our God has placed the world's most important commodity - oil - smack in the middle of that gang of religious kooks. What a cruel joke on humanity. Usually, I would say that what happens elsewhere is none of our business, and I suppose to some extent it is. But, with the price of gasoline soon to be close to $4 a gallon, it does become our problem. All of which makes me an interested by...