My Sick Mind

Blogger buddy Sparky Duck, over at Philly Transplant ran this interview meme post a few days ago. It sounded like fun, so I asked him to send me 5 questions. As it is, I’m a little burned out over that American Idol rant on Friday. Those things take a lot out of me, so this was a welcome change of pace. It won’t get nearly the number of page hits I got with the AI material, but it’s a lot more user-friendly, and probably more reader-friendly, too. So, here we go. Five questions and five answers. 1. The President comes to you and offers you any job within his administration, besides his. You feel a certain sense of duty to your country, so you accept. What job do you take and why? I would want a job where I could do some good and have an impact, which immediately leaves out Press Secretary and most of those patronage jobs. Vice President is an interesting title, since there is considerable upside when it comes to future employment, but I don't think it carries enough weight to ...

Most of my regular readers know the contempt with which I hold American Idol and its participants. If you don't, you can do a simple "blog search" and find out. Take all the time you need. Earlier this week, they did something that they called Idol Gives Back , which conjures up several jokes which you can make up on your own, or if you'd like, you can e-mail me and I will send to you. Either way, it was a sham of a fraud, which follows in line with the rest of the show. LOS ANGELES - An American Idol charity special filled with wrenching pictures of impoverished children and celebrity appeals raised more than $600 million, Fox said Thursday A total of $5 million was pledged by Fox parent company News Corp., which gave 10 cents for each of the first 50 million votes received for contestants on Tuesday's show. More than 70 million votes were cast, a record for the show, Fox said. Oh, Fox, you generous bastards. Or not. What about the money from the other 20 mi...

LONDON (Reuters) - A large English cheddar cheese has become a star of the Internet, attracting more than 1 million viewers to sit and stare at it as it slowly ripens. Click here to make it 1 million and one. Go ahead. You know you want to.

Back in the 60s (where I come from), music magazines and radio stations created competitions between bands. The Beatles vs. The Four Seasons [I never figured that one out], Black Sabbath vs. Deep Purple, ELP vs. Yes and The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones. You were either in one camp or the other. For someone as competitive and opinionated as I, those were sometimes life-altering choices. My mistake as a youngster was allowing the media (radio and magazines) to make me choose. Perhaps that is why I rebel against media now? As I look back on those issues, I found that I would have loved Deep Purple, but I was a Black Sabbath guy, and Deep Purple was the enemy. Luckily, I was early on The Beatles' bandwagon, so The Four Seasons never stood a chance. Thank you, media. Do I sound hypocritical? I found ELP and Yes around the same time, too. I remember seeing a Circus magazine article that proclaimed "Keith Emerson's Favorite Cup of Blood - Genesis". So, being a huge ELP f...

Roger Daltrey sings. Pete Townsend plays the guitar. The other two died. .

WASHINGTON - The brother of Army Ranger Pat Tillman accused the Pentagon and the Bush administration yesterday of deliberately concealing the circumstances of the former football star's friendly-fire death in Afghanistan in an effort to avoid embarrassment. OK. In some ways, this qualifies as a front-page story, which it was today. In other ways, it does not. First, it’s human nature to lie to avoid embarrassment. Second, look who we’re talking about here. These people would lie about a mixed-up lunch order if it made them look good. It makes me wonder how many other times something like this has happened to soldiers who do not have the high-profile exposure of a former NFL player. I’m guessing “lots”. If you think that every family of every soldier who is killed over there gets the straight story from our government, you’ve got another think coming.

Occasionally, I like to offer up a little perspective on life. Actually, I try to do it every day. Sometimes though, the angle is so direct that it is impossible to miss. This story was buried in today’s Inquirer for a good reason. It is obscure, and only affects a few people, yet the perspective it offers is outstanding. Here is the story: NEWARK, N.J. - The State Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Garden State Parkway must reinstate a toll taker who was fired after shooting paintballs at a van during a road rage incident on the highway. An arbitrator had ruled that Jason Glassey should be reinstated after an 11-month unpaid suspension, but the highway operator had persuaded an appellate court to uphold the firing. I only include the story so you will know some background. It isn’t all that important to know that a toll taker was involved in a road rage incident and was fired. What is important is what was included way down in the 9th paragraph of the story: Glassy was working at...

KABUL, Afghanistan - An Army Sargent complained in a rare opinion article that the U.S. flag flew at half-staff last week at the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan for those killed at Virginia Tech, but the same honor is not given to fallen U.S. troops here and in Iraq. "I find it ironic that the flags were flown at half-staff for the young men and women who were killed at VT, yet it is never lowered for the death of a U.S. service member," Sgt. Jim Wilt wrote. That answer is pretty simple, really. Sad, but simple. I think Sgt. Wilt knows the answer, he just wants the government to acknowledge it. Nice try, Jim. The government - your government - would rather not acknowledge the war dead because ... well ... they are war dead. When some nut-job shoots up a school, those kinds of things are known as "tragedies" or a "massacre". War, on the other hand, is a military (Government) operation, where the dead are sent by the government on a volunteer basis (for no...

I saw a little of Rich Little at the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday night on the CSpan. I say "a little" not to be coy, but because impressionists creep me out. They seem so excited about being able to "do" someones voice, then they go about making up junk that the person is supposed to say. Little was "doing" Andy Rooney [one of my writing heroes] and he starts by telling us that he will "do" Andy, [creepy] and then goes into the "Ever notice" junk and telling jokes like "I wonder, if you wanted to grow seedless watermelon, what would you plant?" The president laughed, because he didn't know either. So that Sangina guy is off American Idol ? I saw some clips of him on another show and it sounds like he was lucky to get as far as he did. I suppose there's a record deal coming. Meanwhile, the show is advertising something they are calling American Idol Gives Back. Great. They have made about 18 trill...