My Sick Mind

Regular readers (if I have any) know that in the past I've railed against the bane of television , American Idol . Sadly, it is very popular and has led to a bunch of copycat programs too numerous to mention. I have been cynical of the show and its format, saying things such as this: I think you're seeing the show for what it is: A manipulative, ridiculous excuse for a talent show that has for years, adjusted its audience in such a way as to present what they feel are people worthy of recording contracts. Otherwise, how could you possibly explain the idea of whittling down a few hundred thousand contestants to six without knowing the outcome beforehand? Alas, one former contestant, a Junot Joyner, has come out and said words to that effect. I don't know anything about him other than he is a former contestant and subsequent loser. In addition to being a self-proclaimed "troublemaker" he accuses the show of rigging the outcome. In an online chat, he described t...

I don't like insurance. House, car, life - whatever - no time for it. I'm convinced that the reason auto body repairs are so expensive is because of insurance, health care is so expensive because of insurance, and burial costs are so expensive because of insurance. Without insurance, dare I say, we'd lead much more productive and richer lives. Yesterday , the renewal notice came for my homeowner's insurance. It's not a big deal, since the condo association carries the bulk of it. All I insure is from the fire wall inward. When I got to the part about declaring a deductible I started to think - and you know how dangerous that can be. My current deductible is $500. If I increase it to $750 I can save $7 a year in premiums. Increase it to $1,000 and I save $11. Increase it to $1,500 and save $15. You get the point. Take a second and see if you can figure out my thought pattern. I'll wait. Here is a lovely photo of some hot-air balloons while you think ... Here...

I can understand women who "collect" shoes. Closets full of them, even though they are limited to two feet. I've never been much of a shoe person. I own a pair of dress shoes, two pair of work shoes and a pair of sneakers for the gym. If I had the unlimited income of say, a lottery winner, I'd have a drawer full of sunglasses. Oakley's, specifically. Even though I'm limited to two eyes, I enjoy the fashion statement. What I don't enjoy is the dollar statement, which is why I'm limited to two - one for each eye. Cheap sunglasses are just that, and I'm convinced they do more harm than good. I keep hearing about the economic crisis, and I'm feeling it as much as anyone, but a quick tour of the Oakley web site finds something called the Pit Boss, selling for a cool $595. Sure, you say, 6 bills for sunglasses - but they're sold out, which tells me that at least a few Oakley customers have so little respect for six hundred dollars that they...

The local media is kicking our ass. David Sale Jr. was brutally beaten and subsequently killed after a brawl with some hooligans at McFadden's at Citizen's Bank Ballpark on Saturday. There were three front page stories in the Philadelphia Inquirer today. One on the front page , another on the front of the South Jersey section by Karen Heller and a third on the front of the sports page by Phil Sheridan. The only one with any actual facts was the one on the front page. Read them if you want, but suffice it to say, Sheridan and Heller missed the point entirely by blaming Phillies fans. Briefly, the three assailants had rap sheets as long as their arms, and killed a guy who was involved in a bachelor party, over a spilled beer. The part where we're getting our asses kicked is the part where it supposedly involved Phillies fans. Phillies fans are the least of the people involved in this. To wit, the assailants: Those charged in Saturday’s fatal beating of David Sale Jr. ou...

When I get a stomach virus, I wind up on the toilet several times a night. It awakens me from my sleep, and each time I get up to agonizingly go to the bathroom I hope it's the last time. But there is usually one more salvo, and when I think that my body is empty, I am awakened once again and all I can muster is some lingering stomach pain and another twenty minutes of lost sleep. That's the way I view Sarah Palin. The lingering sickness that keeps coming back, and each time I hope this is the last time. She left the Alaska governor's seat on Sunday, presumably for good, but didn't let the event pass without firing off a few salvos at those of us sitting on the toilet waiting for the pain to stop. “So, how about, in honor of the American soldier, you quit making things up,” she said with an insistent voice, prompting loud applause and cheers from a mostly sympathetic audience gathered at a park in Fairbanks. What did we make up, I wonder? The troubled teen pregnancy...

I swear, if I see another one of these articles about "Money you waste on stuff" I'm going to drive to the author's home and smack him in the back of the head. Here's the latest one , from Kiplinger's which, if you read it, you probably don't care about how much money you waste, because you have enough to not care about how much money you waste. If you can follow their advice, you probably earn enough money to ignore it altogether. These are among their concerns: Letting your money wallow in a checking account, when it could be making big bucks in a high-interest savings account. Sure. My paycheck is wasting away in that checking account, until the creditors call and wonder where it is. Paying up-front fees for mutual funds. Uh-huh. I have so many mutual funds, I'm picking the scraps out of my ass. Here's one: Dust off your library card and check out books, music and movies for free (or dirt-cheap). Sure. I'm dying to see "20,000 Leag...