Homer Jay's Slightly Demented World View....Mmmmm, World View

Have we Completely Lost our Minds?

Have we completely lost our minds?

The American public shrugs off Presidential debates (regardless of the faults in the system, which few would deny), yet plan viewing parties for the funeral of a pop singer with a checkered history (to be generous)?

Newsmagazines struggle for readers, but any two-bit tabloid with a pathetic narcissist like “Jon and/or Kate” on the cover flies off the shelves.

People devote their entire lives to serving humanity—be they teachers, police and firefighters, military members, scientists looking to unlock the mysteries of our most horrid diseases, relief and mission workers, those who help the poor and destitute or so many others—and yet the media chooses to devote the better part of two solid weeks to alleged ‘reporting’ about someone’s will and custody arrangements?

Our Congress is debating what could be the most significant change to the American lifestyle in generations, and the network that once defined “all news” sends a reporter to find a chimpanzee?

Children are starving, lack healthcare and are sent to unsafe schools with inadequate supplies, and we focus on whether Britney Spears will have visitation or custody of her kids?

People won’t watch the President (regardless of party) deliver policy addresses in significant numbers, but millions upon millions will tune in to watch celebrities pat each other on the back and consider that somehow meaningful and significant? 

I’m completely in favor of diversions from the serious issues of the day, but we’ve become far too obsessed with the celebrity culture to the point that we pay no attention to what really does impact our lives.  Forget Nero fiddling while Rome burns, it’s the Romans themselves who are too busy listening to the fiddles and swooning over the fiddlers to notice they’re ablaze themselves.

Entertainment Tonight and E! have their place, but when the network news operations become indistinguishable from them, we’ve lost something important and may never get it back.   Shows like The Daily Show or The Colbert Report are wonderfully insightful, but when the public begins to substitute them for actual news, the viewers are missing the point entirely.   It’s not just about taking jabs at public figures’ gaffes, it’s about understanding the underlying issues.  (And despite what an alarming number of people seem to believe, what happens overseas does matter, and does have an impact on our lives beyond the thankfully rare tragedy like 9/11.)

Don’t think our priorities are out of sync?  ABC has devoted more than twice as much airtime in just one day to the Michael Jackson nonsense than they did to their conversations on healthcare a couple of weeks ago.  That’s beyond pathetic, and is a shameful, shameful commentary on the media and on the public for rewarding their irresponsible behavior.

R.I.P. Journalism

It wasn’t just Farrah Fawcett that died on the same day Michael Jackson finally lost the game of Russian Roulette he’d been playing with drug abuse. No, there was a third famous death that day, only the corpse and public has failed to realize it. Any sense of perspective, moderation and responsibility in television journalism is now officially deceased.

The study in excess that has greeted the inevitable end of a perverted human freak show like Jackson has been appalling even had he been someone who didn’t do inappropriate things with children. I’m now expecting that when O.J. finally, and far too late, leaves this earth, that the coverage will be all about his considerable football skills with some passing references to those pesky allegations about what happened to his ex wife and her companion. Both took full advantage of prosecutorial ineptitude and a star-struck jury system, and such is the way it goes. That said, people don’t make payouts that end in “illions” to people who just felt like leveling false accusations for sport. But this is someone who had a childrens’ bedroom in his house only accessible by passing through his own room. Please explain to me how that’s the least bit appropriate. Or why a grown man kept dozens upon dozens of pictures of little boys on his wall. This is not some “misunderstood free spirit,” it’s a walking poster for pedophilia. Apparently, none of that matters, though. He recorded some hit songs. That must absolve him of behavior that would land just about anyone else on a sex offender registry.

Let’s pretend, though, that none of those things were real. The death of a singer does not warrant the kind of absurd attention it has received. By one analysis I read, 93% of cable-TV news coverage for 36 hours after he died was about Jackson. Leaving seven percent to focus on such trivial matters as wars, the economic crisis, the healthcare-reform debate, cap and trade legislation and anything else going on in the world.

A week and half later, the so-called news segments of the national morning shows continue to push aside actual news in favor of nothing more than innuendo—as there has been no conclusion in the actual investigation—and meaningless, tangential topics like home movies. Home movies? Are you kidding me? His movies weren’t news two weeks ago, they’re not news now. That, sadly, isn’t even the low point of the depths to which journalists have sunk. That ignominious honor goes to CNN’s Anderson Cooper, whose show (over which he exercises a degree of editorial control) somehow found it relevant to waste time on locating Jackson’s former pet chimp. You’re already wasting 55 minutes of every hour (based on the 93% analysis) on Jackson, and yet someone thought it was a good idea to devote yet more time to telling us where a particular chimp was spending its days.

A close runner up in the worthless coverage sweepstakes is ABC, which inexplicably gave Al Sharpton air time to vent his meaningless bile this morning. The same racist Al Sharpton that perpetuated the Tawana Brawley hoax, rendering anything he has to say irrelevant. Had Robin Roberts even asked why the public should take his comments seriously when he’s a proven liar would have been a worthwhile exercise, but, no, as usual, the liar was allowed to speak unchallenged.

Jackson’s death was news, to be sure. Even a top story on the day it happened. And meaningful developments could rightly have been included towards the end of subsequent newscasts along with other entertainment news. But anchoring Nightline from a place where he hasn’t lived in years, spending five minutes explaining to people nowhere near L.A. what will be closed off for the funeral service (side note: will the Jacksons pay for this public extravaganza with all the revenue from the renewed interest in his music? It would be the right things to do for a cash-strapped city and state.), showing home movies and talking about routine custody and estate issues that thousands of families tragically experience on a regular basis…no, that is abdicating any sense of journalistic responsibility.

John Stossel at ABC is my new hero, for showing even in the sea of stupidity that has swallowed up the decision makers, there are some voices that recognize other issues are actually important. He publicly bit the hand that feeds him and took them to task for bumping his report on the health care proposals working through Congress in favor of Jackson coverage. I may not always agree with his expressed opinions when he editorializes (which probably means he’s doing his job very well), but I stand up and cheer for him being willing to say the emperor has no clothes.

Michael Jackson was a singer; a wildly popular performer one in his day, to be sure, and an internationally known celebrity to this day; but a singer nonetheless. He was not a head of state, nor a worldwide religious leader, nor someone who contributed something great to the medical or scientific world. Good for him for making a lasting impression on his chosen field, and of course it is sad for a fan when someone they enjoy dies. Perspective, though, has taken a backseat to over-the-top hype in what ensued from his death.

So goodbye, journalistic standards and integrity, it was nice knowing you while you existed. You were sorely strained in recent years with nonsense like Brittney Spears and Jon & Kate being placed in newscasts where they had no business, but the weight of keeping a self-mutilating freak’s death in perspective finally pushed you over the edge. Perhaps the simpler thing to do now is replace CNN et al with a simulcast of E!, and put Katie, Brian and Charlie out to pasture in place of additional airings of Entertainment Tonight. Apparently the shows are one in the same now.



Edit: though not common that I agree with a GOP lawmaker, this guy has it right, if a bit blunt for someone in public office:

SEPTA: Stunningly, Exceptionally Patehetic Transit Agency

God help Philadelphia if anything horrific should ever happen. The astonishing incompetence of SEPTA will ensure everyone in the city perishes.

Crowds and delays I can understand. The abject failure to plan ahead for a crush of people with more than 24 hours notice though, cannot be excused.

The absence of a show of "force" of agency managers to help manage the crowd cannot be excused, SEPTA.

Placing nothing more than a sign post at the top of a train platform staircase while doing nothing to demarcate where the lines for those trains should go cannot be excused, SEPTA.

Having the monitor system out of operation precisely when it is most needed most certainly cannot be excused, SEPtA.

The failure to tell police anything that would help direct riders or let them know where to go absolutely cannot be excused, SEPTA.

Having police block access to the platforms at 30th Street station and ignore riders' pleas for information cannot be excused, SEpTA.

Yes, crunching a million people into a system not properly funded and built is a recipe for disaster, but SEPTA needs to be accountable for stating why they didn't add service, why shuttle busses were not employed to ferry riders to some of the more popular rail stations and why they provided astonishingly little information to the riders.

And no, General Manager Joseph Casey, dropping a photocopied sheet of paper on the seats in the morning does not do the job.

Adequate staffing would show an effort. All available excess capacity would show an effort. Telling people what the bloody hell is going on would even show some effort.

Don't you dare crow about what a great job you did under extraordinary circumstances. You didn't. If you don't have the funding you need, then own up to the failure and name names about why it was such a debacle. Call the Harrisburg fat cats out and let us know why they're to blame if they are. But don't blow smoke and pretend all was ultimately ok.

The city of Philaelphia doesn't get off the hook either. Where is the oversight of the taxi industry?

Already well-known for thuggery and refusal to accept credit cards in direct violation of the law, the cabs took their theivery to new levels by trying to extort people who wanted to leave the city (Tony Soprano would be proud). Rogue cabbies? Maybe, but I heard three people give similar accounts--that can't be a coincidence. Nor are the reports from bellman that the cab compaines simply took their phones off the hooks. If the city fails to investigate this activity--and hold accountable those who did it AND those who are charged with preventing such gross abuse of the public--the elected officials should be thrown out on their collective ----. That, of course, will not happen, in a city that elected John Street....twice.

I'm sorry, Mayor Nutter....I tried to believe in the city's change, that it could really operate differently. But it failed its first major test so spectacularly that "failure" doesn't do it justice.

Indeed, everyone in the city is doomed in the event of a crisis requiring a mass exodus. Unless the Ride the Ducks operators can get people out of town; they certainly couldn't be any more bungling than SEPTA.

FOUL BALL!

Pardon me, but what the f--k is the 'braintrust' of MLB thinking? Oh wait, I know. Extend the series, protect the precious Rays from the richer Tampa market and make an absurd call to stop game 5 of the World Series mid-inning, conveniently AFTER Tampa had tied it. Yeah, coincidence. If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you. The conditions were lousy before the 6th inning started. Under the rules of the game, it was official at that point and could have been called on account of weather. But then the Phils would have won the game and the series, and rightfully so according to the rules both teams play by. But no, the game continued until Tampa could tie it, then....THEN....they suspend the game in a tie so that either there is more revenue coming from more coverage tomorrow night, or the game goes to Tampa, where the rightful home-field advantage the Phils earned by winning game one is taken away from them and handed back to the Cinderella Rays.

What's more, the Phils had already chased the Rays starter, but Hamels was in the game, and doing well were it not for the bad weather. Suspending the game solves the pesky problem of the Phils ace remaining in the game--now he's gone. If the game resumes in the middle of the night or tomorrow night sometime, it's essentially a 0-0 battle of the bullpens. Our ace beat their ace, so MLB simply makes an outrageous decision and takes our guy out of the game to protect Tampa.

Which team will not have to have their half of the inning disrupted by rain? Tampa.

Which team was struggling on enemy territory and now will either see that disadvantage reduced or possibly eliminated totally? Tampa.

Who gets screwed? Philadelphia.

Un- f--king- believable!

Doomed

Sarah....who?

I wondered for months how the Democratic party could pull defeat from the jaws of victory…and now I know. Though to be fair, it’s not the party leaders that are entirely to blame. Not Obama. Not Biden. Not Nancy Pelosi . (But seriously, Nancy, what the heck…you can’t stay sober for Obama’s acceptance speech? You looked tanked.) No, it’s the a large block of the voters who will ensure we endure at least four more years of George Bush-like policies on the war in Iraq, on court appointments who will finally provide the votes needed to throw Roe v. Wade out the window and to make sure every restriction on equality and freedom deemed inappropriate by the RNC will be considered fully Constitutional.

To Hillary’s voters , suck it up. It sucks she lost—I voted for her, and was disappointed she fell short, but she knew the idiotic primary election process going in and chose to play the game. That she was unprepared for anything after Super Tuesday and had to scramble to catch up to Obama is her and her team’s fault, not Obama’s and not the media’s. That she didn’t focus enough on caucuses, for whatever reason, is her and her team’s doing. A lot of people supported candidates other than the ultimate winner; it’s part of the game. But now it’s time to put on the grown-up undies and focus on the idea that principles are more important than gender. Sarah Palin may well be a good governor who deserves praise for taking on and beating down a corrupt system in her state. She may have been a great mayor of her town. She may be a wonderful and loving parent to her lovely family. And yes, the idea of a woman finally being next in line for—and with McCain’s age, let’s be honest, holding a real chance of achieving—the highest office in the land.

But gender should not be the issue any more than race. Obama and Palin are both role models and young people today will thankfully have grown up with an election that has real diversity on both sides. They’re night and day on policy matters, though.

Like the war? Vote for McCain/Palin. You’ll get to keep liking it for…what did McCain once say, 50 or 100 years? Oh, no, wait, he’ll bring home some troops but keep a force there for peacekeeping for decades to come….because that makes such a big difference. I applaud Palin’s son’s service to the country as well as McCain’s distinguished valor, and I agree that war sometimes is proper and just, because you cannot reason with madmen (and the world is indisputably better off with Saddam Hussein dead and buried). No, we cannot pull out instantly, and Obama’s pandering to the hard left base aside, I believe he knows that. As the saying goes, you break it, you buy it—and we need to fix what we broke, but then we need to get the hell out of there and focus on the real issues confronting our security (like, oh, let’s say a nuclear Iran….China…Russia….and that’s just for starters).

Like seeing a return to the days of back-alley abortions? McCain/Palin is the way to go. As has been pointed out, Mrs. Palin and her husband chose to have their baby knowing he had Down’s Syndrome. Good for them—I mean that. They’re strong people who made a tough choice and deserve our admiration for that. Palin, though, believes no woman should have the choice in the first place. Therein lies the deepest fundamental difference in philosophy: the GOP wants to ensure no one facing what may be a heartbreakingly difficult situation has any option other than delivering the baby. Raped? Too bad. Victim of incest? Tough. Palin may be a woman, but she’s no Hillary Clinton—don’t be fooled. Under a McCain/Palin administration, the moment the swing vote on the Supreme Court is sworn in, watch how quickly the laws designed to wipe out Roe v. Wade are passed in the red states, with the sole purpose of reaching the high court on appeal, knowing full well the concept of a right to privacy will be tossed out like yesterday’s trash.

In favor of equal rights for all people? I am. I fail to see how granting a civil marriage license (as it would be beyond grossly inappropriate for any governmental body to tell a religious entity how to handle marriages on a religious level) does anything to threaten the family in a way heterosexuals haven’t already perfected. (Paging Newt “Let’s wrap up this session condemning Bill Clinton so I can get out of here to bang my assistant while my wife is in the hospital” Gingrich.) Even if a lack of a super-majority in Congress keeps a vile Constitutional amendment off the books, the McCain/Bush court will accomplish the same goal in the end.

Yet knowing all of this, some Democratic voters still think McCain is a viable choice, and probably more now that they think a woman President is a more likely scenario under a McCain regime. Wake up—if you believed in what Hillary represented, you can accomplish those goals better through Obama/Biden than Mccain/McCain-in-a-skirt.

Was Obama’s decision not to take on Hillary as the VP a bad one? Perhaps, but it is far less often that the second-place candidate gets the nod (you have to go back to Regan/Bush the First for the last time it happened). If Obama feels he’s more in sync with Biden, then that is the right choice; choosing Hillary just to appease shortsighted people threatens to do more harm than good in the end.

It’s sad but true that between the bigots on one side and the blinded-by-gender swing voters on the other that Obama faces a monumental task in winning this election, in no small part thanks to the outrageously outdated Electoral College system. “Pennsyltucky” may be the final deciding factor in November, and when it comes down to a pistol-packing, ant-choicer or a black guy who—you know—may be a secret Muslim and who favors killing babies born alive during late-term abortions (both outright lies, but some idiots believe them), you can guess who’ll win.

This country is royally screwed.

Why Are These Jerks Representing Us?

How I “love” the hypocrisy of politicians. A few weeks ago, Scooter Libby is convicted of perjury. That’s a pretty nasty black eye on an administration that allegedly prided itself on upstanding moral behavior. So what’s the response of the right-wing (wing-nut) attack dogs on talk radio? Turn it into a referendum on Bill Clinton and his “I did not have sex with that woman” lies. The convoluted logic was that since “nothing” happened to Bubba, chargin/trying/convicting/punishing the Scoot man is unfair.

OK, for starters, Clinton was impeached, the equivalent of an indictment. So he did stand trial. Granted, in the end, his “jury,” as the system is set up, did not convict him—so be it. But to say that failure to convict means Libby gets a pass for lying about the outing of a CIA agent is absurd. It’s a bit like saying that because O.J. walked, everyone gets a free pass to murder someone. What’s more, at least the special prosecutor investigating the Plame incident was sticking to the issues relevant to the case. No, Libby didn’t out her himself, but he lied about how it happened. Contrast that to Kenn Star, who, having failed to bring down Clinton over Whitewater, moved on to, pardon the pun, nail Clinton on the one thing everyone knew you could get him for: sex.

I don’t condone Bill’s actions. He’s a scumbag for what he did, but lying about getting a little oral lovin’ from an intern pales in comparison to covering up the way a CIA agent’s identity was revealed.

Now we flash forward a few more weeks, and we have the strange case of the Attorney General who wasn’t aware, but kind of was, well, on second thought, maybe he really was, no, it seems people briefed him but he doesn’t remember the details…or whatever the story is today about how eight U.S. attorneys were kicked to the curb. Remember back to the Clinton years, and how the morally superior pundits regularly blasted the administration for so-called shady operations, even if there wasn’t anything technically illegal about [insert choice of non-issues here]?

Welcome to shoe-on-the-other-foot time. U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President, and firing eight of them should have been a non-issue. But the administration did exactly what they accused the Clintonites of doing time and again—not being upfront about it and creating an aura of suspicion. Why lie about what Gonzales knew and his role in it all? And why refuse to let Rove and company testify under oath and on the record? After all, if you have nothing to hide, there shouldn’t be a reason to be afraid of a little grilling by Congress. Instead, the White House continues to invent new explanations about who knew what, making it clear that Alberto Gonzales is a liar. Not exactly an admirable quality in the Attorney General.

The Republicans and Democrats in Washington are both a bunch of rotten apples. The same people who vilified Clinton (including the astoundingly, astonishingly hypocritical Newt Gingrich, who managed to criticize Bill’s infidelities while banging one of his aides behind his wife’s back) are defending the lies of the Bush camp.

Meanwhile, the left side of the aisle is grandstanding for the cameras by inserting egregious, outlandish pork-barrel spending items into a bill that was ostensibly to provide needed funds for our troops overseas. Agree or disagree with the war, adding bribes to a military funding bill to buy votes simply to poke the President with a stick over an artificial pull-out date—that everyone knows will be vetoed—is indefensible and immoral in more ways than I can count. And this nonsense comes from the party that campaigned last year on bringing change to Washington. If this is what they mean by change, I don’t want it. Give me a clean slate of Libertarians any day of the week over the sorry bunch of jackasses we have down there now.

Five Years Ago Seems Like Yesterday

Everyone, it seems, remembers every moment of that awful day, September 11, 2001.  I was sitting through a perfectly routine presentation of one of our company’s enhanced products, when I saw a colleague duck out of the room, then come back in with every bit of color drained from her face.  There were quick whispers to the session leaders, who abruptly ended the meeting, without explaining why. 

It wouldn’t be necessary.

As we all exited the room, we would pass a seven-foot high video wall with the news.  I had to be mistaken.  Planes hitting the World Trade Center and Pentagon?  It didn’t compute until I hustled back to my office and realized it was true.  As our team watched the TV in our office, the towers fell one after the other, and the full impact of what was happening sank in with bone-chilling clarity.

“What’s next?” began to run through our minds.  Sitting in downtown Philadelphia, our building suddenly didn’t seem so safe, sitting between the tallest building in the city and its historic City Hall.  Our non-descript medium-height tower would hardly be a target, but being sandwiched between two potential strike sites was disconcerting.  The building management quickly ordered the facility closed, and I was on to the first train out of the city I could squeeze onto, almost not caring where it took me as long as it wasn’t in the city limits.

My thoughts were with the victims, wondering just how many people had been killed in this monstrous attack.  Seeing people decide to jump to their certain death rather than perish in the flames was the single most profound thing I’ve ever watched.

Anniversaries are of course arbitrary remembrances.  While it’s helpful to have those moments where we all focus our thoughts on what happened that horrific day, we should keep it in our minds every day.   

We ignored the first attempt to really bring this type of terrorism to our shores, when the 1993 attack on the WTC was big news for a few days, but quickly devolved into little more than a gag for late-night talk show monologues thanks to the ineptness of the perpetrators. Intelligence failures and lax attitudes from multiple Presidential administrations made us vulnerable, and we paid the price.

September 11 changed the world, and I believe we will never go back to where we were on September 10, 2001.  Regardless of who sits in the White House, we need to remain vigilant and, yes, aggressive in protecting ourselves.  In our attention-deficit reality, we need to remember this battle may never have an end, and we can’t give up just because we’re tired of seeing it on the nightly news.  If we do, September 11 will look like a day in the park.

We can’t begin negotiating with terrorists to appease them.  The moment we give an inch, the tactics will only become more gruesome in an effort to make us give another inch, then a foot, then a mile. 

If I had to pick one politician who most closely mirrors my philosophies, it’s Senator Joseph Lieberman, generally socially liberal without being an extremist, yet still very tough on defense issues.  His loss in the recent Connecticut primary election was disheartening, but I hope he runs a strong campaign as an independent and pulls out a victory. 

The war in Iraq was mind-blowingly poorly planned and executed.  The timing was wrong, the intelligence was wrong, the tactics were wrong and the expectations were wrong.  That said, there were ample reasons for deposing Saddam and there had been for many years.  The United Nations, though a noble idea, is little more than a time-wasting body of bureaucratic paper pushers that passes resolution upon resolution with no action.  It’s a bit like a parent telling a toddler “This time, I really mean it,” without ever imposing the punishment.  Even toddlers can figure out when there’s no consequence for their actions; you can be sure murderous dictators can do the same.

Whether or not Iraq was the right second battlefront, following Afghanistan is clearly open for debate, but it’s a moot point.  We’re there now, and we need to do what it takes, for however long it takes, to make sure we don’t just wind up with Saddam Junior.  It may be years before that happens, but again, the consequence will be much more horrible if we don’t. 

While it’s fair and likely true to argue that the Middle East has been in perpetual conflict for thousands of years and may never be a peaceful land, to ignore it with a “let them settle things themselves” attitude is naive.  The fanatics now have the ability to bring their extremism to our shores, which they lacked for centuries.  Even if we pulled every soldier out of the region tomorrow, we would still be targets for the hatred.

Our word changed forever five years ago.  To forget the lessons of that day would be the greatest dishonor to the victims in New York Washington and Pennsylvania

. 

Faith Hill & Tim McGraw Let President Bush Have It

I knew there was something I liked about Faith Hill…besides the obvious, I mean:

From ABC News:
Faith Hill, Tim McGraw Blast 'Humiliating' Katrina Cleanup
Country Stars Lash Out in Anger Over Conditions in Storm-Ravaged States

March 8, 2006 — - Faith Hill and Tim McGraw -- two stars who usually stay out of politics -- blasted the Hurricane Katrina cleanup effort, with Hill calling the slow progress in Louisiana and Mississippi "embarrassing" and "humiliating."

The country music artists -- who are natives of the storm-ravaged states -- were at times close to tears, and clearly angry when the subject of Katrina came up during a news conference today. They had met with reporters in Nashville to promote their upcoming Soul2Soul II Tour, but when asked about the hurricane cleanup, the stars pulled no punches.

"To me, there's a lot of politics being played and a lot of people trying to put people in bad positions in order to further their agendas," McGraw, a 38-year-old native of Delhi, La., said after ABC News Radio's Dan Gordon asked about Katrina.

"When you have people dying because they're poor and black or poor and white, or because of whatever they are -- if that's a number on a political scale -- then that is the most wrong thing. That erases everything that's great about our country."

McGraw specifically criticized President Bush. "There's no reason why someone can't go down there who's supposed to be the leader of the free world … and say, 'I'm giving you a job to do and I'm not leaving here until it's done. And you're held accountable, and you're held accountable, and you're held accountable.

"'This is what I've given you to do, and if it's not done by the time I get back on my plane, then you're fired and someone else will be in your place. '"

The president had actually spent the day in New Orleans, getting a close-up look at boarded-up buildings and mountains of debris, noting that the city still suffers "pain and agony."

Along the president's route, some frustrated residents held up signs in protest, one asking "Where's my government?" and another telling the president to "cut the red tape and help us."
Hill, who grew up in Jackson, Miss., echoed those sentiments. So overwhelmed, she uncharacteristically unleashed an epithet, calling the situation, "Bull- - - -"

"It is a huge, huge problem and it's embarrassing," she said.

"I fear for our country if we can't handle our people [during] a natural disaster. And I can't stand to see it. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out point A to point B. . . . And they can't even skip from point A to point B.

"It's just screwed up."

Earlier in the day, McGraw and Hill had reason to celebrate. Their duet, "Like We Never Loved At All," was nominated by the Country Music Association as the Vocal Event of the Year.

The couple rarely voice political opinions, though they've been active in raising money for Katrina victims.

McGraw is a member of the American Red Cross National Celebrity Cabinet, and in the days after the hurricane, he and Hill joined a mission to take supplies to Gulfport, Miss. At the Sept. 2 "Concert for Hurricane Relief," he appealed to fans to reach out with donations.

But under most circumstances, McGraw relies on easy charm when dealing with the media. In 2004, he actually told Time magazine, however lightheartedly, that he was thinking of going into politics. "I want to run for the Senate from Tennessee … Not now, but when I'm 50, when the music dies down."

"Wouldn't Faith make a great senator's wife?" he joked.

Then again, maybe he wasn't joking.

To be fair, their criticisms also should have included the mayor and governor, who were equally irresponsible in this disaster.  This was a case of three stooges at their absolute worst—and none of them take responsibility for their own incompetence.  Then again, it’s probably much more fun to pass the blame off to someone else than admit you messed up, too.

Let's Stand Up For The Good Guys

I am unbelievably sick and tired or criminal behavior being downplayed and law enforcement having to defend split-second, life-and-death decisions brought on by said criminal conduct. 

Here’s yet another example: http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/14044562.htm.

An off-duty Philadelphia police officer was rear-ended by another driver.  The officer identified himself as a cop, and the second driver—who appeared to be under the influence of some type of substance—sped off.  The officer followed, keeping in touch with 911 dispatchers the entire time, trying to help them find this guy to get him off the road…before he could be involved in a more serious accident and possibly injure or kill an innocent motorist.  Had the officer not followed the suspect, it would have been all but impossible for anyone to find him.

For whatever reason, the driver pulled into a train station parking lot.  The officer told him to stay put, but what did the suspect do?  He charged the officer and threatened in no uncertain terms to kill him.  Gun drawn, the officer again ordered him to stop, but he continued charging, and reached for his waistband in a motion that, having just threatened someone’s life, could easily be construed as reaching for a weapon. 

So the officer fired.  The first three shots missed; ultimately, the suspect was killed. 

Unfortunate?  Yes.  But at countless steps along the way, this outcome was brought on by the dead man’s own actions.  He chose to flee the scene of the original accident.  He chose to not stay in his car.  He chose to make a death threat against the officer.  He chose, repeatedly, to charge a known law enforcement officer with his gun drawn despite repeated orders to stop.  Anywhere along the line, he could have changed the outcome, but he didn’t.  So in the blink of an eye, the officer had to pull the trigger and try to bring down a moving target.  The use of deadly force is sad, but justified. 

Look, I understand that someone grieves at the loss of their child.  But if I were a judge and a case like this came to my courtroom, I’d hold the plaintiff in contempt if I could. 

Perhaps he did have dreams of getting his life together, but when, exactly, was he planning to face the felony charges from which he was a fugitive?  Or doesn’t it count if you managed to flee the state in which you’re wanted?  Maybe all is forgiven then and you don’t have to be a man and “do the time.” 

"'My son was not the kind of kid who had conflict with the police,' Shields said. 'He does not put up a fight.'"  Again, I’m sorry, but telling the officer he was a dead man and charging him qualifies as having conflict.  Perhaps it was out of character, but no matter the cause, he was responsible for his actions.

“Family members said they did not think that Shields even had a weapon that morning.”  No, ultimately he didn’t have a weapon.  But when someone reaches into their waistband after saying they’re going to kill you, it’s a natural assumption that they just might.  And in that situation you have a blink of an eye to make a decision, not the benefit of 20/20 hindsight.

Would it have been better that one of the shots only wounded the suspect enough to render him immobile?  Naturally.  But sometimes a moving target isn’t quite so easy to deal with.  He’s in motion as the bullet leaves the gun, and what’s intended may not be what happens.  That, however, isn’t brutality or excessive force.  The suspect was not subdued and was not in custody—he was in a one-on-one fight and made his intentions clear.  The reaction was appropriate, and I hope the D.A. stands by his initial decision not to file charges.

I feel sympathy for the family, make no mistake.  But this officer has to live with what happened for the rest of his life, too, and I hope he knows he has people in his corner. God willing, he’ll never be faced with a similar situation.

If we keep putting the screws to law enforcement for actions that result from the actions of the criminals, the criminals win.  Let’s stand up for the good guys.

Some People Get 15 Minutes of Fame...

...while some of us get 1/15th of a second (and quite frankly, that's more enough).  At least that's about as long as it seemed I was slightly visible in the "Who Says You Can't Go Home" video (see an earlier post about attending the shoot and working on the Habitat for Humanity house).

Two videos were made for the song: one for a more country-sounding version featuring a duet with Jennifer Nettles.  That video was the only one I saw in circulation several months, and it included about one second of footage from the part of the taping I attended.  Lo and behold, though, this week I discovered the version of the video for the song with just Bon Jovi, and it included many more shots from the "block party" taping, including--much to my surprise--about a one-second scene in which I recognized myself.  (And that's on a plain-old standard-definition TV; I wonder what it would be like seeing it on a clearer, bigger HD set...or perhaps I shouldn't imagine something so frightening.)  Topping it off is that I'm immortalized in a music video standing next to my boss.

I may never get on a game show, but I got into a music video, for a fleeting second.  Life is quite strange sometimes.