4 posts tagged “death”

I have been a very bad blogger.   With my son home for summer break, I find my time is more limited than ever.  While I would love to blog every day, there are things in life that must take precedence and the boy is ALWAYS my number one.  That being said, its time to catch up some thoughts on current events....

1.  Farrah Fawcett - I've had respect for this woman because she threw away the pretty actress card by quitting Charlies Angels and then did amazing and important roles in movies like the "The Burning Bed".  She tried to make the world a better place through her roles, art and activism.   Even her cancer (and death) was a role she faced head on and tried to use to educate and make the world a better place.   She will be missed.
2. Michael Jackson - where do I even start?  First off, I was shocked by his death because it was completely unexpected. However, his death brings on extremely mixed feelings about the man.  Yes, the man was an amazing musician.   I live in Motown people - we grew up hearing the Jackson Five.  I am also a child of the 80's - I remember when I loved him in his yellow sweater vest and Thriller.  However, I am also a mother of a young boy and thinking of his perversions and sexual proclivities makes my skin crawl.  I happened to be at a New Kids on the Block concert here in Detroit the day he died and they did the best memorial to MJ, they did "I'll Be There" with all of us singing.  They memorialized the purer young Jackson rather than tainted man.
3. Iran - Wow.  What an amazing response by the people of Iran to what is most likely a crooked election.  This is a nation that has seen revolution within the last 50 years, so at this point they probably no how to do it better than any of us.  Hopefully we stay out of it militarily unless we are truly needed.  However, we need to stand up for those in Iran with our voices, prayers and support.
4. Obama - President Obama, I really want to like you.   Really, I do.  I hated the Bush era policies.  I was ready for a "change".  Unfortunately, you are letting me down.   I am sick of hearing speeches.  I mean REALLY sick of hearing you speak.   It rates up there with Bush and his vacations.   You are there to work, not give speeches.  What happened to transparency in government?   Why are you allowing Pelosi to force bills through without allowing public comment?  Your health care bill is a joke - how can you "fix" healthcare for everyone if you are adding another roadblock that will have to be overcome for complete reform to be effective?   You also don't understand how governmental programs force the costs upwards (Medicare did it, so will expanded governmental healthcare).  Don't even get me started on "cap and trade"...

OK...I got some of the itch out.  Anybody reading this knows the itch I am talking about.  Its that drive to blog about the happenings around us but life prevents us from doing so....

Recently the little sleepy little Michigan town of Bay City made national news.  It wasn't because its infamous daughter, Madonna, had broken the rules or done something outrageous.   It was for the freezing death of a 93-year-old WWII veteran.

Sadly, the man's power was turned off for non-payment of his utility bill.  On first glance, people screamed for the blood of power company.  Users commented on newspapers websites calling the electric companies "murderers" and other vicious attacks like this one:

Posted by john31600000 on 01/27/09 at 9:35AM

This FOCKEN city manager & the head of the utility should be arrested for murder! Someone should kidnap them and set them in a snow bank. This is the worst picture of greed that I have ever seen. Let a person die because of a $1000 unpaid bill. You bunch of FOCKEN killers. If I were his son/daughter or whatever you could be assured I would find a way to "do away" with these greedy FOCKERS. A*&HOLE KILLERS. It's not the neighbors responsibility to (check on) the neighbors. YOU A&^HOLE for even saying that. Yeah it's the neighbors right to put a HOT ONE in your FOCKEN ear A&%HOLE. IT"S CALLED MURDER, 1st DEGREE MURDER and it's your fault you fat pig greedy bastard.

People screamed for the blood of the power companies but failed to find out the true facts of the case.   Yes, the power company limited power consumption to the man's home.   Yes, he froze to death.   Yes, its a horrible situation - but it was ENTIRELY PREVENTABLE.

Marvin Schur was NOT some poor victim.   He was not unable to pay his bill - he simply failed to send in the payment for SEVERAL months.  He had STACKS of money sitting in his home - they were sitting next to the bills.  He had over a half-million dollars saved that he has left to the Bay City Medical Center.   So HE HAD THE MONEY TO PAY!!!

Marvin Schur lived alone but he had family who never bothered to check up on him.  He also had neighbors that never checked up on him.  Where were these people to make sure that good old Marvin was paying his bills?  Why weren't they checking on dear old Dad/Grandpa/uncle?  Why are people screaming for the blood of utility executives yet feeling bad for a family that obviously didn't provide the care their he needed????  They knew enough about the man to know that he had damned nearly a half-million dollars in bank but they didn't know enough to know that he hadn't paid his bills in months.

Now there are rumors that the man had alzheimers.  Again I ask - where was the family?  Let me tell you my grandparents have health problems and we check on them constantly.  If there was ever an issue that I thought they have alzheimers disease - I would be over there several times a day.  I would NEVER expect a utility company to do my job.   This goes for my granparents, my parents, my aunts and my uncles.  It goes for EVERYONE.

This is not the case of a poor senior that couldn't pay their bill because they had no money.  This is not the case of Executives gone wild in their power and randomly hurting people.   This is not the case of the evil corporation hurting a defenseless consumer.

This is a case of a family that failed their father and uncle.  They need to accept responsibility and stop shifting the blame onto a company who was not responsible for caring for a man.  This society is really going to hell when we expect a corporation to care for a man more than his own family does. 

"I love words. I thank you for hearing my words. I want to tell you something about words that I uh, I think is important. I love..as I say, they're my work, they're my play, they're my passion. Words are all we have really.

We have thoughts, but thoughts are fluid. You know, [humming]. And, then we assign a word to a thought, [clicks tongue]. And we're stuck with that word for that thought. So be careful with words. I like to think, yeah, the same words that hurt can heal. It's a matter of how you pick them.

There are some people that aren't into all the words. There are some people who would have you not use certain words. Yeah, there are 400,000 words in the English language, and there are seven of them that you can't say on television. What a ratio that is. 399,993 to seven. They must really be bad. They'd have to be outrageous, to be separated from a group that large. All of you over here, you seven. Bad words. That's what they told us they were, remember? 'That's a bad word.' 'Awwww.' There are no bad words. Bad thoughts. Bad Intentions.

And words, you know the seven don't you? Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits, huh? Those are the heavy seven. Those are the ones that will infect your soul, curve your spine and keep the country from winning the war.

Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits, wow. Tits doesn't even belong on the list, you know. It's such a friendly sounding word. It sounds like a nickname. 'Hey, Tits, come here. Tits, meet Toots, Toots, Tits, Tits, Toots.' It sounds like a snack doesn't it? Yes, I know, it is, right. But I don't mean the sexist snack, I mean, New Nabisco Tits. The new Cheese Tits, and Corn Tits and Pizza Tits, Sesame Tits Onion Tits, Tater Tits, Yeah. Betcha can't eat just one. That's true I usually switch off . But I mean that word does not belong on the list.

Actually, none of the words belong on the list, but you can understand why some of them are there. I am not completely insensitive to people's feelings. You know, I can dig why some of those words got on the list...like cocksucker and motherfucker. Those are...those are heavy-weight words. There's a lot going on there, man. Besides the literal translation and the emotional feeling. They're just busy words. There's a lot of syllables to contend with. And those K's. Those are aggressive sounds, they jump out at you. CocksuckerMotherfuckerCocksucker . It's like an assault, on you. So I can dig that.

And we mentioned shit earlier, of course. Two of the other 4-letter Anglo-Saxon words are Piss and Cunt, which go together of course. But forget about that. A little accidental humor there. Piss and Cunt. The reason Piss and Cunt are on the list is that a long time ago certain ladies said 'Those are the two I am not going to say. I don't mind Fuck and Shit, but P and C are out. P and C are out.' Which led to such stupid sentences as 'OK, you fuckers, I am going to tinkle now.'

And of course the word Fuck. The word Fuck, I don't really...well, this is some more accidental humor, but I don't really want to get into that now. Because I think it takes too long. But I do mean that. I mean, I think the word fuck is an important word. It's the beginning of life, and, yet it's a word we use to hurt one other, quite often. And uh, people much wiser than I have said, I'd rather have my son watch a film with two people making love than two people trying to kill one other. And I of course agree. I wish I know who said it first, and I agree with that. But I would like to take it a step further. I would like to substitute the word fuck, for the word kill in all those movie cliches we grew up with. 'Okay Sheriff, we're gonna fuck ya now. But we're gonna fuck ya slow.' So maybe next year I'll have a whole fuckin' rap on that word. I hope so.

Uh, there are two-way words, but those are the seven you can never say on television. Under any circumstances you just can not say them ever, ever ever, not even clinically. You can not weave them in the panel with Doc and Ed and Johnny, I mean it's just impossible, forget those seven, they're out.

But, there are some two-way words. There are double-meaning words. Remember the ones your giggled at in sixth grade? 'And the cock crowed three times.''Hey, the cock the cock crowed three times. It's in the bible.' There are some Two-way words, like it's okay for Curt Gowdy to say 'Roberto Clemente has two balls on him.' But he can't say, 'I think he hurt his balls on that play Tony, don't you? He's holding them. He must have hurt them by God.' And the other two-way word that goes with that one is prick. It's okay if it happens to your finger. Yes, you can prick your finger, but don't finger your prick. No, no."

---------George Carlin

Ack.   I am sick to death of hearing about Anna Nicole Smith.  She had a tragic life.   I feel bad for her. Guess what - I still don't want to see her face on the news.  

Its none of my business who the sperm donor was.    Its none of my business that she did methodone, heroin or any other drug.   Its none of my business where she was buried.

How many times have we heard about the tragedies occuring daily in Darfur since the day she died?   I bet the Anna count is higher.

How many times have we heard about how the sarcophogus over Chernobyl is failing since the day she died?   Ann will win hands down there!

Its time to refocus folks.   Quit drooling and salivating over the tabloid bell like you are some Pavlovian dog.  You really don't need to know every bit of a celebrity or quasi celebrity's life (unless of course they murdered somebody or are molesting children).  Guess what - you don't have a right to know  if Britney bought panties at the store.   You don't have the right to know what Brangelina is doing every second of the day. 

Its the PEOPLE that drive this junk information industry. I listen to people whine about the media exploiting these poor celebrities but then they buy Us, the Enquierer, The Weekly World Globe,  or any other rag that gets its money by dwelling in the lowest echelons of society.   Quit giving tabloids money!!!  Quit reading trash like the PerezHilton blog - Perez is nothing more than a hateful, jealous little man with an ax to grind.

Yes, the mainstream media outlets are almost as bad.   Unfortunately, they are a business.   They have to compete with the tabloids so that means they hve to print some of the same trash.  They are giving the people what they want.

Sorry...I am done being pissy now.