The Winningest Coach

This is a very difficult one.  Sorting out the feelings about Joe Paterno.   When the story first broke earlier this week about alleged child molestations by assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, it was shocking and appalling.  Two other Penn State employees were also on the hot seat.  There was a brief sigh of relief that it wasn't going to stain the reputation of the great and legendary Joe Paterno.  As the hours and days passed, the story got worse and far more disturbing.  True, from where it stands now, Coach Paterno didn't do anything "wrong."  He passed the allegations on to others at Penn State to look into, deal with, sweep under the carpet.  Until yesterday, I was having many conflicting feelings and then I listened to an MSNBC host, Martin Bashir, who likened Penn State to the Catholic Church.  The fog lifted.  It all became clear.  The "good" people of Penn State, including Paterno, put institution, money, reputation, football ahead of the victims of alleged crimes.  

One of the mothers of the victims got relief, finally after years.  Someone believes the allegations.  Someone believes that her son was molested.  Paterno's crime is that he passed the buck and didn't follow up.  He could have been a hero if he had acted swiftly, called the police, forced the administrators to deal head on with Sandusky.  Now, he is a fallen football icon.  The winningest coach in the NCAA.  There are no excuses.  The Catholic Church scandal had already happened, so they should have learned from that.  What happens to natural instincts?  Is power, money, and blind support too much?  Does it dull down one's natural reactions?  If I heard about the possibility of sexual molestation, I would sound a horn.  I am sure it would be scary and uncomfortable, but a child's well being is at stake.  Certainly, there will be more boys coming forward.  I think they are up to 9 right now.  How many of those could have been stopped if Penn State and Coach Paterno did the right thing?

Time will only tell how many more boys were allegedly molested by Sandusky since the first horn was sounded in 2002.  Time will only tell how Paterno will be remembered after this.

Sidebars:  Rachel Crow, a 13 year old, on the X Factor is staggeringly good.  She is both adorable, likable, and deeply talented.  Her depth is far greater than her 13 years.  If you haven't seen her, youtube her.  You won't be sorry. 

Rick Perry has become his own SNL skit.  He is just handing comedians a buffet on a silver platter.  And again,  Mario Batali stepped in it when he was using Hitler and Stalin to describe Wall Streeters.  Really?  Again, why is Hitler the go to guy.  Why don't people learn from others.  In the past decade, Hitler's name has been carelessly bandied about. No good comes from it. Take Hitler out of the vernacular.

Proposition 26

As I sat here on election day, hearing reports that the Mississippi Proposition 26 is too close to call.  I was thoroughly shocked and appalled.  I don't understand why pro-choice isn't enough.  If you are a religious person that believes that life begins at conception, then don't have intercourse, use contraception, and if God forbid, you get pregnant, have the baby.  What if you don't believe that life begins at conception, you are having sex, using contraception, get pregnant, and choose to make the painstaking decision to have an abortion and the laws say you can't?  What then?  I feel pro-lifers think that people who choose to have abortions, take it lightly as if they are throwing out the garbage.  Women that I know that made the difficult decision to have an abortion agonized over what to do.  There is no easy answer, but choice is imperative for women.  Why are we still arguing about abortion after 40 years of legalization?  Why are "we" so fixated on such a personal decision? Why do we allow religiosity to infringe on all of our rights?  No one is making pro-lifers to have an abortion.  That would be something, wouldn't it?  Any unwanted/unexpected pregnancy was forced to be terminated.  That would be turning the tables.  It is ludicrous to think that the government could/would do that, so why isn't it true the other way?  Why do all women have to live by the beliefs of some?  This is so unbearable that we keep coming back to this.  This country and it's politicians are so shortsighted and so committed to the minutiae.  We need visionaries!  Proposition's like 26 makes me want the South to secede from the USA.  

I stayed up late last night to hear the results and it was too close to call way past midnight.  Waking up this morning the final count wasn't in the Times or the Post.  Proposition 26 did not pass.  Maybe there is a God?

Sidebars:  Nancy Grace is finally off Dancing With the Stars.  Tom Bergeron is discussing that Dancing With the Stars may need to pare down to one season a year.  Their ratings are down 14%.  Maybe it would help if there wasn't so much filler and the show could take up less time per week.  All these shows should take a page from The Amazing Race. One hour, chockful of action, leaving you wanting more....

Deep Sigh

What's the deal?  It is very difficult for me to understand Republicans.  I admit it.  It was difficult enough when Reagan was the President, when Newt was Speaker of the House, but this group of Republicans is unbelievable.  They make my bobble- head keep bobbling.  Facts and history don't matter and if they do, like to Mitt, no one has the guts to stand up and go against the far crazy right. How am I supposed to figure how the blatant and covert racism since Obama has been President is bizarrely muted towards Herman Cain?  Cain can do or say anything and his polling goes up?  How can "religious" people stand by a person who has clearly made some bad judgments towards women?  Not only do they stand by, they like him even more?  My frown lines are getting deeper and my shoulder muscles are getting tenser. It makes no sense.  Why does the Republican party not ask more from its candidates?  I know many educated and learned Republicans.  I don't understand how they can align themselves with a party that in its current state is embracing the dumbing down of their candidates and their people.  I don't get it.  It really went full blown with Sarah Palin and hasn't righted itself since.  

I am a registered Democrat but don't feel that aligned with them.  I would become an Independent but I don't like to give up my right to vote in the Primary elections, so I stay registered as a Democrat.  Not thrilled with the Democratic party either.  The Democrats don't support ignorance and denial, which works better for me.  They just seem so weak.  They are chihuahuas to pit bulls of the Republican party. They don't espouse religiosity.  I am sick of religion in politics.  Sick of it.  After the poison of money, religion is ruining our political system.  Can you believe that Congress spent a vote re-making "In God We Trust" the National motto??  Really???  The Economy has tanked.  Millions are out of work.  Healthcare is still a disaster and the only thing Congress can agree on is the National motto?  It is a bloody outrage.  Washington DC is broken.  I don't know how it can get fixed.  Well, I know how, but it won't happen.  Get the money out and dissolve the lobbyists.  Turn K Street into a beautiful mall of shops and stores.  Put lobbyists on unemployment.  

Aren't Senators and Congressmen supposed to be lobbyists for their constituents?  Isn't that why we send them to DC?  Do what's best for their town, state, country???  Where did it all go wrong?

Sidebars:  Dancing With the Stars is down to its final five.  If Nancy Grace doesn't go home tonight....Called it right on the revival of Godspell.  Times and NY Post critical of the updating of the script and musical arrangements. How long will it run now?  

You Don't Know Jack!

Last night on 60 Minutes, they did a piece on Jack Abramoff.  He is the disgraced and convicted lobbyist from K Street.  Jack Abramoff raised the level of lobbyist to whole new heights.  He bribed/dangled, trips, money, meals, private planes to many members of Congress so his clients could get what they wanted.  He went to jail for stealing 45million dollars from Indian tribes that he represented to get Congress to okay casinos.  

As many of us are outrage at the amount of money in politics and elections, we have to get lobbyists out of Washington, DC.  It's another part of the corrupt system.  It has grown into one of the most profitable arms of DC.  The lobbyists don't have the American people's concerns on their minds.  No, they only are worried about their clients, no matter what.  Really?  It's like defense attorneys all over DC doing whatever is needed to get their client off.  In this case, it is at the expense of all citizens of the United States of America.  

The historical lore of lobbyists is during President Ulysses S. Grant's term as President, he sat in the lobby of the Willard Hotel in DC, a stone's throw from the White House, have a brandy and cigar, and Senators, Congressmen, and the like would pitch their needs to the President.  They knew he'd be there and they did what they could to persuade him to their side.  Times have changed.  It isn't innocent anymore.  There is too much money at stake.  No one is inured.  I can keep talking about this forever.  Money has poisoned politics and the system created by our forefathers.  

So as we are angered by the amount of projected money spent on the Presidential election, 6-8 billion dollars, let's not forget that lobbyists have had a very strong hand in ruining government.  Let's take the money out of the entire system in DC.  Let's go back to the days that being a Senator or Congressman is a civil servant job.  Not a lifetime career.  Let's take the country back from the lobbyists!

Don't forget to sign getthemoneyout.com if you agree.  It's a beginning.


Sidebar:  Tomorrow, Tuesday, is election day all over.  No election is more important than in Mississippi for all women.  Proposition 26 must fail.  Even staunch pro-lifer Governor Haley Barbour is against it.  He says it goes too far and is poorly written. If you know anyone in Mississippi, let them know how important their vote is and if you have an election in your area, don't forget to vote.

A Little Bit of This....

Money in politics is bad.  There is no ifs, ands, or buts about it.  Did you know that 94% of the candidates that won elections spent the most money?  Really?  How does that help the country?  It sounds like it is an auction for open seats in elections.  All elections.  Even judges are not immune anymore as they once were.  How do we get the best candidates this way? The answer is we don't.  It is so incredibly clear.  The obscene amount of money spent in elections over the past 20 years or so, could have been used to improve thousands of communities, school systems, healthcare, teachers, firemen, police officers.  We, the people, would have been grateful for the windfalls, instead of those seeking glory.  It's not realistic, I know.   It needs to change.  We are missing great people that don't have the ways or means to get into a race.  People that are thoughtful and have ideas.  They can't get into any race.  Tick tock, the game is locked.

MF Global, a company run by former US Senator, head of Goldman Sachs, and Governor of NJ, Jon Corzine, has filed Chapter 11.  How can that be?  They can't find over $600 million.  Really?  After Bernie Madoff, there were no signs?  Of course there were signs, but people were asleep at the wheel.  Now the SEC and the FBI are investigating.  Now?  I am not sure if it is better late than never.  The money is gone. The SEC hasn't learned a thing.  (Jon Corzine resigned his post today).

Sidebars:  Okay, people, Justin Bieber has allegedly fathered a "love" child.  The woman who has accused Justin is now getting death threats from "Beliebers."  Who are these "Beliebers?"  Are they young girls, mothers? Who would be that crazy in love with a celebrity to send death threats.  It isn't their first time down this path.  They did it to Kim Kardashian and Selena Gomez.  I was a teenager.  I had my teen idols.  It would have never occurred to me to send death threats.  It was a fantasy and a distant love, not anywhere in the realm of reality.  Have these "Beliebers" lost their sense of the real world?  What do they think?  Justin Bieber isn't going to date, fall in love, get married, have children?? As far as the young woman's story, a little DNA will take care of the whole situation.  If I were he, if he didn't have sex with her, I'd definitely have the DNA test.  If he did have sex with her, well, then, he is stupid like so many before him and cha-ching to her and her "love" child.

Oh, Sigh

I am in a quandary.  There is so much going on in the world, and, yet, I am feeling a bit defeated by it all.  The people at Occupy Wall Street are committed to staying where they are through snow, sleet, wind, and hail.  They are risking everything for what they believe and then a few are spoilers in the group causing unrest with police.  The Oakland Police, really??  Really??  Have you missed the riots and confrontations with "the people" since the early 70's?  Did they not learn the history of Oakland?  Didn't the Mayor of Oakland just say no more tear gas into crowds?  If I heard it in NY, why didn't the police?  Believe me, I am not so naive to think that there aren't some opportunistic protesters with their own agendas, but the Oakland police have a history of brute force.  I remember the newscasts from my childhood.  It is vivid in my memory and looks much like today.  The protesters can't allow vandalism and looters.  That will not help further the cause.  OWSers need the support of all the 99% to make changes occur.  Don't let the waters get muddied. They had a victory with Bank of America  taking back their announced debit card fees under pressure.  Congratulations! Don't muddy the waters.

If you haven't heard about Proposition 26 in Mississippi, time is running out.  You can read my rant about it or Google it yourself.  Please don't let this go by without noise.  Women and men need to be concerned with the assault on Women's rights.  It affects us all.  Go to http://www.votenoon26.org.  The election is Tuesday.  If it passes in Mississippi, it will get to all of our doorsteps soon enough.  

The grass roots petition to get money out of politics is slowly growing.  If you want to sign the petition go to, http://www.getmoneyout.com.  Money is destroying our political system.  There is no level playing field.  It has to stop or this system as we know it will explode.  

Sidebars:  Crushed that David Arquette was kicked off Dancing With the Stars.  He was a sheer delight and so fun to see his little girl, Coco, and ex-wife Courtney Cox rooting for him.  Do you think they knew in advance that he was going?  It was the first show Coco and Courtney weren't present for.  Can't believe that Nancy Grace has that many fans. 

I Did, but....

Okay, in some ways no surprise, but really 72 days???  Really Kim Kardashian?  Just when embarrassingly I was coming around about you, you hoodwinked me, your devoted fans (whoever they may be) and your pitiful husband.  I saw a few episodes over the summer of Keeping Up With the Kardashians and thought, man, tough crowd.  It seemed impossible to get into the family.  Even Bruce Jenner has difficulty and he is the patriarch. That group of women are as thick as thieves and have each other's back.  It's the Kardashian mafia.  It is ruled by the women without question.  Even Rob fights for a place among his sisters; he had to go on Dancing With the Stars to find his own identity. After spending 10 million dollars on an over the top wedding, raking in over 17 million dollars on countless interviews, tabloid articles, and a two night special on the E channel, it's over!  It is an embarrassment. It is such a "sucker's born every minute" moment.  This time there are millions of suckers.  

Kim even used her deceased father to pry some tears out of herself and fans.  Bruce Jenner brought her all these shirts of her Dad's so she could sew a piece into her dress.  Kim openly wept over the shirts and her father's "smell." She took Kris, her fiance, to the cemetery to have a moment at her father's graveside.  Really, Kim??  Using your dead father?  So distasteful, nauseating. 

Kim and Kris were such a mismatched couple from the outset, but they say opposites attract.  She didn't believe him that he wanted to live in Minnesota and he clearly didn't know Kim.  She was never going to live out of the limelight. Won't this hurt Kim's branding?  I have really never understood why people are so enamored by the Kardashians.  Can this huge, public debacle be the end of the Kardashians?  Could we get that lucky?  

So, as heterosexuals mock marriage, why are there still people in this country that don't support marriage equality?  Gay couples can't do worse....

Sidebars:  Don't forget to pass the word around regarding Mississippi's misogynistic Proposition 26.  For more information, http://www.votenoon26.org.