Sorry faithful reader, lost track a bit and was sidelined for a few days. I meant to get right on it, but was feeling a bit under the weather so I decided to wait until I was at least 70 % until I began attacking people again. I'm almost there so let's begin with another week of attacking those whose very existence warrants being chastised. Time to take a deliberate skew on some of those hot button issues that I'm certain will warrant a healthy and heated discussion, so away we go . . .
La Migra
It seems the issue of immigration is again pushing itself to the forefront. With a rally scheduled in Daley Plaza in Chicago on May 1, immigrants are demanding reform. First off, let’s clarify. When I speak of illegal immigrants, I am including all illegal immigrants—Polish, Irish, Middle Eastern, Indian (from India), Hispanic, et.al.
The headline on Sunday’s Chicago Tribune read Raids stoke immigration ire. And why shouldn’t they. It’s bad enough that we should expect those crossing our borders to register and apply for visas along legal channels, but then we raid businesses looking for these folks and deport them—well, that’s just plain mean. Its not like we have laws outlining procedures for entering this country, is it? Those evil bastards over and the Immigration service are just so cold hearted. I have seen the enemy and the enemy is La Migra.
The story in the Trib went on to explain how these raids are breaking up families, and infringing upon the civil rights of these folks. But, I digress, ya see in my world things work a little different. In my world the civil liberties of U.S. citizens are one of those things that are reserved for—I don’t know—U.S. CITIZENS!!
I’m sorry that families are being broken apart, sincerely I am, and that these folks’ unalienable stab at the American Dream are being taken from them, but no one, as far as I know, directed them to cross the borders illegally. It takes our understaffed immigration officials years to catch up with them and by that point they have had several children and established roots on our shores. The children are of course naturalized, and then we’re the a--holes for sending the undocumented parents back—is that about right? Maybe I’m crazy, but when a pregnant mother crosses the border into the United States FOR THE PURPOSE OF GIVING BIRTH, isn’t that an infringement of OUR RIGHTS as U.S. citizens? We don’t have national health care but our tax dollars pay for THEIR medical expenses and then we’re supposed to welcome them into the fold?
Now I’ll be the first to admit that some cheeky Americans feel that much of the work performed by these people is beneath them. Proud Americans feel that it’s an insult to expect them to perform manual labor at low pay and to work long hours with little recognition. That’s our fault kids. Many of these illegals do just that though. They not only work longer than us and at a lower wage, but they work harder, and goddamn it, we expect it. I mean GEEZ, they couldn’t possibly expect us to do it, have you seen A Day Without a Mexican, the freakin’ country would shut down! But we’ve made this bed of nails, time to lie down without bitchin’ about the holes in our backs.
Since young Fievel Mousekewitz immigrated here with his family from Russia, its been known worldwide that the streets here are paved with cheese, and we are merely those paying for said cheese. It would seem that we already go out of our way, we meaning the government, for documented immigrants. At my place of employment alone there are immigrants who own several houses, own businesses, or they have left their part-time jobs to open their own businesses. Last time I tried to open my own business there were so many roadblocks that it made it unfavorable for me to do so. But they get tax breaks, incentives, etc., because we need those incentives to go somewhere, why should those paying the taxes get them? When did the rules get changed? Its bottom of the ninth, I’m playing away, I’ve got bases loaded, a two run lead and all of a sudden I have to pitch underhand to a player that’s batting .750. It’s time to either take back our game or change f---ing leagues.
They’re here kids, and seemingly here to stay so we may as well get used to it, but I do have a question. When do I get my shot at the American Dream, I am after all American. Am I to suppose that the American Dream is reserved for those whose nationality is defined more by geography than inherence? Or maybe the time has come to hyphenate my nationality. Well ya know what, that’s not gonna happen.
I was born here so I’m not some kind of goddamn hyphenated American, I’M AN AMERICAN, and as such I should be entitled to have my tax dollars work for me and my fellow residents! After all, if I moved to a foreign country, I would be expected to assimilate. I would be expected to learn their language, their customs, their way of life. I would be expected to follow laws, abide by their tenets and adhere to their policies. If I was unwilling to do so, I would likely be asked to leaved, or probably be TOLD to leave, and you know what . . . I would expect it. They didn’t, after all, ask ME to move there.
Well, the phone lines are now open, so c’mon, kick my ass, I should be used to it by now, I've been having it kicked by my own rules for years.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Random Thoughts - week 1/review
Random Thoughts – ( 4/22 through 4/28)
Sun. . . . what about yarn?
Mon. . . . urinals are incredibly well-designed
Tues. . . . tater tits-hmmmm, George Carlin might have had something there
Weds. . . . audacity and irreverence are necessary components to a flawed but happy
existence
Thurs. . . . the term “tea bag” makes me laugh
Fri. . . . why did Yankee Doodle call it macaroni?
Sat. . . . one word---smegma
Sun. . . . what about yarn?
Mon. . . . urinals are incredibly well-designed
Tues. . . . tater tits-hmmmm, George Carlin might have had something there
Weds. . . . audacity and irreverence are necessary components to a flawed but happy
existence
Thurs. . . . the term “tea bag” makes me laugh
Fri. . . . why did Yankee Doodle call it macaroni?
Sat. . . . one word---smegma
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Celebrity Gossip . . . Story at 11:00
Celebrity Gossip . . . Story at 11:00
Has the banality of our own lives become so overwhelming that we have to seek solace in the knowledge that celebrities are just as f---ed up as we are? We’ve even gone so far in recent years as to actually care about their interactions and deem them newsworthy.
Tonight at 11:00, the DNA results in the Anna Nicole Smith baby lottery.
It’s bad enough with the supposedly legitimate news agencies broadcasting Larry Birkhead raising his arms in victory as if to say, “I’m not sterile!” But to see it re-broadcast over and over again because there were so many of us out there that actually gave a shit, that was the real kick. Is it just me or would this whole thing have been much more interesting if Ms. Smith would have been able to keep her legs closed during her grossly overextended 15 minutes. There’s a reason that there hasn’t been an Anna Nicole Smith sex tape---everyone’s seen it, personally, so it wouldn’t be any big deal.
Again, this past weekend people were anxiously glued to their televisions awaiting the latest surrounding Alec Baldwin’s cell phone tirade. Truth be told, not only was this leak most likely premeditated, it was pathetic. It’s got to be hard enough to be a parent let alone being a parent that is held under the kind of scrutiny that is usually reserved for a rectum in a Turkish airport.
They’re not role models kids, they’re entertainers and we have no right to hold them to a higher standard than we’re willing to hold ourselves. They eat, they drink and they go to work. They drink Starbuck’s, drive too fast, sleep too little and sometimes they overindulge. They say things they regret, they do things they regret and every so often they have to eat crow just like we do.
We’re at blame here for allowing the media to shove this drek down our throats like a Frenchman making fois gras. We eat it all up with a fork, hang on every word like Trekkies listening to Leonard Nimoy at the annual meeting of the Vulcan nation (his name’s Leonard Nimoy kids, Mr. Spock was a character-not a real person you weirdos), and then beg for seconds. The day will come when our nightly news broadcasts will vaguely resemble Access Hollywood with weather and sports.
So let’s just take some liberty here and leave it at that. Hollywood parents are just as f---ed up as any parent, Keith Richards will probably snort his mother too, and underage celebrities drink and do more drugs than regular underage kids because they have more money. Simon Cowell is delightfully sarcastic, Sanjaya is the new William Hung, and Paula is a dipshit; Randy is just Randy. Tom is a couch-jumping freak, Britney’s a half-step up from trailer trash, Donald is an egomaniacal megalomaniac whose opinions differ from Rosie’s, who is also an egomaniacal megalomaniac, and Angelina has probably slept with everybody she has ever co-starred in a movie with—including Winona, that shoplifting weirdo.
Has the banality of our own lives become so overwhelming that we have to seek solace in the knowledge that celebrities are just as f---ed up as we are? We’ve even gone so far in recent years as to actually care about their interactions and deem them newsworthy.
Tonight at 11:00, the DNA results in the Anna Nicole Smith baby lottery.
It’s bad enough with the supposedly legitimate news agencies broadcasting Larry Birkhead raising his arms in victory as if to say, “I’m not sterile!” But to see it re-broadcast over and over again because there were so many of us out there that actually gave a shit, that was the real kick. Is it just me or would this whole thing have been much more interesting if Ms. Smith would have been able to keep her legs closed during her grossly overextended 15 minutes. There’s a reason that there hasn’t been an Anna Nicole Smith sex tape---everyone’s seen it, personally, so it wouldn’t be any big deal.
Again, this past weekend people were anxiously glued to their televisions awaiting the latest surrounding Alec Baldwin’s cell phone tirade. Truth be told, not only was this leak most likely premeditated, it was pathetic. It’s got to be hard enough to be a parent let alone being a parent that is held under the kind of scrutiny that is usually reserved for a rectum in a Turkish airport.
They’re not role models kids, they’re entertainers and we have no right to hold them to a higher standard than we’re willing to hold ourselves. They eat, they drink and they go to work. They drink Starbuck’s, drive too fast, sleep too little and sometimes they overindulge. They say things they regret, they do things they regret and every so often they have to eat crow just like we do.
We’re at blame here for allowing the media to shove this drek down our throats like a Frenchman making fois gras. We eat it all up with a fork, hang on every word like Trekkies listening to Leonard Nimoy at the annual meeting of the Vulcan nation (his name’s Leonard Nimoy kids, Mr. Spock was a character-not a real person you weirdos), and then beg for seconds. The day will come when our nightly news broadcasts will vaguely resemble Access Hollywood with weather and sports.
So let’s just take some liberty here and leave it at that. Hollywood parents are just as f---ed up as any parent, Keith Richards will probably snort his mother too, and underage celebrities drink and do more drugs than regular underage kids because they have more money. Simon Cowell is delightfully sarcastic, Sanjaya is the new William Hung, and Paula is a dipshit; Randy is just Randy. Tom is a couch-jumping freak, Britney’s a half-step up from trailer trash, Donald is an egomaniacal megalomaniac whose opinions differ from Rosie’s, who is also an egomaniacal megalomaniac, and Angelina has probably slept with everybody she has ever co-starred in a movie with—including Winona, that shoplifting weirdo.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Let Them Eat Fries
So I guess its time to get past the appetizers and into some meat!!
Let Them Eat Fries
I saw "Little Miss Sunshine" last weekend for the first time and thoughts have been nagging me ever since. First off let me say that I enjoyed it, thought it was a cute little movie. It occurred to me while watching it how ironic it was that this film got so much buzz from such a superficial and condescending community as Hollywood. Either that Hollywood is getting some semblance of a conscience.
Not the kind of conscience that comes from making a movie that brings about a movement or propels a wrong into the societal consciousness but the kind of conscience that tries to dispense of the lessons it brings us on the silver screen every chance it gets. The lesson that men and women need to fit into some kind of norm to be deemed attractive. To me this movie, or film if you prefer, condemns the lessons that one must be young, thin and attractive; exactly the lessons that Hollywood has been trying to convey for the last 50 years. And hey kids, we've got no problem with that, do we?
Oh we say we do, but you've seen it haven't you? The mother or father at the grocery store telling her kids that they can't have something because it'll make them fat or the guys at the gym making fun of somebody coming in for the first time calling them a 'cow' or a 'pig'. F----ing genius' these guys, whose entire existence revolves around how many steroids they can ingest and how big they can get before the heart damage becomes irreversable. These are the people who are the best judges of a person, parents who think their child's appearance reflects on them negatively or gym rats whose greatest accomplishment in life is breaking the 300 lb. mark on the bench press, and and we have allowed it to become so.
Hell, we've come to expect it, even accept and facilitate it. "Please god, don't let my daughter be fat, anything but that"-I think some people would rather their child be abducted by Bigfoot rather than have their own existence marred by the emotional strain of having an overweight child or even worse, one that is unattractive as defined by societal norms. We were always told as children that beauty comes from within? When then did the rules change and the motherf---ers in charge become the real life models for the Barbie and Ken dolls.
We take them to McDonald's, order them a happy meal and then chastise them for eating it. We throw them cheese puffs and cola and then blame the school cafeteria for contributing to the childhood obesity epidemic. We throw them in front of the TV with video games and DVDs and then wonder why they are failing PE. We create for them a sedentary life and then condemn them for living it.
Well as long as we can blame someone else, thank god it's not on our own conscience.
I haven't even started on the well-meaning parents and family members who harp on a child carrying a little extra tonnage so much that their only recourse is to hide in the closet until the twinkies they stash behind their stuffed animals become more important to them than having any self-esteem. These folks coupled with, of course, the do-gooder parents who force their opinions on their children so hard that they either become complacent conformists or societal f---ups.
We didn't have this problem 50 years ago kids. We ate ding-dongs and drank tang and real cola. We played outside, read books, and used our imaginations. Our parents made our dinners, eating out was a treat and all it took for a movie to get an R rating was to have the verbal content of this post, sans dashes. Back then we were taught to form our own opinions, think for ourselves and to not be held back by anything.
Wake up kids, the lives our parents left for us to screw up our own lives and we are becoming more screwed up than they could have ever dreamed . . . can you hear them giggling? We've created psychobabble to explain away any inadequacies we've created and where we couldn't we've even found a way to project blame on others. Sure our life expectancy has increased since the day when our mothers greeted us after school like some kind of a freakish hybrid of June Cleaver and a stepford wife, but at what cost.
Didn't we always learn when we were growing up that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Next time we look at our own kids let's try to figure out exactly what we're seeing. At the end of the movie when our Little Miss Sunshine performed her dance to the dulcet tones of Rick James' Superfreak I smiled. I smiled at the thought of a smack-snorting grandfather teaching his granddaughter to thumb her nose at societal norms, I smiled at our society for accepting those norms, but mostly I smiled because at that moment I thought about just how glad I was that my own kids are still too young to know boundaries.
Hopefully by the time they are old enough, their mother and I will have given them enough fuel to ride right over any norms that try to hold them back, hit reverse and ride over them again. Yes I want fries with that Happy Meal . . . and don't be holding back on the f---in' special sauce either.
Let Them Eat Fries
I saw "Little Miss Sunshine" last weekend for the first time and thoughts have been nagging me ever since. First off let me say that I enjoyed it, thought it was a cute little movie. It occurred to me while watching it how ironic it was that this film got so much buzz from such a superficial and condescending community as Hollywood. Either that Hollywood is getting some semblance of a conscience.
Not the kind of conscience that comes from making a movie that brings about a movement or propels a wrong into the societal consciousness but the kind of conscience that tries to dispense of the lessons it brings us on the silver screen every chance it gets. The lesson that men and women need to fit into some kind of norm to be deemed attractive. To me this movie, or film if you prefer, condemns the lessons that one must be young, thin and attractive; exactly the lessons that Hollywood has been trying to convey for the last 50 years. And hey kids, we've got no problem with that, do we?
Oh we say we do, but you've seen it haven't you? The mother or father at the grocery store telling her kids that they can't have something because it'll make them fat or the guys at the gym making fun of somebody coming in for the first time calling them a 'cow' or a 'pig'. F----ing genius' these guys, whose entire existence revolves around how many steroids they can ingest and how big they can get before the heart damage becomes irreversable. These are the people who are the best judges of a person, parents who think their child's appearance reflects on them negatively or gym rats whose greatest accomplishment in life is breaking the 300 lb. mark on the bench press, and and we have allowed it to become so.
Hell, we've come to expect it, even accept and facilitate it. "Please god, don't let my daughter be fat, anything but that"-I think some people would rather their child be abducted by Bigfoot rather than have their own existence marred by the emotional strain of having an overweight child or even worse, one that is unattractive as defined by societal norms. We were always told as children that beauty comes from within? When then did the rules change and the motherf---ers in charge become the real life models for the Barbie and Ken dolls.
We take them to McDonald's, order them a happy meal and then chastise them for eating it. We throw them cheese puffs and cola and then blame the school cafeteria for contributing to the childhood obesity epidemic. We throw them in front of the TV with video games and DVDs and then wonder why they are failing PE. We create for them a sedentary life and then condemn them for living it.
Well as long as we can blame someone else, thank god it's not on our own conscience.
I haven't even started on the well-meaning parents and family members who harp on a child carrying a little extra tonnage so much that their only recourse is to hide in the closet until the twinkies they stash behind their stuffed animals become more important to them than having any self-esteem. These folks coupled with, of course, the do-gooder parents who force their opinions on their children so hard that they either become complacent conformists or societal f---ups.
We didn't have this problem 50 years ago kids. We ate ding-dongs and drank tang and real cola. We played outside, read books, and used our imaginations. Our parents made our dinners, eating out was a treat and all it took for a movie to get an R rating was to have the verbal content of this post, sans dashes. Back then we were taught to form our own opinions, think for ourselves and to not be held back by anything.
Wake up kids, the lives our parents left for us to screw up our own lives and we are becoming more screwed up than they could have ever dreamed . . . can you hear them giggling? We've created psychobabble to explain away any inadequacies we've created and where we couldn't we've even found a way to project blame on others. Sure our life expectancy has increased since the day when our mothers greeted us after school like some kind of a freakish hybrid of June Cleaver and a stepford wife, but at what cost.
Didn't we always learn when we were growing up that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Next time we look at our own kids let's try to figure out exactly what we're seeing. At the end of the movie when our Little Miss Sunshine performed her dance to the dulcet tones of Rick James' Superfreak I smiled. I smiled at the thought of a smack-snorting grandfather teaching his granddaughter to thumb her nose at societal norms, I smiled at our society for accepting those norms, but mostly I smiled because at that moment I thought about just how glad I was that my own kids are still too young to know boundaries.
Hopefully by the time they are old enough, their mother and I will have given them enough fuel to ride right over any norms that try to hold them back, hit reverse and ride over them again. Yes I want fries with that Happy Meal . . . and don't be holding back on the f---in' special sauce either.
Friday, April 20, 2007
a view from the heap
This particular post will not mean all that much to those who live outside of the area, but it is an important example of what elected officials can do if they're given too much of the leash. I urge anyone who does live in the area of Cook County to share this with as many friends and family members as possible. The services afforded the residents of Cook County should not be cut without first consulting those whom it will affect, so let them know that it's not okay, contact your officials and make a big noise.
April 20, 2007
A View From the Heap
When one is standing outside looking over any type of perceived garbage heap, the truth is that it appears nothing more than an eyesore whose time has passed and requires a cleanup. But from inside the heap looking out we see so much more. Oak Forest Hospital seems to be in the midst of this phenomenon. The County Administration has deemed the hospital a drain on the budget when in fact it could be a solvent component of Cook County Health Services if they would only choose to allow it.
Oak Forest Hospital has been an integral part of the South Suburban community for over 100 years and should continue to be for many more. A misconception of just what Oak Forest Hospital is seems to have loomed over it for years and the County has done nothing to dispense of this ill-conceived notion. In essence, Oak Forest Hospital is a large, sprawling campus about which many residents of the South suburbs know nothing. It is much more than that.
I remember pulling up onto the hospital grounds my first day and being intimidated, if by nothing else, by its sheer size. I remember thinking that my grandfather gave 53 years of service to this place and raised his 16 children while working here. And I remembered coming here as a Cub Scout and volunteering to help patients with those mundane tasks so many of us perform without even a thought. It quickly became more than that. I realized shortly after arriving that I had become part of a community of caring whose sole purpose was to improve the quality of life for these patients whose names and faces Dr. Simon and Mr. Stroger are seeking to readily forget and toss aside.
More than just a place of employment for hundreds of dedicated workers, Oak Forest Hospital gives, in Dr. Simon’s own words, premium care in a park like setting. And who wouldn’t want to give that kind of an environment to patients who could conceivably spend the rest of their lives residing here. But it’s more than even that. Oak Forest Hospital provides a necessary service to the residents of the South Suburbs. It is a trauma center, an exceptional rehabilitation facility and a home to hundreds of patients who have nowhere else to go. Instead of seeking to eliminate long-term care perhaps the services provided here should be expanded.
A short while back I remember reading that injured veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are finding they’ve nowhere to go, as the VA Hospitals are all full. We’ve got beds here, hundreds of them, with easy access for families to visit, acres of land on which to recover from the dangers these heroes encountered to facilitate our continued freedom, and hundreds of thoughtful, caring people waiting to provide them the kind of care they deserve. Nothing, it seems, is being done by the administration to save instead of dissolve this institution of caring and that’s a shame.
Maybe instead of outsourcing the service departments and dissolving the various therapeutic services and discarding these patients who have made Oak Forest Hospital their homes, we should be seeking to outsource the administration of the Cook County Healthcare System. If this were a publicly held corporation that was losing money continually due to mismanagement, the shareholders would be screaming for the ouster of its inept and inexperienced administrators. Well guess what, it is. The taxpayers of Cook County have just as much right to demand answers as the shareholders of any corporation.
From inside the trash heap, the view is more of a mess from on the outside looking in. Unanswered questions surface regarding a budget that is consistently referenced but has yet to surface. Turmoil looms in the distance for both the employees and, more importantly, the residents of Oak Forest Hospital. New layoff notices are expected daily and no one knows for sure just what direction this administration is seeking to take. There is a lot more to Oak Forest Hospital than much of the community knows, the current County administration knows that and even though several highly paid PR people, who don’t talk to the press, are compensated to make them aware. I’m happy to share this information at a much lower cost to the taxpayers than $86,000 a year.
April 20, 2007
A View From the Heap
When one is standing outside looking over any type of perceived garbage heap, the truth is that it appears nothing more than an eyesore whose time has passed and requires a cleanup. But from inside the heap looking out we see so much more. Oak Forest Hospital seems to be in the midst of this phenomenon. The County Administration has deemed the hospital a drain on the budget when in fact it could be a solvent component of Cook County Health Services if they would only choose to allow it.
Oak Forest Hospital has been an integral part of the South Suburban community for over 100 years and should continue to be for many more. A misconception of just what Oak Forest Hospital is seems to have loomed over it for years and the County has done nothing to dispense of this ill-conceived notion. In essence, Oak Forest Hospital is a large, sprawling campus about which many residents of the South suburbs know nothing. It is much more than that.
I remember pulling up onto the hospital grounds my first day and being intimidated, if by nothing else, by its sheer size. I remember thinking that my grandfather gave 53 years of service to this place and raised his 16 children while working here. And I remembered coming here as a Cub Scout and volunteering to help patients with those mundane tasks so many of us perform without even a thought. It quickly became more than that. I realized shortly after arriving that I had become part of a community of caring whose sole purpose was to improve the quality of life for these patients whose names and faces Dr. Simon and Mr. Stroger are seeking to readily forget and toss aside.
More than just a place of employment for hundreds of dedicated workers, Oak Forest Hospital gives, in Dr. Simon’s own words, premium care in a park like setting. And who wouldn’t want to give that kind of an environment to patients who could conceivably spend the rest of their lives residing here. But it’s more than even that. Oak Forest Hospital provides a necessary service to the residents of the South Suburbs. It is a trauma center, an exceptional rehabilitation facility and a home to hundreds of patients who have nowhere else to go. Instead of seeking to eliminate long-term care perhaps the services provided here should be expanded.
A short while back I remember reading that injured veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are finding they’ve nowhere to go, as the VA Hospitals are all full. We’ve got beds here, hundreds of them, with easy access for families to visit, acres of land on which to recover from the dangers these heroes encountered to facilitate our continued freedom, and hundreds of thoughtful, caring people waiting to provide them the kind of care they deserve. Nothing, it seems, is being done by the administration to save instead of dissolve this institution of caring and that’s a shame.
Maybe instead of outsourcing the service departments and dissolving the various therapeutic services and discarding these patients who have made Oak Forest Hospital their homes, we should be seeking to outsource the administration of the Cook County Healthcare System. If this were a publicly held corporation that was losing money continually due to mismanagement, the shareholders would be screaming for the ouster of its inept and inexperienced administrators. Well guess what, it is. The taxpayers of Cook County have just as much right to demand answers as the shareholders of any corporation.
From inside the trash heap, the view is more of a mess from on the outside looking in. Unanswered questions surface regarding a budget that is consistently referenced but has yet to surface. Turmoil looms in the distance for both the employees and, more importantly, the residents of Oak Forest Hospital. New layoff notices are expected daily and no one knows for sure just what direction this administration is seeking to take. There is a lot more to Oak Forest Hospital than much of the community knows, the current County administration knows that and even though several highly paid PR people, who don’t talk to the press, are compensated to make them aware. I’m happy to share this information at a much lower cost to the taxpayers than $86,000 a year.
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