We Are Not the Top of the Food Chain...

If anyone is reading this blog, I hope that they can tell that I am a spiritual person, hoping for a world where human beings are striving to be better people and not wallowing in the depths of degradation. And I would hope that I'm not alone in that wish. This story about rape , actually two different events in India, could easily lead me to hate all men but I really don't want to live that way. But as a woman, reading about this hurts me to my core.

I have never been sexually assaulted, and I cannot imagine the hell these women went through. But an assault on one woman, is an assault on all women. One event after another this year, has made me feel like we have not made any progress at all in terms of prejudice and equality for women. Some countries are much worse than others in regards to how little respect women get, but no country is immune to the problem. I still cannot get over the fact that it is 2012, on the verge of 2013, and we still have so many people that are the equivalent of cavemen. We can be better than this, and we should be better than this.

Connie Schultz: Parade magazine, December 23, 2012

Connie Schultz: Christmas in July—and August and September ...

At the end of last holiday season, I couldn't bear to take down my tree. So I didn't.

It began as an act of laziness.

By early January, I had already packed away two of our Christmas trees. Yes, two. And you're about to learn about the third. Don't judge.

One of our trees is an ancient nine-and-a-half-foot-tall fake fir, which goes in our family room every year. It's almost animated—you might even say scary—the way it sways under the weight of all those handmade ornaments stitched, glued, painted, stapled, and baked over the past 30 years.

The other tree, a mere seven feet tall, fills our front window. My husband and I call it the White House Christmas Tree because it is decorated with ornaments issued annually by the White House Historical Association. Sometimes I call it the Rosie Tree, named for my hair colorist, who puts up nine Christmas trees, which she once told me after covering me in foils. Anyone who loves her hair colorist understands how easily we can fall under their spell.

By the way, this year's White House Historical Association ornament depicts President William Howard Taft riding in the back of the White Steamer, which was the first automobile introduced to the White House. See? A history lesson on every branch.

Last Christmas season, I decided to add a third tree. A wee one, barely four feet tall, to keep me company in the kitchen. Along with the "Ho-Ho-Ho" wall hanging I needlepointed in 1998, I mean. And my son's three-tiered Christmas tree mobile, circa 1982, which dangles upside down over the table. We almost lost that thing in the unfortunate candle caper of '94. Goodness, the memories.

I decorated the little tree with white lights and a single red bow at the top, then set it on a child-size chair and wedged it into a corner.

"Really?" my husband said the first he time he saw it. "We needed this?"

One look at my face and his punctuation changed. "We needed this!" he said, patting my back. "Makes the whole room come alive."

I married a good one, I tell ya.

One month later, there I was, at the end of a long day of packing away another holiday, staring at the kitchen Christmas tree. I reached for its red bow, rubbed the felt between my fingers, and pulled back my hand. Too tired, I told myself as I unplugged the lights. Tomorrow.

Only tomorrow never came. A week before Valentine's Day, I looked across the breakfast table at Sherrod and confessed: "I can't explain why, but I don't want to take down the kitchen Christmas tree."

He returned my smile, acknowledging my gift for stating the obvious. "Then don't, honey," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "I like it, too."

With that, it was decided. The kitchen Christmas tree would twinkle its way through the year. Only one person ever asked why.

"Grandma," Clayton said, fingering the branches one hot, humid day in July, "why is this tree still here?"

I looked at our 4-year-old grandson and, just like that, I finally had my answer.

"Because we should act like it's Christmas all year round," I said. "We should feel it every day, in our hearts."

He tilted his head and gave me a long look.

"You're a little weird," he said, smiling. "I like that."

"I love you, too, buddy," I said. "Merry Christmas.

We get the Parade magazine in the Sunday Bellingham Herald now, and they have a small rotating group of writers that have a one page feature toward the back of every issue. I look forward to reading Connie's commentaries, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did - Merry Christmas (everyday)!

Merry Christmas!

 

These are my favorite holiday LOL's from LOL Cats, I Has a Hot Dog, and MemeBase - all in the I Can Has Cheezburger family of web-sites (Made from the finest Internets, don't-cha-know).

Merry Christmas everyone!

Wes Anderson's "Star Wars: Episode VII" Audition Tape - CONAN on TBS

Michael Moore's "Star Wars Episode VII" Audition Tape - CONAN on TBS

Happy Festivus

For any other Seinfeld fans out there, this is for you - Happy Festivus!

There Is No Simple Solution

Okay, it's finally time for me to sound off on the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

I have read a lot of commentary from people far more eloquent than I am, and I don't have everything linked here, but these are two articles from The Huffington Post from today, that I think are worth reading. The first is from Janelle Ross featuring individual stories as well as statistics for gun related deaths of children in the U.S. The other article is about the National Shooting Sports Foundation that ironically is based in Newtown Connecticut.

It's hard to know where to begin. I posted Mitch Albom's editorial from the Detroit Free Press a week ago. He was asking when we were ever going to find it okay to talk about gun violence in the U.S. His subject was Bob Costas who was battered for bringing up the subject after the murder/suicide involving a football player. As Jon Stewart pointed out on The Daily Show, if conservative pundits think it's not appropriate to talk about gun control right after a shooting, then we would never be able to talk about it, since there is at least one every single day in the U.S.

Another Free Press writer, Rochelle Riley had a editorial right after the shooting took place, and she sadly ended up referencing one of her own previous articles after the mass shooting in Aurora Colorado this summer. And that was her whole point; that we keep having this kind of violence, but nobody wants to do anything real about it, and she's sick of that hypocrisy.

And so am I. We cannot as a nation, continually entertain ourselves with violent media, whether it be video games, movies, or television, and then ask why when it happens in real life. We are hypocrites to watch this stuff, and not think that life imitates art. Our tolerance for violent movies and television continually increases, to me it's not a coincidence that the violence in our every day lives has increased along with it.

And the irony is not lost on me that the first victim of Matt Lanza was his mother, who owned the gun that was used to kill her. It blew my mind, when a friend was quoted as saying that she had them for protection. Protection, from what? She lived in an upscale neighborhood in a nice community.

After the shooting in Aurora this summer, I saw on the news that gun sales had dramatically increased. Then the question came to mind; I wondered if there were people in the theater that had a concealed weapon, and if so, did they make any attempt to use it to disarm James Holmes. If the reason that most people get guns is to protect themselves, how many times does that actually happen?

The NRA thinks that we should have more guns to fix the problem, not less. Having armed guards at every school in America is their solution. If shootings only occurred in schools, then that might make sense, but that's not reality. In the last week, the shooting in Newtown was the only public shooting at a school. There were two people killed at a shopping mall in suburban Portland Oregon 4 days earlier. And this week, there have been at least three other shootings with multiple victims, and not at single one at a school.

The head of the NRA also said that "the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun". I hope someone mails him a newspaper clipping about the shooting death of a girl here in Washington state earlier this year so he can see how wrong he is. A police officer's young daughter died in an accidental shooting when he left his loaded revolver in the family vehicle and another one of his kids shot her with it. If the police can't even be responsible with their own guns are there really any "good guys"?

When a mass shooting happens, every wants to arm themselves instead of take a serious look at why we have so much gun violence here. Having access to guns is a big part of the problem, but so is why they are used. Domestic violence and drug & gang related violence. When you consider that 1 in 17 Americans suffers from some level of mental illness, why should it be so easy for them to get their hands on a gun?

People that are driven to harm others will find a way, but should they be given such an easy route to harming as many people as possible in a matter of seconds? We want the freedom to have anything we want, but we don't want to accept the responsibility that comes with it.

It's The End of the World As We Know It

Of course we're still here, but it's a catchy tune from R.E.M., so why not have fun with it......

These are my favorite meme's for today from MemeBase.com, one of the I Can Has Cheezburger website's.

Now my world really would come to an end if I couldn't go on the web everyday!

Cory Booker - Mayor of Newark, New Jersey

I want to follow up to last week's post, but first, I wanted to post the link to an interview on The Daily Show with Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey from December 12th. It's the third part of a three part interview.

Cory Booker

What he's talking about is not completely unknown, but needs to be better known. I've personally felt that government in partnership with business and schools could be leading our society, and in turn improving our economy. And it's not about hand-outs. What he is talking about is how we are not educating our young people to move into the 21st century job market. There are jobs that exist right now that are going unfilled, because of a lack of people with the training and skills to fill them. I've seen a few things on the news in relation to this as far back as two years ago, and it's still a problem today.

This interview reminds me of the interview that I posted about earlier this fall with Bill Clinton on The Daily Show. It's not just a cliche, we really do need to think outside the box and have a revolution of thought if we are going to fulfill our potential as a society and as human beings.

Mitch Albom - The Detroit Free Press

This commentary is from the Detroit Free Press this week. The writer is Mitch Albom who is not only a novelist, but a sports and commentary writer for the paper.

I thought this was a pretty thought provoking essay, I hope you enjoy it.

Bob Costas' “Sunday Night Football” halftime commentary supporting gun control sparked a Fox News Channel debate Monday, Dec. 3, 2012, on whether NBC should fire him. / Evan Agostini/AP

By Mitch Albom

Detroit Free Press Columnist

Stick to sports.

I've heard it often. So have many of my colleagues. NBC's Bob Costas just heard it in spades.

Costas focused his halftime commentary last Sunday night on the horrific murder-suicide involving Jovan Belcher.

The Kansas City Chiefs linebacker, the day before, shot his girlfriend, drove to the training facility, and eventually shot himself. It was tragic. It was news. It certainly could elicit commentary.

Costas spoke for about 90 seconds, and mostly agreed with an online columnist who criticized our violent culture and said that if Belcher "didn't own a gun," he and his girlfriend would be alive today.

He never mentioned "gun control."

He never said "Second Amendment."

No matter. You bring up guns, you step on a landmine. Within minutes, Costas was being pelted on the Internet, and in the days that followed, it became a global hailstorm. He went on talk shows. He even called it a "mistake" to discuss that topic in a football game setting. But the more he explained, the more he was flooded by negativity. A Fox News person who called him "a sanctimonious ghoul."

At the core of this was a sentiment that even became a headline in several places:

Stick to sports.

If only it were that easy.

From Ohio State to Penn State

Here's the problem for folks in our positions. We'd stick to sports. But sports won't.

We'd much prefer a world where the Tour de France was just a bicycle race, where Plaxico Burress didn't shoot himself, where the showers at Penn State never saw anything worse than a towel flick.

We'd love a world where Barry Bonds was merely a home run hitter, where Josh Hamilton only chewed bubble gum, where Ohio State's football players never sold a piece of clothing, where Mike Tyson respected women.

Don't you think those who love the thrill of athletic competition -- and I believe most sports journalists do -- would rather cover a photo finish than a photo of Brett Favre's genitals? Handoffs over holdouts? Dunking instead of doping?

I've been around this business a long time. I don't know many who got into it to cover dirt.

But dirt comes with the job. Because real life doesn't stop at the out-of-bounds markers. Sure, you could comment on the Belcher story and not suggest guns played a part. But Costas felt it was relevant. He's not some apple-cheeked kid. He's 60 years old, a TV veteran commentator. Whether you agree with him shouldn't change his right to hold an opinion -- especially in a segment where he is supposed to give his opinion.

From Royko to McKay

But we are a knee-jerk society. When someone angers us, we feel obliged to yell back louder. It was sadly amusing to hear cable news commentators label Costas's calmly toned words a "rant" -- as they ranted like hyenas.

The truth is, in today's world, demanding a sports commentator "stick to sports" is hypocritical. Are you sticking to sports when you say that? Or are you saying it because you disagree with his opinion? A Nebraska newspaper writer pummeled Costas, saying "just shut your trap and tell me who scored." Does Costas tell him to shut his trap and talk about the corn crop?

Mike Royko wrote great pieces about politicians as well as athletes. Norman Mailer wrote great essays on war and on boxing. Tom Wolfe wrote as finely about racecar driving as about the space program. Jim McKay broadcast the Olympics and the Munich tragedy. Should they all have been told, "You're one thing. Do nothing more than that."?

Of course not. I wish, in this position, that I never had to deal with drunken-driving deaths, substance-abuse violations, gambling scandals, paternity suits, barroom brawls, suicides or the off-the-field behavior of everyone from Reggie Rogers to Pete Rose to Kobe Bryant, Michael Vick or Belcher.

But we have no choice.

Stick to sports?

This is sports.

Contact Mitch Albom: 313-223-4581 or malbom@freepress.com. 

Kate & Wills

I was sick to my stomach last night watching the news about the death of one of the two nurses caught up in the prank call involving Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge. I did not think it was funny when the call made news earlier this week, and now it has cost someone their life. Was it worth it?

These two absolute flipping idiots on the radio in Australia had no problems with invading her privacy to get a laugh. And then to top it off, the station's owner thought nothing of broadcasting it on the Internet for the whole world to hear. Now in the fall out, the station owner has released a statement that they are providing counseling to the two DJ's, and points out that "they are humans, not machines. They are hurting too". Well, you know what, I have zero empathy for them, they brought this on themselves. They are now living the exact hell that they put her through. Do you think that they will make that connection? Probably not.

I read a blog on The Huffington Post earlier this week, when the news was first announced that Kate was expecting. The writer was feeling sad for Kate that this special time was no longer her secret, and that every woman should be able to have that. She had no way of foretelling what was going to come next. I'm scared to think that the stress of this entire situation would lead her to have a miscarriage. It's bad enough that her nurses' death will be forever associated with her pregnancy. It should have been a completely joyous time for her and the whole family. I'm not a mother myself, but I can relate to my own family history, and that excitement & expectation of a new baby.

Jacintha Saldana was a nurse; not royalty, not a celebrity, and I would have to assume that she probably never had to deal with the media spotlight. But what makes anyone think that it is OK to thrust themselves in to the personal lives of celebrities anyways? Jacintha didn't deserve this, but neither did Kate. This whole situation says how little respect we seem to have for each other as human beings anymore; we should be getting more civilized, not less.

The Daily Show - December , 2012

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Another hilarious and to the point commentary from Jon Stewart on The Daily Show skewering Fox News. I don't think I can sum it up any better than to sit back and enjoy!

If you watch the video, this will have even more meaning....

Benghazi and Susan Rice

It's always fun to see people's words come back to bite them in the behind....here's another pointed commentary from Jon Stewart on The Daily Show.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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