The Big Business of Child Killing

I thought about titling this entry, "The Economic Impact of Caylee Anthony", but opted for the above instead. 

At my job, on my breaks, I have the unfortunate opportunity to watch Nancy Grace ad nauseam.  As you may or may not know, Caylee Anthony was a little girl who was, at first, missing and then found murdered.  The primary suspect is her mother, Casey Anthony.  Nancy Grace spends an hour each day going over every tiny, insignificant piece of non-evidence that presents itself.  For instance, Nancy Grace made a big hubabalu about the mother having pork rinds brought in to the prison where she is being held.  Her stance, of course, is that how can you eat pork rinds when your child is murdered....she must be guilty.  She has taken videotaped conversations that "tot mom" Casey has had with her parents in prison and analyzed them to death.  If Casey talks about not liking being in prison, Nancy tirades of how she should only be thinking about Caylee and how horrible that is...therefore she is guilty.  Nancy went so far as to find Target surveillance tape of Casey buying beer while Caylee was missing.  Who cares?  Nancy does!  "She's buying beer when she should be sitting at home worrying!"  Maybe she is buying beer because she is worrying.

Don't get me wrong, I think that Casey probably did do it.  I'm just not a big fan of trial by media.  Look at Gary Condit.  The media made him out as the killer, 100%.  Now that he is innocent, they are making it sound like it was all his fault that he looked to guilty.  Maybe.  Or maybe the media shouldn't be the one's making the judgements.

In any case, the point of this whole post is to point out that I've seen at least 40 1-hour shows dedicated or mostly dedicated to Caylee Anthony.  All the way from "Where's Caylee?" to "Tot Mom's suspicious behavior".  Nancy Grace is raking in some serious advertiser money from this one child murder.  The show also brings in "experts" for Nancy to agree with or yell at.  They are paid as well.  So, we have Nancy Grace, producers, directors, camera people, experts, as well as people paid for photographs, interviews and privately shot video.  That's a lot of money exchanging hands over someone dying.  Ultimately, I'm sure the amount is easily in the millions.  This irks me so much that I've decided to commit the rookie atrocity of comparing it to nazi Germany.  It is the equivalent of making money off the forced labor of the jewish people.  It is the taking of someone's pain and making a profit off of it with no benefit going to the offended member.  Heil Nancy Gracy, Heil!
Guilty until proven innocent.

The real irony is that Nancy Grace's book is titled, "Objection! -- How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal Justice System"

Melinda Duckett committed suicide apparently because of treatment from Nancy Grace.  Casey Anthony's father attempted suicide partly from the media attention his daughter had been receiving from Nancy Grace. 

She was relentless on the Duke's Lacrosse team, who was proven innocent.  The day the Lacrosse team was vindicated, Nancy Grace had a substitute anchor.

For more Nancy Grace atrocities or to learn more about nazi Germany, visit her Wikipedia page.

Ground Turkey

I think ground turkey is extremely bland.  I found though that if I cook it in soy sauce and pepper, it soaks up all the flavor.  I realize this is a stupid entry because I'm surrounded by vegetarians and I secretly wish to be a vegetarian.  In any case, if you eat ground turkey, try it with soy sauce!

Twilight - The conflict that almost was.

Despite mkhobson's intelligent warnings regarding the film, "Twilight", I watched it on DVD today.   I was curious as to what all the hubbub was about.  It turned out to be a total chick flick.


What I found curious about this film is the lack of any real conflict.  Surely, the situation for the heroine in this film is every teenage girl's dream. 

First, she ends up living with her Dad who pretty much leaves her alone.  Despite what is normally portrayed in films, this is the ideal situation for any sullen teenager.  A parent that doesn't bug you and provides you with a truck your first day there.  NO REAL CONFLICT

Secondly, she ends up in a school where she is instantly popular through no remarkable achievement of her own.  The conflict being of course that they want to do a school newspaper feature on her, but she doesn't want that...instantly resolved although it was NEVER A REAL CONFLICT

Thirdly, she has a problem of too many guys asking her out to the prom.  She says "she's out of town".  NO REAL CONFLICT

Fourthly, the only boy there that she is intrigued by has a really strong reaction to her, albeit negative in appearance at first.  This is only gives his character a uniqueness and is NOT A REAL CONFLICT as he begins stalking her in a cuddly, yearning way.

Fifthly, she learns that he is a vampire (NO CONFLICT IF YOU KNOW TEENAGERS AT ALL).  He is a vampire that's conflict with the sun is that his skin glistens as if covered by millions of tiny diamonds....oh my god!!!  NO CONFLICT!  She also gets to ride him, which is so like the typical girl fantasy of owning a horse or pony.

Sixthly, he desires her so much that he is unable to become remotely sexual with her, so they spend their time talking and cuddling on her bed.  NO CONFLICT  That's right!  One of the conflicts is that he desires her too much.  This has the double whammy of allowing the girl to feel desirable, but not having to feel threatened.  Perfect for the "abstinent-only"-education-minded.  What kind of vampire story is this?!?!  Anyway, I bet in the series, she has sex once she changes, if ever.  That is, if the writer is trying to have vampirism as a symbolism for sexuality or what not...can you say cliché?

Seventhly, OK, that was the first hour and a half of the movie.  Now there is twenty minutes of some bad vampire hunting her, but they all kill him.  THE END

All in all it was like watching a pretty girl, wearing a Hello Kitty shirt, combing Malibu Barbie's hair while riding a unicorn through a giant doll house during a tea party where everyone praises her.

And I don't think that anybody in the film was gorgeous like everyone is saying, so there!

RuPaul's Drag Race is over

RuPaul's Drag Race is over. I'm not going to say who won, but after the cut are the three finalists if you care to take a peek.




Bebe Benet Zahara


Nina Flowers


Rebecca Glasscock (Boo! Hiss! I don't know why everyone thinks she is pretty)

What's up with Gambia?

I've only heard a limited amount of information on the BBC world service on the happenings in Gambia.  It was just strange enough for me to do a mental double take.  Over 1,000 people were round up by witchdoctors and security guards and forced to take hallucinogens.  They are then beaten and accused of being witches in some sort of torture/confession scenario.  (I thought everyone knew that torture doesn't work.  Torture is sooooo last year.)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/gambia/5012406/1000-witches-arrested-and-drugged-by-witch-doctors-in-Gambia.html

It seems like such an tragic oddity to be happening in modern times.

The strangest of strange spam

I've been getting back and forth e-mails from between what appears to be PR people for an Austin Mayoral candidate at my regular e-mail account.  They are so dry and boring that I can't even stay focused long enough to care about what intrigue is on them.  It appears to be a group of people editing a boring press release.  Unfortunately, it appears that this would be the candidate that I would support, so I can't even use it against them.

Job Wanted.

I know that people have probably already said so, but I just want to say the following.  People failed in their jobs AIG.  They failed so badly that they caused a nationwide crisis.  They, of course then, get huge bonuses.  I just want to say that I can totally do that.  I can screw up badly.  If AIG is hiring, I'm ready to work, screw up, and get a huge bonus.  Please consider me for this wonderful employment opportunity.  I'll even be anti-union.  Those greedy unions wanting insurance, what is up with that?  They are destroying America.

This is my kind of party!!

This was actually a picture from David LaChappelle's Drunk American series (2006).  It's a shame.  I like to think that someone had the presence of mind to snap this picture.

Children worshipping a lizard god at a rave.

So lazy...

I find myself with a lot of free time on my hands lately. 

I've finished with all of my prerequisites for nursing school.  I'm waiting to see if I'm accepted.  It is so competitive that I'm worried that I won't get in.  Sure I have one of the highest scores in the pre-entrance exam and a 3.9, but the stupid point system at the school doesn't really factor in good grades.  It gives a lot of points for currently working in the medical field.  A student working as a receptionist in a doctor's office with a 2.5 and a low score would have priority over me.  I don't know what I will do if I'm not accepted.  The deadline was March 1st and I still haven't heard anything.  It makes me nervous. 

On the days that I don't work, I find that I waste all of my time.  I think about productive things, but do none of them.  Today, I watched movies, made dinner, did dishes and that was it.  There's got to be more to life than this.

RuPaul's Drag Race

I hate reality shows, but I really think RuPaul's Drag Race is fun.  It has an element of corniness, intended or not, that I love.  The drag queens have a task to perform every week.  They are then judged by a panel.  The panel actually doesn't do anything other than advice RuPaul, who makes the final decision of who is in the bottom two.  The bottom two must then LIPSYNCH FOR THEIR LIFE.  They make it super dramatic.  It makes me giggle everytime.  

Little Greg and I have favorites too.  One of our favorites was Tammie, but she got canned the second week.  She was a little bit odd and is more of a Bette Davis-type than a Beyonce-type.  When I say "odd", I really mean "a little crazy", but just enough to make the show interesting.  Here's her little interview.  She enjoys cleaning and chanting, whatever that means.

Under-employed

So, I recently switched jobs to one of the "premiere" casinos in town.  I got hired part time with the un-guaranteed promise of getting at least three days a week.  That's was fine by me because three days a week pays the same as a full week at my previous place because of the increase in tips.   I also thought this would be good for school and my sanity. 

Everything was working out great...until... Apparently, there is some sort of economic crisis going on.  You wouldn't know it listening to the news.  Anyway, the casinos were feeling it, but they were doing fine.  Except, it just keeps getting worse and worse.  Suddenly, business is very, very slow.  Tips are running half of what they were.  It is so slow that they have cut me down to two days a week.  On those days, they send me home early, because I'm not a full time employee.  I'm getting about 10 - 14 hours a week. 

On top of that, I bought my house at the peak of the housing bubble.  I'm seriously underwater and overpaid to the tune of $100,000 or so.  (I bought it for $220,000 and now it is worth $120,000).  However, because I don't think I have a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loan and because I was responsible and said "no" to an ARM, I don't qualify for any financial help from the housing bailout.  Because I quit my last job and took a part time job, I do not qualify for unemployment benefits, nor am I able to find a job here.  The unemployment rate is officially 10% in Vegas, but experts estimate that it is more like 20%.  A 7-11 opening easily gets 200 applicants before noon.

I hate when real life intersects my own.

Under-employed

So, I recently switched jobs to one of the "premiere" casinos in town.  I got hired part time with the un-guaranteed promise of getting at least three days a week.  That's was fine by me because three days a week pays the same as a full week at my previous place because of the increase in tips.   I also thought this would be good for school and my sanity. 

Everything was working out great...until... Apparently, there is some sort of economic crisis going on.  You wouldn't know it listening to the news.  Anyway, the casinos were feeling it, but they were doing fine.  Except, it just keeps getting worse and worse.  Suddenly, business is very, very slow.  Tips are running half of what they were.  It is so slow that they have cut me down to two days a week.  On those days, they send me home early, because I'm not a full time employee.  I'm getting about 10 - 14 hours a week. 

On top of that, I bought my house at the peak of the housing bubble.  I'm seriously underwater and overpaid to the tune of $100,000 or so.  (I bought it for $220,000 and now it is worth $120,000).  However, because I don't think I have a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loan and because I was responsible and said "no" to an ARM, I don't qualify for any financial help from the housing bailout.  Because I quit my last job and took a part time job, I do not qualify for unemployment benefits, nor am I able to find a job here.  The unemployment rate is officially 10% in Vegas, but experts estimate that it is more like 20%.  A 7-11 opening easily gets 200 applicants before noon.

I hate when real life intersects my own.