Seems not a day goes by that some idiotic, absurd incident makes national news and much of it comes to us with the admonition of “Breaking News”. Everyone wants his or her fifteen minutes of fame. Case in point is a southern California teenager who in one month sent 14,528 text messages - some of them to people who were sitting next to her! Her 440-page phone bill resembled a phone book! Her parents solution? She can’t text after dinner. How about this for a solution no cell phone until you learn responsibility!

And what follows are some other irritations that have plagued me of late:

+  Reviewing a list of the Top Ten TV Shows reveals that the program “Two and Half Men” continues to attract over ten million viewers each week. For those of you who are not familiar with this piece of trash and debauchery it is about a character named Charlie Harper played by that hedonist Charlie Sheen who each week tries to bed down some beauty. He lives with his brother Jerome Harper and Harper’s son, Jake. Charlie often gives Jake advice much of which is not age-appropriate. Jake is an underachiever who spends most of his time playing video games and watching television. Just your typical dysfunctional family!

What disturbs me is the focus of each episode, which has Jake mouthing a script that is filled with double-entendres and outright suggestive language. And of course “cute” dialogue such as “She resembles Tinkerbell with knockers”, or “I heard you’re sinking your putts in the company golf course” and lots of references to “boinking”. This is a program that should be relegated to 11:00PM on some obscure cable channel. I have never watched it but the previews keep popping up all of which are disgusting! But I guess ten million plus people find it entertaining. Go figure!

+  Just looked at the Detroit Tigers schedule for 2009. Believe it or not the traditional Opening Day, which usually occurs on a Monday, is now scheduled for a Friday. Not just any Friday but Good Friday! In my opinion this is a day reserved for more serious thought and activities and not a baseball game particularly a day game! Obviously those who schedule the games must be using a calendar from that famous atheist Madeline Murray O’Hare! Surely the game will be sold out which is normal for an Opening Day but somehow we have lost our moral compass in this crazy world!

+  Right now I’m struggling with the news that Timothy Geithner, candidate for Secretary of the Treasury did not pay social security and Medicare taxes for several years and that he also employed a housekeeper whose legal immigrant work status had briefly lapsed in 2005. Supporters chimed in to state that these were “honest mistakes”. Oh really! Issues such as this derailed President Bill Clinton’s nomination for attorney general on two separate occasions amid allegations that the nominees in question failed to pay taxes for household help. And President George W. Bush had to withdraw the nomination of a Labor secretary when it emerged that his choice housed an illegal immigrant. Does the dishonesty and incompetence in our nation’s capital ever end! Unfortunately it remains firmly intact just the players change! In the case of the Obama nominees, who seem to be Clinton era relics, many voters are beginning to have “buyer’s remorse”! The “hope and change” we were promised seems like “more of the same”!

Well, time to turn on the news to see if any other wackos have captured their 15 minutes of fame. Wonder if Kwame Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty are aware that their text message record is in danger of being eclipsed by the California teenager! Sounds like a “breaking news” item doesn’t it?

Bill Kalmar

Former Director of the Michigan Quality Council

Lake Orion MI 48360

248-393-2633