So a few nights ago I was lingering in yahoo chat when an interesting subject matter came up. Apparently one of the chatters is a registered sex offender. According to what I saw he was convicted of forceful rape of a minor 13 to 15.

The ensuing discussion was in regard to his crime. The people who defended him based their defense on what he had told them about himself, now 17 years after the fact verses those who condemned his actions based on his crime and the facts that they found out via the World Wide Web.

I often am reminded that we really don’t know the people behind the screen. They can be anyone or do anything, often time without fear of being detected. With television shows such as “To Catch A Predator” or groups such as “The Cyber Angels” a division of “The Guardian Angels” who seek out those who might wish to do our children harm, one would think that people of the caliber of the fellow from last nights discussion would be leery of wandering into a chat room full of those who are sworn to protect, i.e. a police and fire chat.

I’ve seen on the shows where often times the “bait” is a perceived young child who is looking for a “friend” to come visit them. Those men and women, who are shown showing up to engage in “special time” with a child, will say it’s their first time however I think it’s just their first time being caught. While they might show they are remorseful for their actions, in truth I believe their remorse is over being caught.

One of the points made during the discussion was that sexual offenders can be rehabilitated. I do agree that they can be, however like with any addiction, lets take alcohol as an example, you might be a recovering alcoholic but you will never be cured, you are bound to slip up and do we really wish to put children’s lives on the line for the slip up of a “rehabilitated” sexual predator?

On the other hand, living in California I’m not surprised that many children who are indeed underage are approached for sex by adults. I say this because as I see it parents really need to know what their children are up to, who their friends are where they are going and with whom.

More and more children are latch key kids who are growing up faster than they should. Growing up in single parent households or in a home where both parents work, our children are learning about “the birds and the bees” from their friends and people online, instead of learning about it from their parents.

Having coached several team sports, I often times wondered at the lack of concern many parents of blended families had over their children. One young man I coached was the oldest of a blended family where his mother and step father felt the best way to deal with his issues, was to toss money at him and let him figure it out.

Our children are basically raising themselves, they are ill equipped to deal with peer pressure to look older, act older, and have sex earlier. From the cartoons that target children, from their sexual nature to their disrespect of adults, to music telling children that it’s ok to act the part of a ho or thug, to what they read on the web, are sent in emails and text messages it’s not hard to see where many online predators can step in and offer the perceived love and support that many of these children are seeking.

So my hope is that those who are parents will take the time to look into who their children are friends with, where they are going and how they are getting there.

Remember being a parent is more than just giving birth to a baby. It’s being there to listen and talk with your child, to give them guidance on life. To monitor those who they might consider a friend, to protect them from those who wish to do them harm. To give them the tools to grow into adults who can make educated decisions about life, be able to distinguish friend from foe and most importantly to raise their own well adjusted children.

People have allowed common courtesy to go out the window, with the advent of the belief that “I’m more important than you are”,

Things like young people not standing up on a bus to allow the aged to sit down, to driving down the freeway and being cut off by someone who absolutely must be in front of you just in case they can get to where they are going a few seconds faster.

Ever sit at a traffic light and have someone’s car thumping so loud from a sub woofer that your car shakes? They too must be much more important that you since they feel you need to listen to their music.  Oh and my favorite the people who stand there engaging in a cell phone call talking so loudly that you can hear everything they are talking about, from ex’s to sex and so on.  People we don’t want to hear your calls, that’s your business not ours.

If we all actually took a step back and thought about how our actions effect others we’d remind ourselves that common courtesy isn’t something we should let go by the way side. Take a moment to think about what you do and how it affects those around you.  Being courteous takes so little effort, so give it a try!

Have a great day!

Kat

Freedom of speech has always been subjective…take, for example, the old standard of yelling “fire” in a crowded theater. While someone might argue that they have the inalienable right to say whatever they want whenever they want, another side is that their speech is causing harm to those around them. This was the basis of many lawsuits that have reached the supreme court, insofar as what kinds of harm that speech can cause.

It’s a matter of reality…yes, we have the right of free speech, but it’s always been conditional. You can’t just walk into a courtroom in the middle of a murder trial, and start spouting off that you like the pink marshmallow peeps during Easter…they’d arrest you for contempt. You can’t walk into a church during services and start spouting off about how you like to nail fish to a cross because you can call it a “carpafixion”. You’d be arrested for disorderly conduct. The venue and timing of your speech also has to be taken into consideration…and we all know this, regardless of how much we want to scream that we have the freedom of speech.

Now, on a more practical note, the individual wearing the t-shirt is expressing themselves through their mode of dress. This, is typically not a big deal, to much of anyone…except those that like to nitpick. I think the basis of his being refused entry was that the comment on the t-shirt presented a potential liability. The comment, while not overt, would undoubtedly be seen as inflammatory by some. The tennis event, I’m assuming was televised, so i can see two bodies that would have a vested interest in denying him entry. One, the television stations that most likely would be taking all the complaints from the viewing public (because people in this country can’t help but to complain about everything, even if it doesn’t directly affect them), as well as the potential lawsuits that could result. Also, the venue that the match was being played was most likely privately owned, so the ownership didn’t want anything on the grounds that could potentially incite violent activity. This is perfectly within the rights of the ownership of the venue, as while I think it’s overkill, they were probably trying to protect themselves from a liability issue.

Yes, it’s stupid…people in this country have somehow managed to completely forget how to ignore things that offend them anymore…..it’s almost as if they seek things out to complain about, or fight about. The concept of “political correctness” has transformed this nation into two groups….those that are offensive, and those that are offended…and the membership of these groups gets swapped on a regular basis. I’m sure during my little tirade here that I’ve managed to offend someone…and you know what? I don’t care. I swear a constitutional amendment of “sticks and stones” needs to be implemented, because people are too childish to just let things go that they don’t agree with.

Wow….I must be cranky this morning….more caffeine is necessary!

(This is another of Tim’s famous rants.. I enjoyed it and I hope you did as well. ~Kat)

“With the current rocket assisted boost of gas prices, I’m thinking at least a fair part of this is attributable to ‘ol George and DICK leaving at the end of their terms. They’re scarfing up as much profit as possible prior to departure.

Someone else besides me finally said it.  How many are actually paying attention to this?

There are African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans, Native Americans, etc. and then there are just Americans.You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction. You call me “White boy,” “Cracker,” “Honkey,” “Whitey,” “Caveman” and that’s OK. But when I call you, Nigger, Kike, Towelhead, Sand-nigger, camel Jockey, Beaner, Gook, or Chink you call me a racist

You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you, so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?

You have the United Negro College Fund.
You have Martin Luther King Day.
You have Black History Month.
You have Cesar Chavez Day.
You have Yom Hashoah.
You have Ma’uled Al-Nabi.
You have the NAACP.
You have BET

If we had WET(White Entertainment Television) we’d be racists.
If we had a White Pride Day you would call us racists.
If we had White History Month, we’d be racists.
If we had any organization for only whites to “advance” our lives, we’d be racists.

We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of Commerce, and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce.
Wonder who pays for that?

If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships, you know we’d be racists.  There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US, yet if there were “White colleges” that would be a racist college. In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights. If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists.

You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you’re not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists.

You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug-dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a racist.

I am proud.  But, you call me a racist.

Why is it that only whites can be racists?

There is nothing improper about this posting.  Let’s see which of you are proud enough to forward it. 

As I’ve grown older and arguably wiser, I’ve come to the conclusion that people in whole are stupid, while individuals are smart.  Think about it… people are like lemmings, reports of terrorist activities or a major sale at Kohls or Neimans, are enough to send people over the cliff.  When if we just stepped back and looked at it on an individual basis, a person would say OH HELL NO I’m not jumping.
 

My mother always asked… if everyone jumped off the bridge would you?  My response was not only no it was a resounding no that echoed off the walls of the bedroom (usually this question came when I was in major trouble for doing something ‘stupid’ along with the gaggle of girls I ran around with)
 

So people, try thinking for yourselves, be it in or out of the daymn box, use the grey matter that is between your ears, you’ll be surprised how many proverbial bridges you don’t leap off.

 

So, I was listening to Tom Leykis Show last night, as a group of us were going out to celebrate a guy friends 26^th birthday.  Low and behold he brought up Fmr. Sen. Foley and asked for supporters of the afore mentioned to call in on live air and talk to why they support him. Do you know that of the three people actually put on the air not one of them could support Fmr. Sen. Foley with a plausible argument!

Now how sad is that. 

REALITY CHECK: When someone is in a postion of power, they live in a bubble, where people are always watching their every move. 

Here is what amazes me.  Why would you, at the ripe old age of 50 something years old, feel the need to destroy what you’ve worked hard to obtain, over an orgasm?  You can not tell me that any orgasm at any time is worth tossing away ones life and hard work.  The least this man could have done is wait until the young man/men in question were 18.  Two little years, that’s 104 weeks, 730 days. 

The excuse that he used fake id, well I hate to say it, but hello lets wake up and smell the starbucks here, you can not tell me that you can’t tap into one of numerous pipelines to establish this young man’s rightful age.  When in doubt, DON’T WHIP IT OUT! It’s pretty simple really. 

Now, he’s busy stating now that he was molested as a youngster, as thought that might deflect the heat coming his way, but come on now 

Let’s just open this up…  You can blame society, you can blame your parents, you can blame your teachers, hell you can blame anyone but the bottom line, the buck stops here line is, BLAME YOURSELF.  Actions have consequences, sucky as that might sound.  As not only an adult, but also as someone who was elected to represent the fine people who elected you into your position of power, a few elected officials seem to think they are above and beyond the law, that they will not get caught for any misconduct they engage in. Bottom line here… don’t do the crime if you’re not willing to do the time. 

NEWS FLASH: An elected official is voted upon by his constituents to represent their best interests, not further ones sexual desires. 

Before you think that I’m anti gay, two of my best male friends in this world are gay.  The crap they put up with before Foley was hard enough; I can’t imagine the barbs that will be shot their way, now that the distinguished gentleman Fmr. Sen. Foley has come out of the closet.  This will just put more fuel on the fire for those hard core religious fanatics’ who believe in taking away from gay rights and liberties.  They deal with people who are so focused on what they do in the bedroom that they can’t seem to grasp that gay and lesbian people are just like you and me. Normal. 

So, as I see it Fmr. Sen. Foley, to put it bluntly, you screwed the proverbial pooch here. You owe not only the young man/men you feel the need to be sexually aggressive with online or text message or however else you managed, the good people, who in good faith elected you to represent them, the congress that you managed to disgrace with your actions and lack of thought, and the people of the United States of America, who are now not only hearing about your lack of digression and control, a very sincere apology. Not one of those trite oops I screwed up, not one of those lets blame everyone but me, but a true from the heart I’m sorry, and then deal with what is doled out to you for your lack of judgment.   

So, I posed a question to the gentleman I’m currently seeing.  Why is it when I go out dancing that men I don’t even know feel the need to grab my rear end? 

Ok, considering the fact that I live near Starbucks headquarters, and my step-brother works there, I figured I should weigh in on this little subject.

I………am not a coffee drinker, nor have I ever been, which most of my friends can’t believe. They figure I should have started drinking the stuff at some point, either during my 4 years in the Marine Corps (where serious coffee drinkers are born), or my 6 years in college (especially during graduate school, where caffeine is considered to be PART of your blood plasma), or even during my last 8 years in law enforcement (where coffee drinking is considered almost mandatory). The simple fact is that I can’t handle the taste of the stuff, regardless of how much you doctor it up with whatever crap they have behind the counter. I am, however, a Mt. Dew junkie, but that’s a different subject.

Now, on to Starbucks proper. If you think Starbucks is prevalent where you live, try coming to Seattle sometime. From the front door of our main office building, you can literally see 4 Starbucks within view! I’m not talking a mile away worth of view, I’m talking within 2 blocks of each other! If Starbucks isn’t the legal equivalent of your local meth dealer, I don’t know what is. They want you hopped up, and begging for more…….so, that you’ll actually pay those ridiculous prices for something is simple as BEAN JUICE!

Now, onto the main body of my rant. It’s something I’ve called my Sociological Theory of Coffeehouses. This not only applies to Starbucks, but to any of the other franchises like Tully’s, Seattle’s Best Coffee, etc. I have been in enough of these establishments to have observed the behaviors of people well enough to have formulated a general sociological theory behind the behaviors that occur in these places. The reason I’m in these places is because I generally associate with people that DO drink the stuff by the gallon, so I’m typically along for the ride. Either that, or I simply order a hot chocolate, and I’m on my way.

Ok, someone previously mentioned the sizes associated with cups of coffee, so I will address that first. The entire purpose of these silly facilities is to make you feel better about yourself, or to superficially inflate your ego to the point that you will pay outlandish amounts of money for something that actually costs a fraction of that cost to make. Isn’t it interesting how in most places in our predominantly English speaking society, if there are sizes to be associated with something, it’s typically “small, medium, and large”? Well, that begs the question: Why would a coffee house need to convolute the issue with “Tall, Grande, and Venti”? Simple, their marketing strategy wants you to believe that you’re special because you ordered something Tall, not small……..that you’re not average, you’re an INDIVIDUAL because you ordered a Grande, not a medium……….that you’re not a caffeine guzzling coffaholic for ordering a large, you’re somehow cosmopolitain or eclectic for ordering a Venti. That last one I find somewhat funny since it’s an Italian term being used for a South American product (coffee), being sold in the United States, a predominantly English speaking nation. At least Grande has a spanish association with it, if not assinine in it’s inception, and “Tall” is just retarded right outta the gates. If it’s the smallest thing you have on the menu, then it’s a SMALL, dammit! There’s nothing “tall” about it!

Ok, enough of the sizing difficulties. Now onto the concept of acquired ego or individuality through coffee. When I’d sit and watch people ordering their coffee, they can’t order coffee anymore. Remember a few decades back when the epitome of what a cup of coffee should be was simply a cup of black coffee? Now, under the guise of buying coffee, people are buying as much sugar and caffeine as possible, and consider themselves to be coffee afficionados because they can now order the most confusing cup of coffee under the sun. Somehow, Starbucks and others have gotten the general public to believe that if they order a confusing cup of coffee, they are somehow a better person, or more of an individual for having done so. So, in these long lines of people waiting to order their morning cup of expensive, improperly sized, buckets of sugar and caffeine, they will try to come up with something that will impress the barrista (another term meant to impress us…..at Denny’s it’s the waitress, waiter, or the damn cook……..NOT a barrista), and confound everyone else, including themselves into believing that they’re somehow “special” for ordering confusing coffee, and overpaying for it.

Once, while I was in Washington, D.C. I was in a Starbucks, and decided to put my theories to the test, so I sat and watched people for a while. Well, sure enough, it happened. At the front of the line, some guy just got done ordering his Venti, half caf, half decaf, double shot, non-fat, hazelnut latte with whip, and a sprinkle of cinnamon, and blessed by the Cardinal before being served to him by Venezuelan virgins wearing Egyptian cotton robes with the Starbucks emblems on them………….(I’m exaggerating, obviously). That, in itself, was bad enough, but what transpired behind him was worse. Apparently, the guy directly behind the first was going to order the SAME THING. Well, he simply couln’t let that happen, because it would interfere with his being able to define himself as an individual through his cup of coffee. So, he became nervous, and looked hurried as he tried to come up with something equally convoluted before the barrista (again, overinflated title) became impatient. That is where we are folks. People in this country have become so bad, that they have to derive their own sense of identity through their coffee! Needless to say, i was perplexed at the concept that we’ve become that superficial.

Now, what’s more interesting than this is the fact that , if you want it, Starbucks will still sell you a simple cup of black coffee. There is, however, something interesting about this particular fact. Generally speaking, as I know most Starbucks aren’t identical, there is off to the side somewhere, a set of those old pump thermos containers filled with just plain old black coffee for those folks that either aren’t special enough, or ‘individual’ enough to stand in the long line, and be overcharged for a foofoo cup of mud. Starbucks marketing ploy is to keep you from going to these containers, because number one, they’re cheaper, and there’s no profit in that. So, they usually keep these things way off to one corner, and keep that area dimly lit so as to not attract people there. What is funny about this, is that the poor shlump that just simply wants a black cup of coffee is looked down upon by all the sheep in the long line for not being an “individual”………….ironic, isn’t it?

Another issue in these places is the food being offered……………..anybody notice that donuts are taboo? They have to offer an international fare so as to keep up with the idea that they have an influential, eclectic, group of clientele visiting their establishments. So, they serve up some ridiculously expensive, and horribly dry biscotti or something so that you’ll feel better about yourself because you’re “special”. Your wallet is lighter, but you’re special.

Finally, the last item that I noticed in these places are the superficial wingnuts that hang out there. They sit on the barstools at the windows, watching and looking down their noses at passersby, because they have an expensive, improperly sized, confusing cup of sugar and caffeine that helped define their individuality. I learned that even though I might be in the store, and have purchased something there, the fact that it’s simply a hot chocolate, makes me an uninteresting, uneducated, uninfluential clod. That’s fine with me, because I still have money left over for lunch folks.

The other type I have seen there is the actor. I saw one in D.C. and had to watch him for about an hour to verify my theory. He, was there to impress women………..or anyone else for that matter. He had some obscure book in his hands, and had had it open to the same page for the better part of 45 mintues. That’s right, folks, he wasn’t reading, he just wanted to LOOK as if he was. He sat there pouring over the page as if engaged in terribly deep thought, all the while hoping some errant female might be intrigued enough to approach him. His tactical error would be if she actually WAS intelligent, and asked him about the book, he’d sound like an idiot because he hadn’t actually READ the damn thing. So, needless to say…………pathetic. Besides, the practicality of reading in a coffeehouse is minimal, at best. It’s loud, obnoxious, and people are moving all over the place. This could explain why there still aren’t Starbucks in the libraries of our country…………ya think?

Anyway, I know this is quite the long rant, but since I haven’t been on in a while, I have apparently been building up to a lengthy one. I don’t mind coffee drinkers, actually I like the smell of coffee. I just can’t stand the fact that the people of this nation are so easily led to believe that they aren’t individual because of themselves, but rather that they have to have it defined for them by a retail establishment. We, as a people, are better than that, and could be again if we simply got to know each other, and quit worrying about what each other is drinking, wearing, driving, eating, so on, and so forth……………it used to be pretty important what other people thought and felt……………………a concept seemingly lost at times.

Alllllllllllllrighty then, I think I’ve blathered on quite long enough…….

(Note: This is authored by my dearest friend G, who resides outside of Seattle.  Yes, babe I’m giving credit where credit is due!!!)