Monday Musings

Today Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison. My hope for him is that he has a very long life to fully enjoy the accommodations provided for him so that he can reflect on the ahem, ‘joy’ that he brought into so many people’s lives.

His assets have been completely seized with his wife being given ONLY 2.5 million dollars. If she didn’t know about this scheme I’d be surprised and, being the generous soul I am, I’d be happy for her to enjoy similar accommodations to her husband. As for as I am concerned, the 2.5 million dollars she received is about 2.5 million more than she ought to.

One person you have to admire is Jenny Sanford. She is (rightly) mad as hell and she is perfectly capable of letting people know that she’s angry. She has been, in my opinion, up front and delightfully blunt as to her feelings and thoughts. I do believe she’d like to save her marriage, but she will not allow herself to be victimized by this. She is a really strong, brilliant woman.

The Mets have been devastated by injuries. I think if Marv Throneberry was still alive they might sign him... Yes, it’s that bad. And if you don’t know who Marvelous Marv was, you aren’t a true baseball fan.

Iran decreed that the recount proved that the Presidential election was valid. The Ayatollah Katherine Harris has assured everyone that the election was properly held and all the votes were properly counted.

An autopsy of Michael Jackson showed that he weighed 112 pounds, had excessive scarring from badly done plastic surgeries, and he had lost mostly all of his hair. I have no words....

Pet peeve term: “Reverse racism.” Racism is racism no matter which direction it comes from. There is no such thing as reverse racism; there is only racism. If you hate another race, you are a racist. Period.

Pet peeve term: Decimate used as if it means devastate or totally destroy. To decimate a people is to kill 10% of them or to destroy 10% of a place. This word is so misused that people do not know what it means any longer.

Pet peeve term: Disinterested when a person means uninterested. A person who is disinterested is a person who is impartial and neutral. A judge is disinterested. The judge has to make judgments based upon law and fairness and now on how the judge feels or thinks about a situation. Uninterested is having no interest in something.

I truly do not understand Justice Clarence Thomas. In the recent strip search case on a school strip searching a 13 year old girl in Arizona searching for Advil, the court ruled 8-1 that this was an improper search. It is a convergence of law and common decency. At least it was for 8 of the justices; Clarence Thomas ruled that it was okay that they did the strip search. His opinion, in my mind, makes no sense whatsoever. None. Zip. I do not understand how he came to the decision he came to. I even read when he wrote and his logic defies my imagination. If for no other reason, common decency and common sense can tell us that this was wrong. Wrong!!!!

Pope Benedict decreed that bones in the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome are definitely the bones of St. Paul. He said scientific data helps prove discovered bones belonged to apostle St. Paul. "Tiny fragments of bone" in the sarcophagus were subjected to carbon dating, showing they "belong to someone who lived in the first or second century," the pope said in a homily carried on Italian television. "This seems to confirm the unanimous and undisputed tradition that these are the mortal remains of the Apostle St. Paul," Benedict said in Sunday's announcement.

Maybe they are and I am just being cynical, but I am hard pressed to embrace that dating bones and making a declaration as to who the person was is credible evidence. If Paul was living on a deserted island and they found the bones, I’m all ears. But Rome?

I am guess that the dental records weren’t available.

This kind of stuff annoys me. I am a huge fan of St. Paul and think his letters and his witness are peerless. Trying to ‘prove’ his bones appears to be a trite and potentially comical endeavor in our approach to this great man. It is moments like this that often make Christians look silly.

Authorities arrested former Gainesville Mark Musselwhite and charged him with public indecency last weekend after state Department of Natural Resources officers found him sitting nude at his Rabun County campsite.

Officers had received a complaint about a naked man walking along a nearby road earlier in the day, but the 43-year-old Musselwhite said he was not the same man.

Musselwhite, a Republican, was elected to the Gainesville City Council in 2000, where he served for six years, including a stint as mayor. He lost a bid for a state Senate seat in 2006.

At least there were no concealed weapons charges....

Elliot Spitzer was on television this morning giving his input on financial decisions, regulations, etc. There is a really evil joke in here somewhere concerning a very aggressive guy who went after ‘escort’ agencies with vigor and became a client----and from what they said, a nasty client. And now he’s on television as an expert. Wow.