Friday, October 12, 2007

The things in the news - 10.12.2007.1

Well I’m tired. Not just tired from running my company and trying to set up bigger and better give away contests. Not just because trying to track down various celebrities, entertainers and notable people is difficult if you’re not a huge media conglomerate. No, I’m tired of seeing stupid things in the news.

I’ll give you an example. Snoop Dogg, an ex-convict, drug promoter and generally not a person I’d want to socialize with, was just given community service. This time the charges stem from his carrying a baton onto a plane going from L.A. to New York City. Now I won’t say this was too light a punishment, the crime was not that serious. But the fact that I have discussed several crimes committed by this one man in roughly a year is ridiculous.

The man seems to be a magnet for violence and criminal activity. Of course based on his background, as stated above, I am not shocked. But some judge had better get on the ball and put this guy back in jail for an extended period of time. Snoop Dogg, or Calvin Broadus as his given name, knows better than most entertainers and celebrities that there is no way he would be tolerated committing all these crimes were it not for his fame. His continued disrespect of the law, and his work in promoting drugs and disrespect for women, add up to probably one of the worst examples of what a Black man can be. Sadly he gets far too much media exposure highlighting these actions, as opposed to say Mr. Samuel Jackson or Mr. Denzel Washington or Mr. Bill Cosby who provide positive images and messages.

And there are the amounts of money being spent on silly items. Recently the watch worn by Mr. Peter Fonda in the movie Easy Rider was sold for $33,460. Now if the money was given to charity I’d be happy, but no such thing has been reported. Similarly a Batman comic book from 1939 was recently found in an attic and bought for reportedly $250,000. Again no details about the sale were provided but that just too much.

I don’t mind that someone made a profit and another got something they wanted. I myself wish that my mother had kept the comic books she and my father collected back in the late 60’s and 70’s before they could afford a television set. [For those that are too young to know, the price of a television was expensive back in those days, kind of like a PS3 or a decent computer now.] But the prices are just too much. I can only hope that some of that money was given to charity or used to help the homeless or AIDS prevention or something. Odds are though that they didn’t.

It’s not the money per say, but the fact that so much is being spent on such frivolous things, and there are so many things that could be done instead. Of course I’m trying to gain wealth as well as anyone. I have the T-shirts, mugs, and items I sell as well as ads on all my sites. At the same time I’ve given away motivational books, currently giving away dinners or making a charitable donation, and I’m working on setting up a chance to pay a year of tuition for a college student. It’s not a lot, but then again I couldn’t pay a quarter of a million dollars for a comic book if I wanted to.

Well enough of my gripes, more soon.

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