Life in the Mind of a Modest Genius

Mr. Bungles

This has been one heck of a week for bad news.  Not that it comes as a surprise since we've been getting a lot of that lately, but this week was just abnormally terrible.  It started off when I thought I had Mr. Bungles pegged early on with the Phi Beta Sigma story.  I do have some friends that are Sigmas so I had planned on treading lightly regarding the whole Donnie Wade incident.  Then they got off the hook anyway thanks to a couple of gun-toting idiots that dominated the headlines later in the week.

Let's start with the one that happened more recently.  Jason Rodriguez decided to go a shooting spree in an Orlando office where he worked.  The end result was one person dead and five others wounded.  Unfortunately, the one death wasn't his own.  We would find out later that several of the people in the office recognized him as being a former co-worker. 

His reasoning that he has given so far was he was going thru a tough time right now.  Then he had the nerve to apologize.   There's no sense in even addressing any type of apology he might have offered.  That in itself is ridiculous.  What gets me is his selfishness.  Just because he is going thru a tough time, why does the rest of the world have to suffer?  Things are tough all over.  That's no excuse for snuffing out innocent lives just because your weak-minded behind feels bad.  If it was that rough, he should have saved us all some trouble and grief and used the gun on himself instead.  Then we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

The most heinous perpetrator this week goes to Nidal Malik Hasan.  I absolutely refuse to address him as Major.  He lost any chance of that kind of respect when he took it upon himself to go on the worst killing spree ever seen on a military base.  His murderous rampage wounded 38 people and killed 12 others.  Again, unfortunately contrary to early reports, he was not one of the fatalities.

From what we know so far about Hasan's situation, his actions were because he was depressed about his upcoming deployment to Afghanistan.  Um...hello, moron?  You do realize you're in the military and that is an expectation for your job, right?  It's a job requirement.  If you're called to duty over there, you go.  If you didn't want to run the risk of encountering the inevitable, maybe you shouldn't have enlisted.  Or you could have joined the Air National Guard instead and then your chances of getting deployed overseas would have been even less.

Hasan's situation was the worst of the two because he was an American soldier.  When we heard the news that a man dressed in a military uniform was killing people, I know I wasn't the only one who was hoping that he wasn't an actual soldier.  These are the people that are supposed to be protecting our country.  Not endangering it.  Not only does he not deserve the respect to be called "Major", he's too much of a coward to even be considered a soldier.

I couldn't help but think about how we spend all this money on TSA just so they can harass us in our airports and meanwhile, security everywhere else is crap.  I can't take a 3 ounce bottle of lotion in my carry-on luggage, but a disgruntled employee can get a gun into an office and go ape-crazy.  Here's a thought: re-allocate some of those TSA agents.  Send a few of them to whatever jail Jason Voorhees and Genghis Hasan are being held.  Give both of them a good old-fashioned firing squad execution an call it a day.  Two less Bungles fools to worry about.

Mr. Bungles

A Homecoming dance is supposed to be a memorable experience.  It's a young person's first opportunity to participate in a formal dance atmosphere.  More or less a practice run for when they eventually have their junior and/or senior proms.  Just ask all of the FB parents that have been flooding the updates the past few weeks with pics of their shorties going to their Homecomings.  It's supposed to be memorable in a good way.  Not the traumatizing experience that happened to a 15-year-old at Richmond High School in California.

By now, I'm sure most of you have already heard the story.  It's been plastered on the news pages for the past week.  A 15-year-old girl left her Homecoming dance with a "friend" and ended up getting gang-raped in an alley.  For over two and a half hours.  While up to 2o people stood there and watched.  Some of them even participating.

The story is disturbing on so many levels that I almost don't know where to start. Let's address the most obvious which was the blatant lack of security.  I've been reading on some other sites from people who are familiar with the area that it was rather hood-ish.  There was security but they were allowing folks on the school premises who weren't even students.  Furthermore, they apparently weren't patrolling the perimeter very effectively if this went on so close to the school and none of them ever discovered the criminal act.  Obvious Bungles recipients for that reason.

Then there is the crowd of students who all sat there watching.  They don't specify, but I'm willing to bet they were all males.  Contrary to what some people have insinuated, I'm pretty certain the reason none of them didn't report anything did not have anything to do with them fearing retribution for snitching.  These were a bunch of boys with raging hormones who wanted to see a movie scene acted out in real life.  So much so that some of them even participated.  A big Bungles recognition to all of them for that.

Then there was the "friend" of the rape victim who came forward and slammed the school for allowing it to happen.  Kami Baker claims they went looking for their friend when she disappeared and were shocked when they discovered what happened.  They must not have been looking very hard.  It's not like she was blocks away.  She was only in an alley right next to the school.  What kind of searching could her friends possibly have done in two and half hours?  If they had tried a little harder, they could have found her and possibly prevented at least some of the act from occurring, if not all of it.   Sorry Kami, but you and your "friends" that were supposedly so worried get a little Bungles acknowledgment of your own because of that action.

Naturally, the school itself is the biggest Bungles at all in this whole incident.  They did the right thing initially by having the Homecoming dance at the school which should have been an environment that was easy to control.  However, they should have made sure that security was accurately doing their job. They should have made sure that non-students weren't lingering around the campus.  The students that were there should have been able to count on being safe on and around the premises.  They deserve any and all type of civil action that will eventually be presented against them.

You're probably wondering how I could possibly omit the offenders, huh?  I definitely am not.  Every single one of those criminals should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.  And every one of them should be tried as adults.  The horrendous act they committed far exceeds any type of Bungles acknowledgment.  It was inexcusable barbaric behavior that no one should ever have to be exposed to.  May every single one of them receive the same consequences when they land in whatever penal institution lucky enough to have them.

Mr. Bungles

Two years can be an eternity in technology time.  That's why it doesn't surprise me that my HP lappy will have problems from time to time.  Although it would help if I didn't download things from Limewire when I KNOW that it is known to have viral issues.  I probably just take it for granted that if a problem comes up, I have an extended warranty on the lappy that goes thru December 2012.  That's how it happened that the good folks at the HP helpdesk were fortunate enough to be this week's Bungles winner.

It was as soon as I got to the hotel in Detroit that the lappy decided to start acting up.  It wouldn't stay turned on and continued to reboot all by itself.  The last time it did that, it was a motherboard issue which required me to send it in for repair.  This time around, I tried every fix I could think of on my own and nothing worked.  That's when I finally conceded and called the helpdesk.

The first guy on the first call had me go thru every fix I had already tried plus a couple of others I hadn't thought of.  He was actually fairly helpful.  He was able to get it to the point where the lappy wouldn't reboot.  It just wouldn't stay on.  Then it started going back to the constant reboot cycle.  His recommendation was to send me a system recovery disc.  I would lose everything but that wasn't my issue.  It was that they wanted to charge me $20 for the shipping and handling.  I told him I'd have to get back to him on that one.  That was their first fail.  We'll get back to that one.

I let the lappy sit over night without messing with it to see if the time off would get it to work again.  Because you know... computers heal themselves when you let them rest.  It faked me out for a second because it did start up.  However, soon as it got to the desktop, it rebooted and the whole process started over again.  I called the helpdesk again to see if a different rep could provide a different fix.  That's where the second fail came in.  He saw in the notes that I had called.  He saw what the issue was.  I even TOLD him what I discussed with the prior rep. Yet STILL he made me got thru all the same things and repeat myself all over again.  I HATE having to repeat myself.

He then suggested the recovery disc which brings me back to their first fail.  The more I thought about it, the more I rationalized that I shouldn't have to pay for shipping and handling.  I had a warranty.  And since when does shipping and handling for a small cd cost $20?  I told him if I had to send the lappy in, they would send me a box to pack it and send it to them with no cost to me.  If they can pay for the shipping and handling on 3+pound lappy, they can certainly pay for the shipping and handling on a 2-ounce cd.

Dude then tried to explain to me the rationale behind charging for the shipping and handling of the cd.  Something about the computer comes with instructions on how to create your own recovery cd so that's supposed to be done...blah, blah, blah.  I didn't care about all that.  All I knew is that I paid for a warranty.  If they could pay to ship the lappy, they could pay to ship the recovery cd.  They weren't trying to hear that though.  Therefore, I proposed my idea of shipping the entire lappy to them.  They must have got tired of me griping because they agreed to do that afterall.

So now I'll have to sit and wait for them to fix the lappy again.  I already know they're going to do a system recovery that I could have done myself had they just sent me the disc.  But $20 is $20. I wasn't about to pay for something that should have been covered under my warranty anyway.  I don't care what their justification was.  It was about principalities.

Mr. Bungles

There was a moment for a while there when this week's Bungles award was fairly clear cut.  Justice of the peace Keith Bardwell in the great state of Louisiana had it on lockdown.  It was going to be pretty hard to beat his feat.  Here we are in 2009, in the 21st century and he actually refused a marriage certificate to an interracial couple?  How could I NOT award the Bungles trophy to someone who is stubbornly stuck in the 50s and honestly sees nothing wrong with it?

In his defense, I'm thinking maybe he had another reason why he did it and he just didn't want to admit it.  I just saw the picture of the couple for the first time.  That lady is one extremely unfortunate looking individual.  Maybe Keith didn't grant the certificate because he was trying to prevent the possibility of them reproducing and potentially bringing some unfortunate looking children into the world.  Maybe Keith just figured that he was better off using the interracial excuse to justify it because that would be more believable.  See...he was just doing us all a favor and we just misunderstood him is all.

However, once this drama in Colorado with the alleged balloon boy unfolded, Keith was safely off the hook.  The story is still unraveling, but I'm sure you all know the gist of what happened.  The Heene's had us all glued to televisions, radios and computer online streaming broadcasts around the world Thursday afternoon.  Everyone was speculating that their 6-year-old son, Falcon, had stowed away onboard a makeshift balloon craft that floated away.  Folks were hoping and praying the boy would be okay.  Folks were duped.

I don't know about anyone else, but something didn't sit right with me as soon as I found out that this family had "starred" in a previous episode of "Wife Swap".  This wold have been while the balloon was still in the air.  I was thinking that it was extremely coincidental that some random kid was in a runaway balloon craft and he just happened to be from a family that had been on a reality show.  The more I thought about it, that wasn't very random at all.

Then came the additional news that this Falcon kid and his siblings had made their very own rap video.  This normally wouldn't have been a big idea unless you hadn't seen the video (which I've conveniently linked for you here).  That  little kid that didn't seem all that shy.  It seemed like the apple didn't fall too far from the tree in that he was rather fond of camera attention also.

The cherry on top of it all came when the family was on "Larry King" later that evening.  Falcon busted out his folks when he told his dad, Richard, "You said we did it for the show".  The dad didn't even know how to respond to that because he wasn't expecting his son to be honest.  Apparently Dick didn't do the proper coaching.  Falcon confessed what many of us had suspected which was this family of media whores were searching for another way to get another 15 minutes of fame.

The latest news is that authorities in Colorado said charges are expected to be filed against Richard Heene in the near future.  They just haven't announced what charges yet.  Whatever they are, they are more than warranted.  They should go ahead and invent some new charges while they're at it.  Things like "unlawfully being a moron without proper license".  Or even "falsely portraying a responsible parent".  That would take care of the criminal portion against Dick.

Then there is still the civil punishment that needs to be enforced.  Any and all of the expenses for all the rescuers that were involved should be charged in full to the Heene family.  Let them foot the bill for the additional money that was spent to chase their hoax.  Don't stop there though.  They should also have to pay for the hour of unproductivity in offices around the country that resulted from following their madness.  We'll figure out some way to itemize a bill and get it to them.  They'll be wishing they were in that balloon themselves and hoping they would never be found.

Mr. Bungles

If you had to find one redeeming feature about this week's Mr. Bungles recipient, it would be that at least the police officer involved didn't discriminate.  We're all used to the stories by now of how police brutality constantly has minorities as the victims.  A story about that wouldn't be a big shock.  It would still tick you off.  Or at least it should.  But it wouldn't be any revelation.  So to hear that one of the members of law enforcement was dishing some of that dirty justice on a special needs student would be quite the change of pace, huh?

You can thank the good ol' Officer Christopher Lloyd of the Dolton Police Department in Dolton, IL for switching things up.  Lloyd was working at the Academy for Learning School in Dolton, IL when he noticed student Marshawn Pitts walking the hall with his shirt untucked.  There's no audio on the video so we don't know what Marshawn said to the officer when Chris told him to tuck his shirt in.  However, Marshawn clearly did not appear to be a threat whatsoever.

What you can see on the video very clear is as Marshawn is slowly walking away from the officer, tucking his shirt in, Chrissy throws the 15-year-old into the lockers.  He did it with so much force that the kid looked like a rag doll hitting the metal lockers.  Chrissy easily had about 100-pounds on the scrawny student.  As if that wasn't enough, after his body ricochets off the lockers, Chrissy  throws him down to the floor face first, breaking his nose.

Did I already mention the fact that this was a special needs student?  Let me clarify...that doesn't mean that he was a troubled or at-risk youth who was there because he was a menace to society.  He suffered a brain injury when he was younger which left him with a learning disability.  It wasn't like this was some juvenile delinquent who deserved to be dealt some excessive force because he wasn't responding quickly enough for the cop's liking.

There's also much to be said about why the one-sided altercation even occurred in the first place.  All because the student's shirt was untucked??  I understand that some school's have dress codes that require shirts to be tucked in.  I also understand that the reason such dress codes are in place is to prevent the chance of students smuggling in firearms and/or drugs under their clothes.  However, was it necessary to take such aggressive action? Of course it wasn't.

Statistics show that over 20 people have died from the restraint move called a"face down-take down" that the cop used on Marshawn.  Eight states currently ban that maneuver for that very reason.  Illinois is not one of them.  I'm sure it's because they thought it would be useful when combating gang violence in the city.  I'm pretty certain it wasn't intended to be used on an unarmed special needs student that the officer is supposed to be protecting.

It's no surprise that the city didn't initially release the name of the officer involved.  They probably felt that since Chrissy resigned, there was no need to subject him to further public scrutiny.  It's pretty much par for the course when a police department realizes that they and/or one of their own has screwed up.  In this case, I hope that when the family takes the school to the cleaners that the no-name cowardly cop continues to feel the impact of his horrendous actions.  Oh, and thanks to the age of the internet, we are able to publish your name AND likeness for all the world to criticize your stupidity.

Mr. Bungles

Any story where a person is so drunk that they commit a heinous crime is going to make my Bungles radar.  That just goes without saying.  Even with all of the constant news items we see about how dangerous alcohol can be, we still have people out there that insist on being morons and causing the rest of us to pay for it.  Angela Arellano of Des Moines was no different.

Thirteen-year-old Devin Fry and 17-year-old Rabiatu Timothy were on their way to a friend's house with a group of friends last Saturday night.  At 11:30pm.  As they started to cross East University (just feet away from Union Baptist, the church I grew up in) they were struck by a Grand Cherokee that fled the scene.  Police would later discover that the driver was Arellano and that she was driving while intoxicated.  Timothy was hurt in the incident.  Fry was killed.

It's situations just like this one that are the precise reason why I never let G be outside past the street lights coming on.  It was a rule that most of us grew up with.  We all know that the darker it gets outside, the more stupid people start coming out.  Not to mention that the later it gets, the shadier the element that is out on the streets.  Which is exactly why children shouldn't be out that late.

The fact that Devin is no longer with us due to Arellano's selfish stupidity is a shame.  However, I'm going to take a tangent that may not be popular.  There's much to be said about why Devin was even out at that time of night anyway.  Why is a 13-year-old hanging out with boys that much older than him?  More importantly, why was his mother allowing him to be out that late?  There's no reason whatsoever that a 13-year-old boy should be out wandering the streets at 11:30 without adult supervision. Honestly, there's no reason a 13-year-old should even be out past 11:30 period.  His mom should have known better.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly when this picture of Arellano was taken.  She sure looks pretty amused for someone who had just murdered an innocent little boy.  Especially for one who did it via a hit and run which meant she didn't want to face the consequences of her actions.  Or perhaps she was SO drunk that she didn't even know what she had done.  Whatever the case may be, if this pic was taken when she was arrested days later after it was clear what she was charged with, that makes her even more of a scumbag than she already is.  I sure hope the judge is smirking like that when he/she gives that Arellano life without parole.

Mr. Bungles

It was looking for a minute there like we were going to get thru the week without a Bungles recipient.  It would have been only the second time it happened this entire year.  Not that there would have been anything wrong with that at all.  That would have meant that there possibly aren't as many losers out there as we originally thought.  But then Cheronda Guyton made it in just under the wire.

I remember checking out photos online of one of the homes that Bernie Madhoff had to surrender to

authorities.  It didn't look all that gawdy as you would expect, but still better than any house I've ever been in.  Still, it had me wondering what happened to those homes in the interim while the government is trying to unload them.  Well this story doesn't feature one of them, but Bernie's shadiness is slightly connected to it.

The reason Shagunta Cheronda gets the ringing Bungles endorsement this week is because of her actions as a Wells Fargo executive.  She "reportedly" partied and stayed at a bank-owned $12 million beach house in the exclusive Malibu Colony.  Something that was clearly a violation of company policy.  Something that was also a clear violation of common sense which apparently Cheronda was lacking.

I have no doubt that Cheronda probably got a little caught up with the whole keeping-up-with-the-Joneses mentality.  She thought her digs weren't good enough to impress her high falutin' friends.  She figured that since the house was empty anyway and not being used that it wouldn't hurt anything to pass it off as her own.  Who would ever know?  Except for the neighbors who were fully aware the sista didn't belong there.

The biggest problem with the whole scenario is the home had been vacated because the previous homeowners, Lawrence and Linda Elins had to turn over the 3,800-square-foot house to Wells Fargo in May.  Their real estate agent said they were financially devastated by Bernard Madhoff's fraud scheme and had to sign the property over to Wells Fargo to help pay a larger debt.  The home had not yet been foreclosed and the bank agreed not to immediately sell it.

So it wasn't just that Cheronda blatantly disobeyed company policy to fulfill her narcissism.  She also disrespected these folks who used to live there.  It's not like they sold it because they wanted to.  They were victims from Madhoff's (a former Bungles recipient, I might add) scam.  For them to have to lose their home that way was bad enough as it was.  To have someone who is supposed to be a representative of their bank take advantage of their misfortune for their own selfish reasons was pouring salt in the wound.

Wells Fargo has since fired Cheronda for her actions.  That was without question the right thing to do.  Definitely smarter than doing the old police department move of suspending the wrongdoer.  Don't feel too bad for her because I'm sure she'll have no problem getting another job as an executive some place else.  The executive types always seem to land on her feet.  If she doesn't, may she lose her home and have some middle class family up in her crib partying like they're on the come up.

Mr. Bungles

We have two very worthy recipients on the menu today.  However, as bad as this first one is, it pales in comparison to the horrendous second. I still look back on that one and get further disgusted the more I think about how something like that could occur.  Let me quit before I get too far ahead of myself though.  Let's focus on the first cast of characters and how they were able to even stay on the board with the latter.

The main reason this first one even came up for consideration was because I JUST railed on a topic very similar to this one not even a month ago.  But you know stupid people don't read the news like they should.  That's why we constantly seeing dumb mistakes being committed where people are wrongly accused.  Such was the case with the Hofstra situation.  In that case, four young men were recently released after the girl who accused them of forcibly raping her changed her story.

Unfortunately, they haven't released the name of the student who made the false accusation so I can't put her fully on blast.  We'll just call her Loosey Lucy for the time being.  It turns out that the only reason Lucy recanted her story was because the police revealed to her that part of the sexual act had been caught on cel phone video and it was obvious from the video that it was consensual.  She came clean and the charges were dropped.  As crude as it is to record a sexual act, at least in this case, it worked out in favor of the four boys to prevent them from serving more time.

As far as Lucy is concerned, the same thing holds true for her that I mentioned in the similar incident a month back.  She should consider herself very fortunate that these boys didn't have to go to prison for something they didn't do.  However, they did have to go to jail for a minute and their names were still dragged thru the mud.  So she should get the same amount of jail time PLUS whatever jail time comes with the charge of reporting a crime when none occurred.  The next time Lucy is feeling guilty about her ho-ish actions, maybe she should seek counsel instead of trying to ruin other people's lives.

Lying Loosey Lucy only gets honorable mention to this next sorry excuse for a human being.  Troy Dale of West Poulan is head and shoulders above the rest of the losers of the week with his actions from earlier this week.  When Army reservist Tashawnea Hill and her daughter were leaving a Cracker Barrel restaurant, Dale nearly hit the little girl with the door.  Ms. Hill politely asked him to be careful to which Dale responded by beating Ms. Hill down right there on the spot.  While yelling racial slurs at her.  While her 7-year-old daughter stood there crying and watching in horror.

There are so many things wrong with this that I don't even know where to start.  We could address the most obvious which was the fact that this was a man physically abusing a defenseless woman.  Or maybe even the fact that he showed no respect for the victim being a member of our military that is fighting to defend the very freedom his pathetic behind enjoys.  Or maybe even how he had no regards for the fact that her own child was witnessing the whole event (which is why, thankfully, one of the charges he is up for is cruelty to children).

We all know that racist rednecks such as this one exist.  Every now and then, they will show up in public and incidents such as this one will rear its ugly head.  However, when that does happen, the one thing you would hope and pray for is that there would be people around with common sense enough to step in and assist.  From the way the story was reported, it sounds as if this animal was able to get in a full-fledged assault with little or no intervention from anyone there.  After about the first or even second blow, you would think that somebody would have tried to help this woman, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

I personally have never been a fan of Cracker Barrel.  Something about the place just rubs me the wrong way.  The name itself doesn't even lend itself to being very African American-friendly.  But its decor, setting and style just always struck me as one of those places that would attract the moronic Troy Dales of the world.  I am in no way saying that they are partly responsible for this horrific event; I'm just saying that it doesn't surprise me that something like this would take place on their premises.

The latest update to this one is that the police are still considering charging Dale with a hate crime.  Since they have all kinds of eye witnesses as well as surveillance video, that one should be a no-brainer.  We shall see how long they actually continue to twiddle their thumbs before they finally decide to do the obvious.  Cracker Barrel, on the other hand, swiftly announced that the criminal has been banned fr life.  Not sure how they would even enforce something like that with the locations they have all over the country, but at least it's a start.  As for a finish, let some of Ms. Hill's fellow Army Reservists meet with this hick and show him what it feels like to be on the receiving end of a real beatdown.

Mr. Bungles

Well it's been a pretty busy week for the Bungles award.  There were idiots everywhere doing their very best to take home the trophy.  I could talk about how my own alma mater Iowa State failed to show up for their HOME game and give it to them.  However, I'm going to address that disgrace in its very own separate post so they are temporarily spared the embarrassment. 

I could go with Veronica Odom for her act of lunacy.  Long story short, she was mad at her babydaddy for leaving her so she took it out on their child by throwing the child on the ground.  The Bungles award isn't enough for something like that.  That goes beyond anything that words could define as far as how crazy that was.  It's almost as if she was trying her best to prove she was one of the worst humans around.  A Bungles mention can't even begin to contend with that.

Instead, I'm sticking with the one that I eluded to earlier in the week.  Your friend and mine...good  ol' republican (notice the "R" doesn't get capitalized because I REFUSE to show him that kind of respect) Joe Wilson from the wonderful state of South Carolina.  Thanks to his outburst during President Obama's address to Congress when he felt the urge to blurt out "YOU LIE!" he is hands down the Mr. Bungles winner of the week.

Let's start with the most obvious fact regarding his very own stupidity.  The thing that he objected to in the first place with that exclamation was the fact that the new health plan would not cover illegal immigrants.  He seems to think that it does.  Guess what?  When you read thru the plan, it clearly states that it does not.  So for Wilson to feel the need to be belligerent on national television, you would think he could have at least chosen a point where he would be close to being in the right.

Then there is the whole respect issue.  It's already been established that this was a special session so the standard rules didn't apply.  Otherwise, he would have been removed by the sergeant of arms for his obstruction.  However, there are always rules of decorum that should apply.  It's called being respectful.  Dude should have acted like he had SOME type of good upbringing and kept his mouth closed while grown folks are talking. 

Think about the lesson this taught to children that may have been watching.  This is the President of the United States.  Here he is trying to give a speech to a group of elected officials.  Instead of showing him the respect that not only he but also his office deserved, Wilson decides to behave like an untrained monkey.  How can you tell children to behave in their classrooms when they have examples like Wilson showing their behinds on tv?

To be fair, Wilson wasn't alone in his actions.  Some of his other republican cronies could be heard throughout the speech snickering and laughing out loud every now and then.  There were also those that felt the need to put on their own demonstrations of objection.  It's just that none of them went out of their way to get recognition like Wilson did, but they all deserve some runners-up shine.

Wilson already apologized to President Obama and the President accepted it. Good for him.  We aren't quite as forgiving though.  That's why his opponent has raised over $1 million for his campaign since this spectacble.  South Carolina politics already had enough troubles with their governor Mark Sanford deservedly getting the Bungles award just months ago.  They certainly didn't need this moron adding to the negative image of their state.  Hopefully he will be out of a job this time next year and it will no longer be an issue.

Mr. Bungles

I was going to make this post about Chris Brown's recent appearance on Larry King.  Yes, even though I have already went off previously about him AND Rihanna not that long ago.  That was back when the news was still fresh.  Before there had been a sentencing.  Before Chris decided to take to the airwaves and air a semblance of an apology and an explanation.  In fact, it's just too much to talk about for me to not at least address here so I am still going to say something.

Let's start with the most visually obvious which was his outfit.  Whenever a celebrity gets in trouble, they make sure they have the best PR experts available to help consult them on the best ways to repair their image.  Whoever it was that recommended to Chris that he needed to go on there with a baby blue cardigan and matching bowtie needs to be fired.  If they haven't already.  That really REEKED of doing too much.  That already gives us the impression that he's going to start lying.  He should have just went with a modest dress suit and nice shirt and tie.

As if that wasn't enough, he had the nerve to get up there and say that he couldn't remember what happened.  Even though he already admitted that he went home to his mother afterwards and told her the whole story.  Apparently THAT was the part that he forgot.  He would have done better to just tell the truth and again offer a sincere apology.  His whole feigned grieving appearance and failed memory wasn't fooling anyone but himself.  And maybe his mama.

Ike Jr. got off lucky though because I'm making him runner-up to the real recipient of this week's Mr. Bungles title.  It really pains me to do it too.  I have a strong affinity to this place due to my association with it.  However, I put my biases aside when stupidity and ignorance rear their ugly heads.  Even it happens to take place at my alma mater.

Twitter friend and soror Andrea hipped me to this story.  President Obama will be giving a speech live via telecast to school children across the country.  It's not intended to be political in nature, according to Obama’s administration as well as the U.S. Department of Education.  Instead, Obama in a 15- to 20-minute address will talk with students about succeeding in school. He will challenge them to work hard, set educational goals and take responsibility for their learning.  Apparently, the Norwalk school district could care less.

My former school district has decided they will not be showing the speech live.  They won't even give children the option to decide whether or not they want to view the speech at school because they won't be televising it.  Period.  They will instead download it and allow teacher to show excerpts.  But the speech in its entirety?  Not so much.

Can you EVER remember a time when a U.S. President went out of his way to give a speech directed specifically towards the youth of America?  And I don't mean one going to a local high school and making an appearance to speak to that district.  We're talking about the President of the United States televising  a speech specifically for our youth.  Aimed to give them encouragement and show how concerned he is with their education.  That's a monumental occasion.  No school district should be sleeping on that moment.  Leave it up to Norwalk to do it though.

If anything, what Norwalk should have done is allowed the speech to televise live and give students the option.  Broadcast it in one of the empty classrooms some place.  That way if there is an issue with some not wanting to see it because they ignorantly have a problem with the President's political affiliation, they don't have to watch it.  But you don't deprive those that want to witness history and are genuinely interested in the fact that the President wants to speak to them.

Unfortunately, it really doesn't surprise me that Norwalk is not being very progressive with their decision.  Even though it is close enough to Des Moines to be considered a suburb, it is still not a diverse community.  You can probably still count the Black students in that school on one hand.  Maybe two.  Diversity has never been high on their agenda and I speak from experience.  I still remember when they had a faculty basketball game for the students and the teachers were in black face.  I kid you not.  This isn't nearly that bad, but they are still 100% in the wrong for their decision.