What pissed me off in 2005

This year, has sounded the death knell, for the news, as we used to know it. Cable news networks, with daily ratings that run by the minute now, have turned news into a popularity contest. Newspapers like the LA Times, are losing readers by the thousands, and why is this? Is it the news availability on the net, from multiple outlets?

Are we less interested in news? Or is the news, just less interesting now? I have not put my finger on the pulse of the nation, I only know why I stopped watching the news this year. It's mind numbingly dull. I cannot sit through another 10 minutes of Michael Jackson, or a Runaway Bride, or worse, the overwrought Cindy Sheehan.

Washington, is making me crazy. Republicans, spending like democrats, democrats whining like toddlers who see another kid with a cookie. Now, I know I have less patience in general being a Libertarian, but I think this is another big reason I am not watching the news.

This year, I have had it with illegal immigration. Starting January 1st, 2006, you will need a passport to get back across the border from Mexico, even if you are just going to Tijuana for the day. So, if I want to go, I have to spend $65 on a passport, and another $10 for photos. Or, I can just run across the border with the rest of the illegals we are not doing a damn thing about. I am thinking, from now on, I will pass on trips across the border. Anyhow, you can buy most of the tacky tourist stuff now here, in downtown LA. However, you do miss the joy of 6 and 7 year olds selling chiclets on the freeway offramps. Alas, I shall have to deal with the pain.

The Kabbalah people. A Canadian rabbi selling Kabbalah water for huge sums of cash, claiming healings. OK, this has officially sunk lower than Trinity Broadcasting Network. Rabbis, spend their entire lives studying Kabbalah, and Madonna thinks she knows what the hell she is doing? When religion is trendy, it does not speak well of our society at large. They are selling a red string to protect you from the evil eye. Wow, I need to get me one of those! All this time, I have been shaking in terror from that damn evil eye!

Tom Cruise? Michael Jackson? Nuff' said.

Tuki Williams, not one of the people pleading for his clemency, ever mentioned the victims, most of them did not even know their names. How upside down is that? Twenty-six year old Albert Lewis Owens, gunned down as he worked at a 7-11. The robbery netted $120. The Yang family, husband seventy-six year old Yen-Yi Yang, and wife sixty-three year old Tsai-Shai C. Yang, along with their forty-three year old daughter, Yu-Chin Yang Lin. That robbery? $100. For some odd reason, I have a tough time mustering any sympathy. Must be something wrong with me.

All summer long, crappy movies came out. The times I wanted to take the kids to the movies, there was zippo to see. Now they are all out at Christmas, at the same time, and I cannot keep up. grrrr.

Men, in general, and ongoing.

I am sure I will think of some more, and have to continue this... but in the meantime, I am not so discontented tonight.

Happy now Peter? :)

Bill Nye, the Science Guy

Today, as I watched my daily soap, "Cavuto on Business," I was treated to a small dose of Bill Nye. Aaaah. What a treat.

When my boys were young, and I was home schooling, the day revolved around watching two episodes of "Bill Nye, the Science Guy."

I am not sure if watching Bill was for them or for me.

I don't know what it is about Bill, but he is just the sexiest darn guy. He seems utterly aware of his geekdom, yet he revels in it, with that natty little bow tie, and the lab coat. He is almost utterly without guile. I am lucky that I watch Cavuto, because he features Bill, out of his uniform, the ever present lab coat. Once I recall his telling viewers what to do in the event of their being caught out in a thunderstorm on a golf course. Today, it was hurricanes. I could watch him explain how without friction, we would fly right off the planet for hours.

Bill studied at Cornell, under my first geek passion, Carl Sagan. I spent billions and billions of hours as a teen, working towards attending Cornell, only to discover that he did not really teach any undergrad coursework. Then he left his wife, I was hopeful, but he left her for Anne Druyan, who co-authored with him. I thought it grossly unfair, I was, after all much younger. But no.

After the last geek relationship, I have said good bye to geeks as romantic interests. I want someone who actually has an equal passion for life, that they have for Pythagorean Theorum. However, I could use one as a math tutor. I can still share the deep abiding love for Star Trek reruns. Math geeks are particularly useful for calculating tips on the fly. Chess geeks, while I dearly love them, are close to completely mentally unhinged.

In the meantime, whenever I see Bill, I will remember fondly, dating men that can't dress properly, can barely do their own hair, and seem to be so focused on the new sub-atomic particle theories, that they can barely put one foot in front of the other. Oh baby baby...