Absolut stupidity

I think that "we" as Americans are idiots. We get upset over the dumbest things. Recently Absolut Vodka ran an add in Mexico showing a map of Mexico pre-1848 with most of the west still a part of our neighbors to the south. How upset were the Mexicans when we came in and took over their land? Or the Native Americans for that matter? Don't even get me started on Iraq!! Ok, ok...........here's the link if you want to read the Yahoo story.

Never Forget - 9/11/01

Don't forget all those that died on that day, and all those taken from us in this crazy war. I wish my kids could have known this skyline, and the world before. At least we knew who our real enemies were........

Certain songs took on a whole new meaning for me after that day. I can now never hear Don Henley's "New York Minute" without thinking about Sept 11th, and all the people that lost loved ones that Tuesday morning and how at any second, I could lose the people closest to me.

Cherish every second.

What's the big deal?!?!

Apparently, the town of Bloomfield, NJ is having issues letting "The Soprano's" shoot the final scene in their town because the show depicts Italian-American's in a negative way. WHATEVER ASSHOLES!! It's a TV show! I'm of Italian decent and I don't give a fuck! People need to be more relaxed about things and not take everything so damn personal!!!

On a separate note, has anyone else seen the preview for the show "Drive" on Fox? It seems to be loosely based on my favorite movie (and my blog's name sake), "The Cannonball Run". From what I understand, it's not just a cross country race to get $32 million, but for some people an answer to a question, like "My wife is missing. What happened to her?". Since it's obviously going to be about driving fast and have some drama thrown in, I may have to give it a shot.

We're all a little looney

After reading this post over at The Musings of David Amulet, it reminded me of how screwed up our society has become about "protecting" out kids from the dangers that they may encounter. Don't people realize that the more you hide things from people, especially kids, that they just want it more. Here's an example of a cartoon that ran about the dangers of drinking beer, but was pulled after being aired only once. Parts of it cracked me up. I think everyone needs to relax a little and not get so upset about everything.

Stop blaming the music!!

Let me start by saying that I am definitely not a fan of rap music, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. OK, now on with the post.

On the way in to work this morning, I heard something about how rap music is causing young kids to be more sexually active and causing a rise in teen pregnancy. *insert hysterical laughter* OK, wait............*regains composure*, you're telling me that rap music is making kids horny? HELLO!! Kids (especially boys) are ALWAYS HORNY and always want sex!!! The music has nothing to do with it. When I was a kid, (ok now I sound like a complaining old man shaking his finger at the world) rock music was the big thing. There were songs like "Girls, Girls, Girls", "Cherry Pie", "Slow and Easy", "Let's Put the X in Sex", and "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and always very beautiful women in the videos writhing around on the hoods of cars, or having water poured all over them. I already knew what was hot, that I liked women, and wanted to have sex with all of them. I didn't need music to tell me that I should be horny. Music has been blamed for kids sexual activity since Elvis shook his pelvic bone around. Come on people.

My parents taught me what was right, wrong, disrespectful, etc, so I knew I had to control my urges (at least a little). The music I listened to had nothing to do with how I felt. What was Jimmy Swaggart's excuse for screwing Jessica Hahn?? I guess it's a good thing I don't go to church and listen to those hymns huh?

Convicted on all counts.........

GOOD! I hope the fucking asshole has what he did to Mary done back to him in prison.

Here's the story.

Happy Birthday Mary............Rest in Peace

I am not normally one to voice my political views, but last year when a former co-worker Mary Nagle was brutally raped and murdered in her New City, NY home by Ronald Herrera (an illegal immigrant day laborer), it really hit home. I wasn't very close with Mary, but I saw her on a daily basis for three years and she was always kind and helpful when I needed her assistance with work matters. Her murder trial began last week.

I remember the day my wife Jenn and I heard about Mary's murder. We got up on Saturday to have breakfast like it was any other day, turned on the TV and heard Mary's name on the news. As we watched the story, we were in shock and immediately called former co-workers to see if it was true. At the time, we lived in Northern NJ (5 minutes from the George Washington Bridge) and there were always day laborers waiting on the corner two blocks from our house. Jenn's grandparents had moved into an assisted living home, so while the house was empty, we watched over the place for a couple of years until something was decided as to what wanted to be done with the house. After we saw what happened to Mary, I made sure that Jenn (who was four months pregnant at the time) was never home alone. We then decided that we needed to move. As great as it would have been to live off my salary and have Jenn stay home with Allie after she was born, we just did not feel safe there anymore.

I understand that an act such as this could happen anywhere and by anyone, so believe me I'm trying not to be racial or ethnically discriminatory. My issue is that when I came home from work at 6pm to find random people still waiting on my corner for work since that morning, or sitting on my front lawn, it made me think about the higher risk of something happening to Jenn while she was home alone. Jenn and I moved in September of last year to a more rural area. Both Jenn and I have to work to support the household, and our daughter is watched by my in-laws during the day, and I am grateful that they do this for us so that we can feel safer in our own home.

So, to finally get to my point, between what happened to this county on September 11th, and this type of horrible act on Mary, I feel that we need to do something about people being here illegally. I have no problem with immigration and people coming here to better their lives.....that's why my grandparents moved here from Italy. My issue is with the people that are here that shouldn't be. Everyone needs to be registered with the US Government in some way with a Green Card, a work visa, etc. The local governments should be kept notified of these people. If they let their visas expire, they should be picked up immediately by the local police and shipped off to the INS to have the matter resolved. Also, all these people loitering all day long on street corners should be picked up and checked for citizenship. If they are here illegally, the should be sent back to wherever they came from. Period. No excuses, no grace period. I know the contractors that go around and pick them up need to make their own ends meet and these illegal immigrants work cheap, but is it worth the risk?

Maybe I'm way off base here, but if you are here illegally, you should get out or we should make you leave. If this was done prior to April 29, 2005, Mary Nagle would have celebrated her 43rd birthday at home yesterday with her husband and two children. Instead her children had to leave the gift they made for their mother on her grave.