I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

If I had enough snow I'd put this snowman in my front yard ...

TLC was originally a government educational channel ... under NASA I think.  It was privatized.  And eventually devolved to what it is today in the quest for ratings and cash.

I'm hoping that the History Channel does not head the same direction.  Still lots of good shows but American Pickers and Pawn Stars are very marginally 'history'.   

My DH watches American Pickers. A few weeks back Frank & Mike went into a couples barn to look for treasures and found a bag of cash. I think in the neighborhood of $70,000. The couple had hid it years before because they were afraid of being robbed and had forgotten about it.



The Kardahians first claim to fame was that their Dad was an atty. on the OJ Simpson case. I'm not sure what side he was working for, or how that warrants them a reality show. They kind of make me want to stick my finger down my throat. I've never watched their show, but you'd have to live under a rock to miss all their drama.



Whoever mentioned Bethany, I agree. Who indeed?



Jersey Shore...another joke!



Who are these people? Why are they paid such obscene pay checks? Who cares enough to keep them on TV? Give me a good drama.



Blessings

Paula

The History channel is beginning to go slightly trashy, IMO. The Learning Channel actually had a show called "Growing Up Goti" starring the mafia man's granddaughter. I'm sorry, but that's plain immoral. There seems to be a glorification of criminal psycopaths on TV, not least of which was The Sopranos.

Court TV also went trashy and ended up as "Tru TV" (did they find it offensive to spell the word "true" correctly - would using the "e" be too elegant for these prejudiced junk lovers????)

Discovery People and Arts used to be a wonderful channel, I think it has disappeared. And Discovery Health was great too - it has since devolved into freak shows where people with the most unusual and eye-catching conditions are the only ones profiled. I learned so much from that channel in its heyday.

Momine, I only read the book. But I stand by Karl! :-) The man is a genuis.

athena - meant to say re: the models - when my curly hair looks like that, I call it a Bad Hair Day.

maybe should have said, that link I posted above is a TOUR OF THE SPACE STATION - just amazing, awe inspiring stuff...

It's hard to convict celebreties, win medical malpractice suits, or get a banker indicted for anything.  That's kind of how I see it.

Corporate welfare freeloaders continue to rule as Kings of Wall Street, thanks to us taxpayers:

WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department failed to curb executive pay last year for the second year running at companies rescued by the government, an internal watchdog charged on Monday.

The Treasury's pay czar, or "special master," was tasked with limiting "excessive" pay at companies the government bailed out using taxpayer money during the financial crisis.

But the Office of the Special Master did not follow the rules it had set for compensation, instead letting companies define pay themselves, according to a report by the inspector general for the government's bailout program.

In 2012, the pay czar acceded to company requests in approving multi-million dollar pay packages and pay hikes for top executives at General Motors, AIG and Ally Financial.

The pay czar approved all 18 pay raises requested by the companies, for a total of $6.2 million, and approved pay packages of at least $1 million for 68 of the 69 employees at the companies it was overseeing, the report found.

"While taxpayers struggle to overcome the recent financial crisis and look to the U.S. government to put a lid on compensation for executives of firms whose missteps nearly crippled the U.S. financial system, the U.S. Department of the Treasury continues to allow excessive executive pay," the report said.

More here:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/28/treasury-raises-bailed-out-firms_n_2568235.html

Now excuse me while I puke...

Note to Obama: The American people deserve a better bang for their buck. We can't survive more parasites and takers like this. There are working people who really do need help. I am glad Geithner is gone from Treasury.

There's been a lot of anti-bullying legislation, but unless much of it does not give a parent a private right of action against a school for failure to enforce those laws.  It's very sad when it results in a tragedy.

On guilty people getting off: it does happen.  Unfortunately, it happens the other way as well.  I have personally met a number of people who were wrongfully convicted, some of whom spent years on death row before DNA showed someone else committed the crime. One man spent years in jail for a rape when a simple blood test, not even DNA, would have cleared him.  There have been 302 DNA exonerations of people wrongfully convicted. I know the man who runs Centurian Ministries, which takes up the cases of the wrongfully convicted which do not involve DNA, and they have , I believe, over 30 people exonerated.  Evidence and court rules, such as the reasonable doubt standard, try to minimize the number of wrongful convictions, but they do not eliminate the problem.   It would be nice if the criminal justice system were perfect, but since it's not, I'd rather a guilty person go free than an innocent one go to prison or worse, be put to death.

I say the death penalty should only be applied in cases where there is more than one crime (murder) for that reason. With the exception of a terrorist attack, like the Oklahoma bombing. McVeigh got what he deserved.

Paula, that's awful about that child. Unfortunately many children with ADHD get bullied because they have underdeveloped social skills.

The cruelty of children is unmatched at times. How very sad.

Good morning all. 

Yes, yes, yes.....we have too many  in jail tagged for crimes they did not comit.  I think ( depends probably sometimes on the crime ) sometimes it is easy to sway a jury with the lawyer rhetoric and if you don't have a good alibi your as good as gone.  I actually think one of the OJ laywers was, or just after that trial, became a part of an Innosence Project.  I don't recall his name, but recall his face clearly. 

I've always wondered  ( of course, the fact is you might make a very good living at it ) how many lawyers sleep at night.  They are better than I am, but then that is why I'm not a lawyer. 

Some bullying has always gone on in schools.  I think in this day and age though, it is never-ending.     I do wish more could be done with this issue, but no matter what, you will still have some of it go on.  Bully behavior has always seemed very out of place to me.  We had a bit in school, but it was not allowed to go very far before it was "handled". 

I also think we need to be extremely cautious about the dealth penalty.  After all, we KILL people for KILLING people....so we really do NEED to be VERY sure that we are not making the wrong person pay. 

Jackie

I'm against the death penalty first and foremost because too many innocents have died for it.  Just look at Texas...or not if you can't stand it!  

Here's a fiscally conservative reason to deny the death penalty:  It costs far more to award and uphold the death penalty than it does to house a prisoner for life.  

The O.J. and Anthony decisions were judicial outrages, IMO. O.J. represented jury nullification and Anthony involved a lazy jury who just wanted to go home, or in the case of one juror, not miss his cruise! I hope that creep got an earful from the other cruise passengers.

I'm against the dp also, primarily because, as others have said, mistakes have been made. Innocent people have been executed and that is so NOT OK. You cannot correct death. 

I'm against the death penalty as well - though to be fully honest, I used to be in favor of it.  My reason for being in favor of it was that I knew if someone murdered a loved on of mine that I wouldn't want that person to be on the earth either.  But with time, more thought and many discussions with my husband, he eventually won me over (he was always against it).  My biggest reason for being against it is the same as you have stated - you can't get by the fact that mistakes are made.  It's terrible enough that some people have been imprisoned for years for something they didn't do - but the truth is that some people have also been put to death for things they haven't done.  That is, as Yorkie says - SO not OK.  Secondarily, I am against the cost.  It costs a ridiculous amount of money to actually execute someone - as someone else said - if the crime was egregious enough to warrant the death penalty - just do life imprisonment - with NO possibility of parole - ever.