Pour Bébé…

I heard on the news this morning that Paris Hilton (who, despite her name, isn’t even French) gets to go to jail for a couple months. It seems that she was caught driving drunk a while back and her license has been suspended, but she chose to drive anyway and got caught. So now she goes to jail.

I was rather surprised that a judge finally had the temerity to actually punish a celebrity for their actions. Unfortunately, I was not surprised that Ms. Hilton threw a fit, told everyone how unfair it was, and fired her publicist. This may very well be the first time Ms. Hilton has been held accountable for her actions, and she’s not happy about it, not one bit.

I applaud the judge who sentenced her. I hope it teaches Ms. Hilton a lesson in humility.

Now if we can just get that same judge to revisit NFL star Randy Moss’ incident – the one where he ran over a police officer in Minneapolis whilst holding on to a bag of illegal drugs and got off without so much as a warning.

Woids

Why is it that the word “hoist” has a Brooklyn accent? Was it born there? Or did it live somewhere else foist…?

Springtime in Iowa

You know, I’m not so much mowing my yard as I am selectively breeding dandelions that can duck when they hear a lawnmower coming at them.

For Shame!

I just read here that four soldiers and a reserve police officer were arrested for looting. Apparently the off-duty regular Army soldiers and the reserve police officer went to Greensburg, KS after the town was leveled by a tornado and started stealing stuff. No one stopped them as they were all in uniform, and the National Guard had been called in to help with the cleanup – everyone thought the crooks were part of the rescue effort. In a separate incident, two people were arrested for looting the same town while dressed up like Red Cross workers.

How miserable! What a way to disgrace the uniform! I wish I could go down to Kansas and chew these people out myself. It’s bad enough to steal from people, but to steal from people who just lost everything in a disaster? That’s horrible!

Bah!

More Shame!

I read a post on Common Iowan that many of our service members serving overseas are losing custody of their children due to the war in Iraq. It seems that when single parents who belong to the National Guard or Reserve are getting called up to active duty their ex-spouses are taking advantage of the situation by demanding, and getting, full custody of the children while the soldier is overseas.

With all the sacrifices soldiers make, their children should NOT be added to the list.

What to Do?

Well, no one’s made an offer on my bass yet. I think I’m gonna put it up on that “Craig’s List” thing and see if I get any takers there… I hate finances. Dagmar and I are starting to bicker over money – something we’ve never done before. It sucks. If anyone out there knows anyone who needs any design work done, please point ’em to HippieBoy Design. I can mow yards, too, as long as I can plug my extension cord in somewhere (Dagmar’s mother kindly gave us her electric mower).

It’s hard to get enough hours in at work this time of year. As an example, last Thursday I went to a veteran’s funeral and held a flag. I missed about five hours work by the time everything was said and done. My bosses were happy to let me have the time off do do this, but when I said I wanted to come in over the weekend to make up my lost time, they told me not to bother – there was nothing to do. I made up what time I could by coming in early on Friday, skimping on lunch and staying Friday afternoon until the boss kicked me out. But my check was still considerably short when I picked it up today.

I’m hoping to go to a soldier’s visitation tomorrow to hold a flag in the flag line, and go to the funeral on Wednesday – again, to hold a flag in honor of his service. Both events happen during the work day, of course. My bosses will again give me the time off work, but I don’t know quite how many hours to “gamble,” hoping they’ll let me come in over the weekend… If I miss a whole day’s work and they don’t let me make it up it’ll really hurt our finances. Do I use what little vacation time I have just to get 40 hours on the clock? Or do I try to use my vacation time to take a few days off this summer to go camping with my wife?

Ah well – everyone has problems, I guess. I have a good wife and a roof over my head. I just wish it weren’t so much of a struggle all the time. But I bet that’s what pretty much everyone wishes…