I Done TOLE Y'all ...

THIS was gonna happen. I tole y'all back on December 27, 2007, Sorta. I say, parenthetically, that the families, have my sympathy unless and until, they file a lawsuit against the City. And that is what the first link is all about.

I guess when we reached the saturation point of one MILLION lawyers [in the late '80s] it was going to inevitably lead to the point where NO one takes responsibility for ANY foolhardy action they and/or their family members take ever again.

But, isn't it time we said, WHOA! Let's take another look here, folks. This has gotten out of hand! There is not supposed to be a Free Lunch. Every time you stub your toe on a loose curb you are NOT entitled to free medical care for the rest of your flippin life!

If you spill hot coffee in your lap...you DO NOT DESERVE a six figure settlement from McDonalds for not warning you the coffee was HOT, you MORON!

If you take a drug, and you start itching; your mouth, tongue, or throat swells, or you start wheezing, you should NOT be able to sue the manufacturer because you are ALLERGIC. THEY did not purposely activate your immune system. So they should NOT have to pay you for YOUR body's reaction, NOR should they have to buy time on the TeeVee to warn the folks who are too stoopid to come in out of the rain to STOP TAKING THIS DRUG IF THIS HAPPENS TO YOU.

Our justice system is funded by tax money. MY tax money and your tax money. If you don't think about taxes anytime but April...then you haven't paid sales tax or stayed in a motel/hotel or paid property taxes or car taxes lately have you? Some of these tax monies are allocated for a specific purpose....road building and maintenance; education; city, county, state budgets and the tax offices of those entities will provide you with a budget that will explain how your tax money is spent. Take a look at how much is spent on Courts or Justice administrative costs. It can be deceptive because civil suits can be found in City and County and District courts and there are even some at the Federal level. Judges have to be paid, clerks, court reporters, bailiffs, the entire infrastructure in the Courthouse is funded by TAX money. From the janitor who keeps the restroom floor mopped to the Senior District Judge sitting on the bench deciding a Capital Murder case.

Now, imagine if we could eliminate HALF the Civil lawsuits and allocate those resources to clearing the backlog of CRIMINAL cases. No lawyers, clerks, judges, or LE personnel would be out of a job. The lawyers might be practicing a different KIND of law, and they might have to take some refresher courses, but they would still be employed.

I'm not advocating gettin' rid of ALL malpractice or product liability lawsuits. But things have gotten SOOOOO far out of hand that NO-Body even knows how to pronounce the Words PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY anymore.

I Need to Save to Hard Drive more

I have GOT to start writing this stuff down! Yesterday, I wrote this superb riff, in my head, while I was in the shower. Other people sing in the shower. I like to write in the shower. Did I come out and write it down in the 'puter after I dried off? Of course not. I, like a dummy, got dressed, made a grocery list and went to PetSmart and Kroger.

Once the groceries were put away, I took Tip outside for a training session. Television and supper came next, with concurrent computer games. When I was finally ready to write the blog on teen pregnancies and organized religion [y'all know how I am about tangents] about 2/3 of it had disappeared.

This morning I had a good one going on personal responsibility and my lack of sympathy for those who fail to take responsibility for their actions. I've forgotten what, exactly set me off on that riff, but I'm going to try and reproduce most of it for y'all.

I read a lot of blogs. Not quite as many as before I started using the laptop. I have really pared down my favorites list since I moved over to using it for the majority of my Interweb stuff. I was surprised by the number of intelligent, witty bloggers showing sadness/sympathy over the death of Heath [lost track of how many drugs I did] Ledger.

I do NOT want to hear this was a suicide attempt. If it was a suicide "attempt" there would have been a note. There would also have been signs leading up to it. Classic signs of depression/suicidal ideations can be found at the website of the National Institute of Mental Health. I urge each and every one of you to click on that link and go read them. Unless you've been dealing with a clinically depressed/suicidal person close to you, you don't know all the symptoms.

Also, be aware, once a suicidal person has a PLAN, they can be amazing actors and sneaky beyond belief. There are some families in such denial, they say, "But he seemed so happy these last weeks." "She seemed to be getting better. I thought that new medicine was working."
Be vigilant if a previously depressed person SUDDENLY starts acting as if all his/her problems are just fine and dandy and they don't have a care in the world. But let's get back to Heath.
Heath may indeed have been depressed. But if anyone had the resources to seek treatment for his depression, Heath Ledger did.

No, Heath was self medicating for something, whether or not it was depression or something else. He forgot how much of which drugs he'd done and he overdosed. A "victim" of his own excesses. And if you try to whine, "But, Holly, it was an accident! He didn't mean to kill himself."

THAT is why I don't feel sorry for him or any of the other celebrities who die or self-implode their careers and lives at their own hand. And I cannot fathom why any rational adult would waste any of their time mourning the loss either. If they had died or lost their ability [of whatever sort] through an attack of some sort, or a natural disaster, THAT would be a tragedy. But when an adult, someone with the capacity to make decisions for themselves, consistently makes bad choices, don't expect me to feel a scintilla of sympathy for them when they loose everything due to their own actions.

I just remembered what set this off! This morning, The Dearly Beloved and I were watching some program on Spike TeeVee that showed a video of a woman who "walked too close" to a bear cage at a park. When they ran the footage a second and then yet a third time, it was obvious this stoopid bitch had gotten "too close" by getting between the wooden fence and the bars of the bear's cage. DUH! She deserved every scratch, bruise, gouge, and penetrating injury she got. Breaking the rules and stupidity SHOULD hurt sometimes so that it serves as a bad example to others. Just like those idiot boys in San Francisco. [I do not hesitate to say "I told you so" now that the truth has come out about that night and those fools]

So, I don't waste my time feelin' sorry for Heath, Joaquin, Brittney, Paris, Lindsey and all the other celebs who are imploding before the camera's eye. I don't even blame the paparazzi. These folks court the press and photogs when they need some publicity to promote a cause or movie or project. They can't expect to dismiss them so easily once they've invited them into their life. They are like cockroaches. Once you let them get a foothold, you need a troop of geckos to eat the little bastards up.

I really don't even blame their retinues. The people who make their living sponging off these celebs and kissing their ass and saying, "Yes, Yes, you're absolutely right, here have some more __________." Sponges gotta make a living, too. If they weren't living off this star they'd probably be out on the street trying to collect welfare, food stamps and generally being a burden on society.

Nope, the responsibility falls solely on the shoulders of the ADULT celebrity. They made this mess, they can clean it up. There are lots of professionals waiting to help them. Professionals who are not in NYC or anywhere near the State of California. There are even treatment centers where no celebrity has ever been a patient. So let's have no more sympathy for someone who won't even help themselves.