More Bogo Brilliance

Charlie Sheen is a wreck. Listening to his incoherent and disjointed ramblings makes one wonder when the mother ship will beam him up. His illustrious behaviors have been well documented and need no repeating. Now these behaviors could be the results of excessive drug use and mental health concerns and maybe a combination of both but what I really take note of is the way the media is actually taking advantage of the situation. Sheen appeared on numerous outlets and I question why they even have him on. To my simple mind it appears that ratings trump personal disaster. Now I’m waiting for someone to step up in this situation either his family or his entourage to at least address the issue. In the meantime the paparazzi and media will continue to take advantage of a person obviously in need of intervention.

Giving a monetary handout to a street person has always presented me with a moral dilemma. A large portion are what we called “bums” or “vagrants” when I was much, much younger. What is an issue with me is slipping a buck or some change into a coffee can knowing with an almost certainty that I am feeding an addiction. Now I use to write a clearing of the conscious check to Pine Street Inn and Rosie’s Place but even those have been outed for having some rather excessive salaries so that is now gone. Some local food pantries and places such as The Conway House provide something with a bit more contribution security. As the years have gone by virtually all of our charitable contributions have been local.

On the above paragraph I remember a time I was in Boston and stopped at a light when a woman came to my car with a young child in her grasp and requested money for food since she and her child were hungry. Across the street was a Burger King so I told her to go over there and I’ll buy her a meal. Her response? “F**k you.” That’s what makes me jaded.

I remember several years ago on a visit to Mexico we observed Mexican youth washing the windows of cars snarled in traffic. This is quite commonplace and anyone who is in a major city sees it. I pointed out to my daughter and wife “Look at the shoes.” They both did and my daughter recognized some real high end kicks. Quite a lucrative business.

Been numerous reports across the nation regarding some rather violent and in your face activity towards counter demonstrators at state house rallies. The rallies supporting union rights have a strong union presence and some have taken to heart Capuano’s “blood in the streets” statement. Wonder why that is being downplayed as isolated incidents when the same “isolated incidents” happened at Tea Party rallies during the last election cycle. Seems like the only major media outlet to really focus on it is Fox.

Having a campaign headquarters as Allin Frawley has done returns me to those electioneering times of yesteryear when the practice - even for local elections - was quite common.

The Obama administration is a wreck and shows little signs of getting out of the quagmire and 2012 is just around the corner - but there is good news. Think Newt, Mitt, Rudy, The Donald and a few others and all looks rosy for an Obama repeat.

How did John “I’d Walk A Mile For A Camera” Kerry miss this one? A quirk in Colorado law allows some estates to pay taxes at the agricultural rate. Tom Cruise has a property he bought for 18 million yet pays $400 in taxes since he allows sheep to graze for a short period of time a few times a year.

Former CEO Cleve Killingworth of BC/BS is reportedly on the boards of at least a dozen other companies and many are non profits. How much compensation he receives from this is unknown. AFL-CIO union president Robert Haynes has been rather reluctant to discuss his 72K kiss from his board position except to say in is only “pennies a year” compared to the billions BC/BS rakes in. Tell that to the folks who have had their premiums doubled in the last three years. But some behind the scenes wrangling obviously took place and the board announced they are “suspending” Their salaries - translation is let’s do this until it all blows over.

William Good is a public sector employee who gets it. He is Commissioner of the Inspection Services Division in Boston and The Herald brought to his attention some rather disturbing problems with how his agency does business. His response? “You have identified a problem and we are going back and clean it up.” No deflection. No evasiveness. No getting defensive.

On Tuesday, conservative activist James O'Keefe posted a hidden-camera video in which NPR executive Tom Schiller bashed the tea party movement as "racist" and "xenophobic" and said NPR would be better off without federal funding. That is an excerpt from a wire story on the resignation of Vivian Schiller - no relation to Tom Schiller - from NPR. This agency should have been cut from the fiscal herd decades ago.

Mike Tyson is in trouble. No it is not a domestic incident, biting an ear off or a threat to “eat your children” but something even more serious - PETA. Iron Mike has a show on Animal Planet about pigeons and pigeon racing but he is no novice since he’s been doing this for 30 years. Well…PETA is all up in feathers over this and has started to picket his house - now that is something I’d really want to do if Mike goes off on one of his bipolar rants. When I lived in Marshfield decades ago a neighbor was involved in pigeon racing and I can’t think of anything that would get me upset about it. His wife claimed the birds got more attention and better care than her or the kids and she was right.

The Wall Street Journal has reported a significant slowdown in municipal bond offerings as state budgets have to be addressed before adding long term debt for capital improvements. The bonds also will have to start paying more attractive (punitive) interest rates thanks to ratings drops. Same applies to local communities.

Newt Gingrich has a unique solution for all husbands that are involved in affairs - the passion for my country made me do it. Yep, Newt, that will go about as far as your presidential attempt.