Up, Up and Away in My Beautiful, My Beautiful Balloon!

So today, I am at lunch and I get several tweets talking about a six year-old boy in Colorado swept up in a homemade hot air balloon. I thought it was a joke. Then I saw the coverage. Literally on every station that calls itself cable news: CNN, FOXNews, MSNBC, etc., this story was running and the footage was being shown. Then more information came out.



The Heene family is an eccentric family that lives in Fort Collins, Colorado. The father is an amateur scientist and apparently the family is known to study extra terrestrial life, UFO's and chase harsh storms. They were featured on the show Wife Swap, and were dubbed as the alien family. Both times they were on the show, the new wives coming in mentioned the behavior of the children. There are three boys in the Henne family.

Well the Heene in question was named, Falcon, which spurned tons of jokes on Twitter. Cameras frantically followed this balloon as it sailed for two hours past their home in Fort Collins. When it landed in a field, authorities reported that no boy was found inside. So then the search on the ground went into full-fledged operation. Cameras showed police and what appeared to be FBI vehicles driving through the field near the home and where the balloon landed.

Not too long after that, the boy is found hiding in a box in the family's garage!

*****Moment of silence******

I would have gotten whooped from sun up til sun down. My family members would have taken turns. I would have gotten whooped until they were physically tired. I would have been grounded until I graduated from High School. I can't help but wonder the fate of little Falcon.

This is a parental fail. Kids get into everything. Why would anyone have a homemade hot air balloon. That's like when I wondered how the Columbine moms didn't know their sons were masterminding execution of their peers, and harboring sawed off shotguns in their rooms.

I am all for science and education in the home. But this just reeks of stupidity! And it further supports the notion that cable news isn't really news, just informed gossip.

The Letterman Scandal!

David Letterman revealed last night that he was the victim of a $2 million dollar extortion due to his affair with a female employee. Apparently through the years he's had a few dealings with some of his female employees, and one of them, has a boyfriend who owes a lot of money in child support and debt payments, so he thought of extorting David Letterman. It didn't work, but Letterman had to reveal a very private matter to the public. Check out The Young Turks take on this scandal.



I agree with both Cenk and Ana - Letterman didn't have to tell anyone or apologize to anyone but his wife, who was his girlfriend at the time all of this occurred. I happen to like Letterman and watch his show and had wondered how no scandal such as this had ever popped up considering how long he has been in the television show business. Well here it is, and for some reason it doesn't hold the same water cooler gossip brio that I may have once thought it would. Hopefully he and his wife can get past this situation and move on with their lives.

This does support my motto: "Never get involved intimately with people you work with."

Olympic FAIL!

So by now everyone knows that the 2016 Olympics are going to be in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. That's right folks, Chicago, nor any other city in America will be hosting the 2016 Olympic games. We, chicagoans have been inundated with Olympic fever all year. The signs were posted on the streets, on buses, billboards and it was the constant talk around town. From day one, however, there were mixed feelings.

2009 has been quite the tumultuous year for the city of Chicago. We started the year celebrating the presidency and inauguration of Barack Obama. We went into the Spring dealing with the city streets being in the worst condition ever due to a harsh winter. Potholes and manholes were found everywhere once the snow and salt cleared. Then we were met with headlines regarding the loss of city and county jobs due to the economy. If that wasn't bad enough, the whole Rod Blagojevich senate seat-selling scandal was the talk nationally. Before we could catch our breath from political scandal the city sales tax went up, summer came and so did a rise in violence among teens. Several kids were murdered this summer which sparked national interest and an almost weekly investigation on CNN. Yet, through it all, every time you saw the mayor, he was talking about how great the city is and the Olympics.

This soured a lot of people here whose rising concerns for our safety and city costs marred support for the Olympics. Then in a zippy and unexpected twist. Sitting governor Pat Quinn decided to tax candy and liquor! The cost of living in Chicago has risen dramatically! A trip to Walgreens will lend receipts with at least three different sales tax codes, with some items being taxed at 12.25%! Then over the past three weeks, the Olympic push reached catastrophic levels, with talks of the First Lady, Oprah, Governor Quinn, Scottie Pippen and David Robinson all supporting the Chicago bid. Despite the tragedy at Fenger last week, the banners were hung, the big screen at Daley plaza reared its face and gates went up to prepare for an alleged Olympic celebration.

People lined up in Daley plaza at seven o'clock to get free "Chicago 2016" tee shirts. The media covered the area, sports stars showed up and waited anxiously for the announcement from the International Olympic Committee. Ironically, Chicago was voted out in the first round. There was news of tears and tangible disappointment. I can't say that I share in that feeling. The U.S. has bigger fish to fry than the Olympic games. Maybe we will be ready to host again, when we aren't practically at the bottom in education. Maybe we'll be ready when we aren't embroiled in a war. Maybe we'll be ready when our kids are safe, and families become important again in this county. Maybe we'll be ready when we finally get a public option in our health care industry. But right now, we aren't which is why we didn't get the bid. This was a reminder that the United States has a lot of growing to do, even on the International stage. I would love to see money and excitement being generated like that for education, poverty, jobs and children. Then, maybe we'll be worthy of hosting the Olympic games.

Self Destruction!

"Took a brother's life with a knife as his wife
Cried cause he died a trifling death
When he left his very last breath
Was I slept so watch your step
Back in the sixties our brothers and sisters were hanged
How could you gang-bang?
I never ever ran from the Ku Klux Klan
and I shouldn't have to run from a black man
cause that's
Self-Destruction, ya headed for Self-Destruction"


So here we are a week after a 16 year-old Chicago teen was caught on film being beaten to death by his peers, and yet there is more news of more violence. Two days ago a teen was found beaten badly in Edgewater, a north side neighborhood. And this evening, news flooded Twitter that Kandi Burruss from the Real Housewives of Atlanta, her fiance who was shown on the show, AJ was beaten and murdered in a club in Atlanta called Bodytap.

What the hell is going on?

Why are black people determined to kill each other off one by one?

Where is all of this anger coming from?

Personally, I couldn't watch the entire video of the Fenger High School teen, Derrion Albert because he died on there. I was personally offended that mainstream media thought it was okay to keep playing the video every hour on the hour. Then it hit me, this sensationalism of violence, be it real or fake, makes a lot of young blacks think that violence makes you a moviestar! Well guess what, this is NOT a movie! This is real life, real families, real emotions and real losses! There is absolutely no reason for a bunch of high school kids to beat anyone to death. Truthfully, there is no reason for an adult to do that either. AJ, as we all learned from the show has six kids! Now all of these kids have to live without a father due to senseless violence.

I live a very meager life. I go out from time to time, but I don't make it my business to spend every week/weekend in the clubs. I kicked it hard in my early 20's and got bored with that life very quickly. Yet, I know parents who go out more than I do. I always find that fascinating. I just don't find that life appealing. While I don't consider myself a homebody, my interests aren't necessarily in the streets. I would rather go to the movies, a museum, a wine tasting, bowling, a comedy club, etc. Crowded clubs with that 18+ crowd is almost always a recipe for disaster. Especially today when these youth seem to have absolutely no regard for human life. So here Kandi's fiance' is in a club, gets into an altercation and never lives to talk about it. I just don't understand the logistics of that. I don't understand why those kids were fighting with boards and rails by Fenger. I had too many things to do in high school. Shouldn't they? A few years back, one fateful night I chose not to go out and before dawn several people died after being trampled in a club called E2.

Life is too short to spend it angry, walking around carrying evil within us. God didn't allow us to walk the earth only to end someone's life senselessly or to do nothing with our own lives. We all have a purpose, and I just believe that purpose is not centered around violence! I pray for the families and friends of the victims, and I really pray that people learn to let some things go - it's just not that serious!