El Toro Crapo

For many years the comedy duo The Smothers Brothers have included in their largely clean routine the made up Spanglish sounding term El Toro Crapo which of course is a euphemism for the common vulgarity B.S. When one assesses the state of some of our institutions and celebrities the inescapable conclusion is El Toro Crapo. Consider:

• Joe Wilson, the idiot South Carolina congressman who was censured by the House of Representatives for shouting "you lie!" at President Obama turns out to bear the actual birth name Addison Graves Wilson. He's no more a Joe than Joe the Plumber (nee Samuel Wurzlbacher and also not a plumber) nor probably Sarah Palin's idol Joe Sixpack. TNB's take on what you hear from this entire group is El Toro Crapo.
• Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest basketball player ever but never mistaken for the greatest person (check out his relatively paltry charitable history) managed at his ungracious Hall of Fame acceptance speech to go out of his way to offend anyone who might have slighted him such as his high school coach who initially cut him from the team over 30 years ago, his college coach (the legendary Dean Smith) for some imagined oversight and several others who have unfortunately challenged him over the years. TNB's opinion on MJ's remarks and most of his other utterances is El Toro Crapo.
• Speaking of overpaid, spoiled athletes, tennis star Serena Williams, who had a profane meltdown at the US Open when she threatened violent harm to a lineswoman just doing her job, took 2 days to apologize after no doubt being warned by her many corporate sponsors (the $10,000 fine levied on her was chump change compared to her winnings). TNB's belief in the sincerity of said apology is that it is El Toro Crapo.
• As far as sincerity is concerned how about all the shocked right wing ideologues who constantly deny that much of their virulent opposition to Obama (especially the ludicrous reaction to his address to schoolchildren) is, as suggested by TNB last week, no more than disguised racism and their inability to accept a black man as President. Each person who persists in these denials (including people known personally to TNB) will henceforth be greeted with El Toro Crapo.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

The old cynical maxim that no good deed goes unpunished has certainly been illustrated quite vividly recently. Take for example:

President Obama's attempt to use the prestige of the presidency to urge schoolchildren to stay in school and get a quality education, listen to teachers and parents, avoid predators by being cautious on social networking sites like Facebook, etc. sounds like a no-brainer good deed. Oh, but of course he was pilloried everywhere by the usual cadre of right-wing yahoos (sorely in need of more education but obviously beyond hope) complaining that he was going to inject politics in his talk (perhaps some Fundamentalist religion would have been OK). Thus, many timid school districts din't carry the speech. Good deed gets punished equaling at least a PR victory for the ignorant.

Even worse, the President's noble attempt to reform health care and (horrors!) provide all Americans with an opportunity to avail themselves of at least minimum coverage has been met with an apparently successful roadblock by the uninformed, self-centered and just downright nasty. Many (including acquaintances of TNB) have taken to calling Obama a Communist (!) for his efforts. Memo to my fellow seniors--do you consider Medicare a Communist program? Oh, but that's different because if we're all eligible it must be OK. We now have the spectacle of yet another Republican moron, one Rep. Joe Wilson (SC) shouting from the floor of Congress to Obama "you lie" (of course, the President didn't). Lost in the vitriol is another potential good deed.

Although not as altruistic a good deed, because of the commercial promotion involved, Oprah Winfrey's "street fair" taping of her season opening which required closing down a few blocks of Chicago's Michigan Avenue for one business day was received with yet another round of catcalls. One would have thought that the city was brought to its knees. Rather, Mayor Daley and surrounding businesses heartily endorsed Oprah's efforts (she footed the entire bill, including police costs) as casting a very positive light on Chicago.

Is it just TNB's deep cynicism or is there another subtext at work here, besides the "O" heading their names and the fact that both Obama and Oprah are Chicagoans? Couldn't be a tinge of racism, could it?

BLOGGER'S NOTE: If you haven't seen the comment added to last week's post Fear for Your Safety, check it out. A sitting family court judge, who faces sexual predators on a daily basis, includes her chilling perspective.

Fear for Your Safety

Although we have known for some time that the United States, with its entrenched guns culture, is not among the safest nations most Americans believe that dangerous criminals would be kept incarcerated. Yet time and again the headlines remind us that due to incompetence, shortsightedness and just plain stupidity on the part of authorities a violently dangerous criminal might be released in our midst often without anyone's knowledge.

Take the mind boggling case of Phillip Garrido, convicted and registered sex offender, who shortly after release from prison allegedly (with the help of his wife!) abducted an 11 year old girl in California and kept her in captivity for 18 years, fathering two daughters by her. Where were the authorities? Despite repeated visits by sheriff's deputies and parole officers over all this time, no one noticed the backyard compound of tents and makeshift structures where all 3 females lived. Although there were many warning signs no one "connected the dots" just like exactly 8 years ago when the FBI and others failed to "connect the dots" which might have prevented 9/11. Gives you a lot of confidence in law enforcement, doesn't it?

Just this week in Chicago, we have the horrifying case of one Julius Anderson, a violent sexual criminal who over the strong objections of the Illinois Attorney General and Cook County States Attorney was released after 30 years in prison (Illinois has a special law permitting continued imprisonment of such individuals). Almost immediately he allegedly committed two violent sexual assaults. Apparently his release was approved (!) by a contract psychologist who believed he was fit for society. Tell that to the 2 women involved.

TNB wonders which gives a greater false sense of security--making someone register as a sex offender or, in another commonly exploited situation, taking out an order of protection which has routinely been ignored or poorly enforced (check out a number of murders of those who have obtained such an order).

Suggestion to U.S. Attorney General Holder--stop worrying about punishing a few misguided CIA agents in the torture case and start, along with your counterparts in all the States, to make our country safer.