And any non-Burris person who knows the "Stanley Spadowski" reference deserves a vegan cookie. Maybe an Oreo or a Nutter Butter?

He went on Letterman the other night (Jerry Seinfeld, the night's guest arranged a satellite feed) and really awkwardly apologized to the "afro-Americans" about his horrible comments. He probably did make a mistake, a really stupid mistake, but he definitely crossed some of the no-cross lines of this society. And for that, he will no doubt be disciplined for a long time.

The other big thing was the near-confession of OJ Simpson to the murders that everyone was obsessed with ten years ago. Remember in middle school when the teachers forced us to watch the verdict as if it was the modern-day version of the Kennedy Assassination? Yeah, I had basically forgotten that OJ Simpson even existed until this bullshit came on television this week. He was putting out a book through News Corp. with an accompanying TV special (a shilling on Fox, lightly masqueraded as journalism) discussing how, if he had murdered the people, how he would have done it. As soon as I saw the promos, I thought to myself that any partial percentage of a respect point that I held for Fox News had departed out the window.

Is there any doubt now that the "news" is made only to make money?

So, enough people bitched about this (including Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera) that the thing got pulled from Fox and the book was pulled from production. When these two ass-clowns are seriously questioning your journalistic ethics (and with merit!), you've got a fucking problem.

The question I have is this: why won't Fox be socially disciplined like Michael Richards? Sure, Kramer said some horrible and inexcusable things, but Fox and OJ were working together specifically to profit on the murders of two apparently innocent people. The sad thing is, a number of fairly conservative Christians will remain loyal to Fox News after this, and I really don't understand how that can gel with anyone.

Then again, if we boycotted everything that was corrupt or problematic in this society, we wouldn't go anywhere, wouldn't drive our cars, wouldn't shop, wouldn't eat and probably wouldn't be able to find a church (or any other religious body) that fit the bill either.

We certainly wouldn't pay our taxes.

Anyway, here's some other news: Mom is still doing fine. I talked to her tonight, and besides some apparent memory loss, she's seems to be her old self. She's in basically no pain (we wish we could get the drugs she's on!) was happy to hear that we were coming home for Thanksgiving (even though I had told her a number of times before her surgery) and she may be out of the hospital after tomorrow. This is all encouraging. But, there are no results back from her post-operative biopsies yet.

I've put up a couple more reviews on andy.theshears.com. You can find reviews for the following movies:

Chicago (hated it)

Jarhead (liked it)

Swingers (a little better than meh)

I've have reviews of a few other movies and a restaurant up tomorrow. It's nothing more than a hobby, I guess, so if you don't agree with me... well, then don't agree with me. Or leave a hate-comment if that's really your thing. It's too late to care.

We're hitting Indiana tomorrow night. This trip, it's just going to be Amy and I, so the dogs will be staying at home and receiving visits from the pet sitter. We're tentatively planning to be in Muncie Wednesday night, Portland for Thanksgiving lunch, Westfield for Thanksgiving dinner, Muncie for Friday and part of Saturday, and Westfield for Saturday night, Sunday and early Monday. It'll be rushed, but it will be good to get out of town. I'm under strict orders from Amy that I can't work on anything school related. I think I will compromise by only prepping for my teaching assignment next semester.

I do need a vacation. Why do I even argue?