Rant #42: Me Myself Eye

My eye problems that I told you about in a previous rant continue.

I went to the retinologist on Friday, and quite frankly, I thought I was going to get a clean bill of health. My left eye--my troubled eye--had given me no problems since my surgery of a month earlier. I drove back and forth to Florida--more than 1,100 miles each way--and didn't have the least bit of a problem.

Thus, I went into the doctor's office on Friday morning fully expecting nothing to happen.

I was amazed when I was told that I would have to get another shot in my eye, the second one in what I now foresee as a long process to permanently remove whatever is in my eye.

I also had to take the day off from work, which I found a bit unsettling because I just got back from vacation and was just getting my feet wet again, so to speak, at my place of business.

I must say that I was pretty depressed about the whole thing on Friday. I have another appointment in early August, and I guess I have become pretty ambivalent about it. I know these processes are to save the sight in my eye, I just thought that I was so much better that this was something I didn't have to worry about anymore.

How wrong I was!

The next time, the retinologist said that they were going to do another procedure to highlight the eye so further pictures could be taken to see how my eye was responding to this treatment. They will probably have to dilate my eye again, which means I will once again not be able to do much that day (it took until early afternoon this time for the eye solution to wear off).

Again, I have nothing but praise for the retinologist, who certainly knows what he is doing. I am just so frustrated with this whole episode, and would love to put it behind me.

I guess it is just going to take time, and I have to get used to this.

So my rant is really against me this time. Why can't I get better quicker?

Rant #41: Pay Up, Or Beat It

Back to Michael Jackson ...

I read that Los Angeles spent $1.4 million to provide security, traffic control and other services for Michael Jackson's memorial service. It cost so much that the financially troubled city is looking for ways to have others help them to pay this bill. They have even set up a Web site to collect donations.

AEG, which produced the memorial service, hasn't paid for anything, and neither has the Jackson family.

Heck, I hope when it is time for me to go that someone else picks up all the costs associated with my funeral. If they do, I can have a gold lined casket and maybe even be eulogized by Rev. Al (even though I am not of his faith).

All kidding aside, you would think that either AEG or the Jackson family would pay for at least part of this. And for Los Angeles to ask the general public for help ... I mean, are they kidding?

Jackson's LPs are selling out across America. You would think the family could take a portion of those proceeds and pay for the memorial, and maybe even give the city a little more, but, well, I guess they haven't thought about that yet.

Heck, maybe old blubberpuss, er, Rev. Al, might be able to fork over some money for this. Maybe he can forego his cross-country traveling for a day or two and give Los Angeles just a little bit of money ...

Ah, I was just dreaming I guess.

Rant #40: Go Manny, Go (Back From Where You Came From)

To get off the Michael Jackson bandwagon for at least one rant, has anyone seen the response that the return of Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers has elicited?

This guy is a cheater, the biggest name ever caught doing illegal steroids. He was banned for 50 games, did his stint in the minor leagues, and now is back with the Dodgers. He hit a homerun last night against the Mets.

Anyway, I remember when the names of McGwire, Sosa, Canseco, Clemens and all the rest came out as being steroid users or at least being questionable about their steroid use. There was clamor, uproar, disbelief, and a lot of yelling and screaming.

Not with Manny. When he came back, he got cheers.

I think what has happened is that baseball fans are so used to hearing that their heroes used steroids during the 1990s through the current playing time that if another star surfaces as having used them, nobody cares anymore.

Look at the whole Alex Rodriguez incident. He admitted to using steroids in his younger days, and a book came out to further scandalize his life and career. The whole ARod thing was news for seemingly five minutes, and then it died out quickly. Nobody even talks about it anymore, particularly in New York, where ARod mans third base for may favorite team, the Yankees.

Personally, I was upset at the beginning of this incident, but like how I believe most baseball fans feel right now, I really don't care anymore. And that book, well, I am sure you will be able to get it for $1.00 at Borders sometime soon.

I just think that we are hardened to the fact that baseball players--and other athletes--gleefully used performance enhancing drugs probably from the 1980s to the 1990s, and that some players continue to use drugs that we haven't even heard of yet. Of course, this feeling is unfair to those who have been above board all of this time, but I don't think anyone can blame the fans for thinking this way.

I would hope the next breed of athlete--the kids born in the mid-to-late 1990s--have been warned, and warned repeatedly, about the damage that these substances can do to your body over the long term, even though the initial rewards can be great.

And even though people don't seem to care anymore, Manny Ramirez is not to be pitied, nor cheered, no booed. I think at this point, no response would be better than any response, quite frankly.

Rant #39: Sharpton Wants To Stamp Out Jackson

Well, you kind of knew it was coming to this.

As he praised Michael Jackson at the celebration of the pop singer's life yesterday, the Rev. Al Sharpton has also served notice on the U.S. Postal Service: he wants a Michael Jackson stamp ... and he wants it now!

Yes, old blubberpuss has decreed that Jackson's image must be put on a postage stamp, and that the normal five-year wait for such an honor to be given should be waived. The only time the waiting period has been waived has been for Presidents who have passed on.

I am sure that Jackson will get his stamp someday, because the Postal Service is always complaining that it needs the money. But to put Jackson in the same league as the President of the United States is ridiculous.

But again, Sharpton said during yesterday's service that there was nothing wrong with Jackson--"There wasn't nothing strange about your daddy" he told Jackson's three kids--so I guess he believes that there is nothing wrong with putting him on the same level as the President of this country.

The picture I have is of two Jackson stamps from overseas. Countries outside of the U.S. often honor American actors, singers, athletes and others with postage stamps that are highly collectible. If the Post Office succumbs to Sharpton's wishes, I guess they feel that a Jackson stamp from his own country will be at least equally collectible, if not more so.

Personally, I feel most sorry for Jackson's kids. They have not grown up in a normal environment to begin with, and who knows who they will end up with when this is all played out. Sure, they will not have to worry about money for the rest of their lives, but they have been almost pawns in this entire episode--and probably cash cows when it is all said and done.

I am happy that Jackson's fans had their day of reverence, but it is time to move on. The next big bit of news will be when they finally announce what actually killed the pop star--and who provided it to him, assuming, like many of us have, that he died from the overuse of prescription drugs, just like Elvis did and just like Judy Garland did.

And yes, if you can't be responsible for your own body, then you are irresponsible--and Jackson certainly was. And his "handlers" were no better--enablers of the lowest form.

Let's see what happens.

Rant #38: Are You a Racist If You Don't Buy Into the Jackson Madness?

Sorry, I am one of the people who don't buy into this Michael Jackson madness surrounding not only his death, but his life. I just can't get so worked up about this guy, who was extremely talented but even more troubled than talented.

Rep. Peter King posted similar thoughts on YouTube, and right away, a whole bundle of people are labeling him as a racist.

Sorry, I don't buy that either.

I thought that with Barack Obama becoming President--a President elected by blacks, whites and by Americans of every racial category--we would be over this racial "hump" we have, where if you dare criticize a minority, you are termed a racist.

Boy, am I naive!

We are getting the same thing now that Jackson is being memorialized as a saint. King used words like "pedophile" in his YouTube rant, and while some might think that to be a bit harsh--Jackson was never convicted of child molestation, although he did pay off accusers--the pop idol is acknowledged to have exhibited inappropriate behavior towards minors.

And by his friend Quincy Jones' own admission, Jackson did not want to be black anymore, keeping his strange profile as sort of a combination black man/white skeleton (that's my description, not Jones').

OK, so King is a racist in the minds of some ignorant people. I am just concerned that if President Obama doesn't fulfill the country's needs, will he be given a bye because he is a black man? If one speaks out against Obama, will one be categorized as a racist?

Back to Jackson ... for all of you mourners, please get a life. This is not like the Pope passing away, or a country mourning a President after an assassination. And these dummies have allowed Al Sharpton to increase his profile, which is bad news for both blacks and whites--and for race relations in this country. The guy loves to stir things up--remember Tawana Brawley?--and he is stirring things up once again. Just in his own backyard on Long Island, a white man was beaten up by some young black teenagers who were involved in an argument that they thought he was getting involved with as he moved his car into his driveway. Where is Sharpton? In Los Angeles, of course.

I don't know where Jackson is being buried, and although I am not a religious person, I do know where he is going.

Rant #37: Midnight Train To Fawcett

Yes, I also heard about her passing while on vacation.
I probably was the only male on the planet who didn't have a thing for this Charlie's Angel in the 1970s. I found her to be a horrid actress, and not as pretty as advertised under all that hair (Jaclyn Smith was--and still is--a hottie).

I found her most recent self promotion--showing her waning days on an NBC special--despicable. Obviously, she was not of her right mind when she agreed to this. What is even more ridiculous is that had she lived, NBC was planning a followup special. They really should be ashamed of themselves.

I will give Farrah credit for one thing--she inspired one of the biggest hits of the 1970s. I will cut this story down to the bare facts. Fawcett was a struggling actress in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and by the early 1970s, she had taken up residence with Lee Majors, her future husband.

The pair were friendly with a then unknown songwriter named Jim Weatherly. Weatherly called Majors at home to speak with him, but he was not home and Farrah picked up the phone. Weatherly did not know Farrah that well--he knew Majors very well--but they got into a somewhat long conversation anyway.

Farrah told him she was soon going to Texas (Houston) to visit relatives. She had trouble getting a plane for the day she wanted to leave, having to take an overnight trip, and used the phrase, "the midnight plane to Houston" in this conversation.

Weatherly hung up the phone when the conversation was over, but the phrase was one he couldn't forget.

He wrote a song "Midnight Plane to Houston" but changed "Plane" to "Train" because in the context of the song, he wanted to convey a feeling of desperateness, and he felt that using train instead of plane would give the protagonist in the song more outs (as in train stops) to contemplate.

Anyway, the song was given to Cissy Houston to record. However, Houston did not want to use "Houston" in the song title for obvious reasons, and she asked Weatherly to come up with another city. He chose "Georgia," and Houston recorded the song. It flopped.

However, a few years later, Gladys Knight and the Pips discovered the song and had a number one hit with it in 1973.

So, I guess Farrah should be as well known for this as she was for her hair, but I guess that won't happen, will it?

Rant #36: Michael Jackson-A Whiter Shade of Pale Beats It

I was on vacation when I heard the news about his passing.

This guy was mentally ill, a sick person. Yes, he was an awfully cute kid, tremendously talented, but the older he got, the screw became that much looser.

He was sick, mentally, physically and emotionally. I won't get into everything, because the media has covered his life pretty well, but I am uncomfortable with the fact that it is now politically incorrect to say anything bad about this demented person now that he is gone, but I have never cared about being PC, so who cares?

Although he was never convicted of child molestation, it is pretty well acknowledged that he at least had inappropriate relationships with children.

That being said, why we are applauding a sick character like this is beyond me.

I guess his death has given Al Sharpton's career new life.

Also, I find the parallels between Jackson's death and Elvis' death eerie--and also the fact that Elvis had pedophilic (perhaps my own word) problems too.

And for all the people whose lives have been forever disrupted by his passing-please grow up! It's not like a close relative has died, you know.