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No complaints today. No crazy celebrity news stories. No off-the-wall antics. I’m just sharing an amazing and beautiful story that truly brought me to tears. Now…although I blog from behind the made-up character of The Constant Complainer, I’m actually a very nice and caring guy. And over the years, I’ve always taken pride in trying to help promote charities or stories that I feel are worthy.
Two days ago, I did not know who Avery Lynn Canahuati was. Then her story was leading the news headlines on MSN and caught my attention. As one of my friends later put it, Avery’s story is a “blend of humor, honesty and humility.” Allow me to explain.
Avery is five months old. She suffers from an incurable genetic disease called SMA. She will die within the next 18 months. So her family has turned her story into an amazing and inspiring journey of hope, love, laughter and awareness. Basically, they’ve created a Bucket List and daily blog for Avery. The stories are written by her parents, but from Avery’s perspective. You can view the web site here. I haven’t come across such a heartfelt story in a very long time. And it also proves that you don’t need to be in your 80’s to have a Bucket List!
Here are some of the items that Avery has already crossed off of her Bucket List.
- Being on TV
- Rocking a bikini
- Getting asked out on a date
- Flying a kite
- Passing out watching infomercials
- Getting grounded
- Getting proposed to
- Wearing Mardi Gras beads
- Taking a college campus tour
You know; it’s hard not to get choked up when reading about her adventures. But it’s also easy to be positively impacted by the inspirational message as they try to help educate others about SMA. So check out Avery’s blog, write to her or leave a comment below.
Avery’s Bucket List
P.O. Box 2849
Bellaire, TX 77402
Courtesy of Avery’s Bucket List
You know; for as long as I’ve been doing this blog, some of the best stories to talk about continue to be the ones that make absolutely no sense. For instance, meet 36-year-old Brooke Burke of Strongsville, OH. Brooke attended the wedding of James and Margaret Burke last weekend. Brooke is the bride’s new sister-in-law (she’s married to the groom’s brother).
Well, a day that James and Margaret wanted to remember forever will indeed be unforgettable, but for reasons different than you think. At the wedding reception, Brooke began slow-dancing with the groom, when things became uncomfortable and the bride asked her to stop. For some reason, Brooke refused to stop and kept slow-dancing with the groom. At which time, chaos broke out.
Witnesses said that Brooke tried to hit the bride, pushed a pregnant woman, screamed at two men, fell to the ground kicking and screaming, pushed another man down, hit a police officer and then tried to get in her car to leave while allegedly intoxicated. Wow! The result…she was arrested and charged with assault and disorderly conduct.
The story then went viral and was picked up by just about every media outlet in the universe. Talk about making this wedding day one to remember. Many witnesses tried to justify Brooke’s behavior by saying that she was noticeably drunk and visibly intoxicated at the reception.
You know; we’ve all seen or heard about wedding reception experiences like this and people making asses of themselves. For example, I once saw a guy literally get knocked unconscious on the dance floor during a drunken rush for the garter belt. So the question becomes…is a wedding the place to get hammered beyond comprehension? Is out-of-control behavior acceptable? Should you party harder if you’re in the wedding party? Is grinding and extreme slow-dancing acceptable between non-spouses? Should you care what you do there or in front of who? And what about this Brooke? Chalk it up to possible drunk behavior? White trash behavior? You be the judge!
Source - The North Olmsted Police Department
Most of you should know Alicia Silverstone. She is the pretty actress who became famous after starring in “The Crush,” “Clueless” and the Aerosmith video, “Cryin.” Well, the 35-year-old actress made headlines for another reason this week. She posted a video blog which showed her feeding her 10-month-old-son, Bear Blu Jarecki.
In the video, Silverstone is seen eating food, chewing it up and then spitting it into her son’s mouth for him to eat. Of the experience, Silverstone says, “I fed Bear the mochi and a tiny bit of veggies from the soup…from my mouth to his. It’s his favorite…and mine. He literally crawls across the room to attack my mouth if I’m eating.” You can view her entire blog post here and watch the feeding video here (it’s only 39 seconds).
Now…personally, I watched the video and felt the “ick factor.” I think it’s gross and a weird feeding habit. But even more interesting were the comments on Silverstone’s blog and on her YouTube site. They ranged from the good (”i love that you are proud of the natural ways you interact with your son”) to the bad (”he’ll turn this into fetish.”)
My issue is also Silverstone posting it on her blog and calling it “bear eating my mouth.” I’m sure she knew it would draw criticism, just like this. Further, I think the “he literally crawls across the room to attack my mouth” comment is very bizarre. So what do you think? Normal? Not normal? Just plain weird? And in your opinion, should this eating habit continue or be stopped before the child gets much older? I’m sure all the parents will have an opinion on this one.
 
From IMBD From The Kind Life
Take a look at these two pictures. Now…if I were driving down the street and saw a kid standing there with that sign, I would probably ask myself, “Good parents or a good judge?”
 
Pictures courtesy of Chronicle.NorthCoastNow.com
Meet 12-year-old Trezahn Blaha of Elyria, OH. Blaha recently admitted to stealing a telephone, bracelet and mouthpiece from the local mall. As a result, and to teach him a lesson, his uncle made him stand on the street corner with a sign reading, “I like to steal and have no respect for my mother or authority!”
Blaha, who has been arrested several times, was also suspended from school a few days ago. According to this article, Blaha’s uncle, Ricardo Pamplin, said, “Since the law claims that we cannot, what they call, discipline them on three strikes, I figure why not embarrass them? I think if more parents stood in line and disciplined their children with either embarrassment or either a good old fashioned a - whooping, this community would be a better, and safer place and the jails wouldn’t be so packed.” Blaha now says he made the “made a wrong choice” by stealing. And his uncle thinks the unique punishment may keep him from doing it again. You can read the entire story here.
I think this story creates a fascinating conversation about disciplining your child verses what, if anything, is too extreme. I mean, if you were this kid’s parent, what do you do if he wouldn’t listen, stole, got arrested, was suspended or something else? And would you ever consider public humiliation as a possible solution? I once had a boss who said, “If they don’t respond, embarrass them!” Maybe he’s right. What do you think?
Does any family time qualify as quality family time? Some people may say yes. That’s what my buddies and I were discussing last weekend during a trip to Wheeling Island (casino and racetrack in West Virginia).
We went there to watch the dog races. Now, under normal circumstances, children are not allowed in casinos, so we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. But at the racetrack, children are permitted. Basically, you’re sitting in a large area with tables. You can order food and drinks, you can watch the live dog racing or you can watch closed-circuit races from around the country.
During the afternoon racing session, we noticed several families sitting at the tables. Generally, the kids were eating while the parents gambled. Even though it was in the middle of the day and they were sitting in the non-smoking section, it still seemed like a strange environment for the kids (the non-smoking area is right next to the smoking and cigar area, there were degenerate gamblers yelling profanities when their dogs lost, etc.).
Now let’s fast forward to the evening session, where the races were expected to last until 11:30 p.m. Now the place is packed, there is lots of drinking and smoking going on as well as the usual yelling and profanity. And of course, once again, there are numerous families with their kids there. So I took some pictures of the family seated closest to us.
In the first picture, the kids look bored out of their minds (I partially blocked their faces because they are minors). The dad was placing a bet and nobody was watching the little one. She later climbed up on the rail and could have fallen. The second picture is approaching 11 p.m. As you can see, the one kid is actually asleep. But yet the family-fun-night continued. At one point, the little one was getting fussy, so they gave her some more food and stuck a pacifier in her mouth.
So does the age-old-adage of enjoying family time still hold true. Or should the parents have gotten a babysitter before heading to the racetrack or chosen another destination for their evening?
Today I’m going to shamelessly steal on of my blog-friend’s ideas (just for the day of course). Jen over at Hope Studios has a “Feedback Friday” segment which is extremely popular. And I thought one of yesterday’s news stories was a perfect fit for such a segment. So enjoy this one-time edition of “Feedback Friday” here at The Constant Complainer.
I know that everyone has their own opinion of welfare. And this isn’t a knock against those individuals who receive benefits. But over the years, there has been increased scrutiny regarding the payout of these benefits, who should receive them and what the funds can be used for. There has even been talk of drug testing the unemployed and denying benefits for those who do not have high school diplomas.
Interestingly, Congress took action on these thoughts yesterday. They passed H.R. 3657 - “To amend title IV of the Social Security Act to require States to implement policies to prevent assistance under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program from being used in strip clubs, casinos, and liquor stores.”
So basically, those individuals receiving welfare monies would not be able to use their welfare cards to withdrawal funds from an ATM at casinos, strip clubs and liquor establishments. The vote overwhelmingly passed 395-27. My question is…what in the heck took so long!
Some people may argue that we shouldn’t be policing these monies. Others would say that these are taxpayer dollars and we absolutely have every right to dictate where they can be withdrawn and what they can be spent on.
Working in HR, I think my views tend to be skewed. I see people spending more time worrying about trying to collect unemployment benefits than trying to find a job. And I see State systems allowing this behavior and not even enforcing their own stipulations for how people can qualify for any of these types of benefits. And I would easily support drug testing of the unemployed and those on welfare. But the question is…what do you think?
I remember watching “The Price is Right” as a kid and loving the Showcase Showdown. These days, I don’t watch much game show TV except for when my family tries to catch “Wheel of Fortune” once in a while. But I have to tell you, game shows continue to provide some of the funniest moments on TV.
It’s Friday, it was a good week and I’m not really in the mood to complain tonight. Besides, I laughed so hard when I saw this video, so I had to toss it up here just for the heck of it. It’s from “Jeopardy.”
The Question: A blow to the back of the head is the punch named for this animal?
The Answer: Rabbit Punch
What is a rabbit punch? According to Wikipedia, it’s a blow to the neck or to the base of the skull. It is considered especially dangerous because it can damage the cervical vertebrae and subsequently the spinal cord, which may lead to serious spinal cord injury or even death.
But how did the male contestant on Jeopardy answer? LOL. He said, “What is a donkey punch?” Check out this 16-second clip here. I’m sure all of you know what a donkey punch is and realize why he was so wong!
While I was at it, I grabbed a video of one of the biggest morons I could find from “The Wheel of Fortune.” Check her out here. And my other favorite was this guy from “The Price is Right.” He comes within $1,000 of the actual retail price during the Showcase Showdown, so he wins both showcases and $1M. Check him out here, as his reaction is absolutely hysterical. Drop me a comment and enjoy your weekend.
Rabbit Punch - Courtesy of Google Images
Here at The Constant Complainer, in addition to my own posts, readers can submit Guest Posts on topics they’d like to discuss and/or complain about. And no election season would be complete without NeoConDon offering his opinions on the candidates. Usually, I give Don a hard time and threaten to not use his political Guest Posts. But I found his below-candidate breakdown interesting. So if you want to talk politics, here is your chance. Enjoy, have fun and here’s Don…
I have come to the conclusion that President Obama is going to get a second term. There are lots of historical reasons that point to this. The most obvious is the historical exactness between the Bush/Obama transition and the Hoover/FDR transition. As horrible of a president as FDR was, he was given a second term. The public felt it was necessary to give him a shot to fix the economy he inherited. Sound familiar…???
There also hasn’t been a profound blunder like what President Carter was dealing with in the Iran Hostage crisis. Sure, Obama likes to make fun of the Special Olympics, laugh at people who cling to God and thinks that problems can really be solved while drinking alcohol at a “beer summit,” but none of that is as bad as Jimmy Carter wearing a bad sweater and messing up a hostage rescue. Plus Obama is proving to be the typical war-mongering Democrat that voters love.
The real reason he’ll be re-elected is because of the candidates the GOP has put together. I’m going to break down each candidate and explain their strengths and weaknesses and why they can’t win.
Perry: Governor Perry’s biggest quality is he’s the CEO of a huge economy and he’s quite good at it. I love his tax plan and the idea that the federal gov’t should be a part-time job. The problem is if you close your eyes, he sounds exactly like George W. Bush. Americans don’t want that. He can’t be nominated, and that’s the real reason as to why he can’t win.
Gingrich: Newt Gingrich is the smartest person running for President, including Obama. Newt would bury Obama in a debate, but debates really don’t matter. But Newt is a Teddy Roosevelt progressive, and that’s simply too hard to overcome. In the end, Newt and Obama have different endings to their story, but the way they get there is through huge gov’t. He can’t be nominated, and that’s the real reason why he can’t win.
Paul: Ron Paul is a lovable little guy. He’s smart and really loves the Constitution and his country. There isn’t a better candidate running that is as perfect from a fiscal policy standpoint as he is. But he continues to make silly statements about his understanding of why AlQueda attacked the United States. This total misunderstanding will lead to bad decisions on how to deal with the emerging left wing dictators coming out of the Middle East. He’ll never be nominated, and that’s why he can’t win.
Santorum: Santorum is my pick, but I don’t think he’ll win. He’s really the most perfect antithesis of Obama in the field right now and would offer a real counter argument to most of the President’s flawed positions. He’s too unknown to really make an impact against Mitt Romney. While it is possible, my gut tells me he can’t win.
Romney: Romney is farther left than George W. Bush. I think that’s why the Republican establishment loves him. He’s still “moderate” enough to be likable to the closed minded centrists, yet right enough to get conservatives to vote for him because he’s further right than Obama. This is a recipe for loss. The reason for that is simple. Informed conservatives like me are pretty certain that both chambers of congress will go to the Republicans. The last thing we need is a spineless moderate like Romney trying to look good by writing liberal legislation that conservatives in congress will be forced to pass because of politics. Conservatives know that progressivism and liberalism is cruel, regardless of what political party delivers it. And that’s why Romney shouldn’t win, and that’s why I will never vote for him.
To all of my conservative friends…Stop worrying about the presidency. Focus on electing the most conservative people to congress and in the gubernatorial races. The fastest way to get the federal gov’t out of our lives is to squeeze the evils of liberalism with the values of conservatism at the local level. Liberalism has failed every time it has been tried. Conservatism has succeeded every time it has been tried.
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