The Oklahoma Tornado

This is a tragedy.  A horrible, horrible thing.  People died, children died, people are hurt, people have lost their homes.  I will not deny this.

Here's my problem.  After a hurricane, people say why would they rebuild there?  Our insurance premiums go up, because people live in hurricane areas. 

In this town in OK, there have been 5  tornadoes in the last 15 years that have done significant damage.  One, in 1999, almost had the same path as this tornado.  That tornado killed 36 people and caused 1.1 billion dollars worth of damage.  The average cost of a tornado in damage is around $800,000 per tornado.  Here's an idea, why don't we mandate basements in areas where tornadoes occur?  The images show flattened houses with no basements.  To reduce physical damage to humans, tornado shelters and basements would go a long way.  But no one is suggesting that these people not rebuild, even though they have been hit 5 times in 15 years(some of them).  Why not?  What is it about tornadoes that makes it okay to rebuild year after year, but hurricanes cause suggestions of stupidity in homeowners?

Holocaust Deniers

Yesterday, there was an article on MSN News about an elderly German man who was arrested because they think that he was a SS Guard at Auschwitz.

I have never hoped that another person is a troll as much as yesterday, when this guy wrote that the Holocaust was made up and about 1 million people died from disease, but the gas chambers were false.

How do you just ignore history?  How do you just ignore fact?  How do people like this explain where those 12 million people went?

American Idol, Season 12

It's official.  I've stopped watching this season of American Idol.  Can you blame me?

I got tired of it after the "drama" of Nicki and Mariah in auditions and I stopped watching those.  I started again at Hollywood week.

But here's the thing.  This year and last year both had absolutely horrible production of Hollywood week.  You didn't see a third of the hopefuls sing.  By the time we got to Vegas, there were people we had never seen, not in auditions, not in Hollywood, and not in Vegas.  It's a singing competition show.  I want to see them sing.  And then America voted on the top 20, having seen some of them every performance, including their auditions and the rest, maybe one performance.  More than ever, this show felt less like American Idol and more like Producers' Idol.  In the past, the producers have manipulated America much more deftly.

The judges are reading straight from their notes.  The performances are fine, but come on, do we really need a two hour show for 8 songs?  I don't mind that it's two hours, but I want to actually hear them sing.  12 songs in 2 hours?  That would be 1 song every ten minutes.  That's reasonable, right?

So, goodbye American Idol.  Maybe next year will be better, but the ratings reflect more and more people like me.  People who have watched American Idol for years, but why bother?  There's no suspense.  The producers could just crown the champion and I guarantee, the champion will be who they want.

May Day

Growing up, our neighborhood had a May Day tradition.  Each kid would have some treats and drop them off at each neighbor(that had kids), ring the doorbell, and run away.  If someone chased us and caught us, they gave us a kiss.  I don't know how it started or when, but when we first moved into the neighborhood, there was a good 20 kids in the 'hood. 
I woke up thinking about May Day and so did so many kids from the neighborhood.  It's amazing how homesick and loved(at the same time) a day can make you feel.