How Many Chances? Or, Is Being a Celebrity An Automatic "Get Out of Jail Free" Card?

Hi, I'm Dave ("Hi, Dave!")...and I'm here at Bloggers Anonymous because, well.....I'm lax about keeping up while I am on the road performing my day job which, truth be told, needs to be maintained so I can survive.  Blogging hasn't been paying the bills.  I know, though, with your help, I can shed that paltry day job and move on to bigger and better things in the world of blogging.  Seriously.  Saw it on TV.  Internet sales are the way to go.  Matter of fact, the guy promoting the products tells me that I can become rich by working a mere 4 hours a day...AND can own my own yacht!  Sadly, I cannot invest yet - I'm still paying on a piece of land in the Everglades.  But I digress.....

Really, I have been lax and haven't written.  The news, though, never fails me.  it lets me know when I need to post something.  I was a little disappointed about the last posting, though.  I really expected some feedback.  Listen, Occupy Wall Street is a movement and I wrote that they were tired of big business getting all the cash and running the world.  What I didn't say (and wanted to get called out on) was that there are many that think we ought to redistribute the wealth.  Here's something I heard the other day that ought to give everyone pause...because we all know it's true - "If everyone in the US made $50,000.00 in 2012 and wealth was distributed evenly, there will (shortly after) be those with millions and those with nothing."  That's all that is going on right now, folks.  Some would invest, some would gamble, some would stick the cash under their mattress.  It's been happening forever and we won't change it.  We need to re-examine the programs we are utilizing that provide much of the taxpayers monies to those that have learned to take advantage of the system.  We've all seen them.  When there are certain groups that are on welfare and have more children because (and I heard this from the source), "I get more money if I have more kids," the system is being bilked.  When I watch a friend with two kids go through a divorce and worry about losing his home, there's a problem when he has to clean out his life savings just to survive after losing his job.  I like the idea in Florida that people have to take a drug test prior to receiving their welfare checks.  Even as the ACLU calls it unconstitutional, I ask how they can see it that way.  Didn't all of us have to take drug tests prior to being hired at work?  I like it.  Here's another idea - why not have those that are capable work for their checks when they get government assistance?  hey, there are plenty of trash-strewn highways and streets.  There are plenty of elderly folks that need to be helped.  Why can't these people actually provide a service for the money we are doling out to them?  Big questions - are you politicians listening?

So....now let's move on to the real reason for writing tonight.  It seems our favorite celebrity bad girl (Wait, just one?) has been put in handcuffs today and taken to jail.  For all I know, she might be out already.  Lindsey Lohan was taken into custody and had her probation revoked today.  She was to have served 360 hours at a women's shelter, yet nine of her trips were, as has been reported, "blown off," while another time she went and left after spending an hour.  The judge even asked how she could have complied with her psychological visits that were to take place weekly...when she was spending a month in Europe.  Wait, what now?  A month WHERE?  Since when do people on probation get to travel to Europe?  Oh, but wait....my mistake.  Her attorney cleared it up for us by stating the obvious - "We're dealing with someone on probation here.  Most people on probation don't always do things perfectly."  Well.....my take on that is...if you weren't driving drunk and shoplifting, you wouldn't be on probation...right?  Why, though, are these people allowed to get away with this?  Okay, I realize money is the obvious reason.  I also, having dealt with people managing correctional facilities, realize that California has an extreme overcrowding situation in the prisons and jails.  Sorry, I'm not accepting it.  When someone like this is allowed to, for all intents and purposes, thumb their nose at the system, they will continue....and they are setting precedent.  How long do you think it will be before others that are not wealthy call attention to his case and scream discrimination?  How long will we allow someone that flagrantly flaunts their apathy and disdain for the system continue to mock the judges?  It is a pathetic example and I, for one, am tired of seeing it allowed.

The worst part of this, I think, is the lack of guidance provided by either her parents, her managers, her lawyers, or the system in general.  Money corrupts.  Don't believe me?  Check out the television shows that her friend, Paris Hilton, had.  I have never....EVER...seen someone so incredibly.....well, I can't say what i want to say without sounding mean.  This is not an intelligent girl.  How's that?  She is in the position she is merely because grandpa knew how to run a hotel chain properly.  Seriously, these kids are such incredibly poor role models that we need to use them as examples - of what NOT to do.  Instead, however, the system lets them off and treats them with a light hand by giving them a slap on the wrist for something that would cause the rest of us to be incarcerated immediately.  It's time to stop the shenanigans.  It's time to make the right decisions.  it's time for the system to wake up and do things that make sense....and WE, as Americans, need to demand it.

Until next time.............