Crazy Things Are Happening All Over

                                                      Smash - me Bernie doll
When Bernard Madoff became the most hated man in the United States for his scam using other people's money in a Ponzi scheme, no one would have thought that anyone would make a toy out of him. But in researching the information for another scam artist, Allen Stanford, I found the toy above. Yes, the Australians have come out with an action figure of Bernie Madoff. 

I have to laugh, because this is so ridiculous. The man has not even had a trial yet and there is an action figure about him. I wonder who would buy it! How many kids have a Bernie Madoff figure on their list for their birthday? I can only guess that someone who is looking for a gag gift for an adult birthday might buy it. Well, I went back and read the article and here is more about this toy! It is called "Smash - me Bernie".  The toy's inventor, Graeme Warring has been living in San Francisco for three years and made it for his friend who was scammed in the Madoff Ponzi scheme. Here is what you are supposed to do with it:

"In an unusual twist, the Madoff toy comes with a golden hammer, so the buyer can gleefully smash the figurine into pieces." Then you are supposed to bury the pieces.

So it is supposed to bring you catharsis. Mr. Warring has had a great deal of publicity for this toy including showing it at the New York Toy Show and appearing on Fox News actually smashing the toy on the air. So if you were one of those people who lost money due to Bernie Madoff by all means go and buy this toy. It only costs, wait for it, $99.95. Yes, for that price you get to buy a toy and then smash it to pieces and bury it. What fun!!! Can I have ice cream with that?:)

So added to the gold standard of scammers is a lesser one, Allen Stanford.

He got people's money by claiming that his method was 100% safe and protected. Hah! Now where is this Allen Stanford? No one knows. He took the money and ran. Why would people just believe that these two men had all of this security and responsibility for their money? They just gave money to these two men's firms. Stanford's firm, Stanford Financial has had it's assets frozen by the court 

All of that leaves a bad taste in my mouth and so I have to wash it out with news about American Idol! If you saw Tuesday night's show you know what a train wreck most of it was. Why do these people decide to sing these songs? I felt sorry for some of them, especially the really young ones, like Stevie Wright who started out of tune and off the beat. I didn't like most of the girls, but I liked Alexis and admired her for singing Aretha! It takes a lot of guts to do that! People wonder where she gets all that soul and I imagine that being a mother at her age has given her a little bit of that. There is a story there about why she is alone and has her baby. I'll be looking forward to learning more about her. So here's the results if you haven't been able to get to a computer or missed the show or lost your TV signal like we did - due to a few snowflakes  on the satellite dish, here they are.

It's Michael Sarver, the cute blue collar worker, Alexis Grace, my favorite woman singer, and Danny Gokey with the gravelly voice, who had just lost his wife a month before he auditioned for American Idol. Here is more about last night's results show. I don't even vote until it gets down to the last four or five contestants.  Television Without Pity has a great funny recap which you shouldn't miss. This person has gotten it absolutely right. Seriously, you have to read this!

If a writer were going to make up a talent show such as American Idol, I don't think that any of the things that happened on Tuesday would be there. This year's addition of parents in the pit was too much. Everyone looked so uncomfortable. Does a twenty-something need parents there? I felt sorry for the guy who had no parents and didn't even get to go into the pit. No one could believe that this was real. In fact, the first two items on today's blog would probably not be believed either if you put them in a novel.:)  

Let's face it, if we put the whole last eight years in a novel it might not be believable. I just read today that more information about torture is coming out and guess what? We had officials in our government who tortured two prisoners and possibly more to death!! Rumsfeld knew that prisoners had been tortured to death! Here is another must read so you can believe that this actually happened. In the article that is linked here you can go and read the original document from the DOD (Dept of Defense). It is not surprising to me. He had to have known. He was the Secretary of Defense. All of these documents must have come to his attention. 

In the middle of all this Facebook has apologized for changing their Terms of Service and put a little message on our home page telling us that they are sorry for the confusion and they are going back to the original TOS until we can decide on a better plan. They want everyone's input. So campaigning worked. Yay!!!

On the writing front I haven't been writing much at all. I keep thinking about the party scene for Amber's Party and I get stuck when I think about what it will be like. I feel kind of guilty writing it as I've said before, so it's going to have to wait a little longer. And so far, I am still waiting to hear about my first novel. How long can fingers stay crossed before they start to bend that way naturally?:)

Welcome to my new readers and I hope that you will comment on anything that you've read here. I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible. Until next time when I will once again highlight another blog. It could be yours. One more thing - If you are an author and would like to visit my blog I am open to hosting anyone who wishes to stop by here. Let me know. :) If you have a book and would like it reviewed, I am going to start reviewing books here. They might be adult or YA or even MG.