Thursday, March 01, 2007

On Technology and Ms. Smith

"For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three." ~ Alice Kahn

I have been MIA the last couple of days due to a internet cable connection problem. For some unknown reason, the cable company decided to tweak something which resulted in a reduction in output power, or something like that. I am a techno-moron, so I don't understand what the problem was. Is. Whatever.

(The long driveway)

All I know is now we have a cable wire lying on the ground from the entrance to our driveway, stretching all the way to the back of the house, draped over the chain link fence, and through a hole in the backside of the house. They are supposed to come out and bury it eventually, but they haven't said when. (sigh)

I could have still logged on using dial up, but my AOL account charges me an un-Godly amount of money for dial up usage over 5 hours a month, and between my son and I, we quickly reached the limit. So that's why I haven't been blogging.

I have a lot of catching up to do. Bear with me.

Also, I have been driving to work in a borrowed 1986 Toyota pickup truck that has no radio or tape or CD player. And, I've been working. 13 days in a row to date. Not much time to keep up with events in the news without much access to media of all sorts.

About the only thing I've been hearing much about is the news that Anna Nicole Smith is finally going to get a funeral.


(Some of my original artwork)

Finally something that I believe really does qualify to be a quagmire!

The thing that bothers me the most about this is the fact that several men are fighting over who is her baby's father while no one stepped forward to claim her body for several days.

In my humble opinion, I find it shameful the way people are behaving over this thing. Howard K Stern, Anna Nicole's boyfriend/husband/attorney is nothing more than an ambulance chasing, slip and fall lawyer who has nothing but his own wallet on his mind. He cares nothing for the disposition of Anna's body, or of her infant daughter, who may even be his own child! All he wants is the lion's share of the 400 million dollar baby"s trust fund.

The same goes for those other men who are claiming paternity.

Shame on every one of them. Not one of them is a real man. I feel very sorry for that poor child, who has lost her mother and now has no one who will take care of her and raise her right.

She is almost doomed from the start. The only chance she has, if things continue to go the way they are, is if she can somehow manage to overcome the difficulties of the coming years surrounded by people who only want to spend her money.

This whole unfortunate situation is a sad commentary on the greed and selfishness of today's modern society.

God help us all!

14 comments:

Mark said...

OK. The Anna Nicole thing, while sickening, is not that big an issue to me, certainly not important enough to write an entire blogpost about, but I had an idea for a cartoon that I thought was kind of funny, and I needed an excuse to post it. So sue me!

Marshal Art said...

Think nothing of it, Mark. While the wall to wall coverage of Smith's death is sickening, and the situation in which her unfortunate daughter finds herself is tragic, it seems to me that the story is the story. It's not Smith per se, but the fact that someone like her can draw so much attention. Yeah, bimbo marries rich old dude is worth a quick glance to some, but why does anyone care beyond that quick glance? How could she have drawn so much attention from people wanting to put her on her own reality show? Why did they think anyone would care and why were they right? The story is what it might say about our culture and I shudder to think what it does say.

Good graphic BTW, thought the protrusions should be a little bigger.

Marshal Art said...

OH NO! THE DREADED COMMENT MODERATION!! Which is worse, this or the other word verification that for me hasn't been working? Why the switch? CM slows down the back and forth.

Marshal Art said...

OOPS! Question answered. Read your reasons on last post. Nevermind. Damn kevron.

Anonymous said...

That cartoon is actually funny in a goulish sort of way.

I like the line too...very free. I used be an artist recruiter. Do you have any more art anywhere else on the web?

Anonymous said...

The child does not HAVE to be doomed from the start, if the family or the village would just step up and take a stand.

Mark said...

Which family, Mudkitty? I saw a bumper sticker the other day that says it all:

Democratic Party - It takes a village to raise idiots.

No mudkitty, It doesn't take a village to raise a child. It takes only a loving family. A village would just screw the child up worse. Thinbk about it. Every man and woman in the village has differing opinions. How can so much dissension and disagreement properly form a child's character?

Most Rev. Gregori said...

Mark, my worry for Anna Nichol's child, is that if Howard K. Stern should be given custody of her, is that either on or just before she reaches the age of 21, she will suddenly die under the same or similar circumstances as her mother and brother, with Howard hovering around in the background. Then guess who gets all of the money.

As far as I am concerned, Howard K. Smith is nothing more than a leach and a gigalo who lived off of Anna Nichole. He is supposed to be a lawyer, but from the day that he clombed on to Anna, he never had any other clients. That speaks volumns of him.

Anonymous said...

It takes a village to raise a child when the family is abusive (or worse (Daniel was only 20 when he DIED of a methadone overdose) or when the family is otherwise not doing their job.

Not all families step up to the plate, that's why it takes a village. To say it only takes a family is a starry-eyed, hippie, version of a non-existent utopia.

And we all know utopias don't exist, because it only takes one person to screw up all UTOPIA.

As for Justice...what about Justice? It takes more than a village for justice for, say the children of the late ANS. It takes a Municipality. A family can seek justice, but they can't provide it (without taking the law into their own hands - I don't think you would recommend that, unless you are an anarchist.)

Marshal Art said...

It might not be a bad idea to have the child declared a ward of the state (whatever state she was born in, I guess), with her fortune tied up until she is, say, twenty-five, except for college education, and then a good foster home found for her. Just take her the hell away from these men of dubious character, whether the DNA proves paternity or not. Just to play it safe for the kid's sake. The true father can, in the meantime, prove by how he spends that time, that he is a true father. That's how it would work if I were king.

Anonymous said...

So now it takes a kingdom.

Marshal Art said...

In a case where several adults have come together and formed a crappy life for the kid, the state, in lieu of my Kingdom, would best protect her. Just my opinion.

Anonymous said...

I will let Marshall's remarks speak for themselves, and I rest my case.

Marshal Art said...

Mudpuddle,

A re-read of our comments suggest our views are remarkably similar regarding the Smith child, my Kingdom notwithstanding. My case needs a rest as well.