[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] A Disgusting Hit Job!

So, apparently "people" are "shocked" that Will Smith allegedly stated that Hitler was a "good person."

It's a story which I am sure will be making the rounds, and unfortunately, it's a complete and total fabrication, and I honestly wouldn't blame Mr. Smith if he grabbed a frothy mouthed lawyer and took the "journalists" responsible for this hit job to task.

Here's the article. Let me know if you actually see anything in there which would show Will Smith as saying that Hitler was a good person:

Smith: 'Hitler was a good person'

Will Smith has stunned the world by declaring that even Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was essentially a "good" person.

The Men In Black star, 39, is determined to see the best in people, and is convinced the former German leader did not fully understand the extent of the pain and suffering his actions would cause during his time in power in the 1930s and '40s.

He says, "Even Hitler didn't wake up going, 'Let me do the most evil thing I can do today'."

I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was 'good'. Stuff like that just needs reprogramming."

Hitler's totalitarian leadership as Fuhrer during 1934 until his eventual suicide in 1945 resulted in the persecution of an estimated six million Jews in the Holocaust, and his invasion of Poland in 1939 led to the start of the Second World War.

So, what do you think? Is Will Smith saying that Hitler was a good person, or is he saying that Hitler believed he was doing good?

There's a difference there, and it's a genuine shame that some talentless, tabloid hack can't see it because he or she is excited to the point of pissing him or herself at the opportunity to twist an innocent man's words so as to besmirch what I think is one of the very few spotless characters in Hollywood.

This is not a scoop. This is a complete and total lie by this reporter. Will Smith does not think Hitler was a good person. Will Smith believes that Hitler thought Hitler was a good person. And, I'm going to side with Mr. Smith and agree that I seriously doubt Hitler woke up in the morning with the giddy desire to be the most evil human being known to man. I think Hitler was crazy, and I think Hitler was evil. But, I also think Hitler thought in his twisted mind that what he was doing was the best thing for the German people.

That is really what Will Smith was saying; however, his words are obviously beyond the comprehension of whatever half-witted, slobbering infant interpreting what was a rather insightful and eloquent statement.

Unfortunately, in this day and age, I'm certain Will Smith will be strung up and crucified as a result of some brainless reporter's zeal to destroy the image of a perfectly innocent, and unusually kind and gracious movie star for no other reason than... Well.... Who knows?

Anyway, I'm sure you'll probably be hearing a lot about this as the grist hits the gossip mill. Just do yourselves a favor and try to remember the truth to the matter, and don't give this unworthy story any legs with which to kick an innocent man. This is nothing more than someone trying to knock one of Hollywood's few remaining good people down a notch. And, I hope the disgraceful and dishonest fools at World Entertainment News Network (WENN) have the good sense to print a retraction and an explanation as to the punishment of the authors and editors involved in this disgusting hit job.

News should, at the very least, report the facts. This is Journalism 101. And, if the facts are something which are viewed as an obstacle to be manipulated and twisted until they tumble into the realm of the dishonest so as to further an agenda, then what remains is something which is more fabrication than a piece of genuine interest and relevance. And, it's clear from the antics of WENN that their dedication to the truth takes a back seat to the odious self-interest of their unqualified staff.

Now, in the interest of full-disclosure, I should say that I am personally not a big fan of Will Smith. I think he's a hell of a nice guy, but he's not that great of an actor or a musician. But, at least I base my opinions upon reality without the need to make something up just to destroy him or justify my dislikes.

I guess it just disgusts me when I see such obvious dishonesty in journalism. And, the thought that Will Smith's career will most likely take a hit as a result of some intellectually incompetent reporter is simply so damn unfair that it pisses me off. No one deserves this, and I really feel sorry for the guy. I mean, can you imagine that he's now got to explain all this to his children?

I can't imagine that. And, it's a damn shame that anyone should have to go through this.

-DP


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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 12/23/2007 11:54:00 PM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] I Have a Request.

Hi again!

Now, it's been a while since I've posted any pictures with my entries, and though I usually like to illustrate my entries with something odd, I haven't lately, and I don't know why.

I suppose it's because I don't have any new pictures, and I've not taken any lately. So, if you've got some lying around, please feel free to email me one or two. Maybe I'll use them in an entry and write something silly about them. Just, you know, keep it clean.

Thanks,
Dan

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 12/23/2007 02:31:00 PM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] It's a Windy City...

Right now, I am happily hopped up on pain meds, and I'm watching my beloved Green Bay Packers as they seem to have forgotten how to play in inclement conditions, and the Bears, those sleazy, grime-coated goons from Chicago, haven't.

It's an ugly, ugly game. The temperature, I think, is somewhere around ten degrees, and there seems to be a gentle, steady breeze of about 40 to 50 miles per hour. I have no idea how to translate that into a wind chill temperature, but I think I can safely say that it's somewhere around sickeningly cold and insufferably nasty.

Nonetheless, as much as I would have loved it if the Packers won, I can't feel terribly bad about this game. The conditions are ugly --I couldn't play football in this nonsense--, and it's just the kind of day where the only thing anyone should be doing is sitting someplace warm with something hot to drink. It seems to me that every bad break is just going the Bears' way.

I think the person I'm most worried about on that Packers' roster would have to be their punter, Jon Ryan. His performance today is probably something people will tell their grandchildren about many years from now, and Jon is probably standing there in the freezing cold thinking of hanging himself. Unfortunately, from what I'm seeing today, if he put a noose around his neck, there's a pretty good chance that he wouldn't be able to kick the chair out from under himself. That's the kind of day the poor bastard is having. I've not seen such an epically dreadful performance since the last time Amy Winehouse took the stage in a drunken stupor and spat upon her adoring fans.

On the plus side, Jon Ryan is from Canada. And, Canadians can always be cheered up by a few cold beers (yes. Even in arctic conditions a cold beer is always welcome, and when he gets home to Green Bay, the beers for him will either be cheap or free), and a bucket of French fries with gravy and melted cheese curds on them.

The funny thing is, I'm really not all that upset with this loss. That's kind of odd. I mean, maybe this is a sign of a kinder, gentler Dan? Maybe I've turned over a new leaf? Maybe the Christmas spirit has settled in and I'm all "Mr. Sunshine now?"

Naaah... It's the pills.

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 12/23/2007 01:57:00 PM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Gazoinks!

My feeds are forked!

Well, not mine personally. I think this blog is still sending out a feed. However, it seems every feed in my NewsGator collection has gone silent, and I am beginning to panic! People out there are writing things, and I'm not seeing them because technology has forsaken me.

The thing is, I've got gobs and gobs of blogs in my feeds list, and I have a feeling once NewsGator sorts out this glitch, I'm going to see a ridiculously huge number of supposedly new updates. The last time this happened, I went out of town for the weekend and came home to find something like 5,000 new things for me to read.

You people are a prolific horde, aren't ya?

Oh yeah... Aside from that, I've also got a bunch of news services on my feeds and those are always jumping (they usually put out about 500 - 1,000 updates a day or so as things happen in the world).

So, I have a request. And, yes. Call me selfish if you need to. But, could you all do me a favor and not write anything or do anything newsworthy until this issue is sorted out? Tell the rest of the world as well. Write your politicians too. It shouldn't be too hard keeping them from doing things (I mean, telling a Congressman not to work is like telling a fat kid to eat cake), but it may be a little rough keeping Larry Craig out of the bathroom and thus out of the news. So, if any of you bump into him, could you suggest that maybe he get a hotel room and keep his antics on the down low for a little while today?

I know it's a little hard getting in touch with the terrorists who always seem to be so eager to get their names and faces in the paper. But, if anyone out there knows a terrorist, could you maybe pass that message around as well? Tell them just to take some time off. It shouldn't be more than a few days. They can play World of Warcraft or Halo 3 if they need something to pass the time.

As for President Bush, well... I think to keep him from being in the news, it might be best to just lead him into the Oval Office with a handful of Slim Jims and tell him not to come out until he finds a corner. That should at least occupy his time until the New Year.

So, remember, if we work together, we can make a difference. And, to those of you who have already written or done something newsworthy, I apologize for not knowing about it.

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 12/22/2007 10:25:00 AM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Saturday.... Saturday...

So, who's doing what this weekend?

Is anyone actually silly enough to try and get some last-minute shopping done? Or, are my readers more sensible in that they will spend the next couple of days with their feets up with a tall glass or a steaming mug of cheer in their hands?

As for me... Well... This Saturday is an absolute "nothing" day. Seriously, I have absolutely nada on the list of things to do. I mean, if I become ambitious (which is ridiculously improbable), I may install some new pickups into my dusty, under-played Stratocaster just for kicks and giggles. But, I'm afraid that would lead to the urge to play the damn thing, and the end result of that would be sore fingers and whatnots.

I may go for a walk --or waddle-- in the fog since I always think foggy walks are cool. I'm not sure why, either. It's just sort of cool slinking and skulking around in the mist and haze of a foggy winter day.

Anyway, what's going on out there in your worlds? Christmas is upon us, so some of you may actually be traveling to be with family and friends, and if that's the case, do be safe and if you're flying, don't forget to take a deep breath and count to ten when muddling your way through the TSA.

Well, I think I'll be off for the day. Have a great weekend everyone, and if you're off until Wednesday, do yourselves a favor and do what you can to forget you even have a job.

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 12/22/2007 09:28:00 AM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] My Email...

Lately, I've not really been getting a whole heap of email. Usually, I get a ton from people condemning me for one thing or another, and I will admit, sometimes the things I write do step on people's toes now and then. But, lately, it's been slow.

On the other hand, I did get one email from someone who strikes me as a little mean and nutty:

Dear Dan,

How can you not believe in our Savior Jesus Christ and celebrate Christmas? Our Lord knows all and knows what a fraud you are and that your just using Christ as an excuse to have fun.

I'm kind of disappointed in that this is the craziest email I've gotten in the past several weeks (of course, that doesn't count the spam I get where I apparently have amassed quite a fortune in international lotteries which apparently, I can spend on a magical pill to increase my bra size so as to please my man.). I'm kind of sad about it too. I miss my crazies. I've even printed out some of the emails to keep in a file just in case I ever wind up in therapy. I'd like to have that resource available for when I'm on that couch, wearing a tin-foil hat and telling the shrink that the ink blot I'm looking at looks like an angry clown driving a school bus full of mimes over a cliff. I want to be able to whip those emails out and say "Look, Doc. I may be abso-freakin'-lutely insane, but here are some real folks you need to worry about."

Lately though, it's been quiet... Almost too quiet... Perhaps the nutters are regrouping? Maybe the religious crazies have reached some sort of deal with the secular crazies, and they are just biding their time until they can unload upon me a massive assault of brain-shredding madness.

Then again, perhaps I'm just being paranoid. I mean, they could be busy wrapping Christmas presents for all I know.

Anyway, speaking of Christmas and how I go about celebrating it, it's actually pretty easy. On Christmas Eve, I go to my brother's house where this massive clan of mine gathers to tell jokes, laugh and just enjoy the company of one another. We eat a lot. Occasionally a gift may be exchanged, and as is always the case, there's never enough beer; so, at some point in the evening, several of us will inevitably have to hop in the one-horse open sleigh and head over the river and through the woods to find the nearest open liquor store.

Now, the really ironic thing is that up until the 1970's (I think it was the 70's it may have even been later), my brother's house was originally a small church. For some reason, that always cracks me up.

After whooping it up there, I usually tend to ramble my way home to get to bed. Sometimes, there's an after party at my niece's house which always gets way out of hand, but as far as I know, this year I am planning on just heading home.

On Christmas Day, I usually go through the same morning ritual as I always do (spill coffee, trip over cats, swear a lot, etc.). Then, when and if I am sufficiently conscious, I start cooking because throughout the entire day, my house will be peppered with family and friends usually roaming in and out and in and out, turning my furnace into a spastic, rattling little collection of sheet metal and ductwork.

Poor thing. Now I know how my father's Volvo felt all those years ago when I was first learning how to drive a manual transmission.

Anyway, that's my Christmas. I just surround myself with the smiling faces of family and friends, and I have absolutely no need to give any sort of supernatural being credit for those smiles and feelings of comfort. I'll thank those who are actually responsible for those things.

Nonetheless, I do hope all your Christmases are wild and wonderful regardless of what you believe. Just make sure you do what you can to enjoy the holiday in whatever way works best for you.

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 12/21/2007 08:29:00 PM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Pain Management...

Well, I'm thinking there's going to be a pretty good chance I will wind up in the emergency room this weekend.

Don't worry. It's nothing tremendously wrong or overly life threatening. It's just that my doctor seems to have a pain management philosophy roughly akin to that of your garden variety school nurse.

So, let's see... What exactly am I taking for pain?

First, I was prescribed 50 to 100 mg of Tramadol three times a day as need for pain. It's a fair medication (it's what did in Ol' Dirty Bastard), and it helps with the little joints such as those at the ends of my fingers and toes. It really doesn't do much for anything else such as the knees, neck, elbows, ankles, wrists, lower back, and most of the tendons in my hands and feet which keep me from straightening my fingers and toes (that's actually a recent thing, and, oh my god, it hurts like freakin' hell. If you've ever taken a misstep and tweaked that tendon that runs along the bottom of your foot roughly where the arch is, you know what I'm talking about. That's what I'm wrestling with every hour of every day, and it's maddening).

Anyway, when those don't work well enough, I boost them up a bit with a side-car of Tylenol 3... I gun down two of those as well, and instead of the prescribed "every four hours," I've had days where taking two every hour still wasn't enough.

Advil. I take a lot of Advil. They're like Skittles, and I eat so many of those that I wish they came in different flavors. Sour cherry would be my favorite. I'm a huge fan of sour candy.

So, yesterday, I got the ball rolling on the begging and pleading for my Enbrel. I called one foundation after another to see if they could do anything, and I think I managed to find one to help.

That's a good thing.

No... That's a very good thing.

However, I don't expect any answers until after the New Year (leave it to me to have this odd collapse of health during the freakin' holidays), and so, to get me through the ever-increasing aches and pains I, once again, asked my doctor if she could prescribe something to maybe keep me from succumbing to the urge of driving my Jeep into a bridge abutment at top speed until the Enbrel idiots come through for me.

So, what did she prescribe?

Anyone?

She prescribed Aleve and Pepcid.

Seriously...

Now, at first, I thought she was pretty dense for doing such. I mean, I'm not a doctor, but I don't believe an OTC anti-inflammatory is going to work any better than a prescription opiate such as Tylenol 3. And, as for the Pepcid, well... My stomach is pretty much the only thing that doesn't hurt.

However, after thinking a little more about it, I realized that the only time I'd ever taken that combination previously was the morning after an unholy binge-drinking bender of beer, whiskey and Jagermeister at the end of Hell Week in college when I slaughtered a semester's worth brain cells over the course of one evening.

So, maybe she's expecting me to just drink myself stupid for the next several weeks, and though I don't really have a big problem with this course of treatment, it's going to be a pain in the ass because, since I've been on all these pain meds, I've not had so much as a single beer in months (I think it was the first Packer game of this year's football season).

Yup. It's going to be one of those kinds of holidays. On the plus side, though, with the Pepcid, I think I may actually be able to finally try my brother's Christmas clam dip of death and abdominal distress without too much trouble. It's nasty, and I think it's made with a combination of old, canned clams, pepper-spray and battery acid.

So, we'll see what happens. So far, things aren't terribly bad, but I do know that once the sun sets and the cold, damp dread of winter seeps in, things are going to start hurting more and more.

Now, as I am writing this, the news is broadcasting a story about how Cigna Health Care essentially murdered a 17 year old girl just in time for Christmas (more and more). I hope someone makes a massive example of these inhuman bastards at Cigna, and hopefully they'll hemorrhage stockholders as a result. I have zero tolerance for these sorts of criminals, and no one should decide whether a person lives and dies in such an arbitrary manner as this.

The sad thing is, I could probably find at least one story a day about this sort of thing. In America. Where people are supposedly treated with equality. But, it's clear health care is immune to the notions of equality, and it has gotten to the point where it's less about saving lives and considerably more about extorting what they can out of the sick and dying.

I wonder what would happen if everyone in America just stopped paying their premiums. I'd rather be taxed and have my money go toward not only my own health care, but the care of others, rather than fork over gobs of cash to a corrupt and greedy industry which may or may not use that money to help you.

Something to think about, I guess. And, I wonder how much worse it has to become before people are held accountable for these sorts of things.


-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 12/21/2007 11:40:00 AM