Tag: soda

Little Outrages

 

  • Gary Sanchez, the catcher for the New York Yankees, has tired arms. That is to say that his arms cannot keep up with many pitches to the left of him, to the right of him, and sometimes low and in the dirt. You will note the number of passed-ball he allows as one indication. But a better indication is the fact that balls get by him in counts that are not critical, balls that do not get by other catchers. He might also have other tired parts of his body that do not allow him to move as quickly as most other catchers.
  • What percentage of people attending a ball game eat something? Drink something?
  • Every stadium should have a movable roof. Minneapolis has a brand-new stadium with no roof. It snows there in October and April. I went to a game in Denver and it was snowed out!
  • Does anyone else want the creators of the jingle for “Kars for Kids” given the death penalty? I wrote a full article about this company. Not exactly what it pretends to be.
  • Speaking of commercials: Empire City Casino in Yonkers, New York has two commercials that are insulting to the intelligence of even rather dumb people. The first and most egregious has an “everyman” doing weird stuff to his face to increase his luck, as if facial weirdness can do such a thing – and, naturally, he wins and his wins come at almost all the games! The casino is telling us that even a moronic jerk can beat the house but his secret way of winning is magical – just like yours till be.
  • The second Empire City commercial has a group of good-looking people at a row of slot machines who one-after-another in a split moment all win the huge jackpots on their machines. They are all lined up at the machines, one, two, three, four, five jumping up as the jackpot wins pour in. In over 30 years of casino gambling I have never seen such a thing – in fact, I have never seen any two people sitting next to each other win the huge jackpot at the same time. However, I have seen an extraordinary number of players sitting next to each other lose.
  • Soda? I hate soda. It isn’t good for you. You know that. But if you watched the Olympics and saw all those world-class athletes doing their thing in soda commercials you might get the idea that drinking this crap would help your athletic performance. Did anyone watching those commercials believe that? Now Aaron Judge is doing a Pepsi commercial but at least he doesn’t even pretend it’s good. He just drinks the stuff and nods with pleasure.
  • How come all those guys with erectile dysfunction on those Cialis commercials are rugged, good-looking studs throwing bales of hay on trucks, working he-man jobs? There are no little waddling fat former-accountant guys in their flabby late 70’s.
  • And why on those commercials does the couple take baths in separate tubs (outdoors no less) after they have sex? Shouldn’t they be clean before they have sex? Otherwise the unwashed body-smells would be overwhelming.
  • I will say this again: Why do the commercials for gold and silver want us to buy the stuff with the money they claim will soon be worthless? Why don’t the companies just keep the gold and silver since it will be so valuable in the coming future?

Frank’s latest books are Confessions of a Wayward Catholic!; I Am a Dice Controller and I Am a Card Counter. All of Frank’s books are available from Amazon.com, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, e-books and at bookstores.

Tattooing Little Timbo

Parents have almost total say over what their kids eat, drink, watch on television, read; when they go to bed or whether the kid goes to this or that doctor or no doctor at all. You don’t want to vaccinate Little Timbo? You don’t have to vaccinate him. You want Little Timbo to belong to some whacked out religion? Fine.

If you wish to feed Little Timbo three or more meals a day of junky, greasy fast food, that’s fine. If you let the little one consume gallons of soda a week, that’s fine too. If Little Timbo’s idea of a vegetable is that green stuff that grows outside, but that never lands on his plate, hey that’s the parent’s right. Right? If Timbo has only experienced fruit in a pie; if his daily snacks are Cheese Doodles; if his nightly dessert is a gigantic portion ice cream and brownies, that’s hunky dory.

No parent has ever been arrested for child abuse because he or she feeds too few veggies, too much grease, too many gallons of soda, barrels of candy, or mountains of fast foods to Little Timbo.

Parents can bring up Little Timbo in extreme religions and cults. Do you believe that the white man or the black man or the yellow man is the devil? Fine, Little Timbo, that’s today’s lesson. Do you believe that women should cover their faces? Okay, cover them girls. And on and on wild religious beliefs go – but Little Timbo is his parents’ child and on and on Little Timbo will go as his parents take him there.

I know of only one case where a parent was stopped from exercising his/her almost total control of a baby and that concerned a couple who named their son Adolf Hitler—but that case seems to be the exception that proves the rule. I have read about some cases where in medical emergencies courts have overruled parents; these cases are pretty rare as well.

So now I ask you, what if mommy and daddy want to have Little Timbo tattooed. Would this be child abuse?

Don’t answer right away. First think on these things:

Think about the non-vaccination of babies when every legitimate study has shown that vaccinations have saved millions of lives. Think about what highly-processed, chemical-laden foods many parents feed their kids. Think about piercing a baby’s ears or nose. Think about religious practices such as circumcision. This is considered perfectly okay and the right of the parent to have performed. Clitorectomies are a growing concern in Ireland and are performed quite often in Muslim countries. Think about teaching creationism, which flies directly in the face of science.

Knowing all that parents are within their rights to do to their children… would tattooing your baby be child abuse?

[Read Frank Scoblete’s books I Am a Card Counter: Inside the World of Advantage-Play Blackjack, I Am a Dice Controller: Inside the World of Advantage-Play Craps and Confessions of a Wayward Catholic! All available from Amazon.com, on Kindle and electronic media, at Barnes and Noble, and at bookstores.]