What Were They Thinking? -- April 12 Edition
It's going to be a busy week in the What Were They Thinking Department. It's only Tuesday, but we already have two great entries:
Manny Ramirez abruptly retires from baseball and the Tampa Bay Rays rather than face a 100-game suspension for failing a performance enhancing drug test. Okay, that happened on Friday. But I read this morning that Manny, in a post-retirement interview, blamed this on God. I kid you not. Here's the quote:
“I’m at ease,” Ramirez told ESPNdeportes.com by phone from his home in Miami. “God knows what’s best (for me). I’m now an officially retired baseball player. I’ll be going away on a trip to Spain with my old man.”
As Brad Greenberg wrote in his post on Getreligion.org, "I’m not sure how steroids figure into God’s plan." Perhaps God, like the rest of us mere mortals, understands that Manny just has to be Manny. Manny should just hope there are no lightning storms near him with quotes like this.
And then from the absurd to the ridiculous are The Donald's shenanigans this week. Donald Trump is running for President? He's vocally joining the people who are determined to prove that a sitting U.S. President isn't a U.S. citizen? And now he's attacking comedian Bill Cosby for saying what many journalists are saying -- he has a few screws loose? When I first saw these stories unfolding, I double-checked to make sure the source wasn't The Onion. Can you imagine what a newly minted U.S. citizen must be thinking? How about our neighbors overseas? The last election was one long, painful street fight in the media. Let's not turn this one into an even longer circus, please.
I greatly fear that the notoriety of a certain celebrity whom I refuse to name in this blog, and his campaign to legitimize his insanity and addiction issues is making crazy seem good for business -- self-promotion business, that is.
What ever happened to Susan Powter, the woman who did that irritating but mesmerizing infomercial, Stop the Insanity, about fitness? We may need to bring her back.
