Miscellaneous rambling, and bragging about my kids.

The new Dancing With Stars cast list is up! Let's play the "fill in the blank" game:

• Mark Cuban – Internet billionaire and generally loud sports personality. Could he be the one to go on the first episode?
• Floyd Mayweather, Jr – Boxer. There's always a boxer.
• Wayne Newton – Charismatic old guy.
• Melanie Brown, aka "Scary Spice" and Mel B. – What category should we put her in, does she still count as singer? These days it seems like she's most famous as the Eddie Murphy's baby mama. Maybe Heather Mills created a new category last year with "person famous for a controversial relationship?"
• Sabrina Bryan of Disney Channel's "Cheetah Girls." – I could call this the Disney category since we had Hannah Montana's dad last year, but she also doubles as a pop singer. We've had plenty of those.
• Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves. Young and exciting athlete, ala Anton Ono.
• Actress Jennie Garth ("Beverly Hills, 90210"). Maybe we can have a 90210 category? I don't know what else to say about this one except "C-List, washed up actress."
• Model-actress Josie Maran.There's always a model.
• Soap star Cameron Mathison ("All My Children"). There's almost always a soap star.
• Singer Marie Osmond. I had to call Marie Osmond "old", but she's no Cheetah girl anymore. She'll be the Leeza Gibbons contestant who the over-50 crowd gets to cheer.
• Model Albert Reed. Never heard of him, can't stereotype him.
• Actress Jane Seymour ("Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman"). Maybe her and Marie Osmond can fight it out for the audience's love?

You would have thought that as the show grows in popularity, the "star" power would get better (like American Idol, for instance). Doesn't seem to be happening.

My family loved "The Singing Bee", however we will not be watching it anymore. I have talked with other families and they all agreed with me. We think it is ridiculous how the dancers dress on the show. And we don't think that it is an appropriate show to watch with the family because of this. What kind of message is this sending to our young people. We do watch "Don't Forget the Lyrics" and we do love it. And just imagine we can enjoy it without watching half naked dancers!!!

I was hoping that he would have taken a bit more of a beating, but check out what Michael Vick, dog torturer, has pled to:

• "one count" of conspiracy to travel across interstate lines for the purpose of doing the dog fighting thing. One count. yeah, that's believable. "I did it once."
• "I owned the property, but I did not bet on the fights nor did I make any money." Yeah, I just let people torture dogs on my property out of the goodness of my heart, there was no monetary compensation in it for me. I just like watching animals suffer, it's how I get off.
• "Through the collective efforts of everyone involved", dogs died. So, you know, he doesn't have to be documented as saying "I personally killed the weak ones." If you think about that one, it's even better — he had no monetary stake in the betting, and yet he still admits to killing the weaker animals? Why, exactly? What was his motivation there?

None of that is shocking. It is, after all, a plea deal. What is shocking is that the prosecutors are going to agree to the minimum penalty. I think their reaction should have been more along the lines of "No, seriously. What are you really going to admit to?"

Part of the penalty he might face includes "full restitution." What exactly does that mean? How do you unkill dogs? Who do you pay restitution to?

CNN has a lengthy article up on the mother who claims that children were injured during Kid Nation. CNN's article, though, is much longer and goes into much greater detail about the show in general.

Highlights:

• Complaint claims that 4 children "accidentally drank bleach." First of all, 4? One maybe, but 4? Second, dig how CBS confirms it as a "bleach-sipping" incident. Makes you think of wine tasting contests where they're passing it around. "Does this taste like bleach to you? here, try it."
• The comment that adults of all shapes and sizes, including psychologists, doctors and so on were around at all times. Ummm…so you *watched* 4 children drink bleach? I mean, ok, the other girl who had grease spatter in her face, that was an unpreventable accident. But somebody tell me how you watch 4 children drink bleach?
• Parents signed a 22 page waiver that said they wouldn't sue, among other things, "if their child dies."

ARE YOU FRIGGING KIDDING ME?

Explain to me in god's name how you can put such a piece of paper in front of a parent and expect them to sign it?
"Hey Billy, guess what Mommy signed you up for?"

"Karate? Soccer? Computer camp?"

"No, Kid Nation, where if you win mommy will take your $20,000, and by the way, you might die! That's ok, though, Mommy signed the paper, you really have no say in it. Get to work. Oh, shoot, Billy died. Well, I can't do anything about it, I signed a paper and everything. Oh well, I've got other kids. Hey CBS, what else are you working on? How much is the safety of my other children worth?"

I enjoyed this CNN Headline: Ex-Astronaut wants ankle monitor removed. The ex-astronaut of course being the now infamous Lisa Nowak who drove across the country in diapers to spray pepper spray into the face of a fellow astronaut in some sort of weird love triangle gone wrong.

Well, duh. Isn't that like saying "Prisoner in jail would like to go home, please"?

Turns out that the lawyer is arguing for the removal of the monitor as well as having all statements by his client, as well as evidence taken from her car, thrown out.

I'm reminded of one of my favorite quotes from "Liar Liar", with Jim Carrey:

"Your honor, I object!"

"…on what grounds?"

"Because it's devastating to my case!"

Forget this.The show will be great.

One of the great things about being a parent of toddlers is discovering that there are new episodes of Sesame Street on your Tivo. The combination of modern humor coupled with the nostalgia of what you remember from your own childhood is such a wonderful combination, you find yourself getting into the show just as much as your kids do.

Tonight, for example, Kerry and I sat down to watch…not America's Got Talent, but Sesame Street. Seriously. They'd done a skit called "Meal or No Meal", a takeoff on the Deal or No Deal gameshow, that was just hilarious. Out comes the host puppet, looking exactly like Howie Mandel, complete with earrings, bald head and goatee. But then it gets even better – when the guest comes out and tries to hug him, he jumps away from her exactly like the real Howie Mandel (a known OCD sufferer) does. And when the "baker" (rather than "banker") calls (who, by the way, is played by Cookie Monster), the Howie puppet plays it exactly like the real one does: "Sadie? I have good news. The baker likes you."

Who knows, maybe you have to see it for yourself. But the humor is most definitely geared for the parents as much as the kids.

he aint dead anyone with 1/2 a brain knows that

k well chris might of dun it but as sum of da people said it before it might b sullivan .. c i dunt now who dis it yet and i dunt think i evr will but i still respect the guy as an in ring guy and a person who loved his wife kids and rest of family… one thing dat doesnt make sence is the ordere of things they say he died on saturday but dey got a msg on sunday so sumone else must of done it …ssooooo confused

i rily2 lyk dis s0ng..
i 1st hear it and saw it video in a music tv after dat i search it in the net…
i love it so much