When Jennifer Aniston made her remark on Live with Regis and Kelly about playing dress up, she said she felt like a “retard.”  Something like that has a tendency to blow up in a person’s face and have everyone talking about it.

The Special Olympics has issued a statement how they are offended even if it was self-deprecating.  I can certainly understand their sensitivity to the matter.  But, this is one of those things that just isn’t being looked at the right way.

The word “retard” is no longer used to describe a mentally handicapped or physically handicapped person.  Being retarded used to be a term that was used because the definition of the word means that something is slowed down or in the process of being slowed down.

A railroad operator who puts the breaks on trains from a seat in a tower high above the tracks is called a Retarder.  The word retard as in retarded is used in many parts of our language that has nothing to do with a person who might be a little slow or have mental issues of some sort.

However, we no longer use the word in medical terms.  Experts in the field have come up with other terms that more closely identify a person’s particular problem rather than a blanket word that is used haphazardly to describe them all.  So, retard is no longer an acceptable medical term.

In the sense that Jennifer Aniston used it, retard is meant to describe the awkward actions or characteristics of a person who has no mental or physical issues.  It certainly isn’t meant to be offensive toward those people who do.

If it is used to describe the actions or characteristics of someone else, it is meant in a way to point out those characteristics or actions that are ridiculously off-base for that person.

Uses for the word retard that are not meant to be offensive:

When a person is walking through a restaurant and the tread of their shoes catches on the carpet making them trip.

When a person is eating cereal and something makes them laugh, they end up with milk up their nose.

When a person is on a popular television show with literally millions of viewers and they let something politically incorrect slip out of their mouth.

But, I know Jennifer did not intend to offend anyone and that should be taken into consideration as she is being crucified for her innocent, thoughtless slip up on Live with Regis and Kelly.

Posted under Celebrity, Jennifer Aniston, Live with Regis and Kelly, Reviews

It is phenomenal to watch such a young lady with such a mature voice.  It’s hers and you will be amazed.

Posted under Celebrity, Jackie Evancho

Reggie just came at me tonight kicking my butt all over the floor.  He is in your face with his intelligence that he uses to demonstrate the absurdity he sees in this world.

It’s the kind of humor I can kick back and get all day because it puts the idiosyncrasies of the world on display.  His rap at the end of Why S*** So Crazy? is a commentary on what makes rap and the rap industry ridiculous.  Catch the video sometime if you can.  It’s called F ck Sh t Stack.  No, you’re reading those titles correctly.  Watch the show and you’ll understand why his titles are spelled that way.

He records sound bites on stage and then plays them back with other sound bites that he creates on stage.  He sings or raps and he changes his voice to any tone, any accent, anything.  He has some real talent.  He is using it to humor us.  But, he could just as easily get serious with it.

He actually has more talent than some of the big guys in the hip hop industry today.  Reggie can change up and do Reggae whenever he feels.  He turns it on, shuts it off, talks about a few things that makes us laugh and then he’s right back into it again.  That’s the sign of a genius.

Anyway, the excerpt to the left is from his Comedy Central special Why S*** So Crazy? It’s the perfect example of the kind of humor that makes Reggie so F ck ng awesome.  He talks about his research in Mexico and how the GPS intuitive linguistic system in Mexico is different from that of Canada and America.  He talks about the obviousness there is something that you can’t miss.

Hilarious.

Why S*** So Crazy?

Posted under Celebrity, Comedy Central, Reggie Watts, Reviews, Why S. So Cr.

The levels Burn Notice has taken its viewers through actually seems like a realistic portrayal of espionage and what it takes a burned spy to get back into the game at the level he once was.  It also seems like a video game, with realistic parameters.  No superheroes, although Michael Westen does have some rather extraordinary skills.  No supervillains.  No ulterior worlds.

Michael Westen went from being a burned spy followed by FBI agents to a man who is now partnered with a syndication referred to as “Management.”  But, the levels he had to go through were quite impressive.  Just like a video game.

He had several handlers he had to dodge and eventually he managed to get them all out of his life.  The final handler had actually hired a handler of her own to.well, “handle” Michael.  But, that eventually didn’t work out and that handler actually became a client of his when Michael finally learned the back story.  This led to Michael’s first visit with Management and he was offered a position.  This is where some confusion begins.  But, I think I can explain it.

What happens next is Michael turns down this new opportunity, which begins a whole new chapter in his life.  I was under the impression that this is what Michael wanted all along.  So, what is Management then if Michael doesn’t want a position with this secret organization?

He endures being arrested and being followed by a detective who has heartburn for him.  He has enemies who come running to take advantage of him any way they can.  It gets worse as higher level opportunities come after him left and right.  I’m not going to mention the useless attempts with Strickler.  That ended with Strickler’s death and an agent’s death who didn’t want involved in the first place.

It gets really heated when Gilroy steps into the picture.  Their little play of cat and mouse has Michael running all over Miami doing errands and trying to figure out what it all means.  But Gilroy, it turns out is not up on his game as much as he would have us believe.  After helping Simon, a once burned spy himself, escape from prison, Gilroy becomes Simon’s next victim.  It becomes Michael’s job to recapture Simon and that launches him back into the hands of the Management where the first episode of this new season begins.

The Management, who burned Michael in the first place, has now recruited him to partner with them.  His first assignment, to investigate – first, who helped Simon escape – and “B”, I’m not sure.  I caught-on to the idea that it’s a war that Management doesn’t know how to handle and everyone who has tried ended up dead.  Other than that, we’ll just have to learn as Michael learns.

But, I would have to say that the show delivers.  I have often been disappointed when a show has promised to raise the bar and take things to another level.  They always seem to flop.  Lack of imagination.  Laziness of writers.  I’m not sure what the problem could be.  But, Burn Notice has not failed.  In fact, Michael is now responsible for burning a spy himself.  His relationship with the Management is like being married to a giant squid that lurks at the bottom of the ocean, but with tentacles that literally reach into everything.

Compromised information that Michael gathered from a military installation has to be blamed on someone.  So, a spy takes a fall.  You can see that Michael isn’t too happy about the turn about, but what can he do?  Or, what does he do?

Posted under Burn Notice, Celebrity, Jeffrey Donovan, Reviews

I love watching the Smoking Gun Presents: World’s Dumbest Criminal episodes that come on from time to time.  I’ve watched a guy hold up a convenience store with a rifle and then put it down on the counter so that the counter person could take it away and chase him out of the store.  That was one of the best.

I watched a guy walk into a bank with leaves to cover his face.  He ripped it off, clean and easy.  But, they put a die charger in the bag of money and it exploded just as he got out of the bank.  The cops found a guy who matched the slightly camouflaged description.  But, the dead give away was the ink that was still on the man when the cops caught up to him.

I watched a guy on the dashboard police camera hand his wallet over to the police officer.  That’s all fine and dandy.  But, it had his heroine in it.  That’s about the time you hear the guy turn from a tough guy into a crying little girl.

I’ve watched plenty of drunk people cracking their heads on hard pavement, plaster walls, glass windows and steal bars.  I’ve watched them jump off of bridges, cross busy highways and drive cars with flat tires to get away from cops.  I watched three people conspire to insurance fraud.and tape it.  These shows have all kinds and they can bust a gut at times.

What I find most interesting though is who is willing to comment on these shows.  Everyone’s been in trouble.  Most of them, I find funny and have no reason to speak bad of now.  But, I absolutely love the commentators who speak without remembering their own past.

Tonya Harding is a regular on the show and she makes some real stupid statements from time to time.  She was talking about one stupid criminal who forgot to check with his probation officer and video taped himself doing drugs as well as some other things.  Part of Tonya’s sentence was probation and there are just some topics you should stay away from when you are judging others.  She mentioned the probation and I say, “Tonya, stay away from that one.  You’re no better than he is.”

Danny Bonaduce is another one I think lets some interesting things just fly out of his mouth.  But, his are in an entirely different way.  Danny don’t pull any punches when it comes to admitting that he hasn’t led that most perfect life on earth.  But, he plays the bad card way too many times.  We’re watching a police officer give a man a ticket who is just ranting and raving. The officer is maintaining his demeanor.  It is quite impressive.  Bonaduce says that if he was an officer, all of his police reports would end with, “.and that’s when I shot him.”

Lighten up!  It’s just a guy going off about a ticket that he probably can’t afford.  Sure, he shouldn’t have been speeding if he can’t afford it.  You can raise those arguments all day long.  But, many of us have been there.  Most of us can relate.

And the thought of Danny Bonaduce being a cop is a joke itself!

Posted under Celebrity, Danny Bonaduce, Reviews, Tonya Harding, World's Dumbest Criminals