Reading the news

I am having a hard time mustering any sympathy for either Jared Fogel or Josh Duggar.   They both played a dangerous "game" and got caught.   I do not know the extent of the "child porn" found on Jared's computer- if he is looking at teenage girls in various states of undress or something sicker, but he should have known better,  He hired underage girls for sex.  Now admittedly, the "underage" girl was 17. My daughter and I had a discussion recently about what is so magical about turning 18 that changes everything?  I would be willing to bet that girl knew EXACTLY what she was doing.  How do we define a "victim" here?  It's not like she was a small child.  She agreed to "work" for him, as children who are 16 can do- except that that "work" is something illegal.  I am not excusing him here, just wondering if there isn't more to the story.  Want to BET she makes the rounds of television shows, with her lawyer at her side?  She will have her 15 minutes of fame.  Frankly, I would rather see kids who are doing good things be made famous than people who want to play the victim.  Do you really want to be famous for that?  I smell a book deal.

Josh Duggar.   His holier-than thou parents have thrown him under the bus in an effort to save their babymaking empire.  Now it comes out that he had an account on the cheating website?  I wonder how much of that is true and how much is made up, but Josh just needs to go away.  The one I feel sorry for is his wife.  I wonder if she knew what she was getting into  when she married him.  I don't think their religion allows divorce.  She is stuck defending him in public and standing by his side, as she was taught was right.  My ex-father in law once told me- in all seriousness- that "even when your husband is wrong, he is right"  Not on my planet!  I am tired of reality show "heroes" anyway.  No one is all good or all bad and watching other people's lives, edited versions anyway, is not entertainment to me.  What ever happened to the creative storytelling process, where writers developed characters and plot-lines and told compelling or funny stories that they made up.  I don't want to watch people fight all the time.  I don't watch that stuff, but when I visit my daughter, she has it on.  She had a retrospective of  the "Real Housewives of New York" on.  Those women, in my observation are neither real nor housewives.  One of them had so much plastic surgery done on her eyes she looked like a Siamese cat!  She kept rolling her eyes, but her skin was stretched so tight, the motion looked like it hurt.

I am watching with horror the "candidates" that are emerging from the Republican Party.  Surely, there are people on the conservative side who are not, how do I say this? BATSHIT CRAZY?   The fact that Donald Trump is their front-runner is just too impossible to take in.  In what world would he be an appropriate choice to lead our country?  The man opens his mouth and insults come out.  So far, he has offended women, Hispanics and gays. I am waiting for him to insult the rest of the non-white male population.  He is a train wreck.  He may be a shrewd businessman, where being a pig is acceptable behavior, but politicians must have diplomatic skills.  Diplomacy is the ART of telling someone to go to Hell in such a way that they actually look forward to the trip.  Mr Trump does not have that skill.  I am sick of hearing "He speaks his mind" The man has no filter.   I love the meme response to that, which is something like "so does my drunk Uncle.  Maybe he should run, he makes as much sense as Trump."  We also need to remember that rump is a FAILED businessman, if filing for bankruptcy five times is any indicator.  I hope he is just being advanced for entertainment purposed while they try to find someone reasonable.  MY fear is that they will put someone up who is totally unsuited to the job and enough people will knee-jerk and vote in some moron. I hope the candidates from both parties are reasonable logical choices and we can have someone leading this country forward.  And yeah  I think Barrack Obama is doing a great job.