Madoff brings out the bigots

I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

Maybe it's because my friend, Frank, brought it up at a dinner party that Morgan and I hosted Saturday night. Maybe it's just because I'm angry that this disgraceful swindler, Bernard Madoff, took so much from so many.

Did you know the foundation started by Holocaust survivor, author and Nobel Prize winner Eli Wiesel lost everything because of this man?

The ramifications of Madoff's actions stretch beyond the pocketbooks of Hollywood investors such as Kevin Bacon, who also lost millions with Madoff.

Consider this excerpt from an AP story by Jennifer Peltz:

"The Anti-Defamation League cites a spike in anti-Semitic comments online after Madoff's Dec. 11 arrest. A columnist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz lamented the case as "the answer to every Jew-hater's wish list."

Read the whole story here.

xoxoL

Video star and Friday fun

Happy New Year!

Here's a little something I worked on with my friend and Ledger videographer Joe Paull.

I'm going to head home soon and try to sleep off this developing cold.

xoxoL

Naughty boy

Baby Dave during a less naughty time in his life


Dave the dog has been a sneaky, little terror lately.

It all started Saturday when he ate an entire package of imported chocolate-covered biscuits.

He then moved on to my very special, very designer Chanel sunglasses. They are ruined. I am devastated. That was on Sunday.

Yesterday I discovered a chewed up Hershey bar wrapper on his bed. There wasn't a morsel of chocolate left.

He's not dead...yet. But this dog must be suicidal!

My hypothesis is he's pissed Morgan's home. I'm not being mean, I just think Dave's used to being the male of the house and now he's competing with my husband for that title so he's acting out.

Stef and I were discussing it last night. He's never been this naughty before.

Any way, I came across this blog in my search for answers. It's more of a fix-it rather than an explain-it, but it made me chuckle.

Any suggestions?

xoxoL

Christmas wish fulfilled

Merry Christmas Eve!

Be warned...this is a long one.

Some of you already know that I got an early present yesterday in the form of a 6'4" soldier named Morgan!

This is how the trickery went down:

Stefanie, my room mate, called me at work about 4 p.m. and said she had something to show me so she was going to stop by the office. I told her to just call me when she got here.

About 10 minutes later she called and I made my way down stairs. She was outside sitting on a bench, alone. I approached and she got up and walked toward me, something cupped in her hand. I looked at it and saw that it was a digital camera. It was Morgan's digital camera.

Two seconds passed and I heard a voice behind me. I turned and immediately put both my hands to my face in disbelief. There he was, like he's been in my dreams for the past year.

He was still wearing his ACUs and looking as handsome as ever.

We embraced. He literally swept me off my feet then sat down with me on his lap on the cool bench. I stared at him for about a minute straight, still trying to comprehend his presence.

One regret I have is that I was not dressed appropriately for the occasion. I hate the pants I'm wearing in the pictures that were snapped. Severe high waters. I also didn't have on a lot of make-up because I was too lazy to apply all of it that morning.

Morgan said I looked beautiful, though, so I guess I should just be grateful for that.

Pictures are forthcoming. I just need to get them from Morgan's camera to this blog. Also, as luck would have it, when I exited the building to meet Stef I was walking and talking with one of the newspaper's photographers, Seth. He snapped some pictures as well. Being a professional photojournalist, perhaps there will be some really good ones in there. Or at least some I can tolerate.

xoxoL

Justice Rocks?

Army Times is reporting that a Georgia Judge ordered Kid Rock to complete 80 hours of community service for his role in an October brawl at a Waffle House in Atlanta.

Well, Kid, a.k.a. Robert James Richie, told Judge Alvin Wong he'd perform for U.S. troops overseas.

Nope.

According to Wong: "Giving him credit for something he would otherwise love to do...completely defeats the punitive purpose of performing community service."

Kid responded with this statement on his Web-site.

He also wrote: "I really take it as a slap in the face, and really have trouble thinking of a better way to “serve the community,” especially at Christmas time when it’s obviously the hardest time for soldiers to be away from their families and home (and I try not to think about it when I’m there, but it’s a little freaky being in the middle of a war zone!)."

Who do you think is right, here? I'm siding with Kid.

xoxoL

Where art thou Morgan?

In a nutshell, this is why the Army sucks.

Morgan and his team were laid over in a place called Mannas (or as I like to call it, man ass) for nine days before finally boarding a plane and flying to Bangor, ME. That's annoying enough as it is, but wait, there's more.

From Maine, the team flew to Fort Riley, KS. They got in late Saturday night. Yesterday my husband calls me and says his bags are still in Kyrzykstan. He needs his bags, or rather the equipment in them, so he can out-process from Riley before coming home.

Hmmm, you would think that after nine rotten days sitting around in Mannas the powers that be would have figured out a way to transport the team's bags from point A to point B before Christmas!

One more thing...my in-laws are stuck in Oregon. Their flight was canceled today due to inclement weather. They're now scheduled to fly into Atlanta on Christmas eve. Maybe Morgan will be with them.

Argh!

We win!

To the victors go the spoils! Namely, a catered lunch some time in the near future. Good work team newsroom.