You have to be kidding me. This is news? People are “outraged” that Elizabeth Hurley put her 5-year old son in a pink bikini as a joke for her children’s swimwear line. Outraged? Really… they’re “outraged”? Let’s go to Dictionary.com for the definition shall we?

out·rage /ˈaÊŠtreɪdÊ’/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[out-reyj] noun, verb, -raged, -rag·ing. –noun

1.	an act of wanton cruelty or violence; any gross violation of law or decency.

2.	anything that strongly offends, insults, or affronts the feelings.

3.	a powerful feeling of resentment or anger aroused by something perceived as an injury, insult, or injustice: Outrage seized the entire nation at the news of the attempted assassination.

–verb (used with object)

4.	to subject to grievous violence or indignity.

5.	to anger or offend; make resentful; shock: I am outraged by his whole attitude.

6.	to offend against (right, decency, feelings, etc.) grossly or shamelessly: Such conduct outrages our normal sense of decency.

7.

to rape.

Really, a mother having fun with their child, playing dress-up, something every child has done, invokes this strong of an emotion in you? I particularly enjoy this bit from the above linked “news” article:

A source told Britain’s News Of The World newspaper, “It’s an outrage Liz made her son do this. He’s not old enough to make that sort of decision. Imagine the teasing he could suffer at school. Why would any parent do this to their child?”

On behalf of the entire sane world, may I just say “Get a freakin’ life!”? And this goes to all the media outlets that reported this non-story also. You had no more important stories to allocate your resources to? Seriously… nothing more important going on than people being “outraged” over a little boy dressing up a bikini? That was the sum total of the news today in the world?

And I especially like your “sources” being anonymous. True, it is an old tradition in journalism to keep your sources protected when asked to, but there is a point where this privilege gets abused, and this is one of those cases. I would have killed to have heard that conversation!

Reporter “Do you care to comment on the hoopla over Liz Hurley putting her son in a bikini?”

Source “Yes, but you must name me as an anonymous source.”

Reporter “You’re kidding, right?”

Source “No, this is deadly serious, Liz will put a hit out on me! You must treat me with the same care that you do a government snitch!”

*thud*

*thud*

That’s the sound of my head on the keyboard.

*thud*

*thud*

All the crap going on in the world and not only are people “outraged” over something this trivial… it’s news worthy.

*thud*

*thud*

Well, my pursuit of professional writing has paid off. You can find me fairly soon at SeeJackShop.com. This is one of several places I have applied to, and hopefully it won’t be the only one to hire me. I’ll be pointing out times I post over there, but they won’t count towards my daily post quota. (I could hear you all worrying)

I don’t even remember how I happened upon LaLa.com, but I am so glad I did. I think it was during one of my umpteen searches on a way to back up my massive MP3 collections (23,000+ songs right now), it always makes me nervous I am going to lost them somehow. I have them backed up on to two external drives, but, still, you just never know what might happen.

Well, LaLa isn’t exactly a backup, though some call it such. The site actually serves multiple purposes.

1. When you sign up, LaLa will search your music files and allow you to store up to 5,000 of them on the site. The drawback is the site picks the files, and how it does such doesn’t really make any sense, but oh well, 5,000 songs are backed up.
2. The songs you have uploaded can be listened to on any computer by simply logging into LaLa and installing a very small player on that computer. You can then listen to your music collection anywhere you wish, and the quality is surprisingly high.
3. You can also sync your iPod from LaLa so you could swap out songs on your iPod from any computer, not just where you have iTunes installed.
4. Trading CDs with other members. You post what CDs you have, a member says I want it, you ship it out in LaLa’s prepaid envolopes. The recipiant pays a $1 per CD plus shipping which all told comes to about $2.00.

I just posted my first two CDs for trade, and it just so happened someone was waiting for those titles (The Donnas and The Donnas Turn 21) and I will be shipping them out ASAP. As soon as they receive them, I will be allowed to receive two myself. Although, to be quite honest, I have no idea what I want!

So, thus far I have not found any drawbacks to the system. It’s all free for use except for the trades, all the other features cost nothing. I have no plans to sync my iPod with it, but I am enjoying listening to The Brian Setzer Orchestra right now on my laptop which I store no music files on!

If you love music, it’s well worth checking out, you have nothing to lose!

Perverted Justice is an organization of individuals trained in how to lure online predators into revealing themselves. They have over 200 convictions to their credit. They have worked with many law enforcement agencies all around the country in getting successful prosecutions, and, yes, some of them have been filmed by Dateline NBC.

That was until they went to Murphy, Texas.

In another of Dateline NBC’s endless “To Catch A Predator” specials, they had contracted with the City Manager of Murphy to allow them to run a sting operation in the city. As always, Perverted Justice would lure the pedophiles to the house with their trained staff, and the police would scoop them up after they were confronted in the house by Chris Hansen. It has turned in to a major fiasco.

One of the twenty five men targeted was the District Attorney of a neighboring city. When the police arrived, he took his own life. His sister said of the incident:

His sister, Patricia Conradt, told the City Council that police acted as “a judge, jury and executioner that was encouraged by an out-of-control reality show.”

The City Manager has now had his contract bought out by the city council, the prosecuting attorney has dropped all charges for various reasons, and town residents are complaining how this shouldn’t have been done in a populated area.

Who are these poeple?

Seriously, who are they? You had at least twenty five sexual predators in your general vicinity, and you’re going to be pissy about them being captured? You can see a list of who was arrested that day, and some of the evidence, here. And you can see the ongoing fight they are now having with the DA here.

So sexual predators are all around you, a group works with the police to bring them in, and, yes, it gets filmed, and you have no problem with them being released because someone dared to film it? I am truly lost in all of this.

Sexual predators off the street = good

Sexual predators off the street, but filmed by a camera crew = bad

What? I am truly at a loss trying to understand these people’s reasoning. I could care less how the predators are taken off the streets so long as it happens. Were they worried about their town’s image? And as for the sister of the DA took his life… “police acted as “a judge, jury and executioner that was encouraged by an out-of-control reality show.”"… um… no. Your brother broke the law, the police carried out their duty, your brother opted to shoot himself. Sorry if I sound cold, but I have no tolerance for child predators… none.

So, the city of Murphy, TX can really just shut up as far as I’m concerned. Perverted Justice is doing good work all over this country, and yet, in your town, they aren’t good enough for you. Whatever. Enjoy protecting your predators.