Only in The South: A state senator wants to use corporal punishment on disabled students. Is this guy just nuts? Well, he IS a Republican...............

 Some politicians in Oklahoma are actually trying to embrace common sense. Unfortunately, there's always a bad apple in the barrel with his head in the sand.

Oklahoma state senator Shane Jett is using Proverbs 22:15, which I will quote shortly, to justify using the outdated system of corporal punishment on disabled students, opposing fellow senator Dave Rader, a fellow Republican, who wants to end corporal punishment in schools.

Farron Cousins breaks it down.

Before I go further, here's Proverbs 22:15, according to the New King James Bible:

"Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. The rod of correction will drive it far from him."

What Jett fails to comprehend is that disabled children can't defend themselves. You have children on the autistic spectrum, or ones who are visibly disabled with either muscular dystrophy or cerebral palsy or have Downs Syndrome. The above verse is meant to apply discipline with love in mind. Jett's intentional misinterpretation represents the reprehensible attitude of some GOPers in the Sooner State, and is way, way off base.

I believe Rader's measure will be signed into law, and Jett was suffer the humiliation of being proven wrong. The dude needs to go back and reread his Bible, plus a concordance, for better understanding, instead of using scripture for usury.

Weasels of The Week: Oklahoma State Athletic Commission

 Thanks to fellow blogger Chuck Miller for the tip.

All Elite Wrestling held its first event in Oklahoma back in January. During the taping for Ring of Honor's weekly program on Honor Club, former AEW women's champion Nyla Rose won a squash match. Nothing wrong with that, right?

Not as far as the Oklahoma State Athletic Commission's concerned, unfortunately.

The OSAC has specific guidelines for boxing, MMA, kickboxing, and, of course, pro wrestling. In the case of the latter, it says nothing about transgender athletes vs. "cisgender" ones. Rose, of course, is a transgender wrestler, and the first trans wrestler to become a world champion. She's also an actress (as Chuck revealed) and dabbled in writing comics not too long ago.

So the OSAC sent a letter to AEW's Tony Khan warning him about using Rose the next time AEW/ROH hits Sooner Country, which, in their small minded point of view, will lead to fines against the promotion.

I call BS. The OSAC is all about pushing their political agenda, discriminating against trans athletes such as Rose. AEW also has openly gay wrestlers such as Anthony Bowens of the Acclaimed, and current women's champ Toni Storm, while married to currently injured Juice Robinson, is bi-sexual.

To politicians up & down the Bible Belt, a transgender man or woman is an abomination. AEW, like most of the country, is inclusive in every way imaginable, and will sign anyone regardless of preferences.

That having been said, the OSAC gets a box of Weasel ears for their bigotry and attempting to bully Khan and his troupe. I would recommend that the OSAC gets a total overhaul before AEW/ROH or even WWE returns to Oklahoma.

Sports this 'n' that

 As the College World Series winds to a close tonight in Omaha, with the series between SEC rivals Vanderbilt and Mississippi State even at 1 game apiece, some GOPers in North Carolina are butt-hurt over the fact that the NCAA effectively removed the North Carolina State Wolfpack from the semi-finals due to COVID-19 issues that erupted last weekend.

The Wolfpack were left with 13 available players last Friday, and ended up losing to Vanderbilt, and, in the wee small ones on Saturday morning, players & coaches were told their run was over because the NCAA didn't want to take a chance on the situation worsening.

But, unfortunately, the GOPers of Tar Heel country aren't having it, and are demanding an apology from the NCAA. Good luck with that. You've got a better chance of Deputy Dawg getting write-in votes for governor in the next election than getting an apology just because your last chance for a national title went kaputski.

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It was news on Tuesday when Serena Williams was forced to retire in her first round match at Wimbledon due to an ankle injury.

The tournament traditionally runs into weather problems on a seemingly annual basis, and this is the first tournament since 2019. Other players have experienced issues on the grass courts, and one wonders why they don't think of putting tarpaulin on the courts, like they do in baseball & softball when it rains.

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The Yankees did something nice the other day. 

Seems there was a woman who'd yearned to be a bat girl for the team as a youth 60 years ago, and was denied. So, according to Yahoo!, the Bombers let her suit up to make up for the slight. This might've been the brightest moment in an otherwise dreadful weekend after getting swept again by the Boston Red Sox.

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By now, you've heard about Seattle pitcher Hector Santiago, a 10 year journeyman, being the first one ejected for using banned substances, although he claims all he had was resin & sweat. Santiago is appealing a 10 game suspension, but what's the point of the appeal? Apparently, Santiago didn't get the memo that was issued a couple of weeks back. Everyone else is behaving like solid citizens so far, other than Washington's Max Scherzer and Santiago.

Seems to me certain media sharks are waiting for some big fish, like the Dodgers' Trevor Bauer or the Yankees' Gerrit Cole, to get nailed. Yeah, sure, like that'll happen.

Only in The South: Florida GOPers want to inspect certain body parts of student-athletes. Discrimination much?

 Ok, this is wack. This is bonkers. This is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs crazy.

What "this" is, friends, is Florida GOPers, likely led by brain-dead governor Ron DeSantis, passing a law that allows state officials to inspect the private parts of high school & college student-athletes in an effort to identify transgendered women. 

Perverse? Yep, according to Farron Cousins. It's also cruel, disgusting, and, well, a legal excuse for discrimination due to sexual preference. 

Here's Farron:

Just when you think the GOPers in Florida can't sink any lower (unless it's quicksand), well......

"I don't see anything wrong with it!"

What a shock. What DeSantis and other GOPers are doing is giving license to deny transgendered women the right to compete. I think AEW wrestler Nyla Rose might want to take a meeting with some of these clowns. Nyla, you see, is transgendered, and a very successful wrestler with a national profile.

But the GOPers don't see that. They see the transgendered women as a societal perversion. The earliest case that I can think of was nearly 50 years ago, when Dr. Richard Raskind morphed into Renee Richards.

To DeSantis and the rest of the GOPers, I say this. Stop living in the past. Society today is much, much more inclusive. Learn to accept it.

Only in The South: A rigged Homecoming election? Yep, it happened, and the perps got caught

For all of his false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump would probably give this next story a pass.

In Contentmont, Florida, the Homecoming ceremonies at J. T. Tate High School went off without a hitch on Halloween weekend. Or so everyone thought.

Study the picture of the young lady in the middle. The press isn't identifying her as she is being treated as a juvenile even though she's 17. We'll call her Jane Doe as a result. Anyway, the innocent smile on her face hides the fact that she cheated to earn the crown. Her mother is an assistant principal at an elementary school in the same district.

Four and a half months after what was supposed to be one of the high points of her senior season, Jane Doe is now out of school, expelled after it was learned that she, with the approval and assistance of her mother, used modern technology to rig the election in her favor. More than 250 false votes were cast on her behalf, but where Jane slipped was the fact that the votes were traced back to their IP source----her cell phone.

Dum-da-dum-dum-dumb!

Mother has been suspended from her job, and likely won't be coming back, and Jane is trying to figure out where she went wrong. The real question is why she did it, then brag about it to her friends. This ain't exactly "Mean Girls", ya know.

Let me give you an analogy from the comics.

7 years ago, Betty & Veronica began a storyline where the Riverdale teens went off on a foreign exchange student sojourn across the globe. Veronica wanted this gig all for herself, and with her dad's help, mostly money, of course, the vote was rigged in her favor, but ultimately, Betty got to tag along after all. Unfortunately, the storyline dragged for over a year due to Archie Comics demoting the series to bi-monthly.

That brings us to now, and Jane Doe, risking her mother's career and her collegiate future by pulling a stunt worthy of Veronica Lodge. She's paid the price publicly by being expelled, and likely forced to return the crown, though that wasn't mentioned in the wire service articles making the rounds.

Couple this with the story about a Pennsylvania parent and her cheerleader daughter from the other day, and you wonder what gets in the heads of these parents these days.

Only in The South: A church usher dies from COVID-19, and his pastor says it's a lie......

Louisiana pastor Tony Spell is in trouble again.

After it was reported that Harold Orillion, 78, an usher at Spell's Life Tabernacle Church, had passed away due to complications from COVID-19, Spell claimed it was a lie, and that the usher had died "of a broken heart" over an unrelated matter.

Spell has even gone so far as to suggest his congregation donate their incoming stimulus checks to Life Tabernacle. And that's assuming Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards doesn't shut Spell down first.

While I get that Spell and his flock believe their faith will pull them through the pandemic, Spell has steadfastly refused to comply with Edwards' orders to "shelter in place". As we've previously noted, Spell won't do an online service, because it takes away the laying on of hands of ailing parishoners. Dude, you can still pray for them.

A pastor in Virginia had passed away recently after trying to keep his church open. Virginia is one of the states where there are active protests supported by President Trump to try to end the "shelter in place" mandates. Like, hello? Trump was encouraging people to "shelter in place" in the first place. It makes you wonder how much pressure has gotten to Trump..........

Only in The South: One pastor is arrested, and another defies the law in the midst of COVID-19

Let me start by stressing that the church I currently attend has a very small congregation. Small as in, less than 25 people attending on a Sunday morning. Wednesday Bible study has been suspended as of two weeks ago, and it's looking like it'll be at least next month before that starts up again.

Why am I bringing this up? Because a pair of larger-scale "megachurches" have come under fire for violating state and federal government sanctioned guidelines on gatherings of 50 people or more and the very logical need for social distancing in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One pastor in Florida was arrested Sunday as police were alerted to his holding his usual Sunday service.

In Louisiana, Rev. Tony Spell is claiming that God is telling him to continue to preach live and in person, despite the fact that a fair number of churches, including at least two here in upstate NY, are live-streaming services. Spell doesn't want to live-stream.

However, better known pastors with megachurches, such as Joel Osteen, have gotten with the program. Osteen recently began taping his weekly show with a reduced audience, mostly family members and staff.

Then comes word this afternoon that Vice President Mike Pence is recommending that services be limited to 10 people. The obvious next step is closing the churches, but I don't think Pence and/or President Trump want to go there.

Stay tuned, folks. This is going to be weird.

Only in The South: Football fundraising takes a fumble at gunpoint

School has started in Arkansas. Unfortunately, the last days of summer vacation ended in controversy.

On August 7, four teenagers from Wynne High, two of them wearing football jerseys, were doing some door-to-door fundraising. Harmless? Of course. But try telling that to the wife of a jail administrator in Wynne.

Jerri Kelly, seeing the four teens approaching her door, reportedly dialed 911, then met the boys with a gun and ordered them to the ground. She held the boys at gunpoint until the police arrived.

The issue? Mrs. Kelly is white. The football players are African-American.

Five days later, Mrs. Kelly was arrested and charged with false imprisonment, endangering the welfare of a minor, and four counts of assault. There was no mug shot immediately taken due to what was claimed to be a "medical issue". A picture was taken the next day, although that won't be in the following video:



Mrs. Kelly has been accused of racially profiling the four boys. Her husband's boss denies any preferential treatment was given, but clearly, with school having started yesterday, damage control was in order.

The players were selling discount cards for the season. No harm, no foul, except in the mind of a callous Weasel who's too afraid to tell her side of the story, knowing she was wrong. She was released on bond, but inevitably, the truth will put her behind bars where she belongs.

Dunce Cap Award: Jared Hensley

An assistant principal & athletic director at a Tennessee school was placed on administrative leave after he made some ridiculous remarks. Scope the video.



Where did this peabrain get that idea?

Jared Hensley is lucky his school, Soddy-Daisy High, is not in Knox County. A certain Mayor might take exception to the hare-brained remarks of this good ol' boy that won this week's Dunce Cap. Just what is it about parents and faculty at high schools in the South that they think they need dress codes in public schools? For what it's worth, Soddy-Daisy is located in Hamilton County in Tennessee, but it might as well be further down in the boondocks......

Only in the South: A Tennessee high school senior follows the dress code---and still gets cited for a violation

In the Northeast, classes don't start until after Labor Day, though student-athletes will get a headstart a week prior, when the fall sports schedule gets underway.

Meanwhile, other states have already started a new school year, like, for example, in Tennessee, where a high school senior is being cited for a dress code violation----even though she followed the rules.

SAY WHAT?

At Dickson County High, senior Tori Taylor has already been pulled from class twice because of a "wrong cut" on her crew-neck t-shirt. Huh? Far as I know, and I've always worn crew-neck t-shirts, there's only one cut, just the way the shirt is designed. In an interview with a local television station, Ms. Taylor said she can't afford to buy new clothes just for inspection's sake. Seems to me that during the first week of classes, DCHS hadn't bothered to update their dress code on their own website, which caught some students' attention.

And, then, there is school principal Joey Holley, on the stump for the school and its dress code, such as it may be. Here's his statement, supplied to Yahoo!:
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“Dickson County High School is proud to build good relationships with students, parents, and our community. We have a great school and we strive every day to keep it that way. The purpose of our dress code is to assure students will dress and groom in a clean, neat, and modest manner in order not to distract or interfere with the educational environment of the school. For the most part, 99 percent of our students have come to school within our dress code guidelines. As a reminder, we have communicated with students, parents, and community our dress code expectations for this school year.”
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So who's in charge of dress code inspections, Mr. Holley? Mr. Magoo? Seriously, though, someone's been in the sun too long to start the season, and over-reacted.

I only had to deal with a dress code at school just once, and that was when I was in a private academy for 2 seasons. Never had a code violation. Someone needs to rethink Dickson County's policies yesterday, that's all I can say.

Only in the South: Kentucky fans scapegoat a referee and attack his out-of-state business

It's well known that some college officials have day jobs to go back to during the week. It just happens that one referee is feeling a long distance backlash after Sunday's North Carolina-Kentucky Elite 8 game in the NCAA basketball tournament.

John Higgins owns a roofing business in Nebraska, and you'd think he'd have a nice plane ride back home after the game, won by North Carolina, 75-73. But, in the eyes of Kentucky's rabid fan base, Higgins screwed over the Wildcats with some questionable fouls during the game. Now, I didn't see the game myself, so I can't judge, but it's clear that some of the more brain-dead Kentucky fans took things to far by finding the Facebook page of John Higgins Weatherguard, Inc., in Omaha, and leaving some nasty comments.

It's one thing to be upset with the man and his secondary job, but to disparage and trash his primary business? Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. I get that they treat college hoops in Kentucky like a secondary religion in much the same manner Texans obsess over football, be it high school, college, or the NFL's Cowboys and/or Texans. But, here's the problem. Obsessing over sports is not the be-all and end-all of anything.

Let me give you an example. I work in an office where the company president is a die-hard Miami Dolphins fan. The office manager is a fan of both UAlbany and Syracuse football & basketball. One customer service rep is a Mets fan, like me, and also roots for the Cowboys. One of our sales reps is another Mets fan. None of us obsess over our teams. We just take things one game at a time, one day at a time. Where the Kentucky fans have a problem is that they leave common sense at home when they go to the games or, if the Wildcats are on the road, to the nearest sports bars. Kentucky hasn't had a pro basketball team since the original ABA folded, taking the Colonels with them, so the Wildcats' hoops teams are treated as if they're the #1 gate attraction, aside from the Kentucky Derby in May.

Bottom line: Kentucky fans owe John Higgins an apology, especially once it's proven he doesn't have it in for their team.

Only in the South (?): Alabama theatre pulls planned showings of "Beauty & the Beast remake

The original story of Beauty & the Beast, which has been loosely adapted by Hollywood in a number of ways in the last 25, nearly 30 years, didn't have any gay characters.

There was a time, not long ago, when the name Disney stood for wholesome, family-friendly entertainment. Walt Disney's vision has been warped and tampered with by the present day obsession with societal inclusion, such that a live-action remake of the kid-friendly musical adaptation of Beauty, due to open in 2 weeks, has seen a supporting character reimagined as gay, if for no other reason than to address the LGBT community, which some media outlets seem to think is still under-served.

Suffice to say, this won't play well in the Bible Belt, and won't play at all at a Christian-owned drive-in in Henegar, Alabama, which changed ownership right before the holidays. The current owners took to Facebook to express their opinions behind their decision, stating that they wouldn't feel comfortable bringing their grandchildren to see the movie.

It was one thing when Disney allowed for the inclusion of a talking teapot in the 1990's animated reimagining of the tale, as that was for a different reason entirely, to sell toys, especially in McDonald's Happy Meals. The decision made by the screenwriters of the new version to turn LeFou, the aide-de-camp of the film's villain, Gaston, gay, is meant to illustrate the confusion that LeFou (Josh Gad, ex-The Comedians) has over his sexual identity, something that a lot of people today are facing. The problem is, the film is still being marketed for kids as well as adults, and it's a slippery slope that Walt Disney never imagined his company would ever approach.

LeFou, then, becomes the latest pre-existing character in any form of literature to be turned gay just for the sake of filling a perceived need in the audience, something Walt Disney Pictures' corporate step-sister, Marvel Comics, has had an issue with for several years. I've written before about how difficult it is to just organically create an original gay character in the comics. Archie Comics has done that successfully, and DC, less so (Bunker of the Teen Titans), but DC and Marvel both have struggled otherwise with creating new, original gay characters. Every single character that Marvel has outed in the last decade had not been gay previously. Save for Bunker, the same applies to DC. The CW's Arrowverse family of series and Riverdale, for a few examples, have prominent gay characters. In the case of Riverdale, one pre-existing character, Marmaduke "Moose" Mason, who has had a long-running relationship in the books with a steady girlfriend, has instead been rebooted for television as a bi-sexual, as the show's creator, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, chose not to use the girlfriend (Midge Klump) just yet. Aguirre-Sacasa just couldn't develop a partner for Riverdale's only openly gay teen, Kevin Keller, for the show, for whatever reason, and opted to turn Moose instead.

Sad to say, looking at recent ratings, the first year series is showing a rapid decline, largely because of fan apathy over the overall misuse of the concept. Digression over.

Henegar may not be the only town that doesn't run "Beauty" when it opens on St. Patrick's Day. We just don't know yet if anyone else will follow their lead. Just figure on the ones that do being also based in Bible Belt territory.

Dunce Cap Award: Michael Kline

I watched exactly one college basketball game from start to finish this season, and that was Siena beating St. Bonaventure @ Times Union Center back in December. Not much of a college hoops fan anymore. High school's more my beat, don't care for the NBA and its marketing-fueled politics.

Then, I read about a whiny North Carolina fan who's bent out of shape because the Tar Heels lost to Villanova on a last second basket on Monday night. The Wildcats hadn't reached the finals, for cryin' out loud, since the Rollie Massimino-led Wildcats upset Georgetown 31 years ago.

Consider Michael Kline's statement on www.change.org:

"This game was poorly officiated from the tip off to the end. It was a one sided called game all the way through. The officials called fouls against UNC that should have not been called and never called Villanova for the fouls they committed. The officials never called Villanova for multiple travel violations either. Also I want a complete investigation into the officials as it was them that decided the game not who played better."

Or, to put it another way, "Waaaaaah! We wuz robbed! Waaah! Waaaah!"

Seeing as how I didn't see the game at all, I can't judge whether or not Kline's whining has any merit to it. All it is, then, is the slanted viewpoint of a fan who doesn't see things clearly. The audio (radio) call of the game-winning shot was heard all over the place Tuesday morning, including on K-Love, a syndicated Christian radio network, and that's how I found out about Villanova winning. Good for them, I thought, it's a long time coming. Now, Kline throws shade on the Wildcats, whining that the referees were biased in their favor.

As we're sending Kryin' Kline a Dunce Cap for being such an out-of-touch idiot, let's consider that without proof of any wrongdoing to prove his point, Kline has no case. The NCAA will retroactively vacate victories due to off-field indiscretions (i.e. overzealous boosters giving student-athletes financial assistance when they're not supposed to, having ineligible players), but they've never reversed a result. That just isn't done in the real world. In fiction, yes, but not in real life. Not that often.

We're also sending Dunce Caps to those moronic New England Patriot fans intent on filing a lawsuit to have the NFL reinstate the draft picks the Pats had taken away from them due to the Deflate-gate scandal. I get that these people are passionate about their teams, to the point of obsession, but they come across as being whiny, spoiled, filled with artificial entitlement, well, you get the idea. Might as well send some baby bottles along with the Caps, filled with spring water.

Weasel of the Week: "Harry Leon Fleming"

For all we know, this week's Weasel is using a pen name, and declaring himself an apostle to justify his sending threatening letters to three women pastoring African-American churches in South Carolina. Clearly, this guy is riding on the wave after Dylann Storm "Drain on the tin" Roof's assault on an African-American church 2 weeks ago. Since that time, 6 churches in the area have been destroyed by fire, the most recent coming on Tuesday, and attributed to a lightning strike. Three others are believed to be the work of an arsonist.

For the uninitiated, AME stands for African Methodist Episcopal, and, admittedly, I didn't know that myself, even though there are some AME churches in my area. I know of a man who actually has walked out of the church I attend---twice---because the pastor's wife, herself an ordained minister, takes the pulpit on a once a month basis on average. The way I look at it is this. God is calling men and women to be pastors and/or evangelists in this modern era. This is a forward step in the church's progression. One of the top evangelists in this country, it happens, is a woman, Joyce Meyer, who's also a best-selling author. I've heard her preach, and she is dynamic and anointed. Period.

Mr. Fleming, if that is your name, enjoy your Weasel ears. They'll look good on you in prison.

(Slightly) Forgotten TV: Motor Madness (1997)

Before changing its name to Spike TV in 2003, The Nashville Network (TNN) made every effort to diversify its programming, replacing Nashville Now (which was later replaced with Music City Tonight) on Fridays with Motor Madness, devoting the entire Friday primetime block to motorsports, mostly monster trucks.

Today, such a program could be found on the CBS Sports Network, if CBS chose to try it. Maybe ESPN would take a shot.

The series launched in 1997, but didn't really pick up steam----or additional viewers----until the 2nd season, when wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes joined the show as a commentator. At one point, Butterscotch Jackson, a comic relief character also added to the show, was presented with an nWo t-shirt. At the time, Rhodes had joined the rebel faction in WCW, but that didn't last very long. Jackson must've been a wrestling fan. Wrestling-style skits were added to the mix, which actually was counter-productive. Eventually, TNN cancelled the series, and would move into the wrestling business themselves in August 1999 by signing a deal with ECW.

In memory of Rhodes, who passed away yesterday, we present an episode of Motor Madness from 1998.




Rating: C.

Only in the South: A student is forced to wear a "shame suit" for not meeting the dress code

Apparently, school administrators in Florida don't know the difference between discipline and outright humiliation. They think humiliating a student for an innocent error in wardrobe counts as discipline.

Take the case of Miranda Larkin, 15, a transfer student from Seattle, who experienced a bit of a culture shock, I'm sure, when she was told that her skirt was in violation of her school's dress code. Supposedly, she was given three options: 1) suspension, 2) calling home to have some fresh clothes brought over to change into, and 3) a "shame suit", which consists of a yellow shirt and a pair of red sweats, both of which read "dress code violation". However, as Miranda & her mother told ABC, she wasn't given a choice. Administrators at Oakleaf High in Orange Park forced her to wear the "shame suit". The Larkins claim Miranda was bullied. Oakleaf faculty have refused to comment. Gee, what a shock, eh?

I spent 2 years at a private academy, and the only error in appearance was pointed out to me by a teacher the first week. I was asked to trim my nails, so I did after school. If the shirt-tail wasn't tucked in, well, a quick stop to the men's room could fix that in a jiffy. Ah, but that was more than 35 years ago. Miranda said she broke out in hives, she was so upset. I get the feeling lawyers will soon get involved, and Oakleaf will end up the laughing stock of the district, trust me. Treating teenagers, especially transfers who've barely gotten settled into their new district, like babies is not the way to go. The Larkins had only arrived in Florida a scant more than a week before the start of the school year.

Here's an idea. Let the teacher who forced Miranda into a shame suit wear one, too. I hear clown shoes would look nice.

Only in the South: Florida mother is booted from a gym.........for helping her son work out.

What is this? Social insensitivity week?

Yahoo! is reporting that a Florida mom had her membership at a LA Fitness gym revoked one week ago, just because she was helping her son with his workout, and the staff there took that as a violation. The ironic twist is that the woman is herself a fitness trainer by trade.

Krista Grubb assumed that this was just a case of parent-child bonding at the gym when she helped her teenage son with his workout, and this had been going on for a while. Seems some idiot complained to the staff, and one of the staff trainers met with Ms. Grubb a week ago about it. Said trainer took Ms. Grubb's comments to mean she was training her son during her own workout.

This misunderstanding, regardless of whether or not it was a deliberate oversight, cost Krista her membership at LA Fitness. After she had just paid for a full membership. When the local TV station wanted to talk to people from LA Fitness, they predictably were convienently unavailable for comment. Nothing says guilt trip more than being unwilling to comment after you've made a mistake in interpreting a member's intentions the wrong way.

I'd bet that Krista and her son will now either confine their joint workouts to home or she'll land a job as a licensed trainer (which she is) with a rival gym, and not have to go through this imbroglio again.

Here there be Weasels

We've got a bunch of Weasel ears to hand out this week.

We'll start in Fayetteville, NC, where it seems school administrators have their heads in the sand when it comes to bullies. You've read, I'm sure, the story of 9 year old Grayson Bruce, who was being bullied because he carries a My Little Pony lunchbox. Instead of identifying and disciplining the students who've hassled young Mr. Bruce, the Buncombe County School District advised the youngster to leave his lunchbox at home. They claim the lunchbox, which has a picture of Rainbow Dash from the current Friendship is Magic series, seen on The Hub, is a "trigger" for bullying.

SAY WHAT?!?

Noreen Bruce, Grayson's mom, disagreed, blasting the district's stance as "flawed logic". She's got a point.

Not surprisingly, the "Bronies", a community of adult fans of the cartoons, has pledged their support behind the Bruce family. A Facebook page already has 18,000 "likes". It all comes down to the perception of the product and who/what it's meant for. The perception that some kids have ingrained into them is that My Little Pony is for girls, and that boys like Grayson should have a Batman or GI Joe lunchbox. So he's a junior Bronie. The bullies and blind administrators who don't respect that get the Weasel ears.

Now, let's move closer to home, and a different kind of bullying.

It came out over the weekend that some wiseacres at Shaker High in Latham started a parody of the March Madness brackets, focusing on certain female students, 4 for each of the 4 grades (9-12), and their looks. The administration there is calling it a form of cyberbullying, being conducted on Twitter. The dweebs behind this haven't yet come forward as of this writing. They think this is a joke. It isn't. If they don't have the brains to try to decide for themselves who they want to date without resorting to some stupid mock tournament, they need therapy. You know what they say. The mind is a terrible thing to waste, and these Latham Weasels, whomever they are, wasted theirs with this tripe.

Finally, sports agent Steve Weinberg, the rep for Emmanuel Sanders, played a game of human chicken with at least three teams before the former Steelers wide receiver signed with Denver. He made promises to a couple of teams, including Tampa Bay, then reneged on the deals. What kind of agent does that? An agent who's also a total Weasel who's previously been decertified, then reinstated. This sort of fool's folly could get him decertified by the league again. I don't think it would take much for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to void the deal, or send Weinberg back to whatever hole he came from. Much as I like both the Steelers & Broncos, two quality organizations, Weinberg comes across as Dim Shady, the worst kind of con man. I wonder if Scott Boras taught him everything he knows.........

Only in the South: Why would a state champion fire its coach?

High school football scores tend to be lopsided, largely because most leagues are comprised of have's & have not's, the latter being the football equivalent of "tomato cans" in boxing, opponents who are so overmatched, they'd have trouble with a Pop Warner squad. However, in Virginia, a state football championship brought a terrible price for Carl Turner, coach of Bishop Sullivan Catholic High in Virginia Beach.

Turner lost his job.

SAY WHAT?!?

Turner's crime was no different than any number of coaches at the same level across the country. He ran up the score on overmatched opponents, in defiance of an edict from administrators at BSCHS. On Wednesday, the school released an official statement claiming Turner resigned to spend more time with his family. However, according to Yahoo!, Turner claims he was coerced into signing off on the statement from the school's spin doctors. They didn't want it to get out that they weren't thrilled with how he went about it. Oh? Haven't they watched enough college games down there? Where most schools run it up in order to increase their standing with the polls, and schedule at least 2-3 "tomato cans" per year?

Apparently, just because it's a Catholic school in a Southern state means you can pull in the reins and be different from the rest. Fair enough, but it was the way they went about this that was all wrong. As Turner himself said, after copping to the piling on in a local newspaper, the administration would've been better served if they dismissed him sooner than this just for running it up. If running up the score was a crime, most college coaches would be shuffling around more often, and pro coaches, like a certain Weasel in New England, would be getting grilled under greater scrutiny than they already are.

Private academies in my home district don't have a problem with running it up on overmatched opponents. It just happens that for some of them, there's just too many mismatches in their leagues. As the Yahoo! article suggests, this story ain't over. Not by a long shot. I'm sure there's more to this, but we'll get an answer sometime next decade.....

Only in the South: Would you try swapping an alligator for beer?

This is just too silly, but it actually did happen.

Fernando Caignet Aguilera attempted to buy beer the other day, but he had no money. Rather than beg for change like most destitute folks do, Aguilera had a novel, but, as it turned out, illegal, solution. He went into the store with the only "collateral" he thought he could use---a 4 foot long alligator he'd caught in a city park.

SAY WHAT?

Yes, you read that right, effendi. According to Yahoo!, Aguilera didn't know it was against state law to trap and/or trade alligators, and was subsequently cited by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.

In an unrelated note, Wally Gator is somewhere in Florida, breathing a sigh of relief.