Quote of the Day:     “Some things you must always be unable to bear. Some things you must never stop refusing to bear. Injustice and outrage and dishonor and shame. No matter how young you are or how old you have got. Not for kudos and not for cash. Your picture in the paper nor money in the bank, neither. Just refuse to bear them.”     —William Faulkner

TB doesn’t watch a whole lot of television these days, preferring to spend my idle time on the net. But it seems like every time I turn it on or walk past one or hear about one being on, all the rage is the story of the octuplet mom. And I get it. She’s obviously crazy, her kids have almost no chance at a normal life and the taxpayers will undoubtedly subsidize their upbringing. It’s ridiculous. So I should be outraged, right? Well, I’m outraged at the outrage.

Fourteen kids at a couple hundred grand a pop (tops) to get to the age of majority means the frugal and sensible American taxpayer may have to fork over as much as two or three million bucks over the years, assuming no movie money or Inquirer windfall comes through for them. And assuming the nutty lady starts getting more than the 500 bucks a month she’s raking in on food stamps. No matter how you look at it, financially, its next to nothing in the grand scheme. Other than money, what? Is it that we’re worried about the kids? Really? We’ve got hungry and ignorant and abused kids by the millions in this country and all the sudden we care about 8 to 14 specific ones? Are we worried it will become a widespread problem? This story is a novelty. Its worth a derisive chuckle. Then forget about it. And in honor of those eight tiny babies, here’s eight suggestions for things that deserve outrage, regardless of your politics, to say nothing of a little more tv time:

1. Genocide in Darfur. It’s more than a cause celebre. It’s a travesty that the world has stood idly by and watched it progress.
2. Remember “oil for food”? Billions disappeared–not just wasted. 
3. Remember Baghdad Emperor Paul Bremer?  Billions disappeared–not just wasted.
4. A 93 year old World War II vet froze to death in his house this year when his heat was cut off. He had the cash to pay the back bills sitting on the kitchen table, not that that should have mattered. The way we treat the aged and infirm in this country is too often an outrage.
5. There are a certain few chains of nursing homes, well known in my profession that collect government money while they let the flesh literally rot off their charges and there is damn little that can be done about it under the current state of our law. The way we treat too many of our aged and infirm is an outrage.
6. Remember the story and the you tube video from a couple of months ago of the boy that was murdered by the San Francisco transit cop? Is O’Reilly still covering that story? Olbermann?
7. A peanut mogul finds out he has a salmonella problem in his plant in twelve separate tests over a couple of years. And does nothing. Neither does the FDA, who warned him. Is the televised reporting comparable to that of the octomom? Is the CEO getting death threats and losing his publicist?
8. Some of my choices for the Jackson County Hall of Fame are not going to get elected!!!! (that’s four times the outrage).

Ok, I had to throw in at least one semi-joke. But join with me and save your outrage for the big picture problems. Let’s not let the networks, liberal or conservative, manipulate us so easily. These stories come and go. Give them a blank stare and move on. Now I gotta go. Michael Phelps is supposed to be issuing another apology and I don’t want to miss it.