Gossip on a Gossip Columnist
I don’t know of Jeannette Walls. Indeed until recently I’d never heard of her before. Because just recently Jeannette Walls wrote an autobiography and it seems the details of her childhood as delineated in her book “The Glass Castle” are a bit unusual.
As best I can ascertain Jeannette Walls is a NY socialite type of gossip columnist, the sort of gossipy woman who gains legitimacy by writing for a major newspaper instead of The National Enquirer.
Lucianne Goldberg wrote a review of Walls’ book, and an excellent one at that. I did not read the book and likely never will.
Still I read Goldberg’s review in the National Review Online and saw a few Dateline type shows where Walls was interviewed and freely spoke of her unusual childhood.
It’s an amazing story, if true. I suppose it’s true because I have no reason to believe it’s not. But a woman rising from the mess that was her childhood to become a respected NY society reporter is quite rare.
In some of the Walls’ interviews she actually takes us to visit her mother. Who lives in squalor, robbing electricity from neighbors in an apartment filled with her crazy paintings and other trash. Walls’ mother is even interviewed and she seems sane to me. Though Walls’ has plenty of money now, her mother refuses her financial help.
Just an amazing story, my observation.
From Goldberg’s review of “The Glass Castle”, link above:
Until her rootless, feckless family — consisting of her parents Rex and Rose Mary, two sisters, and a brother — came to roost in a leaking, plumbing-free shack in Welsh, W.Va., the kids were squashed into the back of whatever ramshackle automobile Walls's father wired together. Aimlessly, sometimes looking for work for Rex or a bar where the adults could party, they wandered the highways and byways of the great Southwest. What money they scrounged went for gas, Rex's cigarettes and beer, and Rose Mary's art supplies.
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Hulk Hogan Inducted into Wrestling Hall of Fame
Gotta love the Hulk.
Who personified wrestling, a “sport” that is a bit bogus on the professional circuit. Yet is a form of entertainment appreciated by the few with higher intellectual levels.
Well I didn’t even know there was a wrestling hall of fame.
But if anybody belongs in it the man would be Hulk Hogan.
Hulk Hogan
Congrats Hulkster. Now time for Ric Flair
From Yahoo News
Hulk Hogan, relishing his weekend induction into the
World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame, figures he's earned it.
"To me, it's huge to be part of the Hall of Fame because I was there from day one when this business went from small-time to big-time," Hogan said.
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Matt LeBlanc Cancelled in Australia
Can America be far behind?
FromThe Herald Sun
The Friends spin-off, starring Matt LeBlanc, is to be replaced by a reality show starring a domestic hero.
Joey and the Charlie Sheen sitcom Two and a Half Men are making way for Supernanny, the US-produced series featuring Jo Frost, who tries to bring peace and order to dysfunctional families.
The decision will disappoint LeBlanc, who told the Herald Sun three weeks ago that the sitcom was finding its feet.
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Michael Jackson Named “Most Foolish Person”
It was bound to happen.
From Daily Telegraph
About 80 per cent of 1,030 people who took part in an annual April Fool's Day survey felt that Jackson, on trial for allegedly molesting a 13-year-old boy, deserved the top spot on the 2005 list that also featured his bra-popping sister Janet Jackson and convicted domestic diva Martha Stewart.
"It's getting hard to envision an America in which Michael Jackson isn't the most foolish individual," said public relations consultant Jeff Barge, who compiled the sixth Most Foolish American survey.
Jeb and George
“George it’s not just the political heat I’m taking down here. There really is a principle involved here. I don’t think I can just sit by and let them starve a retarded woman to death.”
Silence greeted Jeb Bush’s lament to his Presidential brother. Jeb knew as soon as he held that news conference announcing that a Mayo Clinic Neurologist affirmed that Terri Schiavo was not persistently vegetative and that the Florida Department of Children and Families had the right to go to Terri’s hospice and remove Terri for her own protection that his brother the President would be on the special cell phone line.
“I’m just going to do it,” Jeb Bush had told his Chief of Staff earlier that day.
“Sir, don’t you think you should at least notify the President. He deserves …”
“It’s not that I don’t want to tell him,” Jeb cut off his Chief of Staff curtly. Jeb then walked over to the window, gazed down at the boulevard below and ran his fingers distractedly through his hair. “But I know he’ll tell me about the rule of law, how, how…,” Jeb said, faltering for words. “How we would be in the wrong if we did anything drastic. How, how …,” Jeb continued with another falter, “how we’d never achieve equilibrium after such an act.” Jeb smiled slightly at his Chief of Staff. “The sort of thing he should tell constituents, not his own brother.”
Jeb sank into his leather chair and his face settled into that thoughtful frown his Chief of Staff knew all too well.
“It’s not only the many people beating on me to do something,” Jeb continued. He spoke in the general direction of his Chief of Staff but the words he was forming with some effort were for both him and the other person in the room. “But I really feel so…,” Jeb continued on but paused, looking for a word. “Impotent. I feel so impotent being a Governor of a state and totally unable to prevent the court ordered death of an innocent woman.”
Jeb ran his fingers through his hair again. “Call a press conference today,” Jeb said after a long sigh. “Get the Florida social service department ready and alert the state police. Because I’m going in there. I’ll telegraph my intentions by this press conference. But there just comes a time when you have to do what you think is right and take the consequences.”
The Chief of Staff wrote down Governor Bush’s instructions while struggling to contain a grimace of disapproval.
“Look,” Jeb Bush said to the grimace, “George will call me as soon as the press conference is over. I’ll give it to him straight then. If I call him now I might lose my resolve.”
“Jeb I know how you feel…,” the President said over the secure cell phone line.
“You don’t know how I feel, George,” Jeb interrupted his brother abruptly. “You might be President of the United States but today this Governor of Florida has more pressure on him for once than you. Sometimes, George, you gotta take a stand. If they impeach me I’ll go out with my honor.”
“Jeb if it was only about you being impeached I’d go right along with you and risk an impeachment too.”
Jeb looked at his cell phone as if it were a strange object. He loved his brother but there were times, given their unusual and powerful positions, that they were often at odds. The Terri Schiavo case had been a thorny one from the beginning for Jeb Bush. His brother and the most powerful man in America certainly gave his best effort to help. Neither brother figured the court system would literally ignore the amazing efforts of the congress and President. Jeb expected to hear the usual political platitudes from his brother and was shocked to hear him say he was willing to risk as much as Jeb was.
“Oh George, I couldn’t let you take that chance. Besides I’m the one reacting with raw emotion here like you told me last week. This family only needs one disgraced office holder.”
“Jeb, just listen to me for a second. When you hear what I have to say and you still don’t agree then do what you have to do. I’ll stand behind you all the way.”
Again Jeb regarded the cell phone as if it landed recently as a lump of matter from the heavens. It seemed a fair enough proposal. Jeb agreed to hear his brother out.
“I don’t have to tell you how much this has been on my mind,” George Bush began. Jeb let out a sigh that his brother heard clear across the satellite waves.
“Okay, I’ll get to the point,” the President responded to his brother’s sigh.
“I’d lead the National Guard into that hospice if I thought it would change anything. Don’t think Dick and I haven’t discussed this possibility endlessly.”
Jeb remained quiet. He was surprised to hear that his brother had even been considering such a thing.
“Terri Schiavo’s death won’t be the end of this thing, Jeb. I’ve got about ten Republicans, both in the House and the Senate, who are drafting legislation to pass a federal law specifically stipulating the legal requirements needed before someone’s life is ended by human interference. We’re even thinking of making denial of food and water completely illegal under certain circumstances.”
Jeb rolled his eyes to the ceiling, assuming his brother couldn’t see the action.
“Quit rolling your eyes I know I’ve told you this before,” the President said and Jeb looked at his cell phone for a hidden camera. Then his brother always did know when he was rolling his eyes.
“Jeb, do you think such a law would ever be passed if we intervene in this like you and I both want to do?”
“Sure it would,” Jeb responded. “I’d argue that taking such dramatic actions would insure that such a law would happen. It would bring the matter to the attention of the American public in a fairer manner than your media buddies are doing.”
“That’s just the problem, Jeb. There’s the media. There’s the entire world. There’s fledgling democracies that would note our actions and what a bad example it would be.”
“George Afghanistan is your problem …,” Jeb interrupted.
“The ACTIONS would receive the scrutiny, Jeb, not what led up to them. The French would take an action like the state or even the federal government coming in to snatch Terri Schiavo and turn it into rumors of chaos in America The liberal media would spend hours discussing the powers of the Governor and the federal executive branch. Do you know what that soccer Mom tuning into the Today show would hear, Jeb?” The President paused and waited for his brother’s response. There was none.
“She’d hear all about the problems of runaway Governors ignoring the results of court hearings. She’d hear about an executive branch all power hungry. She’d hear about how the government overstepped its bounds and all for a brain dead woman on life support. None of it might be true but it would be what Katie and Matt would be talking about the morning after it happened.”
Jeb held the cell phone in his ear but said nothing. His brother had a point.
“And you know what those soccer Moms wouldn’t hear, Jeb?”
Jeb said nothing.
“They wouldn’t hear about Terri Schiavo, a woman whose brain was severely damaged, a woman whose husband won a bunch of money in a malpractice suit specifically to care for her but then decided that Terri really wanted to die. The soccer moms wouldn’t even hear about Terri Schiavo. They’d hear all about you and how you broke the law. Or me if it came to that. The real issue would be buried.”
“So we just let them starve a woman to death.”
“Jeb, remember you and I talking about promoting a culture of life?”
“Yeah.”
“Remember we said we were going to work together to mold a policy where any questions about a patient’s wishes would err on the side of life. Remember, you were the one that came up with the slogan “err on the side of life”?”
“Yeah.”
“Jeb I think we can successfully draft a public policy, a federal, national policy, that will really work. States with vague laws will have to change them or they can legally be challenged in the federal court system. Americans will understand that if there is no legal document clearly stating their wishes that they will kept alive by any means possible. They’ll know that America’s policy of erring on the side of life will automatically kick in unless they have made clear arrangements for an alternative.”
Jeb tried to keep his eyes from rolling. “So we’re supposed to let an innocent woman starve?”
“Jeb, Terri Schiavo never had that choice,” the President said softly.
“What choice?”
“No legislation, no President, no state Governor, had ever crafted a policy of erring on the side of life, Jeb. There was no such policy when she lived and had a functioning brain.”
“Neither has anyone else on the planet, George. What’s it mean?”
“Unless we have this national dialogue, Jeb, unless we get our message out, get the legislators working and talking, unless we do this Jeb, there will be more Terri Schiavos in the future. Only next time it might be a baby with Down’s syndrome. Or an adult paralyzed like Christopher Reeve. It could happen if we do something rash that will become the national dialogue. Not a public policy that will have all Americans knowing where they stand. Terri Schiavo never had that chance, Jeb. We don’t know what she would have done had she grown up in a country that by law required erring on the side of life. Had there been such a public policy she might have taken an action or maybe not. But we’d know what to do now, wouldn’t we?”
“Yeah, we wouldn’t be starving her to death,” Jeb answered, quietly. He was thinking along with his brother’s words.
“Right. Because she’d know that American law, absent any other legal document, would require she be kept alive unless she bothered to make the living will or whatever they’re calling it now.”
“So we’ve got a fifty-fifty chance this was the right choice for her?”
“Something like that. If we can change our public policy then we’ll almost always be 100% correct in the future. We’ll never have that chance if we do something that will divert attention from what we want to achieve.”
“George, let me get my Chief of Staff,” Jeb responded, his voice heavy and hoarse. “I’ll stop everything. God I hope you are right. IF you don’t get some of those wimpy senators working on this I’ll strangle you.”
The President chuckled. It’s long been a running joke between them, since childhood, that one would strangle the other in the event of dispute. At times it almost came to pass.
“As for strangling me, Jeb, err on the side of life.” The President laughed. He and the Governor bade each other goodbye.
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