Ben Rothlisberger and Milledgeville, GA

Milledgeville, GA, once the state capital of Georgia, has been known for decades as the location of the State's mental hospital. It's name became synonymous with mental illness. If you were acting foolishly, someone would say that you were about to be sent to Milledgeville. If someone said that an individual had been taken to Milledgeville, you knew they had a problem.

Today the mental hospital is being closed and the town is becoming more well known as the location of Middle Georgia College and State University. Once a women's school, it is now co-ed and growing rapidly. Milledgeville is a relatively quiet town with a long history. Oliver Hardy resided there for a time, having been born in Harlem, GA, near Augusta.

Last week 28 year old Pittsburgh Steeler's quarterback, Ben Rothlisberger and some of his friends, went trolling for girls and I do mean that literally, in Milledgeville, bringing the town and university to national prominance in a very negative way. Rothlisberger has a vacation home in nearby Reynold's Plantation, a playground for the rich and famous, particularly from the sports world it seems. He and some of his football player friends decided, I suppose, that college girls would be a nice distraction and an easy mark for professional football players, so they went to town and began a tour of the bars downtown.

At some point, something happened between Rothlisberger and a female student from the college. She approached police very distraught and said that she had been assaulted. Rothlisberger's lawyer said nothing happened. Rothlisberger now says that there was a "sexual encounter." He has been accused of this sort of thing before. It is interesting that he hired a high powered lawyer, who has represented other sports figures accused of serious conduct, including murder.

It has been a week and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is still saying that they will be "interviewing" Rothlisberger soon. This is always interesting to me. If it were me, they would have "interrogated" me that night. I would have been hunted down, handcuffed, and ridden to the police station in the back seat of a patrol unit. For celebrities, it is different. They are usually "invited" to come in for an "interview" at their convenience. This is always after they have had time to talk to their expensive lawyer and their witness friends and concoct a story of what "really happened."

Just what will happen here is yet to be revealed. My guess is that Rothlisberger will be cleared and we won't hear much from his private life until he has another problematic relationship with a female. Maybe next time he will look for a woman closer to his age to have a "sexual encounter" with in a bar. Atlanta isn't far away. He might find someone more his style in a larger city.

The Stupid Things We Do Are God's Fault?

This comment, today, on Facebook was in response to a friends post about cancer, our poor eating habits and the dangers of eating today's foods:

"... they were not all of this so called organic stuff when our grand parents and great grand parents were alive and they usually lived to be up into their late 80's to early 90's and some of them smoked everyday, so I think that the reason the world has turned the way it is is that we've turned our back on God, and that's my 2 cents "

My response was to tell this person not to blame our stupidity on God. We are the ones who lace our foods with chemicals during the growing and preservation processes. We eat foods that are made entirely of chemicals. I went on to say that our grandparents were the original organic gardeners, growing and preserving their vegetables and meat without chemicals.

I am always amused when people take the easy way out on events that they refuse to acknowledge or cannot explain. It is so easy to blame God. When a child or another innocent is killed by a drunk driver, God is blamed. Someone dies from cancer and it is God's "plan." A teenager speeds and is killed. God does it all to make the survivor's stronger and to teach them a lesson.

I'm sorry. I just do not buy it. I think blaming God is the equivalent of burying one's head in the sand. These people do not want to face reality. We make choices in our lives. Sometimes those choices are the wrong ones. We depend upon others for our well being and sometimes they fail. God does not cause earthquakes in Chile or Haiti and kill thousands of innocent people to teach lessons. If you want to believe this kind of stuff, at least have Him kill the bad people to teach a lesson. That would make the process more palatable.

Pitcher John Smoltz, An Anti-American Communist/Atheist Sellout?

This comment appeared a couple of days ago in the Atlanta Journal in response to an article about the Georgia Republican Party's attempt to get former major league pitcher, John Smoltz to run to replace Rep. John Linder (R. GA). Smoltz said that no one had contacted him and that he would not be interested if he was contacted.

Another sign that Smoltz is a sellout. He sold out his country by staying with the Braves when they were owned by the anti-American Ted Turner and his now divorced wife Jane Fonda. He continued to sell out the Braves when they were owned by Time Warner and their vicous anti-American attacks against our military and President Bush in a time of war. He sold out his faith in a 1996 “700 Club” interview when he refused to denounce the atheist Turner. He sold out his country again during the Bush Administration for refusing to stand up against Ted Turner or Time Warner when Turner called Bush “Hitler” or when people in Time Warner like Jack Cafferty of CNN called for Bush’s impeachment. He sold out to his team in 2009 when he backed out a three-year contract he signed in 2007. And finally, he sold out his country by refusing to fight against the tyrants in this government that are supported by Turner and the Braves former owner, Time Warner, in turning the average American into a serf.

I hope you can live with yourself Mr. Smoltz.

The writer of this warped missive, obviously, has some issues with life as we know it. Maybe he has been kidnapped by aliens and brainwashed. Then again, maybe he has been hijacked by teapbaggers or some such group. Regardless, his best bet is to return to his den under the rock.