R.I.P. Art Linkletter & Gary Coleman and Get your story straight Steve Wilkos

I have several things I want to talk to you about today. First there were a couple of celebrity deaths that made me very sad. I don't talk about all the deaths that make the news but when they touch me in some way, I like to put them here.

Art Linkletter passed away on May 26. He was a radio and television personality and the host of House Party which ran for 25 years and People Are Funny which ran for 19 years. He died at home in California. He was 98. 

July 17, 1912 – May 26, 2010

Then yesterday Gary Coleman passed away. He played the role of Arnold Jackson on Diff'rent Strokes from 1978 to 1986. He was one of my favorite child actors. Even my great grandmother loved him on that show. She'd make us all be quiet when her "little devil" was on. He led a hard life including kidney transplants when he was very young, heart issues, financial issues and suicide attempts. He died from a brain hemorrhage resulting from a fall in his home. He was 42.

February 8, 1968 – May 28, 2010

May they both Rest In Peace.

Now I'd like to talk to you about something personal. I mentioned in my last post that I was upset with The Steve Wilkos Show. For those of you that don't know, Steve Wilkos started out on The Jerry Springer Show as security. He later started his own show. 

This is not a show that I watch. Honestly if I hadn't had a family member on the show I would never have watched it. That's right, I said a family member appeared on his show. 

And after watching the clip of the show that Holly was on I can tell you that this will never be a show that I watch.

Holly is my brother-in-law's daughter. When she was 16 she found herself pregnant by a 19 year old that was only interested in having sex with her. He didn't want to have a baby or keep Holly around.

His mother however very much wanted the baby. So she told many horrible lies about Holly and was believed. Holly was put out in the rain and not allowed to see her son Kris who was only 3 months old at the time. 

Over the past 17 years, Kris has been told all the lies about his mother and believed that she was worthless and tried to kill him when he was an infant. I don't blame him for believing the lies. He was never allowed to contact his mother to find out the truth. His grandmother kept them apart, telling him that Holly didn't want anything to do with him. Holly very much wanted to see Kris but she wasn't allowed.

So Kris, now 17, called The Steve Wilkos show because he wanted to meet his mother and find out why she supposedly did the things she did to him. Holly was given a lie detector test and she passed it, proving that she did NOT abuse her son or try to kill him. 

Here's where my anger comes in.

Steve Wilkos tries to act like he is this great guy that just wants to help people. His MySpace page says this:

"Many of the guests who come on my show are facing serious problems and are crying out for help from someone who has their best interests at heart," says the 6-foot-3 Wilkos. "I believe the morale code I was taught during my Marine training, the street smarts I picked up as a police officer, and the patience and compassion I have developed from becoming a father, has prepared me to help my guests get through the hard times they are facing."

Patience and compassion? Are those the qualities that made you refuse to let Holly even sit down? There is no way that you can tell me that you didn't know the results of the lie detector test before you read them to your audience. But you still treated her as though she were guilty until the end of the show. I guess ratings and sensationalism are more important to The Steve Wilkos Show than honoring patience and compassion.

They did not have Holly's "best interests at heart". I know she has hurt terribly for the past 17 years but I guess making the show exciting is what it's all about. 

That "morale code" you were taught is really shining through Mr. Wilkos. I am completely disgusted by your show now. I didn't know anything about it before Holly appeared on it and now I don't want to ever see it again. It's nothing but a place for you to try to look like a tough guy and fill your pockets while hurting people who don't deserve to be hurt. 

You can bet that this very large family and everyone else we know will never add to your ratings. If you want to bring the truth to people, get the whole story next time and don't make an entire show based on one person's lies. If you actually had the street smarts you claim to have, you would have done that. Shame on you.

The Steve Wilkos Show is CRAP

Be sure to come back Saturday for the full story on why I think that show is crap. Thanks. 

On a lighter note, I'd like to wish my dear friend Mary a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Click here if you'd like to wish her a Happy Birthday too :)

I don't see how it could work

Hey guys! Just a short note before I get into what I want to talk to you about today. I realize not everyone that visits me here visits me on my Happy At Home blog aka my me blog, so you wouldn't know what my blogging plans have come to be.

I've decided that I am only able to blog once a week for the time being. Well, actually twice a week but the first bit of time I have available I've designated as reading time. So I will be by to read your blogs on Friday's and I will be here to write my blogs on Saturday's. Once I get more time I'll be able to go back to my regular reading everyday, writing everyday schedule but for now that's just impossible.

Ok, enough rambling. On to what I wanted to talk about.

Did you read the story about the candidate that wants to replace Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California and the crazy idea that he has?

Douglas R. Hughes says that if he's elected governor he wants to rid society of pedophiles. That's a great thing by itself but it's how he wants to do it that I find crazy. He wants to set up an island and put them all on it. He even has a name for it, Pedophile Island. 


He says pedophiles and sex offenders have three options: life in prison, get out of California and never return or live on Pedophile Island with other people of their kind. 


He even has a type of society in mind to set up for them...

The first pedophiles sent to the island will be "a lead team" made up of pedophile police, pedophile fire personnel, pedophile judges, and pedophile forest rangers, among others. They will create what he calls the island's "master plan," which will include building a city hall, medical facility and other needs for the community. 

They will also write the Pedophile Island Constitution.

He has a website all set up that goes into detail of his plans if he is elected. The header says "Why I Need Your Vote. Pedophile Removal Stops Child Rape. My Promise To The People Of California."

Here are my issues with his idea..

Does he believe that only men molest and rape our children? I hate to tell him that there are women guilty of this horrible crime too. So does he want it to be a coed society?

If he does, is he going to require that everyone sent to the island be sterilized so that they can no longer have children? If they are able to have children they will and then what does he want to do with the children born on the island? Leave them there to become victims or put them into an already overwhelmed system that can't find homes for the thousands of children currently up for adoption?

It's an island not a prison. How does he expect to keep the people there? People brave the ocean everyday to get to the United States. What's to stop someone from swimming back to California?

He wants to give them the option of leaving California forever. Well gee thanks Mr. Hughes. I guess California is the only state you care about. Just send them around to the other states and let us deal with them. We obviously don't matter to you. I hope your political aspirations don't reach beyond California otherwise you may be pretty unpopular after this.


Your site says that you will set up the island to be completely self sufficient including farming to provide food. So does that mean that you'll be providing the weapons necessary to kill the animals they're supposed to eat? How about kitchen utensils needed to cook the food such as knives? Do you think that a group of people, of armed people, no, make that armed mentally ill people, can't get together and decide that they want to come back and punish people for the way they've been exiled? I bet they could. History tells us that people have fought with much less. Fought and killed. There's a great idea. Arm them and keep them 22 miles off the coast of California.


I just don't believe this idea is very well thought out and I doubt very seriously that it could ever work. I could be wrong. I have been before but I just don't think I am. What do YOU think?