Bad Guys & Soup

I was going to do a post tonight about my carrot and orange soup. You know, post the recipe and then show photos of Craig cooking it (come on, you know that I wouldn't cook). It turned out marvelous and I hope those teachers tomorrow are very grateful and give Jack an "A" or there'll be trouble at t'mill as we say in Lancashire.

So what could possible be stopping me from blogging about soup? Well more important things actually.

It was mid-term election day today in Ohio and I can't vote but obviously have a vested interest since I've lived here for 12 years and pay taxes (rather ironic wouldn't you say that the Boston Tea Party was started because of "no taxation without representation" and yet that is where I find myself). Anyway, Issue 2 was a "no" and I'm mostly happy about that. The Governor was trying to take away Union rights which I think might have been a popular subject had he not lumped in the firemen and policemen. But it looks like some school Levy's didn't pass and I'm not happy about that. The failing of a school levy (tax) means that teachers, buses and programs like sports and art could get cut. The one kind-of funny story from the polls today was the man that got his nose bitten by a poll-booth employee who was mad at him & then ran off. It takes all sorts!

The other big story of the day here is that the football program at Pennsylvania State University has imploded with charges of child abuse by a retired assistant coach called Sandusky. To give an English equivalent - this would be like finding out that an assistant coach at Man United had been abusing kids for years (college football is huge in the USA and this is one of the best and most revered teams). The coach (think Ferguson) said he was told about the abuse of a 10-year old in 2002 and that he did what was legally necessary by informing his two bosses. Another assistant coach who walked into the shower block to witness a 10-year old being anally raped was the one that told him. Now, I have thought about this a lot today. If I walked into a shower block and saw a grown man raping a 10-year old I would jump on his back, beat him senseless and cause such a fuss that everyone in a 50-yard radius would call the police. Wouldn't you? But none of them did anything to stop it and the abuse went on for another 7 years, until 2009. Several boys from 8-14 years old were abused during that time and there are probably more. So at this point the assistant coach, the coach, two big bosses and a janitor have seen all this go down. The two big bosses were arrested today. The big question of the day is if the revered and much-loved coach, who's 84 and an icon, should "retire". I'm baffled tonight by the swell of support and the chant of "we are Penn State!" when he emerged from a car, smiling, on the news. I want to barf.

And lastly who could ignore Herman Cain, the GOP candidate that is refusing to acknowledge the FOUR woman that have accused him of sexual harassment. It reminds me of that Iraqi Minister of MisInformation that stood defiant in front of a bank of TV cameras, denying that international troops were in Iraq, as the American soldiers danced behind him.