Downs Syndrome Cheerleader Vs. Bullies: Basketball Team's Got Her Back

Desiree Andrews walks down a hallway at Lincoln
Middle  School in Kenosha, Wisconsin with
three basketball players who defended her
from bullies during a game at the school.  

Maybe I'm being Pollyannish, but it seems this has been a bad week or two for bullies.

What with Curt Schilling's outing the Twitter bullies tormenting his daughter, and the dance party response to the heavyset guy who was fat shamed online, and now a new case, things are pretty good.

You take what you can get.

The latest bit of good news came from a middle school basketball court in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Desiree Andrews, 14, is enjoying some positive viral Internet fame, and so is the Lincoln Middle School basketball team after what started as another ugly case of bullying turned into a demonstration on how to do the right thing.

I think the whole incident went viral because people are clammoring for news of people acting with a bit of dignity.

As the Kenosha News reported, Desiree,has Down syndrome and is a Lincoln Middle School cheerleader. She was bullied by some jerks in the home bleachers as she cheered on the school's basketball team recently.

During a time out, three members of the school's basketball team, Miles Rodriquez, Scooter Terrien and Chase Vasquez, stormed off the court and told the bullies to knock it off

Desiree's father, Cliff Andrews, said the basketball players intervened in nick of time.

'She saw that I was upset,' Andrews said. 'She threw her hands around me and made me look at her face and said, 'Papa it's OK. I still love them even if they don't like me.'"

It turns out, unsurprisingly, that lots of people in Kenosha and Lincoln Middle School like Desiree.

The school and its students now refer to the gymnaisum where the incident took place as "D's House," named for Desiree. 

Students and people throughout town also bought and wear lots of t-shirts with a "D's House" logo on them.

Still the Andrews family isn't letting this attention go to their heads.

In the Kenosha News article, Desiree's father said:

"'My concern is putting Desiree out there and people thinking we're doing it just so she can get all this attention,' Andrews said. 'It didn't start out that way. It started out when some fine young men stood u for her in a bullying situation. I didn't want to lose track of that. I don't want to take away rom what those boys did."

People with Down syndrome seem to be increasingly getting the positive attention they deserve. Actress Jamie Brewer, who has Down syndrome, recently modeled an original design by Carrie Hammer on the runway at New York Fashion Week to high praise.

I'm not quite sure why the scummier people among us bully people with Down syndrome anyway. Everyone I've ever met with Down syndrome have been nice, engaging people who you want to be friends with.

Or as Scooter Terrien, one of the basketball players said, 'It's not fair when other people get treated wrong because we're all the same."

Daughter Self-Concious Of Birthmarks, So Parents Get Matching Tattoos

Little Honey-Rae in the middle posing with
her parents' new leg tattoos that match
the little girl's birthmarks.  

Parents of a little girl in Britain worried the kid would feel "different" because of the large red birth marks on much of the right side of her body.

The parents came up with an ingenious plan to ease the kid's worries. Both parents got tattoos that match the color and shapes of the kid's birthmarks, says The Mirror Online in Britain.

The little girl, named Honey-Rae ,didn't deserve to be singled out and picked on for her birthmarks, so parents Adam and Tanya Phillips got the tattoos to match their daughter.

Tanya Phillips said her fears were confirmed when mother and daughter were in a store and saw an older couple staring at Honey-Rae and whispering. If adults could be that mean, even unintentionally, kids at school could, too.

That tattoos would be a statement.

According to The Mirror, Tanya Phillips said this:

"Like any mum, I didn't want her to be different. I wanted her to be exactly the same as every other healthy child. And as much as the birthmark isn't dangerous, I knew it could have a huge impact on the rest of her life.

'Although in our eyes she was perfect, I knew other people would cruelly point and stare at her.'

'Adam and I decided straight away that we wanted Honey-Rae to feel special, that her birthmark was something to be proud of and not embarrassed by.'"

So, Adam and Tanya went to to the tattoo parlor.

"Most people might think it's extreme but to us it was the natural thing to do to ensure our daughter never felt different or alone in the world," Tanya Phillips said.

After the tattoo swelling went down on her leg and the pattern became clear, Tanya Philips said she showed Honey-Rae. 'She gently touched it and smiled as she said 'Match' point to her own leg.'

'If I'd have needed an reassurance that I'd made the right decision that was it.

She now constantly touches mine and Adam's tattoos then her own birthmark and giggles - I couldn't be happier.'"

Parents getting tattoos inspired by their kids seems to be a bit of a thing now.   As I noted a couple months back, a man in Ontario has his young son draw doodles and pictures, then he goes to the tattoo parlor and has those kid drawings tattooed onto his body.

I guess if you needed any further confirmation that tattoos have gone mainstream, child-inspired ink is it.

I surely can't complain. A parent's love comes in many different styles, all of them awesome.

Including tattoos.

President Obama Reads His Hate Tweets

President Obama examines some of the mean Tweets
directed at him for Jimmy Kimmel Live.  

A regular feature on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show is celebrities reading hateful Tweets about themselves.  

I've featured some of those in this here blog thingy a couple times because they're funny.

Kimmel went straight to the top this time, though, when he got President Obama to read mean Tweets about him.

I have no idea how they picked which ones to read. Given how so many Republicans can't stand the president, it must have been hard to choose from the avalanche of hate Tweets.

You'll have to watch the video, below.

But it seems everything is Obama's fault. Like this Tweet: "A 30 rack of Coors Light is now $23 at the Sun Stop. Thanks, Obama."

Well, we'll see if Obama will now be blamed for crashing Twitter, if everybody watches this video of him reading the Mean Tweets:

Reporter Mugged While In Front Of TV Cameras

One of two muggers threatens South African television
reporter Vuyo Mvoko as he prepared for a live
shot in front of a Johannesburg hospital.  

I guess some criminals are so brazen they're willing to do tbeir deedsin front of television cameras.

A television reporter named Vuyo Mvoko was preparing to do a live report in front of a Johannesburg, South Africa hospital when two men approached.

Mvoko was about to do a report about Zambian President Edgar Lungu, who was at the hospital being treated for an illness.

According to Reuters, Mvoko was approached by two men, one armed with a gun.

Here's Reuters' description of the video, which you can see at the bottom of this post.

"The video....shows the men pacing around repoter Vuyo Mvoko while speaks to the camera outside the hospital, before a scuffle ensues, and then Mvoko is heard shouting, 'Hey, we're being mugged.'

'He was looking for the phone and when I wasn't giving him the phone, he calls the othe rone who has a gun to say 'shoot this dog' or something like that,' Mvoko, who works for hte national broadcaster, told radio station 702 on Wednesday.

'So I gave him the phone.'"

Reuters says South Africa, though it has Africa's most advanced economy, is among the most violent countries in the world outside a war zone. Violent crimes such as rape, robberies and murder are common.

Here's the video:

This Apartment Complex Must Be AWFUL If Owners Threaten To Charge Tenants $10,000 For Bad Reviews

Windemere Cay apartments in Florida tried
to obtain right to fine tenants $10,000 for negative reviews
and tried to claim copyrights for any photos
tenants took in or at the complex.  

Owners of an apartment complex in Florida are deservedly being ripped to shreds on social media, and now on main stream media for their threats to charge tenants big money if they criticize the place on line.  

The apartment complex owners also laughably tried to say they own the copywright on any photos tenants take in, or of the building.

The publication arstechnica.com broke the story, and it's one of the most hamhanded attempts I've see to control what people say on line.

Businesses or other entities who say they will fine people for posting negative reviews are on extremely shaky legal ground. An online retailer, KlearGear had to pay more than $300,000 to a couple that KlearGear tried to fine because the pair wrote a negative review.

Plus, if these outfits have to threaten people with hefty fines for criticizing their goods or services, the logical conclusion, fair or not, is that these goods or services are pretty lousy.

Still, we do see people trying this stunt anyway.

The apartment complex, called Windemere Cay says it abandoned the policy a year ago, but a tenant said he was handed a lease agreement with the conditions earlier this month.

Other conditions of the lease agreement are way, way over the top. The owners of the apartment building claimed the copywright to "any and all written or photographic works regarding the Owner, the Unit, the property or the apartments."

So if your kid has a birthday party in one of the apartments and you snap some pictures of the goings on, the apartment landlords own the photos.

Or so they think, anyway.

The apartment managers should hope they don't get sued over these attempts at controlling tenants' speech, law experts say.

According to Arstechnica:

"'Not only is such a contract unenforceable, but it could expose anyone promulgating it to legal repercussions,' Santa Clara University Law Professor Eric Goldman explained.

'It would be a terrible idea to enforce this in court. A judge is going to shred it,' Goldman said."

The fee Windemere Cay proposed for dissing the place on social media was pretty steep --- $10,000 to be paid within five business days.

Like that would ever happen.

Arstechica also says businesses that try to enforce these contracts might run afoul of federal law because of unfair and deceptive business practices.

What gets me is how the managers at Windemere Cay didn't think there would be a firestorm, even thought they seemed to understand a boneheaded move on social media could cost them.

In the lease agreement they tried to foist on tenants, the document said of negative social media posts "Such postings can cripple a business by creating a false impression in the eyes of consumers. The damages resulting from this false impression can include potentially millions of dollars in economic losses........"

They didn't think Windemere Cay would get a lot of negativity when this proposed lease agreement came to light? They're not that smart, are they?

Forbes magazine had four straightforward rules to avoid social media firestorms that are really just common sense.  One is to not go screaming to the attorneys and launch a lawsuit against critics. That just amplifies what a jerk you are.

Also, reach out directly to the people complaining to try to make things right. You might even turn that person  into your advocate if you treat them well. Even when you make a small mistake with a customer and they call you on it, fix the problem fast. And make it easy for customers to reach you if they have a question or concern.

Pretty basic, right?

With all the publicity, I don't imagine Windemere Cay will try to enforce the lease.  

Still, if I ever move to Florida, though, I can tell you I won't be looking for a place to live at Windemere Cay.

Jesus Loves You. And Everybody Else. Except Some Guy In Pennsylvania

Anybody with any kind of Christian religious influence associates Jesus with love.

However, a guy in Pennsylvania felt Jesus' wrath, not his kindness.  Or at least a weird object that sort of represents Jesus.

According to the Herald Standard newspaper of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, James Edward Wiles 45, of Point Marion, Pennsylvania is charged with simple assault and harassment after he bashed his 47-year-old brother over the head with a license plate that read "JESUS"

The brother who was hit got a nasty cut and had to be treated by paramedics who were called to the scene.

It's unclear what started the argument, and it's just as unclear as to why the weapon in the assault was a "Jesus" license plate.

Banks Gives Woman Fake Money And Screws Her Over; Town Gives Worker Jail Time For Working Too Early

According to the Albany, New York Times Union, a
Citizens Bank branch gave her $200 in counterfeit
money when she made a withdrawal. The bank told
Warrell it's her problem, and she has to absorb the loss.  

I know it doesn't happen to us all the time, but still, why do people who have just a tiny bit of power feel compelled to abuse it, and then make excuses for it.

Today, I have two examples. They consist of organizations that I suppose were following the rules ad the laws, but in reality applied those rules to avoid responsibility, and stick it to the little guy or gal.

Because the could.

BANK AS COUNTERFEIT CROOK

According to Chris Churchill in the Albany (N.Y) Times Union, Michele Warrell, a retired first grade teacher, went to a local Citizens Bank branch, withdrew $300 in three, crisp $100 bills to give to her grandson, as she does every year.

Everything seemed fine until Warrell's daugher tried to deposit the cash in the kid's savings account at a local credit union.

It turns out the bills were counterfeit. Fake. Citizens Bank apparently didn't check the bills carefully enough, and gave Warrell the bogus bills.

The decent thing to do would be for Citizens Bank to reimburse Warrell, who had been a customer of theirs for something like 50 years.

Nope, says Citizens, it was Warrell's tough luck. She's out $300.

As Churchill points out, most of the time, Citizen Bank's policy of not reimbursing customers who say they receive fake currency from them makes sense. Any Tom, Dick or Harry could claim the bank gave them the fake money when they made it themselves.

However, as Churchill again notes, Citizens Bank could have checked with the credit union, and the Secret Service, which had gotten involved in Warrell's case. They could have shown that Warrell doesn't have a counterfeit money machine in her sewing room.

As Churchill writes:

"Warren did nothing wrong, obviously, and it's hard to imagine how she could have guarded against the situation. When a bank hands you a $100 bill, you assume it's a genuine currency.

'I want people to know that they can give you counterfeit money, ad you have no recourse,' Warrell said. 

What we have here, then, is a scenario in which a company lost sight of good customer service practices and upset a longtime customer."

Warrell, understandably, is taking all her accounts away from Citizens Bank and putting them in another financial institution.

Let's hope Citizens Bank doesn't give her more fake currency, though.

JAILING THE NOISY TRASHMAN

Down in the Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs, a trash collector named Kevin McGill was hard at work at 5:30 a.m. one day, when he got court citation. He was violating a local ordinance that barred trash collection before 7 a.m.  

Trash collector Kevin McGill figured he'd be fined
by the tonw of Sandy Springs, Georgia for working
too early, violating a noise ordinance. Instead
they're throwing him in jail for 30 days.  

He figured he'd go to court to pay a fine. Next thing he knew, a Sandy Springs judge, prodded by city prosecutor Bill Riley, was being sentenced to 30 days in jail, to be served on weekends, writes Spencer Woodman in Vice. 

I guess the fine citizens of Sandy Springs are so special that when they are annoyed for a few minutes by some guy collecting their trash, the move is as much of an affront as an armed robbery or something

Says Vice:

"Sandy Springs spokesperson Sharon Kraun says the early morning garbage truck noise is not something the city will tolerate.

'Our residents, they like their quality of life,' Kraun told me. 'And that means not waking up at 5 a.m. to hear the trash man.'"

It seems a lot of people are angry with the town for doing this to a guy who was just trying to do his job, albeit a little too early in the morning. Maybe McGill is guilty of being a bit rude, but jail time?

Especially since McGill's attorney and others say he was railroaded.

Vice again:

"McGill's attorney Kimberly Bandoh says that when McGill arrived at the Sandy Springs court to plea two weeks ago, he had not prepared at all for the prospect of facing jail time. Before he could properly assess what was happening, she says, the judge handed down the month-long jail sentence. 

'He didn't realize until he finished everything that you're actually going to have to go to jail for going to work early,' Brandoh told me. 'You don't sentence a guy in jail for 30 days for picking up trash. It's egregious.'"

Yes, considering people who do real harm, like drive drunk, commit simple assault or any number of misdemeanors don't spend a minute in jail.

I can't help but think this is yet another matter of race and class. McGill is black. Most of the "powers that be" in town are white. Trash collectors like McGill aren't exactly rich. Sandy Springs is an affluent suburb.

I"m sorry, but I can't help thinking that some richer people just think you throw away a "minion" you don't like, kind of like throwing away a leaf blower when it starts to sputter.

As Woodman notes in the article, the topic of aggressive policing and prosecutions have gotten a lot of notice lately after the federal Department of Justice described how racially troubled Ferguson, Missouri targeted black residents and handed them harsh penalties for minor or manufactured violations. 

Riley, the prosecutor, denies all this:

"'We look for the minimum punishment what will deter the crime,' Riley said, when asked whether the Department of Justice's report on Ferguson would make him second-guess his own office's treatment of cases like McGill's. 'We tried forever not to put anyone in jail for these cases, but it wasn't working.'"

You didn't try hard enough, Riley. An early morning trash pickup isn't a Crime Against Humanity, like you seem to think it is.

And what about the trash hauler McGill works for? The article says he is employed by Waste Management Inc., which had $14 billion in revenue last year.

Riley says Waste Management told McGill he had to start working after 7 a.m. to comply with the Silver Springs ordinance. Maybe, maybe not.

On top of all this, McGill will spend six months on probation, during which he has to make payments to the suburb to "cover the costs", quote, unquote. Yep, let's take what little money he has and make the rich judge in Sandy Springs richer.

If McGill has to pay fines, I'm starting to wish he'd pay it in the fake money the older woman in New York got from the bank.