Asia Leeshawn Ferguson – Darwin Award Candidate

I feel for this guy’s family, but I will not refrain from calling him an idiot. In this Atlanta Journal-Constitution article by Rhonda Cook and Marcus Garner, we read how he died.

The popular "Batman the Ride" rollercoaster at Six Flags Over Georgia remained closed Sunday while authorities continued investigating the death of a teenager who jumped over two fences and was struck by the ride.

I bet the family still gets a settlement or at least tries to.

The 17-year-old South Carolina teen who died was identified as Asia Leeshawn Ferguson, of Springfield, S.C.

Didn’t even make it to 18.

Signs about 40 to 50 feet apart on the outer fence warn that it is a "restricted area" for "authorized personnel only."

According to park officials, a sign on a locked gate at the chain link fence also reads "Danger zone" and "Do not enter."

Ferguson was decapitated when the ride struck him, police said.

Pleasant, huh?

Pierce said there were many witnesses, and the county's 911 center was almost immediately flooded with calls from people reporting what they had seen.

Somebody’s going to need counseling.

Being a former theme park employee, I know that the parks go to extremes to protect people. But there’s always going to be someone who is going to kill themselves through their own stupidity. Deaths involving rides are rare enough that they always make the national news, and most of those deaths are caused by customer mistakes, not operator error, mechanical failure, or design flaw. You are probably safer in the theme park than you are getting there. I firmly believe in “rider responsibility” as long as they have access to information about the ride and what kind of stresses it puts on the body.

This guy wasn’t even on the ride, though. He was trespassing. There was no excuse to go where he did, except to save someone else’s life.

Another example of how not following the rules can be deadly.

Is Your Ex a Jerk? You Picked Him.

I'm on MySpace. No, I'm not trying to pick up on 13-year-old girls, or even trying to get on TV by picking up on a decoy who is working with Chris Hanson of Dateline NBC. I find MySpace helpful because it gathers together many different elements of online communication into one place. I can share pictures and communicated with friends and family all over the world. I clearly state in my profile that I'm happily married and not looking for romatic or sexual attention outside of my marriage.

Anyway, one of my "friends" is a woman with whom I went to high school, for three years at least. She's divorced and raising two boys. Not long ago, she decided to move herself and her boys into her boyfriend's place.

Bad move, of course. But do you think she would listen to reason? Of course now.

I've noticed how much she badmouths her ex. Just recently her update was "[name redacted] IS AT HOME TRYING TO MEND MY KIDS BROKEN HEART FROM THERE FATHER WHO IS AN A-HOLE"

Notice the use of "THERE" instead of "THEIR", and the singular "HEART". But that's not really important.

What's important is... she picked this "A-HOLE". He turned her on enough that she married him and let him impregnate her... twice. Did he magically turn into a jerk after the second kid? My guess is no. He was a jerk all along, and that's what turned her on about him. Until she finally realized that jerks don't make good husbands or fathers.

So her boys are left without their father, and a mother who dates and posts inappropriate stuff online. And now they are living with a man who is not their father and is not married to their mother.

Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you I haven't made some major mistakes in my life. Oh, I've blown it big time over and over again. There's no doubt about it - I need a Saviour, and I'm so thankful I know Him. But just because I'm not perfect doesn't mean I'm not going write about mistakes other people are making, too. I pray that I will stay focused on Him, and treat my wife in a way that represents His love, so that our marriage will stay strong and happy, and we never subject our children to the pain of divorce.

Finally... ladies... remember.... that jerk turned you on enough that you had sex with him. In some cases, the sex was so good that you married him.

This is one reason why some men consciously act like jerks. It gets the results for which they are looking.

Santa Ana I-5 Freeway Northbound This AM

I'm sorry, but it should NOT take three hours during the morning commute crawl to remove a car that "went over the side" of the freeway, especially in a location where that means the car was two feet off of the freeway.

Somebody was getting paid by the minute, methinks.

Man Bites Dog! (Woman to Pay Penalty For Marrying)

Poor Anne Heche.

Actually, I guess I could say "poor Ellen DeGeneres" and "poor Coleman Laffoon", for the fact that both of them lived with Heche, who has demonstrated mental instability. That can't be fun. DeGeneres moved on to a much hotter woman. Laffoon, having married Heche, is getting some very nice parting gifts now that there is a divorce settlement.

Anne Heche's five-year marriage to Coleman Laffoon is officially over, but not without a pinch to her pocketbook.

A judge ruled that Heche must pay $275,000 to her ex-husband, along with monthly child-support payments of $3,700 for the care of their 6-year-old son, Homer, according to court documents released Friday.

Only $275,000 for five years of marriage? Something tells me that if the sexes were reversed, that would be a much higher number. Perhaps there was some sort of agreement that the judge interpreted? On the other hand, what's with the $3,700 per month in child support? It doesn't take that much money to raise a child. Something tells me this will benefit Laffoon more than the child. Can't he support himself? Can't most women in divorce cases support themselves?

Heche will also have to pay 75 percent of Homer's private-school tuition. The couple agreed to split the cost of any "agreed upon extracurricular activities" for their son.

I can picture Laffoon saying "Hey, the kid needs a trip to Europe" and Heche disagreeing that he even needs go to the movies. So she's covering most of the tuition, and still has to pay all of that money in "child support".

Heche, 39, and Laffoon, 34, were married Sept. 1, 2001. He filed for divorce on Feb. 2, citing irreconcilable differences.

If this was in California, I don't think there is much you can cite other than "irreconcilable differences". But my interpretation of that is "My wife is nuts. Yes, I knew that before marrying her, but I finally realized I can live comfortably on her money without putting up with her!"

Heche starred in TV's "Men in Trees." She and Laffoon, a cameraman, met while working on a documentary about Ellen DeGeneres — with whom Heche was
romantically linked for three years.

It is very telling that the father is getting custody.

To me, this is another example of showing that the alimony and child support realities in our system are unfair. It just so happens that in this case, the male is benefitting financially at the expense of the female - which is rare.

In other Hollywood news, Vin Diesel and model Paloma Jimenez just had a child out of wedlock, making them illegitimate parents and setting a horrible example. At least they didn't have it sucked into a sink.