Have you seen it yet? I’m talking about the video from that Baltimore McDonalds that shows two black women, one of them a 14-year-old girl, beating the snot (Southern expression) out of a young white woman, kicking and punching the 22-year-old victim in the head.

An employee and patron of Rosedale restaurant try to stop it, while other jackwagons in Mickey D’s can be heard laughing, and poor excuses for men can be seen standing by, like they’re watching a professional wrestling match.

At the end of the beat-down, one of the beaters lands a punishing blow to the beatee’s head, and she appears to have a seizure. You then hear a male (I’m not going to call this individual a MAN) voice telling the women to run because police are coming.

The video, which runs 3 minutes, was first posted on YouTube, then removed by administrators who said it violated the site’s policies. Then it was seen on other sites and finally showed up on drudgereport.com, which made it the headline story for most of the day.   Here it is.

By nightfall, the video had received more than 500,000 views on one site alone.

According to county police, the savage attack happened on April 18 in the 6300 block of Kenwood Ave. The reported that the 14-year-old girl has been charged as a juvenile, while charges were pending against an 18-year-old woman.

Per Equality Maryland, the victim is a transgender woman. They have called on state Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler to step in and investigate the case as a hate crime.  Police and prosecutors are unsure about whether the victim is a transgender woman or not.

The victim wound up with cuts to her mouth and face. A police report said she had been taken to Franklin Square Hospital Center in fair condition. Police reported Friday that they had no update on her status.

Has America become a just another barbaric country? Have we, as a nation, achieved the goal, so often stated by President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), and replaced the Reaganesque image of A Shining City on a Hill with that of a Third World Barrio?

If we have, our celebrities have led the way.

For example, former Disney Darling Lindsay Lohan continued her downward spiral into the fiery abyss yesterday as Judge Stephanie Sautner sentenced her to 120 days in jail for violating her probation.

The former child star has also been ordered to complete 480 hours of community service. 360 of those hours must be performed at the Downtown Women’s Center, so the pampered celebrity can experience the plight of women in need. The remaining 120 hours will be served at the L.A. County morgue, so that she might have a clue as to where she is headed.

The ig’nant (another Southern expression) young woman stole a $2,500 necklace. The bimbo, err, young lady, err, Lohan waited several weeks, and then returned the necklace, only after finding out the police were about to raid her house. Judge Sautner, while handing down her ruling, explained that Lohan should have called the store and notified the owners about the necklace sooner.

Sautner was very intrigued by the surveillance video, watching it for the first time in court yesterday. The Judge agreed with Deputy District Attorney Danette Meyers, who presented the argument that Lindsay used her friend Patrick as a decoy to distract the clerk.

Speaking of celebrities presently in a rapid descent into the fiery abyss…

D.C. police are investigating why actor Charlie Sheen received a police escort from an area airport to his show in downtown Washington this week.

Police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump said late Thursday that the police department’s internal affairs unit is investigating the incident.

On Tuesday, D.C. police used lights and sirens as they escorted the former “Two and a Half Men” star from Dulles International Airport to his stage show, “Violent Torpedo of Truth: Defeat Is Not an Option.” At the time, Sheen was running nearly an hour late for the show.

Sheen tweeted about the ride and included a picture of a speedometer reaching about 80 mph.

Councilman Phil Mendleson says he met with D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier on Thursday. He says Lanier did not authorize the escort.

Are we,  as Americans, the enablers of our own destruction?  The family dinner table is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.  Wholesome Family Sitcoms seemed to have vanished after The Cosby Show, Family Ties, and Home Improvement.

Some people believe that Obama was right, when he said:

I don’t.  I stand with  John Adams, our 2nd United States President (1735-1826), who served from 1797-1801, and proclaimed that:

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

I also, this Easter Weekend, stand with the 75% of Americans, who proclaim their faith in God, like this great bunch, appearing in this wildly popular viral video from 2nd Baptist Church. 

May God bless America…again.

What is it about a person that makes him/her popular?  Is it money?  No, that comes and goes.  Is is talent?  Well, that may be a part of it.  But, in the Mid-South alone, there are a lot of extremely talented unknowns.  Last night, as I was tossing and turning, I asked myself, what was it about Elvis Presley, John “Bad Dog McCormack”, and Larry Finch that made them so beloved by their hometown of Memphis, Tennessee and beyond?

As always, now that I’m older and, hopefully wiser, I returned to the place where I know that I can find the answer:

1 Corinthians 13:

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Have you ever been around someone who lights up a room the moment they enter?  My Daddy (Southern colloquialism for male parental unit) was like that.  So were these extraordinary men.

I had the privilege of attending one of Elvis’ Concerts , seated in the top row of the Mid-South Coliseum with my late step-sister in the early 70s.  Elvis was wearing one of his blue jumpsuits.  Even from the 35th row, I was touched by the genuine love that he had for his fans and the ease by which he communicated with them.  At one point in the concert, Elvis said:

Since I’m home, and y’all are all home folk, I’m gonna try a new song out on ya.

He proceeded to grab some sheet music and sang from it, without missing a beat.  Here’s an example of Elvis’ talent:

I had the privilege of talking to Bad Dog McCormack in the late 80s, while I was working at Memphis Cablevision.  He, Tim Spencer, and Bev Hart were there, taping commercials for a promotion that their radio station, Rock 103, was running with Coca-Cola.  The spots were called Coke Breaks.  He was such a naturally nice guy.  After that, I listened to the Wake-up Crew every morning, until Clear Channel broke them up when they bought the station.  After that, I listed to Bad Dog until he passed away from leukemia last month.  Here is a message that he recorded right before he worked his last Ronald McDonald House Radiothon for the kids of St. Jude Hospital.  He found out that he was out of remission, right before the Radiothon, but he refused to miss it, telling everyone that he had to do it for the kids.

And, of course, there was Larry Finch, who bridged a racially divided city like no one else has since.  Here are highlights from the Tiger’s 1973 loss in the NCAA Basketball Championship to UCLA.

Memphis was once known as The City of Good Abode.  It can be again. However, it will take singular men like these.  And love.

Everyone who knows me will tell you that I bleed University of Memphis Tiger Blue.  There’s a reason for that.

The year is 1972.  A skinny, undersized asthmatic kid, new to Wooddale Junior High, is about to be annihilated in a game called Bombardment, a rather sadistic game thought up by the 9th grade P.E. coach for his personal amusement.  Resembling the movie “Dodgeball” on steroids,  two teams (usually the delinquents on one side and their victims on the other), would line up against both sides of the bleachers waiting for the coach’s whistle.  Then the massacre would ensue.

Sure that I was about to breathe my last, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and a kind voice telling me to stand beside him.  I looked up to see the smiling face of Larry Finch, Senior shooting guard on the Memphis State University Tigers Basketball Team.  He had just taken an Internship at my school!

Of course, that was the year that they lost the NCAA Championship to Bill Walton and the UCLA Bruins.  I don’t think that anyone in the nation hollered at their television set louder that night than I did.

Over the semester, we became friends.  I became a Tiger fan for life, eventually receiving my degree there  in 1980 in Radio, TV, and Film.  While there, I had the privilege of calling radio play-by-play for the Women’s Basketball and Men’s Baseball teams.

Larry is also the reason that I went on to play and coach basketball, a 4th grade team and a church team, respectively.  My coaching record is 25 – 4.

But, I digress…

Anyway, I’m writing this story because my friend, the Memphis Legend, Coach Larry O. Finch, has passed away at the age of 60.

From the Commercial Appeal:

Finch, the University of Memphis’ winningest basketball coach with 220 victories, had been in poor health since suffering the first of multiple strokes in 2001. He was 60. He had also had a heart attack.

Finch is perhaps the most beloved figure in the history of Memphis’ basketball program, leading the 1973 team to the national championship game and coaching the Tigers from 1986 to 1997.

Larry was born in the Orange Mound section of Memphis and went on to play for Melrose High School.  He and his fellow high school teammate, 6’9″  “Big Cat” Ronnie  Robinson, decided to play for Coach Gene Bartow at Memphis State University.

This was during the height of racial unrest in Memphis.  Larry had been advised not to go to Memphis State, but he loved his hometown and his hometown university.  He and Ronnie turned out to be 2 of the finest bridge builders Memphis has ever seen.  He graduated as the all-time leading scorer in school history and is presently still in second place on that list.

Larry went on to play professionally with the Memphis TAMs, the Memphis Sounds, the Baltimore Hustlers, and the Baltimore Claws.

Per biographicon.com:

In the 1980s, Finch was an assistant coach for Dana Kirk at Memphis State. Kirk was forced to leave Memphis State after violating NCAA regulations, and Finch was made head coach in 1986 in order to restore order to the program. Finch was head coach from 1986 until 1997.

Finch’s tenure at Memphis State/University of Memphis was successful. He posted 10 out of 11 winning seasons, and seven 20+ win seasons. He recruited and developed such players as Elliot Perry, Penny Hardaway, and Lorenzen Wright. His 1991-92 team led by Hardaway and David Vaughn went to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament.

As a player, Finch was known for his shooting prowess, and his skills remained intact throughout his coaching days; he would routinely win games of H-O-R-S-E against his players (including the great Keith Lee, among others) and against assistant coaches in long distance shooting contests after road game practices.

In the company of such renowned coaches as Gene Bartow and John Calipari, Larry Finch remains in second-place for all-time wins in University of Memphis history (behind only Calipari).

In 2002, Larry suffered a stroke, which left him paralyzed and affected his speech.  Later that year, at halftime of the Memphis Grizzlies’ annual Martin Luther King Day game, NBA Legend Bill Russell grabbed the handles of Larry Finch’s wheelchair and wheeled him across a spotlight-lit basketball court.

The entire arena cheered and cried at the same time.

And now, this Memphis Legend is gone.

You’re probably thinking to yourself, how can you consider yourself a friend of Larry Finch?  You only knew him for a short time.

In the early 80s, while Larry was an Assistant Coach under Dana Kirk, I was working at Memphis Cablevision.  I was passing through a front office packed with customers, there to pay their bill.  All of the sudden, I heard a familiar voice shouting my last name at the top of his lungs.  It was Coach Finch!

He grinned that big ol’ grin at me, and hugged me until I thought my ribs would bust.  Then he asked me how I was doing, eager to hear about my life, and we talked as if there was no one else in that lobby.

And now, almost 30 years later, I’m sitting here, trying to write this post with tears in my eyes.

That’s how I know.

If, when we’re standing before God, the amount of good we do with our lives, and the amount of joy and happiness that we are able to bring to this world of pain is brought up, then, Thursday afternoon, the Pearly Gates shook with the infectious laughter of one giant of a man.

John “Bad Dog” McCormack lost his long battle with AML late Thursday Afternoon at Methodist University Hospital in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.  Bad Dog was an on-air personality for 22 years at WEGR Rock 103, a Classic Rock Station.

Bad Dog began as a part of the Wake-up Crew with Tim Spencer and Bev Hart.  Dog was basically a 14-year-old kid in a man’s body.  He was a natural-born prankster, and became known for his creation of “The Twilight Phone”, an anonymous prank call he would make to unsuspecting citizens. 

In one memorable call, he impersonated an Apartment Manager, calling a guy who dumped his fiance’s dead pet Piranhas into the apartment lake, claiming that they came back to life and the poor sap had to reimburse the apartment $2,8000 for draining and restocking the lake.  And then, there was Bad Dog”s possibly most famous call, where he talked to an older gentleman named Mr. Lannum, impersonating a collector attempting to collect on a  past-due cable bill.  Mr. Lannum went ballistic, cussing a blue streak that is still talked of in hushed tones to this day, 20 tears later:

When he finally clued the individuals in to whom they had been talking to, each one of them eventually forgave him, because, after all, it was Bad Dog.

Another routine that Bad Dog came up with, was remarkable.  In a city known for racial polarization, he came up with the idea of numbering their show’s Black listeners, thinking that actual black listeners would be few and far between.  Well, Bad Dog received a big surprise.

The routine became very popular among Memphis’  Black Community, as people called in to talk to Bad Dog.  He would make up a hilarious “oath” for the listener to say, and from then on, whenever this individual would call in to talk about the subject of the day, they would self-identify as Black Listener Number So-and-So.  Everyone loved Bad Dog.

However, the most incredible thing that this man accomplished during his time with us started when he, Spencer, and Hart decided to begin a yearly Radiothon in support of St. Jude Hospital’s Ronald McDonald House.

Over the last 20 years, Bad Dog and his co-workers have raised over $7 million dollars to help build and maintain the refuge for cancer-stricken kids and their families, so they could have some semblance of normal life while they undergo treatment at St. Jude. 

Bad Dog McCormack was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia in late October 2009.  He was still working mornings, though his new partner was Ric Chetter.  Clear Channel Communications, in their infinite wisdom, had split up the popular Wake Up Crew in November of 2006, firing Newsperson Bev Hart, and, eventually moving Rock 103 Program Director Tim Spencer to Mid-days.

Bad Dog continued to work as he underwent treatment, as he felt that this was the best medicine for him and what God had called him to do.  His courage in the face of his own mortality was an inspiration to the entire Mid-South, as his barrel-house laugh continued to reverberate through the car speakers of the Mid-South every morning.  He also continued to work the annual Rock103 Radiothon, letting nothing stand in his way of helping the kids.

Bad Dog underwent a bone marrow transplant in November of 2010.  He seemed to be doing better, and, in December, an online poll of Memphians voted him The Most Noteworthy Memphian of the Year.

On February 10-11th, Bad Dog was at the mic, around the clock, for the 20th Annual Rock103 Radiothon.  When it was over, he announced that more Leukemia had been found.  He remained upbeat, and said that this was just par for the course.

Meanwhile, Clear Channel Communications, again in its infinite wisdom, fired Ric Chetter, and moved Bad Dog and Tim Spencer to afternoons, while bringing in a morning show named Free Beer and Hot Wings, 5 guys syndicated out of the Great White North, whose humor about hockey games is about as relevant to the Mid-South as hunting moose.

Bad Dog took this change in his usual good-natured stride, happy to be back with his old partner-in-crime, Tim.

Then, last Thursday, Bad Dog took a turn for the worse.  He was rushed to Methodist University Hospital in Downtown Memphis, where he passed away from an aneurysm, brought about by his Leukemia.

In an interview with the Commercial Appeal, Bad Dog made this comment about his battle against Leukemia and his love for the kids at St. Jude:

When I see what they are going through, I have no reason to complain. They are so young and have so much pain. I’ve lived a blessed life. If I died tomorrow, I’d go with a smile on my face.

He also, in his usual big-hearted, gentle way, left a statement to be released after his death:

I have gone to be with God and he is holding me tightly and I am surrounded by many of the Ronald McDonald’s House kids. Do not say you have lost a friend… One is only lost when you don’t know where they are… you know where I am. I thank each and every one of you for your support and prayers. I love all of you and that will never go away. When you are having a bad day… think of my laugh or a Twilight phone or the time we met. None of us is guaranteed tomorrow, make every day great, be the spiritual leader of your family. May peace be with you. Your friend, Bad Dog.

John”Bad Dog” McCormack, 55,  leaves behind his two sons, Buck and Tucker, a huge family, and thousands of fans.

As one of those fans, please allow me to say thank you, Bad Dog, for brightening up a lot of dreary mornings. 

A sign currently on display outside  a local jewelry store says it all:

BAD DOG MADE MEMPHIS A BETTER PLACE.

Last Monday night on MTV, a new dramatic series premiered entitled Skins.  No, it isn’t about a touch football game.  But, they are trying to move society’s cultural goalposts.

Skins tells the story of a bunch of 15-year-old-or-so teenagers doing drugs, having sex, doing more drugs, sharing their teenage angst with each other, and basically doing every hedonistic thing that the scriptwriters could think of in order to boost this poor-excuse-for- a-television program’s ratings, such as showing the rear view of a 15-year-old boy, running naked down the street, freaking out over the effects of the Viagra that he’s taken.

Pitiful.

By the way, is it just me or does that picture remind you of a scene from the Spencer Tracy movie, Dante’s Inferno?  But I digress…

Per hollywoodreporter.com:

Executives at Viacom, MTV’s parent company have already reportedly told producers to tone down the show. Meanwhile, the Parents Television Council said this week that it’s urging the Department of Justice and U.S. Senate and House Judiciary Committees to open an investigation.

The group sent a statement to those organizations, saying:

In addition to the sexual content on the show involving cast members as young as 15, PTC counted 42 depictions and references to drugs and alcohol in the premiere episode.

It is clear that Viacom has knowingly produced material that may well be in violation of [several anti-child pornography laws],” added the PTC, which earlier called the show “the most dangerous program ever for children.

MTV responded:

Skins is a show that addresses real-world issues confronting teens in a frank way. We review all of our shows and work with all of our producers on an ongoing basis to ensure our shows comply with laws and community standards. We are confident that the episodes of ‘Skins’ will not only comply with all applicable legal requirements, but also with our responsibilities to our viewers.

Uh-huh.  Yeah, right.  And Snookie will win an Oscar someday.

The PTC also called for the boycotting of Taco Bell for advertising on the program.

Per Fox News, Taco Bell has since pulled their advertising from the program.

So has General Motors, after airing commercials for the Chevy Volt during the show’s premiere on Monday night.

According to one of the teen actors on the series, Sofia Black-D’elia, the content of the show is no big deal:

It’s pushing the boundaries for teen drama because I think Skins goes where other shows are afraid to.

The actress, who plays a teen lesbian on the program, made her remarks on the HDNet show Naughty But Nice With Rob earlier this week. 

This young lady also says: 

It’s what teens are doing. It’s the way teenagers believe, I think, especially you know in certain situations when you come from home lives where your parents don’t really support you or really listen to you. That’s what most of these kids are going through. And so, um, the drugs and the sex, they’re vices, and that’s what teenagers have.

Not the majority of them, sweetie-pie, even if the Progressives who run MTV desperately want them to be. 

Skins debuted Monday night with 3.3 million viewers. It is now MTV’s highest-rated new scripted series in the network’s key 12-34 demo – a 3.4 – which translates to roughly 2.7 million.

This fact is, it’s MTV’s only scripted series.  People slow down to look at a car wreck, too.

Like the new SyFy series, Being Human, this is not even a original series, but is an Americanized version of a program shown on the BBC.

Explains why Sharia Law is on the verge of taking over England, doesn’t it?

Time for another “It seems like it was just yesterday” moment:

The year was 1981.  I was just out of college, working in the Local Programming Department of my city’s Cablevision franchise.  One of the guys brought in a 3/4″ U-matic video tape of a new channel that was premiering called Music Television.  The tape had 3 videos on it:  Phil Collins’ In the Air Tonight, a song by .38 Special, and a concept video by a group called Split Enz, One Step Ahead.

Later that year, MTV premiered with the aptly-titled song Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles. 

As with all great ideas, the Progressives eventually changed MTV into something that it was never meant to be.  They used MTV to attempt to change America’s cultural mores, first through music videos and genres, such as Heavy Metal and Rap, and later through racy reality series and live satellite-delivered programs from Spring Break in Florida.  The reality series became national water cooler topics,  like the one where they put a bunch of amoral losers in a house together, competing to be top dog.

As I mentioned before, it’s the train wreck effect, otherwise known as the “did-you-see-what happened-on-that-show-last-night-syndrome”.

With Skins, MTV and Viacom are once again attempting to move American Society’s Cultural Goalposts.  Only this time, it seems that they pushed the envelope too far, and Americans are pushing back.