Hmm, just realized I got a comment on this review (on GoodReads) from a drooling idiot, so I decided to update this review.
Category: Non-Fiction
I have decided that I simply must write something about the book (well, one of many) I am currently reading. It is called Dear Bully and it’s a collection of essays written by various young adult authors. The forward was written by Ellen Hopkins and, predictably, she blames this culture of bullying on conservative pundits (but never mentions them by name nor does she even mention the word “conservative”) and people concerned about Muslim terrorism.
I was not surprised. As I and any other informed conservative knows, 98% of the people working in the entertainment industry are liberals.
That being said, I am not happy about this. This collection of essays is pure propaganda aimed at demonizing conservatives by blaming them for something that’s been happening since the beginning of time. Not everybody can or will get along with one another. That’s on a variety of levels – kids fighting over toys, parents disagreeing on how to discipline their kids, people disliking a coworker all the way up to war. I don’t approve of bullying but I am not about to act as if this is a new phenomenon simply because a handful of allegedly gay teenagers killed themselves this year.
I was bullied too. Bullied for being fat and introverted. I admit that I could have handled it better. I was an asshole back in high school because I was bullied. I tried to fight back. Wish I had tried harder. Oh well. Anyway, I think these kids should be allowed to fight back. Sadly, they get into trouble if they do.
Oh, and what about bullying on the part of prominent liberals? There’s the nasty character assasination of beauty pageant contestant Carrie Prejean over her answer to a question regarding “gay marriage” and there’s the media’s vicious attacks on the entire Palin family, including little Trig, who has Down’s Syndrome. Then there’s the juvenile Google bombing of Rick Santorum thanks to that raging hypocrite Dan Savage (who also stated that he wanted to rape Santorum…and liberals are supposed to be the smart, enlightened, compassionate ones…nothing is more compassionate than anal rape, amirite?) and now we have the “Uncle Tom” slurs directed towards Herman Cain (I am reading his latest too). None of these people deserved the vitriol thrown their way, not even if they’re in “positions of power”, which is how one random liberal defended the Google bombing of Santorum. As far as I’m concerned, it’s still bullying. It also sets a bad example – that it’s okay to act this way towards someone you disagree with. Debate and discussion is fine, but insults and threats are not.
Plus, you want to talk about incendiary pundits? Let’s talk about the vicious things said by Mike Malloy, Montel Williams and Randi Rhodes. I might elaborate on these miscreants later, but check them out at the Media Research Center if you want to know more.
There’s a lot more I can say, but it’s late. I am tired and I have work to do tomorrow. If there are any misspellings it’s due to the fact that I am typing this on my iPad’s on-screen keyboard.
Categories
Playground by Jennifer Saginor
For some odd reason, I felt compelled to read this one. I guess it has something to do with another Playboy Mansions expose I found (Jill Ann Spaulding’s very poorly written Hefnerland), and I figured “well, this one has a much better cover so perhaps it’s better written than the other one I read” and I was mostly right. It was better written but not by much.
I finished this in early August. I’ve been thinking about it (in between personal drama) and I came to the conclusion that I didn’t really like it that much. The author, Jennifer Saginor, is not very likeable. She’s the eldest daughter of Hugh Hefner’s personal physician. She spent her childhood (spanning the 1970s and 1980s) at the Playboy mansion and her father’s mansion. The first half is all about her and her sister Savannah hanging out at the Playboy mansion, putting on fashion shows with various half-naked Playmates and walking in on celebrities having sex with other Playmates. The second half is about her teen years spent with her drug-addicted father and being pissed off at her mother. As I said, she did not come across as likeable, and I was very disappointed at the end, where she seems to be all “okay, life at the Playboy mansion wasn’t so bad after all”. This book seems to be far more of an judgment on her father’s drug use and inability to be a decent father than an judgment about anything that went on at the Playboy mansion (which, of course, is a valid judgment to make but this book is called Playground and is about life as a child at the Playboy mansion).
There were a couple moments I felt sympathy for her – such as the times she had to hide under her bed because her father and his junkie girlfriend were being extremely paranoid over the junkie’s ex-boyfriend – who was a drug lord – and his cronies. However, most of the time I kept thinking “god, what a miserable bitch” because she kept bitching and moaning about her awful life, yet never actually did anything to improve her life – especially considering the fact that she paid her tutors to do all her homework for her, even when she was in college. That actually irritated the crap out of me – so many people can’t even get to college or a good high school and here she is, skipping class and paying other people to do her work for her. But I’m supposed to feel sorry for her because her mother’s sooooo authoritarian and her father’s a total junkie/male chauvinist/desperate Hugh Hefner wannabe.
It’s a dishy and quick read, and definitely not for kids, but the ending has no redeeming value whatsoever, especially for an uptight prude like me.
I could also say something about her bisexuality and why I think she ended up a bisexual, but I won’t, because then I’ll get holy hell rained down upon my head by all the liberals who might be reading this.
Let’s not get into how I got this book. Last year, I put a copy on my iPad, and in the middle of reading it I wrote the first draft of this review. I’ve already read two blistering reviews of this hot mess and I have to say that both reviewers are right on the money (the first is at the New Ledger and the other is at News Real).
As one reviewer mentioned, the grammar and punctuation is awful. She does indeed use commas way too much and does not use other forms of punctuation where she should (such as semi colons, colons, and dashes) and on a couple of occasions she used a dash where it was not needed.
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