Giada

Giada De Laurentiis is the host of a cooking show on the Food Network. She reminds me of Natalie Portman if Natalie Portman looked more like a pornstar. Giada is one of many underrated female TV personalities who deserve more attention. Also on this list include: Erin Burnett, Amanda Drury, Jeannie Mai, Reshma Shetty (okay, she's an actress but very underrated), Jenn Brown, and Robin Meade.

Now you can ask and they can tell

This morning, the U.S. Senate repealed the controversial military policy of "Don't ask, don't tell." The vote basically split on party lines (65-31) with eight Republicans joining fifty-five Democrats and two Independents to overturn the ban on openly gay citizens serving in the military.

Looking at this from a civil rights perspective, today's decision is a step in the right direction for anyone who advocates for equal rights in this country. While I don't believe in individuals getting special privileges just because they belong to a certain identity group, I highly support rectifying the existing inequalities in this society so we as Americans can truly say we live in the greatest country in the world (which we do).

This starts with allowing gays to openly serve in the military. No more old wives tales of gays being disruptive to "morale, good order and discipline." Clearly, if there's sexual assault going on in the military, its more likely to be between heterosexual male members and their female peers. To the panic-stricken Americans who think this decision will affect the military's competitive advantage, please get the images out of your head that Carson from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is going to be enlisting anytime soon. If anything, this decision benefits the already dedicated (gay) soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan who have never had the peace of mind to feel fully comfortable with themselves in the very high pressure environments they currently serve. To that, sixty-five senators today made the right decision.

For those senators who did not see eye-to-eye with the movement to repeal (and by extension, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Michael Mullen who under oath voiced their support for the repeal) I at least give them their right to disagree. While there are two sides to every argument, the way ban supporters went about making their case did little more than injure the United States' reputation as a champion of equal rights and toleration. The dialogue that emerged from this debate was at times every much as backwards as the policy itself (go figure). If the ban supporters had legitimate arguments to back up their claims I would cut them a bit of slack. However, this was a sad display by the Republican party, who finally had the opportunity to put some of their antiquated social politics to rest. To Scott Brown, Richard Burr, Susan Collins, John Ensign, Mark Kirk, Lisa Murkowski, Olympia Snowe and George Voinovich, kudos for being on the "right" side of the argument this time. To the thirty-one Republicans who voted no, including a man I admire, John McCain, please come up with a better argument next time so you won't make yourselves look so bitter and intolerant.

It's bad enough we have snotty liberals like Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow telling us how they're right all the time. By voting no on the don't ask, don't tell repeal, Republicans just made the far left look a bit less conceited and much more mainstream. It just seems that the GOP can't find the center when it comes to social issues.

Money doesn't buy you happiness revisited

Maybe a more appropriate title for this blogpost might be "be careful what you wish for."

This morning, Mark Madoff, son of infamous white collar criminal Bernie Madoff, was found dead in his apartment. Mark, 46, committed suicide in his home on Saturday, shortly after sending his wife an email asking her to check on their 2-year old child. The child, who was in the home at the time of the incident, was found unharmed according to investigators.

Mark Madoff was a highroller who benefitted immensely from the money his father stole from unsuspecting investors. Although Mark worked closely with his father and brother Andrew, at the moment there are no legal charges filed against the now-deceased 46-year old father of two.

The news this morning only fuels the intrigue surrounding this real-life drama. Native New Yorkers have seen the story all over the city for the past several months. There seems to be a certain mystique to the rise-and-fall of Madoff. Last week, a personal auction, selling several of Madoff's personal belongings was held, generating quite a bit of interest. Obviously, there seems to be an added element of interest in this story, which has been not only the talk at local watercoolers, but private dinner tables as well.

Outside of New York, the Madoff saga has become the ultimate symbol for Wall Street greed and a microcosm for why the financial system needs to be more tightly regulated. Yes, it's easy to see why this might be the case, but for a lot of people, the story is becoming part of an anti-business crusade that is losing a coherent focus. Madoffs bad, middle class good, but unfortunately it's more complicated than that.

With today's report of Mark Madoff's death, the obvious question of whether his father, who is currently incarcerated for 150 years, can attend his son's memorial service comes to light. Shouldn't a man, despite his wrongdoings be able to bury his son in the ground? There has been precedent for this kind of arrangement as well. So let Bernie Madoff make his peace with his son, right?

Well, the way I look at it, Bernie Madoff was directly responsible for his son's death. Just as he was directly responsible for his son's wealthy upbringing and lifestyle, Bernie Madoff created the problems that would plague his son and lead to his death. Death threats, decaying health, and the dark thoughts that must follow any man who thinks millions of people hate his guts are the reason why two children are now fatherless this morning. The man responsible? Well, he can add eternal guilt to the 150 years he will be spending away from society.

To me, this is not a story that tells us that money doesn't buy happiness. Obviously, money provided the Madoff's with a lifestyle that made them very, very happy. But was their happiness just an illusion? To that, I say most likely not. The only point where the Madoff's fairy tale lifestyle become an all-out nightmare was when the Ponzi scheme went broke and investors began catching onto Bernie Madoff's illegal operation.

What I will say is, above all else, this story warns us to be careful what we wish for. Even if we want oodles and oodles of money, we better visit a genie that at least took business ethics at a graduate school level. If not, bad things are not out of the question. For the Madoffs, the bad things in life have yet to cease. From reading the demise of families in certain Shakespeare tales, I would say there could be some more misery yet in store.