Jewelz & Foolz 2014: The Day After International Women’s Day.

Were you kind to women yesterday?  This being the day after International Women’s Day, this is my sixth annual naming of Jewelz & Foolz.  This year’s blog entry is dedicated to Petty Officer 2nd Class Rebecca Blumer, Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Georgina "Gina" DeJesus and Clara Hughes.

My first five Jewelz & Foolz postings can be found here:

2013: Jewelz & Foolz March 2013

2012: Jewelz & Foolz March 2012

2011: Jewelz & Foolz March 2011

2010: Jewelz & Foolz March 2010

2009: Jewelz & Foolz March 2009

So, what are you ask?

Both are groups of men. The former, Jewelz , are men who I would like to share a glass of wine, a beer, a cocktail or a very cold Mexican Coke with today, pick their brains, get to know their hearts and maybe flirt with them, just for one day, on the day after International Women’s Day. 

Then there are Foolz, not the harmless kind, but instead men who have made choices not good for womankind.

And yes, for the majority of people, Foolz can become Jewelz and vice versa.

In this sixth annual offering of my Jewelz and Foolz column, I offer 60 Jewelz, 7 Jewelz Juniors, 19 +unknown Foolz and 1 Jewelz In Memoriam for your consideration (in no particular order) .

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Aaron Lee

For writing the following line for the March 19, 2013 The New Normal episode that you wrote that made me laugh out loud when delivered by the actor:

I’ve got a meeting with that Chris Brown to discuss rehabilitating his image by playing a transgender soup kitchen worker.

 

Arabo Babakhani

For dialling 911 from the University of Central Florida and calmly and urgently getting help when roommate James Oliver Seevakumaran brandished a gun.  

Investigators found plans to get drunk, pull a fire alarm and then "give them hell,”; makeshift explosives in a backpack, an assault rifle, handgun, high capacity ammunition drums, hundreds of bullets near his body; and packages waiting for Seevakumaran at a campus mailroom containing two 22-round magazines, a sling for his rifle and a firearms training DVD.

 

Justin Timberlake

For his Saturday Night Live hosting gig on March 9, 2013 and for killin it at the 2013 Grammys!

 

 

 

 

Jason Collins, Robbie Rogers & Michael Sam

For coming out as gay pro athletes in the sports of Basketball, Soccer and Football.  The three of you will help many young athletes.

In the words of Missouri defensive lineman Michael Sam:

I am not afraid of who I am.
I am not afraid to tell the world who I am.
I am Michael Sam.
I am a college graduate.
I’m African American.
And I’m gay.

 

John Wood

For Room To Read whose literacy programs focus on helping primary school children become lifelong, independent readers by establishing libraries, improving school infrastructure, publishing local language children’s books and supporting reading and writing instruction through teacher training and material development.

 

Jacoby Jones

For his solo fox trot during Monday April 8, 2013’s DWTS, performed for his baby boy.  Maybe you have to be a woman to get how cool it was?

 

Michael Pfleger

For saving lives through basketball with his weekly peace basketball league in one of Chicago's most dangerous neighbourhoods.  Violence is dramatically down in the community.

The basketball players promise to stop their violence and in return Pfleger helps them get a GED, job training, and job placement at one of 100 companies that have partnered with the league.

and

For you 2010 sermon advocating for the ordination of women. 

You can help Pfleger's church here:  The Beloved Community.

 

Muntazir Somji

For demonstrating how we can all change the life of a stranger if we choose to, by providing a home for six-year-old Sajad in Mooresville, N.C. via Solace for the Children while undergoing surgery in the US.

As one of the youngest victims of the war in Afghanistan, Sajad lost his sight when blinded by shards of glass that pierced his eyes and face and was seriously wounded when a bomb went off next to his home.  

 

Darnell Barton

For stopping his bus on the Scajaquada Expressway overpass on October 18, 2013 while on route and saving the life of a suicidal woman standing on the edge of a bridge. 

What does it take to save a life?  It takes at least showing up.  You are awesome!

 

Mohammad Gulab

For saving and caring for Navy SEAL Marcus Lattrel and protecting him from The Taliban after the failed 2005 mission Operation Red Wings that cost the lives of 19 members of the U.S. military.

Two members of Gulab’s family were killed and two others injured because of his rescue efforts. But he had no regrets.

I will always have my honour, and I'll hold it until my death.

 

Edward Snowden

For revealing to the American public:

1. how out of hand the actions of the government were getting (to the point of violating The Constitution)
2. the lack of security at the NSA and
3. the unchecked power that low level NSA contract employees have.

 

Jorge Mario Bergoglio

For renewing the faith of so many Catholics desperate for change at the Vatican. 

And on a very personal note…Not long before I heard that Princess Kate was pregnant, I felt a Frances/Francis coming.  I wondered if it was maybe the royal baby (perhaps named after Diana Frances Spencer).  I think it was you I felt Sir.  I may have been waiting for an unknown Francis/Frances but the world has been waiting for YOU Sir.  God Bless.

 

Jackson Katz

For his Ted talk on the male issues of domestic violence and sexual abuse. 

 

 

Jamie Fox

For making me laugh with “Channing All Over Your Tatum”.

 

 

Mark Wahlberg

For completing high school at the age of 42.  Very cool!

 

 

 

Glenn James

For returning a knapsack he found containing $2400 cash and $40,000 in travelers cheques and a passport.  Mr. James is homeless. 

Ethan Whittington of Midlothian, Va. started fund to benefit Glen James.  You can find it here:  gofundme.com

 

Sean Murphy

For his act of civil disobedience in posting photos of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in his words to counter the glamorous photos in Rolling Stone.  I would not normally support a police officer doing such a thing but every act of civil disobedience has to be looked at individually.

I believe that the image that was portrayed by Rolling Stone magazine was an insult to any person who has every worn a uniform of any color or any police organization or military branch, and the family members who have ever lost a loved one serving in the line of duty. The truth is that glamorizing the face of terror is not just insulting to the family members of those killed in the line of duty, it also could be an incentive to those who may be unstable to do something to get their face on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.

 

Ariel Doron and Yousef Sweid

 

For as puppeteers from the Israeli version of Sesame Street protesting against Israel's closure of a Palestinian children's puppet festival, arguing that the puppet theater posed no threat to Israeli security. Said Doron:

I think every boy and girl deserves to see puppet theater.  There is no sense to this.

Israel's Ministry of Public Security had ordered the closure of  the Palestinian national theater in east Jerusalem, cancelling a children's festival saying that organizers of the theater illegally received funds from the Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank.

 

Justin Hopson

For Breaking the Blue Wall  and for demonstrating the power of one, in this case that one person can be successful when standing up to fear and intimidation.

 

 

I was an ordinary cop with an extraordinary cause. My mission is to unearth corruption and shine a light on integrity because it seems like integrity these days has become the exception rather than the rule.

 

Brian Banks

For the grace you showed after being released from more than five years in prison for a rape you did not commit.

Banks is now a spokesperson for the California Innocence Project.

 

Philip Anschutz

For your $700 million endowment that created The Foundation for a Better Life.

 

 

 

 

Will Swenson

For your heroic actions on September 8, 2009 in the Battle of Ganigal for which you received the Medal of Honour this past October 15th for repeatedly rescuing wounded American and Afghan soldiers.

 

John Shear

For at the age of 90 saving the life of five year old Roxy Key when he selflessly threw himself in the path of a runaway racehorse.  Mr. Shear shouted at the spectators to get out of the way and then saw Roxy in danger.

 

I knew I was going to get hit. I thought there was a possibility I was going to die but you cannot stop and think should I or shouldn’t I. There is a five-year-old girl…I'm 90-years-old. I have had a life. She hasn't had a life.  You got to save that life.

Being hit by the horse landed him  in hospital for more than a month with multiple pelvic fractures, a fractured cheekbone and cuts on his face and arm and it took seven months before he could return his job at the race track.

 

Brandon Stanton

For his Humans of New York website.

 

 

Charles Poland

For protecting the children on his school bus at the cost of his life from Jimmy Lee Dykes who then kidnapped one of the children and held the child in a bunker for a week afterward.

 

David Blaine

For real or magic.  You are spooky badass kazy.

 

 

 

 

Jason Thompson

For your December 3, 2013 performance on ABCs General Hospital.

 

 

 

 

Steven Harper

For your work to diversify the Canadian economy, for standing up for the sovereignty of Ukraine and for making me laugh when you said something to the effect:

‘Do I seem like I smoke marijuana?’

 

Howard Attebery

For finding the courage at age 90 to tell the girl you secretly loved for sixty years that you did.  Howard first met Cynthia Riggs in 1950.  Not too long ago, he mailed her the secret messages they used to pass one another along with a new message:

I have never stopped loving you.

They married at ages 81 and 91 after Howard wooed Cynthia with more mail and on an iPad he bought her. 

Love comes at every age.  Do not give up on love indeed.

 

Adam Mayer, Zach Smith and Bre Pettis

For cool 3D printers via their MakerBot Industries.

 

Dinesh Thakur

For telling the truth about Ranbaxy falsifying drug data, violating good manufacturing practices, violating good laboratory practices and for working with authorities for eight years to unravel the falsified records and dangerous manufacturing practices. In May 2013, Ranbaxy pleaded guilty and paid $500 million in a ground-breaking settlement.

 

Mario Cantone

For your words on the January 12, 2014 episode of ABCs The View speaking out against using the word lifestyle when describing the lives of gays and lesbians.  It bothers this straight woman every time I hear it as well.  As a straight woman it is not my lifestyle to date men.  It is who I am attracted to; it is my sexual orientation.  Enough of the lifestyle word.  Cheers to you. 

PS.  Hopefully your colleagues at  20/20 heard you as they recently used it. 

 

Bill Hamilton

For as former (now retired) Whitehouse storeroom manager orchestrating a pay raise for black staff during the Johnson White House and for making me laugh when discussing on TV the possibility of Bill Clinton as possible First Lady. :)

 

Walter Robb

For committing Whole Foods Market to full GMO transparency by 2018 by giving supplier partners five years to source non-GMO ingredients or to clearly label products with ingredients containing GMOs.

Thank you!!!

 

Carlos Arredondo

For your humble heroics at the Boston Marathon after the terrorist attack.

 

 

Kristopher Oswald

For rescuing a woman from being beaten after hearing a woman scream in a Michigan Wal-Mart store parking lot while on his lunch break.  He witnessed the woman get out of a car and a man force her back into the vehicle.  When he went to her rescue he was physically attacked by the man.

I will always do the right thing.

Wal-Mart fired him for violating the company’s policy against violence.

Seriously?

 

Tony Rohr

For doing the right thing in his role as an Indiana Pizza Hut manager (10 years employed) in his act of disobedience in refusing to open his Pizza Hut on Thanksgiving because because he didn’t think it was fair to his employees that they would be unable to spend the day with their families.

He was fired after taking that stand.

 

Jose Bright

For helping children via the Teboho Trust.

 

John Stewart

For using his power for good by going on Bassem Youssef’s show.

 

 

 

 

 

Barack Obama

For your personal words on Trayvon Martin

and

For the intelligent way you handled the gay issue at the Olympics.

 

John Morse

For as Senator doing the right thing and supporting sensible gun legislation.

 

 

 

 

Joel Osteen

For helping me with your sermons.

 

Seth Rogen and James Franco

For your parody of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian's Sexy "Bound 2" Music Video.  OMG Funny!

 

Bill Gates

For taking your computer fortune and doing such intelligent good with it.

 

 

Mark John

For helping save 16-year-old kidnap victim Hannah Anderson after coming across her and murder suspect James Lee DiMaggio in a remote corner of the Idaho. 

After returning home and turning on the TV:

 

And the news flashed on and the amber alert was on the television I told my wife that is the girl we seen on the mountain.

 

John Oliver

For your great work standing in for John Stewart in the summer of 2013.

 

 

 

 

Frank Shaeffer

For performing his  son’s wedding.

As pastor at Zion United Methodist Church of Iona, he married his son Tim and his husband which is not permitted in his church.

The love for my son took over the fear of losing my job with the United Methodist Church.  It was a tough decision in some sense, but I just knew I had to make it. I had to follow my heart.

 

James Saito

For your moving performance as David Toriyama on December 13, 2013’s  Hawaii Five-0 episode entitled Ho'onani Makuakane.

 

 

Peter Carroll

For as coach of the Seattle Seahawks giving Brian Banks a shot after five years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

 

Brendon Ayanbadejo

For filing a brief as a friend of the court in support of same sex marriage and for your comments on March 24,2013’s Face The Nation.  You are correct, it is the “evolution of the same issue”.

 

John Tester

For successfully removing the ‘Monsanto Protection Act’ that was slipped into a government funding bill in March 2013 which was essentially private corporations telling the government to ignore the legislative branch!!!.

 

Harry Ettlinger

For your role as one of the real 345 Monument Men who worked to save works of art and cultural objects after the Nazis looted five million of them. 

Thank you Sir.

Ralph Lauren

For Lupita Nyong'o’s Dress:

Stephen Lewis

For The Stephen Lewis Foundation and all the good you do in this world.

 

Sebastien de la Cruz

For showing anti-Mexican racist adults how they should behave by the grace, humanity and wisdom you showed after the response to your Star-Spangled Banner performance at the AT&T Center was racism.  And if racism against an American born CHILD isn't bad enough, Sebastien is the son of an American veteran.

 

Aaron Arias and Jamal Harris

For saving a kidnapped woman they were at first checking out in the car next to them only to then realize was pleading “Help Me!”

They followed the car and called 911 until authorities caught up to the kidnapper. 

Awesome!

You don't need a cape to be a hero.  You just have to be yourself and just respond. (Jamal Harris)

Indeed!

 

Miles Scott

For saving San Francisco and Gotham?

 

Davion Only

For shining the brightest light on foster children needing families.

 

Denzel Thompson

For urban farming and the Philadelphia Urban Creators, a youth led organization that grows sustainable healthy food from the ground up.

 

 

Alexander

For showing the greatness kids are capable of in your well deserved Master Chef Junior win.

And then there were:

Rob Ford

For: !?&%#@*?!^@#*&@#?*#@?!&!?&%#@*?!

• driving around drunk endangering children’s lives
• embarrassing your city over and over again
• physically knocking down female Councillor Pam McConnell because you have so little self control
• being too drunk to know you are smoking crack or for smoking crack while being Mayor and lying about it
• talking vulgarly to the press about your sex life with your wife and for embarrassing your wife
• demeaning women via your charming comments about buying women Christmas gifts:

  Women love money.  You give ’em a couple thousand bucks and they’re happy.

• For all the nonsense you have expected your citizens to buy as you lied to them:

You know what, I made mistakes, I drank too much, I smoked some crack some time. You are absolutely wrong what [the media] said. They said ‘Do you smoke crack and are you a crack addict?’ No, I don’t smoke crack and I’m not a crack addict. Have I? Yes, I have. So…I didn’t lie. I don’t smoke crack…I haven’t smoked in over a year…but did I? Come on?

 

Randy Voller

For:

The GOP that’s leading us – we don’t know where they’re taking us, but they’re raping us along the way.

Political disagreements are not rape dude!

 

Barack Obama

For signing the Monsanto Protection Bill!!!

and

For not a peep about getting Bashar al-Assad’s  ass hauled before the ICC for Crimes Against Humanity (Will that happen after chemical weapons are secured??)

 

Rick Perry

For his teenage mother comments about Wendy Davis

She was a teenage mother herself.  It is just unfortunate that she hasn't learned from her own example.

 

Vladimir Putin

For your anti-gay law which is a licence to hate.

and

for invading Ukraine.

 

Mike Wallace

For his homo-ignorant tweet after Jason Collins’ brave coming out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All these beautiful women in the world and guys wanna mess with other guys?

There are many beautiful woman in the world but I don't want to mess with them either because both Jason Collins and I are attracted to guys.  He is gay and I am straight but we both are attracted to men.

 

David Wildstein

For ordering two of the three access lanes providing local access to a Fort Lee entrance on the George Washington Bridge closed from September 9 to September 13, 2013, claiming a traffic study was being done when there was no traffic study being conducted in political retribution against the mayor of Fort Lee.

If you used the George Washington Bridge to exact a political vendetta, you need to be prosecuted.

 

Richie Incognito

For justifying being an (*expletive*!).

 

 

Brandon Hantz

For dumping out the rice and beans on Survivor South Pacific.  The narcissism and profound emotional immaturity of a man who destroys the food supply because he is angry is dangerous for womankind.

 

 

Roddy White

 

 

For his tweet:

All them jurors should go home tonight and kill themselves for letting a grown man get away with killing a kid.

No, no they shouldn’t.  With all its faults we are blessed to live in a country where we can be judged by our fellow citizens if charged with a crime.

 

Victor Cruz

 

 

 

For his tweet after the George Zimmerman verdict:

Zimmerman doesn’t last a year till hood catches up to him.

So then George Zimmerman’s mother loses her son and then whose son is next to be murdered.  An eye for an eye makes us all blind! Character will out and it will eventually cost him.  Have faith in natural justice not vengeance!

 

Justin Beiber

For behaving like a punk and forgetting that you are a Stratford, Ontario, Canadian boy who while talented has received many blessings. 

If you had alcohol in your system while drag racing, they better throw the book at you or you are headed for TROUBLE!

 

Chris Wallace

For comparing the Healthcare.gov roll out to Hurricane Katrina in the following way:

 

 

 

Katrina was a terrible event.  Lord knows you were there.  You saw how badly our government responded but it began and it ended within a week.  This could affect people’s lives for years to come.

Like seriously?!?

 

Yoweri Museveni

For as President of Uganda signing antigay legislation that includes prison terms for repeat offenders.

 

 

 

 

 

Ludo Lefebvre

For your comments on The Taste demeaning Nigella Lawson when you tried to persuade a chef to join your team:

Look.  You need to decide.  You can be with a beautiful woman in the kitchen.

 

Rick Ross

For bragging about rape in his  lyrics:

 

I put a molly in her champagne.  She ain’t even know it.  I took her home and I enjoyed it.

 

Charles Saatchi

For abusing your wife Nigella Lawson.

Mandip Sandhu

For abuse of power as a Toronto Police Officer and for sexual assault for forcing a woman to perform oral sex on him.

 

The boys who raped Rateah Parsons

For gang raping Rateah Parsons.  If you gang rape a 17 year old girl, you don't get a pass on this list because you may be under 19 or 21 or whatever the age of majority is in Nova Scotia Canada.

I agree with Anonymous' choice to respect the Parsons family's wishes and not release the alleged perpetrators of the incidents but I hope they gave the information to the RCMP as guaranteed at least one of those boys will rape another girl or woman if not prosecuted.

Bashar al-Assad

For Crimes Against Humanity (gassing your own citizens) and for two million refugees (so far).

 

 

 

Sidney Jourard

For your 1960s Touch Research that I recently learned of where you studied the conversations of friends in different parts of the world as they sat in a café together. Jourard observed these conversations for the same amount of time in each of the different countries.

What did he find?

• In England: the two friends touched each other zero times.
• In the United States: 2 times.
• In France: 110 times.
• In Puerto Rico: 180 times.

Maybe time for some more Touch experiments or a series on the topic? Anyone?

Who are presently your ?

Sage Spencer

 

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Footnotes:

kazy – Crazy is a great word, great word.  The way it sounds when it rolls off your tongue.  If its use did not include unintentionally picking on the deeply vulnerable that are the mentally ill, I would use “crazy” often as I like the way it sounds.  I commit from now on to using kazy when I want to use the colloquial meaning of crazy.