So many topics, so little time

As I grazed around, looking for today's topic, there were so many little news snippets that I toyed with. But while all of them were somewhat blog fodderish, none emerged as topic du jour.  But here were the possibilities:

• I saw a headline about a robe recall. Like 99.99% of the other Americans who read this headline, I immediately thought "Snugli". But, no, the recalled robes were chenille numbers sold by Blair, manufactured in Pakistan from some towering inferno material. Nine elderly women were killed wearing one two close to the stove. What a terrible way to die. (I think of my mother, making her morning cup of tea, hanging over the stove in her loose-sleeved bathrobe...)
• A Marine sergeant was sentenced to 18 months in the brig, and dishonorable discharge, for pretending to be a wounded Iraq War vet, and using his wounded warrior status to cadge his way into concerts and sporting events,  a free laptop and a PDA. Screwed up? Absolutely!  Scum bag? Indeed! Embarrassment to the whole notion of Semper fi? Yes, sir! Perhaps I am just a molly-coddling, excuse-'em-all liberal, but doesn't 18 months in jail seem like a kind of harsh sentence for lying your way into a Washington Nationals game and a Boston concert?  By all means, kick him out of your club. But this is a lot longer than Roman Polanski's original sentence for drugging and raping a 13 year old. I'm sure most Marines are happy  - collective honor besmirched and all that. Maybe I'm missing something, but 18 months seems a bit harsh.
• A couple of Northwest Airline pilots are being investigated for overshooting their target by 150 miles before recovering. The pilots claimed that they were engaged in a heated discussion over NTSB rules, which sounds as suspect as the guys who used to claim to buy Playboy for the articles. Hmmmmmmm. The rumor is that they were asleep at the wheel. (Should've turned left at Greenland.)
• Bernie Madoff is rumored to have spent a lot of his bilkings on cocaine - enough so that his offices were known as the North Pole - and par-tays that included topless dancers, paid "escorts", and massage. Why am I not surprised?

Lapses in judgement, shoddy behavior, and bad career moves do seem to abound, don' t they?