J.R. signed up to serve our country and ended up in the hellhole of Iraq. In 2003, while driving a U.S. Army humvee, he hit a landmine and was badly hurt. His recovery took three years of hospitalization and he underwent 33 surgeries, mostly facial and skin grafts. Incredibly, he somehow found the courage and resiliency to survive and to heal. And now, he’s dancing up a storm and showing America a true spirit of valor and a lot of what heroes are made of – in the hope we can somewhat identify with his noble heart and find a little bit of the magic dust of honor and decency in us. This guy has embraced the gift of life and celebrates it daily…as we all should.

On Monday night’s show (10/3/11), he dedicated his dance to the fallen men and women of our armed forces who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. With his partner Karina Smirnoff, he pulled off a magnificent and emotion-filled rumba to Tim McGraw’s “If You’re Reading This.” It was an exceptional television moment, a beautiful and heartfelt dedication to his fellow soldiers killed in action.

J.R. knows he got a second chance at life, and he wished to honor the ones who didn’t. He was visibly overcome as he said, “Tonight was that moment. I’m on Dancing with the Stars, and I have an opportunity to really honor and pay a tribute to other service members and families that have gone on the same journey that I’ve gone on…but didn’t get a second chance.”

And in that unique moment, as our great country is so terribly divisive about everything these days, and still fighting horrifying wars costing so much in lives and treasure since the 9/11 tragedy, it felt like a magical moment – a breath of fresh air – when J.R.’s dedicated dance and his human spirit of courage and hope brought us all together in a unifying moment as one people, as one nation – as Americans – to remember and pay our respects to our fallen soldiers.

For that, he is my hero. J.R. is America’s hero.

I love my country and I just have to speak out. And yes I know politicians are not presently on anyone’s happy list, but this one is truly a bottom feeder we need to make sure never fools us again.

In recent U.S. history  – say the last century - has there been a bigger loser, a bigger numbskull than the ex-governor of Illinois: Rod Blagojevich? When this guy got caught red-handed trying to “sell Obama’s senate seat” vacated when he won the presidency, he kept saying over and over he did nothing wrong, and when the facts come out, he will be found absolutely innocent. He even talked “the Donald” (another genius but don’t get me started!) into this assumption of innocence when he was flailing his mediocrity on Celebrity Apprentice. He proved to be the biggest mentally-challenged useless player in reality game show history! And that’s saying a lot! He should be a regular on WIPEOUT…would love to see him get clobbered weekly rather than do time in jail!

So now, he was just convicted of 17 (that’s SEVENTEEN) counts of corruption including trying to sell that very same Obama senate seat. What happened, Rod? The papers reported he was “stunned” by these convictions. This guy is so spaced, he believes that no matter how corrupt he was, it’s OK if you’re a governor?  He really thinks he can get away with anything, any lie, and that we’re all stupid enough to believe him…and that he can be as immoral as he wants? He has in the past…he got elected TWICE in Illinois. How is this possible? How can they be so careless in Illinois? How can we be in any state in America?

Earth to Rod…two trials and SEVENTEEN COUNTS, bro! Maybe after 10 years in jail you’ll finally GET IT. It’s not us, ROD…it’s YOU! You are GUILTYYY! You did wrong! You’re a crook!

We need to be much more vigilant and prudent in choosing (voting) our politicians from all parties. We cannot and should not vote for the bottom of the barrel candidates. We should find and demand our best and brightest to run to run our country and represent us in an increasingly complex world?

Let’s at least do our part and raise the bar: no more Rods! No more Arnolds! No more Jesses! And especially, no more candidates like Christine who promised us she was not a witch? No more Sarahs…ever again please! Only the brightest need apply for political office…and yes from all parties! Why is that so difficult for us? Don’t we deserve great smart moral (as in non-lying) leadership?

Mitt Romney recently said that “he” was out of work just like unemployed folks, and of course blamed Obama for his jobless financial hardship. How immoral  is that statement? How big of a lie to us the idiot electorate? Mitt is worth $250 million…1/4 billionaires do NOT look for work…or work any job for that matter…unless it is a super ego job like a governorship or presidency that provides top quality “power heroin” better than any bank account. Why else would he spend $35 million in his 2008 campaign run, and probably double that if he becomes the Republican candidate…for  a job that pays $400K per year?

And the new hottie Rick Perry? Well, every report I’ve heard says this guy is nowhere near as “bright” as the last genius out of the Texan governorship: good ole George. And he’s the “new hope” to unite the Tea Party? Do you see what I’m sayin’?

All I ask is for our elected officials to be as bright as possible and with a steel moral compass so they can be rational and fair in representing all of us. Regardless of your politics, I’m sure we can agree at the very least that President Obama is a very bright guy and we can trust his morality which includes his compassion, and yes I voted for him and will again for those 2 reasons. But has the horrendously harsh media scrutiny of our elective process scared off our brightest and most talented to run for office? Only the egomaniacs (Donald!) and crap for brains (Michele B!) are willing? If so, how sad for America.

Well, now there is a new show that makes WIPEOUT look like chump change in the world of reality TV land insanity: 101 WAYS TO LEAVE A GAME SHOW. Have you seen this thing? Forget bruising and clobbering…let’s come as close to killing contestants as we can…for $50K of course! Let’s just blow those suckers up! I guarantee you this will be a ratings hit and kudos to ABC. Congrats to the Stuntmen Association for tons of prep work here to come up with stunts to scare the livin’ crap out of these contestants as they lose and exit the game show…but not quite kill ‘em!

Along with the Tea Party and inane right-wing Republicans paralyzing our country’s progress, this show is the symbolic beginning of the decline of the American golden age! BOOM!