A Pakistani sex change scandal, another woman-beating athlete and is it adios for Alberto G.?

- In a story almost too salacious to be true, a Pakistani couple were arrested by police on charges of lying to a judge about the gender of the husband, who was born female and had a sex-change operation 16 years ago. Shumail Raj, 31, originally went to court to seek protection for his wife amid harassment from her family, but the High Court discovered Raj’s past and their reaction was swift and severe, to say the least. Raj and his bride allege they married in order to prevent her from being sold into marriage to settle her uncle’s gambling debts, while the bride’s father wants their marriage annulled because the sex-change operation Raj had done is against the principles of Islam. So to review, we have a gender-switching husband marrying a woman to keep her from being used as a marker to cover uncle’s gambling debt and the father of the bride wants the marriage annulled on religious grounds. If only there were a Pakistani Jerry Springer Show, we could settle this the right way……..

- Raise your hand if you view duct tape as an effective and acceptable method of discipline for an unruly toddler……….anyone? Nobody? Well you may know that using such methods is a no-no, but nobody sent that memo to the now-infamous über-abusive childcare worker daycare worker in Tulsa, Okla., who bound a 2-year-old boy’s hands with masking tape when he would not be quiet at nap time. The woman, who was caring for eight children under the age of seven at the time, called for an ambulance and tried to perform CPR, but the toddler died anyhow. Now, this sad excuse for a human being is facing murder charges, and it’s hard to feel any sympathy for her no matter what the punishment ends up being. Again, since not everyone seems to get this, your options when a child won’t stop crying are: 1) have someone else watch the child and go for a long walk to calm down, 2) put the child in their bed/crib and sit down in another room and try to relax, 3) buy yourself a heavy bag, put it up in the corner and pound out some stress on an inanimate object without doing any harm to the child. Any solutions involving masking tape, duct tape, electrical tape, zip ties, rope or other means of subduing the child or any other means of inflicting physical or emotional harm on them are not acceptable, ever. Thanks for your attention……

- With all the shenanigans and screw-ups going on in the W. administration, there should be high-ranking government officials resigning or being fired on a weekly basis. That isn't happening, unfortunately, but it looks like a high-up member of the administration may in fact be resigning soon. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may resign, and let me be the first to say: yippee! While Alberto isn't the one I would most like to see resign (nope, that would be you, W.), he definitely needs to go for the shady, deceitful, wrong and quite possibly illegal method in which he conducted the firing (and attempted cover-up) of eight attorneys general whose politics didn’t jive with the administration’s views. Now, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., says he believes Gonzales may resign before the Senate can even hold its planned no-confidence vote in him. I’m not sure why there needs to be an official vote on this, because anyone who has been following this whole saga already has zero confidence in Alberto and his ability to be a competent Attorney General. Good riddance, Alberto, you’re an absolute joke and America would be no worse off if a chimp served in your post for the rest of the W. administration.

- Continuing a disturbingly high rate of professional athletes assaulting women, New York Jets defensive back/kick Justin Miller has been charged with third-degree assault after punching a woman in an incident at a New York City club over the weekend. Miller was in an altercation with another man and when he swung his fist, the other guy ducked and Miller accidentally punched the female bystander instead. On the football field, you can get away with accidentally hitting the wrong guy when going in for the tackle on a ball carrier, but Miller needs to be able to get himself in check in social settings because there, the rules are different. You aren’t going after another player in pads with a helmet; you’re around unarmed, unprotected people who aren't actually expecting to be hit. Also, Miller might want to familiarize himself with the new crackdown policy that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has for lawbreaking players, because he’s about to experience the commish’s wrath firsthand. Goodell has brought the hammer on assaulters, illegal-gun-havers and miscreants of all kinds in the NFL. You get arrested for a crime, you’re going to hear from Goodell as well as the police. Miller had better make sure that whatever charges he is convicted on for this incident are the only criminal charges he sees for the rest of his NFL career, otherwise that career will be a short one. Just ask Pacman Jones if you don’t believe me………….