Idle threat of the week

During a week when unseasonable warm air kissed the Northeast to the benefit of all besides the odd firewood salesman and the nations of OPEC, the panel of judges had half a collective mind to declare global warming the Idle Threat of the Week.

Although we decided not to venture into those waters -- lest they one day rise and swallow us. Anyway, there is an old Native American proverb which, translated, says "He who tries to predict future winds will have dust blown into his eye.

Of course by "is" I mean I just made that proverb up and, therefore, it never had to be translated.

Since I gave the panel Christmas off, we weren't able to address the Donald Trump/Rosie O'Donnell feud properly. Now that it continues to escalate -- in the latest salvo Trump has bravely sicked his daughter on the rotund lesbian talk show host -- we have the opportunity to revisit it for the first time.

The whole thing started when O'Donnell accused Trump of past bankruptcy, and added some nasty comments about his hair and matrimony resume. Trump responded by correctly, but overly semantically, stating that it wasn't he who went bankrupt, rather it was the various entities he proudly attached his name to that died past financial deaths.

Trump also, in this now famous video, threatened to have a goon "steal Rosie's girlfriend, and declared his intention to sue O'Donnell so he could "take money out of her fat ass pockets."

In subsequent interviews Trump has implied he will get Rosie fired from her gig on The View.

It would be the natural inclination of the panel to side with The Donald in a Trump/O'Donnell dispute. Especially when Trump has been busy bringing us Tara Conner in a two piece, while Rosie's doughy face is the main reason many of us fear switching to high definition television.

But the fact remains Trump has, without a hint of sarcasm or lack of seriousness and for all to see, threatened to take O'Donnell's girlfriend, her money and her job -- quite a devastating trio. Yet it is fairly clear he will do none of these things.

As is always the case with Trump, one suspects there may be publicity motives behind his actions, genuine as his anger towards Rosie seems. So here is a little publicity for our nation's foremost public mogul: Donald Trump has won Idle Threat of The Week for January 1-7.