- So not everyone is down on the President for having no coherent plan or timetable for withdrawing American troops from Iraq. Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, spoke to Congress and warned against setting an actual timetable for pulling American troops from a place they never should have been in the first place. Abizaid tried to sell Congress on the reasoning that if, in six months, the U.S. were to begin withdrawing its troops, violence in Iraq would increase. No freaking kidding, genius. Violence is going to increase no matter when we pull out, but that’s not our problem. American soldiers should not be on the receiving end of that violence or have any part in it, for that matter. Senator Hank Clinton of New York, wife of our former President, was especially critical of Abizaid’s stance, and for once, I agree with her. We can't just hope things get better and stick it out; get all of our troops out of there and let the Iraqis settle things for themselves. With advisors and military leaders like this, it’s no stunner that W has floated along for so long without a strategy or schedule for this mess and when to end it.
- You may have heard about the Charlotte man who found an interesting, slightly sleazy and yet not surprising way to make some extra money using eBay. Making money off of eBay is nothing new, but paying homeless guys $100 a day to stand outside a Target in order to buy a new Sony PS-3 that you plan to then sell on eBay is. So this “entrepreneur” got the bright idea and with the help of a friend, picked up nearly 50 homeless men from a local shelter (did he call ahead and place his order?) and transported them to the store in a U-Haul truck. The thought of those guys packed into a U-Haul like sardines is more than a little disturbing, for sure. But this “entrepreneur” did come back with food for the men, so they are being both fed and paid. Problem is, what do you think the homeless guys are going to do with the money? I can say for certain nonee of them is going down to the local First Merit to open up a passbook savings account. Nor are they going out for a nice steak dinner. More than likely, that money is going to feed the very same habits that made them homeless in the first place, namely drugs and alcohol. So I would have to come down on the side of our homeless hiring genius and his buddy being pretty despicable for exploiting these homeless men, and no, paying them does not absolve you of that.
- From the Department of People Looking for Any Reason at all to be Offended, a Chicago-area mother and son lost a bid in federal court to halt this weekend’s production of an Italian-themed play performed by an area school, Rotolo Middle School. Marina Amoroso-Levato and her 12-year-old son, a student at the school, objected to the play’s depiction of Italian culture in Fuggedaboutit - A Little Mobster Comedy, a play written by Matt Myers, a drama teacher at the school. The play is about two elderly mobsters who open an Italian restaurant, and among other things, the script included the word “greaseball”. Seeing as a federal judge, in a country overboard on political correctness, ruled the play was alright, I’m going to assume it is a pretty benign show. Amoroso-Levato and her son need to have a sense of humor and lighten up, because I’m sure that if it were truly offensive, there would be more than one parent objecting and suing. For Myers, though, it might be a good idea to begin wearing a disguise and wig, maybe one of those fake-mustache-nose-and-goofy-glasses deals, and changing your name and phone number. Making fun of the mob is perhaps not the best idea, especially in Chicago. Matt, buddy, you might wanna lay low for a while, keep a low profile.
- Updating yesterday’s major beef with ESPN overrunning coverage of Mid-American Conference football with non-stop ads, promos and graphics for the OSU-Michigan game……..they freaking did it again! Another MAC game Wednesday, Miami (Ohio) versus Bowling Green, and the damned announcers, Lou Holtz, Chris Fowler and Mark May, essentially ignored the fact that the game itself was going on so they could have in game interviews with former OSU players, throw up some more tired graphics and charts and generally slurp on the Buckeyes and Wolverines some more. I’ve never been one of those people that watches a sporting event, puts the mute button on and listens to the radio broadcast to accompany the game, but that’s basically what I did. The game is too far from my area to get on radio, but listening without sound was preferable to listening to a three-hour promo for “The Big Game”. Literally, a half dozen plays would go by without any of the three tools in the announcing booth even referring to the Miami-BG game, either of the two schools or anything but OSU and Michigan. Way to go, ass hats, give me yet another reason to believe that ESPN sucks.
- Gambling isn't a problem, especially in conjunction with sports…….sure. Is that why an Internet sports betting ring that took in $3.3 billion in the past two years was just busted up by the FBI, a betting ring that included a scout for MLB’s Washington Nationals and a pro poker player? Isn't it great too, that those poker websites always are sure to say in tiny print on their commercials that they are not gambling sites? Yeah, except poker and gambling are so inextricably intertwined that they are impossible to separate. The ring centered on placing sports bets through bookies, who would then assign bettors a secret betting code to track their wagers and monitor point spreads through a secret website. But yeah, why not give in to those who want to legalize gambling in states across the nation. It isn't as if people are losing billions of dollars and developing severe gambling addictions and heading to prison. Gambling brings nothing but good news for everyone who gets involved, right? That leads us to our next story………
- NBA legend Michael Jordan is looking to invest millions of dollars in a new Pennsylvania slot parlor. Not ordinarily a problem, except Jordan is part-owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, and the NBA definitely seeks to distance itself from any sort of gambling or gaming. Well, except when they are putting an upcoming All-Star game in Vegas. But they won't, under any circumstances, put an actual franchise in a city where betting is legal. So Commissioner David Stern can't be happy about the prospect of MJ investing in a slot parlor, given that he is openly looking to regulate things like how players can dress and if they can carry guns outside of team functions, on their own time. Not a surprise that MJ is investing in gambling, though, he’s probably just looking to make back a few of the bucks he’s lost gambling over the years, and if he has to do so by bilking old people out of their change at the slot machines, one nickel at a time, then that’s how he’ll do it.
- I’m more than a little uncomfortable that Michael Jackson is inching ever so closer to the U.S. He had taken up residence in Bahrain, but Wednesday was in London to perform at the World Music Awards. Jack-O needs to stay as far away from our borders as possible, predominantly for the safety of all American children. We have enough once-black-dude-now-white-chick, child molesting freak shows, thanks. And very disturbing that Jack-O’s performance included him appearing on stage with a gaggle of singing, swaying youths……someone better check on those kids, because I really don’t want to think what Jack-O did with/to them after the show. Let’s hope their parents were waiting backstage to whisk them away from that freak job the instant the performance ended, although these are parents who allowed Jack-O near their kids to begin with, so you have to wonder. Me, I would have been out there on stage, holding my kid’s hand, keeping myself between them and Jackson at all times. Sure, a rendition of We are the World by Jack-O and his young friends would be, um, horrifying, but not as horrifying as the thought of any child left alone with him. Go back to Bahrain with Bubbles the chimp and stay the frack away from all kids and America in general, you pasty-faced loser.
- Speaking of people looking to be offended, how is no one suing or b*tching about the CW network cramming all four of their shows with African-American casts onto a single night and packing the rest of its schedule with shows that feature few, in some cases no, black actors? Wouldn’t it be kind of offensive to a particular group to be given one night where their cultural/ethnic group was on a network and have the rest of the week basically exclude them? Not that I have found any of those shows to be at all worth watching, because from my limited viewing of them, they’re all fairly uninteresting. But even so, maybe it’s not the best idea to pigeonhole them into a single night.
No comments:
Post a Comment