- Life just got a teensy bit worse for Michael Vick, and by a teensy bit I mean he’s totally screwed. Already one of his three co-defendants in the federal dogfighting case that has become a national uproar has reached a plea deal with the government, and now the other two men charged in the case have scheduled plea hearings as well. Once Purnell Peace, 35, and Quanis Phillips, 28, join Tony Taylor in having plead guilty in exchange for testifying against Vick and have received lesser sentences because of it, Vick will be left standing alone to fight his case. The prosecutors in the case have given Vick until the end of the week to strike a plea or else he will face additional charges in the case courtesy of a superceding indictment. The additional charges would likely come under a federal statute named R.I.C.O. (look it up, you might learn a lil’ somethin’), a measure designed to target, as ESPN legal analyst Lester Munson so brilliantly put it, in a phrase I love insanely and can't wait to incorporate into my vocabulary, “syndicate hoodlums.” I’m not sure what a syndicate hoodlum is, but I’m eager to find out. The bottom line for Vick is that he has three former friends and co-defendants and four other witnesses ready and willing to testify against him. He needs to take whatever plea deal he can get from the feds, considering that he has very little leverage right now. He could face as many as six years in prison, so maybe he can be very fortunate and plead down to a two or three-year stint in federal prison. The sky really is falling on Mike Vick, and he needs to salvage what he can before he’s buried under the fallout for the next six years.
- Every show or series on a major network in the past twenty years had done the whole “creepy, crawly, supernatural, ghost-themed” show at least once. Last night’s episode of ABC Family’s Greek was in that vein, but for once it wasn’t a tired, hour-long collection of clichés and totally predictable plot “twists.” To be sure, some of the plot was predictable, but even those parts of it were still well done and interesting for the most part. Part of the episode centered around a mysterious girl showing up at a Kappa Tau party, part was about pledge Calvin and Omega Chi president Evan stuck at the frat house trying to catch a pesky mouse and a third part on the Zeta Beta Zeta sorority having a slumber party for pledges to build a spirit of togetherness. Instead of trying to be spooky, scary and clever all at once and pulling off a crap-tacular episode, Greek went straight for the laughs and succeeded. Watching Rusty learn the truth about the mystery visitor and attempting to alert Cappie was hilarious, especially when Rusty ended up on the wrong side of some minor physical abuse from the girl calling herself Destiny (real name Patty). Casey, Rusty’s sister, had a night of “supernatural” hijinks in store for her pledges, all of them part of her ulterior motive of gaining support for her bid to be the sorority’s president. And of course, with the Calvin trapped at the Omega Chi house storyline, the show’s producers again hit heavily on the “Calvin is gay, what does he do about it,” theme, which again is getting really, really old really, really quickly. If there’s one thing to dislike about this show, it’s dragging this topic out and beating it into the ground. Otherwise, it was interesting to see the show back-burner Rusty’s new relationship with Zeta Beta pledge Jen K., who is now his girlfriend. Other than a picture message during the party and a passing mention of the relationship in a Casey-Jen K. conversation, not much happened. You’d think that after making Rusty out to be such a dork thus far in the series and struggling with girls that once he kissed a girl and had a girlfriend it would be a central theme in the show, but clearly not. A welcome aspect of the show this week was the zero minutes of screen time for Rusty’s roommate, one-note Dale, which meant a dearth of clichéd religious quotes spouted every second of Dale’s screen time, as is his custom. The previews for next week’s episode teased more of the same as far as those last two points are concerned, with the focus being on Casey’s romantic entanglements with Cappie and Evan, but teasers are often misleading so tune in to find out what really happens, 9 p.m. next Monday night on ABC Family….
- I’m going to directly challenge Bar-roid Bonds and his new-fangled legal “strategy” of hiring two lawyers to make sure that any private citizen who makes allegations about illegal activities Bonds has committed gets sued. The reality is that this is much more of a publicity stunt than anything, a feeble attempt to fire back at people like Curt Schilling who have repeatedly asked why Bonds, if he truly is innocent of steroid use, tax evasion, etc., isn’t proclaiming his innocence 24/7, screaming from the proverbial mountain top and suing anyone who dares to make such a bogus allegation. However, if Bar-roid really wants to take the approach he’s claiming to take now, why did he not sue the authors of the book Game of Shadows when they alleged in great detail that he knowingly and repeatedly used ‘roids? The only action Bonds took against them was to sue them on the basis that their information was illegally obtained, not that it was false or slanderous. That suit was eventually dropped by Bonds, so it’s not like he actively pursued that either. I’m going to call Bar-roid’s bluff here and say it outright: Barry Bonds used steroids knowingly and has lied about it ever since. He used steroids to boost his performance on the field and without those steroids he would not have the 758 career home runs he now has. So let’s see if Bar-roid’s new legal eagles come after me now…….
- Aren’t you glad when science uses its technological advances and insights to uncover truly important, relevant truths and discoveries that advance mankind and our collective well-being? If so, you’ll be thrilled to know that scientists have done laser scans of two life masks made from plaster casts of former President Abraham Lincoln’s face and found that our 16th president’s face had an unusual degree of asymmetry. Apparently the left side of Lincoln’s face was much smaller than the right side, a fact that I’m sure is impactful and relevant to the daily life of absolutely no one who is alive today. Why people are researching this and whether A. Lincoln had other ailments such as smallpox, heart illness, etc. is beyond me. I don’t think any of this changes the fact that this guy was a great leader, a great president and that he is now deceased. Can’t we focus on finding what sort of mental defects and deficiencies our current president has? That could take a while to accomplish, but at least it would be beneficial to all of us.
- A major thumbs down to the Hamas rulers in Gaza and their goonish security personnel for brutally clubbing and beating down protestors with the butts of their rifles. The protestors were demonstrating against the brutal, totalitarian rule of Hamas in the region as well as the mere presence of Hamas in Gaza. The thug-like, oppressive response to the protest, which included Hamas personnel seizing video cameras of TV cameraman to prevent footage of the incident from getting out, seems to contradict Hamas’ continued assertion that it is willing to tolerate dissent. Right, because nothing says tolerant of dissenting views like beating down people who express dissenting views and stealing video cameras to prevent footage of the melee from getting out. That’s verrrry tolerant of you, Hamas. What’s next, arresting anyone who speaks out against you and sending them to prison for fifteen years without so much as a trial? Maybe you want to follow the example of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and boot any non-Hamas person who criticizes you out of your country. Welcome to Hamas-ruled Gaza, where civil liberties go to die………..
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