- This is one trend I would love to see continue. Any time race car drivers want to issue apologies for the crappiness of their little driving competition, I’ll welcome their words with open arms. I’m on the record as a) adamantly believing that auto racing in any form is not a sport and b) that any competition wherein human beings do not provide almost all of the power necessary to take part is not a sport. It doesn’t matter if it’s IndyCar, NASCAR, go karts, Funny Car, drag racing or any other variation on auto racing, they are all equally fraudulent when it comes to being real sports. So when drivers like Scott Dixon describe the IndyCar Series race at Richmond International Raceway as "a bit of a procession, unfortunately," and said the 300-lap event was frustrating, I am behind him 100 percent. I’m even more pumped when runner-up Dario Franchitti apologized to fans for an "awful, awful race.” Gentlemen, I thank you for your honesty and wish that all race car drivers would be so forthright. After every single race, drivers need to hop out of their cars, find the nearest microphone and profusely apologize for what they just took part in. I don’t want canned, rehashed apologies, either; I want a genuine, heartfelt mea culpa for having anything to do with driving cars around in a loop really fast for hours on end and trying to pass it off as a sport. It also wouldn’t hurt to admit that you’re trying to claim as a sport something tens of millions of Americans do every day: getting into a car, driving fast, changing lanes without signaling, cutting off other drivers and trying not t o run into barriers along the side of the road. And no, I don’t want to hear how the apologies from Dixon and Franchitti were because of this specific race at this specific track, which has apparently been problematic for IndyCar in the past as well. I’m going to blow right past those alleged facts and take joy in the fact that for once, participants in an auto race are openly apologizing for how awful their event was and they meant it…….
- Maybe it’s just me, but Republican state Sen. Jake Knotts of South Carolina sounds really angry. Knotts, the chief rival of Gov. Mark Sanford, has already stated his intentions to pursue a criminal prosecution of Sanford -- even if he has to go to Washington. To that end, he’s called on prosecutors to launch a criminal probe and plans to pursue an investigation in the state legislature, the state attorney general’s office and possibly a federal probe. “When you can’t get results in your own state, there is a Justice Department in Washington,” Knotts declared. “I don’t want to go that route. I want us to wash our own laundry and clean up our own act.” All right, I can get with a good laundry metaphor. But let’s carry this thing out all the way, k? You also need to rant on about throwing Sanford’s dirty laundry in the washing machine of the legal system, dumping in the detergent of due process, mixing in the bleach of justice and cleansing away the stains of gubernatorial misconduct and financial irresponsibility.
“Somebody’s gonna look at this,” Knotts said. “Somebody’s gonna look to the bottom of it and somebody’s gonna give me some answers.” Gonna give you some answers? You? Why exactly are they answering to state Sen. Jake Knotts of South Carolina? Look bro, I too would be bitter of the governor of my state had (allegedly) left the state numerous to visit his mistress in Argentina without turning over control to his second-in-command and charged taxpayers for an earlier stop in Argentina where he visited her. I think we’d all be angry about that, even if the offending governor promised to repay more than $8,000 for that stop, which Sanford has done. What seems to be fueling Knotts’ fire is that state legal officials are saying at this point they have nothing to investigate. “At this point we have not launched an investigation,” Reggie Lloyd, Director of the South Carolina law Enforcement Division, told ABC. “We don’t anticipate it unless somebody brought us new facts.” Perhaps Knotts is also livid that Sanford’s office has stated that he intends to remain in office for the remaining 18 months of his term. I can't say either of those things for certain, but what I can say is that of all the people who are upset about this situation, state Sen. Jake Knotts of South Carolina is by far the angriest and most militant person we’ve heard from……..
- When music fans and observers look back at the influential bands to come out of the Pacific Northwest during the 1990s, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and even Screaming Trees usually pop up first. A band that doesn’t receive as much recognition is pioneering Seattle rock band Sunny Day Real Estate, which put out some pretty freaking good music in the mid-90s. The problem for SDRE was that the band always seemed to be teetering on the verge of implosion and could never stick and stay together long enough to put out more than an album or two in a row. The release of 1994's "Diary" and the untitled follow-up commonly known as "LP2" or "The Pink Album" in 1995 provided some seminal indie-type rock classics, but tension was always lurking for the band. By the time the second album was released, the band had already broken up, due in part to frontman Jeremy Enigk's conversion to Christianity. Three years passed, with Enigk striking out on his own for some lighter-sounding solo releases while drummer William Goldsmith and guitarist Nate Mendel joined Foo Fighters. In 1998, the band suddenly regrouped with all of its original members - except Mendel, who remained with Foo Fighters. In his place, SDRE trotted out a steady stream of replacement bassists, none of who seemed to allow the band to fully replicate its original sound. The reconfigured SDRE recorded the acclaimed album "How It Feels to Be Something On.” The new version of the band made it all of two years and released a second album, album "The Rising Tide," before falling apart again. This time, Enigk, Mendel and Goldsmith reunited shortly after the break-up under the name Fire Theft. Fire Theft put out all of one album, 2003’s self-titled effort, but that was the end of the line for them. Enigk has since released two solo albums and an EP, the most recent of those coming out last month on his own label. Now, Sunny Day Real Estate is set to reunite with its original lineup for the first time since 1998. The band will reissue its first two albums and hit the road this fall, marking SDRE’s first shows of any kind since November 2000. Dates begin Sept. 17 in Vancouver and run through Oct. 16 in Seattle. The set lists for the shows, which will include stops in place like Salt Lake City, Detroit, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Houston and Anaheim, will be heavy on material from the band’s first two albums. “Some songs make me cringe, and some still blow me away," Enigk said 2003 during an interview about the legacy of Sunny Day Real Estate. "Some songs that made me cringe once, blow me away now.” It will be good to see the band back together and out on the road, although history would suggest that this reunion isn’t likely to be long lived……
- No matter how hard you try, you just can’t give some morons a second chance. Journey with me to the town of Watsonville. Calif., where a known gang member took less than 24 hours to throw away an incredibly generous break from a judge. Colby Isidro appeared before Judge Paul Marigonda on felony charges stemming from a December incident, but the judge decided to throw Isidro a bone and reduce the charges to misdemeanors. Isidro was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and being an active member of the Norteno street gang, so it’s amazing that Judge Marigonda treated him as kindly as he did. All Isidro had to do was serve 3 years probation and 180 days of work furlough, which is a pretty sweet deal. Don’t take my word for it; the Santa Cruz District Attorney called it a "sweet deal" as well. So what to do with new-found, unmerited freedom? How about trying to flee from the cops when they pull over your car, getting caught a ways down the road and being discovered with a loaded gun? Now he’s back where he belongs - in the clink. Isidro has been charged with possession of a loaded gun and attempting an act of street terrorism in the name of the Norteno gang. He handled his first hearing in this new case with unquestionable class and intelligence, pleading not guilty. When told that he would need to waive his right to a speedy trial if he wanted to be represented by the same attorney that had just gotten him out of a felony assault charge and gang enhancement, he replied, "No speedy trial, let's get this show on the road!" Never mind that both parts of that statement mean the same thing, idiot. Let’s focus on the fact that you managed to get yourself saddled with a public defender and when you return to court on July 10, you’re going to be facing one very pissed off judge. Perhaps this will teach Judge Marigonda a valuable lesson about trying to be lenient and giving idiots like Colby Isidro a chance to redeem themselves……..
- Color me doubtful, but I have a very tough time believing that the alleged dispatches from North Korea's state news agency showing up on Twitter are legitimate. A Twitter feed using the name "kcna—dprk" — acronyms of Pyongyang's state Korean Central News Agency and the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea — purports to be the real deal, but so do a lot of bogus Twitter feeds of famous people and entities. Whoever set up this practical joke did some serious work, as the feed provides links to hundreds of the agency's English-language stories. and rocks a background showing the North's red-and-blue national flag. News-relay feeds on Twitter are nothing new and have popped up on the site with regularity almost since its creation. Ironically, even if the Twitter feed were really from the government of North Korea, its people still would not have access to the site or the Internet itself. The dictatorial, Communist regime restricts Internet access to high-ranking officials while keeping all of its 24 million people from surfing the Web at all. Most of those people likely have no idea what Twitter is or that kcna—dprk had tweeted 562 stories since late April. Just another of the many perks and bennies to living in one of the world's most isolated nations. And as I said, there is a definite precedent for pulling this sort of stunt, pretending to be someone of importance on Twitter. Other Twitter users have operated similar news-relay feeds in the past, including one for CNN. That situation actually worked out quite well for James Cox, the man who started the feed for CNN reports under the handle "cnnbrk.” The network actually bought it from Cox, which is probably more than he deserved under the circumstances. As for "kcna—dprk," the feed has more than 2,800 followers and is following almost as many others, including one tool claiming to be North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. I doubt the legitimacy of that account even more than I doubt "kcna—dprk," given the fact that the bio for “Kim Jong Il” describes himself as "the ruler of North Korea. I like leading, chillaxin', inventing things, and following my dreams. I'm better at everything than you." While I don’t doubt that K.J. Il2 thinks he is better at everything than everyone (he once claimed to have shot ten holes-in-one during the first round of golf he ever played), let’s go ahead and assume that the dictator of a nation in possession of nuclear weapons and looking to launch WWIII isn’t using the word “chillaxin.” Nice try, though……..
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