- Props to the Cleveland Cavaliers for at least trying to do something to improve their team after getting completely and totally overmatched in the Eastern Conference finals this season. It’s about four months late and it’s a move that isn't actually going to help them win an NBA championship next season or any other season, but at least they’re trying. Of course, I’m referring to the trade of also-rans Ben Wallace, who may or may not still alive at this point, and Sasha Pavlovic for the aging, out-of-shape Shaquille O’Neal. The trade for Shaq allows the Cavs and their fans to think that they’re doing something to improve their team after the Orlando Magic soundly throttled them in the playoffs this season. Never mind that the Cavs should have made a trade – they even discussed this very deal – before the NBA trade deadline in February. They had an expiring contract to trade in Wally Sczerbiak and probably could have found someone willing to give them a valuable contributor using Sczerbiak and a few other pieces. Instead, GM Danny Ferry and his crew elected to stand pat and go forward with the team they had. We all saw the result of that and now the Cavs are making a move to bring a 37-year-old guy with a body that is probably closer to 47 years old, with tons of mileage on it and who clearly hasn’t made any significant effort to stay in shape over the years. O’Neal has become an increasingly bitter, contentious guy who seems unable to deal with the fact that he just can’t dominate games the way he used to. Sure, he averaged 18 points and eight rebounds a game for Phoenix this past season, but don’t let the numbers obscure your view of the truth. Shaq no longer dominates games the way he once did and there is no way he can stay on the floor for prolonged periods of time. He’ll come into Cleveland with a lot of fanfare and perhaps even the glowing approval of LeBron James, but anyone who thinks that the Cavs will win the NBA championship next season if they don’t make other moves besides this one are begging. Give this one a passing grade for effort on the Cavs’ part an a failing grade everywhere else – i.e. the places it counts……….
- This is exactly what I like to see. When one country stumbles and can’t keep up its end of the drug-producing load for the world, other countries have to step their game up. For years, Colombia has been the lead dog in terms of supplying the world with its drugs, specifically cocaine. The Colombians have dominated in distributing blow and that fact has undoubtedly been a source of immense pride for the entire country. However, the United Nations reported this week that coca cultivation and cocaine production have decreased in Colombia. That’s bad news, because your friendly neighborhood coke heads won't be quite as friendly if their supply dries up and prices skyrocket. However, there is good news in this seemingly terrible story. Even though Colombian cultivation was down 18 percent and production decreased 28 percent in 2008, Bolivia and Peru have risen to the occasion by upping their contributions to the world of narcotics. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime issued a report Friday saying that cultivation increased 6 percent in Bolivia and 4.5 percent in Peru, while production went up 9 percent in Bolivia and 4.1 percent in Peru. One nation may not be able to fill the gap left when Colombia falls short, but when two nations like Bolivia and Peru team up, the burden is lessened. "The increases for Bolivia and Peru show a trend in the wrong direction," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. drug office. Not really, Antonio. You’re looking at this the wrong way and I am here to help you get your focus right. While you might think that the manual eradication of 237 acres of coca, an increase of 44 percent over 2007, and the spraying of another 328 acres with herbicide are good things, but not so. See, having production levels at a 10-year low isn’t going to eliminate the Colombian nose candy from the world - it’s simply going to create problems when people can't get their coke or have to pay more for it. Various government and law enforcement groups can celebrate the fact that the value of coca leaf in Colombia is decreasing, but they are deluding themselves if they think that this is a fight they can win. Sure, it’s less attractive for farmers in Colombia to grow coca plants, but there will always be someone else there to meet the demand. Bolivia and Peru are just the tip of the cocaine iceberg; other nations will stand tall and help fill the void as well. It may have nothing to do with a sense of being neighborly and helping out when your fellow coke producers trip up, but the end result is that there will be product there and the system will keep chugging along……..
- Is there anyone who hasn’t made a sex tape at some point in their life? Seriously, when even the irrelevant, cougar-like cast members of crappy reality shows like "Real Housewives of New Jersey” are having to go to court to prevent the release of sex tapes starring themselves, this trned has gone too far. Having never seen any of Bravo's “Real Housewives” shows (I think there are currently 17 and that Bravo is attempting to surpass the record for variations on a single series, currently held by CBS with “CSI”), I have no idea who Danielle Staub, of Wayne, N.J. is and if not for this story, I would still have no idea. However, now that Staub has gone to court to stop her ex-husband, Stephen Zalewski, from releasing a sex tape of the couple, I at least know that Staub is a freak - although I really knew that already by virtue of her being on a reality show. It doesn’t even matter if the sex tape was made by your spouse, because who makes a tape of themselves having sex? You were there, you know what it looks like and feels like. Why would you want anyone else to see you having sex unless you’re a freak? But if you are dumb enough to make a sex tape, go ahead and assume that someone is going to publish or “leak” it at some point. Perhaps Zalewski was looking for revenge on his wife after their divorce or maybe he was jealous of her “fame” and wanted to capitalize on it by putting out this tape. He attempted to distributing explicit photos and a sex tape from their time together, but Staub sued for invasion of privacy, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress and won the case in Passaic County Court. Her case was based on claims that she was unknowingly videotaped and photographed while having sex, which the judge apparently believed. Do I believe that? Not really. Then again, the judge in the case didn’t exactly slam the door on Zalewski’s quest to release the video and pictures. Instead, he merely ordered an injunction banning the release of any sex video or racy pictures pending a hearing next month. As for the possible motive of releasing the materials, what does Mr. Zalewski have to say about it? Well, last week he told Star magazine last week that Staub "cost me so much money, why shouldn't I make a few dollars?” Again, I’ve never watched "Real Housewives of New Jersey,” but from what I have heard, Staub is cryptic and secretive about her past on the show. She has admitted to being arrested and changing her name after a 1996 book titled "Cop Without a Badge” was published about Zalewski and alleged that she had ties to prostitution, a kidnapping plot, and a $24,000 dollar drug deal gone awry. Other allegations against her include being part of a prostitution ring and having an even larger role in a variety of other illegal activities. All in all, she sounds like a quality person, no? Just the kind of person you’d expect to end up on a sex tape……..
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Iran has truly been Riot Central of late, with near non-stop riots in Tehran and other cities around the nation. The upheaval over the bogus, fraudulent re-election of dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made the streets of Iran’s capital quite possibly the most dangerous place in the world to be. That hasn’t stopped an unlikely group from joining in on the riot fun: Iranian clerics. When your local religious officials jump in on the rioting, you know you’ve got something big going on. It was true when Tibetan monks spearheaded the riots and protests in Tibet last year and it’s true here as a group of Mullahs took to the streets of Tehran to protest election results. No one knows whether these clerics voted for Ahmadinejad or one of the opposition candidates, but the most important thing is that they are willing to defy the will of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who threw down the gauntlet by declaring all anti-election demonstrations illegal. When the country’s conservative clerics, its the guardians of the Islamic revolution and its ideologies decide to jump in and riot, the world takes notice. These guys are ranked only below God and Iran's supreme leader in the Islamic food chain. Now we’re left to wait and see how the country’s military and police will react to the clerics rioting. Will they violently abuse, beat and kill them as they have done to the rest of the protestors? It will be tough to see, given the fact that the Iranian government is attempting to permit any pictures or video of their gross and ongoing abuses of power from getting out. They’re demanding that news outlets report only positive stories that support the current regime or else get out of Iran, so discovering the truth will be tough. I am not Muslim, but I give the clerics of the Islamic Republic props for speaking up for people's right to voice their opinion and in support of new elections. Chief among these brave souls is Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, who described government efforts to crackdown on the protests as threatening the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic because it was no longer representing all the people. Men like this add yet another layer and much more texture to an already fascinating story of a people fed up with their government and willing to put their lives on the line to speak out and create change. Well done, all Iranian dissidents, I salute you…….
- Wondering where your good friend hypocrisy has been lately? If you haven’t seen hypocrisy around much, it’s probably because that tool Jon Gosselin has bee totally monopolizing hypocrisy’s time. See, you might remember that a couple of weeks ago, this clown angrily proclaimed that the state of his marriage to wife/fellow attention whore Kate was “a private matter” even though I explicitly explained that saying such a thing AFTER being on reality television is the ultimate contradiction. It was then I felt that Jon G. couldn’t take hypocrisy to any higher heights – and of course I was wrong. What says stay out of my private business and marriage quite like announcing your divorce on TV? Because that’s what Jon and Kate did this week on the most recent episode of their TLC reality show, telling the world that they had decided to end things. But wait, I thought your marriage was private and that you wanted people to respect that. This makes no sense. See, if I was angry about people prying into what I felt was a private area of my life, know what I wouldn’t do? Yup, I would not announce my divorce on TELEVISION! It’s like this tool is saying, “Yo, you all need to back off, this is a matter between my wife and I, so give us – wait, hang on a minute. Know what? We’re getting divorced, cue up those cameras and make sure you record this.” The future of the show itself is unclear, as the current “season” will keep on going, but after that…..it’s not known whether TLC will try to string this thing out any further. If they mercifully decide to kill the series, that will be the one positive thing to come out of this divorce, if there can be such a thing. The less of my man Jonny G. I have in my life, the better………
No comments:
Post a Comment