- This isn't helping your argument that your little competition is a real sport, horse racing. I’ve long argued that horse racing isn't a sport, just like any other competition where a human being does not provide the overwhelming majority of the power. My argument is now aided by what happened during Saturday's fifth race at Belmont Park, a horse named Phone Jazz threw off her jockey, Jean-Luc Samyn, while coming out of the gate. So with no little man in a funny outfit on its back, the horse would have no clue what to do, right? Not exactly. See, Phone Jazz kept on running and after staying near the front of the pack for the entire race, the horse bolted to the lead and crossed the finish line first. It may not have counted as an official win for Phone Jazz because the rules of horse racing say the horse and the jockey have to cross the finish line together, but that doesn’t mean that this result doesn’t prove a point, namely that horse racing is not a sport. If human beings are not only an insignificant part of the physical power needed to win but totally irrelevant to the ability of the horse to cross the finish line first, I don’t see how anyone can truly call horse racing a real sport. Because Phone Jazz finished sans jockey, So Hold the Cruiser, who finished second, got the win, followed up by Favorite Colors and Properlyintroduced. I am also glad to hear that Samyn got right up off the ground and wasn’t hurt by the fall. Horse racing may not be a real sport, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be sad to hear that someone was injured while taking part in it. So another chink in your argument, horse racing fans, and I can’t say that I’m the least bit surprised………
- Here’s one tour I wont be rushing to buy a ticket for. The Cyrus family is in the business of making crappy music, whether it’s father Billy Ray and his “Achy Breaky” country garbage, daughter Miley and hr country-pop mixture that combines the worst of her dad’s genre with the worst of my most hated genre of all, mainstream pop, or older brother Trace and his faux punk/actually dance-pop band Metro Station. I once listened to Metro Station not knowing what their sound was and could not turn off the sound quickly enough. Hearing that , Metro Station will be joining Miley Cyrus on her upcoming North American trek, which begins Sept. 14, I felt a lot of different things. Shock, horror, the need for ear plugs and many other emotions coursed through me. As you might expect, the Cyrus family doesn’t share my horror. "I couldn't be more excited," Trace declared. "Honestly, I've been away from home for so long I haven't really gotten to see my family for the past two years. I'm gone on the road more than my dad (country star Billy Ray Cyrus), more than my sister. So the fact I'm gonna get to spend that much time with my family and my band, I couldn't be in a happier position. It's my dream come true; I'm gonna have everyone I love out on the road with me. It's gonna be great.” No it’ not, at least not for anyone who likes good music that isn't grossly over-produced and horrible. It may be good for you because it’ll provide a chance for some together time with little sister, but you could do that without hitting the road and subjecting people to the ear-assaulting sh*t you boh call music. Oh, and how proud Metro Station must be to following in the footsteps of other musical luminaries who have toured with Miley Cyrus, including the immortal Jonas Brothers. Making matters worse, Trace Cyrus says Metro has "well over 20 tracks" written for the follow-up to its self-titled 2007 debut and plans to hit the studio after the tour ends in December with a new release in early 2010. So there’s double-whammy for the music world, a truly awful tour followed by a truly awful album that Trace Cyrus says will be “a little more electronic, with same big pop songs that could be played on the radio.” In other words, they’ve taken what sucked about their debut album and magnified it, yippee! It’s not quite on the American Karaoke level of bad music, but it’s close……….
- One of the more bizarre golf tournaments I’ve ever seen is now over and I’m not quite sure what to make of the 2009 U.S. Open. Lucas Glover did enough to hold on in a final round where the big names, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, could never play like the world’s two best players long enough to win and in which play was suspended, postponed and prolonged by one rain delay after another. Glover ended at -4 to win by two shots over a group at -2 that was led by Mickelson and the suddenly resurgent David Duval (welcome back, D.D.). The tournament finally wrapped up this afternoon, half a day over the original schedule. That was actually much sooner than was projected at various points throughout the weekend as the skies opened up and rain fell in heavy doses on Long Island. The sight of grounds crew members pushing squeegees across the greens to squeeze out water and fans huddling under umbrellas will be forever linked to this tournament, which had a resultingly uneven feel. On none of the days, Thursday through Monday, was the traditional one round per day played. It was either a small fraction of a round, as on Thursday, or marathon days in which parts of two rounds were played, as on Saturday. Like many fans, I had heard little or nothing about Glover before this weekend, as he had won only one tournament previously. He could well go the way of former major tournament winners like Ben Curtis and Chad Campbell, who won their major only to fade right back into obscurity. Another thing that will stick with me is seeing Tiger Woods fail to sink putt after putt when he had a wide open door to stage a comeback while others ahead of him on the leaderboard faltered. He was erratic at best with the putter and more than once swung his club through the air in disgust after poor putt. That certainly wasn’t what anyone expected from the world’s best player now that he’s operating on a fully healthy knee and had won in the weeks leading up to the Open. There are still two majors left this year for Tiger to win, but unless he can putt the ball much better, he’s not going to win either of them………
- If anyone in the state of South Carolina has seen its governor, they might want to alert him to the fact that everyone is wondering where he is. Seems that Gov. Mark Sanford has mysteriously disappeared after a rugged session with the state legislature. According to that South Carolina law enforcement officials, the governor took a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division vehicle on Thursday and as of yet, hasn’t returned. Even his wife, Jenny, doesn’t know where Sanford is. What’s odd is that Sanford's office doesn’t seem all that rattled by his disappearance. Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said Sanford “put in a lot of time during this last legislative session, and after the session winds down it's not uncommon for him to go out of pocket for a few days at a time to clear his head.” Still, it just strikes me as peculiar that the guy’s wife doesn’t have a clue where he’s at. Also not a good sign that after knocking heads with the state legislature, this guy goes AWOL for a few days. I appreciate the need to clear one’s head as much as anyone, but if you’re going to be in such a high-profile position, you have to be able to handle it better than the average person. If this is a regular thing, as his staff seems to be indicating, that’s a bad sign. The governor can’t be burning out or running away when the big, bad legislature is mean to him. So take your time off, Gov. Sanford, recharge those batteries, but let’s try to make this less of a regular occurrence so your constituents can benefit from that governing they elected (and are paying) you to do……..
- The legal system isn't exactly cracking the whip on singer Chris Brown after he beat the crap out of girlfriend Rihanna. Brown and his legal team have struck a plea deal under which he will serve five years of probation and must serve 180 days in jail or the equivalent -- about 1,400 hours -- in "labor-oriented service," said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office. Ooh, not probation and community service, anything but that! What an amazing country we live in that you can have your special lady friend inside a moving vehicle, beat the crap out of her, threaten her and thwart her attempts to call for help and not go to jail. And no, I don’t care that Brown must also undergo a year-long domestic-violence counseling class, because that’s not exactly hard time behind bars. Those in and around the case insist that Brown's sentence is comparable to other felony sentences when the defendant has no previous record, but if that’s the case then our legal system is even more broken than I thought. All Brown must do in terms of his probation officer is to check in with him or her every three months. A dude should not be able to assault and make criminal threats to their girlfriend and not go to jail. Brown even pleaded guilty to one count of assault with the intent of doing great bodily injury, yet he’s getting off extremely light. In case you’ve forgotten the details of the incident in question, Brown and Rihanna were driving in rented Lamborghini on a Hollywood street in February when she found a text message from an old girlfriend in his phone and flipped out. He went on a rampage, hitting and kicking her and throwing her cell phone out the window when she attempted to call for help. Like many battered, abused women, Rihanna did not file a complaint against Brown, but police were able to build a case based on what she told detectives and on physical evidence collected from her, including photographs of her bruised and battered face. Thankfully, Los Angeles Criminal Court Judge Patricia Schnegg stepped into at least protect her from that which she seems unwilling to protect herself from. Schnegg issued a "stay away" order to Brown, requiring him to stay 100 yards from Rihanna. In keeping with her typical battered woman behavior, Rihanna had requested that such an order not be issued. Schnegg smartly refused that request, although she did revise it to 50 yards -- 10 yards if the two are at the same "industry event" together. The judge will also allow Brown to have his supervised probation and community service moved to his native state of Virginia, another lenient gesture by the court. Hopefully he will take his fortunate breaks from this case, make use of the counseling and guidance being given to him and cease to be a woman-beater. I have my doubts, but I’d love to be proven wrong……..
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