- Here is the ultimate illustration of why nothing that happens before the first snap of the college football season matters at all. As the Southeastern Conference held its media days (yes, days as in plural, more than one), the big “controversy” was which SEC coach had the audacity to not vote for All-Everything University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow as first team preseason all-SEC. Only one coach committed this horrific offense, but it led to a freaking witch hunt that occurred with a frightening intensity and scrutiny. Coach after coach took to the podium and denied that he was the one who voted Mississippi's Jevan Snead as the first-team quarterback, and not Tebow. Every coach in the conference said on the record or confirmed through a spokesperson that he voted for Tebow - except for former UF coach and current South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier. The Old Ball Coach finally solved the mystery by admitting that he was the one who snubbed Florida's Tim Tebow in the coaches' voting on the preseason All-SEC team. However, the OBC then tried to pass it off as an innocent mistake that happened because his director of football operations had filled out the ballot and brought it in to him rather than Spurrier filling it out himself. It seems wrong that some staffer would fill out the ballot for a coaches’ poll, but the reality is that it’s done that way by nearly every coach in every sport at every school who votes for one of these polls or teams. Spurrier shoved his director of football operations under the bus before then trying to step back in and deflect some of the blame on himself. "I take full responsibility," he said, emphasizing that he believed Tebow to be one of the best quarterbacks in Florida history. "I'm embarrassed about it, I feel badly about it ... I apologize to Tim Tebow." He explained that he glanced at the ballot quickly before approving it, but that he didn’t realize the mistake of omitting Tebow until later. Spurrier then called SEC associate commissioner Charles Bloom and asked that his ballot be changed to include Tebow as the first-team quarterback. All of this…..well, it couldn’t be more ridiculous. These preseason teams are the most ginormous waste of time, a meaningless exercise based solely on reputation. Unless these coaches somehow have become clairvoyants and can predict the future, who they think is the best player at the start of the season could not matter less. I realize that there are no games to talk about yet and everyone is raring to get their football fix, but perhaps it’s time to take it down a notch so that we don’t end up wasting time talking about things as absurd and irrelevant as this……….
- It’s a sad day for both beer drinkers and for people in Lawrenceville, Pa. After nearly 150 years, the Iron City brewery has closed its door and will no longer be bottling beer. Friday marked the final day of kegging at the Lawrenceville location, where production started in 1868. The plant’s 51 workers will soon be without a job once the plant winds down operations, cleans up and turns out the lights. "Everybody is just kind of down. Because not only did a lot of the guys work here, but their brothers worked here and their fathers worked here. And there's a couple their grandfathers (who) worked here," said Don Conners, an employee who has worked for the company for 30 years. The plant will now relocate to the City Brewing Company plant in Latrobe, where president and CEO Tim Hickman feels it will be more financially viable. "For us to keep these brands alive we had to move. If we would try and stay on this plant, those brands would go away," Hickman said. By making the move, Iron City will be able to increase production from 170,000 barrels a year to 1 million. Hickman also said that staying in Lawrenceville would have meant spending millions of dollars to keep the plant running. For its final act as an operating plant, the Lawrenceville facility processed 120 half kegs for its last batch of beer. Over the next few months, the company will undertake the process of decommissioning the plant -- turning off the power and sanitizing the equipment. “(After) 147 years it's going to take us awhile to go square foot by square foot, room by room, to shut this place down,” Hickman said. Sympathies to the people of Lawrenceville and especially the plant’s former employees for what has to be an incredibly difficult loss, let’s everyone toss back a cold one in their honor…….
- Reality TV, ruining lives the whole world ‘round. It’s true in the United States and it’s certainly true in Saudi Arabia, where a Saudi man was arrested after bragging about his sex life on television. Mazen Abdul Jawad went on a show called "Red Line" on Lebanese channel LBC, where he shared "graphic details about his sexual conquests.” A segment of the show has made its way to YouTube (of course it has) and the clip shows Abdul Jawad talking about sex and foreplay. He also shares a very charming story about losing his virginity to a neighbor while he was 14. That was probably a bad play in Saudi Arabia, an extremely conservative nation where pre-marital sex is illegal and unrelated men and women are not allowed to mingle. When asked about the situation involving Abdul Jawad, Ahmad Qasim Al-Ghamdi, director of Mecca's branch of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, sounded a wee bit upset. "It is wrong to host people on television to speak publicly about vice and issues against our religion," said Al-Ghamdi, one of the top officials for a group also known as the country’s religious police. "The program presents anomalies and deviancy in society that are unacceptable and immoral, and should be punished according to Shariah." Amazingly, more than 100 people have filed a complaint against Abdul Jawad, alleging among other things, that he violated a principle of Shariah law by "publicizing his sinful behavior." In other words, these people are actively looking to narc out one of their own because of something he said on a TV show in another country. Way to stick together and look out for one another, Saudis………….
- All aboard the gravy train! “Batman: The Dark Knight” was a ridiculously successful smash at the box office and once it went to DVD/Blu-Ray, so why wouldn’t the video game world try to cash in on the money-making? Emmy-winning TV writer Paul Dini is the man making that push after creating "Batman: Arkham Asylum," a video game coming out in late August. He’s taken the popular characters from the movie and incorporated them into a dark, movie-like game that is already creating a lot of buzz among fans. They’re clearly eager to enjoy the adventure of Batman and his most notorious nemesis, the Joker doing battle. “This is the Batman movie I would have liked to have written," said Dini. "This is him with all the good stuff." He drummed up some additional buzz for the game by taking part in the Legion of Dorks, er, Comi-Con convention in San Diego over the weekend. According to Dini, the game pits Batman against Joker after the villain traps him inside Arkham Asylum, which played a key role in “Batman Returns,” which preceded “Dark Knight” in the revival of the previously tired “Batman” franchise. Of course, Arkham is Gotham's psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. In the game the Joker first traps Batman inside the asylum and then releases the inmates, including some of Batman's most ferocious enemies: Bane, Harley Quinn, Mr. Zsasz, Poison Ivy and Killer Croc. Video games are nothing new to the Batman franchise, as there have been numerous projects over the past two-plus decades. However, "Arkham Asylum" is by far the most detailed and ambitious attempt to this point. It will be released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Windows by Rocksteady Studios. Although the game does draw from the last two movies and characters made popular in previous films, Dini has no direct tie-in to any one movie and was thus allowed to craft an original story from his own imagination. He had plenty to draw from, having worked on Batman comic books and written episodes of "Batman: The Animated Series" and later, "Batman Beyond." Oh, and he’s also written for the ABC’s hit "Lost," so he has that going for him as well. Dini has channeled some star power for his game too, with the Joker voiced by Mark Hamill, a.k.a. Luke Skywalker in the "Star Wars" franchise. So will the game live up to the hype once it officially debuts? The jury is still out on that one, but Dini definitely has the credentials to create a winner……..
- Richard Lee is my kind of guy. The resident of Oakland, Calif. is one of the leaders of the charge to legalize pot in the state of California and he’s not shy about promoting his cause. He’s the founder of Oaksterdam University, which he describes as a trade school that specializes in how to grow, market and consume the hippie lettuce. Lee claims some 3,500 graduates from his stoner school and also owns a medical marijuana dispensary, a coffee house, a large indoor marijuana plantation, and a museum/store devoted to the cause of legalizing marijuana. “I really see this as following the history of alcohol. The way prohibition was repealed there,” Lee states. To that end, Lee is spearheading a petition drive to place a marijuana legalization measure on the ballot in 2010. Furthermore, he is confident that such a measure has an excellent chance of being approved by voters and he just may be right. A recent California Field Poll showed that more than half the people in the state would approve of decriminalizing pot. See, I knew there was a reason I loved Californians. It’s the biggest win-win of all-time, because legalizing the chronic could generate an estimated $1 billion a year in state taxes and weed would instantly become California's No. 1 cash crop. It could even inspire other states to follow suit and in a short time, we could be a nation of stoners. Lee has a kindred spirit in Democratic State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who is driving a cannabis legalization bill in the California Assembly. His primary motivation appears to be the tax revenues, which is a) not surprising given him being a politician and b) totally irrelevant. I don’t give a damn why someone supports legalizing pot as long as they support legalizing pot. But what I also love about Ammiano is that he has a grander vision for bringing pot to the masses. “It could be a Walgreens, it could be a hospital, a medical marijuana facility, whatever could be convenient. Adequate enforcement of the rules. Nobody under 21. No driving under the influence,” he explained. I’m choosing to overlook that comment about no one under 21 and strictly enforcing rules, because we all know those things will fall by the wayside anyhow should this bill pass. Those who want tree will get tree whether they are old enough or not. So what does the Gover-nator, Ah-nold Schwarzenegger, think of the idea? Amazingly, he says legalizing marijuana deserves serious consideration. “I think we ought to study very carefully what other countries are doing that have legalized marijuana," Schwarzenegger says. Hmm, so if the governor is on board and there is a legislator willing to introduce the bill, what’s the hang-up? According to Ammiano, legalizing the hippie lettuce is tough because his fellow legislators worry about what the public would think if they publicly supported such a bill. “If we held the vote in the hallway, we'd have it done," Ammiano says. "But people are necessarily cautious. They are up for re-election.” For that reason, he believes there is a much better chance of voters pushing the issue through than there is of their elected representatives getting the job done. Still, Paul Chabot, president of the Coalition for a Drug Free California. This ass-hated square is standing up against this wonderful idea and claiming that promises of economic benefits are pipe dreams. “It's their way of sort of desensitizing our communities, our state and our nation to a drug problem that we clearly need to put our foot down on, and say, 'No more. Enough is enough.'” Sorry Paul, maybe you should try taking that stick out of your ass and saying that again, because I didn’t understand you. Don’t ruin something beautiful with your overly conservative, behind-the-times thinking. You and your views are antiquated and out of touch, period. Embrace that view that most of your fellow Californians have come to accept, namely that herb is not going away and it’s time the state made some money from it………
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