- Who doesn’t like their NBA television broadcast with a dash of blatant racism? For viewers of the Los Angeles Clippers’ game against the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center Friday, the broadcast on Fox Sports Prime Ticket cable network contained heavy doses of racial insensitivity, stupidity, ignorance and bigotry. Those qualities came courtesy of longtime Clippers play-by-play announcer Ralph Lawler and color analyst Michael Smith, who were suspended one game by the for their comments about Memphis center Hamed Haddadi. Late in the game, Haddadi, who is Iranian, entered the game and when he did, let’s just say Lawler and Smith weren’t exactly spouting top-notch basketball analysis. Let’s read the transcript from the broadcast:
Smith: "Look who's in."
Lawler: "Hamed Haddadi. Where's he from?"
Smith: "He's the first Iranian to play in the NBA." (Smith pronounced Iranian as "Eye-ranian,” grade-A racist style)
Lawler: "There aren't any Iranian players in the NBA," repeating Smith's mispronunciation.
Smith: "He's the only one."
Lawler: "He's from Iran?"
Smith: "I guess so."
Lawler: "That Iran?"
Smith: "Yes."
Lawler: "The real Iran?"
Smith: "Yes."
Lawler: "Wow. Haddadi that's H-A-D-D-A-D-I."
Smith: "You're sure it's not Borat's older brother?"
Smith: "If they ever make a movie about Haddadi, I'm going to get Sacha Baron Cohen to play the part."
Lawler: "Here's Haddadi. Nice little back-door pass. I guess those Iranians can pass the ball."
Smith: "Especially the post players.
Lawler: "I don't know about their guards."
Gotta love how Lawler was magnanimous enough to admit that although he his stereotyping the passing skills of Iranian post players, he’s not sure about their guards. Very big of you, Ralph. Also, as insensitive as these comments are, if you are going to let your inner racist out on the air, at least make sure your cultural references are accurate. In other words, you tools tried to crack Borat jokes about an Iranian player when Borat, the fictional character created by Sascha Baren Cohen in one of the most overrated movies of all-time, was from Kazakhstan. Nice try, morons. Not surprisingly, a viewer took offense to the comments and e-mailed the network, which reviewed the exchange and decided to suspend Lawler and Smith for one game. Lawler, 71, is in his 31st season doing Clippers games, and Smith is in his 12th. Somehow, in 2,400-plus games of broadcasting Clippers games, Lawler managed to suppress both his inner bigot and inner moron enough to avoid any comments along the lines of his cracks about Haddadi. The one-game suspension meant that Lawler and Smith did not work Friday’s game against Denver, leaving Michael Eaves and Don MacLean, who regularly serve as halftime and postgame analysts on the Clippers telecasts, to fill in. In announcing the suspension, Fox also made sure to issue a statement denouncing the comments while also voicing support for their two embattled broadcasters. “We regret the remarks made by Clippers announcers Michael Smith and Ralph Lawler during Wednesday's telecast," Fox said in a statement about 2½ hours before the game. "While we believe that Michael and Ralph did not intend their exchange to be offensive, the comments were inappropriate. "We extend our apologies to Hamed Haddadi of the Memphis Grizzlies and to anyone who was offended. We have addressed the situation with Michael and Ralph and have taken appropriate action.” Thanks for that, Fox, although if it’s all the same to you, I’d prefer my basketball broadcasts without blatant racism from here on out………
- Journey with me to the great state of Vermont, where one escaped prison inmate can thank none other than toothpaste for helping to facilitate his jail break. Robert Hale is an inmate at the Sullivan County Jail – albeit on a bit of a sabbatical as of this moment – who took advantage of a new multi-million dollar expansion project at the jail and some decidedly McGyver-like ingenuity to make his escape. Jail officials say Hale used a piece of metal to carve out a hole in the ceiling of his jail cell and by channeling his inner Andy Dufresne (The Shawshank Redemption, still an all-time great movie), he was able to cover the hole using toothpaste during the weeks he worked on it. While Tim Robbins’ character used giant posters of famous actresses to cover the hole he carved in the wall, Hale used what he had on hand and the toothpaste clearly did the job. "He proceeded through the sheet rock ceiling, gained egress into a new area of the jail that just got completed construction and upon getting into that area, found his way out through a window," explained Ross Cunningham, the superintendent of the Sullivan County Jail. If you are in the area of the Sullivan County Jail and wondering how concerned you should be about an escaped convict roaming free, I’d advise you not to panic. Hale was awaiting trial for armed robbery, but law enforcement officials do not believe he is dangerous. They do advise you to contact the police immediately if you spot him, although I’m guessing he won’t be sporting that orange prison jumpsuit he was wearing the last time he was seen by jail personnel.
- I am a little disappointed right now in the 70 students at UC Santa Cruz in California who caved in to The Man and surrendered the administration building they had occupied for three days rather than be arrested for the cause they claim to support, stopping the recently passed tuition increase for all state schools by the California Board of Regents. The students faced arrest if they stayed inside the building, but what makes your point better than images of angry students being led from an administration building in handcuffs while shouting at the cameras and inciting the crowd? No, it doesn’t make me feel any better that university officials claimed in a statement that, "students who participated in this incident face possible criminal and/or student judicial sanctions." The protesting students did leave a nice parting gift, as Kerr Hall, the Santa Cruz campus' administration building, won't be ready for its normal duties Monday because some areas were damaged and left in disarray. Photographs from the scene show trash scattered about, a moved refrigerator, broken tables and other items used to barricade doors. The occupation began shortly after the regents board approved a 32 percent increase in tuition Thursday. The standoff dragged on until 6:30 a.m. PST Sunday, when campus police presented the protesters with an ultimatum: vacate the building or face arrest. Faced with this choice, the protestors meekly left Kerr Hall and meandered over to Kresge Town Hall, a campus meeting place where students have been "hanging out" for several days. Police did muscle up on a group of about 30 protesters sitting in front of the doors to Kerr Hall, “forcibly” moving them from their location. At present, the students say that they have no plans to occupy another building, which is sad. They insist that they will continue to push the administration to implement their earlier demands, including asking that the campus be a "safe space" for undocumented students who fear detainment from immigration officials and assuring that no more school employees will be laid off. I sincerely hope that the outrage over the tuition hikes and budget cuts doesn’t fizzle out, because the students have a definite case here and they need to press it. No one believes that the $505 million to be raised by the tuition increase will actually help to prevent even deeper cuts than those already made due to the state’s ongoing financial crisis, as stare officials seem to believe. The protestors are right when they argue that the hike will hurt working and middle-class students. By next fall, tuition would rise to $10,302 a semester, which is far, far more than most students can afford. Plus, students who live on campus could pay up to an estimated $17,200 in additional fees, which include the annual cost of books and housing. That’s enough to piss off any non-wealthy student, especially when the January increase of about 15 percent is more than double the average public university tuition hike last year and two-and-a-half times the national average of a 6.5 percent increase at four-year colleges and universities. Protest on, California university students, protest on…………
- Three very different Thanksgiving dinners marked tonight’s episode of Heroes. The most intense of the three took place at the Sullivan Bros. carnival, where Samuel Sullivan and his merry band of freaks gathered to celebrate. Not everyone was in a celebratory mood, especially not Hiro Nakamura. With Samuel still refusing to tell him where and when in time he banished Hiro’s beloved lady friend Charlie to, Hiro is torn on what to do. He can’t harm Samuel or upset him because then he may never find out where Charlie is. Lydia, the Tattooed Woman, and Edgar, the super-speed, knife-wielding maniac, see Hiro’s dissent and ask him what’s amiss. He tells them and they decide to exploit his emotional state. Lydia invites Hiro to her living area and tries to charm him into helping her. She promises that she can use her power to help him, but she needs him to take her back in time eight weeks ago to the night when Samuel’s brother Joseph was murdered. Hiro agrees and they travel back to the carnival eight weeks in the past, where they see the scene that unfolds after Mohinder Suresh’s visit to Joseph. Samuel, who has overheard the entire talk, confronts Joseph and the two walk to a meadow outside the carnival grounds to talk. Lydia and Hiro follow and watch Samuel berate Joseph from hiding the secret of his true power from him. Joseph explains that he did it to protect Samuel and the world from the all-powerful menace he could become, but Samuel won't hear of it. He demands to see the film that Mohinder spoke of, but when Joseph admits he told Mohinder to burn it, an enraged Samuel uses his power to levitate a stone and send it hurtling through the air, right through Joseph’s throat. The blow kills Joseph almost instantly, but he lives long enough for Samuel to hold his dying brother in his arms. Just then, Samuel hears Hiro and Lydia in the bushes nearby and goes to find the source of the sound. Hiro tries to teleport away but fails initially. He succeeds just in time to escape before being found by Samuel, taking he and Lydia back to the present, where the carnival’s Thanksgiving dinner is taking place. Lydia and Hiro share the truth of Joseph’s murder with Edgar and plan to reveal the truth to the rest of the “family” at dinner. However, Hiro has second thoughts because upsetting Samuel might mean that he will never see Charlie again. Samuel has plans of his own and tells the group that they have a traitor among them, the person who murdered Joseph. Edgar stands up and calls him a fraud, but when he cites Hiro’s trip to the past as his evidence for htat claim and Hiro won't back him up, Samuel presses the attack against Edgar. He accuses Edgar of being the one who killed Joseph and attempts to take him out by levitating stones and sending them crashing into Edgar from behind, but Hiro stops time and freezes everyone but himself and Edgar. Hiro advises Edgar to flee, saying that the time for revenge against Samuel will come – just not now. Samuel soon realizes what Hiro has done, but that only emboldens Hiro to stand up to him. He threatens to leave unless Samuel tells him where and when Charlie is, but Samuel won’t cave. Instead, he summons one of his “family” members, the dreadlocked man who operates the hall of mirrors, to jump Hiro from behind and do some sort of mind-altering with his own power. Samuel expects this to somehow wipe Hiro’s memory or otherwise prevent him from leaving, but just the opposite happens. Hiro mumbles some bizarre Star Trek-related lingo and teleports away to points unknown. The unknown also rules the day at the Petrelli family Thanksgiving dinner at Peter’s apartment in New York. Peter, mom Angela and brother Nathan all gather for dinner but with the lingering question of whether Nathan is really himself or just his memories forced into Sylar’s body hangs over the proceedings. Angela insists on enjoying a nice holiday meal and promises to walk out and never talk to her sons again if they don’t comply. Peter and Nathan insist on the truth and somewhere between turkey and pie, they hear the story of Matt Parkman force-feeding Nathan’s memories into Sylar’s body last season. Within moments, Nathan grabs a knife off the table as Angela begins to pick it up and cryptically implies that Sylar is still somewhere inside his body. As Peter and Angela look on in horror, Nathan is engulfed in a storm of lightning and electricity and when the fireworks end, he gets up off the ground and has turned back into Sylar. Sylar proceeds to hold his two “guests” captive with his powers of telepathy while wolfing down plenty of Thanksgiving grub. He then looks to make good on his previous vow to kill Angela by his patented M.O. of slicing her head open with his telepathic finger of death, but somehow a part of Nathan is still inside his body and prevents him from finishing the deed. Peter and Angela plead with Nathan to fight back and it works, with Sylar’s body morphing back into Nathan. He then rushes from the apartment, headed for an unknown destination. Peter vows to find him (and does, judging by next week’s preview), somehow get his brother back and if that’s not possible, to exact revenge on Sylar. On a lighter note, the Bennet family gathers at H.R.G.’s D.C.-area apartment for Thanksgiving dinner with a couple of added guests. Noah Bennet, a.k.a. H.R.G., finds out that ex-wife Sandra is bringing her new boyfriend Doug, an über-annoying tool who is also a dog breeder. In response, H.R.G. tracks down and invites former Company co-worker Lauren (with whom he had a brief affair once that was never revealed to anyone) to dinner. He also talks Claire into coming and everyone shows up for a nice meal that is quickly derailed when Claire confesses that she doesn’t have much to be thankful for and is considering dropping out of school. Both of her parents argue vehemently against this idea, even after Claire admits that she feels like a freak who doesn’t fit in at college. That inspires Doug to chime in even though he has no idea what he’s talking about, which then prompts Claire to take a knife, slice her arm open and show off her power to heal instantly in order to prove what an idiot Doug is. He faints on the spot, giving H.R.G. and Claire a few moments alone to chat while Sandra and Lauren tend to Doug. H.R.G. shows Claire the litany of information he’s been collecting on Samuel Sullivan, including the compass that Samuel sent Edgar to take from him (a compass that we learned Joseph sent to H.R.G. so he could find the carnival and take Samuel into custody). He also unveils a nice surprise for Claire – her former roommate Gretchen, who moved out when life with Claire become too stressful to handle. Gretchen now admits she’d consider moving back in together and that she misses hanging out. The rest of dinner goes off without a hitch, but when Claire and Gretchen depart in Gretchen’s car, Claire reveals that she’s stolen H.R.G.’s compass and with their two-day break from school, she wants to use it to find the Sullivan Bros. carnival (which, one again judging by next week’s preview, she does). So that’s all for this week, until next time………
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