An ill-advised perspective on Haiti, Riot Watch! in Venezuela and the demise of Ugly Betty

- There are a lot of different perspectives on the ongoing crisis in Haiti. Depending on which news network you prefer, the slant you’re getting on the situation will be varied and skewed in a certain direction. But you could watch every cable and broadcast news network out there and I doubt you would find anyone thinking or at least willing to admit they are thinking the same thing that former NBA player (stints with the Atlanta Hawks and Phoenix Suns as well as several years playing abroad) and now ex-ESPN blogger Paul Shirley is thinking about the crisis. Shirley, who wrote mainly about music and pop culture for ESPN.com (and whose work I was a fan of, sharing a lot of similar music/indie rock tastes), has been fired from his job at ESPN following a controversial blog entry about Haiti that appeared on another Web site Shirley writes for called the Flip Collective. He began his blog entry by stating, “I do not know if what I’m about to write makes me a monster. I haven’t donated a cent to the Haitian relief effort … And I probably will not.”” After that, Shirley went on to state that he hasn’t donated to the Haitian relief effort for the same reasons he does not give money to panhandlers and homeless people he passes on the street. “I don’t think the guy with the sign that reads ‘Need Your Help’ is going to do anything constructive with the dollar I might give him,” Shirley wrote. “If I use history as my guide, I don’t think the people of Haiti will do much with my money either. In this belief I am, evidently, alone.” Those are some harsh words, but had he stopped there, it’s unlikely Shirley would have gotten into much, if any, trouble with anyone. Unfortunately for Shirley, he was just getting started. His most offensive comments came in a portion of his post written as a direct, extremely sarcastic letter to the people of Haiti. “First of all, kudos on developing the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Your commitment to human rights, infrastructure, and birth control should be applauded,” he wrote. “As we prepare to assist you in this difficult time, a polite request: If it’s possible, could you not re-build your island home in the image of its predecessor? Could you not resort to the creation of flimsy shanty- and shack-towns … and could some of you maybe use a condom once in a while.” Wowsers. The condom blast was way over the top and there is actually a much better way to say everything he just said and get your outrage and unhappiness across without being a total a-hole. Heck, you could even keep some of the sarcasm in there if you feel like you don’t want to totally neuter your writing or soften your tone too much. The truth is that some of Shirley’s fundamental sentiments may actually ring true with certain people, but the way in which he presented them was so douche-baggish and crass that even those who might be inclined to agree with him will want nothing to do with the guy. ESPN couldn’t distance itself from his fast enough, posting a statement on ESPN.com that read: "He was a part-time freelance contributor. The views he expressed on another site of course do not at all reflect our company's views on the Haiti relief efforts. He will no longer contribute to ESPN." No word on Shirley’s next move, but he is actually a smart and well-read guy who could be a great contributor to a group or media outlet willing to look past this incident. Feel free to use this as an opportunity to grow and understand the social climate in which you like, P. Shirley…………

- If you are a fan of ABC’s fashion-themed drama/comedy "Ugly Betty," my advice to you is to enjoy the remainder of this season – the show’s fourth – as much as possible. That’s because the show’s fourth season will also be its last one, as the network has announced that the ratings-challenged series will end at the close of this season. “We’ve mutually come to the difficult decision to make this 'Ugly Betty’s' final season, and are announcing now as we want to allow the show ample time to write a satisfying conclusion,” a spokesperson for ABC said in a statement. “We are extremely proud of this groundbreaking series and felt it was important to give the fans a proper farewell.” It is ironic to hear ABC talk about treating the show’s fans well at this point, given the way it has absolutely jerked “Ugly Betty” around during the past few years. The show went from Thursday nights last season to Fridays at the beginning of this season, which may have sealed its fate because Friday night is notoriously bad for television shows, what with people typically having much better things to do than sit around and watch TV as the weekend gets underway. Not content with messing with the show’s air time once in a season, ABC then proceeded to move “UB” again when it returned from a hiatus in January, this time shifting it to Wednesdays. It has also changed nights in its first three seasons and some fans undoubtedly tired of trying to figure out what night the show would be airing on. At least now they know that America Ferrera and friends will be saying goodbye and should remain on Wednesday nights for the remainder of its run. Either that or ABC will change it to Thursday nights in a couple of weeks and then shift it to Monday nights for its final few episodes…………

- In the financial crisis that engulfed the American automobile industry last year, culminating in a massive government bailout, I don’t seem to remember Toyota being affected all that much. Perhaps the company felt left out with many of its competitors screwing up and getting so much attention, because Toyota appears to be trying to make up for its absence in last year’s clusterf*ck by engaging in a ginormous recall of its vehicles that appears destined to include every vehicle it has made in the past five years by the time all is said and done. Back in November, the automaker issued a modest recall for some of its vehicles to ix a problem in which the gas pedal can become caught on the edge of the removable floormat, causing the vehicle to accelerate uncontrollably. Now, Toyota says it is adding another 1.1 million vehicles to that earlier recall, bringing the total number of affected vehicles to roughly 5.3 million. The vehicles being added to that recall are the 2008-2010 Highlander, 2009-2010 Corolla, 2009-2010 Venza 2009-2010 Matrix, 2009-2010 Pontiac Vibe. And just to make sure this recall isn’t exclusionary in any way, General Motors' Pontiac car is a part of the recall because the Vibe and Toyota's Matrix are similar vehicles that were produced under a partnership between the two companies. Good to know that just because GM is ditching the Pontiac brand doesn’t mean it’s dead and gone just yet. In case you were napping during the original recall or just numb to news about the auto industry f*cking up because it happens so often, the vehicles originally included in this recall were the 2007-2010 Toyota Camry, 2005-2010 Avalon, 2004-2009 Prius, 2010 Tacoma, 2007-2010 Tundra and the 2007-2010 Lexus ES350, 2006-2010 and the 2006-2010 IS250 and IS350. Oh, and this recall is separate from one announced last week regarding accelerator pedals that could stick on their own. When you add the 2.3 million vehicles involved in that recall, you’re up at 7.6 million (and counting). That total drops when you factor in that some of the vehicles involved in the more recent recall are also involved in the older recall: the 2009-2010 Toyota RAV4, Corolla and Matrix and the Pontiac Vibe; the 2005-2010 Avalon; 2010 Highlander; 2007-2010 Tundra and the 2008-2010 Sequoia; and some 2007-2010 Camrys. This most recent recall is interesting because in site of recalling so many vehicles, Toyota has not yet announced a suitable fix for the problem. In other words, your possibly dysfunctional car needs to be recalled because of a potentially fatal problem, but we don’t know how to fix it yet. Anyone who experiences sticking or slowness in the movement of their car's gas pedal should stop driving the car and call a Toyota dealer immediately……..assuming they are in fact still alive and haven’t been killed by their fatally flawed car…………

- In a jailhouse fight, you have to be resourceful. The tradition of making shivs and using them to stab your opponent in the shower is long and honored, but there are quite frankly too many times when a piece of metal – ripped from a bed, door handle, the weight room, etc. – cannot be found and shaped into a crude knife in time to save you from peril. In those cases, you must be MacGyver-like in your ability to adapt, adjust and make use of whatever tools you have on hand – or on arm, as the case may by. Inmate David Hanna of the Monroe County(N.Y.) Jail understands this principle and he understands it well. In fact, he understands it so well that he is facing felony assault charges for beating another inmate with his prosthetic arm. Hanna is accused of using his prosthetic arm to punch fellow inmate Elijah Armstrong in the face nine times when they got into a fight. Armstrong was taken to Strong Memorial Hospital with several broken bones in his face, so clearly Hanna’s tactics worked and they were brutally effective. Of course, that effectiveness has temporarily cost Hanna custody of his prosthetic arm because it has been confiscated and put into evidence. Armstrong has since been released from the hospital and returned to the jail, where I’m guessing he’ll want to have a few words with his good friend David Hanna. I’m also assuming that Hanna will have some additional time tacked onto his sentence once this case plays out, but that time will pale in comparison to the value of the adaptive and improvisational skills he showed here. Those skills will serve him will in his (soon-to-be) extended stay in the hole and make fellow inmates less likely to pick fights with him in the future…………

- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Media freedom in Venezuela may be declining by the hour, but the willingness to take to the streets in protest is increasing in corresponding fashion and it is pumping me up. Protests across the country continued Tuesday, a day after two student protesters were killed in separate clashes. That didn’t deter student leaders from organizing more protests to oppose cable operators' decision to drop five television channels, including an opposition station, for failure to follow broadcast laws in broadcasting the propaganda garbage that passes as Hugo Chavez’s speeches these days. The nation’s Interior Ministry designated four investigators to look into the shooting deaths of the two students in the western state of Merida, but I wouldn’t expect that investigation to go too far. Besides, all of this could be resolved if Chavez were to stop channeling his inner totalitarian despot and ripping stations from the air merely for having the kahones to oppose him. That’s precisely what he did in suspending cable station Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) and five other stations over the weekend. All six stations were pulled from the air because they did not broadcast a speech by Chavez, as required by national broadcast “laws.” This isn’t the first time RCTV has faced off against Chavez, having had a beef with the dictator in 2007 for similar violations. The protestors who clashed who police and military this week were pissed because they (rightly) believe the suspension of RCTV was provoked by the government. As I always say, whatever a citizenry needs to believe in order to inspire it to take it to the streets and clash with The Man, I am down with. These protests have become widespread and varied in their scope and execution, with the street protests nicely complemented nicely by a demonstration this past weekend in which fans in the crowd at a national baseball series wore red bandanas over their mouths in protest. One of the two protestors killed this week, Marcos Rosales Suarez, was shot when a group of unidentified gunmen fired into a crowd of protesters. "We applied the law," Chavez said of his indefensible decision to rip the free speech of the television stations. "If they don't follow it, they won't be allowed back on the air.” In other words, agree to be a glorified government mouthpiece that backs everything your dictator says or you have no voice whatsoever. Very fair and balanced of you, Hugo. As for the many press freedom organizations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, urging Chavez to allow the stations back on the air, save your breath. You are 109 percent correct, but that doesn’t matter here, not in Chavez Land. There, the government will continue to paint the cable stations as the villains because they “were aware of the laws and chose not to follow them.” Just because they didn’t follow your insane, biased and unfair laws doesn’t make them the villains, idiots. Stop trying to stifle opposing viewpoints, mostly because it’s blatantly unjust but mostly because there are just too damn many of them……………