Saturday, November 22, 2014

Riot Watch! Togo, Lana Del Rey's rape video and why the Oakland Raiders can't have nice things


- Oakland Raiders, this is why you can't have nice things. You’re on the verge of your first win of the season, you’re about to avoid the next step toward the immortal glory belonging only to the 2008 Detroit Lions and a couple knuckleheads on your team can't help but go full-on moron at the worst possible time. Say hello to Raiders linebackers Sio Moore and Khalil Mack, who were thoroughly enjoying Moore’s big sack of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith for a 7-yard loss at Kansas City's 48-yard line in the final minute of Oakland’s 24-20 win. Moore made the play and then went ape-sh*t celebrating the sack a full 20 yards downfield from where the play ended. Mack, a highly touted rookie, sprinted down inside the 10-yard line and joined Moore in gyrating, grooving and slapping hands. The only problem is that the play happened ON THIRD DOWN, meaning the officials picked up the ball and spotted it so Kansas City could run its fourth-down play. At that point, Moore and Mack were still well down the field and on the wrong side of the line of scrimmage, meaning they would have earned an offsides penalty if the ball were snapped. Veteran defensive end Justin Tuck wisely called a timeout, saving his young teammates’ asses, and the Raiders came up with the fourth-down stop to win the game. Winning meant everything was good and that Moore and Mack’s idiocy was forgiven, right? Or not. Veteran safety Charles Woodson has won a Super Bowl and knows what it takes to be a professional, so it makes sense that he was chapped enough to want to fight Moore in the locker room after the game. "I couldn't believe it," Woodson said. "That was the first time I had ever seen somebody celebrate for a whole 40-second clock. That was ridiculous, and they know it. I told Sio he's lucky we got the win because we really probably would've had to fight, and I would've seen exactly what kind of fighter he is." Yes, NFL veterans tend to get testy when their team is 0-10 and they’re the laughingstock of the league…………


- To quote “Seinfeld” slacker icon George Costanza, was that wrong? Costanza asked that question when he was found having sex on his desk at work with the cleaning lady after hours, but his sin was quite a bit less egregious than the one allegedly committed by Hobbs, N.M. physician Dr. Christopher Driskill. Driskill could be called the good doctor if not for the fact that he seems to be one of the worst doctors currently working in the medical profession. This tool doesn’t seem to have taken the Hippocratic Oath, but rather the Hypocrite Oath, given his alleged actions while on the job. According to allegations made to the state medical board, the doc had sex with patients, was drunk on the job and left some women giving birth unattended. The last one makes sense because being the doctor on call when a woman is giving birth can be stressful and that’s definitely enough to cause someone to hit the bottle hard. The board hit Driskill with a notice of suspension because he “poses a clear and immediate danger to the public.” Sexing up current patients will do that to a person’s reputation and even if that sex was consensual and not done while patients were impaired in any way, medical boards tend to frown on such behavior. The stories about Dr. Driskill are truly revolting/impressive, including showing up to work drunk, having a secret stockpile of hard liquor at his office, prescribing controlled substances to a sexual partner without medical records, writing inappropriate personal notes in medical charts and walking out of the room while delivering a baby. The best story might be a woman having a child who claims Driskill left her alone to have sex with another patient. Let’s just say the board won't have a tough time deciding whether to revoke Driskill’s license…….


- How eff-ed up does a project have to be for Marilyn Manson to see it and say, “Nah, that’s too extreme for me to be associated with in any way?” Lana Del Rey and “Hostel” director Eli Roth have found that breaking point with their über-controversial video clip that features a violent rape scene with Del Rey as the centerpiece. The pop singer stars in a violent rape scene in which a bloodied woman dunks her head in water and a birthday party filled with various misfits. There is a male protagonist who plays a prominent role as well – not Manson – and somehow, Manson found himself linked to the video. It has since been taken down after fast-paced legal maneuvering on account of its upsetting and graphic content and other matters, but Manson wanted to make sure that no one thought for any reason that the shock rocker was tied to the video in any way. “Manson did not direct this, shoot it, nor was it for a Marilyn Manson video or outtake footage made by him or to be used by him with his music,” spokesperson Kathryn Frazier said. "It must be a fan video splicing up old Manson video footage with someone else's Lana Del Rey footage." Roth previously spoke about the video and while he didn’t exactly come out and say that Manson was involved in what he and Del Rey did, he did tie Manson’s name to the project in a way. "The footage is so sick, it’s been locked in a vault for over a year," Roth said. "But Manson is a friend." Clearly not enough of a friend to want to be linked to a video some have claimed glamorizes rape and is an affront to everyone with either a conscience or a soul. Roth and Del Rey have gotten exactly what they wanted out of this charade, namely loads of attention and focus on them, but the question here is to what end and whether they could have, you know, done the same thing without invoking heinously ugly and offensive imagery……..


- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Togo is where you go if you want a quality uprising in Africa this week, even if the majority of Americans couldn’t actually locate Togo on a map. (Hint: It’s on the west coast, adjacent to the Gulf of Guinea.) What’s hopping down in Togo? How about a massive riot in which security forces met demonstrators calling for term limits that would bar President Faure Gnassingbe from running for a third term next year with rubber bullets, tear gas and a whiff of overreaction. Protesters hurled rocks at the security forces during Friday's demonstrations in the capital and yet, that wasn’t the point where things got out of hand. No, that would be when security forces blocked the demonstrators from approaching a square where they planned to hold a rally. Cutting protestors off from a planned protest site is a major eff-you move regardless of whether or not your country has a ban on such gatherings – Togo does not – and that was enough to incite the crowd to unleash their full rage against the machine. Their rage is currently directed at Gnassingbe, who took power in 2005 after his father, who ruled Togo for 38 years, died of a heart attack. Conveniently for Junior, term limits were removed from the constitution in 2002. He stepped into power knowing he could probably hang onto it for as long as he and his crew could rig elections in their favor. Legislators considered a bill earlier this year that would have reintroduced them, but it was voted down by members of the president's party, who hold a strong majority. All of this should make for a fun presidential ballot in March……….

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