- The proper way to approach any question about the all-star
game in any major American professional sports league is with this simple
question: “Who gives a sh*t?” It’s a rhetorical question, of course, because by
their very nature these are meaningless exhibition games that leagues try to
artificially instill with fabricated importance in order to convince people to
watch them and sponsors to buy advertising time during them. Thus, the rules
don’t really matters, the points are wholly irrelevant and anything you want to
do to jerk with the basic infrastructure of the game is a-OK, right down to
altering the basic rules of the game. So when NBA commissioner Adam Silver says that he favors expanding All-Star
rosters from their current limit of 12, there are negative 75 reasons to give a
damn. In an interview in which Silver noted that "this is going to be the
year where we have to make those decisions” in
reference to proposed tweaks to the league's current playoff format and draft
lottery, his most irrelevant comments came in describing what he deemed as
"essentially a tie" in trying to choose between Sacramento's DeMarcus
Cousins and Portland's Damian Lillard to replace injured Kobe Bryant on the
Western Conference squad in this month’s All-Star Game in New York City. “I
didn't like having to make that choice. I wish I had another slot for Damian
because I think he's deserving of being an All-Star as well,” Silver said. “I
rely heavily on our basketball folks in terms of where the coaches' [voting]
came out. It was essentially a tie in my mind, so I ultimately deferred to the
coaches." Pressed about expanding rosters for each conference to as many
as 15 players, Silver said it was “something that will get very strong
consideration.” Other than teams who will have to pay All-Star bonuses to
players who otherwise wouldn’t have earned them, there really shouldn’t be
anyone who cares a bit about this……….
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! It’s on (again) in Haiti and this
time, the pissed-off party is none other than bitter bus drivers who began a two-day strike Monday over the cost of fuel. Multiple
unions representing drivers claimed the government's cuts to the regulated cost
of diesel and gasoline did not go far enough, citing the global freefall in oil
prices as proof that more cuts are needed even though the government recently
lowered the price of gasoline by about 25 cents to $4.50 a gallon and diesel by
about 20 cents to $3.55. Those figures are obviously well above the price
points for most places in the United States and in an extremely poor country,
that’s an extremely big problem. A strike is a bigger problem still given that
very few people in Haiti can afford to own a vehicle and many rely on public
transportation to get to and from virtually anywhere they need to go. That
makes for miserable conditions in large cities like Port-au-Prince and
residents of the capital are in a real crunch here. Sure, motorcycle taxis are
still operating, but the streets remain largely empty of brightly colored
minibuses known as "tap taps." Merely refusing to go to work is only
part of the equation and the other half came when irate bus drivers set up
flaming barricades of tires and other debris at a number of intersections in
Port-au-Prince. While rudimentary and environmentally moronic, tire fires are a
legit way to draw attention to one’s plight and it worked here, at least in
terms of getting this story some international run. The government has yet to
cave to the drivers’ wholly reasonable demands, but with brutal weapons of war
like used tires and matches, it’s only a matter of time before this fight is
settled in favor of the underdogs……….
- It’s a terrible thing when television heroes don’t take
their role as examples for the youth more seriously….and subsequently (allegedly)
murder one of their roommates with a samurai sword. Meet Power Rangers Samurai star Ricardo Medina Jr., who should be
living the high life right now as one of the true cornerstones of the Power
Rangers franchise, but is instead facing charges that he used his fake
on-screen powers in real life to murder his roommate with a sword. The actor
was taken into custody by the L.A. County Sheriff's office after the fatal
fight between he and roommate Joshua Sutter that began when Medina and his
girlfriend went into his bedroom and Sutter inexplicably followed them. No word
has been given on what – if any – verbal exchange the two men had, but the
incident ended with Medina allegedly impaling his roommate in the abdomen with
the aforementioned sword. In a unique twist on murdering someone (allegedly),
Medina actually dialed the cops up and asked them to come over. He was
subsequently arrested and Sutter was taken to the hospital, where he was
pronounced dead. For those who have no idea who the hell Medina is, he got his
start as the Red Ranger on “Power Rangers Wild Force: Identity Crisis” in 2002.
He took a step up the Power Rangers ladder in 2012 when he starred in “Power
Rangers Super Samurai” is Deker, although one could argue that maybe he took
the whole TV samurai gig a step too far and got too carried away with the
samurai skills he doesn’t actually have when he (allegedly) ran his blade
through his roommate’s stomach. It’s more difficult these days to put an
accused murderer on television in a show aimed at children, so this will likely
be a negative development for the entire Power Rangers family. Let’s bank on
the not guilty by reason of insanity defense playing a role at some point
during the forthcoming legal proceedings in this case……….
- Duuuuude. Ohio is on the road to becoming totally chill
and radically awesome, bro. Yes, the Buckeye State has taken its first step
toward joining Washington and Colorado as the only states in the union to
legalize pot for recreational use and the real surprise is who’s leading this
charge. That would be Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson, one of
11 prominent backers of a group called ResponsibleOhio. ResponsibleOhio claims
to have a former current NFL player and a prominent fashion designer among its
faithful flock of stoners as one of two legalization campaigns in Ohio despite
opposition from all five statewide officeholders. Those five officeholders are
morons and squares who are stuck in the 1950s and if they’re the primary
opposition to putting the ResponsibleOhio ballot measure before voters this
fall, then it’s time to pass the bong and don the knit Rastafarian beanie
because ganja is making its way east of the Mississippi. Under the proposal,
the Ohio Constitution would be amended to make marijuana legal for medical and
personal use for those over 21 years old. Robertson has cache in Ohio, having
balled at the University of Cincinnati in the late 1950s before going on to an
über-successful NBA career with the Cincinnati Royals and Milwaukee Bucks. "It's
a terrible feeling when you can't help someone suffering from cancer or another
debilitating medical condition -- I know from personal experience,"
Robertson said in a written statement released by ResponsibleOhio. Robertson is
speaking from a medical point of view because he was diagnosed with prostate
cancer a few years ago and he has famous friends in . veteran NFL defensive end
Frostee Rucker and New York-based fashion designer Nanette Lepore, a Youngstown
native. The ResponsibleOhio plan foresees a network of 10 growers sending the
product to designated testing facilities for safety and potency screening
before it was moved to either not-for-profit medical marijuana dispensaries or
retail outlets. One of the loudest opponents/squares/losers of the measure is Attorney
General Mike DeWine, who made an intellectually brilliant statement when he
called the plan “a stupid idea.” Great reasoning, dork………..
No comments:
Post a Comment