- Riot
Watch! Riot Watch! The power of rage was felt this week in the capital of Kosovo
as thousands of enraged opposition supporters
gathered to call for the government to resign. Those who united in Pristina
accused the current regime of violating the country's constitution in reaching
deals with Serbia and Montenegro and whether that’s true or not is
irrelevant…as long as your primary goal is enjoying a fiery uprising. Opposition
supporters flocked from all over the country on the anniversary of Kosovo's
unilaterally declared independence in 2008, coming together in the capital to
reinforce its calls for change. The opposition rejects a deal between Kosovo
and Serbia reached last year because it gives more powers to ethnic Serbs in
Kosovo. Back in December, the Constitutional Court decided that part of the
agreement was not in line with the constitution and that has poured premium
fuel on the opposition’s already-scorching fire of dissent. Not only that,
these anti-establishment heroes are also against a border demarcation deal with
Montenegro and have called for a referendum or fresh elections. Their tactics
have ranged from the clichéd to the inspired, including protests like this
week’s effort and tries to disrupt the work of parliament with tear gas, pepper
spray and whistles. Molotov cocktails tend to work better than whistles, but
even lame strategies are still strategies in this fight and it’s always good to
see people rise up against a government they believe is failing to live up to
its basic obligations and responsibilities……..
- The
lying Kanye West asked and the world is answering. West recently told a bulsh*t
sob story that he is $53 million in debt, revealing that news where everyone
discusses their personal financial information - on Twitter. After making his
big “I’m broke” reveal, West went on to ask Facebook
founder Mark Zuckerberg to bail him out by investing $1 billion in "Kanye
West ideas.” Zuckerberg, who has previously promised to give away much of his
fortune to various charitable causes, has amazingly not responded yet and it’s
almost certainly because he’s finding a way to give Kanye not $1 billion, but
$2 billion. While Zuckerberg may not have replied yet, noted world-class d-bag
and sometimes-drug company CEO Martin Shkreli offered to buy the exclusive
rights to West's latest album 'The Life of Pablo' for $10 million, later upping
the offer to $15 million after quintupling the price of yet another life-saving
cancer drug. But that was only the first of what will undoubtedly be many
offers and it didn’t take long for the next one to roll in. Fellow rapper The
Game has offered to invest $10 million in West and while that may only be 1
percent of the amount West originally asked for, it’s an actual offer - albeit
on that is on the table if West "comes to Dubai and skydives wit us
tomorrow." The Game then improved his offer with a second tweet. "I'll
pay for the flight. It's 12 noon in #Dubai you got an hour to accept. Call/my
phone or tweet #BlackJesus,” he wrote. Curiously enough, West hasn’t responded
to the offer even though he previously produced the track “Dreams” on The
Game’s 2005 debut album 'The Documentary.’ An offer for a free flight, paid
skydiving AND a $10 million investment sounds like a pretty sweet deal……….
- Don’t
sleep on the criminal capacities of the elderly. You don’t expect them to do
much serious law breaking because they’re physically weak, slow and have lost a
little bit of their swag from their younger days. But on the flip side, they
don’t give a sh*t because they’ve been here longer than you, seen it all and
may be shuffling off this mortal coil very soon. So the old do things like
smuggle illegal cell phones into a prison to give to inmates by stashing said
devices in their drawers. Enter 72
year-old Annie Mae Flood, who was a teacher at Calhoun State Prison
near Albany, N.Y. She is now facing criminal charges after being caught
smuggling phones into the prison where she was a teacher. Last year, guards
received a security alert about Flood, prompting them to pull her out of the
class she was teaching. A search revealed six cell phones hidden in her
underwear. Apparently helping inmates learn to read and write doesn’t entitle
one to bootleg iPhones into jail so inmates can use them to arrange drug deals
and other criminal activities on the outside. Calhoun County Sheriff Josh Hilton wasn’t too
excited to learn that someone claiming to help his facility was instead
blatantly breaking its rules. "It doesn't make sense," Hilton said.
"A teacher supposed to be helping people but not by bringing in cell phones.
Just awful." Hilton doesn’t believe that paying teachers such as Flood or
other employees more will make them less susceptible to bribes from prisoners
to break the rules, but given Flood’s punishment, she doesn’t have much
incentive to stay on the straight and narrow. Her sentence for smuggling phones
into prison is probation and community service, owing much to the state’s
prison overcrowding issues that make lesser offenses such as this a low
priority for the legal system………
- Many
professional athletes dream of being a crossover star in movies, music or
television. They want to expand their brand, show their diversity and build a
career beyond the playing field. Seattle Seahawks safety Earl Thomas is
dreaming a little closer to home, specifically the sports world in a different
sport. Thomas, like a lot of people, was watching the NBA All-Star game and
rather than marvel at the dunking prowess or 3-point-shooting ability of
players facing no defensive resistance in a meaningless exhibition game in which
points were scored at an almost incalculable rate, Thomas was paying attention
to a different aspect of the game. He shared his thoughts on Twitter when he
wrote, “The NFL should take notes from the NBA. Allow us to express our
creativity without fining us. Celebrate our players while we R still living.”
It was both a not-so-subtle shot at the NFL’s overbearing restrictions on
celebrations during games and a slightly more subtle shot at the unsafe nature
of the game that is killing far too many players far too early in their lives.
The NBA All-Star Game may not be the best example because it’s a unique entity
like all all-star contests in major American professional sports. The NFL’s
lame-ass Pro Bowl features much more goofiness than a typical NFL game, so
Thomas clearly chose to ignore that. Still, the NBA does allow much more of
players’ personalities to shine through on the court and doesn’t insanely
police minute fashion issues like the height of players’ socks and the color of
their uniform accessories. Hoping for Roger Goodell and his sycophants to care
less about those issues and more about things like head injuries, domestic
violence by players and the health of battered former NFLers still might be too
much to ask, though………
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