- Maybe Major League Baseball needs to start some type of
weekly support group or counseling program for slumping players wallowing in
self-loathing. The trend of high-paid MLB stars publicly owning their suckage
on the field has picked up speed of late and after Kansas City Royals All-Star
Alex Gordon professed his terrible play while speaking to the media earlier
this week, Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman made sure he did not
stand alone by refusing to make excuses for his offensive free fall that has
caused his batting average to drop dramatically. "Right now, I suck.
There's no getting around it," Freeman said. "I feel great. I've had
a pretty horrible season so far. There's no sugarcoating it, I'm just not
getting hits. The hits I do get are obviously not with guys in scoring
position, but obviously that needs to change. If it doesn't happen soon ... I'm
already getting frustrated. Usually my track record's pretty good with guys on
base." The fact is, he’s right. This guy is hitting just .186 in his past
14 games and is 1-for-26 with runners in scoring position and after leading the
majors in batting average with runners in scoring position in 2015, he’s been a
tire fire at the plate this year. Sure, he went on a 12-game tear, hitting .422
with five home runs during that span, but that uptick has been surrounded by
shortcomings and yet, he’s not making excuses. "I feel good, I'm not doing
anything different. There's nothing I can really do but keep going out there
and swinging,” Freeman said of finding a solution at the plate……..
- When government is that inept, sometimes a citizen has to
open up his or her own wallet and take charge. For one Jackson, Mississippi
resident, that meant facing a problem literally outside his front door because
the powers that be in his city refused to address the issue. This homeowner is
telling those who ask - while asking to remain anonymous - that he decided to
personally pay to have a bad part of his street paved because the city would
not do so. This man claims he and his neighbors say they waited over nine months for the city to
respond to calls to the mayor’s action phone line, which is either ironically
named or is the place the mayor asks women to call if they want to hook up with
him, because nine months of calls did nothing and that prompted this
deep-pocketed citizen to hire his own contractor who came and paved the street
this week. His neighbors were thrilled at the sight because their street
problems have persisted for years and a quick Google Maps search turns up a
2014 image shows the street with a large gravel section next to a newly paved
area. This civic hero isn't saying how much it cost to have the street paved or
whether he intended to seek reimbursement from the city, but a local television
station contacted the city to inquire about what officials thought about having
a citizen clown them by doing their job for them and received no response, so
don’t expect a prompt reply to any of this. If the city is as bad at responding
to inquiries as it is about fixing pothole-pocked streets, then an official
statement on this situation will be coming in about three to five years……
- You don’t typically associate the singing, dancing and
theatrics of Billy Elliot with the suave, debonair bad-assery of 007, but in
the quest to replace Daniel Craig as James Bond, it just might be a natural
fit. “Billy Elliot” actor Jamie Bell reumored to be the leader in the race to
take over as Bond. Word on the street is that Bell has been in talks with 007
production firm Eon about taking on the role, although it’s still unclear if
Craig really is done or not. He reportedly turned down a $100 million offer to
play 007 for another two movies, but is now double-clutching because there is a
chance he woul come back if he got a director and script over which he had
approval. Coming back as Bond would also have to fit around Craig’s new hole in
a 20-part TV adaptation of Jonathan Franzen’s comic novel “Purity.” Should those
things not pan out, then it appears Bell would be the leader in the pack to
take over as Bond and if he does, he would become the youngest actor in the
role since George Lazenby starred in 1969’s “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”
As for Craig, he has played Bond in four films, most recently “Spectre” in 2015.
Installing Bell in the role would actually be a smart move for the studio,
which could theoretically have itself a solid Bond for two or more decades.
Then again, he could be a terrible Bond like Pierce Brosnan and everyone could
hate him and want him to go away immediately so they could forget all of his
Bond movies forever……..
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! France has often been thought of
as a docile place full of people who haven't won a war in centuries and are
terrible at fighting, but times are a-changin’ and evidence of that was on
display when irate union activists disrupted the Marseille airport and halted
activity at half of the country's oil refineries in protests over changes to
France's labor system. Despite their actions, nationwide gasoline shortages
eased slightly after government intervention and overall, tensions lessened a
bit to end the week after one-day
strikes and protests pitting unions against the Socialist government left
drivers around the country in a real bind. This all centers on a labor bill
that would loosen rules on France's 35-hour work week and make it easier for
employers to hire — and fire. You know, so they can get rid of the crappy
employees that unions like to protect. Several unions continued the strike as
the week came to a close and France's main oil company Total said four of its
eight refineries were at a standstill. The oil terminal in Le Havre on the
English Channel also remained shut by strikes, yet pressure on gas stations
eased, with fewer lines visible at stations in the Paris region. Maybe the
unions are losing steam because earlier in the week, they had 30 percent of
stations out of gas or running low and Frenchmen panic-buying as many liters of
fuel as they could get. At the forefront is the CGT union, which has been leading
the protests, and which focused its attention on a trial of Air France union
members accused of tearing the shirts off airline executives in a violent
protest last year. Petrified of what an actual trial could mean, the judge in
the trial in Bobigny outside Paris postponed the proceedings until September
"It's the beginning of a revolution. This is about the future of our
country," defendant Sri Colbert said of the mayhem as union activists
rallied outside the courthouse. Mix in unrest across the country, including union
members blocking entrances to the Marseille airport in solidarity with the Air
France workers, and it appears that France is no longer the laid-back land of
baguette-eaters the world sees them as…….
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