Wednesday, November 09, 2016

Baylor football's downward spiral, Harvard male athletes = all scumbags? and Bowie v. RoboCop


- Indians aren't paying their taxes and now, the government is taking away the big bills from their wallets. In what the government is trying to position as a major step in the battle against undeclared earnings, corruption and fake currency, the country’s prime minister has announced the scrapping of high denomination 500 and 1,000 rupee currency notes. Narendra Modi delivered what was supposed to be a forceful speech carried live on radio and television across the country, looking to reassure the masses by saying people will be able to deposit these notes into their bank accounts until Dec. 30. There will also be temporary exemptions for some time when purchasing medicine and buying airline and rail tickets, which tend to require a large amount of money no matter where in the world you’re buying them. But Modi didn’t merely point the finger at Indian citizens who are allegedly guilty of trying to duck taxes or use bogus currency in the name of protecting their personal wealth at the expense of their country; he also made a thinly veiled reference to Pakistan in which he accused the neighboring country of circulating fake Indian currency notes to damage its economy. That’s a weighty accusation to throw around without some serious proof and believe it or not, Modi didn’t produce any of that proof during his speech. Maybe that was an intentional cliffhanger designed to keep people waiting his next speech with baited breath, anxious to see if the prime minister is fully or only partially full of sh*t………


- Fans of various pop culture figures have reveled in the rise of crowdfunding websites as a means to create lasting tributes to their heroes. The RoboCop statue at the city limits of Detroit still hasn’t happened - damn you, broke-ass city on the brink of fiscal apocalypse - but maybe the Brits can have better luck funding and erecting a statue of the man too arrogant to be bothered to show up when his country hosted the Summer Olympics in 2012, late rock icon David Bowie. Bowie passed away in January at the age of 69 and now, his fans are seeking funding for a new statue in tribute to his legendary career. Supporters want to place the statue in the town of Aylesbury, north of London, because back in 1971, Bowie debuted ‘Hunky Dory’ and ‘Ziggy Stardust’ songs at the local Friars club. He also referenced the area’s Market Square in the opening lines of ‘Five Years,” meaning the locals are eternally grateful to him and want to host a massive likeness of him carved in some sort of stone or durable metal. A Kickstarter campaign has been launched to finance the statue, with organizers seeking about $140,000 for the project. So far, donors have given about a quarter of that amount. Word on the street is that the statue would be made of bronze, designed by sculptor Andrew Sinclair and equipped with a working sound system that would play a Bowie song every hour throughout the day and evening. That could be mighty annoying for anyone living in the immediate vicinity who a) isn't a Bowie fan or b) is trying to sleep, but the campaign will get a boost from Holy Holy, the band featuring Bowie producer Tony Visconti, ‘Spiders From Mars’ drummer Woody Woodmansey and Heaven 17’s Glenn Gregory, which will play a set of Bowie covers at Friars Aylesbury in April to raise funds for the statue………


- Is it time to assume that every men’s athletic team at Harvard is guilty of having a disturbingly detailed, d-baggish breakdown of the physical appearance and attractiveness of their female counterparts? First, news broke that the men's soccer team's season created a document with sexually explicit comments about the women's soccer team, breaking down female players’ sex appeal and other physical attributes in what it deemed a “scouting report.” That revelation, which dates back several years but is alleged to have continued in some form into the current season, led the school to cancel the rest of the men’s team’s season, forcing the Crimson to forfeit their remaining games. But it appears the men’s soccer d-bags were not alone, as the university is now investigating a report that the men's cross country team created sexually explicit documents about the women's cross country team. Athletic director Bob Scalise, who should be getting pretty good at hosting these types of news conferences and interviews given the amount of reps he’s been getting lately, said he's asking school lawyers to look into claims that the men's cross country team produced yearly spreadsheets about members of the women's' team, sometimes rating their appearances and making lewd comments. But being Harvard men, these skinny, glorified joggers didn’t make this spreadsheet at any random time; no, it was created before an annual dance with the women's team so the fellas could be well-prepared on who to pick up and who wasn’t quite on their level. Not that any of this should surprise anyone because rich, entitled young dudes who are also college athletes acting like low-life ass hats is a revelation to no one………


- Baylor football just cannot stay out of its own way. A program whose coach was fired for his and the school’s handling of allegedly rampant sexual abuse committed by multiple players and which had another player suspended earlier this season when he posted a video of him abusing a dog on Snapchat will now be without its all-time leading rusher for a huge game against Oklahoma because of "attitude issues," interim coach Jim Grobe said. That would be Shock Linwood, who lived up to his name with a surprising incident in which he shoved a graduate assistant coach on the sideline during Baylor's 62-22 loss to TCU on Saturday. That prompted Grobe to declare that Linwood has "some issues to work through,” and as such, he won't be toting the rock when the Bears battle the Sooners this weekend. "My plan right now is to not have Shock for Oklahoma. I think there's some attitude issues right now," Grobe said. "It's not anything major. It's not. ... If I throw out violation of team rules and all that, that sends everybody off thinking the worst. But he's just not been himself. He's not really been as focused as I think he needs to be, and he's in a tough situation.” But it’s not really a tough situation at all; stop assaulting mid-20s, should-grow-up-and-stop-trying-to-extend-your-football-career-by-being-a-graduate-assistant dudes on the sideline and all of this goes away. All in all, it’s surprisingly hypocritical that a private, Christian university seems to have so many issues with not assaulting women, animals or even fellow jocks and simply playing football while being good citizens off the field…….

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