« November 2003 | Main | January 2004 »
December 27, 2003
THINGS THAT KICKED ASS IN 2003
Ok, now we're up to things that kicked ass this year. You'll notice a common thread in much of what I enjoy... you may call it a lack of human compassion; my friend Tim says I chase bad karma; I simply call it "digging it when those who deserve it actually get it." Thus... my Top Ten Things That Kicked Ass in 2003.
10. "GIGLI" FLOPS AT THE BOX OFFICE. The public rejected this piece of crap movie. Does this mean that Jennifer Lopez, her prima donna attitude, her ridiculously oversized ass, and most of that stupid moniker "J-Lo" have finally reached the 14:59 mark? Please, God... if you let her dry up and blow away, never to besmirch my TV, radio, or Net connection again, I promise I'll start going to church again.
9. "THE JOE SCHMO SHOW." Admittedly, I've said many times before that I hate reality TV. And on the surface, "Joe Schmo" was a reality show. But it was really satire -- a dead-on parody of every over-the-top, silly reality TV stereotype, and a huge joke on the entire genre. An entire show built around everyone in the show acting out a script except for the one schmuck who thinks he's really on reality TV? Friggin' brilliant.
8. RUSH LIMBAUGH GETS EXPOSED. First, with the Donavan McNabb incident, he was hoist on the petard of the racism that underlies most of his positions. Then, the guy who has consistently called it a character flaw when Democrats or left-leaning public figures struggle with addiction... well, as it turns out, he's an addict himself, and better yet he apparently engaged in quite a bit of illegal activity in order to feed his addictions. Rush Limbaugh's troubles in 2003 kicked ass because they were just one more example of the utter hypocrisy of conservatives, and this one was laid bare in front of the whole world.
7. JESSICA LYNCH CALLS OUT THE BUSH PENTAGON. Speaking of watching conservatives get exposed, how great was it that the Bush/Rumsfeld invented hero herself, Jessica Lynch, admitted on national television that everything about the story the Bush Pentagon said about her rescue was a lie? Bush and Rumsfeld were desperate to distract the public from the fact that there were no WMDs in Iraq, so they invented a hero for their war, complete with inspiring story. There were only two problems: one, their story was a total fiction, and two, their custom-built hero was just too honest to go along with their lies. God bless her.
6. EUROPEAN TRAVELS. Due to work, I spent much of January and February in Europe. There's usually time to explore and go have fun, and I did. So this year, I wrote the speech that was the hit of the world's largest wireless/mobile trade show, and got to walk the streets of Barcelona without having a clue where I was going or having the ability to ask directions. I got to hang out in the same apartment Mel Gibson stays in when he's in Cannes for the Film Festival. I walked the Croisette. I went gambling in Monte Carlo, and drove the Riviera from Cannes to Italy. I drove through the entire country of France, toured Avignon, bought wine from a small vineyard in the heart of Burgundy, and walked the Champs d'Elysees while fighting off the effects of food poisoning. I worked my ass off in the first few months of 2003, and my reward was seeing things I never thought I'd see, and doing things I never dreamed of doing. Not bad.
5. ROGER CLEMENS' EXIT. I've had my issues with the Rocket since he left Boston. And yes, he finished his career with those damned Yankees. But Roger Clemens' last moments on a baseball diamond -- if they indeed were his last -- were the stuff of legend. If you love baseball, you loved that moment. Fittingly, he struck out the last batter he ever faced ... and in a World Series game. As he walked off the field in an opponent's stadium, the crowd rose as one, flash bulbs illuminating the night and a deafening roar filling the air.
But it wasn't just the fans that rose in salute; the Florida Marlins stood at the edge of their dugout and applauded right along with the crowd, in a show of respect for the finest pitcher of his generation and one of the five best ever to play the game. Visibly moved, Clemens touched his glove to his heart and saluted the Marlins back, and then tipped his Yankee cap to the Florida fans. The fans of south Florida got to express what every baseball fan was feeling at that moment: love him or hate him, we will not see the likes of Roger Clemens again. If you didn't like that moment, then you're not a baseball fan.
4. SPENDING TIME IN SOUTH FLORIDA. Okay, so as it ended up, I didn't get the girl. Sure, that still stings a bit. And absolutely, I miss the area more than I ever realized I would. But even so, I still got to spend the better part of the year taking my weekends on the Palm Coast, learning how to relax again, rediscovering country music, regaining a sense of perspective about what's really important in life, hanging out with a girl I was crazy about, and pretty much living out life as a Jimmy Buffett song every weekend. Not a bad way to spend a year -- and if I had it to do all over again, I would in a heartbeat.
3. THE RED SOX RUN. Even with the way it ended (Aaron Bleeping Boone, Grady "Gump" Little), the fact is that the Red Sox were a half inning from not only getting to the World Series, but getting there through the Yankees. There was the fun of the pennant race in September, the sheer adrenalin of the comeback win in the ALDS, Trot Nixon's Game 3 home run, the fantastic visual of Pedro Martinez dropping that old coot Zimmer… and best of all, the realization that we really are just as good as those bastards from the Bronx, and it is indeed very possible that we can beat them in 2004. We're right there in the hunt, and that's not just the same old Red Sox hope against hope. This time, it's realistic, and for that reason, despite its excruciating end, the Sox' 2003 season kicked ass.
2. MY FAMILY'S HEALTH. Two years ago at Christmas, we were dealing with a health scare from my dad. Last year at this time, my mom had only just gotten out of the hospital, and had a long and uncertain road to recovery ahead of her. For the last two holiday seasons, we've had to at least consider that it might be the last one we'd ever spend with all four of us together.
This year, my dad's been in the best health of his life. He works out three times a week and looks better than I have seen him in 20 years. My mom seems to have fully recovered, has resumed her normal life, and shows no sign of recurring problems. This year, all of our family conversations have been about happy subjects; things have returned to normal. I don't know if I believe in a Higher Power, but if there was ever going to be a reason for me to do so, it's how my parents fared in 2003.
1. THE YANKEES LOSE ON THEIR OWN DAMN FIELD. If the devil himself had come to me in April and made me an offer: in exchange for my soul, I could watch the Yankees lose the World Series to a team that the entire Tri-State area smugly dismissed, that George Steinbrenner had outspent more than two to one, and in such a fashion that exposed the Yankees' increasing age and vulnerability to time, I would have strongly considered it.
If he'd added to it by agreeing to have the Series' last game happen in Yankee Stadium, so that both the Yankees AND their smug, arrogant, overconfident fans would have to watch another team celebrate a world championship on their own field, well, I would have shaken his hand and said, "Where do I sign?"
Ain't it cool that I got to keep my soul, and it happened anyway? Ain't it cool that the Marlins rubbed the damn noses of both the Yankees and their arrogant, smug fans in the dirt? Didn't t it kick ass to see Josh Beckett make that tag on the first base line? Didn't it kick ass to see a Marlins' victory pile on the Yankee Stadium infield?
Oh, *hell* yeah!
COMING SOON: MY TOP TEN GOALS FOR 2004.
Posted by Christopher at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)December 23, 2003
There's a tradition at the
There's a tradition at the end of every year where writers and pundits come up with top ten lists that describe just about anything and everything that happened during the year. I figured I might as well come up with mine. Over the next 9 days, I will enlighten you with my wise perspective on such things as "Top Ten Things That Kicked Ass in 2003," "Top Ten Biggest Disappointments of 2003," "Top Ten Songs of 2003," "Top Ten Lessons I Learned in 2003," and we'll kick off the new year with my "Top Ten Things I Want To Do in 2004."
I was going to have a Top Ten Things That Sucked in 2003 list, but then I realized that in writing one, I would be betraying my roots as a curmudgeonly cynic. Of *course* things sucked in 2003 -- most things do! It would be wholly out of character for me to highlight ten things that sucked worst of all, when I think nearly everything does. So it made more sense to pick ten things that disappointed me in 2003 -- things that I foolishly believed might or ought to turn out differently, and was let down by. So with no further ado, here is my first of the 2003 Top Ten lists: The Top Ten Disappointments of 2003
10. PAT BURRELL & MY FANTASY BASEBALL TEAM. In 2002, Burrell hit .282 with 37 HRs and 116 RBI. Based on that performance, I foolishly spent $37 on him at the FLAKS league draft in March. The return on my investment? The SOB batted .209 with 21 HRs and 64 RBI. With Burrell pacing my offense, I stumbled out of the gates, my team never really got on track, and I ended up with an 8th place finish that was frankly an overachievement and a reflection of outstanding management. Burrell, if I was making that list of Things That Sucked, you would *definitely* be on it.
9. REALITY TV REFUSES TO DIE. "Joe Millionaire 2" got losy ratings. No one cared about "Temptation Island 2" or "Survivor 49: Mars" or "For Love or Money" or any of the rest of them. The ratings are fading. So naturally, the networks keep cranking this garbage out and forcing it down our throats. In the immortal words of Austin Powers, "WHY WON'T YOU DIE?"
8. BRITNEY SPEARS. It's not what you think. The fact that her 15 minutes seem inexplicably stuck at 14:57 doesn't bother me. No, what ticks me off about Britney Spears is her stubborn refusal to do nudity. Honey, no one believed the virgin crap anyway, and it's not like we're not all intimately familiar with your hip bones and navel... so why not just complete the cycle and completely drop trou? Playboy, a movie, a PPV special - it don't matter to me! "Me Against The Music?" Listen, sweetie, you've been against music for a long time - you've waged an all out war on it for years. The only reason we all tolerate keeping you around is because we're waiting to get a look and see for ourselves whether you're Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman. So get it over with already and let us see it and move on with our lives!
7. THE GRAMMY AWARDS. Speaking of Britney, I am in disbelief that her no-talent punk-ass ex-boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, got five Grammy Award Nominations this year. Justin Timberlake? Then again, why be surprised - Missy Elliot, 50 Cent, and many other flavors of the month got nominations as well. The only act Grammy rewarded that SHOULD have been rewarded was OutKast, who really did do something innovative and fresh in 2003. Beyond that, Grammy appears driven by the same forces that led them to name the Starland Vocal Band "Best New Artist" of 1976 while ignoring Talking Heads, Blondie, and the Ramones, and resulted in Donna Summer winning year after year in the late 70s for her disco tripe while the Police, Springsteen, and the Clash were overlooked. If the Grammies ever were about musical excellence, they no longer are. They're about ratings and the flavor of the month.
6. NBA FANS. Let's assume for a moment that Kobe didn't rape that girl, he just had consensual sex with her. He's still a cheater. Now, add in the physical evidence that shows that he most likely did use force on that girl. He's a probable rapist. So how do NBA fans respond? Not by shouting him down and shaming him out of the league, but with standing ovations and signs proclaiming solidarity with Kobe. You know, I have just one wish, when it comes to NBA fans who've supported Kobe Bryant... I hope that every one of their daughters and sisters gets trapped in a hotel room with him.
5. OFFSHORING. It was bad enough when blue collar manufacturing jobs got shipped overseas by greedy US corporations who felt that having 10 year olds sew cross-training Air Sweatshop shoes for 30 cents a day was somehow a lesser evil than CEOs and executive managment needing to take a pay cut to "only" a few million a year instead of nine figures. Now, American business is shipping educated, skilled, white collar positions overseas... because the same job you'd have to pay an engineer $90,000 for here in the States, an engineer in India or Malaysia can/will do for only $23,000. Meanwhile, there's no trend of CEO salaries going down at all. You know what new trend I'd really like to see? American companies beginning to offshore CEO positions, because the same business that would be run by an American CEO for $57,000,000, you can get an Indian or El Salvadoran CEO to do for $800,000.
4. THE CALIFORNIA RECALL. For one thing, the people of California clearly learned nothing from the people of Minnesota, who could have told them that cheesy celebrities who talk funny make for bad governors. But the worst thing about the whole sorry process was that Gray Davis, while not very competent, did nothing illegal. Recall was written into the California constitution to protect its citizens against corrupt officials... not ones who were bad at their jobs. The protection against that? We call them elections. And what happened in California over the last 15 months is that the Republican Party lost one in 2002 that they thought they should have won... so they called "do-over," and basically undid the democratic will of the people as expressed in constitionally scheduled 2002 election. I was neither surprised nor disappointed that the Republican Party has no respect for or adherence to democracy... after all, they stole the 2000 presidential election, and came within one Senate vote of undoing the 1996 presidential election. But I was disappointed that the people of California fell for it and let them get away with it.
3. THE RED SOX OFF-SEASON SPENDING SPREE. As I have said many times before, we have become the Yankees, Part 2. We're now as bad as they are. And even the fact that we're doing it to combat the Evil Empire is of no consolation. My friend Tim, also a Red Sox fan, tells me that if we win the Series in 2004, I will forget all about my misgvings. I don't think so. I'm a baseball fan even before I am a Sox fan, and I still think the rich teams spending whatever they have to, at the expense of smaller teams, is bad for the game.
2. GAME SEVEN. Then again... Grady "Gump" Little. Pedro Martinez. Matsui. Aaron !)*&#$_ Boone. Must I say any more?
1. THE US MEDIA. One of my biggest pet peeves of this or any year is that conservatives remain wildly successful at propogating the ridiculous myth of "the liberal media." The media is so NOT liberal, it's not even funny - but that's the subject of another rant someday.
The truth is, the US media fell down on the job this year - letting Bush slide by with a ridiculous number of falsehoods, exaggerations, and secretive behavior similar to that which conservatives crucified Bill & Hillary Clinton for. Story after story went unreported, or was allowed to quickly fade away if someone messed up and allowed it to be covered in the first place. Bush's lies about the war and about Iraq's weapons of WMD... his failure to capture Osama bin Laden - the REAL threat to the US... the administration's bedmates at Halliburton gouging the American taxpayers to the tune of $61 million... Cheney going to court to prevent the country from seeing the materials from his secret energy commission meetings in 2001 - a commission comprised SOLELY of representatives of the energy and oil industries -- including Enron's Ken Lay -- and whose meetings were conducted in secret... when the non-partisan General Accounting Office (a division of the American Government, for hell's sake!) tries to investigate those meetings, the vice president's office refuses to cooperate - pretty much obstructing justice... Sigh... it's pathetic. The US media took a nap this year, and let this administration ride a tide of lies and deception. It doesn't bode well for 2004. And it's my biggest disappointment of 2003.
COMING SOON: TOP TEN THINGS THAT KICKED ASS IN 2003
Posted by Christopher at 12:02 AM | Comments (0)December 21, 2003
Random thoughts for this, the
Random thoughts for this, the weekend before Christmas:
1) I was all set to blog on the idiocy of the situation with Essie-Mae Williams Washington, the African-American daughter of Strom Thurmond - who ran for President on a staunch segregationist platform... the reason she kept quiet until now, said the 78 year old, was out of respect for Thurmond. Respect? Respect?! Why do you show respect for a man who bolted his own party rather than accept equal rights for "your kind?" But then I read a column by David Broder in the Washington Post, and it lent me some new perspective. I'm still not able to comprehend how Thurmond ever slept at night, knowing that he'd fought against the civil rights of one of his own children. But I have a new respect for Ms. Williams-Washington, the position she was in, and most of all the way she has handled the situation.
2) I went to a holiday party last night in Nyack, hosted by my friend Marc. I hope to never get overly sappy on this blog, but I will say that last night served to remind me that I have been very lucky in the friends that I have made here in New York. Whatever else may be said about this area - and rest assured, I'll keep saying it! - and however unhappy I might otherwise be with living here, there are some wonderful people whom I've been lucky enough to meet and befriend. It's a great group of people, and whether I live out my days in New York, Washington, Florida, or somewhere I can't even anticipate yet, I'll always hold them closely. Merry Christmas to the whole Wing Night crew, to Mike & Jenn, and to Tim & Donna.
3) Only 90 more days till the Fantasy Baseball draft. It's simply the single best day of the year, and while it may sound silly that I am looking forward to it already even three months out, I'm already starting to plan out strategies and figure out what I want to focus on for my starting lineup. One hint? Pat Burrell, that no-good, lousy, team offense-killing, .204 batting SOB, will NOT be anywhere near my list of desired players. Speaking of my fantasy team, I am thinking of changing the franchise name again... we've been the "Green Monster" for the last two seasons, but have only finished in 11th and 8th in a 14 team league. I'm thinking there may be some bad karma attached to the name for some reason. The new poll on the left side of this blog asks your opinion... I have listed a few possibilities, so please feel free to tell me which one you think is best. If there's one I didn't come up with, write it in the tagboard. Thanks... my 2004 fortunes and karma are riding on your shoulders!
December 18, 2003
Forget for a moment the
Forget for a moment the emotional stake I had in seeing the Boston Red Sox improve their chances of winning their first World Series in 86 years. Let's take an honest, objective look at what the MLBPA did this week. The players' union has made a grave - perhaps even life-threatening - mistake in how it has handled the Alex Rodriguez-Manny Ramirez trade.
The union sent very clear messages this week: 1) It will inflexibly pursue a policy of increasing salaries - not for the average player, but for the elite players in the game... no matter the wishes of the player, its short-term impact on the game, or long-term impact on the business. 2) The union demands lockstep adherence and compliance from its members, even when such unanimity is opposite the best interest or wishes of individual members.
What can an owner infer from this? Make a mistake, and the union will kill you with it... over and over and over again. And they will not give you any opportunity to rectify that mistake - even if that happens to the disdvantage of the individual player in question, or the disadvantage of 24 of his teammates - men in whose best interest the union is also allegedly supposed to be acting.
The union's efforts, they say, were to protect the "integrity" of large contracts, even when a player himself wishes to restructure his own. Let's just ignore the highly insulting notion that players need to be protected from themselves. There's a larger question, the answer to which the union should be forced by its members to answer. How can the MLBPA possibly expect that ANY owner will EVER agree to enter into a contract as long or as expensive as A-Rod's ever again? The owners have now seen that even when a player is interested in restructuring his contract, the union will swoop in with the ruthlessness of a secret police force, prohibiting the player from doing so and coercing out of him a statement of solidarity with the union position. (I mean, really... A-Rod's press statement this morning was about as convincing as those "confessions" that Iraqi or Vietnamese captors have forced out of American POWs.)
A-Rod's contract has deeply wounded his team. The Texas Rangers cannot compete under its crushing weight. And when the owner (who by the way deserves little sympathy, because he's the idiot who offered that much money in the first place) tries to rectify his mistake, the union greedily and rapidly prevents him from doing so. Faced with such blatant intrasigence, no owner with an ounce of business sense will ever sign a contract like A-Rod's again. The owners have seen what the union will do - and rest assured that none of them will make the same mistake. If Gene Orza was trying to increase the likelihood that other players might see contracts the likes of the $25 Million a Year Man's, he ironically has virtually guaranteed the opposite.
Worse still for the players, this move has done the impossible... it has made the owners look sympathetic in the eyes of the fans. Ordinarily, there's only one thing fans hate worse than a guy making $6 million a year whining that it's not enough - and that's a guy who had enough money to drop $200 million+ on a baseball team whining that he's losing money. Most fans seemed to side with the players in the 2002 labor dispute that nearly resulted in a strike. The owners charge $60 a ticket for games, plus exaggerated concession prices, parking, merchandise sales, and they have the audacity to ask taxpayers to fund their stadiums; the players are the ones on the field whom the fans come to see, so the thought went, so why shouldn't they be reaping the benefits? But ask most fans today if they have any sympathy for the baseball players' union, and you're likely to get an unprintable response. What do you call an organization that can manage to turn a group of billionaires into symbolic victims of greed and excess? Simple: the MLBPA.
The union has just handed the owners a propaganda tool like few others in human history. That's not overstatement; it's that bad. The only parallel I can think of, from my lifetime anyway, is 1983, when Ronald Reagan was taking a lot of heat for calling the Soviet Union "the evil empire." Critics were calling him simplistic, inflexible, dangerously antagonistic... and then, the Soviets shot down that civilian Korean jetliner aboard with 273 people aboard and sent it plummeting into the Sea of Japan. And all at once, Reagan went from being dangerous to being right. It might have been the dumbest move of the Cold War; it changed minds and approaches in the West, and barely six years later, communism was dead.
Will the veto of the A-Rod deal be the MLBPA's version of Flight 007, with the magic number being 252 instead of 273? Only time will tell.
There *is* one plus in all this, I suppose. Alex Rodriguez, the poster child for greedy, selfish, egotistical athletes, is going to be forced to lie in the bed he made for himself. Three years ago, he lied and told us all it wasn't about the money - it was about winning. He was happy in Texas, he assured us, and he wasn't just going there for 252 million simple reasons. Well, now we've seen Pay-Rod's lies for what they are; his greed's been exposed. For Alex Rodriguez, it's all about A-Rod, his stats, his paycheck, and his happiness. And even though it is his obscene contract that is responsible for the Rangers' mess, when he realized it, he tried his damndest to bail on his teammates instead of trying to restructure there in Texas. The true measure of the man's character has been revealed, and it ain't pretty. So there is a poetic justice to his being stuck Deep In The Heart Of Last Place.
All in all, however, it's been a pathetic record-setting week for selfish behavior among major league baseball players - and simply a sad week for Major League Baseball.
December 17, 2003
1) The MLBPA is a
1) The MLBPA is a disgusting, greedy, ruinous organization that has succeeded in the impossible: making me sympathize with baseball's owners.
The A-Rod deal was done; A-Rod had agreed to restructuring, the Sox and Rangers were all set... and the MLBPA stuck its nose into the situation and negated the deal. Let me get this straight... a player is okay with restructuring and wants to make a deal happen, and yet the union says no? Just whose interests are they looking out for? What a bunch of bloated losers. As much as I love baseball, between selfish players and greedy owners, it's hard to want to watch anymore.
2) I'm still trying to figure out who listens to the all Christmas formatted radio stations. Where do they get their ratings? Everyone I've talked to absolutely HATES the format... my friend Tim's blogged on it as well (http://timothyblair.blogspot.com), and every person who's commented on anything on my blog has mentioned how much they agree with the heniousness of all-Christmas music, all-the-time.
3) I am beginning to think that people who say, "Don't get me anything for Christmas - I don't need anything," really should get nothing for Christmas. It's a holiday, people - we exchange gifts. Get over it and just tell me what the heck you want!
4) Did you notice how strategic I was last night? I decided not to win the MegaMillions lottery last night... I want to drag it out and let the stakes get a little higher first. Why win only $71 million when you can win $85 million - or more?
5) One more time, Kobe's lawyers are proving to me how slimy lawyers are, and how much of a pig Kobe is. Fine, guys, smear his victim all you want... call her unstable and troubled. It doesn't change what he did. And even if you're right - even if she has a history of depression and suicidal tendencies and unstable sexual behavior... NO STILL MEANS NO, whether the girl is a pillar of stability or a fragile mess. Kobe Bryant is a rapist and no amount of smear tactics will change that, just like how a bungled prosecution didn't change the fact that OJ still killed his wife.
December 15, 2003
There was another unfortunate incident
There was another unfortunate incident this weekend in the NFL that reminded me of just how far we have to go in ridding the world of the last "acceptable" predjudice. Lions team president Matt Millen was on the field after the Lions lost to the Chiefs, 45-17. He sought out a player for the Chiefs, Johnnie Morton, with whom Millen has had bad blood; Morton once played for the Lions but was cut by Millen, and they've traded barbs in the press over the last couple of years. Morton, by all accounts, was uncooperative at best. One version of the story says he walked past Millen without saying a word, ignoring Millen's outstretched hand and words of congratulations; in another version, Morton told Millen to "kiss my ass." Millen chose to respond to Morton's slight by calling Morton a homosexual epithet. In front of many witnesses, no less, and just in case anyone missed it, he asked if everyone had heard him, and then repeated it.
Within a few hours, Millen had issued a public apology, saying his comments were borne of frustration at the Lions' 4-10 season, that he hadn't meant to offend anyone, and that if he had offended, he was sorry. You know what? I can pretty much believe him. He's a warrior, a competitor, and this season hasn't turned out very well for the Lions; and he was having a testy exchange with a player he's had bad blood with for years. I can honestly believe that his emotions got the better of him, and he just said something he regrets.
It doesn't matter. Millen should be fired anyway.
There are two issues at work here. The first is pure and simple. In any other workplace, Millen would be fired for such a comment. If an employee of virtually any other public company were to issue the same epithet at work - even if out of frustration after a bad day - he'd be fired. Nearly 60% of the Fortune 500 extends benefits to domestic partners, and virtually ALL of them have strict policies prohibiting harassment and the creation of hostile workplaces. The NFL is no different from any other company, and its employees should not be allowed to get away with behavior that is inappropriate anywhere else. (Then again, that also includes taking out a cell phone in the middle of a meeting to call my mom and tell her that I just did my job... like the Saints' Joe Horn did after scoring a touchdown this weekend. What a freaking punk. It's because the NFL is full of street punks like Horn that I can barely watch football anymore. But I digress.)
There is another issue at play here, and it speaks poorly not only of the NFL, but of all major sports, at either the professional or college level. Let's assume that Millen WAS simply frustrated, didn't mean to offend anyone, and was simply lashing out at Morton. Why did he feel that the easiest way to get at Johnnie Morton, the best way to respond to "kiss my ass," was to in effect call him a homosexual? Never mind the word he used - that's window dressing, kind of like the use of the N word is only at outer symptom of deeper racism. The real issue is that in the world of the NFL, and organized sports in general, being a homosexual is still something "bad." And that's what we have to question; that's where we have to demand change.
FIrst of all, what if you were a gay player for the Lions right now? How would you feel about playing for an organization that considers you an insult? How safe would you feel in being yourself, in admitting to your employer who you were? (It's a real possibility, kids. Even using the most conservative estimates of the percentage of homosexuality in the population, around 1-2%, there are 1,440 players on active NFL rosters each year... that would mean that anywhere between 14 and 28 NFL players are gay. And that's assuming the numbers that social conservatives like to use... most reliable estimates say that the percentage is higher, anywhere between 6-10%. That means that there are probably anywhere between 85 and 144 gay players in the NFL. That's about 2 or 3 per team. I can virtually assure you that someone on Millen's team took that comment a little more personally than everyone else.)
That, my friends, is the definiton of a hostile workplace. A gay player for the Lions has reason to feel that admitting his sexuality to his employer could have detrimental impact on his career. For that reason, Millen needs to go.
It still baffles me that there's still squeamishness about homosexuality in sports. I know, I know, there's the whole locker room thing. But nonetheless... my points would be: 1) if you're not gay, then it doesn't matter who's eyeballing you in a shower... you're not going to reciprocate, so why do you care? 2) that's still an insulting supposition about gay people - that they somehow are less in control of their sexuality than the rest of us... that somehow, they're going to feel that staring at co-workers' bodies is appropriate where the rest of us would not. 3) What about the idea that your teammates are your brothers, the guys you go to battle with every Sunday and the guys who you want to win a Super Bowl with? If the player performs on the field, what do you care? Would you turn down a Super Bowl championship if the player who made the key play that sealed the win just happened to be gay?
We've come a long way in regular society; we have a long way to go, but at least we're making progress. Sadly, in the troglodyte world of Matt Millen and the NFL, they haven't come nearly as far.
December 14, 2003
So they got Saddam Hussein.
So they got Saddam Hussein. I just woke up this morning from a flu-induced coma, logged on, and saw the news. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure what I think - there are a lot of diffrent emotions that surface.
First and foremost, I am proud of our guys who got him. Acting on good intelligence, they apparently found him in what's being called a "spider hole" with ventilation shafts; they invetsigated, went in, and captured him without firing a shot. Can you imagine what it must have felt like for the first guy to go into that bunker? Not knowing what he'd find... Hussein might or might not be in there; he could have a gun (or several); the whole thing could be booby trapped and lined with explosives; what if the whole lair with infested with some biological agent; what if the whole thing was rigged to cave in at the touch ofa button or pull of a lever?
That individual soldier, whoever it was, was about to come face to face with the man who has influenced world events more than any other over the last fifteen years (how many world leaders in history can say that they got America to fight TWO wars against him?)... the man who, rightly in many cases and yet falsely in some, has been painted by George Bush and others as the greatest monster since Adolf Hitler. I simply cannot imagine the adrenaln, the combination of determination and fear that must have coarsed through that guy's veins as he went into the spider hole. I'm proud of all our soldiers and hold special respect for the team that went on this mission... but I hold special admiration for the first guy (or woman) in the hole. Man, that took some stones. Way to carry out your mission, guys.
My second thought, though it will drive my conservative friends nuts, is: Why can't we capture the guy who actually DID something to the United States? Did Saddam Hussein finance, train, and direct a small cadre of evil men to hijack airliners and fly them into the World Trade Center, the White House, and the Capitol? (Forget that the coward at the control of Flight 77 couldn't see the White House and so flew into the Pentagon instead, and that the heroic passengers on Flight 93 prevented the cowards on their plane from ever even getting to Washington; we pretty much know that the Capitol and 1600 Pennsylvania were the targets.) Did Saddam Hussein point two cowards in a raft full of explosives at the USS Cole while it sat in port in Yemen? Did Saddam Hussein organize and carry out the bombings of the US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam?
No. He didn't. That was Osama bin Laden. But when the search for bin Laden proved to be more challenging than he'd hoped, George Bush turned to another bogeyman, one who his family has had personal beef with, and one who was keeping all his oil friends from making more money. And it still disgusts me. Al Qaeda directly attacked the United States on American soil; they killed more than 3,000 innocent civilians and military personnel, whose only "crime" was going to work that day. Al Qaeda are the enemy of America and all civilized peoples, and we should be throwing everything we have at them until bin Laden's head is impaled on a stick and his body dragged through the streets of New York. Every one of the Taliban and al Qaeda deserves every bit of misery and pain we can throw at them; Geneva Convention be damned (the Geneva Convention applies to conventional wars where the soldiers do the fighting and civilians are left out of it; if these guys want to change the rules, then so should we). And yet the United States went into Iraq instead, conjuring up fake evidence to support the ouster of Saddam Hussein.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Saddam was a schoolboy. He gassed his own people; he ruled through torture and murder; he was a reckless and dangerous leader whose presence destablized the entire Middle East. (Note that I'm not calling him a madman; he was perfectly sane, because his every move and action was designed to accumulate, consolidate, and maintain power & control. Someone insane would not have been so measured.)
But all that said, it all remains a problem for someone else. Let's look at the list of people directly affected by Saddam's existence and rule. 1) The Iraqi people. Fine, they have legitimate beef. Let THEM go after him. 2) The Kurds. They've hated him - and borne the brunt of his wrath - for years. Fine, drop him off in the middle of Kurd territory and have them flay him alive. 3) The Kuwaiti people. He invaded their country, violated their soveriegnty; let THEM go after him. Oh yeah, they wouldn't; they pimped the fighting out to the US and British twelve years ago. 4) The Israelis. He dropped Scuds on their country in the 1991 war. Beyond Kuwait, Israel remains the only foreign country Saddam bombed or attacked. Let the Israelis go after him, or have him now. I would be okay with that - they've got legit beef with Hussein.
5) American oil companies who stand to reap billions from the reopening of Iraqi oil fields to western access. Fine, let Exxon send its army over to Baghdad, and... oh, wait. What's that you say? Exxon doesn't HAVE it's own army? They have to rely on the armed forces of the United States, whose responsibility it is to safeguard the interests of ALL Americans? They asked their selected president to send other people's kids into harm's way so that their piplelines - both physical and metaphorical - would be unimpeded?
Tina Fey did a bit on Saturday Night Live last night that really summed it up for me. She referred to George Bush's defense of his policy of excluding nations opposed to the Iraq was from bidding on rebuilding contracts, and his comment that those who did the fighting in Iraq should reap the financial rewards. She then cued the dramatic, patriotic music and went through a sarcastic monologue about the brave Halliburton executives who'd searched the back alleys of Mosul and Tikrit; the valiant businessmen of Exxon who'd braved firefights in Baghdad; and the courageous men of Bechtel who'd put on a suit every day and watched other men's sons and daughters be sent far from home for months or years at a time, not knowing if they'd ever return. She ended with, "You're right, Mr. President. Those who did the fighting should reap the rewards." I couldn't have said it better myself.
Now THERE'S a novel idea, Mr. Bush. I'd actually support you on that one, if you would pull it off. Let those who did the fighting receive the spoils. How about this - the profits from the reconstruction are put into a fund for the servicemen and women who actually did the fighting? Instead of Halliburton getting to make billions by cheating the American government (and the president then winking to the press and saying, "of COURSE we expect them to pay it back!"), we take the money that would go to Halliburton and create a new GI bill that provides free college education for not only our soldiers and sailors and Marines, but their children too? How about instead of letting your Texas oil friends go war profiteering, we do something noble with that money and put it into a fund that only military members who served in Iraq can draw upon - to buy a house, to get a car, to provide for their kids... after all, THEY'RE the ones that earned it, right? THEY'RE the ones who put their asses on the line. You're right, Mr. Bush. Those who did the fighting SHOULD reap the benefits.
If he won't do that, then this remains an oil war fought by proxy for the benefit of Bush's contributors and friends. And not even the capture of Saddam Hussein changes that basic fact.
December 12, 2003
Random events from the past
Random events from the past week:
1) The Yankees lost Andy Pettite. I couldn't be chortling louder over this one. Don't get me wrong; I think Pettite is overrated. He's good, but not great - pitching for the 1994-2003 Yankees, *I* could have won 100 games, and my fastball topped out around 68-70 even when I was in shape and playing ball (it'd probably clock in around 40 right now). I think the Astros overpaid, and Pettite will win 13-14 with a 4.40 ERA in the National League this year.
That said, the Yankees - and especially George Steinbrenner - have egg all over the smug New York faces this week. The day after the World Series, they announced that re-signing Pettite was their top off-season priority. With Clemens retiring, the whole world knew that Pettite's return was critical. And they didn't get him. Georgie Porgie never liked Pettite, and he completely ignored his top left handed pitcher while wining and dining the likes of Felix Heredia and Paul Quantrill. Georgie never showed the love, Pettite is gone, and now the walking case study for Ritalin that is the New York media is frothing at the mouth. The hacks who write for the tabloids and the talk radio buffoons are all in a tizzy about how badly Steinbrenner has screwed up. Even New York is turning on Steinbrenner now, though that's not really a surprise. This town is the most ridiculously blatant group of front runners I have ever seen, and they truly feel entitled to the best team just because they're New York... and when anything happens and they DON'T win, the whole area - which proclaims to LOVE their Yankees - turns on the team with the speed and wrath of a rattlesnake. After the Twins won ONE GAME in this year's ALDS, you should have heard the hue and cry... you'd think the Yankees had just gone 58-104, for all the crying that was done.
And it's great. This city, these fans, and this team are watching a dynasty crumble in front of their very eyes, due to the megalomaniacal delusion of Steinbrenner's that he knows baseball better than any of his staff. He's bringing in such model citizens as Gary Sheffield and Kevin Brown.... yeah right, because noted clubhouse cancers are just what you need in a town full of front runner fans and a drooling, snarling, rabid sports media. Steinbrenner has let his giant ego get in the way, and as a result he is taking a wrecking ball to everything he's bought - I mean, built - over the last ten years.
I love it. Even if the Sox don't win next year, I still love it.
2) My friend Mike was in a very serious car accident Thursday. He's lucky; he walked away without a scratch. His car, however, was killed instantly.
We had a serious rainstorm that morning, and combined with the melting snow from last week's blizzard, there was lots of flooding in this whole area - including an infamous stretch on the Saw Mill River Parkway. There's a bend in the road that runs through a low lying area - it's basically swamp, with reeds and muck right off the parkway. That bend in the road is routinely the site of accidents - in good weather and bad, whether due to slipperyness or some moron who doesn't know how to drive having taken the bend too sharply or too fast. About once every two or three weeks, there is a good old fashioned traffic jam as emergency personnel clean up after one of these jokers, and my commute to work goes from 40 minutes to 90 minutes or longer.
One of the reasons Mike & I get along so well is that we share a cynical streak and an utter lack of ability to suffer fools gladly. Both of us have the same reaction when these traffic tie ups occur. Our first thought is, "You'd BETTER be dead up there!" If someone's had an accident and is delaying me getting to work, they darn well better be on their way to discuss the incident with God's insurance agent. Neither of us have any patience for the idiots who a) don't know how to drive fast but do it anyway, or worse yet b) FEAR driving fast and so they take that bend so slowly that they become a danger to other cars traveling a sensible speed. If we finally reach the scene of that accident and it's only a minor one, or there don't seem to be major injuries, we'll both start swearing up a storm and calling the idiots names and loudly wishing them a sexual experience with themselves. Like I said, patience may be a virtue, but not for either of us.
Since Mike and I travel the same road to work, whenever there's one of these aforementioned jams, whichever of us reaches it first will call the other to warn him of the delay. We then usually spend about 10 frustrated minutes sitting in stop and go traffic and cursing the descendents of those who had the audacity to delay our commute. (I never have figured out why we're in such a hurry just to go to the OFFICE. I'll have to ponder that another day.)
I have a confession to make, though. Mike drives like he's possessed by the spirit of Dale Earnhardt. He's insane. He's a maniac. The speed limit on that road is 50, due to the many bends and winding turns as it weaves through Westchester County. That limit is too slow; the road can be easily and safely traversed at 70, or even 75... which is the speed I usually go. Mike, on the other hand, pushes 90 on that road. His own wife refuses to drive that road with him. And I have to admit, every time I get to a traffic jam on that road that he hasn't called to warn me about, I begin to worry. Here's my confession: I don't just call to warn him about traffic; I'm also calling to see if he answers the phone. I keep expecting that one of these days, I'm going to be stuck in traffic, cursing at whatever SOB has made me late for my first meeting, and I'll look beyond the flares and into the swamp only to see whatever's left of Mike's car laying in a crumpled, twisted heap, the jaws of life standing nearby. I joke with him about it, but it's been an honest back-of-mind concern.
So it shouldn't have caught me off guard on Thursday morning when he called me to warn me of the traffic on the Saw Mill. When I thanked him for the warning and mentioned an alternate route I could take, he laughed and said that I would have to come up the Saw Mill anyway, because he was the idiot this time and I needed to pick him up. I laughed and asked how bad it was, and he said, "the car's totalled."
That was the one moment of the whole story that wasn't funny. The car was TOTALLED? In that moment, I remembered another thing that Mike and I have in common - we could be laying in a ditch with one arm and one leg severed and twitching on the ground beside us, and we'd each say, "I'm all right." And for a split second, I worried. Friends like Mike, his wife Jenn, our friend Tim and his wife Donna are frankly about the ONLY things that make New York even remotely bearable for me; they have become my adoptive second families up here in this place, and I guess I have that same accordant protective reaction to them now too. Suddenly I was sure that even though Mike was calling to warn me of traffic, and even though he was joking, he was really also calling to see if I'd stop and look for his left leg somewhere along the shoulder.
Thankfully, he really did escape without a scratch, amazingly. I picked him up and drove him back home, and heard him tell the story of how he'd been driving slower than usual because of the weather, saw another accident in the lane in front of him, swerved to avoid it and hyrdoplaned... hit the concrete barriers in the center of the road... and I kept thinking, "Mike, I *WANT* to believe that you were really only driving 45, man... I really do. But I've *seen* you drive this road. Many times. Do you REALLY expect me to believe that you were only doing 45? (Before you chastise me for not wholly believing my friend, a note in my defense: the cop on scene didn't believe him either!)
Anyway, the funniest part of the story is that about a half dozen people from the office actually drove PAST Mike that morning and saw the aftermath accident... and not realizing it was Mike, they kept right on driving. He stood on the side of the road, his car totalled, in a torrential rain, while standing in what is already a swamp even in dry weather... with his co-workers zipping right on by. In the meantime, he's got a rental car for now, and the insurance company seems to agree with his initial assessment that the car's beyond saving. So - a close call notwithstanding, we came out of Thursday none the worse for wear - and with a whole new incident to give Mike hell over.
3) Irony likes to pay the occasional unannounced visit to my life. (I could fill pages with examples if you really want me to.) So I should not have been surprised this week. Last month, a colleague poked her head into my office and said, "We're going down to the cafeteria, they're giving flu shots today. Want to join us?" I responded that I had too much work to do, had a deadline, and couldn't make the time - I'd pass. So what happens? Late this week, I got the flu. I mean, I *GOT* the *FLU.* Ten rounds with Tyson flu. Hit by a mack truck flu. Put me in the pine box now and close the lid when you leave flu.
If you haven't already done so, you've GOTTA get yourself a flu shot. You'll be sorry if you don't. And if you think you didn't have time to go get the shot, wait till you find out how much work you're going to miss when this bug hits you.
December 07, 2003
Forgive me a little bit
Forgive me a little bit of speculative dreaming here. The rumor mill in the Hot Stove has the Red Sox making two deals in the next couple of days... the A-Rod for Manny deal with Texas, and then sending Nomar Garciaparra to Anaheim for - get this - Jarrod Washburn and possibly Troy Glaus.
For now, let's looking past the issue that the Red Sox are escalating baseball's Cold War, and these trades would drive their payroll to Steinbrenarian levels. It's a terrible thing the Sox are doing, playing George's game in order to beat him at it. But I already covered that a week ago when we got Schilling, so I'll move on. And I also won't address (right now) my sadness if Nomah leaves Boston... not only is he a talented shortstop (far better than Derek Jeter when it comes to pure skills), a good human being & role model, and one of the all time great Red Sox, but his name is more tailored for playing in Boston than any major leaguer in history - can you think of a name that better lends itself to the New England accent than "Nomahhh?" I love Nomah; he is my favorite player, and I would honestly be sad to see him go. Plus, I do NOT like Pay-Rod - no matter his talent, I find him greedy and selfish, and I think he's more concerned with his stats and his paycheck than he is with winning (if he truly cared about winning, he'd restructure his contract and allow the Rangers to get some more pitching while staying within their means. But I digress.)
For now, though, I want to leave all those other issues aside. No worrying about which players I like or don't, and no thinking about the detrimental effect that the Sox payroll would have on baseball's smaller markets. I just want to speculate, for a moment, about what the 2004 Red Sox will look like if these trades go through.
Assuming that all these trades happen, our starting lineup could look something like this: 1B: Bill Mueller, 2B: Damian Jackson, 3B: Troy Glaus, SS: Alex Rodriguez, C: Jason Varitek, LF: Kevin Millar, CF: Johnny Damon, RF: Trot Nixon, DH: David Ortiz. Our starting rotation would be: Martinez, Schilling, Lowe, Washburn, Wakefield. We'd have Kim, Embree, Sauerbeck, and Timlin as the middle relievers to set up Williamson (or Keith Foulke, if we get him). And off the bench to hit or spell some guys, we'd have Gabe Kapler, Doug Mirabelli, Kevin Youkilis, and a few other journeymen or roster fillers or minor leaguers.
I have to think that this lineup would be the odds-on World Series favorite. Ok, true... Bill Mueller had a career year, and we can't expect him to hit .330 again; Troy Glaus will bat .260 if we're lucky; we probably shouldn't expect to see another year out of Millar that was as productive as 2003. All good points.
That said - Mueller in Fenway could easily hit .290; Jackson won't hit more than .250 or .260, but he'll steal 40 bases and give us a solid defensive presence at second base. A-Rod in Fenway? Give me a break - he'll hit .325, with 45-50 home runs, and he'll drive in 130. Glaus also would benefit from Fenway; he might hit only .250, but he will hit 40 home runs as well. Millar should go about .270-15-80; Damon about .265-10-60, and will score 100 runs and steal 30 bases; Nixon should go .295-30-100. Varitek will do his usual .275-20-90 as the most underrated catcher in baseball. And David Ortiz should go .290-30-95 again. Our batting order would likely be something like Damon, Nixon, A-Rod, Glaus, Ortiz, Millar, Varitek, Mueller, Jackson.
And the rotation? Can you think of any team that has a better *number 4* starter than Jarrod Washburn? Pedro will win 15-20 with 250 Ks and a 2.50 ERA; Schilling probably will win 18-22 games, strike out 280, and an ERA around 2.90 or 3.00; Derek Lowe should win about 14-17 with 200 strikeouts and around a 3.60 ERA; Washburn could win 14-15 games in Boston; and Wakefield and his junkball can win another 11 or 12 out of the 5 slot. That's anywhere between 72 and 86 wins just out of their starters. And with that offense behind them, I'm inclined to think it will be closer to the higher number than the lower end. Add in another 20 wins out of the bullpen... that team, if it were to come into existence, could win 100-105 games.
It probably won't happen. It probably *shouldn't* happen, for the larger good of baseball. But man... oh man, if it did.
December 05, 2003
Rantings and ravings for a
Rantings and ravings for a miserable, snowy, windy, blizzardy evening:
1) Of all the lamentable, contemptible trends of the last few years, there is one that stands head and shoulders above the rest as the worst trend in all of popular culture. Think about it - what trend could be so henious that it outpaces body piercing, the rise of hip hop culture and music, athletes routinely leaving college early to turn pro, reality television, and Disney musicals? It's a simple answer: radio stations that play all Christmas music for the six weeks preceding Christmas.
When I was a kid, radio stations would occasionally interrupt their usual programming with a new Christmas song by a contemporary artist - U2's "Baby Please Come Home For Christmas," George Michael's "Last Christmas," or that ubiquitous Paul McCartney one. As the years went by, new songs joined that pantheon - my favorites are the Matchbox Twenty song "A New York Christmas," and any version of Adam Sandler's "Hannukah Song." (I also still really like the U2 song.) But for a proud Grinch like me, the best part of the whole thing is that we only had to suffer through one of those songs for four minutes every hour, and then the station reverted to its usual format.
No longer. At some point, some bean counter at ClearChannel decided that there were ratings in going all-insipid, all-the-time, and initiated "all-Christmas" formats - stations begin playing Christmas music 24/7 as early as November 10. And since they are no longer just filling four hours a minute, but rather 24/7, we don't just get modern attempts to bring a contemporary sensibility to Christmas music. We're tortured incessantly - either by creaky, dusty, moldy oldies by Burl Ives or Andy Williams, or has-been modern singers whose last hit came a decade ago - like Amy Grant, or Phil Collins - trying to see how much pain they can inflict by covering those moldy oldies. It's still three weeks before Christmas, and I am already SICK of "The Christmas Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."
Four of the twelve presets on my car radio have been rendered useless until 2004. I hope that whoever came up with this format idea gets a six week case of diarrhea, followed by an embarassing yet inexplicable genital rash.
2) I'm as big a supporter of diversity and civil rights as you'll ever find. But there's nothing like some people crying wolf to turn off even the staunchest supporter, like me. A news item this week has left me disappointed, angry, and mistrusting of civil rights leadership in this country.
The story was the case of Nathaniel Jones, the 350 pound man who died after an altercation with police in Cincinnati. The first video of the incident certainly seemed damning - the police were hauling off on the guy with metal nightsticks. It certainly LOOKED like an Ohio version of Rodney King. And sure as shootin', the civil rights leadership was out inflaming the community and demanding "justice." But as the week unfolded, look what we've learned... the guy was jacked up on powder cocaine and PCP, and more of each was found in his car. He'd been videotaped outside a White Castle a few minutes before, behaving bizarrely, marching around the parking lot like a soldier, and rolling down a hill outside the restaurant. Another video of the incident shows Jones lunging at police officers, and he can be heard on the police video calling the cops "white boy, redneck." The coroner has concluded that while Jones died as a result of his clash with police, he had no internal injuries from the nightsticks - only bruises on his lower body.
And yet, the civil rights leadership are still yammering about police brutality and "demanding justice" and saying the cops were out of line - and felt free to go over that line because their target was black. Oh really? Let me see if I have that argument straight: police are called to a scene where a man has behaving bizarrely; upon arriving, they are confronted by a man twice the size of any one of them, who lunges at them and shouts a racial epithet; the man is high on drugs that are known for causing violently aggressive behavior; and the coroner's report would seem to indicate that the man's injuries were not inflicted in such a way as to injure - but rather to take the big man's legs out from under him and incapacitate him. What the heck were the cops supposed to do, feed him some warm milk, pat him on the back, and send him home to mommy?
Imagine if the situation were reversed - if black cops responded to a scene where a 350 pound white man was skied up on PCP and coke, where he'd been acting bizarrely for the last 30 minutes in front of many witnesses, if the white man lunged at the black cops and called them racial names - and if he was twice the size of the cops on scene... if those black cops had then beaten the white man and he'd died as a result, do you think the civil rights community would be screaming about police brutality?
Being black in this country has historically cost people their rights, their freedoms, and even their lives. In some places, it still does. I won't argue that racist cops don't still exist, or that race doesn't have an effect on societal perceptions, or that police brutality doesn't sometimes still take place. Sure, they do - and in those cases where it's legitimately a problem, action must be taken to address it. The civil rights leadership and community are right to point out cases where being black is the only "crime" committed. But being black in this country - and the shameful history of the black experience in this country - does not entitle one to exemption from the laws of a civilized society, nor does it mean that one can do whatever he wants, even to the point of threatening a cop, without any reprecussions.
Let's face it, folks... Nathaniel Jones showed no willingness to abide by the rules & laws of society - so why is it that some people expect those same rules and laws to protect him? He lunged at a cop while high on PCP! No one deserves to die (ok, so a few do, but that's a topic for another rant), but I'm sorry... Nathaniel Jones had some sort of beatdown coming to him. Not anything that would cause him injury, but the police were *certainly* justified in using force to subdue him. And if he was so obese, and had so many drugs in his system, that such force resulted in his death, well then... he shouldn't have been on PCP and he shouldn't have lunged at a cop.
Real, honest, legitimate incidents of racism happen every day in this country. The police use of a level of force necessary to subdue an aggressive drug suspect who'd lunged at an officer and called him a racist name is not one of these such incidents. Worse yet, the civil rights leadership is discrediting themselves, and doing a disservice to those who truly ARE victims of racism, by labeling this incident as such. This wasn't Police Run Amok; this was An Aggressive Druggie Threatens Cops and Got What He Deserved. It wouldn't matter to me whether Jones was black, white, purple, red, green, blue or plaid... he was on drugs and lunged at a cop. I'll side with the police every single time on a case like this. And by claiming that the police response was racist, "leaders" of the civil rights community are making it harder for the average white person in this country to believe that police brutality is really a problem, or to believe other incidents when they come to light. It's a shame that these so-called "leaders" are undermining their community and their cause in this fashion.
3) 6 inches of snow so far in New York today. I will say it one more time for the record... WINTER SUCKS.
