No Peace for the Wicked (of the NBA)

The Phoenix Suns won their season opener last night, knocking off the NBA’s most overt crew of cheaters and floppers, the San Antonio Spurs, by a final score of 103-98. In reference to last night’s game as it compares to the numerous instances of flopping, dirty play, and ref bribery by San An that preceded it, I offer the following condolences to the Spurs:

Tough luck. Your childish little ‘Hack-A-Shaq’ BS did not work this time and your petty excuse for a super-star got posterized by Amare as he was still recovering from a scratched cornea. Wanna see?

Boo-yah! Right down Main Street! How do ya like them apples, Timmy-boy?

GO SUNS!

Apparently Bono is Not the Only Douchebag Out There

I have not written in a while due to being to busy (which, given your comments to some of my other posts, I assume most of you imagine means I am out drowning kittens) but my Douchebag Alert! Bono’s Back! post has garnered such a continual influx of hateful comments that I feel compelled to reply to a few favorites. So, without further adieu, here are the words written by a few people who clearly missed to underlying message of aforementioned post (and my responses to them in bold):

· Greg // June 3, 2008 at 1:10 pm (edit)

Here’s your answer, from the same website you quote.

“The Global Fund has selected established grants with sound performance to receive money raised through (RED). To date, (RED) partners have generated more than $60 million for the Global Fund. No overhead is taken out of these funds – 100% of this money flows to Global Fund financed AIDS grants in Ghana, Rwanda, Swaziland and Lesotho. In these countries this money is helping to finance comprehensive national HIV/AIDS programs led by the ministries of health, to provide antiretroviral treatment for children and adults, to assist in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, as well as essential counseling and testing activities to reduce the overall risk of HIV transmission.”

On one hand you have this, on the other you have what you’ve jerked off onto this site, read by few.

So…who’s the douchebag?

-Bono is still king douchebag but, thankfully, now he has company because you are one as well. I found the same fact that you did about 100% of (Red)’s profits going to Africa… then again, also found numerous other reports (from them and their affiliates) noting various other numbers that are being contributed. Here is a good example of that from the Apple site that sells those fruity (Red) iPods. Note that this site details “up to 50%” of the initiative’s gross profits going to help those poor AIDS sufferers in Africa… that is a markedly different number.

I never claimed to have a wide reader-base on this site; it is simply a place for me to voice my opinion on various issues for anyone who feels like listening to me… for someone who obviously has such a low opinion of my blog, I am surprised you took time to read it.

Alain // June 18, 2008 at 6:53 am (edit)

First sorry for my bad english.
As far as I know, the Red label is only 1 part of Bono’s work. If you want to know what Bono does to fight poverty, go here:http://www.one.org Extreme poverty is not an easy problem to fight, solution has nothing to do with charity. Maybe you should inform yourself before to criticize.

And to answer your question “How much is some?”(profit red label re-distribute) I would say:
maybe just a few….and may ask you: how much money did you give last year to fight poverty????? Probably nothing…The one campagne already saved many thousand children’s life, allowing them also to go to school, and just for this, Bono can be proud.

Moron toi-même!

-Yes, your grasp of the English language certainly does suck… if you are attempting to ask how much I gave last year to fight poverty then the answer is simple: I gave every hour of work at my job to fighting poverty… my own personal poverty, to be precise. I feel no need to give money to bull-shit causes half-way around the globe when I myself am not living a lavish lifestyle. It is very easy for people like Bono, who have spent decades living lives of decadence to such an extreme that you and I could never even comprehend, to ‘give a little back’ with these types of organizations. It builds positive PR for them and further increases both their own profits and their general perception by the public.

· beth // July 2, 2008 at 1:42 am (edit)

i’m not really sure why the author’s name does not appear anywhere on here. anyway, uh…”the dwindling lives of AIDS carriers in the most AIDS invested corner of the world”? are you talking about human beings? hopefully, neither you nor anyone you love gets sick or is dying or otherwise suffering from some disease. what do you propose we do to help you or your loved one if that happens – nothing? or just kill you because you aren’t in perfect health, a lost cause? someone to be disposed of like a piece of trash, the way you talk about african people who have contracted aids? that seems very humane & compassionate! i hope you learn to develop some empathy. maybe you can travel to africa & do some service work, learn to get outside your limited world view & b.s. (belief system).

-Why are you not sure about my name appearing on the post? How many times have you ever seen a blogger put their name on post? What purpose would it serve?

And, yes, I am talking about human beings; human beings who are infected with a terminal disease which makes their lives terrible up until the moment when they inevitably succumb to their illness(es). Several members of my friends and family have had terrible illnesses (I myself was diagnosed with having a brain tumor as a child) but there is a key difference between any of those afflictions and HIV/AIDS… none of our illnesses were terminal 100% of the time and none of them were capable of spreading and infecting other healthy people.

I am not saying that AIDS carriers in Africa deserve to die. I am saying that they are all going to die prematurely (as compared to health people) and that any money being thrown at solving the problem of this virus should be spent in finding a cure rather than propping up the sad lives of the small segment of the world population that is unlucky enough to suffer from it. This fact is only further supported when you consider that local African customs/practices are largely the cause of the continent’s AIDS pandemic. Factors like the prevalence of prostitution, female circumcision, local marrying practices (such as a widow automatically being married off to the brother of her deceased husband, even when he has died of AIDS), and certain false sexual/medical beliefs (like that having sex with a young virgin girl will cure a man of disease) have all been chief causes of the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa.

We have plenty of medical/economic/social problems of our own in America. How about we take care of those first?

mike // July 25, 2008 at 10:23 am (edit)

Bono has done more for the world than a loser blogger like yourself ever could hope to do. He’s a rock star – he doesn’t have to work on humanitarian efforts, he does it because he wants to make a difference.

What absolute bull-shit! I never claim to have done anything for the world. The idea that people, as inhabitants of this planet, should “do” something to help the world at large is an idea invented to get people like you to thoughtlessly give your time and money to causes which you know nothing about (many of whom then line their own pockets with the cash of uneducated morons like yourself.)

If Bono actually cares so much for the poor diseased masses of the world then he should just give all his money to help them and not bother to advertise what he is doing every time he opens his stupid mouth. The reason he does this is not because he wants to “make a difference” (whatever the hell that means) but because he wants the world to see him as some great savior. If he is actually doing this to further the (Red) cause then that is actually worse as it means he honestly believes that he should be able to tell us how to live our lives.

To prove this point, you need look no further than Bono’s own comments about the (Red) campaign: ““Americans, whether they know it or not, are literally saving the lives of millions of people in the poorest places on the planet.” He is a proponent of attaching this little premium to products which he knows Americans already buy for the express purpose of donating it to causes which they may not even believe in. If this guy could somehow pass a law that everyone has to donate 10% of their pay to helping AIDS infected Africans, he would… since he is not able to do so, he starts up these ridiculous organizations.

Annie // August 3, 2008 at 12:22 am (edit)

For one freakin’ time of your life, use your brain before you talk. You must be just as stupid as you sound with comments like that about the sickness of AIDS in the continent of Africa. And Bono has done more for Africa than you’ll ever will. So who’s the real douche? You, for sure. Do something good for the world before you judge other people who does make a difference.

-You all seem to love this term, “make a difference.” What is that supposed to mean? You don’t even specify what kind of difference you are talking about. Here’s a little list of some people who have ‘made a difference’ in the lives of countless others around them:

• Hitler
• Jesus
• Osama bin Laden
• President George W Bush
• Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
• Dr. Phil
• Santa Claus

Making a difference is not always a good thing… sometimes it is, but sometimes it can be terrible. Sometimes it can be both, it just depends on whose perspective is being considered.

And that is exactly my point. You should not hold someone up as a champion of mankind because you think that they ‘made a difference.’ The terrorist attacks of 9/11 certainly made a difference but I bet you will get a markedly different interpretation of its value if you has a family member of someone who died that day as opposed to an Islamic militant in Afghanistan.

If you honestly believe that you can/should/need to help people suffering from AIDS in Africa then you should do so. Send money to whoever or wherever you want if you think that will somehow improve those people’s lives or the world at large. I object to losers like Bono grandstanding and rubbing their alleged philanthropy in my face every five minutes just so people like you will say, “Wow! He’s making a difference. Isn’t he a truly great example of humanity?”

I give money to the collection plate at church on Sunday (when I can afford it) because I want to do so and because I know the programs that money supports are in line with my own beliefs and will serve to help people I see in my community and wish to help. I do so without any fanfare or praise being heralded my way because that is how I like it; that’s what charity is to me. If you honestly believe that the only way for you to help someone less fortunate than yourself is to buy some red iPod or a pair of jeans emblazoned with the (Red) logo all over them so that everyone you meet knows that you “made a difference” then I think that is just sad… and you are a douchebag.

Pork Chop Gets the Axe

On recent trip to Allentown, PA to visit my grand-parents I learned that, beginning this season, the city would become home to a minor league baseball franchise. The Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs (formerly the Lynx of Ottawa) would represent the Philadelphia Phillies as their local affiliate at the Triple-A level. However, the arrival of the new team to the area has been marred by accusations of racism by local Hispanics regarding the name of their mascot.

Based on over 7,000 fan submissions of potential names, the cartoony, metallic pig had originally been given the title of ‘Pork Chop.’ The team quickly conceded to the complaints of “several Hispanics” that the name was offensive and dumped the fan-chosen name prior to the start of the season. My first thought was, “What is offensive to Hispanics (or anyone else) about naming a cartoon pig ‘Pork Chop’?”

Apparently the pig’s chosen moniker has been used by some people as a derogatory term for Puerto Ricans. Aside from the fact that this seems like a stupid racial slur (not stupid in the sense that it demeans a group of people based on race but rather because it is, in reality, a type of food and therefore should offend the group at which it is directed no more than someone calling me a ‘Cracker’ would offend me) but it is a term of which I doubt most people have any awareness.

Guillermo Lopez, vice president of the Latino Leadership Alliance and one of the prime complainants about the name, hammered this very point home with his own statements when he noted, “If my parents were alive, they’d be having fits. It meant much more to them than it does to Puerto Ricans now in the Lehigh Valley.”

Exactly! This may have been an offensive to term to a select group of people over 20 years ago but that is clearly not the case anymore. Moreover, this name was being given to a pig! The pig is the mascot and therefore the physical representation of the team’s spirit and camaraderie. The name was being used in the most positive of connotations (unless you are an actual pig) and this moron has not only stripped the public of their chosen name but also breathed life back into what was a dead racial slur so that an entire new generation of bigots can use it to belittle his own people.

So congratulations, Mr. Lopez, to you and all your fellow ‘minority’ groups out there who continue to fan the flames of prejudice by constantly reminding the public at large of not only the myriad of differences between our races, religions, and genders but also of all the ways with which they can offend you.

Oddly enough, nobody was offended by Pork Chop’s replacement, ‘Wetback the Dolphin’

The most ignorant statement from the whole story did not come from those who were offended, however, but from the man who conceded to them. General Manager Kurt Landes said of his decision to change the mascot’s name, “We were really unaware of any negative connotations with the word ‘pork chop.’ If it offended a few, it’s a few too many.”

No, it isn’t! The things we say and do can always be found to be offensive to a few people on some level, but that is no reason to alter our behavior. There will always be those like Lopez and his ilk who have nothing better to do than complain about things which could be offensive to some tiny sub-group of people (even if those people are from a past generation, as in this case) and if everyone continues to concede on the most innocent of or alleged faux pas then we, as a majority of the people, place ourselves ever more at the mercy of the few yahoos pathetic enough to spend their days searching out new ways to be offended.

If anyone involved in this entire situation is guilty of racism it is Mr. Lopez and his Latino Leadership Alliance of Lehigh Valley who, according to their own mission statement, claim the the LLA “seeks to improve the quality of life for the Latino community and the entire Lehigh Valley.” I would be interested, however, to know what specifically this organization does to help anyone in Lehigh Valley who is not Latino.

According to their president, the LLA “promotes education by providing ‘Si Se Puede’ workshops” in local schools. Sounds to me like these workshops are geared specifically to Hispanics (or at least only to those who speak Spanish.) I don’t speak Spanish and I find it offensive that they would discriminate against me simply based on my ethnicity or the educational opportunities I have had.

The group also gives out dozens of scholarships annually, but they are only open to Latino students. That is the very definition of racial discrimination and, once again, flies in the face of their claims of improving the quality of life for everyone in Lehigh. It makes me sick that groups like the LLA are able to promote the advancement of only those individuals who have the same color skin and speak the same language as they do. This organization and all those who support their bigoted, racist agenda should be ashamed of themselves.

I have gone on for long enough though. It is nearly dinner time and I am getting hungry. I think I will go get a pork chop so I can eat… that Puerto Rican chef sure knows how to cook. (Thanks for teaching me a new word, Guillermo!)

Iran Builds Rocket in 9 Months– Still No Gays

Iran has built their own unique space rocket, from scratch, in a scant nine months. At least, that is what President Ahmadinejad has announced. Then again, we should all remember that this is the same man who, during a speech at Columbia University last year, stated that Iran does not have gay people within its borders and wondered where Americans had gotten the idea that his nation routinely executed those among its citizenry known to be homosexuals.

I suppose he is correct depending upon how you look at it. Afterall, Germany (circa World War II) was entirely devoid of Jews if you don’t count those hundreds of thousands of ‘undelcared’ individuals  tattooed with serial numbers and forced to work themselves to death in prison camps. But, then again, if you ask Ahmadinejad about those Holocaust victims he will tell you that they don’t exist either.

Is anyone else out there getting more than a little sick of listening to these moronic blow-hards, who have weaseled their way into a position of power in some 3rd world sandbox, continually spit lies and accusations into the face of America and the rest of the Western World?  With people like Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il, Hugo Chavez, and Saddam Hussein constantly testing to see just how far America can be pushed before snapping, however, I find it odd that we do not bomb another nation back to the stone-age on a weekly basis. (One thing we can be sure of, Saddam and his idiot sons have played their last game of brinksmanship with the West.)

These dictators lie, villify, and slander our leaders, our people, and our way of life every chance they get and we remain silent lest we be further bedeviled by the world at large. Chavez nationalized foriegn oil companies (like Citgo,) took the money to prop up his own dictatorship, and then came to America and said our elected leader is “Satan.” Kim Jong Il and Ahmadinejad constantly claim to have no weapons-related nuclear programs and then refuse to allow this fact to be verified. This sounds shockingly similar to the tactics used by Saddam Hussein prior to his fall from power and consequent short-drop into the unknown. As one of Saddam’s top advisor’s recently noted, the practice of denying any weapons programs on the world stage and then refusing to permit verification of this claim was a tactic to make it appear as though Iraq was lying about existing nuclear, biological, and/or chemical weapons operations in order to appear more stalwart in the eyes of Iran and other rival nations in the Middle East.

I know they have got a lot of sand in which to stick their heads over there in the Middle East but these idiots better wise up pretty quickly or start praying for some stronger candidates out of the Democratic party because I am sure that a President McCain is not going to take too much of their saber-rattling before he introduces them to Allah and their precious virgins.

Bruce Bowen Deserves to Die

If anyone can put forth a rational argument against the title of this post then I would be amused to hear it.

Bruce Bowen is human garbage. He is a disgrace to the game of basketball and to humanity at large. This moron capped off his league-leading 500th consecutive game by fouling Chris Paul (and somehow getting away with it, as usual) before hauling back and kicking Paul in the balls as the Hornets’ star lay defenseless on the floor. Even better, Bowen first assumed his usual hands-in-the-air innocent pose while delivering the kick to Paul’s man-region.

The one bright spot that arose out of this is that the NBA finally sat-up and took action against Bowen, suspending him for one game and fining him somewhere in the neighborhood of $37k. Yet still I have many questions for David Stern and his league-lackeys, such as: Why only one game? Why only $37k? And, most of all, what the hell took so long? This guy is dirtier than the floor of a Mexican port-o-potty and anyone who watches NBA basketball (aside from a select group of myopic Spurs’ fans) knows that Bowen has deserved much harsher punishment for many years.

Spurs’ coach Gregg Popovich added insult to injury (literally) by stating that he had watched the tape several times and that “there’s no real contact.” I suppose we cannot really blame Pop for down-playing the kick to the groin though given all the other blatant cheap-shots Bowen has doled out to league superstars over the years that make this most recent infraction pale somewhat in comparison. Moreover, can there really be any doubt at this point that Popovich regularly uses Bowen as his personal thug to injure any opposing player who is hurting the Spurs on the scoreboard that night?

But, as I know some of you out there are too blinded by your love of the best team ever to cheat their way to multiple NBA championships (does the name Tim Donaghy ring any bells,) here are links to some of Bruce Bowen’s greatest hits in a legacy of cheating, dirty-play, and thugism:

Bowen Kicks Ray Allen from the Floor:

Bowen’s Famous ‘Foot-Defense’ Injures Steve Francis (note how the announcer even says that the NBA is trying to crack down on this move– not that they ever did anything though):

Bowen’s Same Foot Move on Crawford (the very next game):

Bowen Knees Steve Nash in the Balls (2007 Play-Offs):

Bowen Tries to Trip Steve Nash (from the same 2007 Play-Off series):

Bowen Kicks Amare Stoudemire in the Achilles Tendon (from the same 2007 Play-Off series):

Bowen Trips Amare Going to the Hole (FROM THE SAME 2007 PLAY-OFFS SERIES!):

Bowen’s Flying Ninja-Kick to Wally Szczerbiak’s face (keep in mind this was not the first time he delivered a flying kick to an opponent’s head):

Popovich Sends Bowen in to Injure Vince Carter:

And, of course, the latest…

Bowen Kick Chris Paul in the ‘Groin’:

So, with the NBA finally taking some action against Bowen’s dirty play, I can find some solace in the fact that Bowen will never come close to achieving the all-time record for consecutive games-played. Thankfully, that title will long remain in the hands of a man who was one of the classiest players in league history, A.C. Green.

That being said, let me just conclude by noting that I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that Bruce Bowen dies a very painful death from a combination of testicular cancer and repeated blows to the head with a spiked club.

Welcome to Sucktown- Tucson’s Losing Tradition

Tucson sports are in the toilet (and I am not just referring to the stink that surrounds their chosen locale.)  The former territorial capitol took several more steps toward the complete collapse of all athletic programs associated with the city this week as it now appears that several baseball programs have decided that it is time to pack their gear for greener pastures.

With the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Cactus League affiliate, the Tucson Sidewinders, already having announced a move to Reno, NV when their contract is up at the end of this season, the Chicago White Sox this week announced that they are looking to move their Spring Training home North to Goodyear at the earliest convenience as well.  The only question I have regarding this new information is, can anyone blame them?

For evidence that Tucson athletics’ esprit d’corps are currently at an all-time low, one need look no further than the sign which Arizona Tribune writer, Scott Bordow, recently witnessed workers erecting just inside city limits along I-10 stating, “Welcome to Tucson. Kick me.”

Indeed with the University of Arizona Wildcats having come off a year that marked their football teams third consecutive loss to their hated rival, Arizona State, and closing in on a decade without a bowl bid, the UofA athletics program suffered further hardships as both their men’s and women’s basketball teams were swept by the Sun Devils this season.

Adding insult to injury, the Wildcats’ recent loss of several top football recruits (Ryan Bass-RB, Jarrell Barbour-WR, Gerell Robinson-WR) to ASU after having received verbal commitments from all three spurred coach Mike Stoops to make what was probably his worst mistake since hiring his idiot brother to the team’s coaching staff.  Stoops is still feeling the heat from his scathing comment, made in response to the renegging of the recruits, that Arizona State has “turned into a JC school.”  A JC school, Mr. Stoops?  It would appear to me that ASU is one JC with which your pride-and-joy is incapable of competing both on the playing field and in the AD’s office.

With the steady decline of Tucson’s collegiate athletics and the closest thing the city has ever known to the professional ranks heading North to Maricopa County faster than Mexican drug-runner, one can only wonder what possible pride is left in town.

So, as doubt continues to grow around the intelligence of Gadsden’s famous purchase, the people of Tucson can still find some solace that their city has one nice asset– the view North up I-10 towards hospitable confines of the Valley of the Sun.

 

Tucson Sucks!

UofA Sucks!!

GO DEVILS!!!

Democrats: The Party of Racism & Ignorance

So I am in a cab this morning on the way to the airport and the driver has on the local NY affiliate for National Public Radio.  I am not a big fan of NPR, if only because I have never understood why the few outlets of broadcast media being propped up by our federal tax dollars (NPR, PBS) have been so historically to the left of center in the political spectrum.  Given that the last two U.S presidential elections have been decided but such a markedly thin margin, does it not make sense that our nation’s media market reflect both ends of the political measure (or at least show some semblance of compromise between the two?)

But, in spite of myself, I admit that NPR does put out some genuinely interesting programming from time to time and the mere fact that it was the radio station selected by my cab driver is not what is irritating me at the moment.  What proved troublesome for me were the comments made during an interview of some Maine voters regarding their state’s recent presidential primary.

Specifically, the NPR representatives were asking African-American voters from the Democratic primary who they had chosen to vote for and, more importantly, the reasons why they had done so.  The selection of interviews was small (it was not a very long report) but nearly every one of the comments irked me to some degree.  It seemed as though, when asked for the reason they supported him, nearly every African-American Barack Obama supporter’s predominant reason for voting for this man was that he is black.

What the hell kind of reason is that to vote for someone?  Casting your vote for one candidate or another based on the color of their skin is not only ignorant but it is also, by definition, racist.  I understand that many people (of all races) are excited to see the first serious African-American contender for the White House in our nation’s history but by making this man’s race into a selling point for his campaign you give legitimacy to the very racial differences against which you claim to fight.  Does this not fly in the face of the concept of all men, regardless of race, creed, age, socio-economic status, etc. being created equal?  Isn’t the point of equality to ensure that each of the candidates has a level playing field from which to woo potential voters?

This is not to say that such prejudiced votes are not cast by many other groups of people for many other reasons.  I know that Mitt Romney recently swept through the Utah Republican primary with nearly 90% of that state’s vote due, to a large degree, to the fact that Romney was the sole Mormon candidate running in a state known to be the Mecca of the Mormon religion; but that does not seem to be quite as knee-jerk of a vote as the African-American issue.  Mormons are a religious group whose family and social ideals are clearly defined by their adherence to the rules and norms of their church.  Moreover, they are a group in which membership is a matter of choice, not genetics.  To say the same about black people would be to imply that their entire race is predisposed to act a certain way.  That is, of course, not true and is also a racist sentiment.

Many African-Americans are obviously going to share some set of social norms and values as they are (for the vast majority) born into African-American families who pass on these traditions from one generation to the next (just as any racial, religious, family group does.)  Americans are not, however, voting to decide who should be the head of African-America or the leader of the Mormon religion; we are voting to decide who should run this nation and as much as I may be inclined to vote for a white Catholic from Massachusetts (as such a person would be wholly representative of my personal background,) I have never voted for anyone with the last name Kennedy because none of these people represented what I wanted for my political leadership or governance.

Perhaps the most disturbing sound-byte from the whole NPR segment came from an African-American woman who expressed her reasoning for choosing Hillary Clinton over Obama.  She stated that she “loves Obama” (without delving into any reason for this admiration) but that she was voting for Hillary because the New York senator has pledged to “double funding to black universities” if elected.

There are two serious issues with the sentiments expressed by this woman.  First, why is there such a thing as a ‘black university’ that receives any public funding?  This is an institution whose very goal is to further the progress of one specific racial group above all others in a nation where ‘all men are created equal.’  How does one justify that?  Such an institution is either attempting to unbalance the already level field of racial play in America or trying to advance a racial group which they themselves have determined to be inferior to the others in some way.  Can you even begin to imagine the outcry if someone attempted to start a ‘white university’ let alone secure its funding from tax dollars?  Those involved would be lambasted as evil racists and probably convicted of some sort of ‘hate-crime.’

The second issue I have with this woman’s reason for choosing Hillary is that she wants to see the funding for these ‘black universities’ doubled.  This begs many questions:  What is the deficiency in these schools that has caused them to need twice the funds currently allotted to them by our government?  Will doubling this funding really solve these problems or just set the stage for further financial increases down the line?  How much of an increase in funding will the public university system as a whole see under President Hillary?  How should I, as a Caucasian-, Hispanic-, Middle Eastern-, or Asian-American, feel knowing that my tax dollars are being set aside for group of people who wish to exclude me based solely on my race?

The bottom line here is that if you feel you have been disenfranchised in some way because serious candidates for the American presidency have always been white males then you should really have some sort of concrete evidence as to what you have missed out on.  With all the whining I have heard from the anti-Bush lobby over the past eight years about how the President duped the nation into launching an unnecessary war or how he is a moron incapable of leading anyone you would think that these people might be able to come up with a slightly better rationale for choosing our next president than race or gender.  If you don’t want to see our nation at war then why not choose Ron Paul, a former Libertarian candidate whose political ideals would certainly not have the U.S jumping into any overseas conflicts.  If you think that George W. Bush is an idiot then why not review the GPAs and IQ scores for each candidate and simply choose the one who is the most intelligent?  It’s odd that in spite of all the years of Bush-bashing and the current trend of voting along racial- or gender-lines I cannot recall a single instance of Bush being called ‘too-white’ or ‘too-male’ of a Commander-in-Chief.

In spite of voting for him in both elections, I do not agree with many things that President Bush has done over the past eight years.  I do believe, however, that I would be facing a much longer personal laundry list of issues with actions that Bush’s alternatives would have taken had they been residing in the White House.  That being said, I know that I can feel confident that I have made the correct decision each time I enter the voting booth by selecting the candidate who best represents my desired leadership style and personal values rather than someone whose skin color or chromosome make-up matches mine.

Conflict of Interests

It is never easy to decide where you allegiances lie in the world of sports fandom.  Being a rabid Arizona State Sun Devils fan it is only natural that I also possess a violent disdain for the school’s rival, the University of Arizona Wildcats.  That rivalry does not present much conflict in and of itself but when college stars inevitably enter the world of professional sports problems can arise.

I have spent much of the past decade cheering on several former Wildcats as they play for my favorite pro teams, most notably Tedy Bruschi of the New England Patriots and Terry Francona (manager) of the Boston Red Sox.  Well, the conflict has reached a head recently due to some comments made by Bruschi regarding the Patriots practice schedule placing them in Sun Devil Stadium the week ahead of the big game.

During the off-week, the New York Post quoted the Patriots’ definsive-back as saying, “Coach Belichick told us we’re going to be practicing in the Arizona State practice facility and I was thinking, Arizona State, the Scum Devils.” Bruschi added that he would need to “shower twice” after practices.

Perhaps someone should remind Mr. Bruschi that the stadium where his team was practicing (they were in Sun Devil Stadium, and not the practice facility as he implied) has been home to several PAC-10 Champions (including a co-championship this season) and two Rose Bowl teams.  It is understandable that Bruschi overlooked this face as he and his fellow Wildcat alums have never achieved such successes.

There was, however, a bright spot that shone from the Devil-Wildcat rivalry during all the Super Bowl hoopla out in the desert this week.  PGA golfer, and proud Sun Devil alum, Phil Mickelson, showed true class by giving away his ticketsto the game to a father and son who showed up to cheer him on at the FBR Open golf tournament in Phoenix just hours before the game.

The pair were given the tickets by Mickelson’s caddy just after ‘Lefty’ launched his first drive from the third tee of the FBR.  Mickelson explained his decision, “I thought it would be fun to give it to a father-son (group).  I cherish the time I have with each one of my kids, and I thought it would be a cool experience for them.”

Way to go, Phil!  You are a true class-act and continue to instill pride in the Sun Devil faithful in what you do both on and off the links.

GO DEVILS!!!