Food for Thought

It's totally wrong of me to go for so long without posting, I'll admit it. And I'm going to make an effort to do better, I swear. That said, I'm just not in the mood to get up on to my usual soapbox today. Frankly, I'm tired of whining about politics & the government. Yes, our elected officials suck, for the most part, especially in PA. But it's not as though I'm brimming over with suggestions about how to fix that. Until I have some suggestions, I'm going to put a temporary moratorium on my criticisms because they've become tedious.

However, there are tons of other things to be criticized, so here goes:

1. The Mike Vick Thing

What makes a good apology? Off the top of my head I'd say remorse, an air of genuine contrition & an actual statement of the words "I'm sorry" at some point in the spech. You know?

Vick seems really sorry -- that he got caught. Nowhere in any of the blather did I hear word one about how it's wrong to torture living creatures or that it's not ok to cause suffering as a hobby.

And I'm not sure which is more despicable, Vick's actions or his supporters. It's one thing to commit an awful act. But it's something else entirely to defend a person's right to commit horrible crimes. For starters, can you people say "sociopath"?

Let's all be thankful that he got caught before he got bored with dogs & decided that prostitutes aren't much higher on the food chain. You can't explain away his actions with words like "immature" or phrases like "bad choices".

Immature is not cleaning up poop during your walk or letting Fido scare the mailman. Owning a kennel, torturing animals for money & brutally killing them in awkward, painful ways do NOT fall into this category.

Sidebar: How many of the idiots championing Vick are ardently campaigning the MLB to give Pete Rose a second chance? Seems to me that Vick committed the same crimes Rose did, plus some. Or is a lifetime ban a completely acceptable punishment for a white athlete?


2. The "Leave Britney Alone" Guy

Could anything be more stupid? Why would anyone even consider giving this loser a TV show? What is the world coming to? Incidentally the "Leave Belichick Alone" spoof is funny for about 30 seconds but then goes on for far too long.


3. Feeding your kids from the convenience store

I'm not talking about a decent convenience store either, like a big Sheetz or GetGO (not that that would make it ok, necessarily). I'm talking about the cruddy corner mini-mart. Most mornings, I pop into a small A-Plus near my office for some form of caffeine or a pack of death sticks. The same woman is in there every morning with 2 small children under the age of 8.

The kids walk around the place grabbing Hostess products, various forms of processed meat sticks & bags of snack chips or cookies. Mom grabs a couple of Mountain Dews for her tykes & they all go happily on their way.

My first thought is that these kids probably won't get a lot more vertical growth. My second is, who can afford this? Instead of spending $20+ per day kind of poisoning your kids, why not spend $5 on a box of frosted cereal & a dozen eggs that would last a few days at least? The kids would probably happily munch the dry cereal if mom put it in little bags since they don't seem very discriminating. Make them sausage for heaven's sake & cut it up like Slim Jims. Do something because this is just sickening.


4. Sushi from the convenience store

Not matter how upscale Giant eagle wants to make their GetGos, it's still a gas station.


5. Cheating in sports

Why don't RICO statutes apply? When you think about the amount of money that changes hands legally in the world of sports, it dwarfs the finances of many organized crime organizations that have been prosecuted under RICO.

And money is basically all it comes down to because when was the last time an athlete donated their signing bonus to charity or took a pay cut or refused a raise so the money could be put back into the team/stadiums/reduction of ticket prices?

The Patriots are pretty slimy, always have been. The media's love affair with Tom Brady has always outshined the truth but they are one of the dirtiest teams in the NFL.

Steroids in baseball have ruined America's pastime for me personally. And the #48 team has tainted Nascar forever.

I'm sure there are plenty of people who would disagree & I'd love to hear from them. When presented with a sensible viewpoint from the other side of the argument, I'm more than willing to reconsider my stance. That's how we learn, right?

Conspiracy to Piss Me Off

A few years ago, I became hooked on stock car racing. I used to think it was the most mind-numbing thing a person could watch on TV, although I'd never given it a chance. Once I actually watched it, I really enjoyed it. Hey, I like cars & smack-talk & rivalries & explosions as much as anyone.

It can be tedious to watch at times, as some races are far less eventful than others. Luckily for me, I live in a technologically fantastic age that has given us the DVR. This wonderful device allows me to see everything I want to see while saving precious time by forwarding through all the boring stuff, like green-flag pit stops, commercials & post-race interviews with whiners.

One of the most appealing things about a race is that there are so many drivers to root for. It's the only sport that starts every meet with 43 potential winners. I generally like most drivers in the Nascar circuit, so having 30-40 drivers to root for should bring me pretty good odds.

Except that there seems to be some sort of Nascar conspiracy that allows the jackass pretty-boys from one certain team to skirt the rules. Every single time. I hate Hendrick Motorsports. Yes, it's a strong word but I really mean it.

Say what you will about the dirty cheaters of decades past because honestly, I wasn't a viewer back then & can't argue about it. And I've heard all the stories & read the news reports. But I maintain that the 48 crew are dirtier than anyone who has ever raced the circuit. They repeatedly cheat & get only a little slap on the wrist each time, while other teams face far steeper penalties for minor infractions that may not even be intentional.

The icing on the cake for me was when they refused to use their radios, instead passing notes to keep their "strategy" under wraps. Yeah, everything you do in the pits is so enlightened & modern that nobody else has ever thought of it before & everyone is going to immediately copy you. Not. It was just another attempt to keep their cheating from discovery.

Now it seems that the torch is being passed back to the original HM golden boy in the 24. Yes, I know that Johnson's been stealing the spotlight for a while & they desperately want Gordon to live up to all the hype we've been hearing about him for the last 5 years or so since he really accomplished anything.

But there's just no way I can believe that somehow he managed to avoid the lap-down penalty in the pits last night. Every other car in the pits when the caution came out lost a lap, except Gordon. Once again, it's as though the rules just don't apply to Hendricks.

If Nascar wants to see the fan base continue to increase, the France family needs to start thinking about clarifying the rules & levelling the playing field. The drivers have been pleading for as much for years. The fans want it. If a team isn't willing to face the competition fairly, then they don't belong in the race. Period.