Catching up with Detroit Sports

As a native of Metropolitan Detroit, MI, I am a huge fan of all that area's pro sports teams, as well as a Meeeechigan Wolverine fan. The region used to have a pro Football team, err, player actually, but the organization has disappeared in recent years...Wow, what a year in sports Detroiters have had. The Pistons went 6 games with eventual NBA title holders' the Celtic's and now the Championship core seems on the verge of being blown apart; the Wings...Well, what can you say? They are the Red Wings baby!; the Tigers appear to have gotten off the schnide and are over .500 for the first time all year; and I can't forget that supposed pro football team-the Li-downs. It was revealed in recent weeks that their first 2 draft picks this year have 'issues with the law'...DETRRROIIIITTTT BASKETBALL!...The Pistons. I had so much hope for them this year. I really did, especially after the way their bench developed throughout the year. Stuckey was brilliant when he replaced Billups for 2 games in the series against the Magic, Maxielle was just a stud coming off the bench and Hunter is a freaking energizer bunny who still plays kick ass on-the-ball defense. I just figured with so much energy coming off the bench and none of the starters averaging over 35 mins a game during the season the Pistons were a lock for the Finals. Alas, I was wrong. After obviously quitting in the Eastern Conference Finals 'Sheed' will be gone soon. I was a fan of his until I witnessed his ECF performance this year. He was pathetic and disappointing. All that talent wasted for no reason at all. At least he brought us one title though. I'm not surprised that Billups is suddenly expendable. A lot of people were probably a little shocked to hear his name tossed around as trade bait. It didn't surprise me at all, however. The immergence of Rodney Stuckey made that obvious to me, I was also aware that Chaunce becomes an unrestricted free agent after next season-just like 'Sheed. Whatever happens, it's obvious that the team we have known for the last 5 seasons will be no more and I completely trust Joe Dumars to make the moves that will keep The Pistons one of the teams to beat in the Eastern Conference. Draft day was loads of fun because there were a ton of rumors floating around about trades-most of which involving the Pistons. In the end, Joe Dumars pulled a deal that looks good in my opinion. Dumars knows exactly what he is doing. He has never given us a reason to doubt his moves. The Pistons may not make the conference Finals again next year, but the fall off wont be very far. Detroit should still make the playoffs next year, but in a couple of years, the Pistons will be an elite Eastern Conference team again...GO WINGS!!!! Enough said. 4 cups in 11 seasons. 5 appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals since 1995-more than any other team during that stretch by-the-way. Why no one wants to talk about the Sports Dynasty that Steve Yzerman and Nicholas Lidstrom have going with the Wings I just cant figure out. Maybe it's because outsiders have forgotten that Stevey 'Y' is still a part of the organization and was the captain of 4 of those aforementioned teams. Or maybe it's because many sports fans don't feel Hockey deserves much conversation these days. Either way, the current Detroit Red Wings team and organization deserves to be considered a Sports Dynasty. It's not as if every pro sports organization can claim such dominance is it? And does anyone not see them in the Western Conference Finals next year?...As my family knows, I was a huge Tigers fan when I kid. But 2 strikes in 10 years ruined the sport for me. I just cant get over the 'whiny-rich-kid' show the players put on during both of their strikes and it didnt help that the Tigers sucked until 2 years ago when they surprised everyone and went to the World Series for the first time in over 20 years. Now that the Tigers are good, though, I do pay a little more attention to Baseball (the new playoff system is excellent too). Baseball is still a long ass season and I find it hard to pay day to day attention to it, but I hope Tiger fans every where can see there was never a real worry. There was way to much talent on the Tigers for them to continue such horrid play. I do find it as a funny conincidence that as soon Dontrelle was shipped to single A to fix his mechanics the Team took an immediate u-turn. Maybe it was more than just Willis' poor outings that were his problem, maybe he was a cancer in the locker room? Whatever the reasons, the Tigers are playing as they should be and should be in the Division hunt come late August...It's a good thing Detroit has 3 other pro sports teams, because so long as Ford Sr. owns them, the Lions will never be anything more than a one and done playoff team. If there is anyone that should pay attention to his peers, its Ford. Look around you Mr. Ford, do you not see what the other owners of pro sports teams in your town are accomplishing? You're supposedly smart enough to help run a mutli-billion dollar company, but seeing as how Ford stocks are down and the company appears on the verge of collapse (because the company refuses to grasp the future of transportation) it should be no surprise to us long time Lions fans that they never win anything. I don't blame Matt Millen for most the problems with the Lions. He has made his share of mistakes, but he is shackled by Ford's unwillingness to spend on players who dominate where the game of Football is won-in the trenches. And to think that Millen doesnt know where the game is won after winning 4 titles himself is just ludricris to me. Millen isn't perfect, but he is not as bad as most of his position-in my opinion. It's just too bad that Millen chose his first GM job to be for a guy who won't spend the money the right way to make the team a winner. Millen does seem to have effed up recently though. It was revealed within the last couple of weeks that both of their 1st and 2nd round draft picks from this year have legal issues. Fortunately for both of them the troubles began before they were drafted, so they, and the organization, wont be penalized by the NFL. I just question how Coach Marinelli-who is tough on decipline-signed off on 2 rookies who were already in trouble with the law?!...(sigh) I digress. The Li-Downs always piss me off...When it comes to Football, I root for the Patriots now adays anyways lol.

Goodbye Hillary!

Finally, the last nail has been pounded in to her coffin! History will remember June 30th, 2008 as "graffitti-gate", or more simply as the day Hillary Clinton went away for good. To me, Hillary Clinton is very transparent. Bill is a goofy, lovable guy who, as president, did a much better job than George is doing right now (my opinion), but Hillary is nothing short of the stereotypical Femi-Nazi. You can just tell she has this almost evil side to her, and she would have been hell for the military to work with. Although fun it would have been to have had Bill back frolicking about the Oval Office, 4 years under Hillary Clinton would have ruined what little there seems to be left of America. Under Hillary, it wouldn't have surprised me at all if nukes started to fly. Just the prospect of having her in office scared me senseless. She was smart, and had her merits, but damn that woman freaks harden felons out I bet. In a word "whew". To be honest we really shouldn't be surprised should we? She is a little whack herself, so she has to attract a lot of the whacko's out there. But I digress...Goodbye Hillary, at least you did some good during your attempt to be president-you scared some of us 'politically straight'.

Bring on the revolution.

If you have any awareness about you, you can see that we are living in a very interesting time in our history (by our I mean American). Oil prices are wrecking family budgets and leaving thousands of our 'old' collar work force unemployeed. The effect the price of oil is having on us are obvious and, for the most part open to everyone willing too use their eyes. Suddenly stauch republicans are throwing in the towel and going green and reaping the economic benefits. I am getting a feeling that there is a lot of social unrest from everyone-regardles of political ideogy. There seems to be much social unrest. No one seems to be happy, and money issues dominate more household discussions than did just a few short years ago. Everywhere-at least in my experiences where I live-people seem to be unhappy. It's not just the price of gas however, but America's economy in general seems to be going backwards as evident by a near 500 point selloff in the last 2 trading sessions of last week...It's many things...Left and right celebrities and sports athletes-Americans who are most recognized internationally-are making fools of themselves: getting caught drinking and driving; domestic violence; drug possession; and all in all just making us all look bad. Our nation's leaders fair no better. Corruption, back door dealing and lobbyist pandering seem at near epidemic proportions in our nations capitol. What little work they seem able to get done in D.C. tends to come out bad. Whether it's a natural disaster, immigration and border issues, the war in Iraq or soaring energy costs Congress and GWB seemed overwelmed. True, as of now, FEMA is handling the severe flooding in the upper midwest well, but you get the feeling that the wheels are about to fall off that wagon any second now. FEMA is now having to deal with the wild fires in the West and it's hurricane season to boot. With so much on it's proverbial plate FEMA is doomed to screw something up. And lets not get started with the idiocy of the Supreme Court decisions of recent weeks...Putting it mildly if there was ever a time for the masses to make their voice heard, to rise up and say "Enough is enough!"; To stand up and demand accountability from their political and entertainment leaders; To force Congress to think logically about alternative fuels and agressively pursue them; For American's everywhere to rediscover their heritage and what makes us the best nation on Earth-innovation, dedication, leadership, opportunity and the rights granted to us by the constitution, the things that make America great to call home...In sum, if ever the time was ripe for the revloution to start, now is perfect.

Supreme Court on crack?

This has to make it official, our Supreme court Justices have got to be on crack! They ruled by the slimmest of votes, 5-4, that Washington D.C.'s blanket gun ban was unconstitutional. I suppose we shouldnt be surprised, this is the same court which last week called the death penalty "cruel and unusual punishment" for child rapists, but have these men not read the constitution? Do they not know that the second amendent makes it quite plain: "the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." I'm no NRA member, but I do know my RIGHTS as citizen of the USA, and one of them is the right to bear arms...It's sickening to realize that its taken the Supreme Court over 30 years to hear the case against this law. It's even more sickening that 4...Yup 4!...of the 9 judges appointed to our Supreme court arent able to recognize a blatant disregard for the rights given to all US citizens in the Constitution. To vote in favor of D.C.'s ban you have to be on crack!...Then again, crack and D.C. do have some history dont they?...What's happened to the supposed 'supreme law of the land'? How could we allow so many be 'chosen' to our nations highest court who are so out of touch with most of Americana. There is little question that, today, most American's would prefer to see a little more use of the death penalty. "Vigilante justice" is accepted by most in America today I believe. Many feel as I do: why are my tax dollars keeping violent men alive? Why are we spinless when it comes to penalties for violent criminals?...As more and more people think and feel this way, and more and more of the far left-everyone-should-live-Liberals run their mouths and make themselves look stupid, the more stupid those look who follow them, and these 4 judges, in my opinion, bought into the 'everyone hug and get along' song spewed by Libs, and somehow these 4 don't think we should be allowed to own a gun!...But I digress...Unfortunately, these 4, like the other 5, are here to stay until they die or retire, which means we are stuck with them for a lot time to come, with most of them...I supposed we could get lucky though, and find out they were all on crack and shortened their lives by 20 yrs or so lol.

Welcome to America!!

Wow, we've had some real winner's in the news this week(and its only Wednesday!). Leading our headlines in the last several days we've had 17 girls seemingly make, and follow through with, a pregnancy pact in Gloucester, Mass.; Barack tosses out the first racial grenade of the years presidential race; and in the last couple of days 2 of America's most colorful characters got caught speaking their minds. Yup, I said it-they were speaking their minds...If you missed it, Imus is claiming to be standing up for the NFL's Adam 'Pac-man' Jones, and Shaq made up a freestyle rap in which he dissed Kobe Bryant...Well, dissing is being way too polite. It was more like a pimp slap followed by a punk kick lol. I was pretty surprised that Shaq let it out on Kobe like that, but I think he meant every word. As for what Imus had to say-I expect nothing less from him after the 'nappy headed hoes' fiasco. His biggest problem is that he misplaces his humor. Funnier about Imus though, is the response of his supposed target. Jones is claiming he will pray for Imus (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3458377&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines.
All of these recent headlines point to a real problem in America. All of these headlines are indicative of American culture. In ways, all of these things are representative to who we are as Americans...How sad that this is what we have become. In these stories can be found nearly every reason for why American's are viewed the way they are by other countries. Greed, arrogance, ignorance...All of these traits are present in each of these stories. The scariest of all of these is this supposed pregnancy pact in Mass. No surprise, really, that something like this should happen in one of the most liberal states in union, but this story points out just how bad America is getting...

A tribute to the 7 words you can't say on TV...

I heard some very sad news on my way home today: George Carlin-comic genius-passed away yesterday at the age of 71. Carlin actually had a rather profound affect on me as he was the first person I heard tell it like it really is. He had no problem calling it just like he saw it and I loved every word of it. He was brilliant as a comic and a real genius in my opinion...And so, in tribute, and in case you didnt know them, here they are...Those 7 little words you're not supposed to say on TV(don't forget to say them real fast lol): shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker and tits. As Carlin liked to complain "Tits doesn't even belong on the list"(I love that line)...The beauty of the internet is that these words we can use all the fucking time if we want lol...Long live George!

Going "Green"

In a way, I find it sad that it took more than $4 a gallon gasoline and soaring energy and food costs to get people too do something I think of as logical-be smart about their money. But at least people are catching on. Before I get jumped on and called a hypocrit, I am no 'tree hugger', but why wouldn't you do something that makes financial sense? Energy saver appliances cost no more than traditional ones-the new light bulbs cost more up front but last 10 times longer and claim to save hundreds of dollars a year; SUV's are not necessary for every day travel, but everyone has to have one even though they may not really need it. Those are just a very few things that someone can do that are considered Green. Changing to them cost's little to nothing to save possibly thousands of dollars a year for a family of 4 and there are dozens of other Green ways that would save societies billions and create new fields of work and enough jobs to replace those lost to the dying industrial age, which gets us to the real issue: We are at a unique place in history. We are watching the Industrial age die and sputter its life away before our very eyes as the Information age takes over, but the Industrial age doesnt want to go quietly. Part of the Information age is the social realization that going Green makes sense. Financially, socially, culturally, and of course ecologically, there are only positives for all of us by being smart and 'conservative' about our planet and how we use energy...Another but, well, actually, several wide 'butts'...The so called 'old guard' of the Industrial age still lives, and many have no desire to go quietly into the night. Most politicians-at all levels of government-are contributed too by businesses reliant on purely Industrial age mechanics and engineering, as such these old age businesses have all the politcal power still. As such, without the support of the vast majority of Americans, Green techs-the ones worth pursuing-have a huge up hill battle in front of them and to become what they can become to American society they must slay an old and resilient foe. Slay that foe they will, that seems eminent, I only hope it doesn't take $10 a gallon gas to get everbody on board, because unless the masses catch on quick the eminent change over to the Information age will only take longer and cost global societies much needed $$$$.

The greatest golf tournament ever played

For us golf lovers we got to see something amazing this past weekend at the US Open when Tiger Woods won his 14th major tournament of his career...We saw a man play some of the best golf of his career, grimacing with pain on nearly every drive, win one of the hardest sporting events in the world on what ended up being a torn ACL and 2 micro fractures of his left fibia. In a word, it was amazing and unbelievable...For those who don't golf or have never played, what he accomplished with these injuries is akin to the 32 touchdowns Brett Favre threw with a broken thumb, and in some ways, its even greater. For a right handed golfer all the pressure and torque of a golf swing as you follow through is placed on your left knee and ankle. That Tiger was able to walk, considering the pain he must of been in, is amazing. That he was able to compete at such a high level, in one of the toughest sporting events in the world, for 5 days is even more amazing. What those of us who watched him during that tournament witnessed was nothing short of the greatest golf we have ever seen. On one leg, Tiger was able to do something that every other golfer in the tournament failed to do-win. Torn ACL and all, Tiger was still able to stroke 300 plus yard drives, sink 40 foot putts and stick mid irons within 10 feet all weekend long. Not only did he play through the intense pain he must have felt, he lived up to every thing we have grown to expect from what can be arguably said to be the greatest athlete in the world, and he do so with class. He didn't complain. He didnt cry. He never quit. He simply performed at a level and with the grace that only he could play with. Given the pathetic attitudes and whiny ways of many of the top atheletes in the world, we should consider ourselves lucky that we have someone like Tiger Woods to watch and for our children to look up too. Unfortunately, Tiger's desire to win through the pain has caused him to miss the rest of the golf season, meaning will have to wait until next years Master's before we get to see his greatness again. His absence from the sporting world will be a great loss for all sports fans, and for me that time will not come soon enough because the world needs more Tiger Woods'-and less Micheal "dog fighter" Vicks-to look up too and idolize.

Way to go Lakers!!!!

Congratulations to Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers...For laying down like a bunch of bitches in game 6 of the NBA finals last night.
I'm a huge fan of all sports (I hope so seeing as how I cover many for a local newspaper) and basketball is one of personal favorites. In fact, after football, basketball is my second favorite sport, but this year's final's was bitter sweet for me. For one, my home team-the Pistons-laid down to Boston themselves (thanks "Sheed"-I used to be a fan of yours, but not after that pathetic performance), but I thought that the Lakers would at least make the finals entertaining and take Boston the distance after dispatching last years champs, the Spurs, in just 6 games themselves. But Kobe, Pao, Odom and the rest of the team got chumped in the biggest way. They didn't get run out of the building, they got run down the street, down the block and right out of the metropolitan Boston area...How sad...But, there was a good side to it: Like Red Sox fans of a few years ago, now all the Celtic fans can stop their whining and bitching about never winning it all-as if you had any reason to complain with the Patriots in your town anyways.

California's big "cajones"

I have to give Californian's some credit. They might be too liberal for my liking but at least they have the balls to be controversial and adopt laws that get the religious right all riled up.
In case you've been living in a box and have no clue what I'm talking about, this week California became the 2nd state in the union to adopt laws allowing homosexuals to get married.
I for one have no problem with this and think it's about time that members of the "gay" community be allowed ALL the same rights as any one else. Why gay's aren't allowed to be married is a little beyond me. I understand the arguments of the religious right, but the "institution" of marriage ceased being about love and committment for life between 2 people of the opposite sex a long, long time ago. Nowadays, people get married for all the wrong reasons-mostly for financial ones. The institution is so weak that people get divorced more often then people get married, so if 2 gay people want to make that life long committment to each other and get married then good for them. Personally, any marriage between 2 people who truly love each other and are fully committed to each other-regardless of sexual orientation-can only be a good thing for society.

What really pisses me off about this is that we actually have to make a law in every state that either allows or not allows the homosexual community to marry. That's what gets me. Marriage is a SOCIAL institution, at least that is what it was for centuries. But, because it is more a legal institution than anything else nowadays, there are all sorts of legal ramifications to allowing gays to marry. What about health insurance? Death benefits for spouses? Taxes (who would be considered the head of household)? The list of legal issues in allowing gays to marry is endless, but who cares? As individuals-and a federal government-we have no right to "tell" anyone what they can or cannot do so long as it doesn't break any social law established by the various levels of local and national governments, and last time I checked, the act of getting married-by anyone-was legal and binding so long as it's performed by an ordained minister or preacher, a judge or the oft forgotten ship's captain.

But the Christian right would have us all believe that getting married is a sacred act that belongs to them and them alone. In their eyes marriage is "their" institution. It's sacred. How dare those "homosexual sinners" have the right to the sacred and holy institution of marriage? How dare they desecrate our faith by being allowed to marry?

Well, guess what Christian fundies, as the band They Might Be Giants once said "you aren't the boss of me" and you aren't the boss of them. You have NO right to tell anyone what they can or cannot do and I for one am damn glad that California had the balls to step up to the bar and make it legal for gays to marry.

Bring on Global Warming!!!

I am far from being a supporter of Al Gore and all of his doom and gloom about global warming, but I'm not so ignorant to think that the over use of fossil fuels for our global energy needs has little to no impact on the Earth's ecology. But I must admit to being a little surprised by the lack of media attention given to recent weather events in the US:
As of today, there were over 35,000 people left homeless due to flooding in Iowa alone, and there are tens of thousands more homeless or flooded out in much of the upper midwest and in the Ohio valley.
Along with all the flooding rains, 100's of tornadoes have also struck the midwest killing dozens and destroying 1000's of homes and businesses in their wake.
Earlier this month the Great Lakes and New England region's saw 100's year old high temperature records fall as a triple digit heat wave settled in.
Despite much needed recent rains, the southeastern US is still in the middle of its worst draught in history.
And let's not forget this past winter much of these same areas saw record breaking snow falls and ice storms which did their own share of damage.
All this doom and gloom and one would think that global warming advocates would be high upon their perches, preaching to everyone who would listen about how the world is coming to an end, but for some reason they have remained unusually quiet.
I don't care to speculate why the global warming advocates are silent, my real concern is about our planet.
Just what exactly is going on with Earth's ecology? In my lifetime I have never seen such dramatic swings in weather patterns nor such massive severe weather outbreaks striking the same regions of our country over and over again.
In no way do I blame all this sever weather solely on the shoulders of man made pollutants, but there can be little doubt that the severity of the current weather patterns globally is negatively impacted by what our societies are spewing into it each and every day and now should be the time for everyone-no matter where you stand on the global warming issue-to stand up and care about the Earth.
Like most things, I take a very logical view about our planet, so I'm not saying to go out and hug every tree you see, but, for crying out loud, let's use some common sense as it relates to our planet and our energy needs. Recycle everything you are able too; toss aside your gas guzzling SUV for something which gets better gas milage ($4 a gallon gasoline should have done this already); buy and use energy saver light bulbs and appliances; consider installing solar panels on your roof; and most importantly, vote for people who will support laws that have the best interests of our planet at heart without the expense of modern societies. Oh, and how about not being a "litter bug". Sure it sounds childish and cliche, but people who litter are-for lack of a better term-assholes.
All of these are just common sense things that have nothing to do with being a 'tree hugger'.
Economically, individuals, families and businesses, would save thousands a year by adopting just half of those few things I just mentioned, so what are the excuses for not doing them?
Laziness? Ignorance? Arrogance?
Or maybe you just don't give a damn about the one thing you owe everything you have too: the Earth.

On the price of gasoline...

When I first started driving in the late 80's gasoline cost about 90 cents a gallon for the cheap stuff.
With the exception of the first Iraqi conflict, I never paid much over a dollar a gallon until GWB was elected (if thats what you call that fiasco) into office at the end of 2000, and then it was as if inflation had finally caught up with the price of gas. Within 6 months of GWB's so called election, gas spiked 30 cents and never looked back.
Today I paid $4.10 for gasoline.
What the hell!!!???
From 1989 to 2001 the price of gasoline stayed nearly flat, but in just over 7 freaking years the price more than quadruples here in the U.S. Just since this past Christmas the price has spiked by over a dollar a gallon.
No other country on the planet (that I've heard) has seen as high a proportionate increase in gasoline as we have.
True, in Europe, gas prices are at or over the equivilant of $10, but they have been paying triple the price we have for decades, and proportionately, their price run up is much less than the over 400% rise we have seen here in the U.S. since GWB "took over" the oval office.
Much of the price run up on gasoline is directly related to the cost of a barrel of crude, and for anyone who pays attention to it, the price for a barrel of crude oil closed today over $136 dollars(thanks to those asshole speculators) but that isn't the only reason for the run up in gas prices.
The run up is also blamed on rising "global" demand and a lack of refining capacity.
I may just be an average guy, trying to live an average life, but when the hell did 'global' demand for gas have anything to do with the price of gasoline here in the U.S.?
And what happened to our refining capacity? I haven't checked in a while, but last I heard about any increase in demand for gasoline we Americans had was back in 2003 when prices were still under $2 a gallon (bet we'd all love to see that again eh?). Regardless, what happened to our refining capacities? I know that some of it was lost to hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, but that was 3 years ago. Any disruption caused by those hurricanes should have been taken care of long ago.
Anyways, I digress. The reality is, $4 a gallon gasoline is apparently here to stay, and many are predicting the price to hit $5 by summer's end.
Scary thought isnt it? $5 a gallon gasoline? Personally, I didn't think I would ever live long enough to see gas priced so high.
Now, there are all kinds of idea's floating around out there about how to resolve this problem, the scariest of which is why we don't just start drilling in Anwar (for those who dont know, it's in Alaska and supposedly there is enough gas there to supply America for the next 4 or 5 decades) and off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico.
I take that back, those ideas dont scare me, they me piss me off to now end and bother the shit out of me.
Here we are, in the perfect situation for America and it's people to set the proverbial "bar" in transportion again (remember, it was us who first perfected the cumbustible engine, the automobile and its mass production) and take the next technological leap in individual and mass transport (as I think of it) and the best solutions that our "best" thinkers come up with is too "drill in Anwar. There is enough oil there for domestic use for decades!"
You have to be kidding me? This is the best they can do? Hell, I can come up with a lot better than that while taking a dump on the toilet!
But those idea's will have to wait for another blog.
Till then...