Outrage in Society: How Apathy Keeps Us Timid As People

While it is MAJOR news, unless there is a massive uproar over these recent NFL Player incidents, all they will have done is distracted us from what is happening Globally

Am I the only one who finds it very strange that the Ray Rice and now Adrian Peterson incidents have taken so much of the news in the US that the beheading of not 1 but 2 US Journalists and a British aid worker by ISIS has almost completely been lost in the shuffle?

Yes what these NFL players have both been accused of and actually did was and is horrific but 3 men had their heads cut off by insane people whose beliefs are so “out there” that another terrorist organization that they had been affiliated with, Al-Qaeda, decided to distance themselves from them and wanted no part of these nut bars at all. When a known terrorist group full of CONFIRMED religious zealots admits you are crazier than them, then you know there is a problem.

Yet somehow this entire situation has been pushed off of the front page of newspapers by a thug and how he mistreated his (now) wife and how another player went WAY too far in disciplining his son(s). One has to wonder about just how fleeting the attention of the average person has become when outrage over injustice lasts only a few days. I’m surprised the Michael Brown incident lasted as long as it did given the fact that it is clearly a case of a white cop’s prejudice leading to the death of an innocent teenager who (as 2 MORE witnesses have come forward to describe) had his hands up and was not being a threat to the cop.

One of the lasting images of Ferguson, Missouri and how the badly mishandled the protests

Or how about the brutal apartheid regime that has been in place in Israel for nearly 50 years and how they actually believe they were justified in killing hundreds of innocent children in their recent “Offensive” against Hamas. Offensive is the right word because their justification should be considered “offensive” to anyone who has half a brain and can clearly see that the Palestinians have no real chance to ever do any real damage to Israel militarily (their “rockets” are nothing compared to the weapons the Israelis have at their disposal).

Then there is the Ukraine-Russian civil war that is about to break out. First Vladimir Putin has the balls to just “annex” Crimea by claiming it wasn’t him but “Pro-Russian Rebels” who wanted to return to “Mother Russia”. Then, even after international economic sanctions are levied against his country, these same “rebels” (most likely Russian army vets fighting out of uniform if you ask me) start trying to take over other parts of Ukraine to re-patriotize them back to Russia.

Sanctions haven’t worked to slow the situation down at all. When the Ukrainian government forces had the rebels on the run, a sudden “humanitarian aid convoy” from Russia was sent which actually was more of a distraction for real Russian troops to try to send aid to their brethren. If this Ukrainian situation continues along this course, it could very well trigger a much larger global war since nothing the world powers try to do seems to stop Putin or even make him understand that what he is doing is wrong: Undermining a sovereign nation.

Images from Kiev and other parts of the Ukraine as Pro-Russian "Rebels" continue their activities

All of these major world events are going on and these NFL player situations (as well as a possible NFL cover up scandal) are the top stories in the US. The simple reason why these incidents have taken over is because Americans don’t seem to care enough about the world as a whole. They worry and care about their neck of the woods first and foremost and to hell with whatever is happening half a planet away. More then half of the population couldn't even find where these events are transpiring on a map anyway so it becomes out of sight out of mind. The images of these events may register for a moment when they see them in the news or read about them online but once the story is done and the initial reaction has faded, it is back to life as it was for probably 85% of them.

And to be fair, that is probably the case for all people. You see something so bad, your first reaction is “Something needs to be done about that” . The reaction fades once you start to realize how much your life would need to change to actually “do” something about it and apathy sets in. The next thing you know, the struggles of your own life take over and the initial outrage over what you saw or read is gone. I am not saying this to make anyone feel bad, it’s just a fact of how our daily lives go about. Unless we are directly affected by something, it is more than likely that we will not do anything about it. Our Apathy is what allows big corporations to get away with (essentially) killing us with the products they produce.

Think about this for a minute. General Motors has admitted that over the last 11 years, they KNEW there was a problem with their cars to the point that there were people DYING as a result of the flaws in their cars and instead of fixing the problem right away, they had the audacity to fight lawsuits filed against them by the grieving families, threaten to ruin them financially and then, when the US Government stepped up their efforts to find out the root cause of the problem, they admitted their role and NO ONE went to Jail.

Where is the outrage over that? Why has no one been charged? Where is the coverage over this criminal behavior?

If you really look at the way some of our basic products are being produced (like cigarettes, alcohol, our food supply), it is obvious that big business has been cutting corners for years producing goods that are substandard and dangerous for us because they can cut corners and save money by making them that way. Cigarettes for example DO NOT need to have 3500 different chemicals in them. If you were to just crush up naturally produced dried tobacco leaves and smoke them, they would NOT give you cancer. So why put in 3500 chemicals into cigarettes then unless they;

a)      Makes people become addicted to them by adding in additive agents like Nicotine

b)      Make the company producing them more money that way

c)       Save the company producing money because the leaves are then able to last much monger

At this point, if you smoke, you really have no one to blame but yourself...and the Cigarette company for pumping all those addictive chemicals into each cigarette

Instead of always fighting the end result (Cancer), why hasn’t our government made the process used to create cigarettes sold in this country illegal? Why haven’t they fought the root cause of the issue instead of suing them for costs related to the end result of people smoking: Health care usage. Because we, the people, are not using our power properly.

We are divided politically on so many things that we do not have the capacity to unite for real change. Even in the US, when they thought they WERE doing just that, getting behind a man in Barrack Obama who SHOULD HAVE BEEN a transformational President in US history, big business interests stepped in (Republicans and The Tea Party racists in particular) and they bogged down Washington so much so that its nearly impossible to have bipartisan agreement on ANYTHING anymore while he is the sitting President.

He could have been great but with all the disrespect and racism he has had to endure, it is a wonder that the man has been able to pass any laws

Big business wants to and will continue to do everything they can to keep us divided. We will never again see the kind of 100% support we had from all people during World War II against Germany and the Nazis because of how fractured we are politically as a society. I mean there are people in our society today, living among us who will take the side of Israel right now and say that I have it totally wrong or they will say that the police officer in Missouri was the real victim and he was defending himself or even the side of ISIS or Putin and Russia for a multitude of reasons.

We have become comfortable and timid as a people. The vast majority of us live comfortably in Canada and the US compared to people in Iraq, Syria, Palestine and many other places. For the most part, we don’t have to worry about religious zealots threatening to kill us if we don’t leave our homes or convert to their religion. The majority of us don’t have to worry about police or military brutality against us or companies poisoning our drinking water (they tend to do their toxic waste dumping now far, far away where they can buy off politicians or have environmental laws shaped the way they want them).

We have it easy comparatively speaking and because of that, the only things we tend to worry about are the things that effect our own daily lives directly. We care about causes and will donate money that we can to help them but ultimately, and unfortunately it has been and will continue to be out of sight, out of mind for many things that we really should care a lot more about then we do.

Rob Ford: Removes Himself From Mayoral Race, No Real Change Should Be Expected in Campaign

Health comes first for Rob Ford

 
Having had 3 uncles and an aunt die of cancer and having watched as my mother-in-law as well as my wife’s friend both fight breast cancer this year, I certainly hope for all the best in Rob Ford’s fight as he announced today that he will be stepping aside in the Mayoral race to battle the tumor they have found in his Abdomen. If it does turn out to be Cancerous, Ford will have a long road ahead of him. We will definitely see a different Rob Ford down the road and hopefully the time out of the spotlight will help him in many ways.

The pressure that comes with running for Mayor is not healthy and, given his addictive personality (drugs, alcohol and food), it’s best for his own health that he step aside. What a lot of people understand is how he and his brother expect people to just vote for Doug instead as he has announced that he will fill the void and run in his brother’s place. I am here to tell you why this change makes sense and why it might even be the better option for Toronto.

Everyone knows Doug was the brains behind Rob becoming Mayor

For starters, everyone knows that the real brains behind Rob’s election as mayor was Doug as he was his campaign manager and adviser throughout the campaign and before the revelations all came out, was the de facto Mayor in many ways. Doug is the real brains behind the Ford family politically speaking and, despite his Rob-like qualities at times, he IS the most polished member of the family and has more experience on the Municipal level then either of his 2 counter parts in John Tory and Olivia Chow.

With Rob stepping aside, don't expect to see any real campaign changes for Doug

By pulling Rob from the race, Doug has a chance to continue on in his place with the same political leanings as his brother (it is my belief that he created them anyways) and appeal to the same people that Rob had and still has on his side; Conservative voters who want accountability from their elected officials.

Rob came into power on a tidal wave of backlash from the reckless spending days of former Mayor David Miller, who nearly bankrupted the city with his asinine spending. The Ford family were the only ones to really point out during Miller’s time in office just how horrible he truly was at managing the city’s finances and people did not forgot when it came time to elect his replacement.

Despite all the negative attention Rob has gotten for his behavior, you would be hard pressed to argue against the things he has done and tried to do for the city: Decreased spending, balance the city budget, focus on improving transit, focus on creating Subways. All of these things would be and are good for the current and future state of the city. All of these things are the same things that Doug will continue to fight for if he is elected Mayor. All Rob really has done in stepping aside is allow his brother, the real brains behind the entire “Ford Political Legacy” to fill the vacuum his departure would have left, with a many who is LITERALLY cut from the same cloth as he is.

The only real difference if Doug were Mayor of Toronto would be a lot less public notoriety

The only real difference you would see if Doug were elected Mayor? No more running punch line on Jimmy Kimmel along the lines of “The Mayor of Toronto did <BLANK> today….” Insert laugh track here.

All of this consternation over Rob dropping out of the race and Doug taking over is really a mute point anyways as "Ford Nation" is a distant second in the race and does not appear to have enough momentum to bridge that gap to stay in power anyway. Good luck to Doug but don't expect to see him in the Mayor's seat after the election is over.

The First Time Is Always Memorable - The Game That Made Me A Patriots Fan for Life

Before Brady took them to new heights, a foundation had to have been laid for the current Patriots to stand on

 
With Week 2 in the NFL season upon us, and my 0-1 Patriots playing the Vikings this weekend, I started thinking about how many times these 2 teams have actually played each other (The answer, 11...that's it). One time in particular stands out for me as it was the first full game I ever watched from start to finish. I had to look it up to make sure of the date but there it was: November 13^th, 1994. The day that changed the way I looked at Football FOREVER. It’s been almost 20 years since I literally fell for a team and have been following them passionately ever since.

I was 16 years old just starting to get into the game and the NFL as a whole. I had heard of the New England Patriots only as a reference to how equally bad they were in the NFL to how bad the Maple Leafs were in the NHL which is to say some combination of Horrible and Awful (Horri-awful). I had seen them change their jerseys to this new cool looking “flying Elvis-like” symbol (as Chris Berman from ESPN so eloquently puts it every so often) and I had heard o how they had drafted this hot shot QB named Drew Bledsoe who was going to be their “savior”.

With their 1st Overall selection in 1993, Robert Kraft and Bill Parcells made the first move towards turning the Patriots into a dynasty

Not being very familiar with the team and having only seen them sparingly as the Bill were actually GOOD at that time, I didn’t pay much attention to them but I was in their corner given the similarities between them and the Leafs: Left for dead, decades of losing, playing in an old stadium, hope for a turnaround with a new coach (Bill Parcells had just jumped on board around the same time Pat Burns had joined the Leafs). Things were looking up but I still would not have considered myself a huge fan. Then “IT” happened.

Let me preface this particular game in a way that many non-football fans look at the NFL: It was usually a very boring game. Most NFL plays at that time were hand offs until it was 3^rd down and 5 or more yards, which led to a throwing play. This one game and the style of play that the Patriots started to use from this point onward sold me on the team, the players, the city, fans and the coach.

THE lasting image from that game, Kevin Turner hugging Ben Coates

The game was a mismatch at the time as the Pats were in last place in the AFC East at 3-6 and the Minnesota Vikings were 7-2 and in first place in the entire NFC. Parcells was having all kinds of questions thrown at him as in his 2^nd season with the team, they were a combined 8-17 going into this game. So in other words, he was in big time trouble. Even in this game, the team started off horribly as they were down 20-0 at one point and 20-3 at half. Warren Moon and the Vikings could do no wrong as he had led his offence to 286 yards in that first half while 2^nd year QB Bledsoe had only 89 total yards with his group.

Then the comeback began. The team switched to a no-huddle, pass only offence that changed the way I looked at the game. You have to remember that Bledsoe was the only QB at the time that could possibly throw the ball with more power then Warren Moon (both of them had absolute rockets for arms) so to see the two of them firing the ball down field for the entire second half, was the most exciting football I had ever seen.

Bledsoe was on a different level that day as he set records for attempted passed (70) and completions (45) as he led a furious comeback to force overtime tied at 20 (the defense did the old “Bend, don’t break” thing despite some long drives by the Vikings during that 2^nd half).

The most memorable moment to me of that entire game was the final play. The 70^th pass attempt and 45^th completion of the game by Bledsoe was also the final play of the game as he lobbed a pass into the corner of the endzone and Kevin Turner, who would become Bledsoe’s security blanket out of the backfield over the course of the next 3 years, made a game winning, diving grab into the corner of the endzone of old Foxboro Stadium (where the fans seemed to be RIGHT ON TOP OF THE PLAY) to send their faithful fans into a frenzy. I’m getting goose bumps as I write this.

From that moment on, the Patriots were a different team. It was the first of 7 straight wins by the team and would propel them to make the playoffs for the first time since they lost the 1986 Super Bowl to the Chicago Bears. That inspiring run would help the young fledgling team to finally start to buy in to Parcell’s and his methods and, despite losing to current Coach Belichick’s then Cleveland Brown Team in the Wild Card game, the young players now had a taste of what could be. 2 years later, they would make it all the way to the Super Bowl against the Green Bay Packers led by Brett Favre.

In a close game, Favre would beat Bledsoe and the Patriots to win Super Bowl XXXI

The seeds were now their and the foundation was set on what would turn into the top team in the NFL for the last 20 years (6 Super Bowl appearances, 3 SB Wins in 4 years, 9 AFC Championship Game Appearances). Parcells ended up leaving after that loss in the Super Bowl and the team struggled for 2 years before finally bringing in Belicheck to right the ship. One of his first moves in 1999 was drafting a skinny but lanky QB out of Michigan with the 199th Overall pick named Tom Brady. A stroke of luck yes but most of what Tom would learn in his first 2 years as a back up QB was passed along by none other then Drew Bledsoe.

It was because of Bledsoe that the transition to Brady was as smooth as it was

Even when it came time for the Franchise to move him, despite all he had done for the team and the fact he was still in his prime, he handled it with class as he had always carried himself when he was a Patriot. He passed many a thing along to Brady and the team and he made a Patriots fan and a fan of his in me for life.

(referenced by http://www.boston.com/sports/touching_all_the_bases/2014/09/throwback_thursday_when_drew_bledsoe_threw_and_threw_and_thr.html )

Blue Jays Late Season Run

A funny thing happened this summer in Toronto.

Despite last nights' 1-0 loss, don't count them out just yet...

First, as summer was just starting, the Blue Jays ripped off a crazy stretch of wins which saw them peak at a 38-24 record and a 6 game lead in their division. At that point in the season (just as June was ending), it looked as if this would be the first time in 2 decades that Toronto would have meaningful baseball games in September. Only a couple of weeks later, as the injuries started to pile up (Lawrie first, then Lind and Encarnacion to top it off), the wheels started to fall off and the team fell all the way down to 3^rd in their division, behind even the Yankees who had seemingly lost all of their best starting pitchers (CC Sabathia, Tanaka, and Pineda) and were using scraps from other teams and youngsters to limp along this season.

July and August were pretty brutal in terms of the mounting losses and it looked again as if the team would be out of it by September 1^st. But then, the team started turning to it’s promising young pitchers which they had decided to keep instead of dealing (an idea that angered Casey Jannsen and Jose Bautista back in July) and, guess what, they started winning again.

Marcus Stroman looks like the ace of the staff right now as he threw a 93 pitch, 3 hit shutout against the Cubs (yes, they suck but still) and is now 10-5 on the season. Aaron Sanchez has been so dominant at times out of the bullpen that there are rumblings that he may just supplant a struggling Jannsen as closer. Sanchez hits 98 to 100 mph on a regular basis with his fastball and has a miniscule ERA (1.27) in the 20 or so games he has pitched in. While he is a starter, his numbers out of the bullpen have helped solidify a shaky group that was a strength for the team last year.

Drew Hutchison, the forgotten young arm on the staff, seemed to be running out of gas about a month ago as this was his first full season as a MLB starter. When you factor in that he was also returning from Tommy John surgery this year as well, all signs were starting to point to him as a likely candidate to be shut down if the team continued to struggle along as they did for all of July and August. But he has turned a corner since a horrid first inning in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, putting up “Ace-like” numbers in his last 4 starts (28 innings, 12 hits, 5 earned runs 3-0 record).

Over the last 2 weeks, it's been a balance between great pitching and timely hitting that has brought them back into the hunt

The man most people blame for this turbulent season is Manager John Gibbons. When they win, he looks like a genius, when they lose he is a bum so this season he has looked equal parts of both in the eyes of many. What you can’t deny is that since it became clear that Colby Rasmus was NOT the answer in centerfield anymore and he made the switch to alternating Anthony Gose and Kevin Pillar there (with Pillar now playing left since Melky Cabrera broke his finger in Boston last week and is out for the rest of the season), the team is on a tear having won 10 of 14 (which SHOULD have been 11 if Jannsen hadn’t blown a save in extra innings in Boston last weekend).

This team has seen more ups and downs this season then  most rides at Canada’s Wonderland. With their Starting 3^rd baseman out for most of the year (When will Lawrie EVER play a full season?) and now Cabrera, their best hitter out as well, they have somehow managed to pull within 3½ games of the last wildcard spot going into last nights game (4 ½ out of the 1^st wild card spot as well as Oakland continues to sputter along, 9-21 since they got Jon Lester from Boston). If they can keep playing like they have over the last 2 weeks then they have a shot at earning one of the 2 playoff spots. When you factor in that they will also play Seattle, one of the teams ahead of them, 4 times during the last week of the season, you start to see that as long as they can continue to play the way they have of late, anything is possible. Call me an optimist but I still believe.

Ray Rice and Roger Goodel: How Their Actions Have Exposed the Myth of The "Omnipotent" NFL

This poor excuse for a press conference was just the start of what will ultimately lead to the downfall of Roger Goodell

The most profitable league in sports is being viciously attacked on all sides for how they (particularly the Commish, Roger Goodell) handled the Ray Rice situation and rightfully so. What has happened in the course of a few weeks has shown just how vulnerable the league itself actually is and has been to these attacks and how (as Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks pointed out a couple of months ago) it was only a matter of time before the greed that has been bred into the league over the last 50 years (and has manifested itself and taken on a much larger role in prominent league decisions over the last 2 decades) would start to destroy the league from the inside out.

For all his quirks, Mark Cuban was bang on when he said a few months ago that the NFL was headed for a colossal fall. It is stating the obvious since a league so big (over $9 billion in revenue last year) that any kind of “fall” would be considered major. Their rise to the top of the sports food chain has been gradual. It’s taken nearly 40 years with the NFL’s popularity increasing gradually in 10 year increments over that time period. That rise was also aided by the fall of both Baseball and Basketball from the top spot when they were both there. Baseball is still trying to reconnect with the younger generation and dealing with the fallout from after the 1994 Labour strike that wiped out the World Series  (and killed the Montreal Expos).

He may be bold and outlandish at times but Mark Cuban may also be proven to be correct about the NFL much earlier then he even thought

Basketball was in top spot from 1994 until about the time when Michael Jordan retired for the 2^nd time in 1998-1999. After winning his 6^th title, 2^nd threepeat in 8 years, he and the Chicago Bulls were the top team in the NBA and the league itself was (arguably) the number 1 sport in the US for that 5 year time period. Then, with his retirement, the NFL took over as the top dog and they have not looked back since. In the 15 years they have been the #1 sport, we have seen a dynasty born (the New England Patriots), 2 of the best Quarterbacks of all time, sure fire 1^st ballot Hall of Famers rise (Tom Brady and Peyton Manning), epic games played and even an entire network run by the league (appropriately named the NFL Network).

What we have also seen is countless players arrested for crimes ranging from Date Rape (Darren Sharper), Drug Trafficking (Ryan Leaf), Attempted Murder (Ray Lewis), Murder (Aaron Hernandez and Ray Carruth who killed his then pregnant girlfriend), domestic abuse (most recently Ray Rice), gun offenses (Plaxico Burress served time), Animal Abuse including organized dog fight rings (Michael Vick), Drug possession and DUI’s (too many to count) and the list goes on and on. Many blame the bulk of these offences on the fact that most of the players that play in the NFL come from broken homes or inner cities. Since the majority of players in the NFL (62%) are black, this is clearly a racist statement to make without actually blaming the entire black community by name for these issues. What people are not seeing is that this blatant disrespect for the law comes all the way from the top in this league in subtle ways but you can still point to a connect between the way the league operates and treats its players to how those same players treat others around them. Let me explain.

The best way to explain the NFL is that it is like a meat grinder in terms of how it treats players. The players are the meat. From the time they are “eligible” to be drafted, they are poked, prodded, asked to exhibit themselves to show their athleticism, speed and skill in the NFL Draft Combine (an overblown human version of the Westminster National Dog show really if you think about it). This circus (which is the best way to describe it) has become so popular that there are actual fans of the league that spend DAYS watching these kids try to “win the favour” of one of the 32 teams GM’s in attendance.

All the concussions he suffered led to CTE for Junior Seau, who ultimately took his own life 2 years after he retired

Next, you have the draft itself where these future players are either entirely over-hyped or forgotten as despite the fact that about 254 players get drafted each year, there are still hundreds that don’t which then means that they, like the runt of the litter, will have to scrape and claw and fight for each and every opportunity that comes their way. In a lot of ways, the NFL treats it’s players much like the way that Michael Vick used do to his dogs: The league pits Player vs. Player in all out combat both on the field and off it when it comes to vying for jobs. This kind of explains why they were so easily willing to allow him to return to the league after serving his jail time.

To finish my comparison of the “meat grinder” that is the NFL I give to you 2 final examples to consider: Current NFL Veteran players and retired players. Using current NFL vets as the first example, you don’t have to look far to see how disposable these players are to each team. My favorite team, the Patriots, is probably the best example of a team that, in their words “Maximizes the contributions of each player on the roster…and seems to know when to be cold and impersonal when deciding to move in another direction.” In other words, when they start to think that there is the smallest decline in a players contributions or value to the team, they either cut them (releasing them from their non-guaranteed contract), or trade them (as they did this year with one of their best guards, Logan Mankins, who was SORELY missed this past weekend against Miami).

What I just wrote is what the talking heads at the NFL Head office are hoping happens with every article. Even in my own critique, I can’t help but point out what happened with my own team last weekend. The problem the league has is that there are fewer and fewer people who will excuse their players and executives behaviors anymore whether it is on TV during pre-game and sports shows or in print and online. You can even point to the fact that one of the very owners of a team, Jim Irsay (who was caught with nearly $30,000 cash and enough pills in his car when he was drunk to open his own pharmacy), who got off with a “light” reprimand from the league for such (a $500,000 fine and suspension from being around his “toy” the Indy Colts, for 6 games) as yet another example of a league that has lost it’s way.

Meet Jim Irsay, Owner of the Indy Colts. This is his mug shot for DUI and possession of $30,000 grand cash and a small pharmacy worth of pills without a perscription

The retired player’s issues that the league has been battling over the last 10 years in courtrooms around the country, is just more evidence of how little these businessmen in the League office and the owners themselves actually care about their past players. The recent “settlement” reached by the league and these players, many of whom are suffering from dementia, Alzheimer’s, chronic neck, back, knee pain, arthritis, and many other aliments which have been connected to CTE (a brain issue that comes from repeated concussions) would barely scratch the surface in terms of having enough funds to cover the health issues these men are, will and have been experiencing. Then, when you add the fact that another group of former players is suing because of what they claim was poor medical treatment they received while they played (as well as the fact that many of them are now addicted to painkillers that they began taking at the behest of team doctors) and the unwillingness of the league to accept their role in their addictions, shows you just how callous the NFL truly is. I would compare this latest lawsuit against the league to a couple of sports movies to try to make you understand what the League is saying and how unfair their position truly is.

If you have ever seen the movies “The Program” and “Varsity Blues” then you will recall the scenes I am about to reference. In The Program, after a vicious hit on the field, the coach of the team, James Caan, asks a player if he is hurt or if he is injured. The player is confused and isn’t sure what the coach means. Caan then tells him if he is hurt, they can numb the pain and he can keep playing (keeping his job from the young rookie who is anxious to steal his job). If he is injured, he can’t play. Faced with the prospect of losing your job to cheaper and younger players, NFL players without guaranteed contracts 9 times out of 10 in the past would take whatever they were told would eliminate the pain and keep on playing. As far as the NFL is concerned, the players knew the risks and played on so their lawyers are playing that card.

Paul Walker's role in Varsity Blues is one that former players are saying was lacking throughout their careers: Someone who worked for the team who had their best interest in mind

The other movie scene that comes to mind is from Varsity Blues when Paul Walker’s Character is hurt and plays through the injury and gets worse, ending his season. The team’s running back ends up having a similar decision to make after he injures his knee. The only difference between this movie scene and the one from the Program is that Paul Walker’s character intervenes as Jon Voight is trying to pressure his star running back into numbing HIS injury to get him back on the field, and, as the team hears the escalating argument between the coach and injured start QB, the team revolts on Voight and the star running back decides against risking his future for 1 game, in high school no less.

Both scenes are the same in what they are showing: The depths to which coaches will go to try to win now and how much influence they have on their players. The only difference is that in the Varsity Blues scene, someone had the players’ best interest in mind (It took another player stepping in who had seen the result of “doing whatever it takes to win” to step in and say something). Current and retired NFL players (in their lawsuit) claim that has never been the case when it comes to them and the debilitating  injuries they have had to endure both during the latter stages of their careers and well afterward are the proof of that. Yet another example of the NFL “Meat Grinder” at work.

As if the league wasn’t already under siege from fans, the media, current players and former player, the National Organization for Women today released a statement calling for the resignation of Roger Goodell as NFL Commissioner for his and the leagues failures to address the domestic abuse issue within the league as there have been numerous issues between players and their spouses/girlfriends. On top of that (as if that wasn’t enough already), now comes word that the league has actually had both video’s since April (the 2^nd one having been confirmed by an anonymous member of law enforcement who has proof that it was delivered and received by someone at the NFL Head office).

Get ready to get used to this look on Roger Goodell's face over the next few months

It’s ironic that Goodell was getting lambasted for having not been able to procure the video of Ray Rice knocking out Janay Palmer in the elevator when TMZ did. If the new revelation proves to be true and the league has had the video since April, then Goodell has been lying for months about it and the league was trying to cover the entire situation up which is an offence for which he should an will get fired.

To me, it all seems stupid. They are a multi-billion dollar business that has access to pretty much anything they want when it comes to investigating players for the draft, delving well beyond what many would seem “normal” in terms of investigating the lives of possible future “employees” at the draft. They have former FBI and scret service members as part of their security staff so they have access to people who have access to contacts in law enforcement circles. Getting all the videos necessary to properly handle the situation would not have been an issue.

The main thing that Goodell seems to be focusing on in his sit down interview on CBS is that TMZ paid for the video and they were not willing to do that. To me, that shows that the NFL clearly wanted nothing to do with the 2^nd video itself (or at least make it appear as such) and Goodell’s comments make is seem as if they simply made a courtesy call to local law enforcement about it but never followed up.

Goodell has already admitted that he and the league could have and should have done more beforehand (as in giving Rice much more than a 2 game suspension as he initially did) and his interview was an attempt to admit wrongdoing in that sense but deny that they had seen the actual footage which seems like a lie now. Ignorance is not an excuse. By all accounts, Goodell and the league already knew what happened in the elevator. All the 2^nd video has done is shown what anyone with ½ a brain already knew: He knocked her out, plain and simple. He already knew that and still only gave Rice 2 games.

He and his office have totally blown the chance to be leaders in the area of educating players towards helping to end Domestic Abuse

I don’t know how Goodell could initially justify that suspension and tell everyone around the league that having weed in your system as an NFL player is much worse than what Rice did when you consider that before the 2nd video was released, another player named Josh Gordon of the Cleveland Browns was suspended for the entire season because he was BARELY above the league marijuana limit on a drug test “B” sample (and sufficiently below the same level on his “A” sample no less which should have precluded the need to have his “B” sample tested in the first place).

It’s obvious that the league did not take this situation seriously when you consider that Ray Carruth killed his pregnant Girlfriend some 7 years ago and at the time, the NFL barely even acknowledged the situation. The pattern of domestic abuse by NFL players has been going on for such a long time that I don’t think I even have to mention the most famous retired player to have demonstrated a persistence pattern of domestic abuse which ultimately culminated in murder: OJ Simpson. Yes, he was retired and unconscionably found not guilty but his situation is just another example of a retired player having issues controlling his anger and his behavior towards women as the trial showed that Nicole Brown had been subjected to years of abuse before she was ultimately killed.

Trying to sell to the world that marijuana use is worse than knocking a woman unconscious as he tried to do for the last few weeks is deplorable and goes to show you that the “No Fun League” as is has been nicknames for years (Started because they made elaborate touchdown celebrations illegal because, you know, its not something they can make any more money on), has not only started along that slippery slope towards the loss of morals, they are about half way down it already.

He has made the league a ton of money but none of that will matter if it is proven that he has lied and tarnished that shield behind him

What does this bring us back to? The abject failure of the league to address this issue which effects how one half of the population treats the other half (women actually make up closer to 53% of the population now). Had the league thrown the book at Ray Rice back in April and suspended him for the year or had the Ravens cut him back when it happened (as they probably should have), all of this would not have happened. To be honest, that would have been worse as the league could have then hidden behind Rice and ostracized him without the benefit of the focus of the national media blaring down on ANY current player who has a history or has been accused of domestic abuse.

The only positive to come from this entire mess of a situation is the fact that the NFL will be forced to address the issue with current players and programs will be set up to teach them and future players about why it’s wrong (although as a man, you should ALREADY KNOW it’s wrong).

The other positive that I can see eventually coming from this situation is that if Goodell is fired or resigns (which is becoming more and more possible), then whomever it is that comes in next as Commish will have a clear mandate: Make the league a ton of money, of course, but protect the players (in some cases from themselves) and make the league transparent in terms of how and why suspensions are handed down (the new policy on domestic abuse suspensions is a great start but about 10 years too late).

There is now an independent investigation that will be started and one has to think that should their be ANY possibility that Goodell knew they had that video and either he or his staff was either told to sit on it or choose to ignore it (for whatever reason) then you have to think that Goodell’s days in command could be numbered.

US Cycle of Poverty - Americans need to stop voting against their own self-interest

I want to apologize as I have been very busy this summer and i didn't get the chance to write at all this summer what with getting married and everything around that, baseball season and home renos. Now that the Fall is upon us, the creative juices are flowing again and it's time to get to work.

And the first topic I choose to tackle; A realization I had recently about how and why the US political system needs a major change and how horrible it is that Corporations and the Rich have as much power in US politics as they do. Hopefully once you read this, you will see the connections I have made and you will see why there needs to be massive change.

The way that the Republicans and particularly Tea Party members have treated him borders on Treasonous and is definitely racist and unpatriotic, no matter what they say. It's fairly obvious

Lets start with 2 of the biggest problems; The Republican Party and the Tea Party in particular. Both of these groups of people are against anything that President Obama has tried to do, especially anything that is intended to help the poorest people in America get free health care (Obama Care). They have been opposed to it mostly because big business has been telling them (through lobbys and attack ads among other things) that by doing this, giving people free health care, the chain reaction is going to result in fewer new jobs (possibly) being created because the money they (could use for that) would instead go to cover increased health care insurance spending they would have to cover. These are the same corporations that have been making massive profits for decades now and have been keeping primarily the crappy low paying jobs in the US as many of these same corporations have moved the bulk of the higher paying ones to 3^rd world, now 2^nd world countries without the US Government saying a word in opposition to their maneuvers.

This political party (and it’s radical, idiotic inbred cousin) are so controlled by big business that they are somehow able to block out the truth to millions of Americans and have been playing the proverbial shell game with their own supporters for years; Big Business has been slowly turning America into a 3^rd world country and the only way to truly stop that from happening is through education. Let me explain.

Out on his own, John Oliver has found his voice and has already shown that his insight was sorely needed on the political scene. With Stephen Colbert about to jump to CBS, his arrival could not have been more perfectly timed

It occurred to me Sunday night as I was watching John Oliver on TMN that big business is much more nefarious than I even realized it. His weekly politically charged show has been making headlilnes since it began because it doesn’t have to cater to big business at all and can point out, in stark reality, the problems facing America and Americans at their core. Last night’s episode was all about the fact that student loans and the debt people are taking on trying to get an education in America is basically a ball and chain that sticks with thee students forever, EVEN THROUGH BANKRUPTCY!!! Think about that for a minute. If you dare try to better yourself through higher education in the US, you are stuck paying off the insane tuition fees (which have risen by at least 23% in the last 10 years alone) regardless of what happens to you.

Say you want to become a doctor. Great. Tuition starts at about $75,000 a year for med-school and then if you do make it through after about 5 years ($375,000 in tuition later), you had better make sure that you get a job quickly in a decent hospital because your bank that gave you the student loan you needed will start coming after you almost right away. But as a doctor, you can afford to pay those loans off rather quickly. What if you didn’t do into medicine?

Type in "Student Loan Debt" In Google and look at the images section and you will see plenty of images like this one to illustrate just how crushed American Students are by it.

What if you wanted to become a journalist and you were an English Major. 4 years of tuition at about $15,000 a year and you have $60K to pay off. How many journalist jobs are out there? A handful mostly every year tops? None of them start you off at a salary that is going to help you start a family AND pay off your student loan debt while most are actually looking to get co-op students in because they don’t have to pay them.

Big business (meaning Big US banks in this case), lobbied for years to ensure that these student loans would not be able to be discharged when (crippled by payments they can’t afford because the job they have is not the career they went to school for) these students file for bankruptcy because they wanted to make sure that people were forced to pay them back, even with their insane interest charges and unfair re-payment plans. When you add in the fact that people also have had to pay for health care in the US, it’s no wonder that so many people are either saying “to hell” with getting a college degree (because of these crazy tuition fees/student loans required to pay for them) or are 100% on board with both Student loan reform AND getting Obamacare passed ASAP. Both of these things are actually GOOD for ALL Americans but don’t tell that to a Republican and if you do, you better hope that they are not a Tea Party member because they might just call you unpatriotic and a “taker” if not worse. Or, they might just shoot you, always a possibility with these crazed people.

The fastest way to get a family out of poverty is education and yet the poorest cities in America (Detroit and Chicago) have closed over 250 schools in the last 10 years, all of them in the poorest ghetto neighbourhoods. This is not a coincidence. Keeping people dumb and placated (watching reality TV which essentially dumbs down anyone who watches it) means that you are going to be able to do pretty much anything you want (big businesses, government officials). All you have to do to get a stupid person to follow you is scare them.

In politics, Talk about how much your opponent wants to “take away” from them. Their money, their rights, their liberty. Sound familiar?

If you can scare enough people by talking down to them about what they should be thinking, should be feeling, should want (to be rich and famous of course, either or really, it doesn’t matter which one anymore), than you can get them to vote for people who are ALREADY rich and powerful and want to stay that way because they are claiming to be on “your” side. It isn’t hard to convince people who like to watch cars go around in circles for hours, occasionally crashing into each other, or who like to see a super rich family dress up like hillbillies to make a fortune and spew ignorance on TV, to vote whichever way you want because they have been brainwashed. At this point in the American political spectrum, that is the only explanation as to how you can get support for people who have only their own best interest at heart and not that of the country.

This woman is the epitome of what is wrong with Republicans. Her idiotic beliefs and thoughts are broadcast day after day on Fox News. Look some of them up and you will see just how insane she is

I mean if you hear the rhetoric that comes out of Fox news (and all of their blowhards from O’Reilly to Ann Coulter and everyone else in between) as well as ALL Tea Party members of the Republican Party and pretty much anyone in the Republican Party lately, their comments towards President Obama have bordered on Treasonous. Right from the start of his first term, there have been Senators and Congressman interrupting him during speeches, pointing in his face showing him no respect at all, people questioning his place of birth (but no one questions John McCain who may well have been born in Panama apparently). And why has all of this been happeneing? Who are the biggest supporters of the Tea Party? The Koch Brothers who are by far the richest 2 men in the US and have a vested interest in keep Americans off balance and pre-occupied with other matters while they twist laws in their favour or get their constituents they supported to do that for them.

So what has this shown me; Big business wants to make sure that poor people in America are being kept out of  higher education institutions through several layers of this new “system” that they have carefully been able to craft since the Reagan era which no one seems to be willing or able to effectively stop. Banks waste money, steal billions and no one goes to jail. A kid walks on the wrong side of the side walk in Missouri, gets harassed by a cop and shot 6 times. Seems a bit unfair doesn’t it.

Let’s looks at all of the points of contention here and see if there are any connections;

The sad part about this picture, besides the fact there are kids living in these conditions, this used to be a picture of something that you would expect in a poor Asian or African nation, Not in American or in Detroit with people living in gated communities a few miles away

• ·       Big business starts doing everything they can to break unions in the 1970’s and 80’s and into the 1990’s·         Good jobs start getting shipped overseas where labour costs are next to nothing and safety of workers not important 
  ·         Huge profits start to pour in making CEO’s of these big companies disproportionately wealthy compared to people who work for them 
  ·         Good paying jobs start to disappear in major cities like Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland and Buffalo (Heavily unionized city – United Auto Workers Union in Detroit crushed) 
  ·         The population bases for those cities starts to drop as more and more “Middle Class” Americans flee looking for better jobs 
  ·         Cities like LA and New York start taking on more and more people 
  ·         Civil services in the larger cities are overused and on the verge of collapse 
  ·         The tax base for the dilapidated cities starts to drop meaning less money for essential services 
  ·         Large cities have tough time as well as most of the new citizens earn barely enough to get by and hardly pay any tax as well (most live on cash only transactions or food stamps) 
  ·         Less money in dwindling cities means some tough decisions start being made with regards to where money is actually going to be allocated by city and state officials 
  ·         The richest of the richest fail to pay their fair share or find loopholes to avoid paying what they should 
  ·         Children of the rich end up going to private schools 
  ·         Rich families start living in communities that have armed guards at each entry point (basically they say to keep out crime, more like the poor) 
  ·         Schools in the inner city with less student enrollment start being closed due to budget concerns and the cost of upkeep increasing past what they can afford to pay 
  ·         Loss of good paying jobs to the lower middle class means many people who are not mobile start to turn on each other (domestic abuse or alcoholism) to ease the pain 
  ·         Children being raised in these homes start to act out based on what they see at home 
  ·         Schools start to become more violent 
  ·         A police presence is now necessary in every high school in the inner city and suggested for grade schools  (armed guards, metal detectors) 
  ·         Teachers start leaving inner city schools for fear of violent behavior and acts against them by their own students 
  ·         Less teachers and students in local inner city schools means fewer and fewer schools need to be open 
  ·         Good teachers refuse to work in bad schools, start getting recruited to private schools making sure the kids of the wealthy are getting the best education money can buy 
  ·         Poor kids drop out, turn to a life of crime, life on the streets or low paying jobs because they are not qualified for anything else 
  ·         Without a proper education, these kids grow up not knowing anything other than poverty and despair 
  ·         These kids end up either having larger than normal families or dying of sexually transmitted diseases as they never learned about sex ed and using protection 
  ·         250 schools closed in 10 years in Detroit and Chicago 
  ·         Inner city sexual disease rates are much higher than the rest of the country.
  
  
         I am sure there will be people who will say that I am over simplifying these connections but you can't deny that when you see all of these points consecutively, one can't help but think that they are connected and/or that if you want to fix America, the biggest key would be to keep the middle class working and educated or else the downward spiral that we have seen in the US will only continue to deepen and worsen over time. 
  
  

  

  The only way to change this from happening all over the US is through education and keeping good paying jobs IN America