Is it really necessary?

In these days of not trusting the police, TASER has introduced a TASER cam. They have upgraded a model of their hand-held non-lethal immobilizer. The X26 model is able to be fitted with a video camera that can capture as much as an hour and a half of video with sound.

I saw a report on the news about this new feature, and a debate on the concept.

What does this mean for law enforcement? Well, if it is anything like the dash cams in patrol cars, it doesn't bode well. Remember when they started to go into cars? They were supposed to be to verify police officers actions. Instead what what they have done is bread police misconduct complaints.

The problem I have with all of the complaints about it is, the TASER was designed to be a non-lethal way for law enforcement to subdue potentially violent assailants before they become violent. To prove the safety and efficacy of their devices, many employees and all of senior management have taken shots (including several by CEO Rick Smith) from the TASERs they produce.

Why is it that someone is threatening civilians or law enforcement officials, they can only act when it seems it is too late? Isn't that what the TASER was supposed to be? A non-permanent way to save innocent lives? Now, like in so many cases in today's legal system, the criminals have more rights than the victims. And no, a bank robber who got TASERed is not the victim.

My piece of advice, if a cop is telling you to do something, 'do it'. If you don't, the officer's choice is the .40 cal or the TASER. Which would you prefer?

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In the news...

There have been a couple of big stories in the news this past week, the CIA interrogation tapes being destroyed and the Mitchell report.

The first story, the NY Times reported that 2 tapes featuring several hours of interrogation of two high ranking Al Qaeda lieutenants that allegedly featured severe tactics including waterboarding.

Regardless on your thoughts on torture, this story only serves one purpose. First of all, these tapes were destroyed 2 years ago. This is just another chance for those who hate America to attack the current administration.

I'm not one to give the CIA carte blanche when it comes to questioning detainees. If we pull out all the stops, we are no better than the heathens that they are protecting us from, but they should be given some latitude to do their job. Remember, these are the guys who aren't afraid to die. otherwise, they are not going to be willing to pilot a plane into a building, or put on a dynamite vest on and walk into a crowded market. Don't these guys get a free pass to heaven when they die for Allah? One of these guys gave up information that saved countless American lives after less than 35 seconds.

The CIA claims the reason for the tapes being destroyed is that the agents doing the interrogating can be identified. My reaction to that is if you don't want the agents to be identifiable on your interrogation tapes, don't make the tapes.

To those who say the CIA should be able to keep the tapes secure, keep in mind that the CIA isn't the only intelligence agency that is tasked with using covert means to secure information. And if the NY Times can break the story that the tapes were destroyed, imagine what a trained field agent can do if they wanted to.

==========================

The other story that is dominating the news is that of the Mitchell Report. It's the 400+ page report authored by former Maine Senator George Mitchell at the request of commissioner Bud Selig. In the report, more than 80 current and former Major League Baseball players are named in connection with steroid or human growth hormone (HGH). Some of the names are surprising (Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens) others are not (Barry Bonds). The report names players from all 30 teams, but it is curious that 25% of the list authored by a member of the Red Sox board of directors is made up of current and former Yankees.

This report was nearly 2 years in the making. It was met with a myriad of reactions. Will it make a difference? That is to be seen. Do the fans really care? As a whole, not really. Individually, perhaps.. Will it effect entrance into the Hall of Fame? I think it may. I don't see it keeping anyone out of the Hall, but it may delay their entrance. Someone like Bonds who was well on his way to be a near unanimous first ballot inductee will likely not be voted in for a year or two.

The question that keeps getting asked is: what should the League do with the players? First off, many of those on the list are no longer players, so there isn't anything that MLB can do. For those who are still active, the recommendation from Mitchell is to do nothing to them. I have to say I agree. Too much of the information is circumstantial, and there is the whole spectrum of involvement. Some were offered HGH and declined (David Justice, in an interview on ESPN Radio with Colin Cowherd on Friday) others had a more in depth involvement. Keep in mind, steroids and HGH were not against the rules of baseball until just recently.

When you start talking about wiping records, you have to consider all of the implications. If you take away Barry Bond's home runs, do you take away wins from the Giants? What about the runs scored by the players already on base when he hit it? The pitchers' ERA? All of the sudden it isn't such an easy solution.

The bigger implication in the report is the hundreds of thousands of non-professional athletes, many high school and college athletes who are on the juice. That is the problem that really needs to get addressed. That is the real problem here.

** My disclaimer.. this is the second time I wrote this today, right before I published it, my web browser crashed, and I lost it, so I had to start it over..

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It's not easy being green.

It's that time of year again. Time to pick how you want to be billed for your energy, and who will bill you for it.

This is thanks to the genius of Charles Schumer. You see, we aren't smart enough to take care of ourselves, so it's a good thing that we have such a smart, benevolent senator like Schumer.

He came up with this brilliant idea of de-regulating the power industry of NY. This allows for a bunch of other companies to start billing us for power that is still provided by RG&E, along lines that are owned and maintained by RG&E, so it only makes sense that another company can come in and do a better job of billing than the company whose infrastructure is being used, and whose product is being used.

The thing that throws me off is the company that is offering green energy. It costs more, but you can get that warm feeling when you turn on your furnace to get warm. How is it that a company that doesn't produce the power control where the power comes from? And how do they keep the coal and nuclear power from those customers who worship the gods of global warming? What's even better, they have different levels of green plans. That way, you can choose how much you love the planet.

Don't get me wrong.. I am not advocating for waste, I just want to save money.

And it seems that you cannot ever win with Al Gore's disciples. (see my column from back in August of my thoughts about wind farms).

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Who let the dogs out?

Former NFL quarterback Michael Vick was sentenced for his part in a dog fighting ring this morning. As you may already know, a house owned by the former Atlanta Falcon was used for an underground dog fighting ring.

When it came to light, the new gestapo of the NFL, commissioner Roger Godell issued an indefinite suspension. As the investigation developed, several of the people involved in the ring, took plea deals. Vick and his attorneys decided that the best thing to do is to plead out himself. The sentencing came down today, 23 months.

The questions that this raises is was that fair? Speculation was that it would have been closer to 12-18 months, but the statute allowed for as much as 5 years.

Will we see him back in the NFL? Well, if he serves his full sentence, he will be in jail until midway through the 2009 season (October 2009). He then will have to serve whatever sentence the League sees fit to impose. So it is likely that he won't be eligible to play until at least the 2010 season. At that point, he will be 29, and out of the league for 3 years. Sure, he will have the opportunity to stay physically fit while in prison, but that isn't NFL game condition.

Reaction to the sentence was varied. Many were satisfied that he got a stiffer sentence than expected, while others played the 'he was a victim' card and got a stiffer penalty than someone who fit a different demographic would get.

Bottom line, I feel the sentence was fair. He got hit in the pocket book much harder than the jail time. He lost millions in endorsements that will likely never come back even if he does make it back to the league. Do I think he will be back in the league? Probably. If the QB shortage is anything like it is now, someone will give him a shot. I think that he will have paid his debt to society by then. After all, this is the land of second (and third and fourth) chances.

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Here they come again! Our heroes!

The federal government must think we can't survive without them. I guess we have given them plenty of reasons to think that, but it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The more someone (or someones) come to the rescue, the more they become dependent on the help.

The latest example of the white knight that is the Federal government is the announcement that they are going to freeze the adjustable rates on all of those mortgages. Sounds like a good thing, but here is what is being missed.. If borrowers can't afford the rates where they are frozen (which by the way is among the lowest on record), how are they going to be able to afford the payments in 5 years, when the rates thaw?

I understand that one of the key indicators of the health of the economy is housing sales, but isn't this just another form of welfare?

If there hadn't been the pressure to relax the standards for loans, there wouldn't be the need to bail out those who didn't plan ahead enough to get a loan they would be able to afford.

I'll be the first to tell you that I am no Warren Buffet, but I was smart enough to not get a loan for the max I was approved for, and I got a fixed rate. The only time my payment will change is when my taxes go up to help pay for everyone else that needs the government to bail them out.

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Why does it matter?

I'm about to talk about the two things you aren't supposed to talk about.. and I'm going to do it in the same column.. Religion and politics.

I don't understand the hypocrisy of it. One candidate is automatically disqualified because of where he spends his Sunday mornings.

It doesn't matter that the church in question teaches fiscal responsibility and personal accountability.

A church that developed a welfare program that fosters self improvement, a program that is designed to ween people off it. This program doesn't breed generations of dependents.

On the other hand, if a person pays homage to the same deity as those guys who flew planes into the Twin Towers, that is off limits.

I guess what it comes down to, does it really matter what church a person belongs to? Politically speaking? I don't think so.

One last question to consider.. Why is religion such a big deal for a former governor from the land of the Kennedys, but no one cares or even knows that a senator from the Silver State goes to the same church??

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It must be fair..

I mean, it has to be.. people much smarter than me came up with it, and ESPN talking heads keep drilling it..

I'm talking about the rules that say a NFL franchise has to interview minority coaching candidates before they fill a vacancy. Now they are trying to force the rule into the college ranks.

Is it fair that of the 119 Division I-A football programs in the country, only a small handful is a minority. I think the number is less than 1 in 10 programs.

This comes up every year when the coaching carousel starts spinning.. It becomes big news when black assistants remain assistants.

Is the 'good old boys' club as strong as they would have us believe? Should organizations be forced to parade token candidates to comply with the rules? The theory is that it gets the name out there.. but If I am a hiring manager and I pass on a candidate, what does it say about the candidate? Are you more or less likely to hire someone who I passed on?

Do we have a ways to go? Yes. Is mandating affirmative action the right thing to do? I don't think so.

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Heroes Season Finale

It's been a while since I added something new here.. so I figured it was time I put something up, I'll start with my take on last night's season finale of what is quite possibly the best TV series ever, Heroes.

I know, it wasn't officially the season finale... but if they don't settle the petty dispute between the producers and writers, it is unlikely the show will return before next fall. More on the strike in a bit..

A few weeks ago, I ran across a podcast and website dedicated to the show that is very well done. It has a very active forum. It can be found at http://www.thetenthwonder.com/ if you are a fan of the show, it is worth checking out.

Let me start out with saying if you haven't already watched the episode, there are spoilers here.. you have been warned... :)

The obvious first question is who shot Nathan and is he really dead? I think that we have seen the last of Nathan Petrelli, but Adrian Pasdar may reprise his role in a flashback sequence in future episodes. As far as his killer goes.. I would bet that it is Noah. After re-watching the episode, and pausing it as the lone person walks away from the commotion, it really looks like that person is wearing horn-rimed glasses (or as he is known in the forums as HRG)

My take on what Hiro did to Adam/Kensei is this.. I know that he (Hiro) felt that he needed to do something to put an end to what Adam/Kensei was up to, but if he is supposed to be the good guy, is trapping him in a coffin underground (was it LT Sulu's coffin?) the way to go? It seems that it is more of a cruel thing to do than to just cut his head off. Someone in the forums suggested that the super hearing that Sylar picked up last season from the mechanic will help him to locate him and dig him up.. interesting theory, but I'm not sure how much stock I put into it. I believe David Anders is done (except for possible flashback sequences).

Is there any significance to the other visible objects in the vault? From what I saw, there was a dagger, a brain, 3 cards (3 queens), a pyramid, a gold key, and a few other things. Honestly, I think that most of these objects have little to no plot value. People may be just looking for something to speculate on.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this series or episode? Predictions for volume 3? Drop me a line!

Now, getting to the strike. More often than not, a strike is the most selfish thing a worker can do (conversely, a lockout is the most selfish thing an employer can do). I understand that getting about $0.04 per DVD is not much, but the strike is hurting more than just the producers and actors. Most of them can afford to take a couple of weeks off.

What about all the rest of the staff? The cameramen, the grips, the set builders and countless more.. most of them are working stiffs.. they aren't making ton of money for the work they do, especially in comparison to the others..

And what about those who are indirectly related to the productions? People like drivers and caterers.. When the person that put their life savings into opening a catering business goes under because their biggest client is a TV studio, what happens?

And what about the advertisers? They put up good money to advertise in primetime shows that have been forced into re-runs? Do they get a refund or discount?

But what do I know?

I just hope this strike doesn't effect the upcoming season of Lost.

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Do we remember 9/11 for the right reasons?

This may seem like this is a day late, but this isn't your typical 9/11 column. It's more of a reaction of the reaction.

Yesterday, I saw a video clip online that was a montage of pictures, videos, and news clips from 6 years ago. It was quite well done. There were several pages of comments about it. Most of them were from the vein of 'I was getting ready for work' or 'my brother was there' or 'the firemen were so brave'. Very heart felt. Many were poignant.

And then there was the other end of spectrum.

There were several from the whack jobs on the other end of the spectrum. There were countless comments from people who ended the post with "I HATE BUSH" or "BUSH LIED" and the like.

These are the types of people that are bad for America. Oh, they think they are being good Americans, and that they are what America needs.

I wasn't around for Pearl Harbor or the Lusitania, but after these events, did we criticize the government for planning the events? Did you ever hear about people who claimed that we bombed the USS Arizona?

I'm not saying that the government is always blameless, but attacking its own citizens? That's what Sadam did, not Bush. There is no credible evidence that the towers came down due to anything other than those planes. They were not imploded by pre-planted explosives. It's amazing how hot a 757 full of fuel will burn. It is hot enough to compromise the integrity of structural steel.

We were right to act out with emotion. We just reacted with the wrong emotion. We shouldn't be acting with sorrow, it should be anger. Not with vengeance, but with a purpose.

We need to take stock in what we lost 6 years ago. What we have given away since. Are we honoring those who gave their lives in the towers?

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What will it take to sink this ship?

Just when you thought we had heard the last about the fast ferry, it is back in the news. It seems that a law suit has been filed against the city. The suit alleges that the city had no authority to purchase the failed venture.

Now, I completely agree that it was about the dumbest thing for the city of Rochester to do, but will a law suit fix it? It will just end up costing the city more money.

First, the city will have to spend money to defend itself.

Second.. if they lose, what happens? Will they have to buy the boat back from Germany to let it get repoed by the myriad of creditors?

We should just let it go. Cut our loses, and move on to the next waste of tax dollars.. Renaissance Square.


Just remember, when the Renaissance Square project fails, we can't sell it to the Germans.

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Milestone weekend

It finally happened. The other untouchable record was touched. It used to be said that no one would get 61 homeruns in one year, then two players did it in the same year, and it has been broken since..

Now Bonds has tied Hammerin' Hank, and will likely be the career HR king within a week. Whether or not you believe he took steroids, it is still an accomplishment. You still have to make contact with a projectile coming at you at upwards of 100 mph from less than 60 feet away. A projectile that isn't coming straight, it is moving left to right, right to left, up to down..

Other milestones reached this weekend include Alex Rodriguez becoming the youngest to get to 500 career homeruns. Will we be doing this career HR chace in 5 years? Who knows.

Those of you who know me, know how much I dislike the Yankees, but I do have a respect for A-Rod. I think it's funny how fickle Yankees fans are. Wasn't it just a few months ago that they were begging Cashman to dump him? Now, he is their savior.

Lastly, a milestone that is unlikely to be duplicated ever again, Tom Glavine recorded career win number 300. In todays era of the middle and long reliever, it is unlikely that anyone will sniff that number again. The next closest is Randy Johnson, who is one strong healthy season from hitting it. Unfortunately for him, he is about to go under the knife for another back surgery.

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What should Stern do?

That is easier asked than answered.

I am referring to what the NBA should do about former referee Tim Donaghy. He was recently flipped by the Feds as part of an organized crime gambling bust.

It turns out that Donaghy was helping to fix games to meet or beat the point spread.

All over the sports web sites, the poles are which is a bigger black eye on the sport, Bonds and his steroids, Vick and his dog fighting, or Donaghy and his fixed games. As bad as the first two options are, there is no comparison.

Bonds may be well on his way to cheating his way to the most hallowed record in sports, and dog fighting is unspeakable at best, but a dirty ref is goes a lot further. It strikes to the core of the integrity of the game.

It goes beyond what Pete Rose did. When Pete bet on the Reds as a manager, he was betting that his team would win. When a referee bets on a game, or effects a game in another way, it goes so much deeper. It directly effected the outcome of games.

When games are decided by other than players and coaches, so much more is affected. How often does one game change who makes the play-offs or seeding in the play-offs? How many player contracts were affected? How many coaches have been fired because they didn't win enough games?

There is no way of knowing how deep the wounds may go.

What is commissioner to do? Like I said earlier, there is no easy answer.

Can the league survive it? I'm sure it will.

Will the league lose fans? I'm sure it will.

Sports fans will always come back.

Should the league have the right to audit the finances for its officials? I think it isn't too much to ask. They don't have to be made public, just made available to league brass.

Now, this isn't going to be a fool proof system, people will always find ways to hide their ill-gotten gains. I think it may be a good start.

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Full of Hot Air?

I wish they will just make up their mind.

I'm referring to the people who insist on finding alternative fuel sources. It seems that they don't always think things through.

If, like the High Priest of Global Warming Al Gore insists, we have a limited amount of fossil fuels, and a growing thirst for it, we need to find a new way to quench that thirst.

I read a letter to the editor in today's paper that caught my eye. It was attacking the investors interested in putting up windmills. Particularly the ones planned for Wayne County, NY.

It seems that the biggest complaint about them is that they are eye sores.

I am not sure that I buy off on that. I rather like the look of those giant majestic propellers on the sky line. I remember driving over the Altamont Pass, where I-580 passes through the Diablo Range in California, home to over 4000 wind turbines. It is truly a site to behold.

Here is where the hypocrisy comes into play. If there is a way to generate the electricity to run our electric cars, (so we can get away from that evil brew of hydrocarbons we are currently hooked on..) wouldn't it make sense to do it? I mean, where do we currently get our electricity from? Coal fired and nuclear power plants, and dams. The trifecta of evil earth haters.

Shouldn't we want to make that sacrifice? Isn't that what we are supposed to be willing to do? Give something up so we don't feel so guilty about our lifestyles? Isn't that the tithing that we pay to be members of the Church of Inconvenient Truth? Shouldn't we be willing to endure the eye sores so we can avoid drilling in Alaska, and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico? And don't forget all the oil that we import from other countries.

I'm no scientist or engineer, but it seems that we have several viable alternative energy sources, but the tree huggers that force us to seek out such sources shoot us down before we can implement any of them (after all, isn't it better to shoot an oil worker than a spotted owl?).

By the way, what type of fertilizer do you use on a wind farm?

Why do we hate cops?

It seems that in this day and age, there is a growing disdain for our law enforcement officers, whether on the local level, or national.

Recently, there were 2 separate chases involving criminals and local police departments that ended in the death of one of the alleged criminals fleeing the authorities.

The first occurred on 15 May, 2007. Pam Chatman (a woman with 30+ aliases and a rap sheet "literately 20 feet long") was fleeing the police after shoplifting from the Grease Towne Mall, the other happened more recently. A passenger in the fleeing car was killed at the end of the pursuit. In the car, the Police found unregistered, loaded weapons and drugs.

On the national level, boarder guards are not being able to do their job. When they are threatened by drug smugglers and coyotes, and return fire, they are put in jail.

Why is it that when someone is arrested, we blame the cops? Why is it that when the person fleeing the police gets hurt in a chase, we immediately look to see if the cops were at fault? What ever happened to 'you do the crime, you do the time?'

Granted, there are some bad cops out there, but they are by far the exception, rather than the rule.

I don't really have an answer to this, I just thought I would throw this out and see what you had to say about it...

I can't belive I'm saying this...

Al Sharpton was right.

Yes, you read that right. I am actually agreeing with the Reverend.

When Hotel heiress, Paris Hilton was reassigned to house arrest to serve out the rest of her already shortened sentence, it stank of favoritism.

The fact that less than a day later, she is back in jail shows that perhaps the LA justice system might not be as messed up as initially thought.

Does a person's race or economic status play a part in the treatment they receive from law enforcement? Perhaps. Does it happen as often or as blatantly as the good reverend would have us think? I don't think so.

Playing the race card when race isn't the factor only hurts the real victims of racial bigotry. In fact, in todays society, it seems that we bend over backwards to avoid any hint that race might be a factor. Without getting into detail, I have seen it happen.

In the Paris Hilton situation, I think the message is that if you are famous, you are above the law. The list of celebrities who have gotten favorable treatment includes people from several different races, not just Caucasians.

So much for Justice's blind fold, I think it might be slipping.

He should be in jail.

And now he's talking of suing the government for putting him in quarantine.

I'm talking about the lawyer that flew to Italy and back after being diagnosed with a rare form of TB.

Ok, so maybe he wasn't aware of his condition before his flight to Italy, but reports indicate that he was advised not to fly home on a commercial flight, and the fact that he changed his flight to Montreal and drove across the boarder seems to indicate that he knew he would be flagged at the airports.

Who knows how many he could have infected. He put countless people in danger. Now, I am by no means an expert on infectious diseases (like his father-in-law), but it seems that a trans-Atlantic flight would expose him to a myriad of people, both directly and indirectly.

He acted with reckless abandon (can you tell I watch Law and Order?).

One good thing has come from this, it exposed a weakness in the boarder crossing that can be addressed and corrected.

Isn't it just the case...

OK, so now if you don't come to the defense of a complete whack-job, you are a coward? Even if that fat cow is a complete 180 from where you stand on a subject..

I just want to make sure I know all the rules.

In case you missed it, (and unless you are living in a cave, you probably didn't) that annoying waste of space Rosie O'Donught used her soap box to once again prove her ignorance to the world on her show.

A few weeks ago, she compared the US Troops to terrorists. Surprise, people didn't like that insinuation, and she got a reaction.

When co-host Elisibeth Hasselbeck didn't come running to her defense, Rosie called her a coward.

So, the lesson of the day is: If a co-worker who could eat you says something stupid, something that you don't agree with, and when people get mad, if you don't kiss her fat backside, you are the coward.

You see, Rosie is smarter than all of us, and if she says it, it must be right. (like when she said that George W. planted bombs in the World Trade Center #7, the evil conservatives must have done it. Since I'm not as smart as she is, I wondered why if we bombed ourselves, why we couldn't sneak WMD into the Iraqi desert.. but like I said, I'm not that smart.)

I'll step down from my soap box now.

Season Finales

This week, two of the best shows on TV had their season finales, 'Lost' and 'Heroes'. I wanted to give my takes on both.

I'll start with the older of the two shows, 'Lost'. I will include spoilers, so if you haven't seen it yet, and plan to, be warned.

This years season was kind of a weird one. It featured a long hiatus 6 episodes into the season.

I wasn't sure how I liked the emphasis on 'the others' in season 3, but the last couple of weeks made it worth it. There was some interesting developments of Ben, Juliette and 'The Others' in general. Having said that, I thought the episode that they spent developing Nikki and Paulo (Expose, s03e14) was misplaced. They spent too much of the episode developing characters that were minor at best before this episode, only to kill them off at the end. I didn't remember them at all, but after discussing the episode with friends, I vaguely remember them (or at least her) from the past.

Overall, I felt that the 2-hour grand finale raised more questions than it answered. I like the way that the 'flashback' was actually foreshadowing. But the beard doesn't work on Jack.

Questions like:

--Whose funeral did no one go to? (Ben? Locke? Sawyer?)
--Who is at home wondering where she might be when she is meeting Jack at the airport? (Ben? Sawyer? Kate and Jack's kid?)
--Was Naomi really the problem that Ben said that she was?
--Did Desmond make it out of the 'Looking glass Station'?
--What was the work that Walt said Locke has to do? (and where have he and Michael been?

Also, some questionable plot turns, like why does Charlie close the door of the station from the inside instead of the outside?

I know that a lot of people got turned off by the season. From the huge gap in the middle of the season to the (at times) drawn out plot lines. I felt that I had enough invested in the first 2+ seasons to at least stick out the end of this season. Now that it's over, I will be looking forward to the 4th season this fall.

++ Heroes ++

When this show first started, I wasn't sure if I would like it. Enough people told me it was good, so I gave it a shot, and after an episode or two, I got hooked.

I wasn't keen on having to read all the subtitles when Hiro and Ando (and Lt. Sulu as well) when they were talking to each other in Japanese, but I get it.

I liked how they dragged out how long it took to figure out if Claire's dad was a good guy or not.

After 22 excellent episodes, I have to say that I was disappointed in the finale. I felt it was rather anti-climactic.

The final show-down with Sylar was a let down.

My prediction for next season is that Micah and Molly will be a big part of next season. They left a huge opening for it when they were waiting for the elevator.

Have we seen the last of the Petrelli brothers? What is their mother's power? Will DL come through from the bullet? Is Niki or Jessica going to dominate? Is one of them done? Are we going to find out that Suresh has an ability (it is in his blood, his sister had the same power as Molly)? What happened with the Haitian? What is going to come of Hiro in feudal Japan?

Both shows have potential to have strong seasons next year.

What are your predictions for next year? What about reactions to my thoughts/questions?

Baseball needs to re-think its scheduling practice

I meant to write this a while back but I didn't want to over shadow the events that lead to my last two posts.

Now that the baseball season (both Major and Minor leagues) are starting earlier and earlier, they need to rethink the idea of having cities in the northeast host games in the early season.

Those of us who live in the northeast (I'm in Rochester, NY) know that weather is, at best, unpredictable.

It doesn't seem to be as much of a problem for the majors, since they have larger travel budgets and multiple trips to each city (except for the inter-league games, which don't occur in early April).

Why is it that the southern and western teams consistently travel to the colder climbs to open the season. Who was the brainiac who sent the L.A. Angels of Anaheim to open the season in Cleveland, OH? With several feet of snow on the field, the games were moved to Milwaukee, WI, into their domed stadium. (did anyone else notice that the games were moved to the home stadium of the team owned by the sister of the commissioner?)

Now I understand that the southern teams don't want to lose home game dates in the summer when more people are likely to attend, as opposed to the days that schools are still in session.

What becomes unfair, is now that the Rochester Red Wings of the International League (an AAA League) will lose 3 home games this year because of bad weather. Since the teams involved, aren't scheduled to make another trip to the Flower City, the games will be made up when the Red Wings travel south later this summer.

To make matters worse, in the make-up games, the Wings won't even get the benefit of last ups in these games.

Now is the time to make the change. If the season isn't going to start later in the year, than have the first 2 weeks take place in southern and western cities, or cities that have domed stadiums. Would you rather sit at the stands of a game in August in South Carolina, or in Rochester?

Or, here's a novel idea.. how about going back to playing more double-headers? That would allow the season to start later, but not shorten the number of games (which might not be a bad idea either..).

Play ball!

More gun laws are not the answer

Given the recent events in Blacksburg, VA this week, one might be quick to say that we need more laws to control the possession and use of firearms in this country.

Without turning this into a 2nd Amendment discussion, I would have to whole-heartedly disagree.

Anyone who says otherwise either hasn't thought it through, is just plain ignorant.

First of all, do you think that Cho Seung-Hui was concerned with the law when he gunned down 30+ people on campus Monday?

Would another law have prevented the tragedy? In a word, 'No'.

Sure, it may have slowed him down, but as hell-bent on destruction as he was, he would have found a way to secure weapons to fulfill his manifesto.

If the gun dealer had not legally sold him guns, he could have gone to many urban street corners to pick up a Saturday night special, or he could have gone into a garden center, and picked up a bag of ammonium nitrate and a Ryder truck like Timothy McVeigh did 12 years ago today.

Despite your stand on the interpretation of the 2nd Amendment, the more restrictions the government places on it's law-abiding citizens, the less protected the citizens become.

One thing that I don't hear being mentioned is the comparison to the shooting in Trolley Square in Salt Lake City two months ago. No one has stopped to say how much worse that tragedy could or would have been, had Kenneth Hammond (an off duty police officer) not been there with his legally registered hand gun, how many more innocent lives would have Sulejman Talovic taken if he wasn't stopped by a citizen with a gun?

Let's apply that hypothetical to the Va. Tech. scenario. If one of the students in the engineering building (or in the dorm for that matter) had been allowed to carry a gun, how many of those 30 people killed would still be alive? Given this, one could hypothesize that gun laws exaggerated the casualties.

In full disclosure, I am a member of the NRA, and a gun owner.

As always, I welcome, and invite your thoughts and comments.

Imus got a raw deal

Don't get me wrong.. he is an idiot for what he said on the air, but was it grounds for the wrath of Sharpton?

Was anyone really surprised that he was capable of saying something so stupid on the air? He's been saying stupid, ignorant, controversial things on the air for nearly 40 years now. He invented the profession of shock-jock. Was he over the top this time? Perhaps.

Here's a novel idea, if you don't like what someone says on the radio or TV, change the channel. Let's all be serious... it's 2007, we have more choices for media than ever before. How many people actually heard what Imus said live? He's not even on the air in my market, and if he was, I wouldn't be a listener (well, I guess he was on MSNBC, but I'm not one of the 4 people that watch that network).

It is one of the biggest double standard in today's society. And before you play the oppressed slave card, lets really take a look at it. First of all, who do you think sold the slaves to the slave traders? That's right, other black Africans. And if they hadn't, how likely is it that Al Sharpton would even be in this country? He is a descendant of slaves (ironically, descended from a slave owned by the ancestors of former Senator Thurman). If slavery hadn't happened, would he be here to cry out against the devastation caused by some idiot on the radio? If I were one of the players, I don't know who I would be more upset at. No, I do know. Imus is some ignorant radio shock jock, Sharpton is arrogant enough to think that I need his protection. He thinks that the players aren't tough enough to let it go.

Why is it that Kramer gets lambasted for his moronic tirade, Imus gets fired for saying less, yet Chris Rock and Richard Pryor's routines are full of 'cracker' references and N-bombs, and audiences are in hysterics.

And have you heard the lyrics for Snoop Dogg, or Jay-Z, or countless other rap/hip hop artist. How many times do they talk down to black women, and all they get is the 'parental warning' label on the CD and sell countless albums.

The scariest part about this whole thing is that I agree with that fat slob on The View, if they can take down an icon like Imus, who is next? Rush? Beck? Savage? Hannity?

Another racially motivated story in the news that seemed to disappear recently. Those 3 lacrosse players that raped the stripper last year (oh yea, that's right, they didn't). The story that forced the pre-season number one ranked college lacrosse team to sit out the season. The story that got the coach fired, the story that blacklisted those 3 boys. Oh yea, the story that will likely get the Durham County DA disbarred for trying to grab headlines and kowtowing to Jackson and Sharpton about the 3 evil, privileged, white boys that were less than civil to the black stripper, who couldn't keep her story straight.

Bottom line, we have taken this whole politically correct thing way to far. We all need to take a step back. We need to be more sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of other. Thumper's mother had it right when she said "if you can't say something nice, don't say nuttin' at all."

But we also need to be less sensitive and not be so quick to take offense to the things that others say, you know the whole sticks and stones thing.

Let the flame war begin.

I went to see my brother Michael's performance as Adam and Noah in his high school's (and my alma mater) production of Children of Eden this weekend.

I don't know how much of my opinion comes from the fact that he is my brother, but I thought the production was fantastic. It was a long show, over 3 hours. But it moves right along, and before you know it, the first 90 minute act is over.

He doesn't have the most powerful singing voice in the cast, but he didn't detract from it (and it is much better than I would ever be), but he makes up for it with stage presence. When the little things that happen in every performance came up, he didn't miss a beat, even when his pants fell down mid-dance. :) (he was wearing a tunic, so it wasn't the obvious wardrobe malfunction we had a few years back in the Superbowl).

He also starred in productions of Our Town (he was the narrator, and a toss up for my favorite of his performances, tied with his Adam/Noah role), Pippen (he was the head), and Greater Tuna (he was one of the radio guys).

The house was pretty full, the fire marshal sign in the back of the house says capacity is 1045, there was probably over 800 people in attendance.

I wanted to give kudos to some of the other fantastic performers (in no particular order) from the show. Scooter Rosenthal (Father), Susannah Hallagan (Eve/Momma), Claire Walton (part of the snake/Yonah) and Tim Crawford II (Cain/Japheth). This is by no means the list of the cast that did a phenomenal job, but these are the ones that stood out in my mind as I watched the performance.

Kudos also go out to the army of parents and volunteers that helped out with costumes, sets, tickets, etc.. the animal costumes were very clever. I liked the alligators slinking around the stage on skateboards and the giraffes with the canes as front legs.

Great job guys, you all have a ton of talent, and if you keep up the hard work that you obviously put into this production, there is no limit to what you can achieve in the future.

This is likely my brother's last high school performance. He will graduate this spring. He plans on attending college for film production at either BYU or RIT in the fall.

For more on the play, and photos of rehearsals, click on the school's web site, here (it's a pdf, so you need adobe).

Does the ACLU really have our best interests in mind?

Recently, News10 (the local NBC affiliate) did a story about how easy it is for anyone to walk in off the street and view adult themed web sites at the public library.

Shortly after the story, complete with hidden camera footage and a convicted pedophile sent back to jail on a parole violation, County Executive Maggie Brooks threatened to pull county funding of the library if they didn't do something to filter out the porno sites.

Cue the ACLU.

They come riding in on their high horse and start screaming 1st amendment violations. They came in shouting about government censorship.

Here is why the ACLU is full of crap..

Sure adult themed websites are (for the most part) well within the bounds of the law. Adults, who are so inclined, have the right to view the material if they so chose, but is it the tax payers responsibility to provide it? In a word, No.

Now, an argument can be made that that is the government censoring what can and cannot be viewed at the library.

Perhaps.

There are books about Nazis, Marxism, all sorts religions, and many more subjects that some people may find offensive, and if you wanted to, you could do internet browsing on such topics.

The library is a place where people of all ages can come to do research on any number of subjects. It is an open source of knowledge.

Here is where I show a bit of ignorance. I do not remember the last time I was in a public library. I know you can read magazines, but I doubt you can read the latest issue of Playboy. You may be able to, I didn't check.

About the censorship, where I work, I can't even view my bank's website. There are a number of reasons why, but one reason is the whole 'unsafe work environment' thing. I can't go to an adult site from work because it might offend someone else.

The library employs people, why can't we use this reason?

What about that stupid 'no smoking' law? It's the same thing. I bet if there was a physical health effect like second hand smoke, there would be all sorts of people lobbying to block it.

Bottom line, If you are a consenting adult, you can pick up a copy of a porno mag in any number of places, but I don't want to pay for you to read it. If you want to view this material online, I don't want to pay for you to view websites of similar content.

The funding should be pulled until they install a state of the art filtering system, or until the computers are pulled from the libraries.

Well, I'm back in school.. I took a couple of weeks off, and reset my annual allowance of tuition assistance from work.. (boy, $8000 goes quick at a college...)

I am starting out in a financial management class. It is starting out as another accounting class. I really don't like accounting. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, and after the last accounting class I took, all of the sudden Enron doesn't look so bad.. it is almost conceivable that it was all an honest mistake. :)

In the month or so since my last posting, a couple of things have piqued my interest, but not enough to devote an entire column to it.

First of all, I appreciate any and all comments I get for my columns, but please leave your name (at least a first name) so I know who is responding to what I have to say.

There are a couple of things that seem to always be headline news of late (besides the war), the '08 presidential election, and the farce of global warming.

On the election front, I really am not too excited. The one candidate that I would like to see, probably won't win his party's nomination. Most of the Democrats scare me for one reason or an other, and the RINOs on the right are only slightly right of center, and for some, that is giving them too much credit, but given a McCain/Giuliani ticket verses a Clinton/Obama ticket, I think you know where I would come out on that.

On the global warming issue, I think the good people of Oswego, NY have a few things to say about that, and what about the 3 inches of snow that fell in Malabu, CA last month, or all of the citrus groves that were frozen?

Anyone who believes in the concept of global warming, and that we have anything to do to cause or have any power to stop it should read 'State of Fear' by Michael Crichton. I know it is a fiction, but it makes you think.

Besides, I don't recall seeing any pictures of dinosaurs driving their SUVs to cause the end of the last ice age. If they had, perhaps we wouldn't have any oil left for our use.

The current trend.

There seems to be a growing trend spreading.. It is all over the talk shows. Quite frankly, as an American, it kind of bothers me.

The trend I'm referring to is the defamation of Wal*Mart.

It seems that it's becoming popular to say that the largest retail chain is destroying the fabric of the US economy.

It seems to me that it is sour grapes. They are upset that Sam Walton was smarter than they are.

Isn't it just that Wal*Mart has embraced the idea of capitalism and does a better job than most.

Refresh my memory.. what is capitalism? Is it you do your best, unless your best is better than someone else's best?

Perhaps it's let the government put restrictions on one entity who earns more than another?

Oh yea, it's the idea that the goal is to do your best, and if someone does something better, than you find a better way to do it.

The nay-sayers blame Wal*Mart for putting small businesses out of business. But is that really the case? They say that their business practice is unfair, but is selling something for less than someone else really unfair?

Whether or not you agree with the business practices of Wal*Mart, you can't disparage them from doing anything they can (within the law) to make as large of a profit as they can. Doing anything less would be unfair to the shareholders and employees. Disparaging Wal*Mart is un-American, and stinks of communism.

It's obvious that Americans approve of Wal*Mart, or at least we tolerate them, otherwise, we wouldn't be flocking to give them our money. It must not be that important that they are 'running mom and pop shops out of business', or perhaps, they aren't. Didn't we go through this when grocery stores, butcher shops and bakeries started going away in favor of a larger supermarket?

I say good for them. I'm going to do much of my Christmas shopping to support one of America's icons. A company that openly opposes unions, a company that choses not to settle law suits to discourage frivolous suits.

All this, and the best prices and best selection. Oh yea, they re-incorporated the 'C' word in their advertising.. they actually said 'Merry Christmas' in a commercial. Keep up the good work Wal*Mart!

The dust is starting to settle on 'Decision 2006'.

Who is going to turn out to be the big winners and losers? It's still too early to tell, but the newly crowned democrats are tripping over themselves to raise minimum wage. That will only serve to slow down the strongest economy in the history of the world.

When I was in high school, I was all about the raise in minimum wage, but that was a long time ago.. and it was a very selfish view point.

First off, how many people do you know that are older than 20 that still earn minimum wage? If it's anyone you know, tell them to go back to school, get a real skill, and get a real job.

Working for minimum wage is good when you are in high school, or maybe even college, but if you are still making that amount, you need to look within yourself, not to the government, to better your financial standing.

Learn a skill, work in a factory, basically, make yourself more marketable.

People get paid what they are worth.

A lot of people complain that athletes and celebrities make too much, but I say, if someone is willing to pay it, they are worth it.

To those who say athletes are paid too much, and that teachers should get more (I agree that teachers are grossly underpaid) I say this: 'As soon as 50,000+ people show up and pay $50+ to watch you work, then you can complain that you aren't getting paid enough.'

Well, I kind of got off on a tangent, but what it comes down to, is that less than 2% of the population make minimum wage (according to the department of Labor estimates that 2 million Americans earn minimum wage, and we all heard the reports of the 300 millionth American a few weeks ago). Raising minimum wage will only increase the operating expenses, which will result in one of 2 things happening.. small businesses will go out of business because they can't afford to pay the high school help more than $5.15/hour, or they will pass the higher costs on to their customers, causing all of us to pay more for our goods and services.

It's just another example on why a vast majority of the unions in this country are just dead weight in the economy. Take a look at the industries that are dominated by union labor.. how are they doing? (I'll give you a hint.. the automotive and airline industries)

I'm not one to say 'Write to your Congressperson', but if you are so inclined, it won't be a bad idea.


As always, I encourage your thoughts and comments on this or any other topics.

Happy Turkeyday!

On this day of thanx, most of us have much to be thankful for, but sadly most of us (myself included) take what we have for granted.

On a lighter note, a thanksgivig tradition that has stood for several years gets better today.. for some..

For as long as I can remember, the Cowboys and Lions each host a game each Thanksgiving day, this year, the League did us one better, they added a 3rd game.

This is a good thing, right? It is, unless you are not able to get the NFL network..

That's right, you can only see the 3rd game if you are one of the 14 subscribers of the league owned network.

Ok, it's not that low, but most cable companies don't carry it, including Time Warner (my cable provider).

Both companies (Time Warner and NFL network) have links on their website to contact eachother to petition viewers and potential viewers to express an interest in the channel.. a virtual game of chicken. who will buckle first? only time will tell.

But this is all a moot point, I'm not going to get to watch much football today.. I'm taking my grandma to the casino today, it's going to be fun!

Have a great turkey day, don't eat too much (just kidding.. go nuts!), but keep the spirit of the holiday in mind.

I wasn't one of those freaks who spent days camped out in front of a a store to be the first to get a Playstation 3. I probably won't ever even get one..

I wasn't even one of those guys who got up early to stand in front of a store to get the new Nintendo Wii. I wanted to get one, I just didn't get up at an ungodly hour to get one.

And I'm not going to be the guy who spends $5-600 on a system that retails for half of that.

I'll be getting one in a few days, when they are back on the shelves.

If you see one for sale at the list price, drop me a line!

As I pulled the curtain closed behind me in the voting booth this morning, I couldn't help but wonder why we need to spend millions of tax dollars to replace voting machines that seem to work fine.

And to replace them with what? Computers that have not been proven to be 100% reliable.

The way I see it, the old fashioned machines are reliable, and completely non-biased.

There were never any 'hanging chads' in NY. Why? well, partly because most New Yorkers are smart enough to figure out the basics of voting, they have a severe case of picking the wrong candidates, but we can figure out the ballots.

How many of the candidates that I voted for will win? With the poles closed for not quite an hour now, it is difficult to say.. it's likely that 3 for sure, (Clinton, Spitzer and Cuomo ), and possibly a third, (that alleged felon Hevesi), but the rest we'll have to wait for the results.

What will come of the future? Only time will tell, but to quote a line from Robin Williams latest movie (which I haven't seen, the line was used in the commercials) "Politicians are like diapers, they both need to be changed often, and for the same reasons."

As always, I welcome your comments.

You need to watch this 3 minute video, and share it with everyone who thinks we are not making a difference in Iraq.

http://www.glennbeck.com/realstory/iraq-video.shtml

Election day is just over a week away, and the campaigns are coming down to the wire. I'm not entirely sure who I am going to vote for.. I know a few I will vote against, (but they will still win..)

Here's how I will vote:

Against former president Hillary Clinton for senator, and against Eliot Spitzer for governor and against comptroller Alan Hevesi (he should be in jail, but that's a different story)..

I plan on voting for Tom Reynolds, not so much for him, but there is something about Jack Davis that doesn't sit well with me.. can't say for sure what it is.. (his 'Danville' crack sure didn't win him any votes..)

If you have a candidate that you support, and want a chance to convince me to vote for your person, leave a comment and state your case.

You may have seen or heard the political advertizements featuring Michael J. Fox supporting candidates that support expansions in stem cell research.

Talk show host Rush Limbaugh put his foot in his mouth this week by calling him out, saying that he was either off his meds or faking it.

At first thought, it seems pretty insensitive, (many would say you shouldn't expect less from Rush, but I digress.. ) but he (Fox) does have a history of doing just that for his own political gain. When he testified to congress a few years ago to campaign for funding for research, he, by his own admission, did not take his medication in order to visably worsen his condition to emphasise his point.

Where do I come out on this matter? I've always been a fan of Michael J Fox, when I was younger, I wanted to grow up to be Alex P. Keaton, and I loved the Back to the Future movies, but they are both right.

Could Rush have done a better job of calling a spade a spade? probably.. did Fox do something to exagerate his condition? Does it really matter? He is campagining for something that is very importaint to him.

Bottom line, this time of the year, the airwaves are flooded with political comercials. It seems that each candidate is busy telling you why the other guy would do a worse job than him, rather than why he will do a better job than the opponent.

Week 7 is all but in the books (Giants/Cowboys tonight) and the 76 Buccaneers can rest easy.. the Oakland Faders have left the ranks of the win less. There are now no win less teams in the league.

The 72 Dolphins may have something to worry about.. both the Bears and Colts are still unbeaten. The Colts looked good yesterday, and Peyton had a pretty good game (25/35, 342yds, 4TD). In doing so, they opened the season 6-0 for the 2nd year in a row.

On to baseball. Game 2 of the World Series was last night, and the talk is about Kenny Rogers. Was he cheating? He says 'no', Cards manager Tony La Russa apparently didn't think so either.. so who am I to say otherwise?

It's a long unspoken rule in baseball that if you aren't cheating, you aren't trying, and it's only cheating if you get caught. Having said that, I would have to say he wasn't cheating, since he didn't get caught.

Was it risky to allegedly have pine tar on his hand? Yes, he risked being suspended for the remainder of the series. But he got away with whatever he had on his hand in the first inning. We'll see what happens next in game 6 (if it's needed).

I went to the pre-season game the other night that pitted the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors.

It was billed as a chance to see the league's hottest star, LeBron James.

About a week before the game, it broke that he might not be playing, and the complaints started. Shortly before the game, the Cavs held a press confrence to confirm that since LeBron played over 30 minutes the night before in a game against a team from Isreal. Long story short, he didn't play.

The next morning, it was all over the news. On the local sports call-in show, virtually every call was someone complaining on what a punk King James was for not playing.

Would I have liked to see the phenom play? Absolutely. Am I upset that he didn't? No. After all, it was a pre season game. In the pre season, the stars don't always play.

What bugged me about the reaction is how many people who said things like 'who do they think we are?' and 'they must think we are a bunch of hicks'. With each successive call along this theme, it proved we are.

Now, could it have gone down differently? Better? Yes. I have been to a few NBA games, (in Arco Arena, Sacremento and the Delta Center, Salt Lake). This was not an NBA game.

-Sure there were NBA players, out of the 12 best players from both teams, only 6 got into the game.
-There were no cheerleaders
-It was the quietest 9400+ crowd I've been part of.

Should LeBron have played? Yes. Don't get me wrong, every time you take the floor in a basketball game, you risk serious injury, (speaking from experience, I blew out my knew playing ball about 10 years ago, and it's still not the same..), but let's be serious, how likely would it have been?

Would it have made more sense for him to sit out of the previous night? Well, with Comissioner Stern's goal to globalize the league, they wanted to show off the next super star. The game was broadcast back in Tel Aviv.

They probably made a few NBA fans in Isreal, but they sure made a lot of Cavs haters in Rochester. Especially when he acted like he was going to get in the game, as chants of 'We want LeBron' echoed in the rafters of the War Memorial, only to turn around a few steps away from the bench and head back to laugh at all of us.

I'm not asking for him to play the whole game, or even a half, but would a few minutes have posed a grave threat? Probably not.

Bottom line, he should have gotten into the game. Was it as big of a dis on Rochester as Bob Matthews, Bob Lonsberry (who I sat right behind, thanx again to WHAM for the tickets!) and John DiTulio made it out to be? No. Will the league be back in town any time soon? Probably not.

Go Kings!

With the first round of the playoffs complete, lets check in and see how I did..

I went 2 for 4. Picking both NL series, and missing both AL series.. (at least the winners..)

At this point, it looks like it is going to be tough to pick against the Tigers, although, who outside of the east bay saw the A's ripping through the Twins like they did? I'll pick the Tigers in 6 and the Mets in 5.

Should I pile on the Yankees like everyone else? Why beat a dead horse? Because it's fun! All the Yankee lovers out there who proclaimed the class of baseball could do no wrong. Well, I guess $213 million isn't the best way to win another championship.

Rumors are circling like vultures as to the fate of converted short stop Alex Rodriguez and manager Joe Torre, what should happen? I'm not Brian Cashman (ha! that's funny, like he has made a personnel decision in the past 5 years!). It would make sense to trade A-Rod, but who will take him, and his inflated contract? What will Torre do? Dare I say it? Will he end up in Beantown? Wouldn't that be the ultimate slap in the face to Yankee fans!

Anyway, World Series pick? (again, I reserve the right to re-pick after the LCS are complete) Mets over the Tigers, in 6, despite losing Floyd the other night.

It’s that time of year.. Baseball playoffs start tomorrow (well, at least as far as I’m concerned..). Game one of the Mets/Dodgers series is 4pm eastern, on ESPN. If you care, you already know what happened in today’s 3 games.

My picks for the first round are: Twins (over the A’s) in 4, Yankees (over the Tigers, as much as it pains me to say) in 4 in the American League. In the National League I pick, Cards (over the Padres) in 3, and Mets in 4 over the Dodgers.

The LCS series are a bit tougher to pick. As a Mets fan, I want to pick the Mets, and against the Yankees. Also as a Rochester Red Wings fan, I want to pick the Twins, since most of the team played in Frontier Field over the pas couple of years (Justin Morneau for MVP, but the Yankee bias will probably give it to Jeter).

I am hesitant to make picks after just 3 games, but I think it will probably be another subway series, hopefully with different results from 2000. Only time will tell.

Well, it’s been a while since I posted anything new here.. I have no real excuses other than I’ve been lazy.

I think for today, I’m just going to write about the little things that stick out every now and then..

The other day, I went to the Buffalo Bills game. The company I work for is a large sponsor of the team, and as such, we (as a company) get a bunch of tickets.. including several to opening day, which was this past Sunday. This year, the festivities included a visit from the NY Jets.

For those who know me, I am slightly less a Bills fan than a Yankee fan. I’m not particularly a Jets fan, but I have nothing against them, so that is who I rooted for. A friend of mine wore a Curtis Martin jersey and drew several jeers as we walked to our seats. It was amusing to see how ignorant and just plain stupid some Bills fans can be. They kept saying things like “they don’t even play in NY, how can they be the NY Jets, they should be the Jersey Jets!” which always struck me as odd, (since I am a Giants fan, who lend out their stadium in East Rutherford, NJ to the Jets). You see.. the NY in the Giants and Jets does not refer to the state they play in, it is the metropolitan area that they play in. It is the NYC Giants/Jets, not the NY State Giants/Jets.

Oh, and last I checked, when I was at the game, I wasn’t in Buffalo.. I was in Orchard Park. Thanx for disproving your own argument for me.. but I guess if you were smart enough to figure it out, you probably wouldn’t use that argument..

BTW.. the jeers were less vocal after the game.. (Jets 28, Bills 20, Thanx for playing).


Staying on the sports theme, the hockey pre-season has started. The past couple of years, it has been difficult to be as much of a hockey fan as I would like.. Part of it stems from a lingering bitterness about the NHL being the only major sport to have an entire season canceled because billionaires and millionaires couldn’t figure out how to divide several hundreds of millions of dollars.. another part is that I lived in Sacramento for a few years. Sacramento is kind of a weird town, as far as sports go, it is pretty much the Kings and nothing else. There was less NHL coverage in Sacramento than NBA coverage in Rochester.

Will I be able to be close to the game this year? Only time will tell. A friend of mine convinced me to play in his fantasy hockey league this year.. that might force me into it.


As the summer comes to a close, another golf season is quickly closing. I have had a chance to play a couple of nice courses of late. I took part in a tournament at the Links at Ivy Ridge, and a regular round at the Batavia Country Club and Ravenwood Golf course. I recommend each course, and would rank them in this order: Ravenwood, Ivy Ridge and BCC. I would like to get down to Reservoir Creek, in Naples before the season ends, especially as the leaves are turning. If you want to get down there, and need someone to fill out your group, drop me a line.


I know I’ve not been as diligent with this page as I would like to be, but part is a lack of inspiration. If you have a topic you want my take on, feel free to drop me a line, and I’ll write something up. Your feedback on anything that I have written or anything you would like me to comment on will spark me to write more.

I read an article on-line the other day that made me think... It was about that whack-job Cindy Sheehan who has taken a personal crusade against the president. Everyone knows who this anti-American is, she is the one that bought a parcel of land near President Bush’s Crawford, TX ranch to hold continual protests about this war.

But that’s not what this is about... Just a bit of background that got me thinking...

She was in the news because she had just been released from the hospital from a self-inflected ailment. This article, by the way was on the Clinton News Network’s website (you know, CNN.com).

The poster child for ignorance was treated and released after suffering from exhaustion and dehydration stemming from not having eaten any solid food for reportedly 37 days and hanging out in the 100+ degree Texas sun. She was on a hunger strike called the “Troops Home Fast”.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not a warmonger, but if we are going to do something, we should go large, or go home. Didn’t we learn anything from Vietnam or Korea? We should either go all in, or let the Middle East deal with their own problems. But again, I’m getting off topic..

The thing that sparked my interest as I read about this ignorant communist was the entire concept of the hunger strike. What do you hope to accomplish by not eating? Do you think that by you not eating, that I am going to change my way of doing things?

What is the incentive for me to change because you are stupid enough to not eat for over a month?

Can these hunger strikes be effective? Somehow I doubt it.. yet they keep being used. So as long as these hippy-freaks are wasting their time and energy on such effective methods of protest as hunger strikes and picketing, we will continue to run the country, after lunch, that is.

A nickel for your thoughts?

No, your thoughts haven’t gone up in value.. it’s just that if Representative Kolbe (R. Arizona) gets his way, I won’t have a penny to give you. He has introduced a bill called the Currency Overhaul for an Industrious Nation Act. (cleverly acronymed to C.O.I.N.).

Among other things, the primary target of this act would be to eliminate the antiquated penny and round all cash transactions to the nearest nickel. Cash transactions ending in a 1, 2, 6, 7 would round down, while those ending in 3, 4, 8, 9 round up.

Now, this isn’t a new idea. It gets tossed about every few years. Rep. Kolbe also introduced it in 2001. He thinks it has a better chance of getting through this time around, mainly because the cost of zinc (today’s pennies are about 97% zinc, and are only copper coated) has sky-rocketed. It now costs about 1.4 cents for the Mint to stamp out a single penny (that’s the kind of efficiency that makes our government so powerful).

Should the penny go the way of the $2 bill? (Which, incidentally would be re-introduced in this act.) Most Americans are opposed to eliminating the penny, I personally would not be.

Sure, we would end up spending extra money on cash purchases... but let’s all be honest, how often do we actually still use cash? How much more often do we pull out the debit or credit card for our purchases? I use plastic considerably more than cash.

I also have containers full of pennies that I will never use at both home and in the office. They tend to get in the way more than they are beneficial.

I want to get your opinions on this. Let’s all kick in our 5 cents on this topic, leave your comments below.

When I started this blog, I said I was going to include movie reviews. I haven’t yet done one, partly because I am lazy, partly be cause I will go for months without going the theater. (Hollywood has been in a funk, and hasn’t had many good movies lately.. but that’s a different story, for a different day..). Please post whether or not you agree with my takes on these movies, I’m interested in seeing other’s takes as well.

I have seen 3 movies recently that I wanted to give my two cents worth. Let me start with the most recent, Superman Returns.

Before I get into the review, a friend of mine takes credit for the timeframe of this movie. About a year and a half ago, he said “I hope Christopher Reeve would just die”. His logic behind this statement is that they aren’t going to make or release the new Superman movie with him still alive. Sure enough, a couple of weeks later, he passed, and now we have the Superman 5, thanx Joe.

It took me a while to decide my true feeling of the movie, and after careful consideration, I will have to say that it was a good movie, and worth seeing. I think Brandon Routh did about as good of a job as could be done portraying the Man of Steel. He had many of the mannerisms of the late Reeve. He had a good look. I don’t think that Kate Bosworth was a good pick to play Lois Lane. She was too young. I base this on a couple of things, first off, if this movie follows the original 4, she would be older. Add to the fact that she now has a 5 year old, and it throws it all off. Supposedly she was the top reporter for the Daily Planet when Superman left, and 5 years later, she looks to be 25, it just didn’t seem to make sense to me. The best job of casting without a doubt goes to Kevin Spacey as Lex. He (Spacey) was phenomenal, but what was the last movie he was in that he didn’t do a good job? (he has been in bad movies, but they weren’t bad because of him..)

The movie was very athletically pleasing. The physics of the movie were pretty good. (when he caught the plane, it didn’t just stop, it collapsed. BTW, what stadium was that in? I tried to get a look, but there weren’t many good shots of the stadium..). there were few plot holes, Luthor had his typical ‘less than intelligent crew’ with the one-liners you can expect for a comic movie.

I am not going to get too much into the plot and a curious path that the movie takes, which I am not sure I like it (and am leaning towards not liking it). It isn’t expected, but you are not surprised when it is revealed.

Overall, I would have to say if you are a fan of the original movies or the character himself, go see the movie.

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My next review is for another one of the early summer’s big draws, The Da Vinci Code. I’m going to start out by saying I didn’t read the book, had little desire to read the book, and would have rather have gone to see Superman that night, but my family wanted to see it (they had all read the book).

It is still a mystery how Forrest Gump was able to solve the code, (but then again, I’m still wondering why they were surprised when they had problems with the Apollo 13).

My biggest beef with this movie is, if I wanted to read the book, I would have. I don’t like reading movies. I get it, you’re speaking French.. a bad accent gets the same point across (see Steve Martin’s Pink Panther). It’s fine to have the first few lines spoken in the foreign language, to establish that it is not English, then switch to the language of the audience.

The movie had a ‘National Treasure’ feel to it, and Nicholas Cage did a better job then our favorite Bosom Buddy, and to me, it was more interesting watching American history rather than a made-up treasure hunt based on the Bible.

I won’t say avoid the movie, especially if you read and enjoyed the book, or if you like the ‘keep you guessing’ type of movie, but I would recommend ‘National Treasure’ first.

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The last movie I am going to review here is a movie I rented, ’16 Blocks’. In a nutshell, Bruce Willis is a burnt out cop (I know, it’s a stretch..) who is tasked with getting a witness to a court appearance 16 blocks away (hence the title..). Sounds easy enough… until he finds out that the two-bit criminal witness will be testifying against a handful of dirty cops who want him dead.

The premise is pretty believable, but some of the things that happen are a bit far fetched, but that is part of the fun.

The DVD offers an alternate ending, which, according to the director, is the original ending. You have the option of watching the theatrical version, or the alternate ending as you watch the movie. You can also watch the other ending separately. I think I prefer the theater ending, but they are both good.

This movie didn’t seem to do as well as the other two, because it made it to Blockbuster pretty quick, but I did like the movie. It is worth checking out.

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So, wrapping it up:
Superman Returns: 7.5/10 a ‘go see’.
The DaVinci Code: 6/10 a ‘see if you want’.
16 Blocks: 8/10 a ‘go rent’.

Happy viewing!

An open letter to active service men and women of the US Armed Forces. This was meant to be online for Memorial Day, but like many other Americans, I let other things distract me from the reason Monday was a holiday.

Dear Sir or Madam.

I want to join in with countless Americans and say “thank you”. Despite what you may hear on the CBS evening news, many Americans support you. You do the job that the rest of don’t have the stones to do.

I, for one respect you. You are grossly under-compensated. You put your life on the line every day for people that you will never meet.

You had your day on Monday. But one day is not enough. A parade is not enough. Another excuse for a picnic is not enough. It’s a good start, but not enough.

I am not going to pretend to know what you have gone through. I am grateful for the horrors you have seen. For all of those days you have marched in the burning desert sun, sweltering jungle heat, or frozen tundra.

My condolences to all the members of your squadron who will never come home, there are too many of them. You have not lost them in vein.

May God continue to watch over you.

Sincerely,

A concerned citizen.

P.S. please pass this on to your friends and relatives of the Armed Forces both active, reserves, and retired, I want to get this out to as many soldiers as possible.

Something caught my attention today. I heard a commercial on the radio today that was a thinly veiled direct attack on the governor of the Empire State. Now, I’m no expert with the NY budget, but these commercials seemed illogical.

The one that I heard multiple times today and really stood out was a drama of a mother speaking to the ER doctor that just operated on her son. She was very happy because he (the doctor) saved her son’s life. He said it was all in a days work, but it might not be so next time, since George Pataki cut so much spending out of the budget for hospitals and doctors.

I’d be upset too, if my gravy train came to an end.

This goes back to the since of entitlement that is plaguing the state and society in general. Too many of the left wingers and the R.I.N.O.s (Republican In Name Only, you know, like Senator McCain of Arizona) are addicted to state and federal aid.

What happened to doing a better job than the competition? Did I miss the memo that we are no longer in a capitalist economy anymore?

If you want socialized medicine, go to Canada.. we can see how well it is working for our neighbors to the north.

Now I understand that the cost of health care isn’t cheap, but whose fault is that? It’s the same reason that a college education costs upwards of $100,000, Federal and State aid for those who “can’t afford” it.

Is this something that can be done? Probably not. Once you are addicted to heroin, the only alternative is methadone. Kicking the habit is virtually impossible. It is unlikely that there will be less government subsidies for things such as education and health care.

My question to the producers of the commercials is this: Where would you have the money come from? Would you rather have a cut in the highway department? Police departments? Fire Departments? To be fiscally responsible, you don’t spend more money than you have. I know it is a foreign concept.. but it actually makes sense.. if you can’t afford it, don’t buy it.. I know.. it is a crazy idea, but it’s so crazy it just might work..

Well, you had to know it was only a matter of time before I wrote something about the debates going on in our nation’s capitol.

The issue is causing thousands, perhaps millions to take to the streets in protest.

The issue is illegal immigration. Particularly Mexicans, but several nations are represented in these rallies.

Those who know me probably know where I come out on this.. but I’ll break it down.

First of all, there is a reason why they are called ‘Illegal Aliens’ and ‘Illegal Immigrants’.

I understand that our nation was built into the greatest nation in the world by immigrants, but there is a difference between the Mayflower and the coyotes that smuggle Mexicans into California and Arizona.

There are those who say that our economy depends on undocumented, underpaid farm laborers. I can’t find fault in the argument that there is little chance we would be able to get a head of lettuce for less than a dollar if farm owners had to pay minimum wage, plus payroll tax and social security for each of their pickers.

An argument to the contrary would be the drain on social programs that illegals and their children cause. Do enough of our tax dollars go to fund social programs to off-set the savings in food costs? There is no way to know for sure, but most Americans have an opinion.

After several years, someone has decided to do something about it, and now Congress has joined the bandwagon. One piece of proposed legislation would make it a felony to be in the country without documentation, another would all but give a free pass to those already here (but what would stop others from coming in?)

This is one of the issues that you will never satisfy everyone. The politicians can either serve those who elected them, or they can pander to those who can’t even vote for them.

I’m not a fan of talk show host Michael Savage, but his mantra rings true, “language, borders, culture.” By protecting these three things, America can remain strong. By abandoning them, we will be no better than the rest of the world.

And before all you who are dissatisfied with the way things are around here, and are mislead by the media saying how much the rest of the world hates the US, why are so many people giving all they have to come here? Maybe our Founding Fathers were on to something after all.

Let me start out by apologizing for the time between postings.. I am not going to bore you with the lame excuses.. I’m just going to start writing.. Before I go off on my latest rant, an update on my picks from the NCAA, after picking 6 of the Elite Eight, I got stung and only had 1 of the Final Four (Florida). I was in an online pool through Buffalo Wild Wing's web site. Out of over 4500 partcipants nation wide, I finished 334th. (I spent a bit in the top 10 for a while before the wheels came off). Overall, I cant be disapointed in my results..

And now, on with my rant..

The other day I watched a show that I wasn’t sure what to expect. In hind sight, I probably should have known.. but I watched it anyway… it was a show called “American Inventor”. It was a lame show with more fluff than anything else. The basic premise is anyone who fancies themselves as an inventor can bring their creation to this panel of experts who will judge it and if they vote to see if it is the next best product. It probably won’t surprise you to find out it was produced by Simon Cowell.

Seems pretty harmless. It was a 2 hour premier and there was probably about 35 minutes of actual ‘inventions’ (if you could call them that..) there was a lot of hype about the show, the obligatory bio for each of the 4 judges, but mostly it was sound bites of the alleged inventors.

The inventions ranged from the interesting to the insane to the down right stupid.. one guy ‘invented’ a walking stick (he called it a ‘wand’), another brought a device to add smoke flavor (via real smoke) to food, still another brought in an overcoat complete with a piss bag. You read that that right.. this guy added a plastic bag to the inside of a cloak that would allow you to answer the call of nature wherever you are. None of these 3 got passed on.

What really got me about this show wasn’t the bad acting, the weird ‘inventions’ or the shameful self-promotion of the show. What really bugged me about this show was the sense of entitlement that the ‘contestants’ had.

The people that didn’t make it on (you need 3 of the 4 judges to say ‘yes’ to move on) seemed to have a bug up their butt about not being chosen as the next ‘American Inventor’. They seemed to have this unnatural sense of entitlement. They appeared to be genuinely upset that they were passed on.

Now I don’t claim to be an expert on the next great invention, but the so-called inventions that were passed on, for the most part, were some of the worst ideas I’ve seen for new products in a while. I understand the frustration, I mean, many of these people have spent several thousand dollars developing their prototypes. Maybe they were just upset that they wasted their money. Although each of them had one thing in common.. they all said “you’ll see, my product will be everywhere, and you’ll wish things went different today” or something to that effect..

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about American entrepreneurship.. but let’s call a spade a spade. Some things weren’t meant to be invented. The trick is to know when your idea is a bad one, and let it go.

With the original 64 pared down to the Sweet 16, what does your bracket look like? Mine isn’t looking too bad.. I’m 34 and 14 through the first two rounds. I should be doing better.. going against my better judgment, I picked Big East Champs, Syracuse.. I should have known better.. Guess I got caught up in the way they played in the meaningless conference tournament..

Now, they did do something that has never been done in the Big East, no team who didn’t have the first round bye has won the tournament. But they had to win at least 2 games to make it to the Big Dance, the only team that actually would have benefited from beating the Orange was possibly Georgetown, but they made the tournament anyway.. they may have slipped a seed or two, but they are doing fine as a seven seed.

Every year, between selection Sunday, and the first tip just after noon on Thursday, everyone talks about who got the shaft, and who got lucky, and which conferences were snubbed, and which ones got to many teams in. A lot of the talking heads were saying the Big East was over estimated by getting a record 8 teams into the dance, including two number one seeds.. This talk increased when they were 0-3 after the first day. Things got better after a 5-0 second day.

All in all, the first 4 days of the tournament has had some fantastic games, and one can only hope the remaining rounds are as entertaining.

I’m not sure what bugs me more.. the fact that the lead story this morning was the Oscars, or that it was above the fold on the front page.

Listening to the news talk station this morning, the lead story for each ½ hour news update was results from the Academy Awards last night. Now I understand that this year was the first time that a Rochester area person has won the ‘Best Actor’ award. I understand that the glory hungry residents of this area need to look to be in the national media where ever they can find it.. let’s face it, It’s been a long time since Arthur Shawcross or the Brinks Heist was in the news. Before Capote was nominated, did the rest of the country know who Phillip Seymor Hoffman (he’s the guy that sharted in that Ben Stiller debacle Along Came Polly) is or that he is from Rochester?

I guess it goes to the voyeuristic nature of the American culture. As for me, I found better things to do than watch rich, stuck-up people having fun and congratulating each other about movies that I have little to no interest in.

If I really cared about the awards, I would get into the fact that the ‘artists’ who brought us “It’s tough out there for a Pimp” now have more Academy Awards (1) than Martin Scorsese (0). But why should I care about meaningless awards for which I will never be in contention to win, or even be nominated for.

The thing that bugs me is that other stories are being pushed back; Stories that have more bearing on day-to-day life in the area. Stories such as the RPD officer that was forced to use his gun to defend his life and the life of the husband of the allegedly high wife who came at Officer Jeffery Lafave with a knife got pushed below the fold.

Let me paint the picture from what I have pieced together from news reports. Two of Rochester’s finest responded to a domestic disturbance call, to an address that RPD officers have responded to on several occasions. The officer felt either his life, or the lives of other civilians was in danger, so he did what he was trained to do. One shot, center-mass.

And now her family is suing the department.

More and more, the good guys are being painted as the bad guys. It’s getting tougher and tougher for good cops to keep the streets safe. Their hands are being tied in a number of ways, and when the get close to the line, the ACLU whack-jobs cry foul. How can we expect to be kept safe, if those charged to do so are not able to do their jobs?

Now, David Patterson is doing what he can to hand-cuff the men and women in blue of this state even further. Dave is a state senator from Harlem, who is likely to join Spitzer in Albany. He is proposing a bill that would change the way Police Academies train. He is proposing a new charge that could be levied to police officers that are forced to use deadly force in the line of duty. Instead of shooting to stop or kill, they will have to aim for the arm or leg or another non-fatal target on the perp. If a cop is involved in a fatal shooting, under this proposed law, the officer would be charged with second degree manslaughter.

Yep, that’s right. The cop would go to jail for doing their job of protecting the innocent.

When will it stop? Who knows, but it is clear that the government seems to think that we are not smart enough to run our own lives.

Do you recognize that sound you’re not hearing? It’s the collective sound of Americans not watching the Olympics. Who’s to blame? Is NBC’s coverage the problem? Or is it the 6-9 hour time difference between Italy and the US? Perhaps… Maybe it’s the fact that nobody cares. As the games go more X-Games, it becomes less interesting to Americans. As far as I’m concerned the only real sport in the Olympics is hockey. Honorable mention goes to curling.

When snowboarding takes center stage, we have gone too far. And what was going through the first skeleton rider’s mind? (is that what they are called?)

Being honest, the only Olympic coverage I have seen was part of the Canada/Russia women’s hockey game, most of the US/Germany women’s hockey. I listened to part of the US men play the Slovaks Saturday, so I really have no idea what kind of “special stories” are going on in this version of the games. I’ve heard the stories, Michelle Kwan’s injury, the snowboarder who blew her chance at a gold when she show-boated and fell.. and the Bode Miller saga, reminiscent of the challenge between Dan and what’s-his-name, the decathletes from the '92 games, both failed to medal. Lot’s of pre-games hype, with disappointment as the pay-off.

What could make the Olympics better? Many have suggested tape delaying are the downfall of the coverage, perhaps. But if NBC showed the games live, the coverage would be at 9am, who would see them besides housewives and retirees? Would you take work off to watch the biathlon? Not likely. Others have suggested consolidating events into one night. For example all figure-skating would be featured on Thursday. That works if you want to catch one event, but most people would then only tune in for the event’s that interested them.

I think that the games have run their course. There is little doubt that Americans are not interested in most of the ‘games’ of the winter Olympics. All the proof I need to confirm this is the fact that glorified karaoke is pulling better ratings then the games. I doubt many of us would miss the games if they went away and simply never came back. Maybe then, there wouldn’t be a 3 week hiatus of new Law and Order episodes.

A grave disservice was done.

It was a sad day when Dr. King’s widow passed last week. She received an honor that not even her late husband received, being laid in state in the Georgia Capitol building. In fact, no African-American let alone a woman African-American. But that’s not what this is about.

At her funeral, many dignitaries were present, and several spoke. Some used the occasion to spew biased left wing propaganda anti George W.

Former President Jimmy Carter (according to Homer Simpson, we elected the wrong Carter with a reference to Billy Beer) took pot-shots at the current Commander and Chief for a lack of rapid response in the wake of the devastating storm Katrina. His comments were inappropriate to say the least. Not that he doesn’t have the right have a different, (albeit misguided) opinion than the current President. This was hardly the place to voice such an opinion.

It gets worse.

The Reverend Joseph Lowery swung much lower. His comments included “We know there were no weapons of mass destruction, but we knew there were weapons of misdirection right here.”

It was a time to pay tribute to a civil rights crusader. To the memory of civil rights leaders of times past. A mark that was missed on multiple occasions, and an opportunity to do much good was tainted by misguided left wing whack jobs. It was hardly the time or place for such slander.

Another Superbowl has come and gone. With my apologies to the Steeler and Seahawk fans, but let’s be real, it wasn’t that exciting.

The game wasn’t that good either. A very uninspiring performance by just about all involved, separated by a few moderately entertaining commercials. The consensus for best commercial was Bud Light’s ‘Magic Fridge’, I can’t dispute it was a good commercial, (my mom almost choked on her snacks when she saw it. I would give honorable mention to the ‘Sheep Streaker’ (also a Bud Light offering), The Fed-Ex prehistoric saga, and the Sprint-Nextel locker room comparing phone capabilities.

As part of the pre-game, the NFL paraded out the MVP’s of the past 39 Superbowls, with 3 exceptions. There were 3 no-shows representing 6 games (San Francisco’s Joe Montana, XXIV, XIX, and XVI, Pittsburgh’s Terry Bradshaw: XIV and XIII and Miami’s Jake Scott VI) according to a San Francisco paper, Scott was in Australia vacationing with his family and the other two were holding out for more money. The League reportedly covered travel expenses for those in attendance along with tickets to the game and $1000 cash for incidentals. Joe Montana was reportedly holding out for quite a bit more than that, saying he wouldn’t come for less than $100,000. He also told ESPN 2’s Cold Pizza that he would be attending his kid’s basketball game the day of the big game.

Should they have been there? Probably, will it tarnish their legacy? Probably not. What kind of obligations does the mantle of MVP of the Superbowl bring? Officially, I am not sure (having not been a Superbowl MVP myself) publicly, I think they should have made an effort to be there. Could Scott’s family have vacationed next week or last week? Probably, but who are we to say he should have? Bottom line, it would have been nice to see all of the past MVP’s, but it didn’t make that much of a difference to me. It didn’t effect the game at all. To be honest, I had to look up the dates of the 6 Superbowls that were not represented, the most recent one was 16 years ago, and as long as I can remember, Bradshaw was the obnoxious bald announcer. In the end, I guess it comes down to, how much of a difference does it make to us that these 3 former athletes found better things than go to the Superbowl? Not much. If they want to spend time with their families, and they have the means to do so, more power to them.