Duke Lacrosse Scandal

Now I am going to scale back my perspective on this matter, particularly because I am unsure of how this will all pan out, but allow me to elaborate on my feelings on the matter of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Scandal.

In early March, a story emerged in the national media about a potential kidnapping and rape at a party attended by members of the Duke Men's Lacrosse Team.

Details were foggy at first, but it was eventually learned that several members mistreated and harassed an african-american, woman who as an exotic-dancer they had hired to entertain at their party.

The party took place at an off-campus residence lived in by several members of the team.  The players gathered for a party where an exotic dancer would entertain them for an hour or so.  Upon arrival it was learned that the dancer was intoxicated, and appeared to have been in some kind of physical altercation prior to arriving at the party.  According to statements from players involved, the dancer showed up, argued with several of the players took her money and left, without performing any of the entertainment she was hired for.  Then the story emerged.

 The dancer went to authorities and stated that she had been pulled into a bathroom and raped and beaten by members (3 white men) of the lacrosse team.  The conflicting statements from the players, who through their lawyer stated that the dancer arrived looking like she was in a fight and she was very drunk.  These conflicting statements created a serious problem in the North Carolina town of Raleigh-Durham.
The dynamic of the issue was such: a racial tense community was outraged at the possibility that a group of "priveleged", white lacrosse players were guilty of rape, racism and a conspiracy to cover it all up.

What outraged me, was the fact that the national media had completely obsessed itself with this issue, thus sending the entire nation into a diabolical conversation about the issues surrounding the case. 

I could not help but to remember the "infamous OJ Simpson Trial", where the entire country had taken a side on the case,and the same thing is happening with this case.

No formal charges have been filed at this point, but I'm curious to see where this is going, because if my worst fears come true we could be facing another racially charged crisis.  As a collegiate athlete I can empathize with the players from Duke's Lacrosse Team, it seems whenever an athlete makes a mistake the media has to villify him/her.  If the accused are guily than so be it, but lets not jump the gun like we did when OJ was on trial, we all know how that panned out.

The Spring Months are Tough for a Sports Fan

I am an avid sports fan, hungry for just about any sports commentary, footage or contest that I can find. But the spring months are tough.

Baseball, spring training, preseason exhibitions and the meaningless first 70 games leave me starved, its not enough to feed my sports diet. I am trying to develop an interest in America’s supposed past time, but between the steroid scandals, irrelevant games, ridiculously slow pace, Barry Bonds floundering in the media and the marathon TV watching time that is required to watch a game I’d rather depend on a 30 mins episode of Baseball Tonight to get all of my info. I am sorry but I haven’t caught the fever. I’ve even tried fantasy baseball, even more boring.

March Madness has subsided. No more can I revel in the tension and anxiety on an almost daily basis for an entire month. 64 teams narrowed down into a 4 team match-up so captivating that we have developed personalities, sayings and trends based solely on this tournament, “its Dynamite Baby”, evoking Dicky V, cutting down the nets, and college age kids playing a sport (for free) and actually showing how much they love it.

Ok, so maybe it wasn’t the most exciting tournament in recent years, but just because all the idiots in America didn’t have their pools picked right, and some underdogs and mid-major conference teams actually got a chance this year, doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good tournament. I grew up in a Duke family, we were close with Greg Koubek, a hometown favorite who played on 4 of Duke’s Final Four teams, so I always look for the Blue Devils, but regardless of who is in the tournament, it can still be exciting. So next year, tear up your brackets if you picked all the favorites and try something new, just watch and enjoy.

I can follow the PGA tour, which I do, as a big Mickelson fan, but for some reason I always find myself getting jealous, how come I can’t hit just one shot like these guys, just kidding, I do draw a certain degree of inspiration for my golf game from watching the Big Boys play, and hey 5 pars in a row on the back nine this weekend is enough to keep me interested.

So what am I left with, finding obscure sports on late night cable channels, USA Sevens Rugby, ESPN 2 Paintball, and the World’s Strongest Man? As if that isn’t hard enough to deal with, I have to listen to the ESPN guys tease me with juicy NFL gossip. I’m in purgatory each year when autumn leaves us for the doldrums of winter and early spring.

But the NFL draft is approaching, and Mel Kiper Jr. just makes me angry, why must you tease me, torment me with talk of 40 times, touchdowns, sacks and completion percentage, please, please just give me what I need. I can watch “Battle of the Gridiron Stars” so I can catch a glimpse of our helmet and spandex clad demi-gods, but it just isn’t enough. My Sundays are lonely and boring; I struggle to get out of bed sometimes because I know that NFL Sunday Countdown isn’t on.

I think it’s true, I worship Football and the NFL is my messiah. Please calendar days, bring me to salvation, shooting 15 over par is not enough to keep me sane, I need my pigskin.

Barry Bonds

Well the moment has finally come. The release of “Game of Shadows”, has given the baseball community and more so the world personal, documented, verifiable information regarding the how, when and why of Barry Bonds’ steroid use. There is to be no more speculation on the “IF” Barry took the ‘juice’, but more so as to what we as a culture are to do with an icon we have created and inflated which has now crumbled into a bitter pile of needles, creams and pills. With certifiable evidence that Barry Bonds used steroids this still is not an easy question. Sports analysts across the US are being asked some of these questions on the topic.

What do you think of Barry Bonds and his career as a professional baseball player? Should he be celebrated IF he breaks the HR record? Should he be allowed to continue to play in the MLB? Should he enter Cooperstown? Allow me to give you my opinion on some of these questions, but please note my answers are in the context of someone who already knows Barry Bonds is a juicer.
What do you think of Barry Bonds and his career as a professional baseball player?

Simple, its irrelevant, and the man is an idiot for ruining his legacy. He was a first ballot hall of famer by 1998 when he had been voted MVP 4 times, and had developed into one of if not the most complete player in MLB history. A consistent threat everytime he stepped onto the field, not to mention a tenacious outfielder, Barry Bonds needed nothing more, except to fulfill his own selfish greed.

Should he be celebrated IF he breaks the HR record?

No, its tainted, and in fact I think any records he does have should have an *asterisk* next to them. We take away Olympic medals if we find the athlete to have used performance enhancing drugs. So then why not take away Bonds’ records. And the argument that some people make is that steroids were not illegal in Major League Baseball when Bonds was breaking many of these records, so why punish him. Well, unfortunately for Barry we do not live in a world where you are only subject to your employer’s rules. Believe it or not, you are subject to the laws of THE COUNTRY THAT YOU LIVE IN. I.E. The United States, and no, you cannot take enough steroids to get bigger than North America.
Should he be allowed to continue to play in the MLB?

For me this is the biggest question, and the most difficult to answer. He has obviously spent the last two seasons “injured” so that he could flush his system of any ‘juice’ that could be detected by one of the MLB’s drug tests. So the chances of him failing a drug test are limited, and you can’t punish him for taking the drugs under MLB policy because they were not illegal when it was proven he took them. But………he could be penalized under California State Law, or US Congressional law. Steroids are illegal, and you can be arrested for buying, selling or consuming them illegally. So if I had to make the decision I would say charge him, and kick him out of the league for breaking the United States substaance abuse laws, not just the MLB’s.

Should he enter Cooperstown?

Again, no. How can you honestly put this man in the Hall. Pete Rose, who bet on his own team to win, was banned from baseball. So why not kick out Barry, and we can talk about his achievements anecdotally like we do Rose, but he’ll never get into the hall. And he shouldn’t, he cheated, blatantly, over a long period of time.

All in all, I am extremely disappointed for ever believing this man, but in a way maybe I do feel sorry for him. Then again, no I don’t he made millions of dollars to cheat and lie his way to the top of his profession. Well atleast he’s not alone in this world.

1st Draft
As a casual baseball fan, I did not find myself following Bonds until the 2002-2003 season when everytime I either turned on, or had the pleasure of attending a Giants game, all I ever heard about was how ‘BIG’ Barry Bonds had gotten. I never really paid much attention to his ‘growth’, but when I saw the man in the on-deck circle at AT&T park, I had to look closer. Coming from a football background I would have picked this guy for Defensive End or Middle Linebacker, not Right Field.
Many have finally given in to their grief. Even Tim Kurkjian of ESPN.com, one of the more prominent sources for baseball analysis is beginning to turn on Barry. For the last two years we have held off on labeling Bonds as a ‘roid user My response; the same things I did before I knew he used steroids, most of which pertain to the fact that I do not like him.

I have been to San Francisco, I have seen Barry smash baseballs into McCovey Cove first hand and at the time I cheered. Even though I did not like him I was excited to see Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron’s MLB Career Home Run Records be overtaken by a player from my generation. I was But now, I hope he is expelled from the league, villified by the media and basically excommunicated from popular culture and athletic competition in the UNited States

Photo Galleries

With convergence swallowing up more and more media outlets into its one, all-consuming vacuum of information, online video and audio are becoming more and more pervasive. Photo galleries seem to have been pushed to the bottom of the list in terms of valuable, online, multimedia content, but that is not to say that they are not still worthy of mention. I have selected 3 slideshows that I feel are good examples of just how this format is valuable.

1. The Giants.com website has a photo gallery for each week of the season, which includes pictures from the games, as well as pictures from tailgates in the Giants Stadium parking lot. Each picture is very high quality, and usually has some type of caption describing the content. Giants.com Photo Gallery

2. Webshots.com is an entire website completely dedicated to the production, categorization and viewing of online photo galleries produced by users. After a free registration a user can upload thousands of pictures and send the url for their photo gallery to anyone. The amount of space is unlimited. There is no HTML coding involved, the website itself is fully self-sustained, you only have to upload the files and add a small caption if you choose to. You can also download images. Webshots.com

3. A third and final example of a worthy photo gallery can be found in varying formats on multiple news websites. CNN.com prvoides more video than photo with their stories now, but this photo gallery describing a New Year celebration in Afgahnistan is a good example of a News Photo Gallery. The pictures are accompanied by much more in depth captions, and generally flow in a progressive pattern. Take a look at an example of a CNN.com photo gallery. Afghani New Year

So Cold

For lack of a better topic I decided to discuss weather in my weekly blog. Not scientifically, but practically, and it is frickin freezing right now.

It is getting to the point where I would welcome global warming at this point, I don’t know how much longer I can wait to move to the west coast.

I speak on behalf of my Northeastern brethren when I say it is just too damn cold.
I find myself getting more and more depressed as the days get longer, what benefit is there with more daylight when you just have to see how freaking cold everyone else is, at least at night you can quasi-block-it-out.

I used to love it when the days would get longer it meant I could play outside even longer, now it just means I have to freeze my ass off in the sunlight and wait for the sun to go down until it got even colder.
Sitting in front of my space heater, just contemplating my migration to the Pacific time zone.

I wake up in the morning and I can hear the enthusiasm in the meteorologist’s voice, HIGH’s OF 24 today, WOOPEE. Now I can take off one pair of gloves.
Honestly people, its about time we started to do something about this. MASS-EXODUS to the south, wait no, natural disasters galore down there. Okay,west coast sounds great, never mind its going to fall into the Ocean someday.

Well I guess we are then left with the midwest, no thank you sir, I’d much rather be chilly then deal with ‘them good ol boys’. Well I guess I’m just going to continue to tolerate it for the meantime.

Well atleast until California falls into the Pacific and becomes the sweetest island resort this side of the Meridian line.

Coastal Extremes – US Outsourcing Ownership of American Shipping Ports

In our nation’s most recent episode of Executive Branch Malfunction, the star of the show has managed to finagle a business deal that considers the selling of control/ownership rights of several high profile shipping yards along United States coastline. The potential ‘buyer’ a corporation based in Dubai (an island in the UAE), Dubai Ports World would control the ports of New York and New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Baltimore, Maryland; Miami, Florida; and New Orleans, Louisiana.

I think they should also get a special parking spot for a transatlantic tankership at 1600 Penn. Ave’s swimming pool.

Anyway, the deal has triggered security concerns among some members of Congress and the public. Rightfully so, 2 of the terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks on NYC, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC were from the UAE, not to mention large portions of the money which funded the terrorist attacks in 2001 came through banks in Dubai and other locations in the UAE. Generally you don’t want to negotiate business with someone that laundered money for Osama bin Laden. I think you really need to loosen up the shiny blue tie, oooh it is shiney George and re-evaluate your decision.

Let’s think about this for just one second Dubya. You want to sell the ownership rights to several ports (those things that largely control much of the textiles and material imports/exports on our soil) to an alien corporation which has ties to a terrorist group that attacked our country you were so sure could never be attacked. Well it happened, and it happened because we weren’t prepared, YOU let our guard down and we assumed we were safe. Little did we know that only 5 years later you would consider extending an invititation to yet another such catastrophy.

The paradox is this, President Bush is facing serious doubt that he can keep our country safe, and our enemies at bay hence he appears to be grasping at straws. This isn’t a bar fight in Dallas where you can slap a guy around and make him chase you outside for your buddies to take care of him. We are dealing with national security here. Just because you have something to prove does not give you the license to go creating potentially harmful situations so you can get credit when they get cleaned up. i.e. 9/11
RUNNING A COUNTRY DOESN”T WORK THAT WAY. YOU EITHER GOT IT, OR NOT!

I hope that the resistance that Bush has met on this proposal will be enough to stop him before he opens our borders to more terrorism, and I am glad that high-profile democrats are stepping up to prevent such an idiotic maneuver.

New York State Senator Charles Schumer held a press conference with family members of those killed in the 9/11 attacks to denounce the business proposition.

“Outsourcing the operation of our largest ports to a country with long involvement in terrorism is a homeland security accident waiting to happen,” Schumer said during the press conference.

North Carolina Representative Sue Myrick sent President bush a formal letter on February 22 confirming that she too was in staunch opposition to the proposed deal. Her letter was frank and to the point. In her letter she wrote, “In regards to selling American ports to the United Arab Emirates, not just NO–but HELL NO!” To see the letter click here.

Having some family in the business of international shipping I was admittedly oblivious to the immediate security concerns related to such a business deal. I immediately thought of how much more expensive business for my family members would be now that a foreign corporation would be controlling fees, taxes and operating costs for many seaport business. I hadn’t even considerd how vulnerable our country would be to even more deadly terrorist attacks and security risks.

It’s a no brainer Prez, or maybe not. After all, someone might want to look into how Halliburton (that multimillion dollar oil corporation that VP Cheney fronts) will be affected by this deal. Dubya might have a 20 guage full of birdshot aimed at him for motivation.

Cheney Shoots Friend While Quail Hunting and then Ducks Media.

Well, I don’t know if I even have an opinion on this or not, but what I do know is that our Vice President, Dick Cheney, the man who’ll step in next time a bag of Rold Gold’s falls into the wrong hands, shot someone this weekend.

At first I thought, how honorable. He was protecting himself and his family from a mugger and he pulled out his nine and capped some body. Self-defense right!? It wasn’t until I read the entire story that the gravity of the issue really started to sink in.

I picked up the story off of Cnn.com. After reading through it I found no sympathy for Cheney, none what so ever. Hey enjoy your weekend, relax, shoot some over populated fowl, but please, please don’t start capping helpless people because you were in the woods, with a gun, those coke-bottle glasses of yours, a pocket full of shells and a hair trigger.

You are making me and I am sure countless other Americans very nervous. How did you manage to compose your self, aren’t you of a weak heart condition, should you really be out in the woods carrying a shotgun. Well, apparently the answer is no.

I have to say the whole situation is a little sketchy to me, I don’t understand how if a child accidentally shoots his best friend with his father’s gun, we plaster it all over the news, OUR VICE PRESIDENT, shoots one of his friends with his own gun, and we chalk it up to the fact that the guy, probably wearing a set of bright orange fatigues didn’t call out to the group before he walked, upright back into his hunting parties’ line of sight. Oh yeah, Cheney admitted to being the only one responsible, but that doesn’t change the fact that no matter how bad you feel, you still shot someone!!!!

Good thing Cheney was only hunting fowl or Whittington, the victim, may have never gotten the chance to reflect on the fact that he was just shot by the Vice President of the United States.

And why is Cheney skating on this. Crucify this man. I’m no fan of anybody taking up oxygen in the oval office these days, but to his credit, had Dubya shot someone by accident he’d have been hung in center square on a sunday afternoon. I don’t understand why this man is not getting villified in the media.

And the calculated release of the story, is just so offensive, Cheney had to make sure that the story went through the proper outlets, and that the story was filtered before hitting mainstream media. How do you spin this one, his explanation for filtering the story’s release, he wanted to make sure someone with hunting experience wrote the story so that the context would not be miscontstrued. Does a cop get that opportunity when he accidentally shoots a teenager he thought may have been about to pull a gun on him.

Or the father who didn’t lock up his handgun and has to explain to the family of his son’s friend why their child is dead.

Why do you get the chance to make sure you get the best possible scenario for a situation that you caused and you should suffer for.

Accidents happen, but not all of us are fortunate enough to control how they will be percieved, it must be nice DICK.

Newsflash! You shot someone, enough said, now hang up the rifle, turn in your license and get back to making sure the youngster doesn’t burn the country down. I know its stressful Dick, but please stay out of the woods, stop manipulating the media, stop shooting people and go back to being your inconsequential and ‘absent-from-the-public-eye’ self.

Besides I’ll feel safer next time I’m walking my dog that one less yahoo with a shotgun is in the woods.

We all need to find the the Magic Fridge

As I fell in and out of sleep coma during Super Bowl XL, I found myself caught for the first time every in my personal history of watching the Big Game, looking for more. Myself, a New York Giants fan, all hope was lost when Eli started crapping in his diaper halfway through the first quarter of their playoff game, and with the Patriots out for what felt like the first time in a decade, I had nothing to hope for in this year’s Super Bowl but the commercials. All commercials can be streamed from AOL.

Which, generally, were not all that bad, but let me provide you with my own personal insight on Super Bowl XL’s Blitzkrieg Advertising Campaign. Starting with the first half, I’ll make my slection for the best and worst.

I would have to say my own personal favorite, The Magic Fridge, is a commercial I will never get tired of. This commercial had me laughing through the next 4 commercials, it was literally hilarious. imagine living in a world where you had to, on an involuntary whim, drop everything to bogart as much free bud light as possible. I think that happens every time my friends come over, except my fridge doesn’t rotate. Good commercial.

Now, the Burger King commercial early in the 1st quarter, what the hell was that! I mean I know advertising has become more abstract in the last decade or so, but come on now, last year’s commercial with Hootie (aka Darius Rucker) and now this crap. Get the Radio City Rockettes to do it next time, not the Whopperettes, and just let em leg kick the whole time while eating whoppers, with cheese of course. Bad Commercial

My winner for the first half resulted in a 3-way tie: The Michelob commericial where the girl is trash talking and gets laid out for it, “You were open, but now you are closed”, something I may be saying for years to come. Just watch it. The ESPNMobile commercial with sports heaven brought a sense of visual euphoria, will it make me go out and by a new phone, no. But the imagery was very impressive. And last but not least, the NFL/Disney commericial with players practicing their acceptance speeches, although I found it slightly sacreligious to the football gods, showing a player with Lombardi’s trophy before he’d won it, but never the less, a heart felt commercial.

Worst Commercial of the first half: Whopperettes, I may never eat their again.

more opinion to come for the 2nd half.

State of the Union

Last evening as you all know, President George W. Bush made his State of the Union Address with great attention to issues concerning oil and fuel resources. I am glad to see that President Bush is “addressing” an important issue in his speech this year, but I fear that it will be not different than last years State of the Union address in which Bush proclaimed his administration would focus on resolving the shortcomings and problems with the Social Security system. What ensued was a few months of media and beaurocratic gum-flapping, and where do we stand on social security now, the same damn place we were 12 months ago.

As an American citizen I will endorse our current Commander in Chief, I may not have voted for the man, but he is my President and I will do what I can to find positive aspects of his administration. But as far as the issues central to his State of the Union Address, let’s say I have my criticisms as well. Foreign oil, fuel prices and a lack of alternate fuel sources all good things mentioned in the address, but advocates for alternative fuel sources have been trying to get the government to adopt more ecologically minded fuel standards, consumers have been barking about fuel prices for the last 3-5 years, and we have gone to war twice in the middle east under this family and yet we still have an oil dependency on those nations.
Nevertheless, I fear that all of the President’s ranting about our country’s dependency on foreign oil is just another episode of the Social Security reformation. For the next few months we will hear how dedicated the President is to alleviate the strain of such a dependence on foriegn oil, but I highly doubt that fuel prices will drop, or that automakers will make alternative fuel sources more readily available/affordable, heck, why would we want to screw over Exxon Mobil, which according to Bush is seen as a perfectly normal business just benefitting from the market. They turned a $36 billion profit last year.

Enough said let’s just say I hope 2008 comes sooner than later.