I think the thing I like about "I think I think" blogs is that they allow me the freedom to bounce from topic to topic with relative ease. Since I don't feel like blathering on and on, this seems like as good a time as any for another one.
The NFL allowed Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to return to off season workouts with the team, though his suspension of 6 games (which could be reduced to 4 or increased, depending on his future behavior) remains once the season starts. Commentators and pundits galore are talking about the hard work Ben will have to do in order to get back in the league and team's good graces. Excuse me if I don't find this particular task all that sisphyean in nature. Basically he has to do two major things; 1) Don't rape women and 2) Don't whip your cock out in public. Let's not mistake common sense for hard work here. The rest takes care of itself, if he plays well after the suspension all will be forgiven and if not all will be magnified. Michael Vick served real prison time for fighting (and killing) dogs, yet for all of the clamor of groups, such as PETA, protesting his games he was welcomed back into the league with open arms.
I have been watching with great interest the blow up over the White House offering Joe Sestak a position in order to get him out of the Pennsylvania Senate primary against Arlen Specter, a primary that Sestak would eventually win, setting up a Senate race against Republican Pat Toomey. The funny thing, for all of the bloviating that is coming from the right on this issue, they got the weaker candidate in the general election. Specter would have still had a little bit of sway with moderate Republicans in a general election, something Sestak will not pull off. Toomey is far from an attractive candidate for most Democrats, so the race will boil down to which party gets more people out to the polls in November, as opposed to Toomey being forced to make sure his own constituency stays in line. If I am a Republican I am touching myself with glee, not because I can make an issue out of something that occurs with a certain amount of regularity, that being the party trying to get someone out of a race, but because the odds on winning that Senate race have increased dramatically with the Sestak win.
Once again we are in TV's offseason, where shows are put to bed for the year and shows that didn't make the cut are trotted out in hopes of catching some footing. I have thankfully only caught a couple of these shows, though what I caught I haven't been all that impressed with. America's Got Talent is back again, and while the show is tolerable enough, save perhaps Nick Cannon, who I find incredibly annoying, but I think my biggest problem with the show is the number of kids that are trotted out on it. The winner of the contest is supposed to get two things as a prize; 1) one million dollars and 2) to headline a Las Vegas show. Far too often I wonder if the parents of these kids aren't trotting them out there in hopes their kid will also become their meal ticket, because I would argue the second half of that prize is not even part of the equation. When I am watching, which I admit isn't that often, one of the criteria that runs through my head is would I pay to see this act for an hour to an hour and a half as Vegas show, versus being a 2 minute novelty act and far too often I am left thinking no I would not.
As much as I complained about America's Got Talent it is Shakespearean theater compared to the other off season replacement I caught, 100 Questions, which was just a god awful comedy where the person in control of the laugh track has to be on crack, because any time any of the characters spoke it was followed by piped in laughter, and very little of it was funny. Those parts that were supposed to be were diluted by the fact that the laugh track was cued up on every other word. If NBC ever wants to learn how it became the 4th network, all they need to do it take their executives, lock them in a room and have them answer the simple question (as opposed to 100 of them) of how the hell this show ever made the air to begin with. This show isn't even worthy of public access let alone primetime on a network.
If you ever want to see an example of sheeple I suggest you check out the number of people that parrot statuses (or is that stati?) on Facebook. In the last couple of days I have seen a number of people repeat as their status that Pepsi was introducing a patriotic can with the Pledge of Allegiance on it but leaving out the words "under God" in it, and I have also seen a number of people throw out the same complaint about how there are no concerts for the Gulf oil spill but there were for the earthquake in Haiti. For the former, well that rumor has been out there since 1992 so I would suggest you get with the program and actually do a bit of research before looking like a complete and utter assclown by throwing up some moronic forwarded message as your status, unless you want you status to be "I am a fucking retard who doesn't have the ability to a) get things right and b) think for myself. As for the latter, the differences are many, for starters the earthquake in Haiti was a natural disaster whereas the Gulf is very much a manmade one, one that will come with significant financial culpability for BP in both terms of clean up and in damages. Now collecting may be a problem, Exxon after all still hasn't paid for the Valdez disaster, but there is still a place where the fault or blame lies as opposed to a natural disaster, unless of course you are Pat Robertson, then earthquakes are the work of God, therefore God would be responsible for making good on the damages done though your chance of getting him to write a check may be less than that of getting Exxon to. The second difference of course is the loss of human life. That isn't to say that what has happened in the Gulf is insignificant, or isn't a disaster because it most certainly is, but there is a higher priority place on the loss of human life, as well there should be.
So the news is on at work today and apparently Jordan van der Sloot is suspected of killing Stephany Flores in Peru. For those who have a short attention span, van der Sloot was the primary suspect in the previous disappearance of Natalie Holloway a while back. Apparently the reason he is the primary suspect in the current investigation is that he was the last one seen with Ms. Flores while she was alive and that was in the very room where her body was found. Now I am not one to excuse Mr. van der Sloot's behavior, but a very simple question came to mind, what female in their right mind would willingly be alone in a room with a man who very well may have murdered someone previously? At what point do you have so little respect for your own well being that this is even remotely an option?
I have made mention of a few blogs in the past, some of them have made my links page, others have either been copied into the text of a blog entry or linked to. One of my recurring sports themes here has been how god awful the local baseball team (Pittsburgh Pirates) has been in the past 17+ years. Thankfully the kid's at Modesis House have put together a detailed list, in a far more comical fashion than I could have, of the 31 most embarassing moments of the last 17+ years. Some days it takes little to make me smile, this worked wonders today.
And really, is there any better way to end an entry like this than on a high note? Therefore I proclaim this entry to be done.
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