I can post here too, I guess!

I was told to post a complaint or something that has been bothering me lately...so here it goes!

Christians bother me when they talk about faith. There. I'm putting it out there. I don't spend enough time around members of other religious orientations, so I won't generalize out at this point.

When I think on this, a picture of a girl from one of my classes comes to mind. I took a class in college called "Is Globalization Sustainable?" It was the most depressing fucking class I have ever taken. Whenever there was a discussion about religion in any sort of historical sense she would put on her headphones. The professor asked her why she did this one day and she said,

"These evil words won't plague my pure faith."

I know right?

I then proceeded to make her cry.

I have lots of stories like this, and they have shaped my opinion, as well as the entire history of Christianity. You know, wars, corruption, etc. I'm waiting to be corrected. I hope someday I will.

Little Known Facts

If I have talked to you in the last four months, there is a good chance you know I'm enrolled in a class based on ethical philosophy called Choosing and Using Values. For some reason, the population of class is overtly Christian. On a certain level, I don't have any issue with the personal beliefs of an individual. On another level, I question the idea of intellectualism and religion mixing and coexisting effectively.

I'm sure no one from my class reads this blog, so I'm sure I'm safe. Our last online discussion question was as follows.

Should there be international laws put in place to outlaw human cloning?

Valid question. Rather than breaking it down rationally, this was the first response. Excuse all the philosophical mumbo jumbo. I know, I think it sucks too.

This topic is incredibly interesting to me. If you think about the virtue theory we could just clone people to have our virtues and none of our vices. We would then have a better version of ourselves. Though this might seem intriguing I think it would cause a lot of controversy. Cloning to have organs to save lives is another interesting purpose for the procedure. With this idea I have to take a Divine Command Theory and revert back to my belief in God. To me everyone is here as long as he needs them here. When our job is done here on earth God will call us back to heaven. By cloning organs or ourselves to save us would be going against God's will. He did create man to be intelligent and has given us the ability to improve science. Therefore, I do think we should do whatever possible to save someone, but there has to be a line drawn at some point. We can't live forever.

Notice how she capitalizes 'God' but not 'Earth?' Yeah, me too. And I wonder how you take a Divine Command Theory? Most times after class and before my next one I take a big Divine Command Theory in the basement of the building where I take this class.

I won't include my snarky response. Hey, I've been nice all semester, it's the last week of class and this person probably won't even read my response. If we have to draw the line where we stop trying to save lives, can't we draw a line somewhere saying God (if you believe in God) or using God's name as a reason for things we can't explain is no longer acceptable? Try telling the parents of a seven year old kid, "we could have saved your son's life with a heart transplant but there were none available after the accident and we ran out of time, and the religious people banned human cloning which would have given us more availability. But hey, we can't live forever right?"

Hey, it's plausible. Life isn't an episode of Grey's Anatomy where a heart is always on hand to save the kid. Thank goodness. Life as that silly show, not saving kids. You know what I mean.

The point is I'm glad the semester is over for this class tomorrow at 11:25. Not because I didn't like the material or how it made me think about how big of an asshole I am, and how I lack certain ethical standards, but because I'm tired of listening to kids interpret how God would feel about eating a cheeseburger on Good Friday. I'm not joking. I asked this young student if eating one of my wife's Boca Burgers was acceptable, and if pretending it was meat was openly defying God because it's posing as a burger but it's not. She didn't like that question.

These are the things I missed the first time around in college. I'm glad I'm back to play the part of the older jerk with the dreaded "life experience" who should just be working some dead end job, but has decided to come back to school and hurt their chances of getting a good job because I'm clearly smarter.

Oh come on, you knew I couldn't make it out of this post without saying something of the sort.

Seriously....

Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act introduced to protect the blind from quiet cars

OK, first off I'm not a big fan of Hybrid cars I think there a waste of money and bigger pollutant in the end run then just as efficient diesel & gas cars. Also they distract from the bigger issue of needing a much more practical public transit system.

But I digress from my point which is...two of the largest morons in Washington took the time to draft a bill that addresses the problem of blind people not being able to hear hybrid cars. Like when did this become an freaking issue??? I mean seriously your telling me that some took the time to draft legislation and then had the audacity to waste other Senator's and Congressman's time with it.

The people that drafted this shall go into my file under the tab for the first people to shoot when I become Emperor of the World.

I was told I could blog here....

I guess the admin wanted to pull in more of the tween audience since that is where my intellectual capability usually reside, Like OMG that Twilight was like the best move EVA!!! But seriously...I like to think of myself as an opinionated ass that while I might not always be right I'm always willing to tell you why I feel that way if your willing to tell me why I'm right.

I like others on this site have some disdain for the mainstream media and the status quo, but I lack the elqounce that they have in voicing their opinion, so I'm more of a comentator and occasionally I would throw something out there for the pleps to read and comment on. Almost all my thoughts and observations are based on issue in the public realm and politics. Occasionaly I might throw soemthing out a little more personal, but we shall see.

Well, I'm at work and I need to earn my paycheck...I shall hopefully have something else posted on here by the end of the day depends on if I have the time.

Function

Stuff like this makes me distrust public officials and law enforcement. Of course this is an isolated incident, and most officers would never do something like this. However, it makes me wonder with how tight some of these guys (and girls) are, they are bound to snap on occasion and pull something like this.

Wow.

I'm not a big fan of the IRS...

...that's all.

Welcome To Me...

Greetings, dear reader, and thank you for stopping by today. And a big thank you to the administrator of this blog for enabling me to spread the disease that I like to call "my opinion".

You know, I've racked my brain trying to think of what I'd like to discuss in my premier post here at The Jerk Store. I figure the best place to start would be to explain what I'm sure a majority of my ramblings will be about. First though, I'd like to assure you that I am in no way a conspiracy theorist...at least I don't think I am. With that said, I would also like to assure you that I don't take much of anything at face value. I like to consider myself a "rational cynic" of sorts. The one area that I truly enjoy exercising my enlightened pessimism at this point in time is the media; namely news outlets of any kind and the bile they generate through underground wires and/or beam into outer space en route to our living rooms...or wherever.

For example, my beautiful wife and I have enjoyed viewing the ten o'clock news broadcast from KMBC Channel 9 here in Kansas City. We've scoffed in amazement when they begin by reporting a "late frost" that might damage flower gardens and then follow it up by reporting three deadly shootings on Kansas City's east side. We've chuckled when, on a Monday, they're telling us that the economy is in dire straits and then on Tuesday tell us that the economy is recovering. Finally, we've thrown up in our mouths a little when Bryan Busby spends damn near ten minutes talking about a storm system over Montana and has seven different radar maps to prove it.

Actually, one of my personal favorite moments in KMBC news history occured maybe a little over a year ago. There was a winter storm a'brewin' and a miniscule amount of ice/snow/sleet had fallen in the metro. Local reporter Marcus Moore was dispatched to stand next to a street that was becoming slick and tell us about the state of readiness the local department of transportation was maintaining. Just as one of the anchorpeople were introducing him, the live video feed showed a car sliding down the street into another car or inanimate object (I can't remember which). When this happened, Marcus exclaimed "OH, SHIT!!" The anchorpeople looked confused, but Marcus carried on with a priceless oh-shit-eating grin on his face.

So, this is what you can expect from me. I will consistently point out all the little flaws and injustices that I notice when it comes to news of any sort and I'll mix that in with a refreshing antecdote from time to time.
Here's something to think about: Feel-good/non-stories. They don't belong on the news. I'll pick one right now at random...

...the 2nd most popular story from CNN.com at this moment is about some dudes who played high school football against a rival back in 1993. The game ended in a tie and so they're going to replay the game. News? No. To put this into perspective, a mother killing her daughter and North Korea trying reporters were the 3rd and 5th most popular stories, respectfully.

Bring it like you brought it, yo.

Lol @ me

Oops!

For my Ethics class, aka Choosing and Using Values, we have discussion questions online in a message board format. Look closely at these pictures and take note of my first response line. Yes, you have to click on the pictures. Lazy.

This was completely unintentional and it's all the system's fault. Always is.



And take two, opening said thread...



Hey, I thought it was funny thinking about all the reactions reading it might get.

Teabag!

Well, this took less time than I originally estimated.

Today, for those not in the know, is tax day. Where you willingly pay in, because if you didn't have to you've already filed and have probably spent your tax money. It happens every year, and just like Christmas it brings pain and misery to all but is easily covered by mass quantities of booze or other mood altering substances.

The significance of today, is the angry, middle-aged white American's took the day off to protest tax increases. Seems like a noble cause to me, I'm surprised I didn't hear about it until earlier today from my wife who also learned of this phenomenon today as well.

We are in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Hoax? I'm not sure. I lost my job at the end of October and had a job by the beginning of December and was back to work to ring in the new year.

So in protest of corporate bailouts, handouts and (eek!) socialism, mostly Caucasian men and women lined streets in cities across the country and made their voices heard. In Kansas City more than about 3,000 people gathered at Liberty Memorial to air their grievances to the man. What does this tell me? That less than one percent of Kansas Citians either don't care or know better.

Taking a queue from other white, middle-aged men over two hundred years ago, they protested by not dumping consumable products into Boston Harbor they were being taxed too much for, but by getting riled up from watching too much Fox News. Har, har, too easy I know.

Here is the problem, and my point. If you make less than $250,000 you actually got some tax breaks and or will get tax breaks. Right? Do I agree with how they are spending the money? No, but ignorance bothers me. A lot. I wonder if Rupert Murdoch loves watching people jump and dance on command.

If there were a larger market for Fox to become a liberal news outlet, you'd wake up tomorrow with a loving retrospective on Karl Marx, or the daring and heroic life of John Reed. You thought they were in it to be fair and balanced? Wake up. It's about money, it has been for the past 30 years. Now get with it. They don't care about your right-wing political beliefs.

Where were these people last October or November when Bush was pushing his last minute, final kiss off before leaving office, giving of Wall Street nearly $785,0000,000,000? I have more of an issue with giving tax money to guys who sell bullshit as opposed to actual commodities. I can touch and feel a car. You can get laid because of your car, or in it at least. You can't drive a credit default swap.

Now people want to wet their pants about businesses being bailed out. Right wingers want to complain that their small businesses wouldn't be bailed out if they failed. When it was their guy doing it? Cricket. Cricket. Cricket. Which brings me to this.

You are all being played. You (both sides mind you) are suckers in a grand scheme to rob you blind. You are painting each other with brushes created by hogs with the stink of cash and fine wine on their breath. Brushes made in Indonesia for nine cents a day of course. It's the American way.

You've all made your bed, and now you have to lie in it. Catch the double entendre? There will be no socialism, there will be no fascism. Things will swing back the other way more violently and suddenly thea the last time in four or eight years time. Meanwhile the real crooks stay in Washington because no one wants to get off life support for cash in their districts and impose term limits on congressmen. All the while the real people at the top will be pissing into solid gold toilets (true story, Google Meryl Lynch scandal) and lighting Cuban cigars with hundred dollar bills, Rush. The pied piper.

The Tax Day Tea Party website features CNN "failing" while trying to get a story. She (the correspondent) presents the interviewee, with his kid in tow no less, with facts that the state of Illinois gave him a tax break, provided he makes under a quarter mil. Rather than answer the question, he babbles some frothy rant about Abe Lincoln wanting people to be free, blah, blah, blah. The poor woman almost gets hit with picket signs while trying to do her job. I love they took a shot at it being anti-CNN because Sean Hannity's troops were leading the rally. But come on, she is a liberal.

Read the comments on the page. Unbelievable. The wool over the eyes of everyone throwing stones from both sides has to be suffocating.



I weep for the future.

The sports feature

So my illustrious career as a sports writer (maybe) or writer in general is starting from humble beginnings. More accurately, started from humble beginnings from right here on this here blog. I'd like to think I have shown some development, especially since last fall in 2008 when my formal training began.

So the past few issues of Park University's newspaper, The Stylus, I've had the opportunity to write some pretty interesting pieces on some figures in our varoious athletic programs. I'm going to put both up on the blog here, but I'm posting my first one, well, first.

Hope you enjoy...

The cold damp atmosphere on a Friday afternoon on a mostly empty Park University campus is seeping it’s way into a mostly empty Breckon Sports Center. No games, no practice, just employees of the athletic department waiting out the rest of an anxious Friday afternoon.

Through the front doors of the arena strides Jon Meriwether with the cool confidence of a student athlete who has walked into the dual domed structure a thousand times. The last three years of Meriweather’s life have been spent playing, practicing, dazzling, working out and building a reputation as one of the best players to lace up and take the court on the Pirates men’s basketball squad.

Believing in your own press in this day in age of ESPN and total media saturation are easy trappings. Shining yourself on for cameras and scouts is as expected as calling for press conferences to announce your new hip-hop album or endorsing Chevy Trucks. The life of an amateur athlete, especially in the NAIA, allows for it’s players to be refreshingly down to Earth.

“To be honest the thought never crossed my mind,” Meriwether recalls. “It is sort of weird to me to think of myself as one of those guys. A top player. When I was told about being seen in that way, I was wondering if you had the right guy.”

For a player just named to the NAIA Division I All-American second team, you might think modesty would be as rare as a ray of sunshine breaking through the overcast sky outside. But the more you talk with and get to know Jon Meriwether the person, as opposed to Jon Meriweather’s stat sheet, you rapidly learn he would rather talk about his teammates, past and present, as opposed to himself.

“Being humble came straight from my Dad,” Meriwether said. “He was just that way when I was growing up.”

Let’s play a little bit of catch up here, Joe Meriwether was a 10 year veteran in the NBA and played from Madison Square Garden to The Summit in Houston, Texas and some points in between. Letting Jon in on what he accomplished during his prime wasn’t something that could be found without a little research.

“When I got a little older I was like, ‘why didn’t you tell me?’ He was a monster in his day and his stats were unbelievable,” Meriwether said. “I thought it was incredible but he would always tell me that he was just playing ball.”

Being a coach’s kid is never easy. At least not for a majority of kids that grow up in homes consumed by sports. That other one percent was the Meriweather home. Being the son of an NBA player and college coach would add even more pressure. But not in this case. To the contrary, pressure is the last word he would even think about coming of age at home.

“Even from early on, I wanted to do it,” Meriweather said. “I would be tired after games and would want to just go home, but I would go back into the gym to work on my shot. I never felt that pressure from my Dad. I just always liked basketball and wanted to be good. I was just playing.”

Even when leaving Division I Morgan State University, the senior Meriweather did not fret and did not dress his son down for leaving the game so unceremoniously.

“At that point it was all my choice,” Meriweather said. “When I was off for a year and a half, my Dad didn’t even suggest that I go back to playing. I missed it. It was my decision to come back.”

Sitting behind Coach Jason Kline’s desk he doesn’t seem uncomfortable in the least. A player just entering into a program might be a little apprehensive to be perched with ease at his coach’s desk, but not Meriwether. Being in a position of leadership is not foreign territory.

“We all seem to know our roles on this team,” Meriwether said. “Our jobs are defined. We help each other out and make up for what each of us might lack individually as a team and a family. That’s something that we have tried to instill in the younger players on this team.”

Meriwether points to a picture on the grey office wall to shift the focus away from himself and back to other players he sees as his mentors and an inspiration to his game.

“Brandon Voorhees was the man,” Meriwether said. Leaning back in his coach’s chair, a wry smile crosses his face as he recalls some of the NAIA All-American’s on court exploits. “We were on the road and we were down with only a few minutes to go in the game. We sort of just let B take over. He was white as a ghost and we knew he was tired, but he kept going and going. We won that game because of him, but after the game you wouldn’t have known. He didn’t say a word and just kept it to himself, rather than going on and on about it.”

Lessons in sports are a dime a dozen, but those are generic notions you read about on a daily basis. Stories and moments in sports are wrought and sometimes stretched to the point of being a tall tale, like Paul Bunyan or passing in the NBA. Most wouldn’t know it, but it’s the things we as spectators miss that actually make a difference to the young men and women taking the field or running on to the court.

“After seeing what Brandon went through that night,” Meriwether said as he pauses before revealing his thoughts. “It was truly amazing to watch. I learned then that is what it takes to be a good or even great player. You have to leave it all out there.”

Establishing yourself in one place is a goal most people strive to achieve. Having to pack up and do it every few years to sail away into unfamiliar territory is something that Meriweather is becoming accustomed to. He has his eye on the big picture, but he refuses to leave the dream behind.

“I’d like to follow Brandon over to Europe and try out over there and eventually play in the NBA like my Dad,” Meriweather said. “Right now it’s just hard thinking about leaving and not knowing exactly what the game has in store for me right now.
At the end of the day, this is something that every athlete faces.”

There is a plan B though, but it’s one of those ‘break in case of emergency’ type of things. Not to say what Meriweather has planned for the future would be any less rewarding, it’s just when boys draw up plays in the sand, or in the palm of their hands with the rest of their friends, you don’t see yourself behind a desk. It is not the dream. The dream is playing for the love of a game as long as possible, because deep down you know one day it will be gone.

“It is sad, don’t get me wrong,” Meriweather said. “You grow up living your life and centering it around basketball, knowing that it won’t be there in the same way I’ve known all my life will be a challenge. But that’s just life, you have to grow up and readjust. You just have to go out and attack it and not let it attack you.”

Finding a parallel between life and sports isn’t challenging. Applying it and weaving the two together is the accomplishment. Jon Meriweather will go down as one of the best players to grace the court at Park, this much is easy to see. But there has to be more out there than stats and awards and national recognition. Meriweather has recognized that. He knows he’s a great player, and so do most people, but he knows making everyone else around you better on and off the court is what excellence is all about, and the most important lesson learned.

Not going to the dogs

I know the last few posts have been present and future dog related. I've been short on time and therefore, short on content. Never fear the semester is winding down. However I will be spending more time over on my Red Sox blog considering opening week is underway and my MLB.TV subscription is being taken full advantage of.

I've also finished reading "The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison." Good book for about eight bucks new in paperback or less at your local used book store. Listening to SModcasts, breaking in my new Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds hats and figuring out how we are going to facilitate another dog.

We took delivery of our riding lawn mower today. One big problem is that the transmission will not stay engaged. So, getting it replaced and wheeling and dealing my way into a better model with a warranty is how I spent my afternoon.

Our LCD TV has been on the fritz, so Steph and I were disappointed we didn't get to watch the Royals game in HD. We went out and enjoyed the nice day and walked our dog instead. My Mom got a tattoo. Steph and I went to dinner at 54th Street Grill (meh) and then came home and read a book and watch my Sox give another toothless performance from the plate.

We closed out the night watching The Soup and 30 Rock in bed. Since 11 o'clock is much too early, I came into the office and watched the Braves and Nationals then the Padres and Giants. Then, I downloaded some blues, but not because of what went on during my good Friday.

This was the extent of my day.

Miss Moo

So a few weeks back I purchased a new laptop with Windows Vista on it. I saw a commercial where some young girl took pictures and uploaded them to her computer using the same operating system. I figured I could at least try and make a slideshow. Thankfully, I was able to top the young tike from the Microsoft ad.

It's a little raw since it's the first, well, anything I've ever really put together. I'm sure they will be a reimagining of this someday when I'm a little better at this. Hope you enjoy.

Also, when I transferred it to YouTube, it messed up the transitions for some reason, so it may look a tad pixelated, YouTube promised me that it's still processing and it will look better soon. You know I'll hold them to it..

Hello, big world...

So my wife beat me to the punch, what else is new? So my post on April 1st was not a fool, we really have been looking into bringing another pooch into our home. In a few weeks, two week old Theodore Winston Swalley will enter our house, probably a little bigger than this. He's a Great Dane, or German Mastiff, and we hear they get quite large.

For those that don't read my wife's blog, here are the same exact photos she put on her page...and yes, the red collar is by design.

Scooby-Doobie-Do?!?!

Maybe in about six to eight weeks. We'll see.

Stay tuned...