All Charged Up

First and foremost let me say this with joy in my heart...  the Rangers won the pennant!  Let me say it again because it feels so good...  THE RANGERS WON THE PENNANT!!!  Before any Yankee fan accuses me of being just a sore loser...  YOU'RE GOD DAMN RIGHT!!!  Why else would I subscribe to the mantra of "I root for two teams: the Red Sox and whoever beat the Yankees"?!?!?!?!  I hate Alex Rodriguez with so much passion that I can barely acknowledge how talented he is.  It's visceral and illogical yet completely real.  As much as I love all the images of the Red Sox title runs in 2004 and 2007, my favorite picture of all time is Jason Varitek punching A-Fraud in the face.  In close second is the close-up shot of him wearing those idiotic Bozo-like batting gloves slapping the ball out of Bronson Arroyo's hand in Game 7 of the '04 ALCS.  I just think he's a total douche bag.  It was also nice to see Mark "Droop Face" Teixeira limp off the field with a hamstring injury.  Now there is a throwback player if ever there was one.  A switch hitting all star first baseman who can barely talk about baseball in a post game interview, let alone formulate a thought, and looks like he is either constantly constipated or having a stroke!!  I find it funny that so many NBA fans crap on LeBron and Chris Bosh for going to the Heat under the guise of not being able or willing to win a title on their own and be the man on their own team...  yet every F@#%ING year that is exactly what every marquee baseball free agent does when they sign with the Evil Empire. I don't recall the analysts on ESPN crushing Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen like this in the summer of 2007.  Did they?  Did I just turn a blind eye?  Either way, I guess I was unaware of two truths:  1) It only takes one superstar to win an NBA title and 2) No matter what the Yankees do, it's understandable and excusable.  I feel sorry for Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera.  While I am no Yankee fan, these three players are true class acts.  They have thrived in the unimaginable brightness of the spotlight in the city that never sleeps for over fifteen years.  It's a shame that management doesn't see the wisdom in growing their own talent and teaching the Yankee way of doing things anymore.  Considering that A-Fraud and Droop Face make more than the than the whole Rangers lineup.. it might be time to change strategy.


The Pats beat the Chargers yesterday 23-20.  This game clarifies the statement that whether you win by one or a hundred, it only matters that you won.  It was ugly.  It was painful.  Even though Drew Brees threw four picks yesterday I can't help but think that Chargers fans must be wondering how they got stuck with Phillip Rivers.  He seems more like the character Ali Larter played in Final Destination Clear Rivers.  Maybe he should check himself into a ward where he can't hurt anyone else with his bad decisions.  Norv Turner sucks as an NFL head coach.  He was a great offensive coordinator.  The only head coach in the NFL that should have less job security than Turner is that lumbering bag of monkey puke in Dallas.  That being said, let me say this...  people often call Belichick a genius, if he's a genius then I'm left to wonder if the definition changed.  Fourth and one, ball on your 48 yard line, no time outs, two minutes to go and a three point lead is when you punt the ball and trust your defense to win the game.  DIDN'T YOU LEARN ANYTHING FROM INDIANAPOLIS LAST YEAR?!?!?!?!  Thank God the Chargers suck so bad that they saved your ass!!!!  This team is 5-1, but they are a heart attack inspiring 5-1.  Pats fans might end up drinking more to ease their nerves regardless of the outcome.


It seems that the NFL can't get out of its own way.  On the same day that they announce a new policy that will suspend players for devastating hits, their website has stills of James Harrison leveling Brown's receiver Mohamed Massaquoi.  I don't know whether it's hypocritical or capitalistic to seek profit from something that you just labelled excessive and illegal. Personally I don't care if games end in a tie or a blowout.  And to be frank I don't really care about their safety either.  The minimum salary for the NFL in 2010 is $325,000.  That's what the fourth string guy makes!!!  The starters are all millionaires!!!  The argument for their outrageous salaries is that they can do things that ordinary people can't.  Then I will apply it the opposite way, if they are superhuman then they should be able to take superhuman punishment.  In the Marines my CO told us once "If you want to be safe then go sell shoes at Sears cuz we aren't in a safe f@#$ing business." In other words, if you don't like it then quit you whiny bitch millionaires!!  I mean you all went to college after all right?! You should be able to get decent jobs with your degrees, right?!? Oh I forgot, the only thing you learned there was how to get away with just about any crime as long as an agent doesn't bail you out of jail!!!


Well if you are still reading this then you obviously have as much time on your hands as I do and if that's the case then you have my sympathies.

There are no points for second place!

Life it seems has begin to imitate art.  Or is art imitating life.  I don't know.  It's pretty damn confusing.  It seems like every where you look there is a call for people to stand up, stop whining and do what's supposed to be done.  Unlike my parents and grandparents who were raised to quietly deal with their issues, I was raised to express my feelings and seek to understand them.  While that is a "healthy" way to live, it seems to me that we have begun to spend more time seeking to understand how and why we feel a certain way and less time actually doing anything.  We live in world of perpetual excuses...  "I'm not good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, handsome enough, funny enough, witty enough, cool enough, coordinated enough, flexible enough, compromising enough, etc" and blah blah blah.  How about this "Who gives a F@#$ enough?!?!"  There was a time when the better team won and it mattered how you play the game.  Did you try your hardest and do the best you could?  Yes? Ok, then maybe you need to work harder and get even better.  No?  Then you definitely need to work harder and get a lot better.  I never found anything wrong with Slider's line in Top Gun "Remember boys, there's no points for second place."   If you lose, you're supposed to be gracious.  If you win, you're supposed to be even more gracious.  Truthfully, when I've been on the losing side of a game (and that's been all too often) and I've had to look at the smug satisfaction of the winner trying not to gloat, it's made me angrier and more determined to come back and kick their ass the next time than if they danced in my living room.


Yesterday the Patriots beat the Baltimore Ravens 23-20 in overtime.  The Pats came back from a 10 point fourth quarter deficit against an outstanding defense.  This in itself is not major news.  Yes the return of Deion Branch was great.  It's been a long time since Brady to Branch won games at Foxboro.  What I found interesting was a comment made by Ravens safety Tom Zbikoswsky after the game.  He muttered about the Patriots having two weeks to prepare with a bye week and still barely beat the Ravens at home and needed their best performance to do it and just wait until the playoffs, when the Ravens will roll them again, just like they did last year in the same building and ...  Is this guy kidding?!?!  Are you gonna bark all day little doggy?!?!  It should always take your best effort to beat someone.  Anything less than your best and the question should be raised about how exactly you deserve to call yourself a professional?!?! By the way the comment about the playoffs is totally premature.  It's week 5 and you play in the same division as Pittsburgh who got their swagger back yesterday!!  I'm just sick of pro athletes whining like little bitches when they lose.   Grow up!  You're a millionaire because you can play a kids game!!  And there is nothing worse than a bitchy millionaire!!


Does life imitate art or does art imitate life?  Fair question.  The midterm elections are in November.  According to the national media the Democratic party is going to get handed a major referendum from the American people.  Maybe they will.   Despite the fact that they passed health care reform, the stimulus package, and countless other reforms they'll still probably lose.  Nobody ever said that doing the right thing was easy or popular.  Personally I don't like any career politician and my reason is simple; eventually they become like the Sith, only interested in keeping their power.  That's why it always easier to campaign against an incumbent than it is to be one.  It's easier to complain about what someone has done than defend what you've done.  Personally I don't care if a politician does what's popular.  If you are against a proposal then develop a better one.  And by the way, and this is for both sides of the aisle, you live and die on the taxpayer dime so don't pretend that you deserve something that we don't.  That goes for health care, retirement, tax breaks, and any other perk you think you're entitled to!!!!


Art does imitate life.  On Smallville Clark Kent is scared to embrace the possibility of what he can do because of what he has failed to do in the past.  It took a former enemy to show him that the things he blames himself for weren't his fault.  He has been hiding behind his friends and his doubts.  He seems to demand perfection from himself.  It doesn't take perfection.  It takes courage.  This week he finally stood up.  He even sort of flew.  It was nice to see.  I just sincerely hope that we don't have to wait until the final episode to see Superman. 


Well if you are still reading this then you obviously have as much time on your hands as I do and if that's the case then you have my sympathies.

Fantasy Land

NFL network aired a segment today that showed how the Ravens could shut down the Patriots.  I thought well that's original, after all they only KICKED THE SNOT out of the Pats in the divisional round of the playoffs last year..  so it stands to reason that they would need an analytic tutorial on how to do it again.  Why not show a segment that shows how a team with a sub par running game, and now that bat shit crazy Randy "the freak" Moss is gone has no deep threat can beat arguably the best defensive team in the league!?!?!  Now I realize that everybody outside of New England hates the Patriots, but how do the Ravens somehow come out looking like the more lovable franchise in this contest?  Art Modell stole the Browns from Cleveland and brought them to Baltimore!!  Ray Lewis is such a vicious bastard that he actually participated in a murder!!!  AND HE DID LESS TIME THAN PLAXICO BURRESS DID FOR SHOOTING HIMSELF!?!?!  I know that was like forever and a day ago..  but so was the last time the Patriots won a Super Bowl.  Get over hating TFB for being an every man hero.  Get over hating the hooded evil genius that lurks the sidelines muttering "Something.. something.. everything is proceeding as I have foreseen it." In terms of franchises that create reasons to hate them I still don't think the Pats have crossed the threshold of the Red Wings and their fans (Is there anyplace on earth worse than Detroit!?!?!), the Lakers with their rapist superstar (Kobe Bryant) and their resident psycho (Ron Artest), the Cowboys with their how in the name of all that's holy does this white haired ass bag hack head coach still find work??? (Wade Phillips) and supremely overrated douche bag quarterback (Tony Romo) and finally there is that baseball team from New York. (I can't say anything else about them because kids might be reading!!)

Damn!!  I just re-read what I wrote...  I think I have some unresolved sports issues!! HA!  Speaking of unresolved sports issues... fantasy football is in full swing again!! I can't help but wonder exactly how this is fun?!?  Every Sunday and Monday I watch the scores and stats of players and games I couldn't care less about in the hopes of beating one of my friends in a game that requires nothing more than clicking a mouse and moving a player.  At least an online match on Madden is interactive!!  Even after I said that I'm probably going to post this blog and then fret over which RB to start this week.  I'm addicted to make believe coaching!  And I'm not alone!!  It's like four square. Considering this rampant epidemic of the make believe taking over the real...  maybe we are in the Matrix!!!  Or maybe we're at level one of Inception...  wherever we are it feels like up is down and left is friggin diagonal!!

This is an election year.  The most fascinating thing is that the level of political discourse in this country has been reduced to the lowest common denominator.  Professional wrestlers say less offensive stuff about their opponents and the fans than politicians are saying lately.  One guy lies about being a Vietnam veteran. One woman can't decide if she's a witch.  A certified whack job from Alaska has become the spokesperson for the Tea Party Movement.  A B-Movie actor and political satirist has somehow become the voice of reason.  Rush Limbaugh did a guest voice on the Family Guy.  Let me say that again... RUSH LIMBAUGH DID A GUEST VOICE ON THE FAMILY GUY!!!  At some point we should all be asking ourselves the simple question:  Is this really the best we can do?  Do I really want a government run by people who are so eager to be zealots that they say "You're either with us or against us."  This has been going on for a decade.  Wrestling got clean and politics got straight crazy!!! 

Well if you are still reading this then you obviously have as much time on your hands as I do and if that's the case then you have my sympathies.

Everyone's expendable

Today is October 6th 2010:  It is cold, wet and miserable in Massachusetts today.  The topic for the day seems to be The New England Patriots traded Randy Moss to the Minnesota Vikings for a 2011 Third Round Draft Pick.  This is comical to me in so many ways.  How does this help the Patriots right now?  It doesn't.  How does it affect perception of Randy Moss?  Depending on how you view the Patriots management you either think we don't need him cuz he's just another player or your arm is tingling cuz you are about to have a stroke wondering how they can be so monumentally stupid.  I don't know how I feel about this.  I think Randy was destined to leave at the end of the season.  His 15 minutes of crazy press conference telegraphed that.  Maybe I was hoping that he and TFB would have a swan song season for the ages on his way out.  Now we'll never know.  What we do know is that every one's expendable.  You can't watch sports and not know this. I guess that's what I think is sad.  Sports is such a mirror of society, although in most instances a perversely warped one.  When teams trade away talented players for the future they pretend that they are actually interested in the future.  This is the absolute best way to downsize a company and make it look like they care about the future.  The Pats just dumped a guy they knew would cost them a ton of money to re-sign.  He will be branded a malcontent now by the fans in New England and people will act like he never did anything of value while he was here.  This is a sign of things to come.  Not just for the Patriots either.  The NFL probably won't have a season next year.  Why?  Because of rampant and unmitigated greed on the part of the owners and the NFLPA.  Should this be a surprise?  No.  Like I said, sports are a warped mirror of society.

You can call it bitterness.  You can call it agitation.  You can call it disgust.  You can call it confusion.  You could even call it the grief cycle.  What you can't call it is smart.  What you can't call it is good business.  What you can't call is the right move.  I'm a teacher.  I'm good at my job.  I'm highly qualified.  I have busted my ass to get a Master's Degree.  I hold my students to a high standard.  I try to remember that just like when I was in school, there is more going on with a student than what they do in my classroom.  I knew going into education that I would never get rich.  I am cool with that.  What I'm not cool with is the current movement in education that seeks to reform everything except what the students learn and achieve. There is constant talk about the achievement gap, which by the way is a real thing.  It is based in the socioeconomic structures that we ignore.  I worked in an underperforming urban high school for the last three years.  We had an extended day, more time on learning, more teacher accountability, more authority for the principal, more autonomy from the union contract...  do you know what happened?  If you guessed that it didn't work...  then you guessed right.  Do you know why it didn't work?  Because at the end of each year one third of the staff left.  When I left at the end of last year there were only 20 people still working there that were there when i got hired.  Compare that to the average suburban high school where you can see the same teachers and administrators for 20 years.  This is despite the fact the Boston Public Schools pays an average of $15,000 more a year than the suburban schools do.  Schools are supposed to be the one place that youth can find some sense of stability and continuity.  Most of the teachers that freshman students have this year won't be there when these students graduate.  The English High School in Jamaica Plain had 65 teachers working there last year.   40 teachers were given their walking papers in the spring of 2010.  The replacements that were hired are all from a highly touted program called Boston Teacher Residency.  BTR is a program that takes people from other lines of work and puts them into the classroom within one year.  Or in other words, it's the exact same thing as hiring a bunch of graduate students.  So a struggling school got rid of forty seasoned teachers and replaced them with forty first year teachers.  This is viewed as progressive in the current political climate.  They are planning for the future like the Patriots did.  They will train these new teachers to be better than the malcontents they replaced.  After all, it must be the teachers fault that the scores are low and the dropout rate is high and not the apathy of parents and politicians.  It is ironic that the politicians talk about cutting costs surrounding education with teacher layoffs because the teachers they layoff make the least money!!!  Nothing is going to change.  These new teachers that were brought in will either burn out or get replaced in three years.

Well, if you are still reading this then you obviously have as much time on your hands as I do and if that's the case then you have my sympathies.