A letter to conversatives

Hi, how are you. Seems you just lost an election, badly, I know you probably don't want to hear from me because I didn't vote for your side. Thing is there is a reason I didn't vote for your side, but I am getting ahead of myself I should do an Introduction.

I'm Tommy, a 37(soon to be 38) year old black male. I was born in this country(in the north east to be exact, pretty much right in the path of Hurricane Sandy), and have lived here the entirety of my life. In that life I have gone to school, worked a few jobs, graduated, gotten a drivers license, registered to vote, and voted in 4 presidential elections. I don't always hit the mid terms, but thanks to 2010 yeah I will be paying more attention to them too.

Polical thought dump

We just had an election, but unlike most elections where we get the discussion of high minded ideas, lofty goals, and bright futures this one was tarnished by the constant undercurrent of hatred for OTHER. Now while some may have only focused on the other of RACE/SKIN COLOR, there was also the other of GENDER, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS, and SOCIAL STRATA. I do not claim to be any kind of political wonk, but I do enjoy the political process in my country except for this year. Oh there are plenty of times when I have had political discussions with people where I have had to face, debunk, or shout down ridiculous stereotypes or mental infections that people may have had, I just never had to look at what should be a serious situation and see it reflected at the highest levels.

It doesn't take a Genius when you have 30 of the Top 50

In having a conversation with a friend about the NBA of the recent past I realize something, David stern gets a lot of credit for being lucky not smart. Hear me out.

David Stern is the commisioner of the league in a time perioed where Doctor J, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkely, Micheal Jordan, Reggie Miller, Tim Hardaway, Hakeem Olajuwon, Dennis Rodman, Chris Mullins, Detlef Shrempf, Allen Iverson, Shaquille O'neal, Kobe Bryant(I may not like him, but I will respect his work ethic.), Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnet, Gary Payton, Karl Malone, John Stockton I mean do you see a pattern here? Save Doc the beginning of that list is the damn dream team(minus Patrick Ewing who I did not mean to omit but hell once you add his name it becomes even worse). How can you NOT be successful with players of that caliber out on the world stage?

Maybe your favorite player isn't up there(I have more in mind some tired guy, this dude who collected rifles I think, hyper aggressive man, some angry rocket, somebodies granny but seriously it's like the list that never ends the 80's and 90's were basketball gold) which is why they make a comments section, but Stern had all these great players. Then he was around for the video game revolution, I remember when Lakers vs Celtics dropped, and NBA JAM that was so much exposure. And he had balance, High flyers, shooters, imposing low post presences. Now it's like everybody wants to shoot the ball.

Yaaaay the real refs are back, now get ready to boo

Don't get me wrong, I am happy the real referees are back. I am saying now get ready to boo NOT because I expect them to be inept like the replacements but because no matter what you will ALWAYS feel your team could have gotten a break. A holding penalty is gonna be missed, a Helmet to was it his helmet or his shoulder and did he duck his head changing the trajectory is gonna be called.

Here is the thing they are calling THE RULES, some of the rules many of us grew up not ever seeing be used so they are new and seem so touchy feely. Some of them you will feel are biased because(say like Donovan in his Philly hey day) not everybody is as well protected. I do know one thing, when it is time to spot the ball, it won't take 3 committees. And then afterwards they still blow the whistle and move the ball. Yes the real refs will make some mistakes, but they won't be mistakes because they don't know the rules, it will be a mistake because they are human. The human eye can't catch everything, and on some instances it may be close enough where it just depends on interpretation.

Pay the DAMN REFS

Okay, I never thought I would say this but they need to pay the regular Referees in the NFL. If the Eagles vs Ravens game is any indication of exactly what kind of stupidity we are dealing with this year as much as I complained about the striped shirts before "I want that old thing back." I swear it was almost like I was watching the Keystone cops out there, except the Keystones were actually trying to be funny. These guys were serious as they screwed up the rules repeatedly, I mean if nothing else have the "spotting of the ball down."

I mean seriously I want somebody to go through and see how much time was added to the game as they had to blow a whistle, conference, and then respot the damn football after every penalty, dead ball situation or change of possession. Yes the game is fast paced, yes you have to remember the rule book as you attempt to judge the action to decide what is going on and if a foul happened. Seriously though you make a forward progress call when a guy is VISIBLY still in the air moving? The stretching of a jersey is a holding call on one side of the field but just let them play on the other(yes HOLDING happens on damn near every play in football, but seriously as chippy as that game was I think up til the 4th quarter there were only like 7 penalties)? They seemed to miss a lot of the "helpless reciever calls", I saw a few Eagles and Ravens players take shots to the head that should have been called. As well as a lot of out of bounds contact where last year we would have seen flags(granted on one of those plays I am glad they didn't call it, that would have extended a Baltimore drive). I swear it was almost like those phantom calls in a game of Madden where "it happened because we say it happened" not because you could actually see it.

Actions speak louder than words

As we all know due to some idiots movie trailer that makes fun of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad and portray him in some pretty disgusting ways there were protests and attacks at a few US diplomatic buildings in the middle east and north Africa. Due to these attacks and some spotty response from a few leaders it lead President Obama to state on Telemundo that he "Does not see Egypt as an Ally or an Enemy." While I have heard there has been some walk back on that Bobby Ghosh seemed to be extremely shocked that the POTUS would not see the people of Egypt as a friend anymore due to this incident and a lack luster response from Egypt's current President Morsi.

Here is my take on it, Mr. Ghosh in looking at all the film that was shown of the Protest in Egypt, I didn't see Morsi climbing those walls, I saw the EGYPTIAN PEOPLE. I saw them attacking our Embassy in Cairo, burning OUR FLAG and celebrating a victory over the ignorance of a few people at the cost of the safety of those in our diplomatic core. Now far be it for me to tell you the PROPER way to protest, but don't act like seeing a people come at you in a violent fashion shouldn't cause you to rethink your relationship with them. Yes I heard you speak about how the last more dictatorial regime would have resorted to beatings before the protests even got that bad so some of this may have been the Egyptian people enjoying the freedom to express themselves in a way they are not yet used to. The problem is just like you can condemn the acts of the idiot who organized the trailer(especially if some of the actor interviews are to be believed that the audio was dubbed over and the movie they made had nothing to do with Mohammad at all), he and we all can look at Egypt and say you attacked us we aren't going to be as chummy with you until you explain what the hell you were thinking and why.

And I've got nothing

Hey, how are you. Seems while I was gone 2000 or so people have come through and read a post or two. I thank you, I mean up to the Dark Knight Rises I have had a busy summer watching movies and things, just haven't been in review mode for any of them. Most of them I liked(Hell I even liked John Carter, it was just promoted wrong) just by the time I got home I didn't feel like logging in to say anything.

I could blame it all on work, being mentally tired, being on G+ waaaay too much, reading books, reading comics, watching anime, not playing my PS3 hell really being kind of boring but I won't. I haven't done anything over here mainly because once I get done it seems kind of quiet. No I'm not trying to change everybodies mind every time I put out a post, that would annoy the hell out of me. I have no problem stating my opinion, my point of view or even the facts that I have uncovered in my travels through this strange world of ours(and yes while the word FACT usually means set in stone if history has told us anything it is only set in stone until a new stone is turned over) that doesn't mean I don't want to hear yours. Granted I have been pretty damn quiet and not just on my own blog, other blogs that I used to comment on frequently, tumblrs, hell I haven't even played a FPS in months. I won't go into Lily Von Schtupp's "Tired" but yeah I need a kick in the ass.

Maybe things will pick up with Football season, it is hard to be dead to the world once football starts. Yes I am still an Eagles fan, yes I will continue to make Cowboys jokes and yes I still won't watch the Superbowl unless my birds are in it. It's a lazy Sunday in more ways then one, but the bar is still open, the glasses are still clean and if you want a drink I am still your bartender