Tick, tock, tick tock

One of the lasting images of "Election day 2012" will of course be the outrageously long lines. I remember 2008, I think I waited in line for an hour and a half or possibly two to vote. It was a proud time, usually I go off to vote by myself but I was able to vote with both of my brothers and my parents. It was a fun time, granted we had waited til election day so of course we were forced to wait in those long lines to make sure our votes counted. This time around we were a little more spread out, so while me and my parents went off to vote together my brothers were still at a job site somewhere.

My father currently signed up to get a knee replacement was allowed to go first since he did have proof of his disability. Me and my mother on the other hand waited in the Vorgon's cue a never ending serpentine of people. We went to pick up my mother slightly after 5 pm, and within 15 minutes got to a polling place, this year we decided to early vote just in case something was incorrect. By the time we finished it was well after 7 pm because they had required us to file through a room in the church building that housed the voted machines so that they could TRY and shut the doors. It was a futile attempt, people had been pulling up in cars ever since we got there and it was a good sized line(longer then we realized) when we got there. For a while me and my mother thought we were getting close when we made it into the hallway, little did we know it was more subway tunnel then it was foyer. we started joking after hour two because there was nothing else to do, we refused to get out of line we had toughed it out that long and if there is one thing I know I came by my stubbornness honestly. I believe when my father was finally able to retrieve us it was somewhere around 8 pm(might have even been 9 pm, I guess I could check my tweets from that night). And I was happy I had done my civic duty, added my voice to the masses and was prepared to wait til election day to see how it had worked out.

Men by nature are Pro choice

Yes I said it, now I am sure right now I am getting a bunch of people coming over here to tell me how wrong I am. Well since you are here, let me explain it to you. You ain got to agree but when I get done you may still disagree but I am pretty sure I will make a damn good case.

First and fore most one of the greatest male privileges of all is that we can choose WHO to pursue, I mean yes in this day and age some women may ask the guy first but usually the guy chooses to either leap to the highest heights or else dive in to the deepest depths. Doesn't matter my size, my shape, hair style, clothes, intelligence level. It doesn't matter if I am a 2 or a 10 I can walk up and try to talk to whoever I want to. Yes the woman can reject me but even if some may say I had no chance I will get points for even attempting it. You know that lovely thing about being the under dog and having heart, taking a swing, being the little guy, or the loveable loser. Yeah there are a bunch of cartoons about that type of dude, save Velma on Scooby Doo(and even Velma Dinkly has fans as well as has gotten a sexy make over in pop culture as of late) how many completely useless, non hottie cookie cutter, super intelligent, main female characters have we had? Now yes as women begin to take an even larger role in the creation of pop culture(or guys who have great friends who do not fit the normal stereotype start adding their friends to it) that will most likely change. Granted this probably doesn't seem like a strong case for me saying guys are by nature pro choice huh, let me keep going though follow along.

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.