The Broken NFL Playoffs
I'm not necessarily a sports guy. I was never a jock, never had posters of sports figures on any wall. Ever. I own no sports memorabilia or clothing. I don't even wear baseball hats, as I think they look juvenile on grown men unless you actually happen to be on a field somewhere playing the sport. There are a couple of sports figures I deeply admire - Muhammad Ali comes to mind - but only because I admire them for the way they use their fame and position for positive social gain.
I am a slave to no organized sports schedule. Except for two: Wimbledon and the NFL playoffs (I'm also a huge fan of MMA, but I don't consider that too "organized"). In the first instance I love the sport of tennis, being one of the few sports I actually played in my youth. I like the one-on-one aspect of the game. In the second, I love the game of football, especially in the playoffs. I have never really rooted for one team over another, I just wanted to see a good game.
Although my local franchise, the NY Giants won last years Superbowl in a fantastic game, Kerry J. Byrne makes a powerful argument at Sports Illustrated that the current NFL playoff system is deeply flawed, allowing mediocre teams to dominate the playoff picture.
The current system offers what economists and sociologists might call moral hazard: It alternately rewards inferior teams, such as the 8-8 Chargers or 9-7 Cardinals, simply because they were better than three rivals in a weak division, or punishes superior teams, such as the 12-4 Colts, 11-5 Patriots or 9-6-1 Eagles, who had to fight through brutal regular seasons in tougher divisions. That's not a very good system.
I'd have to agree. If this in any way interests you go read the article.
Let Them Burn
This just gets my goat. Seriously, fuck these financial institutions. I swear if we bail out one more of these fuckers I'm hitting the streets with pitchforks and torches. MSNBC reports:
In marketing, advertising and testimony before Congress, Countrywide Home Loans has said repeatedly that it is working hard to modify the mortgages of financially strapped borrowers caught up in the subprime meltdown. But in a New Hampshire court, attorneys for the lending giant are singing a different tune, describing such assurances as “mere commercial puffery.”
We give them money and they say "Why sure, we'll make all kinds of allowances for distraught and in trouble homeowners to modify their loans". And then in court they admit, "Well, that was just marketing bullshit, we're not modifying a damn thing."
Seriously? I love the smell of 21st century Class Warfare in the morning.
UPDATE Jan 16: OK, so let me get this straight regarding Bank of America. The company already got money from the Government, then what these Masters of the Universe, these Financial Genius Wizards do, you see, is go and buy up companies with vast amounts of toxic garbage on their books - Merill and Countrywide. And now they need more money because that was obviously a bad decision. No shit. I'm speechless. We give these fuckers money, good real American tax payer dollars, which they sink into more failing schemes without pause and then they come back demanding more money? Burn them down.
Hollow Intellectual Drivel
A passing thought - why do our elites, in business, politics and Hollywood follow such empty headed weak ass intellectual drivel? Concepts like Scientology (see Hollywood), Ayn Rand inspired Libertarianism (see Wall Street and Ron Paul supporters ), NeoCon Economics and Political Philosophy (see the Republican Party ), Post/Neo-Maxism (see crazed leftist moonbats from Berkley ), Mormons for chrisakes.
I mean it's all hookum and BS and none of it ever works when tested against reality and all of the adherents respond with "Well, you weren't doing it right ..." Ah. Yes. Of course. The statement which is the last refuge of an ideologue. Yet our national dialogues are driven by these people. They're the talking heads that argue their comic book nonsense with each other on all the news shows day in and day out. I've given up on all major news media out of the US. No CNN. No ABC, CBS, NBC. Fox was never in the running. To quote Mark Twain, "If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed."
Adios, Bush
Ripped from the headlines
I'm terrible. I just couldn't help myself. I saw story over at Boing Boing, saw the pictures, and then read the article and the Photoshop Demon started whispering in my ear. Two more on the flipside.
