Thanks for the memories, Flash.
Monday, September 05, 2005
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Ending on a positive note.
Oh how, I've waited for this post.
After withstanding a lot of trash talk in April because of the Dodgers' hot start and the Giants' abyssmal one, the Giants have finally surpassed both the Dodgers and Diamondbacks in the span of two nights. And we're back in second place.
Supposedly, Bonds is rejoining the team next week in Los Angeles.
Think the Padres are scared? They should be.
After withstanding a lot of trash talk in April because of the Dodgers' hot start and the Giants' abyssmal one, the Giants have finally surpassed both the Dodgers and Diamondbacks in the span of two nights. And we're back in second place.
Supposedly, Bonds is rejoining the team next week in Los Angeles.
Think the Padres are scared? They should be.
Cal 41, Sac State 3
That score doesn't tell the whole story. Cal scored 31 unanswered in the second half. They had a 10-3 lead at the half.
Did I mention starting QB Nate Longshore broke his leg and may be out for the season? Or that our backup QB, Joe Ayoob, went 0-10 and did more overthrowing that the Bush administration? Or that we finished the game with our third-string QB, who played fullback for us last season? We also had a lot of trouble handing the ball off to Lynch - don't these guys practice?
The funny thing is we'll probably move up, as several teams ahead of us lost. And next week's opponent, Washington, lost already. Maybe we won't have too much trouble with them.
Could be a long season if Ayoob doen't step up. I don't think Lynch has much of a Heisman chance if we can't win at a regular clip.
Did I mention starting QB Nate Longshore broke his leg and may be out for the season? Or that our backup QB, Joe Ayoob, went 0-10 and did more overthrowing that the Bush administration? Or that we finished the game with our third-string QB, who played fullback for us last season? We also had a lot of trouble handing the ball off to Lynch - don't these guys practice?
The funny thing is we'll probably move up, as several teams ahead of us lost. And next week's opponent, Washington, lost already. Maybe we won't have too much trouble with them.
Could be a long season if Ayoob doen't step up. I don't think Lynch has much of a Heisman chance if we can't win at a regular clip.
Late Registration
(Katrina is frustrating. I can't give blood right now because I donated platelets too recently. Going to have to give good ol' American cash.)
Anyone catch Kanye West on the telethon last night? Holy crap!
Kanye West Rips Bush at Hurricane Aid Show
West went off the script and said, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." He also said America is set up "to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible."
Good for him.
It takes major guts in this country to stand up to the administration. Kanye has new album out. Remember what happened to the Dixie Chicks? It was like career suicide when they came out against G-Dub.
I don't care if maybe it wasn't the right time or place for him to say that, or if his comments are off base. The fact is he said what I know lots of people are thinking. Just because he's doing a benefit for charity doesn't mean he should keep his mouth shut like a good boy and stick to the script.
I like Kanye's first album, College Dropout. In my circle of friends, I was alone in that respect. I felt it was a good album, but that the effort behind it - to return hip-hop to a better state - was admirable. Lately, I've been getting excited about his follow-up, Late Registration. West's been talking about wanting his album to be our generation's Song in the Key of Life or What's Going On. He's called for an end to gay-bashing in hip-hop, something that's always bugged me when trying to turn people on to hip-hop. His first single, "Diamonds of sierra Leone," was a socially-conscious take on the diamond industry (when's the last time you remember a socially conscious hip-hop song since Public Enemy stopped making good music?). Sure beats the typical 50-Cent-beef-with-everybody and generic-crunk-rapper-of-the-week flavor that's out there now.
If you liked Dropout, Registration doesn't disappoint. It's the most ambitious hip-hop album in some time. I think that's what I like the most about Kanye; it's that he's not afraid to push himself and others to make better music and to get away from the staleness that is pervasive in today's corporate radio world. He doesn't always succeed (he's gotten better, but his mic skills still need work) but that doesn't stop him from taking risks.
It's not the greatest hip-hop album ever, but compared to what's out there, this is the best thing going. Hip-hop is in a serious rut, hopefully this will shake things up and create some competition.
Anyone catch Kanye West on the telethon last night? Holy crap!
Kanye West Rips Bush at Hurricane Aid Show
West went off the script and said, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." He also said America is set up "to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible."
Good for him.
It takes major guts in this country to stand up to the administration. Kanye has new album out. Remember what happened to the Dixie Chicks? It was like career suicide when they came out against G-Dub.
I don't care if maybe it wasn't the right time or place for him to say that, or if his comments are off base. The fact is he said what I know lots of people are thinking. Just because he's doing a benefit for charity doesn't mean he should keep his mouth shut like a good boy and stick to the script.
I like Kanye's first album, College Dropout. In my circle of friends, I was alone in that respect. I felt it was a good album, but that the effort behind it - to return hip-hop to a better state - was admirable. Lately, I've been getting excited about his follow-up, Late Registration. West's been talking about wanting his album to be our generation's Song in the Key of Life or What's Going On. He's called for an end to gay-bashing in hip-hop, something that's always bugged me when trying to turn people on to hip-hop. His first single, "Diamonds of sierra Leone," was a socially-conscious take on the diamond industry (when's the last time you remember a socially conscious hip-hop song since Public Enemy stopped making good music?). Sure beats the typical 50-Cent-beef-with-everybody and generic-crunk-rapper-of-the-week flavor that's out there now.
If you liked Dropout, Registration doesn't disappoint. It's the most ambitious hip-hop album in some time. I think that's what I like the most about Kanye; it's that he's not afraid to push himself and others to make better music and to get away from the staleness that is pervasive in today's corporate radio world. He doesn't always succeed (he's gotten better, but his mic skills still need work) but that doesn't stop him from taking risks.It's not the greatest hip-hop album ever, but compared to what's out there, this is the best thing going. Hip-hop is in a serious rut, hopefully this will shake things up and create some competition.
Katrina
Lots of things on my mind this week, but I'll start with the most important.
It's been a pretty rough week for America. Hurricane Katrina left its mark on our country, destroying one of our most culturally-rich cities in its wake. It's unfathomable that thousands of people survived the hurricane, but are stranded or dying because they cannot receive help. This event has deeply saddened people all over the country, and all over the world.
But not me. I'm furious.
When the hurricane blew through, initial reports indicated Biloxi, Mississippi had been hardest hit. Then details surfaced about New Orleans and the winds from Katrina tearing holes in the roof of the Louisiana Superdome. But the storm blew through and although property damage was widespread, it seemed that would be the end of it.
Then the levees broke.
The streets of New Orleans began to fill up with water. People at the Superdome began to get antsy as power failed and the bathrooms backed up. Oil rigs were destroyed and a pipeline was on fire. Reports of looting started to come in.
And the government did nothing.
The next day, anarchy supposedly broke out in New Orleans. There were rapes and looting and people attacking the cops. New Orleans cops shifted from rescuing people to fighting looters. How could this be happening in America. The most prosperous nation in the world? I asked Rhonda, "where the hell is the National Guard?"
Oh yeah, Iraq.
I started to get angry. It seems like we have no problem sending people to foreign nations (that we invaded, of course), but we don't have troops to send to our own country when something goes wrong.
The next morning, Bush sent in the National Guard. So you think I'd be happy.
Well, where the hell were they three days ago?
Finally, the Guard arrived and New Orleans is a ghost town (literally). But now comes word that people in rural Louisiana may be stranded and in even more danger, as they have neither communication with the outside world nor the National Guard in their town.
Katrina is the worst disaster since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. But this wasn't an earthquake. And it's not 1906. We knew about Katrina in advance, and we knew it was going to be huge. So what went wrong?
Most of the people stuck in Louisiana still are Black. But they're also poor. On CNN, they said 27% of people live in poverty, and 29% don't have a car. Even if they do have a car, has anyone seen the price of gas lately? Those people couldn't leave on their own if they wanted to.
For all the talk of looters, there were probably some people taking advantage of the situation. But the media reporting of the situation was completely skewed from the beginning. Many, if not most, of the looters were taking away food and water. If they weren't Black, would they have been labeled as looters?
Why was our government so slow to act? One theory is that we were tapped out because of the Iraq War. But if that was so, where did we find those 7,000 troops that got sent a couple days ago? Is it because the victims are poor and Black and not the type of people who vote in every election? When the Twin Towers fell on 9/11, we sure got there real quick. I hate to think that could be the reason, but it's probably worth considering.
The best theory I have is that after 9/11, America has shifted it's entire focus to fighting terrorism. We are prepared for the worst attack on our sovereign nation, but not for far-more-frequent natural disasters. (Why is FEMA in the Department of Homeland Security?) I have been reading Steven Levitt's Freakonomics lately and it's a fascinating read. Levitt says a child is 100 times more likely to die in a house with a swimming pool than a house with a gun, but that since a child dying from a gunshot is more traumatizing than drowning, it receives much more attention. It is a perfect analogy to what is happening in America under the Bush Administration.
Katrina and the disintegration of New Orleans needs to call attention to the actions of the Bush Administration over the past five years. It may be too late to elect someone else, but it's not to late for our Congressional representatives to start doing their jobs and challenging the policies of our President.
This can't continue. If there's an earthquake in the Bay Area and I'm trapped here for a week, will the National Guard come to help me, or will they leave me to die?
It's been a pretty rough week for America. Hurricane Katrina left its mark on our country, destroying one of our most culturally-rich cities in its wake. It's unfathomable that thousands of people survived the hurricane, but are stranded or dying because they cannot receive help. This event has deeply saddened people all over the country, and all over the world.
But not me. I'm furious.
When the hurricane blew through, initial reports indicated Biloxi, Mississippi had been hardest hit. Then details surfaced about New Orleans and the winds from Katrina tearing holes in the roof of the Louisiana Superdome. But the storm blew through and although property damage was widespread, it seemed that would be the end of it.
Then the levees broke.
The streets of New Orleans began to fill up with water. People at the Superdome began to get antsy as power failed and the bathrooms backed up. Oil rigs were destroyed and a pipeline was on fire. Reports of looting started to come in.
And the government did nothing.
The next day, anarchy supposedly broke out in New Orleans. There were rapes and looting and people attacking the cops. New Orleans cops shifted from rescuing people to fighting looters. How could this be happening in America. The most prosperous nation in the world? I asked Rhonda, "where the hell is the National Guard?"
Oh yeah, Iraq.
I started to get angry. It seems like we have no problem sending people to foreign nations (that we invaded, of course), but we don't have troops to send to our own country when something goes wrong.
The next morning, Bush sent in the National Guard. So you think I'd be happy.
Well, where the hell were they three days ago?
Finally, the Guard arrived and New Orleans is a ghost town (literally). But now comes word that people in rural Louisiana may be stranded and in even more danger, as they have neither communication with the outside world nor the National Guard in their town.
Katrina is the worst disaster since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. But this wasn't an earthquake. And it's not 1906. We knew about Katrina in advance, and we knew it was going to be huge. So what went wrong?
Most of the people stuck in Louisiana still are Black. But they're also poor. On CNN, they said 27% of people live in poverty, and 29% don't have a car. Even if they do have a car, has anyone seen the price of gas lately? Those people couldn't leave on their own if they wanted to.
For all the talk of looters, there were probably some people taking advantage of the situation. But the media reporting of the situation was completely skewed from the beginning. Many, if not most, of the looters were taking away food and water. If they weren't Black, would they have been labeled as looters?
Why was our government so slow to act? One theory is that we were tapped out because of the Iraq War. But if that was so, where did we find those 7,000 troops that got sent a couple days ago? Is it because the victims are poor and Black and not the type of people who vote in every election? When the Twin Towers fell on 9/11, we sure got there real quick. I hate to think that could be the reason, but it's probably worth considering.
The best theory I have is that after 9/11, America has shifted it's entire focus to fighting terrorism. We are prepared for the worst attack on our sovereign nation, but not for far-more-frequent natural disasters. (Why is FEMA in the Department of Homeland Security?) I have been reading Steven Levitt's Freakonomics lately and it's a fascinating read. Levitt says a child is 100 times more likely to die in a house with a swimming pool than a house with a gun, but that since a child dying from a gunshot is more traumatizing than drowning, it receives much more attention. It is a perfect analogy to what is happening in America under the Bush Administration.
Katrina and the disintegration of New Orleans needs to call attention to the actions of the Bush Administration over the past five years. It may be too late to elect someone else, but it's not to late for our Congressional representatives to start doing their jobs and challenging the policies of our President.
This can't continue. If there's an earthquake in the Bay Area and I'm trapped here for a week, will the National Guard come to help me, or will they leave me to die?
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