A very popular topic of conversation amongst the people I know seems to be about how a place is not as cool as it once was because of X reasons. Sometimes these reasons are more then valid, but a lot of the times they are just rather silly. In the interests of full discloser, I am just as as guilty of making up some truly moronic reasons not to go to a place anymore. However, the one that I find to be the most perplexing is this one, "that place has just gotten to white lately..." Now, if this was coming out of the mouth of someone who is not white, I would have two thoughts on the subject.
1) Wow, thats a rather fucked up raciest thing to say.
2) Yeah, I see what you mean.
However this tends to come out of the mouths of various Anglo-Saxon people in my life. Ironically I have the exact same reaction to this statement from them, but for wildly different reasons. Even more stunning is that I am supper annoyed when the later group says it. None of this is particularly fair, but it does happen. I am not even terribly sure why I would give a pass to all the people of the rainbow but one, but I tend to. I am not actually a fan of anyone using logic like this about a place, but I am even less of a fan of hypocrisy. I do not understand how anyone can fault a place or group of people for doing exactly what they are doing themselves. This is pure silliness. You can not be the loan cool individual of any group. Life simply does not work that way. Well, unless of course you are hanging out with a bunch of kids who like SKA a whole bunch, and you hate it. If that is the case, then you are light years cooler then your counter parts, but still not that cool since you are hanging out with people who like SKA...
Monday, May 21, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
On seat belts and other things of that ilk
My dear friend Sam and I were chatting this morning about various things in the world around us. The conversation went something like this.
me: users = bad
sam: NBA + David Stern = bad
This is not the middle of a conversation, this is how we start conversations with one another. This all swelled into a discussion about the concept of personal accountability.
See it seems more and more we have these hard and fast rules so that people don't actually have to think for themselves. The airport is a wonderful example of this. One jack ass tries to sneak a bomb on board a plane in his shoes and now we all have to take our shoes off every time we go to the airport. There is no leeway on this. This has also lead to things such as not being able to take things like wine tools or lighters on planes. This is absurd. I mean surely people are smart enough to decided what is truly dangerous and what is simply innocuous.
We see this everyday. I see it in the sports I watch, the restaurants/bars I frequent, and most certainly at work. We make all these silly hard and fast rules to remove any way for people to screw up. I certainly understand how you would not want to put someone in a position where they can fail, but do we really need to make the rules in such a way where there is no room for common sense to prevail?
Sam raised one of my favorite examples. We constantly hear about how Tennessee is starved for money, but we waste, what I can only guess are, millions of dollars on a campaign to let people know that you will get a ticket if you don't buckle your seat belt. Now, I understand these adds for maybe a year after the law was changed, but why in the name of God do we still need them? The other add that I find maddening is the add that points out that drinking and driving is a crime. Really? It is? I HAD NO IDEA!!!! We have to do these things so that people can't think for themselves. Well, I got some bad news for you. People who are going to drive drunk will not be convinced other wise by a million P.S.A.'s. Sorry just not happening.
me: users = bad
sam: NBA + David Stern = bad
This is not the middle of a conversation, this is how we start conversations with one another. This all swelled into a discussion about the concept of personal accountability.
See it seems more and more we have these hard and fast rules so that people don't actually have to think for themselves. The airport is a wonderful example of this. One jack ass tries to sneak a bomb on board a plane in his shoes and now we all have to take our shoes off every time we go to the airport. There is no leeway on this. This has also lead to things such as not being able to take things like wine tools or lighters on planes. This is absurd. I mean surely people are smart enough to decided what is truly dangerous and what is simply innocuous.
We see this everyday. I see it in the sports I watch, the restaurants/bars I frequent, and most certainly at work. We make all these silly hard and fast rules to remove any way for people to screw up. I certainly understand how you would not want to put someone in a position where they can fail, but do we really need to make the rules in such a way where there is no room for common sense to prevail?
Sam raised one of my favorite examples. We constantly hear about how Tennessee is starved for money, but we waste, what I can only guess are, millions of dollars on a campaign to let people know that you will get a ticket if you don't buckle your seat belt. Now, I understand these adds for maybe a year after the law was changed, but why in the name of God do we still need them? The other add that I find maddening is the add that points out that drinking and driving is a crime. Really? It is? I HAD NO IDEA!!!! We have to do these things so that people can't think for themselves. Well, I got some bad news for you. People who are going to drive drunk will not be convinced other wise by a million P.S.A.'s. Sorry just not happening.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
When you don't see eye to eye with a legand
Joe Morgan is one of the greatest baseball players alive. He has seen and done things I can't even imagine. However, the more I learn about the game the less I can bring myself to agree with him.
He is constantly talking about how the game was so much better in his day, and in some ways it was, but there are tons and tons of things about today's game that are better. Today I read him saying how pitchers were better when he played then they are now. Personally I think he's full of crap. If you would put Johan Santana in the league back then, his ERA very well may have gone negative. I mean that's just how good he is.
I wonder if he (like many other people in the game) feel as if somethings have passed them by and just feel as if those things are just simple not as good because they didn't get it. I am not saying Mr. Morgan isn't smart enough to get it, but I liken it to my dad with the remote control. No matter how many times I explain how to use the thing, he never seems to truly get it. Maybe that's how SABER is for older guys. I don't know a single person who believes players should be rewarded solely for stats (or else Royce Clayton would have been out of the game already) but that stats augment and increase our appreciation of the game.
He is constantly talking about how the game was so much better in his day, and in some ways it was, but there are tons and tons of things about today's game that are better. Today I read him saying how pitchers were better when he played then they are now. Personally I think he's full of crap. If you would put Johan Santana in the league back then, his ERA very well may have gone negative. I mean that's just how good he is.
I wonder if he (like many other people in the game) feel as if somethings have passed them by and just feel as if those things are just simple not as good because they didn't get it. I am not saying Mr. Morgan isn't smart enough to get it, but I liken it to my dad with the remote control. No matter how many times I explain how to use the thing, he never seems to truly get it. Maybe that's how SABER is for older guys. I don't know a single person who believes players should be rewarded solely for stats (or else Royce Clayton would have been out of the game already) but that stats augment and increase our appreciation of the game.
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