Random Questions: Race, Sports, and Everything In Between

* How many more examples does the Obama administration need before the Prez stops compromising for the sake of compromising and stands up to the conservative attack machine? There's a reason why you don't have that high 60's in the poll numbers, and why the progressive base thinks you're just another corporate sellout: you keep backing down when the GOP attacks you for trying to stay true to your campaign promises! Closing Guantanamo Bay? It should have been closed this year, but the blabbed that convicted terrorists would be locked up here in America, we - as we normally do here in America - react without thinking things through, and instead of using MSNBC's Lock-Up: San Quentin, or Manson as examples of high-class prison inmates that have not escaped, let alone see the light of day for an hour or two, you backed off. Now last week, the head of the Department of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, fired Shirley Sherrod because a video circa March of this year at a fund-raising dinner for the NAACP stating that she didn't help a white farmer as best she could because other black farmers were given the shaft so many times before, and given her ugly past brushes with racist whites. Right-wing blogger Andrew Breitbart posed the video on his site, Fox News got a hold of it, screamed from the highest mountaintop that the White House in engaged in reverse discrimination, and she was fired on the spot...only to learn that the tape was deliberately tampered with to make the case that she is racist against whites. You can't keep running away from these fights, Mr. President, because they'll keep taking their shots if you do. You need to stand up for yourself and your party's agenda and start firing back. I'm not telling you to fight in the same manner as the conservatives do, I'm saying knock them around a few times, so that they, and the progressive base understand that you're not going to back down anymore. When that happens, the base and the Democratic Party will unite under your banner and so will the American people. If there's one thing I've learned under the Bush Jr. era, its that Americans respect a president who won't back down from what they believe is the correct and right path for the country. Bush Jr.'s ideas and policies royally screwed the working class and caused great strife to our allies abroad, but I do give him this much credit: the man didn't back down, in fact he got many of his policies passed with his party alone, and brought some Democrats into the fold because they would have looked foolish not to join W. But until you start standing up for your beliefs and stop backing down, you're going to look like a leader who's too afraid to start swinging when the other side picks a fight.

* Will Brett Farve quit the act and announce that he's coming back for the 2010 season!? We know you're going to come back, because you're notorious for holding a football team hostage when they've invested time and money into your primadona ass. We've been through one ego-driven player who created a one-hour event called "The Decision" as LeBron James announced that he's teaming up with Bosh and D-Wade in Miami, so spare us "The Decision Part II", get your gear on, go out and win the NFC North division like the analysis expect the Minnesota Vikings to do, then at the NFC Conference game, throw a game-changing INT that the Falcons or the Cowboys will take advantage of and go on to advance to Super Bowl XLV.

* Are we that surprised over Mel Gibson's released racist and misogynist rants to his ex-girlfriend? I mean, the guy did go on an anti-Semetic rant on the Jewish people back in 2007...doesn't that tell you that he's a hateful person, although excellent film director and actor he may have been? The man has been battling alcohol abuse in his private life...should that tell you something about the man who gave us Mad Max, Braveheart, and The Passion of the Christ? Let's not act so shocked that Gibson has been exposed as a man with racial issues and a drinking problem to boot...again.

* Can the assholes in life stop picking on the so-called "outcasts"? If Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Michael Cera aren't examples enough that the losers, nerds, and the other kids that weren't cool in high school always get the money, the respect, the admiration, and the girls in the grand scheme of things, then add to the list, beating hate pastor Fred Phelps and his "God Hate Fags!" tour, at their own game when they came to town at the annual San Diego Comic-Con last week. Instead being prepared to chant "God Hates Dorks Wearing Star Wars gear!", attendees counter-protested the small group of hate-mongers. I'll let the following pictures tell the story:







Bottom line: start being nicer to the least among you in Math class, because the dork with the coke-bottle glasses and a vast knowledge of all things happening in anime, may be your boss in 15 years.

Random Questions: Sex, Politics, and Riots n' Roll Edition

Last week marked a huge milestone, as President Obama and House Speaker Pelosi made history and passed health care reform in this country; the first time any president has been able to do so in a century, and the largest domestic achievement since Lyndon Johnson passed Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960's. Conservatives, meanwhile, did what they normally do when they come up short: throw a tantrum by way of threatening to repeal the bill, or egging on the already messed-up followers who take the right-wing rhetoric too seriously. And Tiger Woods has competition for world's biggest horndog/scumbag husband who can't keep his dick in his pants for 5 minutes. Here's the latest installment of Jonathan's Random Questions dealing with the week that was.

- Now that President Obama finally passed health care reform, can the President now abandon the notion that the GOP has any interests in working with him in a bipartisan manner? The fact that conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh said that he wanted the president to fail should have given him the signal that being a post-partisan president wasn't going to be in the cards just because he harped about bridging the partisan divide in America. The moment he took the Oath of Office, the Republicans have been about one thing: No. No to passing health care reform (a government takeover that will kill defenseless, sweet, old granny!). No to Cap and Trade (global warming is sci-fi baloney!). No to 80-90 appointments Obama wants for certain positions in the Cabinet the haven't voted on or blocked entirely (he needs these people to carry out his agenda? Over our dead bodies, he will!). We need Obama to fight for the things he campaigned on: Reforming Wall Street, repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, closing the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, etc. The GOP have made the cynical bet to be obstructionists, rather than acting as the loyal opposition party, with one purpose in mind: bringing your presidency down and taking back the White House. Its far past time to bury bi-partisanship and tell the GOP, like you did on Sunday: to kiss your black ass, we're going to move foreword with you, and drag you along, if need be.

- ...and speaking of the Grandstanding Obstructionist Pricks, why does this party continue to act like a group of toddlers throwing a fit when their favorite toy is taken from them? Its one thing to be the loyal opposition; to provide alternative solutions to the issues facing our country, and to do it that challenges ideas, encourages debate and always shows respect and class for the other side is what's desperately needed more than ever in D.C. The way the GOP is doing it - offering zero solutions, and egging on its base of idiotic, lock-step bigots, homophobes, and reactionaries with the battle cry that President Obama is a Marxist who's coming to take away your guns, kill granny through offering her some decent health care (OMG, the bastard!) and fuck your white wives and barely legal daughters - is not providing respectful opposition. Its a party that's saying, "We're willing to do whatever it takes to destroy this President in order to get back into power, and if the country suffers, so be it, for the ends justify our righetous means." It is my greatest hope the Republicans, for once, act on John McCain's slogan of "Country First!", tell AM radio clowns Beck, Limbaugh, and the like to shove it, and work with us to solve some of these problems our country is facing.

- This random question is a two-parter: a.) why do call famous husbands, who cheat on their famous wives, monsters? Adolf Hitler, Idi Amen, Joseph Stalin, etc. - those people were monsters. Reality TV star Jesse James isn't a monster, and neither is Tiger Woods. The pair of 'em are just lyin', cheatin' bastards who'll have sex with anything that resembles a vagina. And b.) if your married and you're still itching to chase down babes and have hot, wild, kinky sex with 'em, why the hell are you married in the first place!? If the drama between Elin-Tiger and Sandra-Jesse should teach men everywhere something, it's that if you're going to continue to act like a man-whore who has contacts of all the women you're still fucking on your Blackberry, long after the priest announces you and your fiancee as husband and wife, then you need to think twice before you tie the knot.

Random Questions: The Weekend Edition

I'm going to shake up my edition of Jonathan's Random Questions. Instead of me ranting and raving, I want the Count and RalphyFan to join the fun. Just ask your question on page and explain why this question either pisses you off or has you generally stumped. I'll be updating more over the weekend, and I hope the Count and RalphyFan join in as well.

- Will the conservatives please make up their fucking minds about what they hate President Obama for?! At the Conservative Political Action Conference today, former Bush lawyer for the Department of Justice Viet Dinh actually criticized the president for killing too many enemy combatants. I'm not making that up.

"Why have executions increased?" asked Viet Dinh, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and one of the authors of the USA Patriot Act. Dinh complained that "the president and vice president expound this fact as a fact that they are actually successful in war."

"That doesn't mean I think they are not illegitimate," he added. "No, we have every right to kill the other side's warriors. But at what cost? When we do not have an effective detention policy the only option we have is to kill them before we can detain them. And if we don't detain them, we don't know what they know and what they are up to."

Are you fucking serious?! For the last eight years, the Bush policy to handling terror suspect was to shoot and/or torture first, ask questions later. If international law, and the Congress disagreed with said policy? Fuck em, i'm gonna do it my way. Now that a Democrat is running the show, you're concerned about our world image and how we fight radical Islam? Bull!


- What does it say about our media when most of the networks actually covered Tiger Woods's apology for being a bigger man-whore than Bill Clinton and John Edwards combined? Tiger's 13-minute apology to his friends and his fans was, of course, covered on ESPN and ESPN2, because that makes perfect sense. He's an icon of the world of sports. Then, I flipped to MSNBC, and guess who was on the tube? Tiger. Same story with CNN. And CBS. And ABC. Exactly, what was the appeal of Tiger on CNN? Was he also going to admit that he and Mark Sanford were both taking trips to Argentina simultaneously? Surly there had to have been other stories for ABC and MSNBC to cover besides this.

Weekend Dawn Patrol Edit from RalphyFan:

OK, Jonathan, I'm up for it! Returning in somewhat saner mode to a topic that got my goat (and that I deleted) earlier this week...WTF is up with former Georgia Congresscritter Bob Barr? Yes, I get that he's a self-described conservative (who got booed, coincidentally, just yesterday at this year's CPAC confab: go figure). Yes, I get that he's written on the Clinton years as a "wasted legacy" - we should all have such a profitable "wasted legacy," methinks, compared to today's economic wasteland.

So now he's on such shaky ideological ground, he has to take on the comparatively safe bugbear of Paganism in order to regain credibility.

Barr...come on, pal. It was under the BUSH administration - a move I never honestly saw coming, to be frank - that Paganism/Wicca was recognized as a legitimate religion and authorized for memorialization on servicepeople's tombstones.

But Barr's on the warpath, railing against the establishment of a stone circle at the Air Force Academy in CO as excessive tolerance, just because he finds distasteful the notion of following someone "who dances around a circle of stones in the woods carrying a lighted candle...into battle."

I wonder if he ever thought about how some servicepeople would find the notion of following those who fall to the floor in church, shrieking incoherently in "tongues," into battle. Or following those who ritually consumed the flesh and blood of their deity on a weekly basis, into battle.

The fact of the matter is, military service to one's country is not confined to any one faith, any handful of faiths, or any lack of faith thereof...the opinions of the Boykins of this world to the contrary.

Accommodating multiple religious beliefs amongst those who feel called to serve their country in a military role is a matter completely separate from the fitness of those individuals to serve, or to lead, or to be followed wholeheartedly into conflict.

Barr demonstrates a complete inability to differentiate his personal religious convictions from his patriotism; and, further, an inability to acknowledge that someone who shares the latter might not share the former.

And that is shameful.

Random Questions: The "Tea Party" Edition

In this installment of my Random Questions segment on B&D, I examine this weeks tea-bagging convention in Nashville, Tennessee. So sit back and feel free to respond to said questions.

- Can we please call the tea party group for what they really are: a bunch of hypocritical, paranoid, reactionary, bigoted white folks who are being told, through Fox News and conservative talk radio, that President Obama is the second coming of Joseph Stalin? These people are protesting over the out-of-control spending that has taken place in Washington D.C., but have only began to raise their voices four months after Former President George W. Bush left office. So where were these group of patriots when he and Vice-President Cheney handed out billions dollars in tax breaks to the wealthiest 1% of Americans, lied the country into an unnecessary war of choice in Iraq, and handed huge sums of bailout money to the financial powerhouses who, thanks to years of unregulated activity on Wall Street and the private sector, almost scattered the country's economic infrastructure to the wind? Oh, its a Republican president, so he gets off the hook for fucking up the country for eight years. More importantly, these angry rednecks are beginning to see the writing on the wall: that our country is rapidly changing, and my generation has little or no need for the old prejudices or backwards-thinking social norms or customs the teabaggers are trying hard to cling to like a high school girl hangs onto her crush at the junior prom.

- Exactly what is it about gay people that scares some the tea-bagging community? This afternoon, Roy Moore, the chief justice of Alabama's Supreme Court, had this to say about the president and his strides for equal right for gays and lesbians.

"[Obama] has ignored our history and our heritage, arrogantly declaring to the world that we are no longer a Christian nation. He has elevated immorality to a new level, setting aside the entire month of June to celebrate gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender pride. He now threatens to change our law to allow homosexuality in our military ...

First, we are not a Christian nation! Just because the vast majority of Americans identify themselves with the Christian faith, it does not mean that the country, on a national level, adopts your religion! Plus, Congress would have made an amendment into Constitution recognizing the nation has adopted said religion decades ago. More to the point, why do rednecks fear the gay man, the lesbian woman? Do these people believe that they're carrying some disease that will spread to the rest of the population? Or is their fear based on the fact they do not fit the mold of what their world view should be for both genders?

- To my Republican friends: is this really the way you want to attempt come back into power? Off of the politics of spreading hate, fear and bigotry? When Tom Tancredo, the former Congressman from Colorado gave the opening keynote speech yesterday, stated that Obama wouldn't have become president if there was a literacy test in order to vote, do you endorse his words? Can you honestly look me in the face and claim that you support Tancredo's desire to bring back the Jim Crow-era racism that robbed millions of African-American men and women the right to participate in our democratic process? When I hear of stories of neighbors hanging Obama in effigy, or when I see right-wing supporters carrying signs that link the sitting president to Hitler, Stalin, etc. and misspelled racial epithets about the president, do you actually support this kind of extreme hate speech? Or do you turn a blind eye to such dangerous and reckless speech, that in your minds, the ends justify the means, as long as you reclaim power on Capital Hill? These people represent your party as a whole, whether you care to accept that reality or not.

Random Questions: What the f@#k!? Edition

From Taylor Swift's surprising victory at Sunday night's Grammy Awards, to the jaw-dropping results of identified Republicans across the nation, here are my questions to the stories that had me saying either 'Oh my God!' or 'What the f@^k!?'

- This question is repetitive, but it does bear repeating: How can the base of lock-step, Fox News Republicans be this damn stupid?? A poll released by Daily Kos/Research 2000 reveals some startling numbers about the base that I thought couldn't be any more oblivious to their own head scratching stupidity. Here are some of the results:

• 39% of Republicans want President Obama to be impeached.

He's been in office for a year, for christsakes! Let him plunge America into an unnecessary war based on lies, subvert the Constitution to suit his needs, and ignore a national disaster for two weeks before we talk about impeachment.

• 63% think Obama is a socialist.

This isn't anything new. These morons believe anyone with a functioning brain who questions 1/4 of their "conventional wisdom" must be a card-carrying commie, or a fellow traveler.

• 31% want contraception to be outlawed.

Just what we need: no protection, so idiots are allowed to breed and make more idiots! Jesus, doesn't anyone in that base understand the concept of "pulling out?"

• 73% think gay people should not be allowed to teach in public schools.

Exactly what do these idiots believe will happen if Mr. Garrisan teaches the little ones? On second thought....

- Why did Kanye have to open his trap five months ago? Last September, rap superstar and egomaniac Kanye West went up onstate at the MTV VMA's and announce his disappointment that Beyocne didn't win a moonman for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)," by ruining Taylor Swift's moment. Thanks to his unbelievable stupidity and arrogance, Taylor Swift won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards on Sunday. Dude, all of this could have been avoided: your no-show at the Grammys, your stupid ass stunt, Barack Obama calling you a jackass off-camera, and Swift losing to Lady Gaga for the title. This is your monster, Mr. West. Now we all have to put up with it. Thanks, dickhead.

- Late Edit by Jonathan: Exactly what the hell is the Apple iPad? What is it supposed to do? And why the hell do we need it? I love just about everything Apple CEO Steve Jobs has created, but his latest game-changing invention has me stumped. Is it a next-gen notebook PC? Is supposed to be an electronic notepad? It looks mega-cool, but I don't see the need to go out and buy this.

Random Questions: The Sports Edition

It's a new year, and i'm bringing back Random Questions! (Think the Count's "The View From My Ass" editorials) We're in the middle of some of the best weeks in the sports world, and already some guys are making waves - most of them for all the wrong reasons, and I'm here to call 'em out. I'll have more to say tomorrow, but for the moment, enjoy and don't forget: you can comment on my questions as well.

- Even if you're joking, why would you bring a gun into an arena and pretend to threaten a teammate over gambling issues? By now, you know the tale of Washington Wizards point guard Arenas, the idiot that brought guns to the locker room, knowing that he was violating NBA rules about bringing in firearms into a stadium. Now the story gets worse: Arenas drew a handgun at his teammate, Javaris Crittenton, over gambling debts. Not only was the gun loaded with a bullet, but the guns he brought into the arena were unregistered as well. Didn't athletes learn from Plaxico Burress' mishap to not carry firearms on their person? For fuck's sake, you are a wealthy athlete, if you feel that your celebrity makes you a walking bullseye, then hire a damn bodyguard! Adding insult to injury, this jackass make a joke about his incident during a warm-up to Washington's game against the Philadelphia 76'ers in the form of mimicking his fingers for guns and pretending to shoot them. This ignorant dumbfuck deserved what he's got: an indefinite suspension without pay and a soon-to-be trial, and what he might receive - jail time.

- Why do you brag about crashing the party when you have virtually no business being there, and then saying you're hot shit, when all evidence suggests otherwise? Rex Ryan and the New York Jets are in the NFL playoffs at a record of 9-7 and are seeded fifth in the AFC postseason bracket, courtesy of coach Jim Caldwell's decision that going for 16-0 didn't mean squat to the Indianapolis Colts as a squad, and the Cincinnati Bengals shutting it down after capturing the AFC North crown and dealing with the sudden death of wide receiver Chris Henry. Most people would call that being really lucky and coming through the back door, but to coach Ryan, it means New York should be the favorite to win Super Bowl 44. Give me a break. The only reason you're in is because the Colts and the Bengals took out their starters and game 'em a freebie after both teams locked up everything they wanted. Sure, you've got the league's no.1 overall defense and the league's no.1 overall running game, but you also have Mark Sanchez. A rookie quarterback who thrown 20 int's this year - the second-most of any quarterback in football. And with the offensive firepower Indy and San Diego have, there's little chance the Jets will be able to stay stride for stride in the next round. I will, however, give credit to how the Jets won today, it was an impressive playoff road win, and they are playing like what they are: underdogs trying to turn heads. Rex, your team are the underdogs. Embrace this role. Don't mouth off that you're team is swinging the biggest dick when it's really only 4 inches long.

Edit From The Count:

Nebraska started their conference portion of their schedule today in basketball with an 11 point loss to Texas A&M. Now I can't say that was a total surprise because A&M was thought of a better team and it was at A&M. As the game wore on it became apparent that this was a game that Nebraska had a shot of winning if they only played smart basketball. They didn't. In fact they folded down the stretch quite badly. Despite the fact that NU was 12-3 coming out of non-conference play most people thought they would struggle to win 7 or 8 games with a conference record of 5-11 or 6-10 being more realistic. This is do to the fact that many of their non-conference games were against "directional" schools that Jonathan, ET and a few of our friends could have beaten. There will not be another gimme on the schedule from this point on and road wins will be few and far between. They could have "stolen" one tonight quite easily but they didn't make the plays down the stretch to get it done. I hope this game doesn't come back to bite them in the ass.

I am a dinosaur in many ways with my tastes and beliefs so it should come as no surprise that I am one of the remaining few against a playoff system for college football and I think the fact that the NFL playoffs are giving us 3 rematches of last weeks game is a prime example of why I hate playoffs for College football. How many teams either out of playoff contention or with their spots already secured just didn't bother to show up last week? Do you really want this for College Football?

However this does not mean I think the Bowl System is flawless. Especially the scheduling of bowl games which I think is absurd. Though never a totally strict concept it use to be the later you played the better your team and your bowl was. We should get back to this concept again. Now it doesn't have to be to the letter strict, in fact that would almost be impossible, who is to say the Gator Bowl most years is better or worse than the Holiday Bowl? However it should follow some guideline of common sense. Troy playing Central Michigan in the GMAC bowl in Mobile should not be January 6th. Arkansas playing East Carolina in Memphis should not be on January 2nd. New Years should be reserved for high end non BCS games. Cotton, Gator, Capital One ETC starting January 2nd the BCS games should start. There could be a game on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and then have the National Championship game on the 7th, 8th or 9th depending on the schedule. Playing January use to mean something for a college football team and it should again.