The Fury of Me

More Dumb Analogies

Yesterday we had Jay Paterno “re-reading” The Crucible and declaring its insights into human nature.  (I say re-reading because if he had ever read it before, he would know that Joe Paterno (Jay’s father) is not the witch being burned while good people stood by and did nothing.  Rather the child victims are the witches while Paterno stood by and did nothing.)  Today, we have Meghan McArdle of The Atlantic, who I find often times lives in a different reality than the rest of us, telling us the “Real Problem at Penn State” by declaring that most people wouldn’t have walked up and decked Sandusky in the head while he was raping a little boy in the showers because if we knew him and liked him.

Apparently, our moral compasses go all screwy and forgiving of completely heinous crimes if we like or know a person.  McArdle then proceeds to compare the Sandusky rapes to the Holocaust, spousal infidelity, abusing your own children, and supporting a political party that does things you both agree and disagree with.  Once again, I declare her reality must be different than the one I exist in.  If I saw my friend raping a little boy, I’d probably decide that I in fact didn’t know him/her as well as I thought, and I shouldn’t let this child continue taking his pounding while I figure out my moral footing.

Let’s go over McArdle’s horrible analogies.  The Holocaust and people claiming they would shelter Jews when in fact, less than 1% of Germans did.  While most probably did find the ethnic cleansing abhorrent, the ability to shelter Jews would have put them and their own family’s lives at risk.  Last I checked, McQueary was 28 at the time and Sandusky around 60 in a one on one confrontation with an 8 year old boy currently being anally raped. Not quite the same.

Spousal cheating: not a crime and definitely not something where a “victim” is likely to get a lifetime of scarring.  If telling your friends spouse that your friend is cheating is the same as telling the police a child rape has been committed, consider my mind blown.

Abusing children (non-sexually): While this can definitely spill over into criminal activity that may or may not require action on moral grounds, I would argue that without the sexual nature, the severity drops by magnitudes.  I’d say the number of people who have gone on to be functional and loving adults after having abusive parents is much larger than the number of children who have been raped or molested and been able to go one and be functional adults.  I could be wrong, but I feel okay with that statement.  This is the most accurate analogy that McArdle uses and she barely mentions it.

And finally, political parties. Really? Do I need to answer this?  I think everyone basically acknowledges that voting really comes down to the lesser to two evils and social issues.  Both parties are nearly identical economically, it’s the gays and abortions that separate them.  Unless our government is systematically raping children, or facilitating the rape of children somewhere, you might want to rethink this one.

Last thing, this is Sandusky’s lawyer.

Some Headlines

Why I like Joe.

Michele Bachmann is batshit crazy.

A take on the first week of Wimbledon that had me laughing out loud during the Andy Murray parts (who also is the player I'm rooting for).

The US' least democratic institution continues to erode democracy by helping turn the US into a coporatist banana republic through denying poor people free speech. You can also read my blog post on Arizona's campaign finance law here and my arguements, which are basically the same as the dissenting opinon, here.

One reason why baseball isn't the "American past time" anymore

When I was a small kid my dad used to take me to baseball and basketball games every once in a while. He would get tickets to seven basketball games a year and the occasional baseball game. That was before luxury boxes became the only concern of team and stadium owners. Now it is very difficult for the common person to go to a game. Decent seats are expensive, food and parking is a violent crime against your bank account, and the game itself is changed. Now you have to be a millionaire to go watch other millionaires play a game for a living.

This just increases the disconnect between professional athletes and owners and the fan-base that they once depended on. Now their main focus is to attract corporations and the affluent. And now the kicker, corporations get to write off what they pay for tickets to sporting events. This means that they don't pay taxes on the money they spend to go to these events and sit in the best seats. You and I have to pay taxes and then use after-tax dollars to go to these events. This is bullshit. I never realized, or at least thought about, this before. I'm completely offended. I don't think companies should get to write these expenses off no matter the amount at all. Baseball and big corporate can suck it. If this is the game they want to play, let's take away the exemption Major League Baseball has, allowing it to operate as a monopoly.

And baseball wonders why it gets its ass kicked by the NFL. Besides Bud Selig, the other problems are expense, and a regular season that needs to be shortened substantially. I played baseball my whole life and love the game. I love the strategy and scenario decision making. I hate the home run but love the squeeze bunt and opposite field line drive. I feel like the game itself has been bastardized by things other than steroids. I love watching college baseball and the Little League World Series. But those have nothing in common with the garbage that has become major league baseball and professional sports in general.

A Letter to San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department

San Francisco has long been known to be a city supportive of the alternative lifestyle and activities of its various residents.  From Bay to Breakers to the Folsom Street Fair, people from all different walks of life enjoy the freedom to participate in unique and fun activities.  Out of the several opportunities that San Francisco has to offer, adult kickball is by far one of my favorites.  While obviously not on the same scale as a Bay to Breakers, the World Adult Kickball Association (WAKA) has five different divisions in San Francisco consisting of roughly 1,200 players – 90% of which are San Francisco residents.

 

I had a hard time meeting people when I first moved to San Francisco. For being geographically small, San Francisco is a daunting city. At the encouragement of friend, I joined WAKA - my social life and overall enjoyment of San Francisco exploded.  It is a great way for people to meet, compete, spend time outdoors and have some fun.  WAKA players are professionals in fields that span managing local restaurants to biomedical research, finance to engineering, and residents that actively participate in their communities in various ways.

 

WAKA divisions play two seasons every year; one in the spring and one in the fall.  We play on various city fields including Golden Gate Park and Rossi Fields.  WAKA must pay San Francisco Recreation and Parks (R&P) over $10,000 throughout the year to obtain official permits to play.  Getting these permits is a time consuming, arduous experience with a bureaucracy that is stubborn and generally hostile to WAKA.  As a resident of San Francisco, I’m well aware of the general budget issues that the city is facing. I realize that $10,000 is a small amount to a large budget, but when the city is considering raising Muni passes yet again (I am a Muni rider too) as well as various taxes, I don’t understand why an appendage of the city would be so unwilling to grant revenue generating permits.

 

For those of you not familiar with the situation at hand, let me fill you in a little bit. R&P doesn’t allow WAKA players to consume alcohol on the fields while we’re playing.  That means no beer or liquor of any kind.  As a group of young adults playing on a Sunday afternoon, or a Wednesday or Thursday evening, there are the occasional few who generally enjoy a few beverages technically in violation of WAKA’s permit.  This is done, however, without commotion and attention and we have never left a field littered or trashed.  This is San Francisco after all - we are very conscious of our footprint.  During an all day playoff event at the end of the Fall 2009 season, a representative of R&P showed up and literally freaked out.  She immediately sent out a hyperbolic email making it sound like we recreated Woodstock on Rossi Fields and stated that she was ‘too scared for her safety’ to request that we remove the alcohol.  Let me clearly state: WAKA has never caused or been involved in any violence, fighting, vandalism, or anything of that nature.  In my five seasons of play, I’ve helped lost children find their parents, talked to interested tourists and people passing by, and been an overall positive influence on the environment around me.  This goes for every other player in the divisions as well. Generally speaking, if you are accountable and get a permit you are more restricted in what you can do.  If people just showed up, we could drink and do anything else we wanted without any accountability at all.  It seems like R&P has their focus backwards.

 

To make sure that WAKA players do not drink on the fields R&P has resorted to various draconian methods of enforcement.  They have required us to pay an off-duty police officer to literally sit in his car and watch us play kickball.  For the divisions that play in Golden Gate Park (right next to Hippy Hill and the Drum Circle) this seemed absolutely ridiculous given the illegal activity ignored in this park.  Drinking cheap beer in cans while playing kickball is not okay, but the almost constant gathering of so-called hippies and homeless people smoking pot and banging on their drums is fine with R&P.  While WAKA exists under the martial law of R&P, I have never seen these other activities cracked down on.  I personally could not care less if people smoke pot or play their drums or whatever, but the hypocrisy that exists in this situation is extremely frustrating. WAKA players are extremely positive members and active in the San Francisco community – we should be treated as such.

 

Last fall, one division donated $330 and nearly 100 pounds of food to the San Francisco Food Bank.  At the end of each season, WAKA leagues donate our equipment to schools and various after school programs around the Bay Area. WAKA encourages and exemplifies keeping the community together by helping each other out. We support local businesses that are independently owned and operated.  After games, each division has a sponsor bar that the majority of players frequent to purchase food and beverages.  Over a three month season this can bring in thousands of dollars for these establishments.  As the president of two divisions, I can honestly say that telling a bar that you are not going to be able to come anymore due to field changes is a big blow.  WAKA divisions can easily spend over $1,000 per game night at a sponsor bar – that can easily add up to $20,000 in lost revenue per year just for one league.  San Francisco has a lot to be proud of in WAKA. In addition to our philanthropic efforts, we sent several teams to the WAKA national championship tournament this past October.  ESPN was actually at the event, giving national recognition to adult kickball and the competing teams. San Francisco also has the second-ranked kickball team nationally.

 

Lastly, WAKA provides a support group of friends and acquaintances for people who are unemployed.  A good percentage of the 1,200 people registered to play kickball in the five leagues across San Francisco, CA experienced some form of unemployed in this last year or so. I can attest to this from personal experience.  Losing my job in December of 2008 left me feeling pretty depressed. WAKA gave me an activity to participate in and friends to spend time with, which made a huge difference to me.  WAKA provided other resources within our leagues and beyond to help people get through these uncertain times. One example is players helping each other to network, find and apply for jobs.  I can think of numerous instances when this happened. In this rough economic downfall, having as many positive outlets as possible should be encouraged not stifled.

 

In conclusion, I would urge San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department to ease up on WAKA and not make it so hard for us to obtain permits.  Please stop kicking us off fields like Moscone, where we have played for several seasons, due to preference to softball leagues that consist of firemen and policemen, many of which are not even San Francisco residents. WAKA provides a lot of positive factors to the community we all share.  We use fields that otherwise would go largely unused, and we pay for the right to use them in tax dollars and permit fees. The city budget can use every dollar it can get right now, and as a resident, I see Recreation and Parks behavior as wasteful and unnecessary.  I write this letter at a time when WAKA is trying to obtain permits for the Spring 2010 season and Recreation and Parks is stalling, throwing up hurdles and seemingly doing everything that they can to prevent us from playing.  I would encourage the department to rethink their position. Help active San Francisco residents get the permits they need to play instead of making it hard on players, businesses, and the communities which WAKA helps through various ways.

 

 

President of CA Vertigo and CA Redwoods Divisions

Hey Fatso, Shut Your Mouth!

On Super Bowl Sunday, the de facto American holiday, where more people than ever before sat in front of the TV to watch New Orleans finish it's recovery so that FEMA can now leave, Michelle Obama announced a new program to combat childhood obesity.  Leave it to retard Americans to get mad that somebody is trying to keep them healthy. 

Obviously, if people were capable of eating healthily and exercising, we wouldn't have an obesity epidemic. Children would not be developing diabetes at younger and younger ages. Clearly, people need some guidance. And if you want to argue that the government shouldn't be creating nutritional policy for schools and other institutions, then I will give you a waiver to sign that says you will pay for all medical issues you have from filling your face with crap. If you want to have a 300 pound child or be a one-ton human being, that's fine, but my tax dollars aren't going to pay to keep your fat ass alive. Why should I support your disgusting lifestyle? How are you going to earn a living when your hands and feet are being cut off because you get gangrene from poor circulation due to bathing and rubbing your face in Big Macs and refined sugar? You're not. You're going to be driving around the store in your Jazzy while loading up your attachable basket with Cheeze-Wiz and Ho-hos.

And if you're too fat to fit in one seat on a plane, you should have to buy two seats. If you need the special extendo-seatbelt you probably shouldn't be on the plane. Why should people who fit into their seat have to feel bad about being upset or requesting another seat because they want the space that they paid for in the already crowded airplane? If people don't want the government involved, then show that you can take care of yourself. Right now, the evidence is not on their side. Don't feed your five year old a frozen Hungry Man dinner. In fact, don't feed yourself a frozen Hungry Man dinner. Your body is telling you something when your stomach is so big that you can't reach the table anymore.

Admittedly, I was spoiled growing up. I never owned a microwave and my parents always cooked me dinner and made my lunches. I remember sitting in class during middle school right before lunch and could always smell when the school lunch truck arrived to deliver its daily dose of pizza and french fries. It smelled disgusting. My best friend growing up used to eat pizza and french fries more days than none. Explain to me how that covers a child's dietary requirements. It's absolutely ridiculous. If kids don't want to eat fruits and vegetables and a somewhat healthy lunch, it's probably better that they don't eat at all. Especially when the alternative is fried lard sticks.

As a final note, if you're offended by this, get over it and go for a walk. I am also clearly not talking about people with serious medical issues completely out of their control that influence their weight. I also feel for the people that have serious issues and eat to cope. I just think they need to find some kind of inner strength to figure out a better method and realize they are killing themselves.  I am also not talking about the slightly round or robust. I'm talking about the people that don't know how to put their fork down and shut their pieholes when they have to weigh themselves on a produce scale and don't care. These are the people the feed their kids a steady diet of Whoppers and Pizza Hut. These are the people who make obesity an epidemic. These are the people that Michelle Obama is trying to help.

So take a look in the mirror (push two together if you need to, then take a rest for five minutes), and accept the help graciously. If you're a Republican who just likes to whine about everything under the sun and still can't believe we have a black president, realize that this will save us money and cut back on the deficit issue that you have been beating like a dead horse. Nobody wants a so called "nanny-state", but the best way to get rid of one is by proving that we don't need one.