What does Samus Aran have to do with Chris Brown?

A lot, apparently.

For some reason Chris Brown's worthless ass has been in the news again today, so much so that you would indeed believe that the last metroid is in captivity, and yes, the galaxy is very much at peace.

But it isn't.

Chris Brown's apology, like Michael Vick's before it, is just words. Until I see Chris Brown helping out battered women of his own volition and on his own dime, I won't believe he's truly sorry for beating Rihanna. It's a bit like when George Bush came on television and said he was sorry for the Iraq war, how many of the current Chris Brown apologists told everyone to back-off of George Bush? The answer is not many.

Now where does Samus Aran, the chief protagonist of Nintendo's "Metroid" series, fit into this discussion? Well, Samus is a female. To some, Samus is a proper -- don't get me started on the Supergirl crap -- female version of Superman. Samus doesn't conform to anything, she does everything. She's hyper-capable and self-respecting. The polar opposite of female Chris Brown apologists.

Like George Bush's war, what Chris Brown did is not okay. You only hate George Bush because you think you're supposed to, in fact, war aside, I bet most Chris Brownistas can't name one Bush policy, and I'm the most anti-Bush person you'll find (see my political compass). We will not stop talking about what he did, domestic violence is a serious issue that needs to be openly discussed at every opportunity, too many men get away with it because they use fear to keep women from speaking out about it -- a tactic attempted by Chris Brown himself.

So no, we won't "drop it".

Moving a mess isn't cleaning the house

So, Amity Gardens is getting a Wal-Mart supercenter. Good for Amity Gardens, but it's not exactly "breathing new life" into East Charlotte, is it?

There's already a Wal-Mart less than two miles northeast of Amity Gardens at Eastway Crossing, an equally - if not more - economically depressed area of East Charlotte. That Wal-Mart is likely to become another empty big box, something which has become a symbol of inner Charlotte outwith uptown. That Wal-Mart serves as the primary anchor to a shopping center which has already lost two of it's four anchor tenants (a Winn-Dixie and a Phar-Mor which later became a Goody's and closed again) leaving Food Lion as it's main anchor. Food Lion will obviously have to compete with the new Super Wal-Mart as it has food in addition to the other crap it sells. Yep, Eastway Crossing is pretty well screwed.

Lets look at the real reason for this: marketing Charlotte to "newcomers". Independence Blvd., on which Amity Gardens is located, is Charlotte's main thoroughfare, you basically have to drive on it entering Charlotte from the east. Eastway Drive and Central Avenue are secondary thoroughfares which have seen their importance diminish with the population shift away from inner Charlotte to areas like Matthews, and Mint Hill -- both of which sit, you guessed it, southeast of Charlotte. So now when they come to uptown for an NFL or NBA game, they won't have to look at the urban decay that is Amity Gardens and Coliseum Center, they'll see a big, shiny Super Wal-Mart instead.

But, if you want to look at it as a coup, an amazing catch for the struggling eastside, go right ahead.

Bolt

The greatest athlete of this generation, in any sport, by far. He's unlikely anything I've ever seen.

I know people will throw out Tiger Woods and all of his major titles, and there is no doubting that Tiger is out of this world and by far the best in this country, but Bolt simply isn't human. He's the best this world has to offer, maybe ever. I know it's impossible to compare him to athletes from different ages, the likes of Jesse Owens, ect. but I think he has a great argument when it comes down to it, the man has set five world records in under 365 days, that is simply phenomenal.

I'd love to see him go and try to set the record in the 400m, I think he could do it.

How come the city can waste water?

Recently the drought that affected Charlotte, North Carolina and much of the Southeast has gotten a lot less severe than it was in 2006 and 2007 when Mecklenburg County (and counties surrounding it) enacted mandatory water restrictions on all it's residents that use the city-county water supply.

We were told by Mayor Pat McCrory that "brown yards are beautiful too" and many did their civic duty and cut back on water usage, in fact Charlotteans did such a good job that the city had to raise prices because people weren't buying enough water. People stopped washing cars, some even chose to wash their hair only three times a week, take a shower every other day, wash clothes less often, ect. For his part, the Mayor saved water at home, too.

But CMUD (Said "See-mud"), the public, tax funded utility that controls the Charlotte-Mecklenburg water supply doesn't always practice what it preaches:



That's been going on for over a week, gallons and gallons of water.

At the moment they finally appear to be fixing it, but it took them long enough.

What about cars regular people can buy?

NASCAR used to, and still does to a small degree, have a mantra that went "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday". They said this because the cars they raced on the NASCAR circuit were actually cars that you common people could afford to buy at the car dealership on Monday. But that all changed when NASCAR race cars became a thin sheet of metal on a roll cage, it looked like the car you could buy, but it wasn't, and that got worse thwne they introduced the "car of tomorrow" which makes every car, regardless of make, basically the same.

Recently NASCAR announced that the Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger would compete in the Nationwide Series as that series' car of tomorrow models. The problem is that common people can't afford those now even if they looked like the real one you could buy.

Today on the X-Games Ford used the rally event to introduce the American public to the newest car in it's American stable, the Fiesta. The Fiesta is an affordable, gas-saving subcompact that has proven itself wildly popular in Europe. There was once a school of thought, which is lessening, that Americans don't like things Europeans like...tell that to Jane. Jane is a friend of mine. She's from Texas and she's very, very Texan. If you think of the "All-American girl" the image you think of probably resembles Jane in some way. Earlier this year Jane was picked by Ford to become a "Fiesta Agent", a group of internet-savvy people chosen to honestly review the Fiesta for six months, and perform strange tasks while doing so. Jane adores her Fiesta, and it gets positive reviews wherever she goes. Yes, these cars do work in America.

With this in mind, I asked myself, why doesn't NASCAR -- which is suffering from falling popularity -- catch wind of this? People like the Fiesta, and people can afford the Fiesta. In 2010 Ford will enter three different vehicles in NASCAR's three national divisions: The Fusion, the Mustang, and the F-150. I understand the appeal of all three, but why isn't there a division for smaller cars? I know people will say "Because they're small", but the Fiesta was very entertaining to watch as a rally car and would be entertaining on courses like Charlotte and Bristol if it was kept as is. It could race along side the 500 if Fiat brings it over as a Chrysler, the Yaris, and Chevy's neglected Aveo. People would watch, and people would buy.