Perspective Check

Seriously.

I have depression and I bitch about it, a lot. Both because it sucks and the fact that my current situation only serves to exacerbate it most of the time. Don't worry, this isn't another blog about that. Though for whatever reason those posts play well in Beverly Hills according to my analytics account.

But, I'm alive. I have ground under my feet and clean water to drink. It's not always easy, but if I were to put my head down I could probably free myself from the chains that have been put on me by various things. I've learned this last week that not everyone has that, some people don't have anything, like the people who have had their lives ruined by the destruction in Haiti.

We can all sit around and say "well, this is why it happened" and blame various politicians and other things. Some people Someone actually said that it happened because Haiti had a contract with the Devil, even though that person himself signed a multi-year deal with AC Hell Argyle back in the 1970s and is somewhat of a folk hero down at the Riverside. But enough about him. Talking about stuff like that is anti-productive, it solves absolutely nothing except the feeding of one's own ego by tricking yourself into thinking you'd have done a better job with no natural resources at your disposal. That's why Haiti is so poor, you know, because it has no resources, making it the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere -- by some way.

What can we do then? Well, you can donate, and I know that most people have and that some people can't. The economy is tight all over the world, trust me, I know first hand. If you have a birthday or anniversary coming up and want to help, have people do donations in your name to the charity of your choosing rather than buy you gifts. Material things are nice, but they're only things. People (and animals) are all unique and can't be replaced, a simple blanket or bottle of drinkable water could save a life, or a pair of lives, and people are being found alive everyday. The impact of that simply cannot be spoken for. Here's a list of organizations accepting donations in my local paper. All of those are trusted organizations that won't steal your money. Groups not on that list worth checking out are UNICEF and Samaritan's Purse.

Reckless Driving

Yes, I'm expanding on a blog post she made. No, I'm not copying it.

I nearly got killed today. Seriously.

This isn't like Jane's post where a "techie", or a "Gen-Y", or a "Millennial" was texting her BFF Jill. No, there's a term for this person. This person is a wanker. Full stop.

I don't care what's on television, I don't care who's at the club, I don't care who you have a date with or if you have reservations at the best place in all of Charlotte. I don't care. I stopped at a stop sign, like I'm supposed to do, you don't honk your horn at me when I let a truck that was 10 yards from the stop sign go passed. I'm not holding you up or cramping your style. Those skanks that nobody else wants will still be in that third rate club that no one with class goes to, it's fine. Now, I can forgive honking, that's the natural road behavior of the wanker, everyone comes into contact with these people, possibly multiple times on a single trip. What I can't forgive is you blowing by me at 40-miles-per-hour in a 20-miles-per-hour zone and not only nearly taking the front-end off of my car, and possibly injuring me and my passeneger, but nearly taking the rear-end off the car in-front of us and nearly injuring a woman and her passenger. Her passenger being a child that wasn't possibly any greater than five-years-of-age.

I have anger issues, I really do. People occasionally get a laugh out of them, I even have a cute nickname, "Princess Bobby". But kidding aside they're very serious, and they take a negative toll on my already fragile health. I was able to collect myself and avoid road rage. But this person wasn't done, he didn't beat the next stop-light (Karma's a bitch) and I ended-up behind him, he had another go with his finger. I got a bit pissed, admittedly, but I was able to snuff my fuse one again, but I did get the license tag of the wanker-in-question and you can rest assured it will be in CMPD's databases tomorrow. Will they do anything? Probably not. And knowing that nearly inspired me to take justice into my own hands, but again I was able to hold my rage. I can't have a murder charge on me, my skinny ass is not cut out for the penitentiary. No way.

My personal issues aside, this is a problem. It's happened to Jane before, numerous times. It's happened to others I know, numerous times. If there was a medicial emergency, I could understand, really. There are emergency services that will help you get to the proper facilities safely, use them, your tax dollars pay for them. Mr Wanker didn't have an emergency, he's just full-of-himself.

If you happen to be full-of-yourself, a wanker, or just a douchebag-in-general and are reading this, think about something. I make a genuine effort to be a peaceful person. Yea, I'm a hippie. I don't care what people think about that. But what if I wasn't? Many people in my current position, an emotional wreck on the very end of their last and final tether, could've lost the plot right there. Could've pulled the car up next to him and emptied a clip. Could've shot that wanker dead. It's happened before, and it'll happen again. Just consider that next time you think the world is indeed yours.

Nothing is worth a losing a life. Nothing.

Plush Hobbes Doll

So, I've never sewn anything before. In fact, October 31st was the first time I've ever threaded a needle so I went into this project without a clue as to what I was doing. After watching a few tutorials on how to prepare my sewing area, which is basically my computer desk, I set to work on sewing a plush Hobbes doll.

Jane is a big fan of Calvin & Hobbes, and she's been quiet good to me through some difficult times this year, so I wanted to make her something unique for Christmas. Of course, I'm not the first person to make a plush Hobbes doll, other people have done it with greater success than me (see here, and here). You can't buy them because Bill Watterson -- the creator of Calvin & Hobbes -- doesn't licence his products for retail, it's fine to make them for personal amusement, but you can't sell them. And I actually agree with that, it does somewhat cheapen the image when it's plastered all over everything. I'm not really good at buying gifts for people anyway -- some people are, Jane for instance is great at it -- so I tend to favor making things.

So, here it is. Apologies that I forgot to take photos in steps, I worked on it whenever I got time and it slipped my mind to take photos of the parts.

The materials before I cut them apart.

I had to make the pattern myself, and obviously if I've never sewn before, I've never made a sewing pattern before. Honestly I was completely lost at this point, so much so that I was using a plush Easter Bunny as my pin cushion. I later found out that paper scissors and fabric scissors are not the same thing!

So, after about 20 total hours of work, and some very sore finger-tips later, I finished the doll. It's 10 inches (a 0.25 meters) tall. In total it's sixty-one pieces. I didn't quite get all the stripes the perfect distance so I had to do some additions to some, the striping was mind-numbingly boring.

The finished doll on my bed.


He's not that tiny, I have gigantic hands. And yes, skinny arms.


I wanted to make his head fatter, but the thread didn't want me to.


View of the face and front torso.

The tail is a bit loose, and that's really my only worry with it's stability.

I bought the thread and stuffing locally, but the fleece came from a website called Fleece Queen. The price was pretty low, and I'm not exactly made of money, and they got it to me quickly and with no hassle so if you ever find yourself buying fleece online, I recommend them. And no, they didn't pay me to say that, if only they did!

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how he turned out. Jane seems very happy with him, and that's really all that matters. He did survive being shipped 1,100 miles from Charlotte, North Carolina to North Texas on Thanksgiving week, so I'm thankful for that. My friends say it came out well, but then again, they're my friends and they might just be being nice to me.

Though if you want something much cooler, you can buy one of Jane's duct tape wallets, she works hard on them and they've all come out really well. This is mine. You can see the rest of them at her Flickr page. Go to her site: www.janeds.tv to find out how to order one. I guess that's sort of a plug, even though I don't work for her at the moment. (I used to be her PA, for those unaware). They are nice though, Jane's a creative girl.

Okay. That's that. Maybe I'll make more crafty stuff in the future, people are always harping me to do artistic things (and try to qualify for Jeopardy!, but that's a different story), so maybe I will.

100 Miles an Hour on a Dead End Road...

...I need a little Detroit in my soul.

You know what? I love Detroit. Detroit is one of my favorite cities, I love several things about it. I love it's backbone, I love it's faded excellence, and I love the role it played in building this country. Detroit is a real city, a city with a soul and although all the naked eye can see of Detroit is the torn, battered skin of a wounded city, there's much more to it than that. It's easy to take a dig at the Motor City, and many people do, but it's not really fair.

Over the last two weeks all you've had to do is pick up a sport page or view a sports blog from any nouveau riche city in America and see various writers having a laugh at Detroit's expense due to the sale of the one-time home of the city's hapless NFL team, the Pontiac Silverdome. It's true, houses in many cities sell for much more than that, but does it really matter? The stadium was costing a financially pummeled city -- and many cities are in that position -- over $1m per year in up-keep, without any use the city had no choice but to get shot of the place, and they did. Now, if the new owner's plans come to fruition, the stadium will be a benefit to the city's tax coffers. Though they should've gotten much, much more for the land alone, the mere existence of the stadium as a property of Pontiac was going to break the city.

The owner, Greek-Canadian real estate magnate Andreas Apostolopoulos, wants to bring a soccer team to the Silverdome, possibly an MLS team, possibly not, but I think putting a team in Detroit, or even Pontiac, is a good idea. A lot of people will scoff at that, and say Detroit is dead and putting a team there would do damage to any league that dared try it, but they'd be wrong. Detroit has a great history of supporting sports teams, even in hard times. I mean, the Lions still draw fans. Yes, they get blacked out occasionally, but the fact that the fans still show up for what is at most, an impotent team, is a testament to their dedication. Would that translate over to soccer? Maybe, maybe not. But you're more likely to find concrete support in a city like Detroit than you are in a city with a transient population that could well up-sticks in two years and be on the road to the next hot spot.

I hope a team in the new NASL ends up in Detroit, possibly even a revival of the Express. It doesn't look like Detroit is even on the radar for MLS, and the professional structure of the USL appears to be falling apart at the seems, so NASL is a good option for what is becoming a mid-sized city. The Silverdome needs some work before a professional team can move in, let's face it, the stadium has been around the block and it looks like the best days of the Silverdome are in the past, but it still has potential following a touch-up.

I realize that people will disagree, and some will inevitably bash Detroit. That's a given, and is somewhat understandable, it's bleak up in Detroit and with the noteworthy exception of Ford -- who, to their credit, seem to be putting their ship right -- the future of Detroit's motor industry looks bad, but Detroit is always going to be there, and it will always have a place in American culture. It didn't just spring up over night, and it won't go away in a day. There's a chance Detroit could turn it around, and if it does, Detroit is a city any American sports league should be in.

Stadium for a Fiver - The Pontiac Silverdome

Wow. $538,000 for the Pontiac Silverdome, that's daylight robbery. Surely the very land it sits on -- about 130 acres -- is worth more than $538,000. But that's what it sold for, less than 1% of what it was constructed for between 1973 and 1975.

Most Americans know the Silverdome as the former home of the NFL's hapless Detroit Lions, nearly everyone turned on their television every Thanksgiving and saw the stadium in all it's, err, glory? It isn't really much, just a basic dome in line with so many others scattered about North America: Indianapolis' Hoosier Dome, BC Place in Vancouver, and Minneapolis' Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. All have been routinely criticized for lacking character, like so much architecture from the 70's and 80's, it was build for function and not always for form. With that said, the Silverdome has done it's job and has hosted some great events: A Super Bowl in 1982, World Cup matches in 1994 with the aid of a raised field and transplanted grass pitch, and of course WrestleMania III, which the WWE claims had an attendance of 93,173, although some dispute that number and say the actually attendance was closer to 73,000.

But getting back to my point, there are houses three streets away from me sitting on less than half-an-acre of land that sell for more than the Siverdome did, I know the City of Pontiac is severely despressed financially -- to the point where Michigan's Governor basically stripped civic officials of all power -- but to sell so much land for so little money is insane.

The Silverdome seats 80,300 people, which I believe is good for 22nd largest in the United States. It's a massive stadium, but it also carries a massive bill, upkeep of the aging behemoth is reported to be around $1.5 million per annum, which goes a good way as to explaining why Pontiac was so eager to get shot of it, but still, wow.

If possible, and recalling a piece I did for Pitch Invasion, run by the brilliant Tom Dunmore, I would look into making the Silverdome a "green" venue, along the lines of the World Games Stadium in Taiwan, or St-Jakob Park in Basel, Switzerland. The roof of the cavernous venue is vast and several solar panels could be installed on it, possibly saving a bundle in electricity, and if the upkeep for the stadium is as high as it's said to be, you need to be saving every penny possible.

The owners, who have yet to be revealed, have expressed a desire to have the stadium play host to a soccer team, possibly a new Major League Soccer franchise. I wrote about that here. If this is true, I certainly expect a reduction in capacity, because there isn't an ice cube's chance in Hell that they'll sell out the Silverdome for Major League Soccer, not right now.

Hopefully the new owner can find some use for the stadium, it's a shame to see it -- and more importantly the land it occupies -- go to waste. Seeing it sit idle like it has makes me think of Dixie Square Mall, in Harvey, Illinois...and that's not a good thing.

When a giant falls - Curtains for FC Nippon?

Chances are, you don't know much about Tokyo Verdy FC, if you know anything about them.

Verdy was once Japan's foremost soccer club, a giant in a sea of minnows. Originally known as Yomiuri FC -- owned by the same company that owns baseball's wildly successful Yomiuri Giants, thirty-times Champions of the Central League -- Verdy was founded in 1969 -- thus it's old name: Tokyo Verdy 1969 -- and eventually ascending to the top of Japanese soccer, the Japan Soccer League First Division, in 1977 before winning their first trophy, the JSL Cup, in 1979. This success was the first of many for Yomiuri FC and inevitably spurred comparison's to the Giants causing Yomuiri to envision a soccer version of their famed baseball team, complete with top stars and massive crowds. Yomuiri took to boastfully calling the club "FC Nippon", Japan's team, in an effort to attract fans from every corner of the Land of the Rising Sun.

To a degree, it worked, eventually Yomuiri would claim continental glory in the form of the Asian Club Championship in 1987/88. Yomuiri's success would continue on into the '90's when the JFA decided to move away from corporate club and onto clubs with a more civic or provincial styling with the foundation of the J. League in 1992. Yomuiri became founder members of the new league under the name Verdy Kawasaki, a homage to their green uniforms and Kanagawa hometown. The first three editions of the J. League were extremely successful for Verdy as they claimed two championships and played before crowds of well over 20,000 each season. But that success would come to an abrupt end in 1996 as Verdy finished 7th of 16. The 1996 Emperor's Cup would prove to be Verdy's final triumph of the decade, and final trophy in Kawasaki.

In 2001, following a succession of poor seasons both on and off the pitch Verdy decided to decamp for Tokyo in an effort to tap into what they saw as an under-served market and to get farther away from the cluster of successful clubs, such as Yokohama Marinos and upstarts Kawasaki Frontale, which called Kanagawa home. The move backfired, spectacularly. By the time Verdy moved in Tokyo was already home to a J. League club, the beloved FC Tokyo, and FCT's fans wanted no part of Verdy and began to taunt the former giants with banners proclaiming their club as the "Real Tokyo FC". Verdy's crowds did improve from Kawasaki, but were still short of FC Tokyo's numbers. A continued lack of success on the field eventually drove fans away from Verdy, and to the Gas Men, who despite not being terribly successful had always been Tokyo's club.

FC Tokyo supporters before the Tokyo Derby. From: yken0109

In 2005, despite the best efforts of their lionhearted Brazilian Washington, Verdy were relegated. FC Nippon was facing away trips to the likes of Mito Hollyhock and Avispa Fukuoka. It was embarrassing for what was once considered footballing royalty in Japan, and even more embarrassing were the crowds that turned up at the Ajinomoto Stadium: 5,700. Following a mid-table finish, Verdy were able to claw their way back into the top flight as runners-up, back where they belonged, or so they hoped. 2008 saw an impotent Verdy relegated once again, and could have proved the final blow to an aging giant.

It has been reported that Verdy must come up with $6,000,000 by November 16th or the club will hit the wall as Nippon TV, who purchased the club from Yomiuri in the late 90's have attempted to rid themselves of the club.

It's not right to gloat at other's misery, but it's difficult to feel bad for Verdy as a club, though it's easy to feel sympathy for it's supporters. They didn't move the club, after all. With that said, there would be some poetic justice if Frontale, the pride and joy of Kawasaki, were to win their first title in Verdy's final season.

Meghan McCain isn't a slut

I should be in bed, I want to be in bed, but I'm too bitchy at the moment.

Meghan McCain isn't a slut, she just isn't. Do I know the girl personally? No. I'd certainly like to, but I don't. The American -- and it usually is only our media for this type of thing, we have the sensitivity of Puritans with the attention-span of mall-rats -- media had a hissy-fit over a picture Meghan posted on her twitter account, she had on a tank-top and because of that she was branded a whore. I don't want to sound like a perv, but she'd have to wear a full-body suit to hide those things. She wasn't intentionally showing her tits, and she isn't a whore. It's a non-story. There are much, much more important things for the media to report on, but most of them don't sell ads for Viagra so we never, ever hear about them. Instead we get crap like this which more-or-less made the girl cry. Good job, media, good job.

Did you know a tropical storm formed in the gulf today? Well, one did. But tropical storms aren't salacious until they hit a city are they?

Meghan is not fat either. Good lord, I'd like to see the people saying she is.

I know, Green, bleeding-heart liberal Bobby defending Meghan McCain?! For some reason, conservative girls are my weakness. *facepalm*

The USL, Charlotte's World Cup Bid, and a Fun-Sized Green Diva

No, this isn't "Which one of these things doesn't belong", and I'm not Grover. Though we have the same wrist circumference.

We aren't posting USL stuff on majorleaguesoccertalk.com much anymore because some people get pissy when we do. I don't know why, they just do. The very mention of the USL is more controversial to some MLS fans than the bank bailout and the abortion issue combined, and almost as polarizing as Billy-fucking-Mitchell. Damn. But, Kartik Krishnaiyer has posted a write-up about how the USL-related shit has totally hit the fan since August, read it: here.

I think the USL and the TOA need to get there crap together and look at how the J. League works. It's a successful summer-based league in a capitalist country with competing sports that manages to take time off for FIFA days. Can you imagine? Looking at something that actually works. I mean, it's crazy. But that won't happen since the situation has devolved to the point where the two-parties may well start flinging their own feces at one another. You know, like the Democrats and Republicans. Feces-flinging, welcome to the new America.

On a brighter soccer-related note, Charlotte is still in the running to host World Cup matches should the US win the right to do so in either 2018 or 2022. Charlotte is far from the most famous city on the list, and far from the most prosperous, but it should host matches anyway. Why? Because it can. Charlotte has a successful history of hosting big events, it does so every year when it plays host to the NASCAR All-Star race and Coca-Cola 600, two of the biggest events in motorsports. The CIAA has seemingly fallen madly in love with Charlotte as a host for it's showpiece event, it's basketball tournament and the ACC has decided to put it's football championship in the same stadium that would host World Cup matches. Charlotte's track record is nothing short of wonderful. Furthermore, Charlotte isn't playing the "we simply deserve it" card, it actually wants to host. You can support Charlotte's World Cup dream here.

Oh, and Jane. Who isn't small, she's fun-sized, hosted a conference today about the Ford Fiesta at her school. She's a Fiesta Agent and as such, she's driving the Fiesta for six-months. If you want a new car, and happen to want an economical American car, you should watch her Fiesta Movement videos. It looks like a fun little car, and no FTC, I'm not on Ford's payroll, and as of March 2009, not on Jane's either. So you'll have to find some other way to make money.

The National Parks: America's Best Idea

"I have here seen the power and glory of a Supreme being: the majesty of His handy-work is in that 'Testimony of the Rocks.' That mute appeal-pointing to El Capitan-illustrates it, with more convincing eloquence than can the most powerful arguments of surpliced priests." - Lafayette Bunnell

I'm not sure if it's more indicative of the quality of programming the PBS is able to produce, or the lack of quality shown by the other offerings, but PBS has been -- by far -- the best channel on American television for sometime now, and yes, I have cable.

PBS has again defended it's place at the top of the pile with it's decision to broadcast the latest documentary from the esteemed film maker and historian Ken Burns called "The National Parks: America's Best Idea".

The six-part mini-series is a home-run, an amazingly in-depth look at America's greatest, most sacred, and probably most under-appreciated treasures. The awe-inspiring cinematography is surpassed only by the grippingly interesting stories about larger-than-life historical figures such as the great and eloquent naturalist John Muir - an East Lothian-born man and son of a Presbyterian minister who found new life amidst the soaring Secoyas of California and went on to play an instrumental role in the foundation of the National Parks idea - and Stephen Mather - a wildly successful businessman who would spend large sums of his own fortune supporting the parks he would eventually go on to run, and who often succumbed to deep spells of depression but found himself miraculously cured by trips into the wilderness.

This seems to be Burns' magnum opus, and that is high praise considering the quality of his work, and is a must watch for anyone interested in history or the natural world. For those who haven't seen it, and wish to, the episodes are online until October third at: www.PBS.org/nationalparks

Charlotte's World Cup bid? Yea, forget it.

It's not because Charlotte is too small, it's big enough. It's also has the transport links and a plethora of quality training venues. The stadium itself fits all the standards required. It's the culture of the stadium.

It's stuff like this.

We must have the only stadium in the world where a fan can get kicked out for cheering, amazing. As if it's not bad enough that you have to sell the soul of your first born to get into an NFL game, then $7 for a beer or $5 for a soda, now you aren't allowed to cheer? Why even go?

I guess the Panthers staffers are afraid that someone from Charlotte-beyond-the-walls (read: the non-gated communities) may offend someone from within the walled utopias. Heaven forfend with all it's glorious and powerful might.

Yea, it's understandable to remove someone who's obviously drunk and belligerent from the stands -- if it's even possible to get drunk without taking out a loan which Bank of America would probably deny -- but this guy wasn't drunk at all, he was just a guy at a football game, cheering for his team. But I guess Tyler and Muffy were put off by it? I guess personalities aren't the fashion in Charlotte-within-the-walls, creative architecture certainly isn't.

Charlotte has a problem. Lots of people have moved to Charlotte in the last few years and tried to change it into a boring, soulless hell drained of all it's Southern, yes, Southern, charms. These people need to understand that Charlotte is still a little Southern city, this isn't Binghampton, this isn't Chester, this isn't Trenton, this is Charlotte. It's halfway between Concord (that's con-CORD) and Gastonia, and the sooner you realize that, the happier you'll be.

If not, there's a door.

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.

How a Green would fix your mess

Yes, your mess. We didn't make it, you never elect us, you never even pay attention to us. You crapped on the floor, and now you're bickering about the best way to fix it. Not only are you fighting each other, you're fighting yourselves! Normal Democrats are mad at "Blue Dog" Democrats, Ohio Republicans are mad at Southern Republicans. You aren't getting anything done, the crap is still on the rug and if you don't clean it up soon you're going to need a Rug Doctor, and we're fresh out of cash to afford one because they're really expensive.

But, listen, I can fix it! I have ideas, big ones!

First thing I'd do is the most obvious one of all, legalize marijuana. It's shocking that it's illegal in the first place, let alone in 2009. The legalization and subsequent taxation of marijuana would be a cash cow for the cash strapped government. I could go into the medical benefits that marijuana has, but I've already done that. They're well stated, regardless of what the drug czar says, I have it on good authority that he's an idiot. The legalization of marijuana would also mean that restrictions on it's sister plant, hemp, would be lifted. Hemp can make all sorts of cool things, you can even eat hemp seeds and they're really good for you. Hemp can also be converted to ethanol which serves two goods: first is that it frees up corn to become exclusively a food source once again, and second is that it's rapid growth rate would help loosen imported oil's death grip on our economy. Of course, the oil and pharmaceutical industries would be none-too-pleased with this which is why we would have to outlaw corporate lobbying.

But that's not all! Call now and we'll outfit every municipal, county, state and federal building with green power systems and save tax payers a bundle by dramatically cutting the power bills for those buildings! Yes, that includes the sports venues that billionaires held cities and states over a barrel to build, those would get the same treatment and the associated sports owners wouldn't see a dime of revenue from it. Take this for instance, that's the Charlotte Bobcats Arena, a municipally constructed venue in the heart of Charlotte with a bare concrete roof. Do you not see the potential there? Next to the arena is the CATS bus hub, it would also be outfitted with them.

Recently Peter Gorman, he's the head of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, a failed educational organization in Charlotte, fired a bunch of teachers and announced that he may have to cut middle school sports. If you put self-reliant energy systems in the schools you could save a ton of money.

Of course, making marijuana legal would free up a lot of room in the prison system which would give us the ability to shut some prisons down and save even more money.

What would we do with all this money? Well, we'd have universal healthcare and bridges that don't fall apart.

It'd be nice, but you won't listen to us.

It's just like watching Newcastle

Of course, I'm referring to the Republican Party of the United States and it's hilarious infighting. Of course, if they keep it up, they could meet a similar fate to the Toon!

Recently Barack Obama's poll numbers have taken a hit and while some Republicans have been quick to point this out, the party itself has been unable to capitalize on them, at all. In fact, their numbers managed to take a hit as well. The leadership of the party would like for the attention to be on the way the Republicans are handling the President's healthcare bill, but instead the spotlight has been shifted to the (loud) extremist elements of the party who claim that Obama is an illegal immigrant. Most mainstream Republicans reject (all of them voted to support some totally unnecessary resolution in Congress that said Obama was born in Hawaiʻi) this nonsense but that doesn't stop the "birthers" from screaming, literally.

Yes, that really happened. That's a real person going crazy at a town hall meeting held by Congressman Mike Castle (R-De.), a normal human being. Yes, I know that was last week, but it doesn't change anything.

It's not something I really want to go into, I find it that stupid, but I have to say a few things. G. Gordon Liddy, possibly the most famous "birther", likes to say "there's no hospital listed". My birth certificate doesn't list a hospital either. I'm pretty sure I'm American, in fact, I carry Catawba blood in my veins. Nonetheless, maybe I should start carrying my birth certificate (which actually reads "Certificate of Birth", maybe I'm fake too) around in a ziplock bag with a tiny American flag.

Naw.

Now Senator George Voinovich (R-Oh.) says "the Southerners" are ruining the Republican Party by getting on TV and acting like, well, morons. Southern Republicans (like Louisiana's David Vitter, who has ties to the D.C. madam) have lashed out at Voinovich, calling him "wishy-washy". Vitter is up for re-election in 2010, one of his opponents is Stormy Daniels, a pornstar Independent who was just arrested on charges of domestic violence. Seriously. The Democrats could probably run Teddy Ruxpin in a Che shirt and win 65% of the vote in that race.

This is where the Libertarian Party should be paying attention and running homegrown candidates, not defected Republicans and Democrats. They actually have a chance to take a real slice of the conservative base over the next two years if they get on the radio and television making sense instead of making wild accusations about where the President was born. Libertarians can get away with sex scandals too.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a problem

I noticed NASCAR was at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this week. Between the BS about how prestigious the venue is they mentioned something about how during the 2008 NASCAR race at IMS the tires tore all to hell. Tire problems? At Indy? That sounds familiar.

In 2005 Formula 1 staged their United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it turned into the biggest charade in motorsports history as paying fans witnessed what as essentally a parade as all the cars using Michelin tires pulled out of the race after tire wear issues in earlier sessions.

Both times the blame was deflected. In 2005 Formula 1 and Michelin were blamed for the incident, in fact, it basically destroyed the relationship and left Bridgestone as the sole tire supplier in Formula 1 as Michelin pulled out. In 2008 NASCAR and Goodyear were blamed, Goodyear brought a bad tire and NASCAR let them do it people said. Different tires, different cars. But lets look again, what do these two incidents have in common?

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The track itself is the problem. Not F1, not Bernie's hair, not NASCAR, not Brian France's jaw, but the track. The holy, the infallible, the precious yard of bricks. The track caused both incidents, and if it wasn't Indianapolis Motor Speedway, people would've blamed the track for the incidents just like they blame Talladega when someone flies into the air at Talladega. The difference is that Talladega was built in the late 60's by a guy many people like to think of as a redneck, and the races were attended by people many like to think of as rednecks (and trust me, there are a good few rednecks) so it's impossible to attach "presitigious" to Talladega Superspeedway like you can Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but Talladega Superspeedway has one glaring thing in common with The holy, the infallible, the precious yard of bricks.

Talladega Superspeedway sucks.

It's too big, it's literally the size of an airport because it used to be it's own airport. You can't see all of it from the stands, a trait it shares with Indianapolis. It's gimmicky, just like Indy. No, there's nothing simple and elegant about building a golf course and a freaking castle in the middle of a track, it looks gaudy. You want to see how a simple, elegant, very American race track looks? Look here, where the USGP belongs.

I know, I know: The history! Just because a sports venue has history doesn't make it impervious to criticism. I'll say this right now: Hampden Park is an awful little turd of a stadium. It has a track that isn't big enough for track events, it's dirty, and the fans are a million miles from the field. Hampden has more history in it's sport than Indy does.

I know what you'll say: "Indy is better than Charlotte" and you'd be wrong. Charlotte's track isn't perfect, but it's better than Indy. Yes, Charlotte is gimmicky as hell, but you can see the entire tracks. Yea, tracks, Charlotte has three configurations within it's main oval, and you can see the entirety of all three from the stands.

It's time we admit the truth here, the track is doing more harm than good for motorsports in America.

NASCAR needs to leave it. Move Atlanta's date back to the fall, move California's fall date to Indy's weekend, and bring back Darlington's second date for Labor Day. Darlington is a better track.

F1 needs a USGP, but it doesn't need Indy. It needs to alternate coasts each year: Odd years - Watkins Glen, even years - Laguna Sega.

Walter Cronkite, 1916 - 2009

Today we lost the most trusted man in America. A true journalist who wasn't afraid to say what the country needed to hear instead of what it wanted to hear. Mr. Cronkite had spoken openly about his displeasure at the blurring of the line between information and entertainment in media, a topic which concerns many people.

Cronkite felt that American journalism was becoming too soft, and too vulnerable to corporate financial interests. He worried that this could damage our democracy. He was right.

I came a long three years after Cronkite signed off from the CBS anchor's chair for the final time, but if you watch the news in America, you feel his impact.

We lost a legend today, may he rest in peace.

On some of that ol' Jeremy Mayfield sh*t

It won't stop. It just won't.

I'm not a great NASCAR fan, but I do live in Charlotte which would make me an expert in NASCAR by the standards of any other city.

In Charlotte, Jeremy Mayfield's court battle with NASCAR is as big a news item as the Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings, and a bigger deal than the Mexico v United States match being on Mun2. That's to be expected though, NASCAR is more or less Charlotte's second biggest industry after incompetent guys in suits screwing up and getting bailed out by the same people they keep trying to screw over, I mean banking.

By now I'm sure everyone knows, it's even mainstream on ESPN. Back in May NASCAR claimed that Jeremy Mayfield failed a drug test and announced he'd be suspended. Mayfield denied any accusations of doing drugs, as you would expect, and demanded that NASCAR lift his ban. NASCAR said "no", they can do that because one family owns NASCAR, it's not like the Premier League, the NFL, or The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques League Cup, well, it's a little like that one. Of course upon hearing that NASCAR denied his request, Mayfield sued them. He went out and got Charlotte's biggest (literally and figuratively) lawyer, Bill Diehl (random fact: Bill Diehl's wife was my third grade teacher, and a good one at that - six degrees of NASCAR, bitches) to represent him in court. NASCAR countersued and everything went crazy. Eventually Diehl found a way to get Jeremy's ban lifted by the courts, NASCAR was pissed. Mayfield was allowed to show up at Daytona, NASCAR even had guys at the gate waiting on him, no word on whether or not they also had a truck load of wild Pit Bulls. Mayfield didn't bring his #41 car to the track.

Mayfield also no-showed the following week (at "Chicago") and rumors began to circle as to why, some accused him of doing meth again. On July 15th NASCAR announced that Mayfield had failed a drug test, again for meth, on July 6th and had a sworn statement from his stepmother saying she'd seen him snort meth at least "thirty times" in a seven-year period. Mayfield blew his top. He said of his stepmother "She's pretty much a whore" and said that she "shot and killed (his) dad". He also said she's always trying to get money out of him, that she's a golddigger, and a trashy bitch, rumor has it he dropped the C-bomb on her too. She sure sounds like a class act. But, if she saw him doing it "at a race shop in Mooresville (Mooresville is a giant race shop, basically)", why didn't anyone else in the race shop see it. Okay, he may have been alone with her at that time, I'll concede that, but why didn't she alert NASCAR to the problem knowing that a tweaked-out driver was putting at least fourty-two other lives at risk every week?

Mayfield also said of Brian France: “Brian France out there talking about effective drug policy, it’s kind of like Al Capone talking about effective law enforcement. And that’s the way I feel about it. The pot shouldn’t be calling the kettle black, you know what I’m saying? And I think the world needs to hear that, too.” Which I thought was hilarious.

That was it, that was Jeremy's story, or at least that was Jeremy's version of the story. A couple of days later I got the truth from Tommy, you always got the truth from Tommy, it was one of his major weaknesses. He never lied, he never took drugs, and he never cheated on anyone...wait, that never happened.

Anyway, back on topic. Mayfield says he's going to fight NASCAR with everything he's got, and he will. One thing that has to be said for Jeremy Mayfield is that he doesn't know when to quit, he doesn't know how to give up. He never has, he never will. If he's lying then he's really playing with fire, but if he's telling the truth NASCAR could end up in a world of hurt. WADA has already said their drug testing policies are garbage and NASCAR still refuses to adhear to WADA guidelines, probably because WADA is European. Because of NASCAR's hardheadedness on this issue there's still a chance that the judge will rule against them, having expressed disfavor with NASCAR's testing methods in the past. Jeremy also says that he has passed several independent lab tests since May, if he's telling the truth, Brian France has some 'splainin' to do. Okay, enough channeling Tom Coburn.

Somewhat on topic, but meth is/was considered a WMD in parts of North Carolina. Really.

But remember, when you say the name of the make that wins the championship in 2011: it's Hyundai (Hun-Day), like "Sunday".

That said, this evil little peace loving librul needs his sleep.