Dont' blame Hip-hop

When I saw that a Sun-Times editor, Sue Ontiveros, wrote an article about how today's music stars haven't made anti-war songs like the stars of the '60's, I was very hopeful. It seemed that someone was finally going to expose the shallowness of the modern music industry in print. Instead, she shows her own shallowness.

She said it was reported that Patrick Daley, Mayor Richard Daley's son, had enlisted in the Army and that Eddie & Jobo, B96 morning DJ's, played the Destiny's Child song "Soldier" in their honor. Unfortunately, playing that tune was inappropriate, at best: the subject matter is about the girls "...on the prowl for a guy in a nice car with street cred." Ontiveros was correct to point out the idiocity of this. It makes me seriously ill that not only can a popular group have the gall to use references to purple hearts and soldiers in a shallow booty song, but that the single is so popular. I understand that what can construed as worse subject matter has been addressed in R&B, but that is no excuse to be just as senseless as everbody else.

However, it is unfair to expect all of hip-hop and rap to be the sole voice of reason that speaks to today's youth.

Hey, it's not todays youth are just interested in Hip Hop music.

And if you want to blame someone, blame the media outlets for not paying attention to enough of the artists who do have a positive and/or revolutionary message.

Sox Trade Lee

The White Sox traded away one of my favorite players, Carlos Lee, up north to the Milwaukee Brewers for Scott Podsednik, Luis Vizcaino, and a player to be named later. It had to be done and I think it has the potential to be a pivotal move. The Sox will save roughly $8 million next year will trading Lee and can use that to either sign an All-star starting pitcher or make a deal for another position player. As GM Kenny Williams said, they are done dealing for middle-of-the-road guys. If they are going to make another deal, it will be a big one. But if they don't make another big deal, the Sox will look like they just wanted to save some cash and don't really want to improve the team. We'll have to wait and see.

Wife Swap Sues Trading Spouses

The producers of Wife Swap are suing Fox, claiming that the show Trading Spouses is a blantant rip-off. Come on, guys! That's like the word "crap" suing the word "dung". Modern TV is filled with rip-offs, that's just how it goes. Get over it. There haven't been many original ideas in the past 20 years or so, and I really wouldn't want to take credit for a show about swapping wives. I don't care how much money I could make off of it, I'd kick my own arse before I'd peddle that garbage.

You Gotta Know When To Hold 'Em...

First off, let me inform those of you who aren't hip to The Onion that it is a satirical "news"paper with fake headlines, stories, and horoscopes. So please remember that the story I am about to refer to isn't fact, but it is based on some truth. The headline reads:

"President Bush signed an ambitious Social Security plan into law Monday that will allow citizens to bet a third of their payroll taxes on their favorite sports teams."

I won't reprint the whole article here, but my favorite line has to be:

"Why let your retirement money sit around in an account when
you could double or triple it in a single year? Under the new plan, anyone with access to a sports page can control his financial destiny." Added Ryan: "Assuming, of course, that Favre keeps a lid on those turnovers next season."

Well, the government has been dipping their hand in gambling publicly since the 80's once they found out that running numbers was both popular and profitable. Gambling is now a socially acceptable way of increasing state revenues and lining legislators pockets. (I find myself buying Illinois Lottery scratch-off tickets hoping for a chance at a quick buck to no avail.) So, a federal-sized lottery or gambling system is not inconceivable, especially since His Honorable King Bush the 2nd is having trouble finding the $2 Trillion he needs to reform Social Security.

BCA Gets This One Wrong

The Black Coaches Association has a very important role in college athletics. They try to make the search for college coaches a more open and equal process. However, their boycott of South Carolina is unfounded. Lou Holtz didn't announce his retirement until several weeks into the season. South Carolina had a chance to get a superstar coach in Steve Spurrier and they went for it. If they had wasted time trying to sign him, he might have gone elsewhere. I'd rather they did that than just parade in a few Black coaches for fake interviews just for appearances sake.

If you want to boycott a school, how about Notre Dame for firing Tyrone Willingham way too soon. Everyone from the outgoing school president to the Black Alumni of Notre Dame are embarrassed and upset by the administrations handling of the situation. Classy to the end, Coach Willingham blamed himself for his dismissal. But Irish quarterback Brady Quinn makes an excellent point: "Think about it: It's not even allowing one of his recruiting classes to get all the way through." So what does mean? They never gave him a real chance to succeed.

Sweet Stuff

I thought that I finally found an alternative to regular soda, which isn't the healthiest product in the world. It turns out that Splenda, which I was so excited about, is made from Chlorine. There have been no long-term human studies done on it, and the few tests that have been done show some nasty stuff.

http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/93/102132.htm?pagenumber=2
http://www.youngagain.com/splenda.html
http://www.hsibaltimore.com/ea2004/ea_040616.shtml
http://www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_dangers.htm
http://www.mercola.com/2001/mar/10/soda_pop_dangers.htm