katertot789: you know your blog isnt updated right?
Razzmission: im well aware

im just being lazy. maybe i will update this semi-regularly at some point, for now though, i have too much to do.

this just posted from the 13th

multiple thoughts for the day. As you can tell, it has been some time since I posted. I swore this would be updated daily but, guess what, I simply dont have enough time or energy to do this daily. I dont want event recaps nor do I want meaningless "filler" entries. Although this may be one of them. Dont expect daily updates, but semi-often can be anticipated.

I also want to point out that, merely days after I post a blog about the efficience of British law and ability to curtail crime, they cut the legs out from under a huge terrorist plot. Man theyre good. And me too, for calling it. Way to go UK, becuase God knows if that was in the US, the ACLU would be up in arms that they were caught. Its also nice to see that even stupid Americans understand why liquids arent allowed on planes anymore. I still cant understand the theory of someone who has no interest in being searched and/or forced to discard suspicious materials. I know I have complained from time to time, but in reality, who chooses privacy over safety?

Anyways, onto a less grim note. I was in NY this weekend, mainly in the Hamptons with a pit-stop for a Mets game on THursday. Awesome time, even if the regulars didnt play (no LoDuca, no Castro, no Billy Wagner, no Floyd, no Milledge, no Beltran, etc.) Moving forward, the game was good and fun but Shea needs to be destroyed. The stadium is such a dump, second only maybe to RFK in Washington. The woman behind me, though, was completely out of her mind. She was a real-life caricature of chefs mom on South Park. i swear to you every batter shed go "cmon RAY-ez, you my bayyyybeh! you my baybeh! get a hit rayez." ... it didnt matter who was up, specifically valentin, wright, delgado, and endy chavez, it was still rayez, her baybeh. It was absurd. Finally, someone alerted her after about the 10th player in a row who she thought to be reyes and she stopped... until reyes actually got up. Beyond that, she was cheering for piazza for the entire game despite him having the day off. She would cheer when difelice (the mets catcher that day) would come up, then pause as if she realized that it wasnt piazza, then continue cheering for piazza or reyes. Then, upon ordering ice cream from a vendor and discovering the $5.50 price tag, she refused payment, declaring that she was a senior citizen of 74 years old and should get a discount. All this in the Chef's-Mom-Relaying-the-lock-ness-monster-story-voice. Out of control.

But on the final note of the above thought, the senior citizen thing, i still think that senior discounts are the most retarded thing ever created. why do old people get a discount? if anything, everyone else (particularly young people) should get the largest discount since they have not been able to save for a lifetime for this expense. Retired persons have an entire career of savings as well as a pension. What does a poor college kid have? $80,000 in loans and a summer job. Who really deserves the discount?

Nothing really to talk about

Its the weekend and I have no interest in a deep, intellectual entry today. Mets are good. I came out of retirement for 2 shows this week, both were quite good. I like to occassionally hit the rewind button on my life back to 2001. I cant hear anything out of my left ear and it sort of worries me. Less than 3 weeks before we go back to school. Excited/not excited in the same time. I'm excited becuase I havent seen anyone from school since December and I am getting sick of home. Going back to school means 21 is soon, which is great. On the other hand my life stopped at CUA in December. Everyone else's kept going for 4 months and I literally missed out on everything, thus, its as if I was frozen in time in December. Its going to be hard to adjust when, quite literally, a 4 month block of time is just non-existent to you. Anyways, enough of that gay stuff. School will be a blast.

New day, new topic

Time to get controversial? Well, sort of. To start, I need an introduction to my topic. Mel Gibson was arrested last week for DUI and shouted anti-semitic blabber at the jewish police officer. DUI is illegal, but being a bigot is not, technically. Although a permanent scarlet letter for any public figures, being a racist/bigot is not technically illegal. In England, however, it is illegal. There is an agenda at hand known as "anti-social behaviour" where the government is cracking down on people who are a public nuissance. Warnings, fines and arrests are given to people who are bigots, those who have noice violations, have their dogs crap on peoples lawns and anything else you can think of that would bother neighbours. When working in the House of Commons, we were presented with cases every day of anti-social behaviour, ranging from someone who let their bushes grow so large that drivers couldnt see around them to someone who was drunk and obnoxious too often. Charges are filed against anything and everything someone doesnt like as long as it is under the facade of "anti-social behaviour". And this brings us to today's topic... British law.

I love the British legal system. Sort of. Some things are great, for example no guns. There are no guns on the streets, not in the hands of criminals, not in the hands of citizens, and in only 3,000 of 30,000 police officers, not in the hands of cops either. Why? Because several years ago, there was a shooting of a police officer. So the British legislature passed a law banning guns. A couple of weeks ago someone got stabbed. So what happens? Knives get banned (from persons on the street or whatever). Last summer there were terrorist attacks. They had suspected a person in participating, so they shot him when he did not comply with police orders. No Guantanamo Bay, no scandals, no questions asked. In some cases, the British system is ridiculously efficient. In others, not so much. But in the case of getting things done swiftly, those Brits are pros. I like their style. The Bush Administration is full of scandal becuase there is too much room for error. But then again, if every decision was made on a whiplash effect without taking logic into consideration, we'd live in a world controlled by Democrats. Do you need aloe after that burn?

I dont want to write a novel every time I make an entry, so here's a short one for you.

So I missed a day...

I forgot up update yesterday, my apologies. Dont think its becuase I dont have anything to talk about, becuase thats certainly a lie. I swear I am going to try to update this every day. I hate those people who have blogs/livejournals/whatever and update them twice. Onto the order of business today...

1.) DRAGONFORCE is tonight. Actually, in about 45 minutes. If youre unfamiliar, prepare yourself for the greatest band in the world. www.myspace.com/dragonforce

2.) Billy Wagner gives me heart attacks. Good on the Mets for resigning Reyes to a good contract.

3.) I am not a fan of grudges and I am quite happy when they are settled. Cheers mate.

4.) Only 3 more weeks of summer. How insane is that? The funniest part is that next semester will likely entail even less work than the summer did. Also ridiculous is the fact that I still dont have my grades from the Spring.

5.) Onto the crushing matter of the day: MySpace. MySpace really is the credit for the downfall of humanity, but not for the reasons you may think. Initially, MySpace was a hip, "scene" social networking thing for girls to post attractive pictures of themselves to make emo kids have even lower self-esteem, but has now grown into a cultural phenomenon. It is to the point that the Toronto Raptors (NBA) have not yet revealed their new jerseys, yet a player's MySpace profile has photos of him in the new jerseys, thus ruining the surprise. But such is not the crisis material for myspace...

Recently kids have been getting stalked/molested/abducted and overall screwed up becuase of myspace. It is a tool of deception. One case in particular has been raised where a girl was raped or something equally violent by a guy she met on myspace where the girl lied about her age. In addition to this trend, suing myspace is also the new "it" thing. In the another case similar to that previously mentioned, the 13 year old female (claiming to be 14 so she could legally have a myspace account) was stalked by a 19 year old male (believing her to be 14, but still conducting illegal activity by stalking) and is now blaming myspace, holding them accountable with a $30 million lawsuit. Obviously the justice system should see through this attempt at extorsion, but the case is still being presented. Ridiculous, I know. But not as ridiculous as what happened next....

Now, the MALE is suing myspace for another $10 million claiming that the girl lied about her age (she did, making herself 14 instead of 13). However, what this scumbag doesnt account for is the fact that he stalked her and harassed her. Regardless of age this is still an offence. This case also has nothing to do with age period. If it was a disputed age in a statutory rape or alcohol-to-minors case, fine. But this man is a sex offender! How does 13 years old vs. 14 years old change the fact that the male was stalking the girl? And even moreso, how is this myspace's fault (and worth $10 million)?! Absurd I tell you.

Beyond these cases, the US Congress just passed a bill making it illegal for Myspace to be used in schools and libraries. The law was rushed and thus has many holes in it, yet the principle, I feel, is effective. The message is being sent that no potentially-dangerous dealings will occur over myspace on educational grounds. In addition, no tax money will be spent on kids using myspace on school/library computers. As stated by user DC, "The internet is in schools as a learning tool and one certainly can NOT learn anything, not even adequate social skills, through myspace." Well said.

I am all for censorship in schools or anything using tax money. If schools want to block myspace, email, or anything non-educational, go right ahead. The problem with this bill, however, exists in the funding. Schools and libraries (as well as most educational facilities) receive the majority of funding from state governments, not federal, and thus, the federal government has little authority to overrule the state governments' spending agenda. There is a good chance that this law gets overturned in the Supreme Court in the near future.

Just one final thought on the issue: where does a level of personal responsibility come into play?

Topic #1 for the Day...

It's day 2 in my world, and again, I welcome you to the Razzmission. It's my day off and I am still motivated to work on this, so a bunch of topics are being handed down.

As suggested by Adam Barelski, the salaray cap in baseball is the topic. None currently exists but there is a luxury tax for those millions spent above $136.5 million a year (2006). Well, only one team has been affected by that and obviously it means nothing in revenue terms, so it is largely useless. A salary cap, much like those in hockey, football, and basketball, would not only help control salaries but also would help even out the game. In a report yesterday on ESPN Radio, of the top 12 "big names" in baseball, 9 are in boston or new york. Is that good for the game? Is it good that smaller-market teams simply cannot compete with those with huge financial backers? Obviously, a good owner is willing to spend money but it also takes a major metropolis to balance a budget within a team. Some teams are just good and some are bad. The Marlins and Twins, never known for high payroll, have been competitive to good for several years. The Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates are hopeless regardless of how much money is spent. The Yankees, Red Sox, and Angels are some of the biggest spenders in the game and not surprisingly, they also have large cities to back them up. Is there hope for the little guys like Cincinatti, Baltimore, Oakland, or Milwaukee? The Brewers represent the perfect example of the need for a salary cap: last week they were "forced" to trade their biggest star, Carlos Lee, to the Texas Rangers due to the upcoming end of his contract and, obviously, the Brewers' inability to resign him simply becuase there is no way to compete in a bidding war with the likes of the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, and even Mets. So, despite still being a contender in the NL Wild Card Race, Milwaukee had to deal him in an attempt to get something for him.

Currently, there are 5 players on the Yankees who make more money than the entire roster of the Florida Marlins. Obviously, extreme examples, but this is absurd. The aforementioned luxury tax is set at $136 million, yet only 1 team (the Yankees) has even broken $121 million. Thus, the salary cap. The league average for salary is $97 million, despite only 6 teams lying above that threshold (this proves how outrageous the Yankee salaries are). Therefore, a proposed salary cap of $90 million. Teams still have enough money to fire at the biggest name stars and do not need to worry about outrageous bidding wars. The Red Sox have 20 players making over $1 million; the Marlins have 2. The Yankees have 11 players raking in over $10 million this season; the next highest total in the league? 3. It is impossible for teams without unlimited funds to bid on such players. Instead, they have to build teams from farm systems and invest in the best players, not every player. To prove my point, the Yankees have over $50 million currently on the disabled list. 6 teams dont have that on an entire roster, not so coincidentally, these teams are the Florida Marlins, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Colorado Rockies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals, and Milwaukee Brewers. Not so coincidentally, these are all small-market teams. There have been TWO winning season among those teams for the last 5 years. How is this considered fair?

As mentioned, a salary cap will help balance this and, although some teams will always be more willing to spend more money on their teams than others (Steinbrenner will always invest more than Peter Angelos of the Orioles, the worst owner in sports). However, this will detract from certain teams hoarding all above-average players. Hell, even the Mets do it. In two off-seasons under Omar Minaya, the Mets have brought in Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran, Billy Wagner, Paul Lo Duca and Carlos Delgado, who, in their combined 7 years of service to the Mets, there have been 5 All-Star appearances. How do the Devil Rays combat that? The only thing these small teams can do is draft well and hope to hold onto players long enough for them to develop before they are due for a new contract. Baseball no longer is about scouting, investment and strategy, its about the Yanks and the Sox fighting for the best talent by throwing the most money at them. Yes, the Marlins, White Sox, Angels, and Diamondbacks have all won World Series recently. Yes, the Giants, Astros, and Cardinals have made it to the Series in recent memory. But how many of these teams are consistent playoff teams? How many seasons can a team sustain itself before losing talent to the Yanks and Sox? Who can lose $55 million to the DL and still lead a division?

A salary cap is a necessity in baseball to save the other 28 franchises in the league not named the Yankees and Red Sox.