Reality Check: Horse Racing = Dog Fighting

So there was another dumbass horse race today that I saw written up on ESPN and the 2nd place horse, Eight Belles, snapped both her ankles while racing against the boys and had to be put down.

Hillary somehow blamed Obama for it.

Sure this is sad in a very vague and fleeting way, until you think of all the real suffering in the world, but what really gets me is all the horse-racing apologists on the ESPN comment page who try to ignore the fact that horse racing is destructive and unnatural to horses.

Some of the fucktarded comments stated,

• The horse was brave
• The horse made a great sacrifice
• This was a completely unexpected tragedy

Here are the facts,

• "Cruelty is an inherent part of the horse racing industry. Thousands of horses are produced annually, from which a few racers are chosen, the rest blown away like chaff in the wind. The big money is in racing the 2 and 3 year olds, for whom training begins at 1½, before their bodies are fully developed and their growth plates have closed. Unnatural weight is put on their backs, concussive stress on their bones, and they are forced to submit to an overly strict training regimen. Nightmarish injuries like on-the-track fractures leave them finished by the age of 4–6, when they are barely mature. Decisions about their fate are made in the interest of the bottom line dollar, not their health. Injured animals are loaded up on drugs to run one more race.

  "The unnatural stresses inherent in competing so aggressively and at such a young age also engender problems such as gastric ulceration and pulmonary (lung field) bleeding, not observed in horses worked at reasonable levels. These health and injury problems once again necessitate — economically — the use of drugs to maintain the horse’s racing value (but not well-being).

More facts here.

So let's see, animals are breed to compete solely for the pleasure of humans and are killed if they can't perform. Sound familiar?

Let's be real here, horse racing is a glorified, upper-class white folk version of dog-fighting.

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God Forgive Me, I'm Cheering for the Patriots

The Cowboys shattered what was left of my heart last week.
The Giants crushed up the rest tonight.

Now it's Pats - Giants.

I cannot have the team lead by the first NFL quarterback with over 50 chromosomes, Eli Manning, be the team that stops the Patriots.
I just can't.
My brain would implode.

God forgive me but,
Go Patriots!

TO to Keyshaun Johnson: Ho Sit Down

(Yoooooooooooouuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!)

I'm riding hard with the Cowboys this year, as I have for many years, so it's particularly pleasurable to watch TO emerge as a team player, coach lover and overall good sport. It was also good to see him with my other favorite NFL player, Primetime.



Of course we couldn't go 16 games with out a little bit of shit popping off.

• Terrell Owens, unusually quiet this season, but never at a loss for words when the occasion required it, responded forcefully Wednesday to comments made last weekend by former Dallas Cowboys receiver Keyshawn Johnson, now an analyst on ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown."
  
  On the show, Johnson said he believed former Cowboys coach Bill Parcells -- now also an analyst with ESPN -- deserves credit for what the Dallas team looks like now, with a 12-1 record.
  

I was part of the Bill Parcell's cult for a bit when he came to the Cowboys and I thought he was going to bring us back.
What he actually did was hold us back with stuffy playcalling, unimaginative offense and old-world authoritarian coaching tactics.

Then I realized he became the Lloyd Carr of the NFL and lost touch with the game of football in 2007.

Wade Phillips came in and cut out all the petty bullshit, such as refusing to mention TO by name and scowling on the sidelines like a mean ass drunk uncle.

Week after week Wade Phillips continues to look like he's banging the baddest chick in town and doesn't even remember who he got her number.

His happiness is contagious and sure as hell did more for the team's chemistry and record than 4 years of Parcell's acting bitter.
Keyshawn couldn't keep up with the NFL and bounced to the booth, just take your ESPN money and stay quiet.


UPDATE:

Keyshawn Johnson is officially a fucking idiot.
Look at this godawful interview he had earlier this year with Chad Johnson.



Keyshawn, who was one of the league's most selfish and overrated players, has the nerve to criticize Chad Johnson while doing his best little kid impression of a "serious interviewer."

Keyshawn was washed up as a player and now he is taking out his bitterness of not being in the NFL anymore out on the game's top receivers.
Chad may not be able to talk now because his team is bad but TO can and he put the fire on Keyshawn.

Keyshawn, go away.

The New England Patriots are a Terrorist Organization

(Jogging or training for terrorist camp?)

God fucking dammit.
Two weeks of near losses, only to watch Tom Brady sneak away with a victory like a cartoon villain... or a terrorist.

What kind of bullshit 4th quarter calls did the Ravens get hit with tonight?
Tom Brady hates freedom.

I can't wait for the Cowboys to wipe out the Pats in the Super Bowl.

Sean Taylor RIP

The Sean Taylor story was a sad continuation of what seems like the new trend of black athletes becoming targets for robbery/murder (Darrent Williams, Damien Nash, Antoine Walker) by the same communities they are supposed to be heroes in.

• A year and a half ago, when Ben Wallace left the Pistons to sign a four-year, $60-million contract with the Bulls, he said he almost immediately felt the target on his back grow larger, both on and off the court.

  "If you sign a big contract, everybody knows," Wallace said. "They're going to print it in the paper. It's on ESPN. You can go online and check player salaries and all that. You're a target. We're all targets. You've just got to protect yourself the best way you can."

  Even for the chiseled, 6-foot-9, 240-pound Wallace, a man who looks more like a bodyguard than someone who might need one, that could mean adding a security detail. Although Wallace said he doesn't currently have a bodyguard, he added that he "might have one tomorrow" after seeing what happened to Walker, Curry, Robinson and now Taylor over the course of the past six months.

  "Professional athletes, most of us came from the streets. We feel like we know the streets and can pretty much protect ourselves," Wallace said. "But now we're in a position where we're being targeted, and the stakes are just too high. So, yeah, you might need that big guy standing next to you for a while."

During the initial confusion/reaction stage, Deion broke it down the best. Can Deion replace Sharpton? Please?




There were instances of people ready to blame him for his own death, fueled by some dumb situations he got into earlier in life.

Not to mention tall stories of dude's gunning for him in Miami. Luckily, we won't hear anything else demonizing Taylor because it seems that he was killed by some dumb jigs he let cut his lawn.

Peep their pics below.

• Eric Rivera, 17, Charles Wardlow, 18, Jason Mitchell, 19, and Venjah Hunte, 20, were charged with Taylor's slaying, home invasion with a firearm or another deadly weapon and armed burglary. Police said the suspects were looking for a simple burglary, but it turned bloody when they were startled to find Taylor home.
  
  ...The suspects all have prior arrests, according to Lee County Sheriff's Office records.
  
  On Rivera's MySpace page, he posed for pictures lying in bed with $100 bills strewn atop him and fanning a wad of cash in front of his face. The page is wallpapered with images of money, the text atop it green. The 17-year-old sandwiches his alias, Mr. Florida, between dollar signs and lists counting money among his interests...
  

  ...Police remain tightlipped about how the suspects wound up at Taylor's home. The Miami Herald reported Mitchell cut the player's lawn and did other chores at the house and that Taylor's sister Sasha dates Wardlow's cousin. The Naples Daily News quoted a woman who identified herself as Jason Mitchell's mother as saying her son was at a birthday party at Taylor's home within the past two months.

  Sharpstein said Taylor's sister had a 21st birthday party at her brother's home on Thanksgiving weekend.

  
  

That's why I don't fuck with people with MySpace pages...

This proves a gospel I have been preaching for a hot minute.

"When you have money, get the fuck out of the hood."

Start Snitching Bible 1:1

Not just in address, but in mentality and association. Don't let hood trash cut your lawn or in your house and put your machete away, this isn't the West Indies.

Machetes aren't defending shit, rent some Blackwater goons to watch over you, especially when the police report says you were robbed just a week ago.

Some Start Snitching research puts Sean Taylor's zip code as 33157 in Miami, Florida.
No need to put his address on blast.

Zipskinny.com, an awesome site, shows me that Taylor's Zip Code wasn't exactly balling.

Median salary:

$47,332

Imagine what that drops to without his salary. I'm definitely not trying to blame the dude, it's a tragic situation, but hopefully it inspires some athletes to let go of these foolish notions of hood loyalty and upgrade that zip code.

Star and Bucwild always ended their shows with this refrain,

"May your children speak proper English and the gates that surround your property protect you from common ghetto trash."

Amen, Star.

Snitch of the Week: 9/30 - 10/6 (Anita Hill)

(Damn, Anita...)

Uncle Tom emiritus Clarence Thomas was in the news hard this week, slandering Anita Hill, revising history and trying to sell some copies of his new book.

In it he tries to blame the evil liberals for his contentious nomination process. Let's not mind the fact that he sexually harassed Anita Hill.

Pseudo news outlets like 60 Minutes gave him free reign to slander her without any chance for reply.

That's why I'm shining some light on her NY Times dissection of Clarence Thomas' little fantasy book tour.

• Justice Thomas has every right to present himself as he wishes in his new memoir, “My Grandfather’s Son.” He may even be entitled to feel abused by the confirmation process that led to his appointment to the Supreme Court.

  But I will not stand by silently and allow him, in his anger, to reinvent me.

  In the portion of his book that addresses my role in the Senate hearings into his nomination, Justice Thomas offers a litany of unsubstantiated representations and outright smears that Republican senators made about me when I testified before the Judiciary Committee — that I was a “combative left-winger” who was “touchy” and prone to overreacting to “slights.” A number of independent authors have shown those attacks to be baseless. What’s more, their reports draw on the experiences of others who were familiar with Mr. Thomas’s behavior, and who came forward after the hearings. It’s no longer my word against his.

  Justice Thomas’s characterization of me is also hobbled by blatant inconsistencies. He claims, for instance, that I was a mediocre employee who had a job in the federal government only because he had “given it” to me. He ignores the reality: I was fully qualified to work in the government, having graduated from Yale Law School (his alma mater, which he calls one of the finest in the country), and passed the District of Columbia Bar exam, one of the toughest in the nation.

Anita, preach on sista!, you are the Snitch of the Week.

After Anucha Browne's $11.6 million victory post Isiah Thomas' sex harassment suit (can someone please sexually harass me), I'm riding with my soul sister Anita on this one. Just please don't Marion Jones/Duke LaCross rape whore/Tawana Brawley me after I publicly ride with you.

It's getting hard out there.

Can't Stop Won't Stop: The Rise of Tony Romo

How many quarterbacks could pull that shit off?!
And that's not the first time he's done that either.

I was kind of bummed that Vick had screwed himself out of an NFL season but then I realized that Romo is the white Michael Vick without the animal murdering and with the passing accuracy.

Before the 2007 season kicked off I predicted a 10-6 record for the Cowboys. Then I saw them play.

I still have questions about their secondary and the fact that they tend to sleep through the entire first half of every game but their offense is a god body machine.

I knew Bill Parcells had turned into the Lloyd Carr of the NFL (underutilized offense, playing to not lose, annoying post-game persona and obstinance in the face of change) and was holding the Cowboys back but damn Parcells.

I'm going to up my predication to 13-3.

Jerry Jones, give Tony Romo his goddamn money.

Snitch of the Week: 9/9 - 9/15 (Eric Mangini)

(He did it! Over there!)

I'm torn about Eric Mangini's snitch move against Belichick.

On one hand Belichick is a cheater and the kind of scumbag coach that forces players on the field with concussions. I'm glad to see his ass on the fire.

On the other hand, Mangini was mentored and setup in the NFL with Bellichik, so he knows all of his tricks and probably uses them himself. So it comes off as a sore loser bitch move to drop the dime on Belichick after the Jets got raped by the Patriots. And now he's lost a good deal of respect in the NFL.

If Mangini ever goes to New England, he better bring his boy Tony Soprano with him if he wants to make it back to NY alive.



Mangini, for better of worse, you are the Snitch of the Week.

Thank You Appalachian Mountaineers

I am still retching from the shame of my alma mater, the University of Michigan, losing to a school that admitted Miss Teen North Carolina to their freshman class. You all know who I am talking about.

This retard,



How many dudes are waiting for that to show up campus?

I don't blog about sports but Lloyd Carr needs to go. He's a coach from the era of leather helmets and black and white photographs.

He is confused everytime he sees a black quarterback tuck the ball and run. I'm pretty sure he thinks that's against the rules. It's we had to get shamed like this, but hopefully this gets Carr the fuck out of Ann Arbor.

When I can stand up or look any other Division IA alumnus in the face again I will resume the blogging.

At least I have the Cowboys fucking up the Giants on Sunday night to look forward.

Say It Ain't So Vick

I don't know why I feel sort of bad for Michael Vick.

I'm not disappointed because I don't expect shit from professional athletes. They tend to live up to their stereotypes and Michael Vick didn't exactly become a sadistic dog fighter/murderer by accident.

He can't truly apologize for his actions.

It's just kind of sad that he ended up being what his detractors hoped and it's also shocking how quickly this story unraveled.

He went from being a few months away from his most important season ever to now entertaining the possibility of never playing in the NFL again.

It's hard for me to imagine how dumb one person could be. He's 27. Pretty young but old enough to know what he was doing.

He ended up being more than a coach killer.
He was a dog killer.
An owner killer. (Arthur Blank really believed in that guy.)
And a team killer.

Can you imagine getting ready for the season and then you find out that your starting QB is going to prison?

Can you imagine Donovan McNabb slinging coke in the off-season?
Or Peyton Manning running an Eastern European prostitution ring after his Super Bowl victory?

What a fucking idiot.

Thanks for making the NFL a little more boring this year Vick.

Snitch of the Week: 5/20 - 5/26 (Giambi)

(Silence is golden.)

I have to give the Snitch of the Week to Jason Giambi for basically admitting to steroid use and giving the Yankees the perfect excuse they needed to void his contract.

Whoever interviewed Giambi and got him talking needs to talk to Barry Bonds next so we can get him the hell out of baseball. There is a rich history of self-snitching on this site and for joining this list, Jason Giambi is the Snitch of the Week.

Free Pacman Jones!!!

(The new Mumia)

Y'all may have heard that Pacman Jones, the number one contender for the title of King Jig, has gotten suspended for the 2007 NFL season for breaking more laws than the police had on record.

This new ruling is hot garbage. The only time Pacman wasn't committing crimes was when he was playing football. Plus, the dude is nasty as hell on the field.

How can you pay someone millions of dollars to perform savage acts of violence for 3 hours every Sunday and then all of a sudden stop expect the savagery to end because the Superbowl is over?

I'm a savage 24-7 nigga!!!
Rahhhhh!!!

Al Sharpton where you at?
Jesse Jackson, we riding out on this one?
The plantation of the National Football League must free Pacman right now!

...

That is my version of the sentiment expressed over at the ESPN message boards, which I made the horrible mistake of reading. Based on the comments of a few Nobel Prize winners, Pacman is some sort of freedom fighter.

Read the wisdom of cracksnow,

• cracksnow (4/10/2007 at 1:32 PM)
  
  He wasn't convicted yet. is this retro-active? All these guys complain about the Nba in here, because of the hip-hop influence. There was one situation with the pacers and pistons and nba responded swift with the suspensions. Nba hasn't had nearly the problems the nfl has had in recent years. Reverands Sharpton and Jackson should get involved he WASN'T CONVICTED!!!

It gets worse but I don't want to waste my brain cells posting that shit here. We have standards here at Start Snitching.

What I want to ask is why a certain contingent of Blacks believe that no African-American has ever committed a crime.
Sometimes niggas are just guilty. It's like black people refuse to hold anyone up to a standard.

Peep the cover of the glossy piece of toilet paper known as "Vibe Magazine."




Child rapist R. Kelly avoided his charges so long that he now gets a magazine cover with the tagline, "Is he innocent? Guilty? Or Guilty of Being Rich, Black, and Famous?"

I wonder...
Hmm, let me go to Limewire and download the tape of himself peeing on a teenager to refresh my memory.
Yup, that's his black ass all right.

I guess with Chappelle off the air people are forgetting exactly Kelly did. That "He made Thriller man, Thriller..." mentality is real.

Maybe Imus can say the phrase "nappy hos" again to distract the Negroes while R. Kelly, guilty of only being "rich, black and famous," statutory rapes someone else's daughter.

Nappy Headed Hoes Ain't Nothing To Fuck With

(Pwned, for now)

I'm back like Tony Soprano baby.

Much like David Chase can take the Sopranos off the air for 15 months and not explain a damn thing, Start Snitching can up and disappear for over a week and risk blogland irrelevancy.

Did I just compare myself to David Chase?
Ahem...


- I'm still trying to comprehend how Imus got owned by some "nappy-headed hos" as he called them.

I'm going to be 100% real because y'all expect the truth like that, when I first saw the Rutgers women's basketball team, I thought "Those are some gully-ass looking bitches."

I mean these are the kind of chicks that make Snoop from The Wire look like Ashley Banks from Fresh Prince.

Like these chicks,



But I'm not exactly expecting Brazilian models to be playing women's basketball in New Jersey. So why knock them for their looks?

The fact that a small sports program without the resources of a Duke University or a Tennessee can come up and represent like the Rutgers team did is commendable. Why shit on them for not looking like prissy white girls?

It's cheap for a person of power, a white male, to be taking potshots at poor black women. That's plain gutless. I'm more annoying by the cowardice of his actions than the racism of it. What's edgy about that? Gimme a break.

The whole shtick of blue collar white male shock jock fighting the repressive barriers of the FCC and mainstream society's political correctness is played out.

Hopefully Imus is gone longer than two weeks.

If Star and Bucwild can't be on the air, then to hell with all the other radio DJ's out there.
I'm keeping the hate alive until Star comes back.


- In other stupid white man moves, John McCain now claims that he's so gully he would walk through downtown Baghdad with a yarmulke, an American flag and a box of matzo crackers while singing Hava Nagila and he still wouldn't get shot by Arabs because that's how safe Iraq is.

McCain needs to officially go the fuck away. That fool is too damn old and crazy to even be a Senator let alone President. His parading through Baghdad with an entire platoon surrounding him while proclaiming how safe Iraq is one of the most shameful and insulting acts in American politic history. It always interesting to see the exact moment when someone writes the obituary on their political career.

R.I.P. John McCain.

Imus and McCain need to go wherever crazy old white men go when it's time to be put out to pasture.

LeBron James and Warren Buffett, Best Friends Forever?

(These Negroes sure jump high...)


Warren Buffett, who could buy the whole damn NBA, fuck the Cavs, was chilling at the Cavs game against the Nuggets to cheer on his main nigga, LeBron James.

Yea, you read that right,Warren Buffett was cheerleading for LeBron James.

• "He wanted a few tips on basketball and I wanted a little advice on money," joked Buffett, estimated by Forbes Magazine to be worth $52 billion. "We switch. He tells me what socks to buy and I tell him what stocks to pick."

Yuk, yuk, yuk.

How in the hell does LeBron James know Warren Buffett you ask? It wasn't just a ploy by David Stern to get old white men to watch basketball.

• "Though an unlikely pair, Cleveland's All-Star forward and Buffett are friends and mutual admirers. They first met a few months ago over a lunch of cheeseburgers in Omaha, Neb."

That's how you meet billionaires? Eat some fucking cheeseburgers? Man, I got this shit all twisted. I thought you twist out their daughters and force yourself into the will...

All jokes aside, I respect LeBron using his ability to put a ball into a net to climb that social ladder. So many NBA players and athletes in general never grow out of the state of niggerdom they enter the professional sports world with.

Cough... Artest, Owens, Pacman Jones, Ray Carruth, Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson, Mike Tyson... Cough.

Instead of using their riches to try and open the new doors in front of them, they throw bags of dollars bills in the air and strip clubs and cause shoot-outs.

Tis a damn shame.

If you have to model yourself after a wealthy white man, it would be hard to do better than Buffett. As the second wealthiest man in the world, Buffett is ridiculously modest, he still lives in Nebraska and he's going to give away most of his money to Bill Gates' charity.

Kudos to you LeBron.


- I'm not going to pretend to be up on the NBA in general, especially this year. But Kobe even has a hater like he standing up and applauding. He even has people calling him MVP, better than MJ and more gully than Jesus Christ on Easter morning.

And this is coming from a guy who spent many years losing his voice cheering against the Lakers in the playoffs. Don't get it twisted, I'm no front-runner, I still don't want the Lakers to do shit in the playoffs. But this dude is single-handedly doing what LeBron and all them other new cats were supposed to be doing. Keep the NBA interesting and getting people talking.

Can we let Kobe out of fake rape/Duke LaCrosse purgatory?
How many more 50 point games does he need until he gets his endorsements back?

Obama wants the Duke LaCrosse players let off, can he get Kobe off too?

Chris Rock Is Still Hilarious

Peep this clip of Chris promoting his new movie, "I Think I Love My Wife" and dropping politics on HBO's "Real Time."



Shit is hilarious. "Real Time" is actually pretty good too.

Anyone saw the movie?

It didn't do that hot last weekend, but none of Chris Rock's movies really do. And besides it doesn't have the lowest common denominator coon factor that a "Norbitt" has. It was actually based on a French film. Not exactly box office gold.

What's next movie marketing people?
An inspirational movie about black people swimming?

Oh wait,



My bad.


- Also, didn't I tell y'all that NYC negroes where fiending for a riot?

Sean Bell verdict be damned, the negroes will riot!
Surely a slightly hard foul between two Brooklyn basketball teams is a worthy cause for an uprising...



As always, I blame rap.

Snitch of the Week: 2/4 - 2/10 (Italy)

(And that's just the pre-game party...)

I'll make this quick and give the SofW to Italy for banning fans from stadiums during games after a police officer was killed during a match in Sicily.

• Matches were suspended last Friday after rival fans battled each other and the police during a game in Catania, Sicily. Amid exploding bombs and thugs wielding steel bars, a 38-year-old officer, Filippo Raciti, was killed.

Damn. Didn't a French police officer just shoot a soccer fan who was about to kill a Jewish fan?

And you thought being at a NBA game with Ron Artest was dangerous?

I learned this lesson long ago and heard it best put by Star and Bucwild, "the white man is the original gangster."

For calling out the European soccer savages and myth of European sophistication, Italy is the Snitch of the Week.

A Mormon President? Nah, I'm Good On That...

(Mitt Romney, not your daddy's Mormon)

Is it me or is 2007 off to a weird ass start?

- We got Mormons trying to step up to the presidential plate that have less of a chance to win than a black man with a white mom.
Isn't an HBO show good enough for Mormons?
They need a visible platform too?
I'm still getting used to the political destruction the Evangelicals Christians have unleashed on America and the world and now I have to learn about another scary branch of Christianity?

Give me a break.
Please.
I'm starting to miss Catholics...


- Meanwhile Negroes ran the Superbowl and the half-time show (let's go lightskinned blacks!)

Prince masturbated behind a sheet in front of all of America and no one even noticed.
It goes to show that it's all about subversion and subtlety Ms. Jackson, not popping the titties.


- Anna Nicole Smith died (or killed herself) and I actually ended up feeling a bit sorry for her. Hm.


- And the NBA has gay players. What a shock...
The closet homos don't matter, it was the ignorant homophobic reactions I was looking for.
The most ignorant comment to come from this story was from Shavlik Randolph of the Sixers who said,

• "As long as you don't bring your gayness on me I'm fine," Randolph said. "As far as business-wise, I'm sure I could play with him. But I think it would create a little awkwardness in the locker room."

Steven Hunter, another Sixer said,

• "As long as he don't make any advances toward me I'm fine with it," he said. "As long as he came to play basketball like a man and conducted himself like a good person, I'd be fine with it."

Someone please get your batteries ready to throw at the next Sixers game.


- And it's been over 5 weeks and I haven't heard a decent album yet. Granted there are a few things I need to listen to again and a lot of other good shit is supposed to come out later this year, but most of the shit released so far is straight garbage. (Am I wrong?)

No wonder the albums sales of 2007 are already off by 15% from 2006, which was off from 2005, which was off from 2004, and so on and so forth.

It's sad because the RIAA doesn't understand the industry they are supposed to be in and their backward ass policies have created one of the worse train wrecks I've seen in a while.

First they raided DJ Drama and alienated most people who actually buy rap CDs and most recently Steve Jobs just asked the 4 major labels to drop their DRM requirements for digital music and the RIAA thanked him for offering to license more DRM.

• "Apple's offer to license FairPlay to other technology companies is a welcome breakthrough and would be a real victory for fans, artists and labels. There have been many services seeking a licence to the Apple DRM. This would enable the interoperability that we have been urging for a very long time."

Fuck the What?!
Apple never offered to license their technology. In fact they said it would be a horrible idea for them to license their technology.

You thought Hip-Hop was dead?
It's whole damn industry.
Check your business model man. It's broken.

Snitch of the Week: 1/28 - 2/3 (Ted Johnson)

I've always hated Bill Belichick for his general arrogance and slovenly persona but this shit puts him on a whole new level of hate.

Peep the NY Times article where retired linebacker Ted Johnson did a bit of class snitching on Bill Belichick and the NFL regarding their disregard of brain injuries and the general well-being of NFL players post-career.

From the article,

• According to Patriots medical records that Mr. Johnson shared with The Times, the only notable concussion in his career to that point happened when he played at the University of Colorado in 1993. Against the Giants on Aug. 10, 2002, those records indicate, he sustained a “head injury” — the word concussion was not used — and despite the clearing of symptoms after several minutes on the sideline, he did not return to the game.

  Mr. Johnson said that four days later, when full-contact practice resumed, Mr. Whalen issued him a red jersey, the standard signal to all other players that he was not supposed to be hit in any way. About an hour into the practice, Mr. Johnson said, before a set of high-impact running drills, an assistant trainer came out on the field with a standard blue jersey. When he asked for an explanation, Mr. Johnson said, the assistant told him that he was following Mr. Whalen’s instructions.

  Mr. Johnson, whose relationship with Mr. Belichick had already been strained by a contract dispute, said he interpreted the scene as Mr. Belichick’s testing his desire to play, and that he might be cut and lose his $1.1 million salary — N.F.L. contracts are not guaranteed — if he did not follow orders.

  “I’m sitting there going, ‘God, do I put this thing on?’ ” Mr. Johnson said. “I put the blue on. I was scared for my job.”

  Regarding the intimidation he felt at that moment, Mr. Johnson added, “This kind of thing happens all the time in football. That day it was Bill Belichick and Ted Johnson. But it happens all the time.”

So Belichick basically dared him to risk his sanity and future for pennies relative to what Belichick gets paid to blow 18 point leads to the Colts and then shove cameramen out of the way.
No wonder Ladanian Tomlinson said something like "The Patriots' actions after the game reflect their coach" after the Chargers lost.

Again,

• Mr. Johnson said that the first play called after he put the blue jersey on, known as “ace-ice,” called for one act from him, the middle linebacker: to sprint four yards headlong into the onrushing blocking back. After that collision, Mr. Johnson said, a warm sensation overtook his body, he saw stars, and he felt disoriented as the other players appeared to be moving in slow motion. He never lost consciousness, though, and after several seconds regained his composure and continued to practice “in a bit of a fog” while trying to avoid contact. He said he did not mention anything to anyone until after practice, when he angrily approached Mr. Whalen, the head trainer.

  “I said, ‘Just so you know, I got another concussion,’ ” Johnson said. “You could see the blood, like, leave his face. And he was like, ‘All right, all right, well, we’re going to get you in to see a neurologist.’ ”
  

  Dr. Cantu said that he was convinced Mr. Johnson’s cognitive impairment and depression “are related to his previous head injuries, as they are all rather classic postconcussion symptoms.” He added, “They are most likely permanent.”

  Asked for a prognosis of Mr. Johnson’s future, Dr. Cantu, the chief of neurosurgery and director of sports medicine at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass., said: “Ted already shows the mild cognitive impairment that is characteristic of early Alzheimer’s disease. The majority of those symptoms relentlessly progress over time. It could be that at the time he’s in his 50s, he could have severe Alzheimer’s symptoms."

Johnson came forward with his story after ex-Eagle Andre Waters committed suicide after severe concussions caused him to enter a deep depression after his career ended.

The NFL's treatment of concussions and player's pressure to ignore them to get their contracts is a real issue, one that is infinitely more important that Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire banging needles into each others ass (No Dipset) to hit homeruns.

Ted Johnson, for calling out NFL culture and ending the myth of Belichick's greatness, you are the Snitch of the Week. Please sue the shit out of that fool.

Serena Williams On Conan

If you didn't get enough Serena Williams last time, peep Conan O' Brien busting her ass in Nintendo Wii Tennis.



Good ol' Conan.
When is Leno leaving again?

What The Fuck Is Wrong With (White) People?

(The Jesus Horse is no more.)

I love my white folks and I call out everyone equally on this blog, but I'm going to go out on a racist limb here and assume that the vast majority of people who gave a crap about Barbaro, the racehorse that was injured and eventually died and posted about it on the NY Times are white. Let me know if I'm wrong.

I followed this story briefly when it broke months ago, but then I realized I was reading about a horse so I stopped.
Now that the horse is finally dead, white people have lost their damn minds on the NY Times.

I kept reading this shit hoping it was a joke.
Peep this nonsense from the NY Times blog posting,

• 1.
  January 29th,
  2007
  9:08 pm

  I cried when I heard the news.It is so sad,Barbaro fought so hard to live and run as he did in the Kentcuky derby.The whole country adopted this horse.

  — Posted by mary weiner

• 2.
  January 29th,
  2007
  9:09 pm

  What a fighter he was. We can learn from the animals.

  — Posted by Jenney

• 3.
  January 29th,
  2007
  9:15 pm

  Many millions share the grief of the owners and the doctors who worked to save such a beautiful creature. He will be remembered.

  — Posted by Buck Rutledge

• 4.
  January 29th,
  2007
  9:16 pm

  Barbaro had become a national celebrity, with many of us rooting for him; he was such a spirited soul. Sad he had to be put down, but at least with horses there can be some euthanasia.

  The amount of money spent to save him, however, versus how much we put towards someone not independently wealthy, shows where our priorities have gone. I would guess a number of preschool centers could have been funded for the price. His “price” and treatment raises lots of ethical issues, not the least of which is sports betting,or even gambling, and those industries which exploit people and animals. Still, he had a good spirit, and I feel badly for the vets, trainers, jockeys and owners who I am sure were very attached.

  — Posted by Sally White

• 5.
  January 29th,
  2007
  9:19 pm

  Barbaro’s death deeply saddened me and my thoughts and prayers go out to his owners, the surgeon and medical staff who cared for him. Barbaro was a true champion in every sense of the word. He blessed us with his beauty and dignity and grace His spirit and will to live were truly inspirational.I held out hope that there would be a miracle and he would survive, despite the overwhelming odds against him. Animals teach us so much about life, love, compassion, kindness and responsibility. We are all interconnected in the web of life. May Barbaro rest in peace and may he continue to inspire us all.

  — Posted by Phyllis J. Silva

And those are the restrained comments...

What
The
Fuck?

Can anyone explain this nonsense to me?
Why are people crying their brains out over an unprocessed bottle of glue?

What about Darfur?
Sean Bell?
Nixmary Brown?
Cheryl Green, the 14 yr-old black girl that was murdered for stepping into a Mexican neighborhood?
The close to a 100 U.S. troops that have died in January '07 alone not to mention the countless Iraqis civilians?

Have people run out of issues to stress out over?
Am I an evil puppy kicking bastard?
Or have I completely missed the boat here?