Black Death

So here we have front and center, once again, two of the main things ripping this country apart: Islamic extremist terrorists and police shooting black people.

On Saturday, an Islamic extremist planted a bunch of bombs in places throughout New York City and New Jersey.  As soon as I heard that there was an explosion in New York City, two things came to mind: it was either a accident or a Muslim extremist trying to kill people.  Then they found a pressure cooker bomb, and I was pretty sure I knew exactly what it was.  So did most people if they're honest.  Trump wasn't wrong with his conclusions on this particular issue.  Hillary said he shouldn't jump to conclusions before knowing the facts, which is ironic coming from someone who blamed the Benghazi attack on an anti-Islam video.  The truth is that ISIS and Islamic extremism in general are HUGE problems throughout the world.  Saying this does not make me "Islamophobic."  It makes me cognizant of facts.

Try to remember before September 11, 2001, for those of you who were around.  It was just over 15 years ago.  What was your first thought when you heard about the first plane hitting the tower?  Shamefully, I remember what my comment was, because I'll never forget anything about that day.  The Yankees had just won the last three World Series and four of the last five, and they were well on their way to playing in another one that October.  I was sitting in my Chemistry class Junior Year of High School when I heard about the first plane hitting the tower.
"Probably a pissed off Red Sox fan."
That's what I said.  With little knowledge of the situation, it was a hauntingly terrible joke.
Then the second plane hit.
"OK, that was on purpose.  We're under attack..."

I had no idea who was attacking us.  I knew nothing of Islamic extremism them.  Being a Christian, I knew Judaism well, and I knew of Islam to some extent.  I knew that Jews and Muslims often didn't get along very well in the Middle East.  I knew that they both revered Abraham, but then split on Isaac and Ishmael.  We all seemed to get along just fine in America though.  I knew some Muslims, just like I knew Jews, Buddhists, Atheists, Agnostics, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Unitarians, Hindus, whatever.  They had different religious beliefs than I did, but they were people.  I had no problem with any of them.  I try to treat everyone with respect until they don't treat me with respect.  And on that day, more than ever, we were all just Americans.

Then we found out who did it, and if something similar to what happened that day occurred again today, most of us would probably, and probably rightly, immediately attribute it to Islamic extremism.  But before that terrible day 15 years ago, that was the furthest thing from my mind.  Sure, I was a naive high school student, but I didn't know that was a thing that could exist here in America.  It was a different kind of war, and it still is.  Yes, there are a lot of Christians and Jews and people of all religious beliefs who do really bad things.  But there is a brand of terrorism that's pretty unique to Islamic extremists.  Christians and Jews aren't attacking infidels in the name of God, but the number of terrorist attacks by extremist Muslims done in the name of Allah is out of control.  It is a regular occurrence in this world.  No, not all Muslims are terrorists--not even close--but in this modern day, most terrorists are Muslims.

We haven't found a solution to this yet, so there's nothing like a good old-fashioned police shooting of a black person to distract us from it, because that's actually something that we should be able to solve.  I've gone over the numbers before.  The number of police shooting black people is not an alarming number, and most black people who are killed in general are killed by other black people.  But, quite honestly, these facts do not matter to those who are grieving the loss of a loved one.  Black lives do matter.  I empathize with the black people who are hurting.  No, I will never fully understand being black, but I can grieve with those who grieve.  I can demand change.  I can acknowledge that racism is not completely dead, and this is a problem that must be corrected.  But I'm still going to examine the issue more closely, and I'm not going to support people who are rioting, shooting cops, or encouraging violence against police officers in any way, shape, or form.  If you want a civil war in this country, that's how you bring it on.  If you want real change, let's have a rational discussion about the issues, the causes, and the solutions.

My first job out of college was in Quality.  In a Quality Department, when something goes wrong, you must find the root cause and the corrective action.  Different incidents may have different root causes and different corrective actions.  There is almost never a fix-all solution for something.  When a black woman is pointing a gun at a police officer and threatening to kill him with that gun, while also using her child as a human shield, the root cause of her death is her own actions.  We can grieve, we can wish she didn't die, we can believe she didn't deserve to die, but the color of her skin is completely irrelevant here.  It's another black life taken by police, but the root cause is not racism.  When a black child points an air gun at a police officer that looks like a real gun with a laser sight on it, and the police officer draws his gun and kills the child, we can grieve, we can be saddened, but again, the root cause is this child's actions, and has nothing to do with the color of his skin.  The main corrective action in both of these cases is to not point a firearm (or something that looks exactly like a firearm) at a police officer.

Then we have the less straightforward cases.  There are riots in Charlotte now because a black man was shot in his car.  His daughter says he was a disabled man reading a book who did not have a gun, and the officers say he had a gun.  I don't know who's telling the truth here, and I'm not going to make excuses for the police officer or the victim when I have such little knowledge of what occurred, but regardless of all that, this wasn't because of racism either. The officer who killed the black man was also black.  And finally, there's the situation in Tulsa, where video has surfaced of an unarmed black man being killed.  The female officer who killed him has given her account of what happened.  But again, I don't know what exactly occurred, so I can only grieve for another life lost right now.  Was racism a factor?  Maybe it was, and maybe it wasn't.  Hopefully the truth comes out in both of these situations and justice prevails.  There are no positives when things like that occur.  But what are some steps we can take as a nation?  What are some corrective actions?

I like the idea of police body cameras.  There are good cops, bad cops, and cops who make mistakes, but there are also those who lie about what occurred, so body cams should aid both the officers and those that they are involved with, because they give us a better idea of what actually happened in any given situation.  I like the idea of more police training.  Some of them are just bad with firearms and reading of situations (the incident comes to mind in which the police officer accidentally shot a black caregiver when he was actually aiming for a mentally-challenged person who he thought had a gun, which turned out to be a toy truck).  Some of them are quick to use force.  Some use deadly force when it is not necessary, and non-deadly force options are available.  Training may not fix all of this, but maybe it can help.  Punishment for doing the wrong thing and true accountability are also necessary.  Racist cops being fired immediately when found to be racist, and being punished to the fullest extent of the law when they themselves break the law are obvious necessities.

You want to know what won't help our nation?  Rioting by destroying things and hurting people, demonizing or shooting police officers, and pointing fingers instead of having constructive dialogue.  Are you a BLM supporter who's angry because of the folks who were getting loud about football players not standing for the National Anthem but are silent about the recent highly-publicized police shootings?  Talk about that, but don't tell them that THEY are what's wrong with this nation on social media.  Are you a BLM skeptic who's angry because of the folks who are up in arms over the recent highly-publicized police shootings, because they were also up in arms over other police shootings that turned out to be justified, and they became huge fans of the 49ers second-string Quarterback overnight? Talk about that, but don't tell them that THEY are what's wrong with this nation on social media.  Think racism is gone?  You're wrong.  Think racism is to blame every time an officer shoots a black person?  You're wrong too.  If you're both wrong, there's some common ground to build on.

But let's find some real common ground.  Can we agree that sometimes a police officer shooting a black person is justified, other times it's racist, and other times it's neither?  Be a part of the solution instead of the distraction.  Try to understand the other side.  BLM skeptics are justifiably upset because some folks blame cops for killing black people who are pointing weapons at them, others are saying all cops are bad, and others are violently rioting in the streets, even when the officer who killed a black man is also black.  But BLM supporters are justifiably upset because of the images they see so often of people who look like them, their families, and their friends being killed by police officers.  Yes, the media's disproportionate coverage of these events is to blame to some extent, but the media listing every dead black person's rap sheet is often unnecessary.  It's a big news story these days whenever a police officer kills a black person, and the media covers it from many angles.  It's said that shootings of any kind are still happening in America today.

We need prayer.  We need God.  We need to stop demonizing each other.  We need racial reconciliation.  Love is the only real solution.  Mix it with some common sense and you might have an antidote.

The Horse and the Hippo

I don't like Ann Coulter or Hillary Clinton.  I don't like what they say.  I don't like what they stand for.  I don't like what they look like.  The main difference between them is that Ann Coulter is on the right and Hillary Clinton is on the left (also, one is a criminal running for President and the other is a political pundit not running for President).  If you say something insulting about a prominent person on the right, it's typically accepted as free speech.  It's rare that someone tries to classify it as hate speech, a definition which has startlingly broadened over the years in the minds of many, notably on the left.  Most of the time, no one is yelling that it's sexist or racist if it's said about someone on the right though.  It might be wrong, and it might be in bad taste, but you don't often see people up in arms that you shouldn't be able to say it or that you're a bad person for saying it.  Not so on the left.  Comment on Hillary's hideous appearance?  Sexism.  Her health?  You're sexist.  Heck, Madeline Albright even said there's a special place in hell for women who don't support Hillary Clinton.

It's not just women who are off limits either.  It's minorities.  If you look at the field of Democratic Presidential candidates and the field of Republican Presidential candidates from the primaries this year, you may notice something striking.  For one party, all of the candidates were old white people, of which Hillary was the only female.  For the other party, we had White, Black, Hispanic, young, old, male, female...  Believe it or not, that party was the Republicans.  Yet the oft-repeated narrative is that the Democrats are the party of diversity and Republicans are racists.  The Democrats, of course, were the party in favor of continuing slavery.  The most poor urban cities in America are that way largely because they've been under control of Democratic leadership non-stop for decades.  Our President came out of the shithole that is Chicago, where he was a community organizer, and Chicago has somehow gotten even worse and more dangerous since he's been in office.  But criticize Obama and you're racist.  Criticize Ben Carson, twist his words, make a brilliant surgeon out to look like an idiot, or lazy, and you're not a racist, but rather just stating the truth, because he doesn't fit the Liberal definition of what a black man should be.  Of course, I would say that anyone who has a definition of that may actually be racist, and also that Liberals were scared of Ben Carson because he would be our next President had he gotten the Republican nomination.

All that being said, I'm pretty firmly in the category of "Other" at this point politically, because I don't like the Democratic or Republican parties or their nominees for President.  I identify most as a Libertarian.  But the hypocrisy on the left is just too astounding to ignore.  I understand that this post and the accompanying picture are going to be offensive, and unnecessary, and it wasn't even something I was going to write about until I stumbled upon a short (under two minutes) video clip on YouTube with highlights of people roasting Ann Coulter at last week's roast of Rob Lowe.  I clicked on it, and it made me think.  How outraged would the left be if people said these sorts of things about Hillary Clinton?

Peyton Manning had what I thought was the funniest quip about her, saying that Ann Coulter won the Kentucky Derby.  It's funny, because she kind of looks like a horse.  I laughed at that a bit.  And the other stuff?  Well, some of it was probably in bad taste and went a bit far, but I don't have a problem with it being said.  But the reason I'm writing this post isn't because I take issue with what was said, but rather because I want to picture the backlash if it was said about Hillary Clinton.

There were some quips in there about Coulter hating black people and being part of the Klan, cutting eye holes in sheets, and David Spade even saying that she's "wild in the sheets--just ask the Klan."  Can we say that about Hillary?  Just ask Senator Robert Byrd and her other Klan friends.  Oh, then there was the one saying they "haven't seen [Ann] laugh this hard since Trayvon Martin got shot."  I wonder if she was laughing as hard as Hillary when she successfully defended a child rapist.  Oh wait, that actually happened.  And she actually laughed about it in an interview years after it happened.  Too real.  Can't make a joke about that.  Let's just imply she laughed when a 17-year-old black kid got shot instead.  Or does that miss the mark because only Republicans can possibly be racist?

Then there was the joke about Ann being against gay marriage because, "if I can't get a husband, they shouldn't either!"  I wonder how Hillary's marriage is doing...  Bill is just the portrait of a loyal husband--as long as the portrait is taken from the waist up while he's sitting at his desk.  Maybe Hillary should be against all marriage since hers is a sham anyway.

While some of these quips about Ann had some level of comedic value, there were some that were in no way funny, but actually just mean-spirited. Again, I have no problem with people saying these things.  That's their right.  And I'm not defending Ann Coulter, nor do I even like her.  But rather than try to make a joke tailored for Hillary out of these Ann Coulter jokes (if that's what they're supposed to be), I simply ask that you picture these things being said about Hillary Clinton instead of Ann Coulter.  How would that go over?

"Looks like a truck stop transvestite whore."

"The right-to-lifers wanted everyone to see what an abortion looks like up close."

"One of the most repugnant, hateful, hatchet-faced bitches alive, but it's not too late to change...  You could kill yourself."

Wow, and to think, Donald Trump just made a dumb statement about the Second Amendment people stopping Hillary.  He should have just quoted that last one word for word and all the Liberals would have just laughed instead.

Stay classy, America.

Contradictory Kaepernick

America is a free country because of the men and women who fought and continue to fight for our freedom.  That means that Colin Kaepernick is free to sit down during the National Anthem in protest if he wishes.  It is perfectly legal, it is a way to peacefully protest, and the NFL was right to not punish him.  Yes, it could be viewed as a sign of disrespect for America and for Veterans.  But, quite honestly, most Veterans I know are pretty tough and can handle it just fine.  They know what real trauma is.  They're not like students at Emory University who are emotionally traumatized by sidewalk chalk that says "Trump 2016."  That being said, I take issue with his decision to do so for different reasons than most others.

The first reason is that I do not understand the premise of his statement about why he chose to sit.  He says it's because he "will not stand to show pride in a country that oppresses black people and people of color" and that "There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."  Alright, if that's true, I can understand that, but I'm not quite sure specifically what he is referring to here.  While there are places in the country where some people do indeed oppress black people and people of color, the country itself does not.  Our leader, the most powerful person in the world, is half African-American, like Colin.  There are many others in power who are people of color as well.  We've come a long way as a nation, and we still have work to do for sure, but saying that this country is oppressive is a pretty general statement that does not get to the root of any problem, real or perceived.

Based on the rest of his statement though, I'm thinking he was mostly referring to police killing black people, but again, he provided no specifics here.  When I think bodies in the street, I think of places like Chicago, but that's not what he's talking about (although that certainly is a real problem).  He's talking about police officers getting paid leave after murdering black people.  Sure, there are some bad cops and a few pretty disturbing examples of them murdering people every year, but police officers generally do not murder people because they are racists, and the rate at which they kill people of color is actually not alarming when you look at the statistics (I've gone over that previously here, so no need to do so again).  So I honestly don't know what reality Kaepernick's statement is based on, or if it's just based on his perception, perhaps influenced highly by mainstream media.

My second issue with Kaepernick is that I question his motivation.  Why now?  Why in the preseason, when no one is paying much attention to football yet, at the start of the sixth year of his NFL career?  Maybe he's truly doing it for the reasons he says, but maybe there are other factors as well.  Somehow, he got replaced as the starting QB last year by Blaine Gabbert, who's basically the second coming of Rex Grossman.  He may very well be cut from the team.  His statistics last year were lousy.  Does he want attention?  Does he want something to blame if he gets cut, apart from his own poor performance on the field?  I don't know.  It's speculation.  But the timing on this is odd.  Kaepernick makes $19 million per year to suck this badly at football.  He's not exactly oppressed himself.  His black father left him and his white mother before he was born, and his mother put him up for adoption, so he was actually adopted and raised by two white parents.  If he was white, he would fit the definition of white privilege.  But he isn't.  Yet, because he is a famous athlete, he has a platform, and people listen to what he has to say.

That brings me to my third issue.  If he wants to use his platform to make a statement and raise awareness, why not do it right?  You know how every now and then, Donald Trump says something so absurd that you wonder if the article you're reading is satire (but it's not)?  That same thing happened when I read an article saying that Colin wore a shirt with Fidel Castro on it during a press conference this week.  The shirt had Malcolm X and Fidel Castro on it and a caption that said, "Like Minds Think Alike."  Fidel Castro, of course, is the former leader of Cuba who personifies oppression.  Is Kaepernick really that ignorant of recent history?  I mean, really, are you joking?  How can you have any credibility on the topic of oppression when you are touting Fidel Castro (which I'm assuming he was doing while wearing that shirt, because I can't imagine he was making a statement against Malcolm X)?

Here's what you can do, Colin, if you really want to make America a better place for blacks, people of color, and everyone in general.  First, call out issues specifically, instead of making vague, general statements that anger the easily-angered and baffle the critical thinkers (although you became a cult hero to mindless liberals at least, so there's that).  Then, present some solutions.  Maybe one solution will be to start a charity.  I imagine you must do some charity work, but being on the East Coast, I'm not familiar with it.  Take a page out of Derek Jeter's book.  Jeter started the Turn 2 Foundation, which is a wonderful charity that helps children and teenagers avoid drugs and adopt healthier lifestyles.  Speaking of Derek Jeter, he's half African-American too.  Like you, his dad is black and his mom is white.  I can't imagine Derek Jeter ever choosing to sit down during the National Anthem though.  But if he did, you can be damn sure that I would listen to every thoughtful word he would have to say about why he chose to do it.  You see, Jeter has earned my respect and the respect of many others.  He respects this country, its veterans, police officers, and the game he played at a high level for so long.  He practices what he preaches and is very involved in helping the community.  You haven't earned my respect, Colin.  I don't know what or who you respect.  Your admiration for Fidel Castro confuses me as much as your vague accusatory statements.  I don't know what you're doing for the community.  You played well at the start of your career, signed a big contract, and tanked.  Every time I've seen you throw a Touchdown pass, I've seen you showboat and bring attention to yourself.  You threw six touchdowns last year in nine games.  Is this all about you wanting to be relevant again, or do you really want to see positive change?  If it's the latter, then be a part of that positive change.  You have our attention.  Now what?  You can keep sitting there, or you can get up and do something!

Thunder Rod

I just spent two minutes debating whether I should title this post "Thunder Rod" or "Lightning Rod."  Thunder Rod seems to be the better fit, because it has the Thunder Road connotation, perhaps the Thunder Mountain connection for a roller coaster of a career, and there was literally Thunderous applause for A-Rod the other night (I'll get to that story shortly).  But Alex Rodriguez was a Lightning Rod for much of his career as a Yankee, perhaps more than any other before him, including the straw that stirred the drink, Reggie Jackson himself.

Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in 1993 with the first pick of the draft.  He got his first taste of Major League playing time as an 18-year-old in 1994.  For years, he was one of the best shortstops in the league, and he signed a monster deal to play for the Texas Rangers in 2001.  With so much money invested in A-Rod, the Rangers sucked and did not make the playoffs in 2001, 2002, or 2003.  Meanwhile in the Bronx, Aaron Boone's epic Home Run against the Red Sox sent the Yankees to the World Series in 2003.  They lost the World Series that year, and then Boone hurt himself during the off-season, and the Yankees needed a third baseman.  So, before the 2004 season began, the Yankees traded away Alfonso Soriano, Joaquin Arias, and cash to the Texas Rangers in exchange for Alex Rodriguez and his massive contract.  With Derek Jeter entrenched at Shortstop, Rodriguez was signed to play at the hot corner.

In 2004, the Yankees blew a 3-0 series lead in the ALCS to the Red Sox, who went on to win the World Series for the first time since 1918, breaking the Curse of the Bambino.  In 2005, Alex Rodriguez was the AL MVP.  In 2007, Alex Rodriguez was the AL MVP, with 54 Home Runs and a career-high 156 RBI.  The Red Sox won the World Series again.  A-Rod opted out of his contract.  The Yankees re-signed him to another 10-year deal, worth even more money than the one he had just opted out of.  The Yankees failed to make the playoffs in 2008, their final year in the old Yankee Stadium.  Alex Rodriguez, known to have used steroids, though admitting that it was only when he played with the Rangers, was naturally the lightning rod for many of the problems that the Yankees had.  He was paid an absurd amount of money, he was a known PED-user, his playoff numbers with the Yankees had not been up to expectations, and he was known to be kind of a narcissistic asshole.  He divorced his wife in 2008, the same year they had their second daughter together.

But in 2009, redemption came at last.  Everything went right for a year.  Rodriguez had his 12th of 13 consecutive seasons with at least 30 HR and 100 RBI, led the Yankees into the playoffs, and hit 6 Home Runs during the playoffs, driving in 6 runs in each series, and the Yankees were World Series Champions again, for the first time since 2000, and during their first year in the new Yankee Stadium!  A-Rod still wasn't in the same category as other Yankees greats like Jeter and Mariano Rivera, but Yankee fans embraced him and loved him still.

But A-Rod never hit another playoff home run, nor did he do much of anything else positive in the playoffs, and he ended up getting hit with a huge suspension for using PEDs while he was with the Yankees, which caused him to miss the entire 2014 season, losing tens of millions of dollars in the process.  A-Rod had lied to the Yankees, the fans, and tried to sue everyone under the baseball sun.  But then he came to his senses, dropped the lawsuits, and quietly prepared for 2015.

And for A-Rod, 2015 was another redemption year.  Alex played the game right.  He went about his business on the field, and wasn't a distraction to the team on or off the field.  Improbably, he hit 33 Home Runs and had 86 RBI, serving largely as the team's Designated Hitter.  But he was a target once again, A-lightning-Rod.  Opposing pitchers sometimes decided that they wanted to hit him.  His manager and teammates defended him, as did the Yankee fans, who began to love him again.  Alex turned 40 during the season, and the Yankees got knocked out of the playoffs in the Wild Card game.  And in 2016, A-Rod's statistics took a nosedive.  The Yankees decided to become sellers at the trading deadline, re-stocking their farm system, getting younger instead of older.  Playing time for Alex dried up, and the Yankees talked with him and decided it was time to release him, but keep him around as a special adviser to help mentor the younger players in the farm system.  And so it was announced that Alex Rodriguez was slated to play his final game for the Yankees on August 12.

Yankee Stadium was buzzing, and there was a ceremony to honor A-Rod before the game.  The clouds rolled in.  I told my friend Chris who I went to the game with that Reggie would probably be there with A-Rod.  He was.  Then I told him that it would probably rain on his ceremony.  It did.  Dark clouds rolled over Yankee Stadium.  The ceremony began.  At one point, the announcer said, "Alex, you've spent 12 of your 22 seasons with the Yankees."  Loud thunder crashed immediately, as if on cue.  Wow.  Well-timed, God.  Nah, God could do better.  The ceremony continued.  Swirling rain rolled in.  Then the announcer said, "Ladies and gentleman, let's have one more Yankee Stadium ovation for Alex Rodriguez..."  Possibly the loudest thunder that I've ever heard interrupted the announcer's sentence at that point.  Maybe God is a baseball fan.  Chris and I looked at each other in awe.  We were sitting in the first row of the main level down the left field line, and at that moment it really started to pour, so we walked back up to the concessions area.

The rain soon stopped and the game was underway by 8.  A-Rod had an RBI double to tie the game at 1 in his first at-bat (causing an F-Bomb from A-Rod if you watch the replay), and the Yankees ultimately won 6-3.  The fans, myself included, were chanting for A-Rod the entire game, especially right before he came out to play third base in the bottom of the ninth, and then after he was removed from the game for the final time one out later.  And then after the game, as A-Rod got some dirt from the third base area and acknowledged the fans.  There he was, tipping his hat to the crowd.  A man who hit 696 Home Runs, drove in 2,086 runs, scored 2,021 runs, stole 329 bases, recorded 3,115 hits, won 3 AL MVP awards, and, most importantly, won one World Series.

It's possible that Alex will play baseball again, but he may not.  Either way, five years after he hangs up his cleats for good, he will be on the ballot for entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  But will he get in?  Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire have not been able to muster up many Hall of Fame votes, despite great career numbers.  The steroids and the lies haunt them.  Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds have mustered up some support, but are still far from getting the call from Cooperstown.  Same reasons.  Roger won an insane 7 Cy Young awards!  He was among the handful of the best pitchers to ever play the game.  Bonds won an insane 7 MVP awards!  He was one of the few best hitters of all-time.  A true five-tool player, he hit more Home Runs than anyone ever did, in a season and a career, he stole 500 bases, and his numbers from 2001-2004 are mind-boggling.  How the hell do you play the whole season and have a .609 On-base percentage like he did in 2004?  That's more ridiculous than his 73 Home Runs in 2001!

If I could cast a vote for the Hall of Fame, I would vote for Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Alex Rodriguez.  I would vote for David Ortiz too, five years from now.  I'd even vote for Palmeiro, Sosa, and McGwire.  Andy Pettitte and Manny Ramirez eventually too.  These are the guys I grew up watching.  They were the best in the game.  I get it.  They messed up.  They used banned substances.  Pettitte came clean right away, saying he used HGH back in 2002 to help accelerate his return from an injury, and Yankees fans immediately absolved him of his sins.  Some haven't admitted it.  A-Rod has admitted it, although it took him a very long time to finally do so, but he did, and he apologized.  Speaking of eventual apologies, I think Pete Rose should be in too.  He never did steroids, but who cares that he bet in favor of his own team?  Really, the guy had more hits than anyone who ever played the game, and he played the game the right way.  Yeah, he was a flawed liar and kind of an asshole, like Bonds, like Clemens, like A-Rod, but he was one heck of a baseball player.

The truth is that we don't know who used performance-enhancing drugs during the steroid era, before the bans and testing expanded.  It could have been anyone (not Jeter or Cal Ripken, but, you know, almost anyone).  There are rumors that Mike Piazza, and potentially others who are already in the Hall of Fame like he is, were users.  Maybe what it will take to bust open that door is confirmation that there are already Hall-of-Famers who used performance-enhancing drugs.  Then what do you do?  You can't kick them out.  You have to let their peers in if they put up numbers that are worthy of induction.  And as for A-Rod, it has been one heck of a roller-coaster ride of a career.  Like most Yankees fans, I've booed him and I've cheered him, but it has truly been a pleasure to watch him play.  Love him or hate him, or love him AND hate him, he is one of the greats.  Thank you, A-Rod!

Left Nut, Right Nut, JOHNSON!

I like to think that I'm a sane person.  And no sane person can vote for a third party candidate for President of the United States, right?  You're basically just throwing your vote away.  It's nearly as insane as not voting at all. But then, no sane person can vote for Hillary.  And no sane person can vote for Trump.  ...Wait...  Well, shit, we have a problem.  I guess we're all insane.  Maybe the only person who can bring sanity to this country again is a little bit insane.  Maybe he wants a small government, maybe he's smoked pot, maybe he's not a Liberal or a Conservative, maybe he has a last name that's easy to poke fun of, and maybe he thinks for himself.  But what we have here is a nut on the left, a nut on the right, and a Johnson in the middle.  A Johnson-Weld for that matter, which is even stronger than just a Johnson, and Johnson alone is pretty strong, having climbed the highest peak on all seven continents!  Well, here it goes...
I formally endorse Gary Johnson for the Office of President of the United States, and I encourage others to educate yourselves on him further. If he sounds better than the two terrible candidates that the Democrats and Republicans have nominated, please voice your support for him, especially if you are polled, because he only gets into the National Debates if he is polling at least 15%.   Also, whether or not you support him, please sign this petition to get his voice heard in the debates (https://www.johnsonweld.com/debate?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=wall&utm_term=fans&utm_content=debate-01&utm_campaign=debate).  If nothing else, his presence will bring some substance to what promises to be a series of ugly, mudslinging debates.  Also, this quiz (http://www.isidewith.com/elections/2016-presidential-quiz) is worthwhile to take if you're interested in the issues too.  Not only do I dislike Hillary and Trump, but I actually agree with Gary Johnson A LOT more than any of the other candidates.  I am largely Libertarian.  And you might be too.  You see, Libertarian is a spectrum.  Everyone is at least a little bit Libertarian.  Does that mean you'll agree with everything Gary "Three-Run" Johnson has to say?  No.  Actually, I strongly disagree with him on abortion, but not much else.  But that's me.
Johnson is in favor of marijuana legalization, gay marriage, environmental protection, criminal justice reform, and abortion.  But he is also fiscally conservative, in favor of lowering taxes and creating jobs, supports the Second Amendment, and is against Common Core.  He supports congressional term limits too, as should everyone.  Just about the only thing with a lower approval rating than Congress lately is HIV, and with the success of another (Magic) Johnson, it's actually pretty close...
How did I get here?  How can I be supporting a pro-choice candidate and a third-party candidate at the same time?  Well, let me tell you, it's been quite the journey.  The candidates that I liked the least for each major party got the nominations (It wasn't close with Hillary, but I couldn't decide whether Trump, Cruz, or Bush was worse for the bulk of the primaries).  Once that happened, I naturally gravitated toward Trump, because I figured he could easily turn it around, stop saying ignorant shit, and become Presidential, and I have a lot of well-documented problems with Hillary (see a good portion of my previous posts, there's no need to re-hash the many reasons why she's unfit to be Commander-in-Chief).  So I found myself in the same place as many Americans, trying to choose the lesser of two evils.  With Hillary, there's the devil we know (even if she still lies about all her obvious wrongs), and with Trump, it's the devil we don't know, politically anyway.  The main positive I was clinging to with Trump was that he would probably nominate solid Conservative SCOTUS justices who adhere to the Constitution.  I knew he said a lot of terrible things, and I knew he changed his positions daily on some issues, but I also knew I could never vote for Hillary.  And I still never will.  But something changed when I listened to his acceptance speech (I still haven't bothered to listen to Hillary's by the way--I already know who she is).  Donald Trump's speech scared me, and it wasn't because he was trying to scare everyone into thinking that we would all be killed by ISIS and immigrants if he wasn't elected, he alone who could fix America.  It scared me because of the rhetoric he used and the fear he appealed to.  But when you put it together with everything else he's said, it paints an even uglier picture.  The devil we don't know may very well be a dangerously loose cannon.
An old friend of mine messaged me on Facebook when he suspected that I was close to officially endorsing Trump, and he presented some very good information that he was using to explain why he was voting for Hillary, even though he doesn't particularly like her (I'm putting that mildly to avoid using certain words here).  And while I still can't bring myself to vote for Hillary, I will acknowledge that a Hillary presidency probably wouldn't look a whole lot different from an Obama presidency, but it would have costly long-term negative impacts on the country via the Supreme Court nominees, an assault on the second amendment, and having someone in the most powerful office who shouldn't even have a basic security clearance.  I don't think Obama OR Bush were good presidents, but Hillary would be worse, and Trump is basically the embodiment of a parody accidentally set free in real life.  While my friend did not convince me to vote for Hillary, and I probably didn't convince him not to (although we both agreed that Hillary should have stepped down after Benghazi, if only because she was Secretary of State and her Department screwed up big-time), he did help me accelerate the course I was already on, a desperate search for any hope of a third option, and I decided to become a firm Johnson supporter (I'm aware of how that sounds, yes).
The folks comparing Trump to Hitler need to shut up though.  He's not Hitler.  He's not going to try to exterminate any group of people, and certainly not the Jews (you people focusing on the alleged Jewish star he posted are all idiots, he's not anti-Semitic).  The Muslims?  Well, he's talked about attempting to keep new ones from entering the country temporarily, or at least stopping immigration from certain countries, but please don't compare him to Hitler, because that's an overreaction that will and should be written off.  Hitler killed people who didn't look a certain way.  Trump just wants to keep people who look a certain way from crossing the border.  There's a big difference there.  So if you're calling out Donald Trump, for the sake of an intelligent discussion, please at least call out the actual issues with Donald Trump, and there are many of them.
My friend calls him a Fascist.  I call him a Democratic Fascist because it sounds funnier.  Why?  I mean, really, the shit that comes out of his mouth just doesn't stop, and it occurs on a daily basis.  Ted Cruz AND Barack Obama were right on something.  That's not something you can say every day (this is the only time I can think of that I've ever said that, in fact).  Cruz refused to endorse Trump, as I have, because his conscience wouldn't let him.  I respect that.  And Obama said that Trump is unfit to be President, because at some point, enough is enough.  I mean, really, how many times do Republicans have to distance themselves from things that Trump says?  He is out of control.  Him taking the bait and making questionable comments about the Muslim family whose son gave his life fighting for this country isn't even an issue compared to the other stuff he's said.  The Russia hacking thing was a joke, so calm down on that.  It's harmless.  But the stuff about torture, things that make you wonder how he feels about the first amendment, things that worry me that he's more of a war-hawk than Killary, suggesting violating treaties, encouraging violence...  It's a long list.  Oh Long Johnson.
I'll watch the debates regardless.  The SNL skits will write themselves.  But I'm calling on all Internet users, all politicians, all  celebrities, and all major publications to endorse and not ignore Gary Johnson if you think he is the best candidate.  And if you don't think he's the best candidate, please ask yourself why.  He's running against an untrustworthy, power-hungry, extremely careless criminal on the left side and an unpredictable, power-hungry, inciter of fear who keeps saying things that make us all wonder whether he understands the constitution on the right side.  America is fractured because of the left nut and the right nut, so help JOHNSON-WELD America together again!

[Is that good?  On the off chance that Gary Johnson somehow reads this post, whether or not he is partaking in weed at the time, I consent to him using that slogan if he would like to.]

We have Clearance, Clarence

I'm not ignoring all of the violence.  I'm just tired of it, and I don't have a whole lot to say right now except that we need to stop shooting each other.  Since the last post, we've had a black man shoot a bunch of officers in Baton Rouge, and there's breaking news from a few hours ago that an officer in Miami shot a black man who had his hands up and was literally doing his job, which was taking care of an autistic man.  Thank God that man survived.  Maybe God will use him to bring some sanity and unity to this nation.  I've never met him, but he just looks like the kind of guy who may be able to help do just that.  And unlike a lot of the others that became BLM poster children, this guy is both alive and appears to have done absolutely nothing wrong whatsoever, in fact going out of his way to make sure he did everything right to make sure that he would not get shot.  And yet he did get shot.  And then he got handcuffed?  What the hell?  There aren't many details on this yet, and we don't know which officer fired the shot or even what race the officer was, so let me move on to the topic I've put off for a few weeks now...

I work for a company that makes a lot of parts for defense contractors.  Naturally, I know a lot of people with security clearances because of this.  I also know some people who have had their security clearances revoked.  One, I believe, had it revoked for defaulting on a loan.  There are tons of other reasons you can have it revoked or not have it granted in the first place.  Check them out for yourself here: http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/security-clearance-jobs/security-clearance-eligibility.html.  I'm not making this up.  Now, based on that list, how many times is Hillary Clinton disqualified from having a security clearance?  Be honest.  Did you lose count?

One of the more egregious things you can do to disqualify yourself from having a security clearance is being extremely careless with classified information.  According to the FBI, Hillary did exactly that.  According to EVERY SINGLE PERSON I've talked to about this that has a security clearance, if they did the same things that Hillary did, they would not only unquestionably have their security clearances revoked, but also almost certainly be terminated from their jobs, and likely face legal action as well.  Meanwhile, Hillary is not facing legal action and is currently seeking the highest job in the land.  She is running for President when she should not even be allowed to have a security clearance, because she put our nation in danger by being extremely careless with classified information on her personal server.

Assuming she sleeps with a former President with the same last name at least a few times per year, I understand that taking away her security clearance is a moot point.  Being a former President, Bill is still briefed on the the most sensitive of matters, and Hillary is certainly privy to these briefings.  But what makes this whole thing worse is that Hillary lied about what she did.  Repeatedly.  Trey Gowdy tore her a new one when he questioned James Comey.  That man should be this nation's Attorney General.  And I hadn't even mentioned her terrible leadership and lies surrounding Benghazi until just now, and I've already given you plenty of reasons why Killary should never serve as Commander-in-Chief.  And while I'm not the most enthusiastic Trump supporter, to put it mildly, it seems very likely that I will be sounding the Trump-Pence when I vote this November.

Donald Trump has said some stupid things, and he's done some stupid things, but I can't recall an incident in which he truly put national security at risk.  I don't know of a reason why he would be disqualified for a security clearance.  And, while many may dislike him, he does not have blood on his hands like Hillary does.  But please, tell me again how outraged you are that a chunk of Melania Trump's speech the other night echoed Michelle Obama's speech from eight years ago. Apparently this has become relevant, with the Left demanding an apology.  Has Hillary apologized to the families of the Benghazi victims yet?  Or the American people?  Or the world?

Black and Blue

When will we all come together?  When will we realize that those who want to rip people apart, put them in categories, and pit them against each other are evil?  Why do we feed into it?  Why do we allow it to happen?  Why do we allow the media to help facilitate this?

My heart is broken.  I watched videos posted online of two black men dying this week.  I pray to the Lord that justice prevails in both of these circumstances.  From the video I saw, it did not appear that Alton needed to be killed.  And while there was no video of Philando being killed, the video of the aftermath of it was heart-wrenching.  I mean, I really felt a bit sick.  The moment near the end where the little kid who witnessed the whole thing tries to comfort the mom shooting the video was just about unbearable.  And if it truly happened the way she said it did, the officer should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.  But this should not be turned into a blacks vs. police officers war, or a black vs. white war, or any war whatsoever.  Actually, the officer who killed Philando wasn't even white.  And really, we don't know whether these officers were just too quick to use deadly force and unfit for the job, actually scared for their lives, or racist against blacks.  But it sure does not help black people trust police officers, as it again shows why many black people fear police officers.  But does anyone really think that those officers woke up that morning thinking, "What I really want to do today is shoot a nigger."  I would highly doubt that very highly.  Are there racist police officers?  Yes.  Does our nation have an unfortunate history of racist police officers?  Yes.  Are black people more likely to get pulled over for little to no reason?  It sure seems like it.  But do police officers kill black people at an alarming rate?  That depends entirely on how you spin the statistics.

Let me explain what I mean here.  I love statistics, especially baseball statistics, but that's not important right now.  In my love for statistics, I've figured out that if you're clever enough, you can find a way to spin and twist most statistics to fit what you want them to say.  To take a ficticious example from baseball, let's say Hitter A plays shortstop for the Red Sox.  He hits .300 before the All-Star break and .333 after the All-Star break.  Hitter B plays shortstop for the Yankees.  He hits .297 before the All-Star break and .330 after the All-Star break.  Which player has the better batting average?  The Red Sox player, right?  I mean, the statistics don't lie!  He had a better average before the All-Star break AND a better average after the All-Star break!  But there's something I chose not to tell you here (besides the fact that I'm a Yankees fan).  The Red Sox player had 90 hits in 300 at-bats before the All-Star break and 59 hits in 177 at-bats after the All-Star break.  The Yankees player had 89 hits in 300 at-bats before the All-Star break and 99 hits in 300 at-bats after the all star break.  Thus, the Yankees player had the better batting average!  He hit .313, versus the Red Sox player hitting .312.  So, bringing this back to my point, which person is correct?  The person who says that black men are 3.5 times more likely to be killed by police or the person who says that white men are 1.3 or 1.7 times more likely to be killed by police than black men?  Well, the answer is both.

This guy (http://www.copinthehood.com/2015/04/killed-by-police-2-of-3-race.html) explains it pretty well actually and shows all of the stats.  More whites are killed by police than blacks in the United States, which is an indisputable fact, but there are more white people in the United States than black people, so that is essentially a meaningless fact.  What would make more sense is to see how many black people are killed per capita, and when you look at that, you see that blacks are far more likely than whites to be killed per capita (3.5 times more likely, in fact).  But, if you adjust for the homicide rate of whites compared with blacks, white men are actually 1.7 times more likely to be killed by police than black men, or if you adjust for the for the rate at which white men commit the felony of killing a police officer versus the rate at which black men commit the felony of killing a police officer, white men are actually 1.3 times more likely to be killed by police than black men.  There are countless more ways you can spin these numbers, comparing and contrasting one statistic with another to get the narrative you want.  Statistics don't lie, but if you don't know the entire story behind them, they sure can be misleading.  Take what you want out of this analysis, but I don't see a disturbing trend of racist police officers murdering blacks in today's America.  Yes, there are certainly individual incidents that show that we still have a problem in this country, and we may have just seen some of those, but the perceived trend is probably fueled largely by disproportionate media coverage of black men being killed by law enforcement officers.

In fact, in most homicides, victims and killers are of the same race.  There's no way that I can see to spin that data to make it appear to show something else.  Here are the numbers straight from the FBI for the latest year for which they are available, 2014 (https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/expanded-homicide-data/expanded_homicide_data_table_6_murder_race_and_sex_of_vicitm_by_race_and_sex_of_offender_2014.xls):
Whites killing Whites: 2488
Blacks killing Blacks: 2205
Whites killing Blacks: 187
Blacks killing Whites: 446
With white people being about 65% of the U.S. population and black people being about 13%, you don't see a 65:13 ratio of homicides committed by blacks to homicides committed by whites, and 446 incidents of black-on-white homicide versus 187 incidents of white-on-black homicide is disturbing, no matter how you spin in.  Certainly there are other statistics at play here, but regardless of how they are used in conjunction with this data, there is no way you will end up with a 65:13 ratio of white-on-black homicide to black-on-white homicide, which, with all things being equal, is what you would expect to see.  But all things are not equal.

I'm just presenting statistics here, and perhaps it's uncomfortable to see these statistics, but we need to analyze what's going on in order to stop it.  Yes, it has now come out that Alton was convicted of raping a 14-year-old when he was 20, but he was not killed for that reason here, although being a convicted felon, he could not have legally possessed a firearm.  But police officers should use deadly force only when lives are in danger.  Sometimes things don't happen that way, but I really believe that police officers are generally good people trying to do their jobs to serve and protect, and make it home to their families every day.  Sure, there are some bad cops, but we can't paint them with a broad brush and say that they're all racist because of the actions of a few cops, just like we can't demonize black people, calling them all thugs and implying that they deserve to be killed, for the actions of a few of them.  What happens when we do this?  We sew more fear and hate, and we cause more deaths.  More police officers die, more black people die, more people in general die.  And now we have five police officers murdered in Dallas and a bunch more shot.  There are bad people who want these kinds of wars. Stop the generalizations.  Stop the hate.  Black lives matter.  Blue lives matter.  Every life matters.

One thing I really don't understand is how this has become a Liberals vs. Conservatives issue once again.  We should all be upset about all 7 of these deaths, but you wouldn't know that from looking at social media.  It seems to be a mentality where "you took two of ours and we took five of yours" and vice versa.  I don't understand how we've gotten to that point as a nation.  I've seen disgusting things said on both sides, justifying the deaths of the officers, or showing callous indifference to the deaths of the black men.  But the hypocrisy is cringe-worthy as well.  When Alton and Philando were killed, a number of Liberals called out Conservatives for their silence after having said so much about Hillary Clinton (who was going to be the topic of this post until these terrible things happened, by the way).  Fair point really.  But then when five officers were killed in Dallas?  Crickets.  Maybe they had spent all of their energy trying to tear down the second amendment, but there was not a word from most of these folks about the police officers who were murdered.  There were more words about Alton and Philando from many of them.  A few implied even implied that the officers had it coming, a few acknowledged and decried the shootings of the officers, and some expressed disgust that officers killed the shooter, using a robot bomb, instead of taking him alive.  Ironically enough, the officers shot in Dallas were actually there SERVING AND PROTECTING the very people who were protesting the shootings of Alton and Philando.

Both sides must stop the rhetoric, which will only encourage more crazy people will come out of the woodwork and murder more people, whether they are police officers, Blacks, or Black police officers.  Conservatives must not blame what happened in Dallas on Black Lives Matter or Barack Obama or imply that the shooter is somehow representative of all blacks.  Go ahead and point out issues with Black Lives Matter or the way Obama has led the country, but neither wanted the shooter to shoot those cops in Dallas.  Liberals must not blame what happened in Louisiana and Minnesota on rampant racism or guns themselves or imply that the shooters are somehow representative of all cops.  Go ahead and point out issues with racism and gun control, but we don't know if racism sparked these particular deaths, and they certainly had nothing to do with gun control.  There are about 320 million people living here in America.  That means that, based on the 2014 FBI homicide statistics, every one of us has a 0.00086% chance of being murdered by a black person and a 0.00086% chance of being murdered by a white person.  Let's stop living in fear and work together to bring these numbers down even further, rather than fostering an environment in which they will rise.