Angry Fans Diffused By Kobe Bryant Sock Puppet
Like many of you, I’ve watched in utter disbelief as beverages are thrown at players during professional sporting events, leaving me to wonder: How could any self-respecting sports fan allow themselves to be seen on national television, in front of millions of viewers, wasting a seven-dollar beer?
Like many of you, I’ve watched in utter disbelief as beverages are thrown at players during professional sporting events, leaving me to wonder: How could any self-respecting sports fan allow themselves to be seen on national television, in front of millions of viewers, wasting a seven-dollar beer?
What is most disturbing, say sociologists, is that this type of behavior is now spreading to sports no one even cares about. For example, the recent World Ping Pong Championships in Seattle, where the only spectator at the event suddenly leaped from stands and, without warning, began hurling ping pong balls at the visiting Chinese team. The situation intensified when the Chinese, brandishing their paddles, relentlessly backhanded enough balls into the assailant to render him unconscious. Though some felt the response was excessive, investigators declined to issue any formal charges against the Chinese since no player actually left his seat during the volley.
“It is our conclusion that the Chinese acted with proper restraint, given the fact that, had they wanted to, they could have killed their attacker in less than 10 seconds,” said a chief investigator.
Aggressive fan behavior has already prompted threats of a strike if security measures aren’t tightened before the start of next year’s Pro Bowling Tour. “We don’t intend to make the same mistake as other sports,” said a PBA spokesman. “The time to act is NOW, before we have spectators we don’t actually know.”
Psychiatrists argue the only way to reverse this trend is by teaching fans constructive ways to voice their disapproval. In a recent experiment conducted by the American Psychiatrists Association, Lakers fans were issued sock puppets resembling Kobe Bryant and told to “Sock it to Kobe” by telling the puppet how they felt.
“We all agreed it was a success when, at one point, there were literally 20,000 spectators in the stands yelling and screaming at sock puppets,” said one psychiatrist. “We also agreed never to do it again because, quite frankly, it was the creepiest thing we’d ever seen.”
In spite of a promise from NBA commissioner David Stern to protect athletes from unruly fans, “even if it means restricting alcohol consumption by raising the price of beer,” agents and union officials say it’s going to take more than promises to quell the anxiety many athletes now feel when stepping onto the court.
“Getting sucker punched and shanked by a defender is just part of professional basketball,” said union director Billy Hunter. “But no athlete should be expected to go out, night after night, knowing he might get hit with an empty beer cup — or worse, a paternity suit.”
When asked to comment on talk of a potential strike if tighter security measures aren’t in place by season play-offs in April, Hunter called the rumors “laughable” and denied any plans to strike because of security issues.
“If we strike, it’ll be for more money,” said Hunter. “Sadly, after paying for child support, defense attorneys and anger management classes, many athletes are dangerously close to making the league minimum of $1.3 million — which sounds like a lot, until you factor in the cost of tricking out a 16-seat Humvee.”
On a personal note, I plan to continue viewing professional sports from the safety of my own living room. The beer is cheap. The seats are more comfortable. And if I get angry, I have my own set of sock puppets.
(You can write to Ned Hickson at nhickson@oregonfast.net, or at the Siuslaw News at P.O. Box 10, Florence, OR 97439.)
Response To The Plane Suicide Tragedy In Austin, Texas
By this time everyone nation-wide has heard or read about the tragic plane suicide in Austin, Texas. So far, few seem to comprehend the underlying cause of this tragedy and why the man acted as he did. This man was driven NOT alone by insanity as most would believe, but by our current national situation which plagued this individual’s life, one he no longer could tolerate.
By this time everyone nation-wide has heard or read about the tragic plane suicide in Austin, Texas.
So far, few seem to comprehend the underlying cause of this tragedy and why the man acted as he did. This man was driven NOT alone by insanity as most would believe, but by our current national situation which plagued this individual’s life, one he no longer could tolerate.
According to various reports, this was a man who tried to do the right thing in his life. He had a good job, married, home, family and then was hit by several years of external actions that eliminated his job, savings, earnings and he lost his American dream. The man reached his mental capacity and could not accept the anguish of his disrupted life, ongoing unemployment and a government that was not receptive to his issues.
Look around, it is happening to millions of people. On various levels, we all are much like this man. It is a thin line.
Millions of people have lost “their lives” due to the need for greed by government and the corporate sector.
Now that millions lost their jobs and homes, it is the worst time in our history along with the Great Depression.
Still big business and our Congress refuse to hire Americans.
Millions of people are trying to survive this economic depression.
There are no incentives to hire Americans, hence there are no jobs.
I found this incident very sad for the employees in that building but also for the man who clearly was not a nut or deranged.
He was very lucid in his writing and his complaints and dissatisfaction with his life should be a bell ringing for our leaders, the corporate sector and for all of us.
It is another sign that all is NOT well in the U.S.
It is a wake up call to get back on track.
It is an acknowledgment that massive unemployment is destroying American lives.
It is a banner to initiate change in the way our government and the IRS deals with Americans, a need to restructure in a more humane way.
Basically, it is a cry out for help, echoing a need for change.
There is no doubt that this man’s frustrated and frantic actions will make people believe he simply was a deranged man, an isolated incident.
Many of the “righteous” people never comprehend the theft of our individual rights. They need to clean the windows of their homes so they can see how the rest of Americans are trying to survive in this nation.
I don’t agree with what this man did, but I can understand how and where his mind snapped.
He was destructive to himself AND other people and property. There is no justification for that.
However, it should be a wake-up call to leaders that what they have done is NOT working.
There will be other acts of frustration and anger. It is the nature of the problem.
Greed is the cause of most of our ills. Power has corrupted our system.
It needs to change.
Unfortunately, most of the time people do not change unless SOMETHING profoundly definitive or tragic occurs.
I would offer that this action is a sign of our current culture and its failure for many.
It will continue to get worse until the leadership of this nation changes, but there is little hope for that.
However, it is much more than that and people should look at it from a different viewpoint, because this man’s words make more sense when reviewing our current life situation. Congress and leaders at various levels would be smart to consider our current and future direction.
Again I must state that, “I don’t agree with what this guy did, but I can understand how and where his mind snapped.” He was destructive to himself AND other people and property. There is no justification for that.
Our leaders are NOT without fault here.
I agree that we are responsible for ourselves, our families and our actions. That should be obvious to most.
However, what our leaders in Washington and at local levels have done to us is NOT without their own lack of responsibility to the people they are supposed to service. They shirked their responsibility in the name of greed, power and corruption.
So did the corporate sector.
This plane occurrence is another sign, a symbol, of what state our nation is in.
If you choose to dismiss what happened as “just an insane person” and as an isolated incidence, you not only are not acting in a responsible manner as a citizen, but you are in for many more surprises if the government and business continue to act irresponsibly to the people.
· No jobs
· Losing homes
· Higher taxation
· Higher cost of living, but no COLA’s for those elderly and disabled on fixed income
· Continued ineptness and inaction by our Congress.
You can not look at these and other issues and say that leaders do not have a hand in testing our fortitude and perseverance to their maximum limitation.
Everyone, each of us, has a breaking point. This man reached his.
I do NOT accept what he did. It was cowardly and horrific. But I recognize that he reached his limit and acted with malice and treachery. It is unforgiveable.
However, we are an American community, and if one person reacts in such a destructive and horrific manner, we all have failed that person. We all share some responsibility.
It has taken decades to get to this point in our society.
If you can’t see all this, along with the fact that we all share responsibility for one another, then you are a shallow and ignorant person.
We have and we are letting government and business ruin blatantly the America we once were supremely proud of.
We need to get back on-track.
Again, like it or not, this was yet another wake-up call that those in Washington and on Wall Street simply turn over and hit the snooze button to return to sleep.
Wake up!!!
Peter Stern, a former director of information services, university professor and public school administrator, is a disabled Vietnam veteran who lives in Driftwood, Texas.
Anger In Middle America
Good gawd, we’re certainly an angry lot, we Americans. Consider this lunatic in Austin who set his house on fire, then flew an airplane into the local IRS offices. Despite the overwhelming vilification among the general populous, there are bound to be thousands of malcontents, as misguided as he was, who consider him a hero. (I refuse to use his name here, because that would only add to any glorification of the guy’s act.)
Good gawd, we’re certainly an angry lot, we Americans.
Consider this lunatic in Austin who set his house on fire, then flew an airplane into the local IRS offices. Despite the overwhelming vilification among the general populous, there are bound to be thousands of malcontents, as misguided as he was, who consider him a hero. (I refuse to use his name here, because that would only add to any glorification of the guy’s act.)
Progressives and Liberals got good and angry in December of 2000 when the addled Rehnquist-controlled Federalist Supremes became ultra-activists and facilitated the coronation of Bush the Lesser as King George XLIV – thus legitimizing voter nullification in direct negation of the most basic and sacred tenets of Constitution of the United States.
Our anger increased exponentially when the 2004 election was stolen by the same usurpers through detestably archaic voter suppression tactics reminiscent of elitist Jim Crow laws, along with strategically employed unverifiable voting machines.
Oh, but since the legally-conducted 2008 election didn’t go their way, Righties who embraced the RoveCheneyBush Regime, replete with all its tyrannical destructiveness, have entered into a new stratum of indignation based wholly upon hate, racial bias, fear, and conjecture.
So, now they’re angry at the majority of their fellow Americans – human beings they consider inferior because of differences in skin tone or ethnicity or ideological makeup.
You know, I’m pretty damned angry myself.
I’m angry that…
Democrats, with a commanding majority in both the Senate and House, have allowed the corporate-friendly Republican minority to bring the most important issues regarding America’s business to a standstill.
My fellow Social Security recipients and I won’t receive a cost of living (COL) increase this year.
The Chicago Cubs were outpaced in free agent acquisitions and between season trades by the St. Louis Cardinals.
I can no longer afford to attend a live Major League baseball game (hell, I’ll be lucky if I can squeeze out enough to go to a Class A game in Peoria).
Thousands upon thousands of good Americans are languishing in prisons, tossed in among hardened career criminals, just for having a little marijuana in their possession.
A recent study in California that proved numerous positive aspects (viable curative properties) of pot has received little to no recognition in the mainstream media.
People putt along in the middle or left lane on an Interstate highway, remaining completely oblivious and refusing to move over while numerous vehicles are forced to pass on the right.
The guy who just passed me doing about 90 still has a McCain/Palin bumper sticker (more often than not, drivers who show the least regard for traffic laws and safety display Conservative stickers – many as behind the times as Bush/Cheney).
The mainstream media continues to suckle the Dick Cheney and his wholly unaccomplished daughter Liz, providing them with free airtime to spew their family’s unique brand of bile-filled hatred, fear and divisiveness.
The service drainpipe in my basement is clogged, requiring constant monitoring of washing machine cycles to prevent overflows, and I can’t afford to pay a plumber to clear it out (see previous anger issue regarding no Social Security COL increase).
The primary care physician provided me by the Veterans Administration is at best inept, a schmegege who’d rather stick up for his nurse than attend to needs of his patients.
The aforementioned VA nurse is incapable of empathetic human interaction, rewords everything I tell her, behaves like an adversary rather than an adherent of the tenets of Florence Nightingale, and acts as though it’s the patient’s responsibility to make her life easier.
I haven’t had steak in months, and there isn’t a good restaurant to get a proper steak dinner within 120 miles of Normal, Illinois.
Life in Normal can easily be described as slow death, but I can’t move because I’m tied to a mortgage (again, refer to the previous comment regarding no COL increase).
Tundra-like conditions have kept the entire region blanketed in snow for weeks now, and the forecast for the next five days is more frigging snow.
I can’t afford to go somewhere southerly even for a few days respite (again, refer to the previous comment regarding no COL increase).
Some of the most devastated sections of New Orleans remain untouched disaster sites.
I have to wait until March 6 for the first televised Spring Training game.
The Beatles can never reunite.
My good friend Veto died of cancer last September at the age of 52.
We drifted apart in his final years, as Veto had become an angry misinformed white conservative.
There are so many among us who are blinded by hate, completely intolerant of anyone who doesn’t subscribe to his or her own personal views.
Sarah Palin is considered by so many as the voice of reason.
Corporate entities have now been awarded free rein to take over the American democratic process.
The current activist Federalist Supremes will conceivably have decades to rewrite longstanding laws and dismantle the Constitution with extreme prejudice.
While we’re supposed to live in an age of enlightenment, there are more guns in the hands of Right-thinking citizens and criminals than any time in American history.
Right-wing zealots, such as Justice Samuel Alito and Rep. Joe Wilson, get away with refusing to afford proper courtesy and respect to Barack Obama due his high office as the duly elected President of the United States.
Civility has left our great Nation and headed off into the netherworld.
Most armed conflicts result from a “my god is better than your god” mentality, and it’s entirely possible that there is no god.
Although my son graduated from university more than a year ago, he’s been unable to make any headway regarding gainful full time employment.
As much as I’d like to be positive and cheery, I can’t shake off my own pissoffedness.
Shalom.
Go, Team U.S.A!
(Jerry Tenuto is an erstwhile Philosopher and sometime Educator. A veteran with seven years of service in the U.S. Army, he holds a BS and MA in Communications from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Depending upon your taste in political stew, you can either blame or thank Jerry for his weekly “Out Of The Blue” feature in The Lone Star Iconoclast. Visit his blog Blue State View at illinoiscentral.blogspot.com)
Where The Months Got Their Names
Since the earliest times, the natural cycles of the Sun and Moon have been used to measure intervals of time. Solar cycles define days, years, and seasons while the Moon marks off months (“moonths”).
Since the earliest times, the natural cycles of the Sun and Moon have been used to measure intervals of time. Solar cycles define days, years, and seasons while the Moon marks off months (“moonths”).
There are two major lunar cycles, the best known being the 29 1/2-day synodic month during which the Moon goes from new Moon to new Moon. (“Synodic” refers to the meeting of the Sun and Moon). Less apparent is the 27 1/3-day sidereal month which is based on the Moon’s position as seen against the background stars.
If Earth wasn’t orbiting the Sun, synodic and sidereal months would be equal, but since we are moving, the synodic month takes longer. In a sidereal month, the Moon travels 360 degrees (one complete circle) around Earth before re-passing the same background stars. During this time, however, Earth has traveled nearly 1/12 of the way around the Sun, meaning the Moon must travel nearly 390 degrees, and two more days, before reaching the next new Moon.
A year being 365 1/4 days, there is not an even number of synodic or sidereal months in a year. This was not a problem for cultures who referred to these intervals by the names they gave full Moons, like Harvest, Hunter’s, and Long Night Moon.
But when our ancestors devised formal calendars, adjustments were required, like adding or subtracting days and even ignoring periods of time. These months approximate but no longer exactly correspond with the lunar cycles. The names we use for our months derive from the Romans and their Latin language.
Originally, the Roman year had 10 months that began with March, named for Mars, the god of war. The second month, April, was named for Aphrodite (Venus), the goddess of love and beauty. May is the month of Maia, goddess of spring. June honors Juno, goddess of women, childbirth, and marriage.
July was originally called Quintilis (quintus being Latin for fifth) as the fifth month; it was renamed by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE to honor himself. Similarly, August, first known as Sextilis (sex = six) as the sixth month, was changed by Augustus Caesar.
The next four retained their Latin numeric names: September (septem = seven) as the seventh month, October (octo = eight) as the eighth month, November (novem = nine) as the ninth month, and December (decem = ten) as the tenth month.
The winter months apparently went unnamed until about 700 BCE when the eleventh and twelfth months were added. January was named for Janus, the double-faced god of beginnings and endings who could see the past and the future. February came from Februa, the festival of purification.
So like the names we use for many constellations, as well as the days of the week, the names of our months were invented by our ancient ancestors.
• Sky Calendar.
* Feb. 21 Sun.: The Moon is at 1st quarter.
* 25 Thu. evening, and all night: Mars is to the left of the bright gibbous Moon.
* 28 Sun: The full Moon is called Wolf Moon, Snow Moon, and Hunger Moon.
* March 1 Mon. evening: The Moon is to the right of Saturn as they rise around 8 p.m.; following each other across the sky all night, by morning the Moon is to the lower left of the planet.
* 7 Sun.: The Moon is at 3rd quarter.
• Naked-eye Planets. (The Sun, Moon, and planets rise in the east and set in the west due to Earth’s west-to-east rotation on its axis.) Evening: Mars is prominent high in the east as Saturn rises some two hours after sunset. Morning: Saturn is in the west southwest.
• Star Party. The Central Texas Astronomical Society’s free monthly star party is Saturday, Mar. 6, at the Lake Waco Wetlands beginning at 8 p.m., weather permitting. For directions see my Web site.
Stargazer appears every other week. Paul Derrick is an amateur astronomer who lives in Waco. Contact him at 918 N. 30th, Waco, 76707, (254) 753-6920 or paulderrickwaco@aol.com. See the Stargazer Web site at stargazerpaul.com.
