Shouldn't we be proud?

The Summer Olympics have come and gone. I'm not really big on the games, but I try to at least watch a few things, if I can. Due to my extremely busy schedule this summer, though, I didn't really get to see anything, but boy howdy did I ever hear about what went on.

First, we have basketball. On the women's side of things, these proud females won yet another gold, but for some reason they're received less press than someone stepping swatting a fly. Why is that, I wonder? Could it be because these women are squeaky clean and not controversial? Perhaps it is because the US isn't really fond of women's basketball, but the same can be said for swimming and gymnastics. A real head scratcher, if you ask me.

On the men's side of things, they won another gold medal *YAWN*. Yes, I'm proud they did that, but is it really fair anymore? At this point, we're just sending pros to do overkill. I think it is time we get back to letting amateurs play. When the Dream Team was formed in 1992, they were made to ensure we got gold. Now, I think we've just gotten greedy. Oh, and did I mention that this year's team thinks they can beat the Dream Team! I don't think anyone can beat a team with the likes of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, etc.

Next, there was swimming. Michael Phelps won another bunch of medals, but it was young up and comer named Lochte who has emerged as a rival or the heir apparent. Of course, in this day and age, no one can just be quiet. He made a sad attempt to discredit Phelps by bringing up his drug history and claiming he was out of shape. Pathetic!

Gymnastics is where the American media really shined. Here we have Gabby Douglas, the first African-American gymnast to make the top 16 (or whatever it is they call it) and rather than focusing on that, what do they decide to write stories about? Her hair! Yes, respectable newspapers were more focused on saying that her hair, which was in a ponytail, was unkept. From the pictures I saw, there wasn't anything wrong with it, other than they just needed something to criticize. Heaven forbid someone who is doing athletic stuff have her hair in a ponytail. For goodness sakes, what was she supposed to do, have her hair in some fancy prom-type style?

The final thing that was brought to my attention was camaraderie. There was a photo that was going around facebook that showed US athlete embracing Saudi Arabian athletes with a caption saying something along the lines of if only our countries could get along as well as we do. It was quite a powerful photo.

Anyway, I just wanted to get a quick Olympic rant out of the way! Thanks for reading!

What is going on at colleges all of sudden?

The past few weeks, if you've been keeping up with the news, but you might have noticed that a few universities are enthralled in controversy.

First off, we have Penn State, where an assistant coach apparently molested a boy in the shower. Coach Paterno and one other assistant apparently either saw this or told them to stop or something, I can't remember the exact details, but the fallout has resulted in many heads rolling, including the chancellor, or was it the president, of the school and Coach Paterno being fired, and the guy who actually did the molesting headed to court. The whole situation has many people up in arms, whether it is about the child molesting, or the fact that nothing was done or said for 10 yrs, or the fact that Paterno was fired, but the other assistant who was there got to keep his job. For me this is just one of those situations where you just shake your head, y'know?

Last week, or the week before, it came out that a drum major at Florida A & M died. It turns out that this was the result of hazing. This is a little close to home for me, because I was in band in school (hell, i teach it now...lol), and in my fraternity days, went through a bit of hazing, but nothing this extreme. As more details have been coming out, it turns out that the band director, who lost his job over this, was not entirely at fault here and that hazing has been some sort of underground thing here. I'm no condoning hazing in any shape, form, or fashion, but if you're going to do this, then one would think that when the guy starts throwing up, you need to stop. What ever happened to the simple paddling? Why must they punch now a days? Really, what does this prove? Ugh! Anyway, before this happened, it turns out that since school started 30 members of the band had been kicked out for hazing, and I'm sure more than a few more are soon to join that number. The governor of Florida is calling for an extensive search into this situation. I'm sure we'll be hearing more about this as time goes by. It really sucks that it takes such a negative thing to get a band in the news, though, especially one that is as good as Florida A & M.

To go along with both of these incidents, it appears that something is going on with Syracuse and one of their assistant coaches and some sort of scandal that will have more and more details sure to come out in the next few days. *SIGH*

So, what in tarnation is going on with the universities around here all of a sudden? It really makes you wonder how man things are being covered up, or have been covered up. Doesn't it just make you sick?

So, dear readers, what say you?

Shouldn't this be more about the inside rather than the outside?

I'm sure you've seen the trailers for the upcoming Princess and the Frog movie. I'm so excited about it! Apparently Disney can still hand draw stuff, after all.

One of the things that has been brought up over and over and over and over again is the racial aspect of this picture. Personally, I don't look at it that way. She's just another princess in just another movie, but unfortunately, not everyone thinks that way and believe they need to get their point across, such as the fact that there is this whole big hype about this being the first African-American princess, yet she spends most of the movie as a frog.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the whole point to show that its what's on the inside that counts, rather than the outside? So, why is it then, that everyone is making such a big deal about the color of this woman's skin? That's just as bad as when they said Jonathan Taylor Thomas shouldn't have been Simba in favor of a young African-American actor.

This whole thing is just an example of what "PC weenies", as I read in one blog a while back, we've become. Sure, its progress that there is an African-American princess and all, but quite frankly, the bigger story should be that this is going to be a quality, hand-drawn animated, musical feature, reminiscent of the good ol' Disney movies of our childhood, rather than the computer animated filler that they've put out in the past 5 yrs (not counting the Pixar movies).

Is there nothing that anyone can do these days without offending or getting criticized for it? This is getting a bit ridiculous, if you ask me. Its like no one remembers that this is just a movie, and not a way of life, y'know?

People need to chill out pt. 2

A few days ago I posted about the overreaction to the characters of Mudflap and Skids in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. As promised, I said I would give an educated opinion to the characters and determine if this is true overreaction after seeing the film myself.

Well, I saw the movie Saturday, and came to this conclusion. PEOPLE NEED TO CHILL OUT!!!! That's right, there is nothing overtly offensive about these characters. They are clearly there for comic relief and are not trying to be some sort of racial stereotype.

Anyone that gets offended by this, or thinks they are offensive needs to take a look at themselves and ask why it is they are offended and if they would have been offended before these days of extreme political correctness.

While I wasn't offended, I did have some issues. First, there was no point to the gold tooth. The characters bordered on annoying, but no more than Spongebob (ironically, one of them is voiced by the same guy that gives Spongebob his voice).

A big stink was raised about them not being able to read. This was blown so far out of proportion it blows my mind. I was thinking they were given a book or something and it turns out they can't read, but it turns out they can't read ancient Transformer hieroglyphics. I wonder if those that made such big deal out of this can read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. It's the same idea.

So, as expected, it is overreaction to these two characters. There is nothing offensive about them.

What happened to the days when people had sense of humor about things?

If you care to read my review of the film, you can do it here

Did they REALLY win?

3 competition shows I watch all ended in the past few days. All of which seemed to have a front runner for most of the season only to pull a swerve in the last two episodes and have someone else win. It's kind of odd the way these happen and brings to question...did the REALLY win?

Let's start with Hell's Kitchen. From day one, anyone could have seen that Paula was going to be the winner, then somewhere in the last 3 weeks or so, after the teams merged, Danny started stepping up, or at least getting noticed. Needless to say these two faced were the most talented of the entire season, but it seemed as though Paula was set to be the next winner. That is, until the finale when her team let her down. I have to wonder if they really are that inept, or if that was staged by the producers. I mean, these are supposed to be world class chefs and all. I could spend an entire blog on that Lacey girl. --rolls eyes--

Regular readers of my blog, now that I like Dancing with the Stars (especially Cheryl Burke). The finale went down this week. Everyone, and I do mean everyone had picked the unknown French guy, apparently he was naked in Sex and the City which is his claim to fame, and the Bachelor runner up to have a showdown. Gilles was there, but Melissa was replaced with Shawn Johnson, the Olympic gymnast. Johnson went on to shock the world and win it all. Of course, the track record of the show seems to be that athletes win. So, I wonder if that was the case here, not to mention the whole stalking that was going on at the beginning of the season probably brought in a few sympathy votes for her. I can say this, though, at least Melissa didn't come in second on two shows...lol

Finally, we have the big one, American Idol. Unless you've been living under a rock or something, then you no doubt know that Kris Allen pulled the biggest upset ever and stole the crown from Adam Lambert. I have no malice towards Kris, but Adam was the superior talent and should have won this. America got it wrong, just like they did a couple years back when they voted Melinda Doolittle (one of the most talented and humble contestants to ever grace that stage) off in favor of Blake Lewis and eventual winner Jordin Sparks. With the exception of Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, winners haven't exactly had the most spectacular of careers (jury is still out on David Cook). Those that don't win, such as Chris Daughtry, Jennifer Hudson, Kelly Pickler, etc., tend to do bigger things. So, as long as Adam doesn't go the Clay Aiken route and become a bitter queen, he'll be fine. As for Kris, I wish him the best, but something tells me he'll be joining Taylor Hicks on the county fair circuit sooner than later.

...didn't think I was gonna go through all that without mentioning the real reason why Adam didn't win, do you? Well, apparently, Bill O'Reilly brought up some pictures of Adam kissing a guy. Not sure if it was brought up before then, but I digress, he made this whole big spiel that America's "idol" doesn't need to be homosexual. You know, typical conservative, closed minded viewpoint. This brought up the whole debate about whether folks would vote for him or not. On top of that, there was Danny Gokey getting voted off the week before. Gokey and Allen are similar in style and lifestyles in their Christian/family ways of life. As a matter of fact, Gokey was supposed to have been in the final with Adam, but I won't go into that. The final reason is that the voters of Idol are mostly teens who don't like being told what to do, and since the judges all but gave Adam the crown in like week 3, or whenever it was that he did that totally awesome version of "Ring of Fire", they wanted someone else to win, just to prove them wrong.

Guess it worked, but this time next year, we'll see who has the better career, Adam, Kris...or maybe neither. What do you think of these winners? Do you agree that something fishy seemed up with the way they happened to win, or was it just coincidence?

California love...or is it hate?

I'm sure by now you've all heard about the controversial statements made my Miss California, Carrie Prejean (doesn't that sound like a Louisiana last name), at the Miss USA pageant this weekend.

In case you've been living under a rock, or have been privileged enough to somehow avoid hearing about(please share your secret...lol), here's a quick summary.

First runner-up Carrie Prejean (Miss California) was asked about legalizing same-sex marriage from judge Perez Hilton, the Internet blogger behind perezhilton.com.
"I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody there. But that's how I was raised and that's how I think it should be," Prejean said during Sunday night's live telecast.
Hilton was visibly upset, and there was a mixed reaction from the live audience. Prejean ultimately came up short, losing the title to Miss North Carolina, Kristen Dalton.
On Monday, Keith Lewis, the executive director for Miss California USA/Teen USA, said he was saddened by Prejean's response.
Prejean, who has been romantically linked to Olympian Michael Phelps, spoke on Monday, too: "I feel like I'm the winner. I really do," she said to pageant host Billy Bush on "The Billy Bush Show," noting that she had 1,000 new messages on Facebook and 2,000 friend requests.
Prejean added that her answer "did cost me my crown," but said: "I wouldn't have had it any other way. I said what I feel. I stated an opinion that was true to myself, and that's all I can do."

Now, first of all, it can't be proven that her answer cost her "her" crown, but chances are it did, but from what I've seen and heard, she's been making the rounds trying to play up the pity card as if she was robbed of the crown. From what I hear, she wasn't one of the top 2 in anything but swimsuit, so she's just coming off as bitter about that.

This is America, and she's free to voice her opinion, but at the same time, I believe the Miss USA pageant is not a platform for such things. Then again, I didn't even know the thing was on. Even if I would've known I probably would not have watched, but that's beside the point.

I don't agree with her answer, and I'm sure there are those of you out there that agree and those that disagree, but her answer was not...I don't know what the word I'm looking for is, but it seemed like she didn't quite understand the question and just said and twisted it into something else (like Bill O'Reilly did talking about this very subject last night).

Yes, she was booed...and cheered when she gave her answer. That just shows how torn this country is on this issue. I am glad that she didn't win. Whether she wants to believe it or not, not everyone has the same beliefs as her. Miss USA is supposed to represent the USA. She would not have been a good representative. I'm sorry.

I'm sure that many of the viewers of the pageants, which, from my understanding, are mainly gay men, were not too happy about this. Just listen to what Perez says...


Now, after I've said all this, I think this whole thing has been blown out of proportion, just because the only other thing people have to talk about are the usual, bad economy, Republicans hating on Obama, and some kid pirate. *SIGH* hopefully somebody somewhere will create some other kind of news that the vampiric media can latch on, but at least they've finally let go of Chris Brown and Rihanna...lol