I don't truly rage about many things, but this is one of them. At the end of the season opener for the Detroit Lions last Sunday, Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson appeared to make what would be the game-winning (or at least last minute lead restoring) touchdown catch.
So, apparently the rules for making a catch in the endzone are different from anywhere else on the field. If that catch were made anywhere else on the field, it would have been ruled a complete pass. Johnson doesn't bobble the football, gets two feet down, and gets his butt down. A long string of loud obscenities filled the apartment that Sunday afternoon.
They resumed when I found this:
The receiver's possession seems tenuous, at best, yet the two-point conversion is awarded. It's also worth noting that in both cases, the referee in the best position to make the call on the field was overruled. At least in the Super Bowl clip, that referee's ruling on the field was the one under dispute. In the Lions' game, the referee who signalled the touchdown was overruled on-field by some other schmuck before the video review.
I really don't want to buy into the conspiracy theory of the downtrodden Lions getting unfavorable calls from a haughty NFL front office. However, I'll play Glenn Beck (distasteful, I know) and ask the question: would this happen to Peyton Manning in Indianapolis or Tom Brady in New England?
America has a lot of problems. Protracted foreign wars, intransigent regimes in Iran, North Korea and beyond, bloated government programs and an unequal and unjust society are but a few of these problems. Fortunately, America has a lot of problem-solvers and wealth. With all these problems and potential solutions, why do so many problems remain unresolved?
Another problem with America is a tendency towards Attention Deficit Disorder in the media and electorate. Fringe issues like abortion, religious affiliation, and a person's upbringing have become litmus tests for candidates and loud distractions for whoever is in power at the time. The screaming of fringe fanatics often prevents discourse on any issue (especially if the issue happens to be their fringe issue). This bizarre social handicap makes the most recent policy discussions unique.
Of late, a lot of time and energy has been directed at reforming the health care system (not a fringe issue). Personally, I think the status quo in health care is broken, wasteful and shameful. However, I'm not going to discuss the reform plans. I'm not a health care expert and the associated phenomenon is much more fun to talk about.
To the dismay of Mr. Obama and many Democrats, Congress has been unable to push health care reform out the door before the August recess. So now we have members of Congress appearing at public events trying to get feedback from constituents. Going into this, many must have been thinking about this great opportunity to add more voices and ideas to the debate. Instead, a number of these "townhall meetings" have degenerated into shouting matches, disgruntled choir practices and opportunities for rookie police officers to practice kicking disruptive people out of public events. It seems like the fringe issue crowd has infiltrated the real issue crowd. What a shame.
This is one of those rare occasions when average citizens get a chance to talk directly to policy makers about an ongoing debate over an important issue. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans have mindlessly destroyed a rare opportunity to advance a national dialogue on health care reform. The culture warriors have put on new hats, but their tactics remain as transparent and tactless as ever.
One of the less than savory characters involved with this new chapter in public discourse is Rick Scott, founder of Conservatives for Patient's Rights (their commercials are frequently on TV and can probably be found on Youtube). Mr. Scott's career history would make you think that Republicans wouldn't want to touch him with a 12-foot pole. Rick Scott founded a hospital chain that was caught by the FBI defrauding Medicare. Three executives were indicted and Mr. Scott was ousted by the board. When all was said and done, the hospital chain plead guilty on 14 counts of felony and was forced to pay $1.7 billion in civil and criminal charges. He was never charged, but his involvement with the whole affair clearly gives him a dubious reputation.
In defense of the plebs, the amount of information available on the 1000+ page health care bill is thin. I don't plan on reading that behemoth (sounds like the job for a Congressman or journalist), but that doesn't mean I'm not interested or concerned about the contents. I know that a couple other people are probably thinking the same thing, but I save my yelling for sports events and video games.
The rumors that the meeting crashers are Republican operatives are probably true in some cases, but I think a lot of these disgruntled people have simply let their fear blind them. Maybe in the future they should run a Public Discourse 101 seminar before these meetings.
Yoda hits the nail on the head.
Sorry about the lack of updates recently. Life has gotten more busy of late and my upcoming move to DC probably won't slow my life down right away.
Ok, so "Hawks" is technically short for the Blackhawk tribe of Native Americans, but I'm sure the Anglicized tribe name comes from the bird.
Anyway, I write this blog post to inform everyone that my regular blogging will resume sometime next week. Just so this entire post doesn't turn into a non sequitur, I'm waiting for the conclusion of NHL playoffs and the three aforementioned avian species are also the mascots of the three most recent teams the Red Wings have faced in the playoffs.
Topics I hope to hit upon resumption of regular blogging: North Korea, Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Electronic Arts marketing division.
Edit:
Ok, maybe I will add something of substance, but it's more hockey, so forgive me.
Again, I hold the management of the NHL in utter contempt for the current state of the game. Hockey is an amazing sport and quite possibly the most dynamic and exciting, but the national respect for the game is at an all-time low.
It's very, very easy to criticize TV networks like NBC, Fox, and Versus for their questionable marketing choices, but the onus is on the league management to make deals that are best for the sport. The NHL front office has done a great disservice to hockey in its business dealings. Here's the situation: in 2005 the NHL is about to emerge from another lockout season and looks for television deals. ESPN and Outdoor Life Network place bids on broadcast rights. ESPN has a history of responsible and reliable NHL coverage/analysis - Outdoor Life Network is a cable channel dedicated to fringe sports like fishing, hunting and bull riding (probably competitive woodcutting, too). OLN submits a higher bid and the NHL bites and the writers at Disney/ABC/ESPN begin drafting subtle jabs at the NHL to fill the airtime usually dedicated to highlight shows.
As the article states, NBC (the Notre Dame Broadcasting Channel one part of the year, Nothing But Crosby channel at another) also holds broadcasting rights for occasional weekend and playoff games (supposedly the rights for EVERY game of the Stanley Cup Finals, article explains why not this time around). However, NBC doesn't pay the NHL for these broadcasting rights! What a deal!
So, games three and four of the Stanley Cup Finals will only be available on a fringe cable channel. You don't need to be a NHL fan to realize that games three and four in a series with one team up 2-0 are truly pivotal contests. It is a shame that another terrible reality series takes precedence over one of the greatest sporting events of the year and every quantum of that shame lies squarely on the NHL front office.
This past weekend (plus Monday), I experienced the highs and lows that our modern entertainment industry could deliver.
I'm going to start with the particular event that really got my blood boiling: the 2009 NHL "All-Star" Game. For the first time ever, I did not watch any NHL "All-Star" coverage or even bother watch the highlights (perhaps lowlights would be the better word to use). This game has turned into a commercial farce which is surpassed only by the almighty BCS bowl games. Fans, players, and franchises really don't care about it anymore.
The first signs that trouble was around the corner began appearing at around the New Year when the starting lineups were announced. Remember that starting lineups are determined by votes cast by fans. I'll list the 12 players and their respective teams.
Eastern Conference
Sidney Crosby - Pittsburgh Evgeni Malkin - Pittsburgh Alexei Kovalev - Montreal Andrei Markov - Montreal Mike Komisarek - Montreal Carey Price - Montreal
Western Conference
Patrick Kane - Chicago Jonathan Toews - Chicago Ryan Getzlaf - Anaheim Brian Campbell - Chicago Scott Niedermayer - Anaheim Jean-Sebastian Giguere - Anaheim
You don't need to be a hockey fan to see the problem here. For the hockey fans that are out there, you have to shake your head. Where is league goal scoring leader Alex Ovechkin of Washington? Where are the players from the league leading franchises: San Jose, Boston, or Detroit? If the playoffs were to start today, Anaheim would barely qualify in their 8th place spot and Pittsburgh would miss the playoffs with their pitiful 11-11-2 home record.
I love democracy as much as the next person, but if the Bush years or the BCS did not reveal the shortcomings of democracy, then this certainly must. Thankfully, the remainder of the roster is filled by the NHL with the intention of making sure that every franchise is represented.
Detroit was very poorly represented in the game as a result of Nicklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk (the only two Redwings to make the roster) removed themselves from the festivities in order to recover from injuries. The NHL made an 11th hour appeal to other Redwings stars like Marian Hossa and Brian Rafalski who did not make the roster. Unsurprisingly, these guys made the selfish choice of spending time with family and friends during the only extended break in the long and grueling NHL schedule. So, for the first time that I can remember, the reigning league champion was not represented in the "All-star" weekend.
In order to add salt to the wound, the NHL and Gary Bettman, in all their infinite and just wisdom, decided to suspend Lidstrom and Datsyuk for one game. If the game of hockey is in the sad shape that it is then how does suspending two star players from the model NHL franchise help? Clinging to a dead tradition that serves no purpose other than delivering stale 12-11 shootout games to the hosting city's fans and corporate sponsors is truly baffling.
In other hockey news, Michigan and Michigan State played over the weekend and then this happened...
Any respect that I hold for Michigan State athletics is quickly slipping away. Sure Michigan State is bad this year and they've been victimized by Michigan all season long, but that does not justify this ugly and shameful incident. Both Michigan State players, Conboy and Tropp have been suspended for the remainder of the season. In my opinion, those suspensions are not enough. The rest of Michigan State's season is meaningless, they aren't going to win the CCHA or go to the NCAA tournament (on a side note: hmm, another college championship determined on the ice/field and not by voters). These players should miss next season and perhaps they should be simply banned from playing in the NCAA.
The good news is that the Michigan player is going to be OK and back on the ice next weekend.
Moving away from hockey, I went to go see Defiance last weekend. I thought it was a fantastic movie and I would recommend that everyone go see it or put it at the top of your Netflix queue when the DVD is released. Most importantly, it made me forget about the disappointing Valkyrie. Apart from the story, to which I had never been exposed, my favorite aspect of the film was the sound. So often these days movies are heavily doctored and butchered in post-production, but Defiance had a very real and organic quality to the sound design. For me, the guns sounded rich and authentic and I doubt anyone will disagree if you see the film in a theatre.
On Sunday, I finally got around to watching a recording of last week's The Office. For the first time since I started watching that show, I felt depressed and empty. Apart from a few amusing moments, the overall episode was a huge disappointment. The Micheal/Dwight adventure was really depressing and the intra-office Hilary Swank hotness panel was uninspired and boring. If I want to be depressed, I'll watch BattlestarGalactica. I watch The Office to see an entertaining story and have a good laugh. At least BattlestarGalactica made me want to watch again next week.
Anyway, of late I have rarely taken the time to post on my blog twice in one week, but I came across something on the interwebs that I had to mention.
For about six months now I have been visiting Tom's Games, the gaming and movie portion of the Tom's Hardware site. On Wednesday, they announced that they will stop doing video game and movie commentary. In its place, they will have a "cutting edge site designed to deliver the latest in online games." What a shame.
Now, I occasionally play online flash games like almost everyone, but this is a shameful step. Tom's Games offered interesting and insightful commentary, opinions and reviews. However, their greatest asset was the distinct lack of fanboy-ism that permeates that particular sector of the internet. They had an deep appreciation for the PC game platform, but did not let that cloud their judgement of console games. Lastly, the discussion forums are usually civil, another rare thing for this neighborhood of the internet.
Now Tom's Games is going concern itself with the lowest common denominator of the gaming world. These are cheap, simple, mindless games that are trumped by only the great World of Warcraft in amount of lost productivity.
The two editors-in-chief of Tom's Games, Rob Wright and Travis Meacham, wrote a letter to their readers which can be read here. If you are so inclined, take a look at their weekly video series, Second Take; it was one of my favorite internet video series.
A dark day for quality gaming journalism, indeed.
On a brighter note, the Red Wings completely annihilated the San Jose Sharks tonight! For those that haven't been following hockey as closely as I, San Jose has a very good team this year. A little over 30 games into the season, San Jose had lost only 3 games in regulation and were among the top 10 teams in nearly all the major statistical categories. They are on pace to break league records for number of wins and points in a single season. The Wings are hardly having a bad season, but the sheer brilliance of the San Jose squad makes the great Wings team look a bit tarnished. This was definitely a big statement game for the Wings.
