Representative Darrell Issa of California, the senior Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the interactions described by the White House “represent an illegal quid pro quo” even if the position was unpaid. “It is abundantly clear that this kind of conduct is contrary to President Obama’s pledge to change ‘business as usual’ and that his administration has engaged in the kind of political shenanigans he once campaigned to end.”I feel like Issa is actually acknowledging that the old business, which he has been a part of for years, is questionable, no?
Friday, May 28, 2010
A Thought
In regards to the White House's "horse trade", the asking of Rep. Sestak to drop out of the race against Sen. Arlen Spector, Rep. Issa is disturbed:
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Doesn't Take a Genius
There's an article on Sports Illustrated's website today about why we hold baseball and football players to different standards when it comes to Performance Enchancing Drugs. The reason is quite simple, in my opinion.
Football is a game where statistics count, but there are so many amazing players who play positions where statistics don't really matter. For example, the most points scored by a player in NFL History?
Yep, you guessed it, the great.......Morten Anderson, a kicker. A position some don't even consider a position. Most points in a Single Season? Yep, you guessed it again, the great.......LaDanian Tomlinson, now a backup RB on the Jets.
If I asked you who scored the most points in a NBA basketball game you'd like know it was Wilt Chamberlain, when he netted 100 in Hersey, Pennsylvania. If I asked you the same question about the NFL, well, you'd have no clue. And neither would I had I not looked it up (Ernie Nevers, 40, in 1929). Which begs the question: Who the fuck is Ernie Nevers?
More importantly, who cares?
You'd be hard pressed to find out how many tackles Lawrence Taylor had in his career, and he didn't play that long ago. That's how irrelevant stats are to football.
Not the case in baseball. For statistics are the most important thing in baseball, and give its legacy. Almost every sports fan knows Barry Bonds cheated, as did Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire when they broke Roger Maris's homerun record, which was 61. In fact, HBO did a show titled "61", about the record. Most baseball fans know Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby hit over .400 twice, and that Hack Wilson hit 191 RBIs. We know this because baseball announcers never stop discussing statistics, and because baseball is an individual sport, more so than any other team sport. Its popularity is partially derived from statistics.
You don't see people doing their own boxscore/stat sheet at a football game. You still see it all over baseball parks.
When PEDs were discovered to be the driving force behind why records were broken in baseball it was as if these players were erasing history. In football we expect these guys to use steroids, and what not, most probably do, but they're playing each other, so the statistics don't really change. In baseball, if one guy is using, and a pitcher isn't, that's a huge advantage.
By using PEDs baseball players have erased history, and history is what makes baseball. In football, no one gives a shit what a team did 3 years ago, let alone 20. No one cares that Peyton Manning broke Dan Marino's single-season TD record, for the most part. By using PEDs the game of football doesn't change in any real sense.
But in baseball, the use of PEDs changes the game tremendously.
And that's why there is a double-standard, which I fully accept.
Football is a game where statistics count, but there are so many amazing players who play positions where statistics don't really matter. For example, the most points scored by a player in NFL History?
Yep, you guessed it, the great.......Morten Anderson, a kicker. A position some don't even consider a position. Most points in a Single Season? Yep, you guessed it again, the great.......LaDanian Tomlinson, now a backup RB on the Jets.
If I asked you who scored the most points in a NBA basketball game you'd like know it was Wilt Chamberlain, when he netted 100 in Hersey, Pennsylvania. If I asked you the same question about the NFL, well, you'd have no clue. And neither would I had I not looked it up (Ernie Nevers, 40, in 1929). Which begs the question: Who the fuck is Ernie Nevers?
More importantly, who cares?
You'd be hard pressed to find out how many tackles Lawrence Taylor had in his career, and he didn't play that long ago. That's how irrelevant stats are to football.
Not the case in baseball. For statistics are the most important thing in baseball, and give its legacy. Almost every sports fan knows Barry Bonds cheated, as did Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire when they broke Roger Maris's homerun record, which was 61. In fact, HBO did a show titled "61", about the record. Most baseball fans know Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby hit over .400 twice, and that Hack Wilson hit 191 RBIs. We know this because baseball announcers never stop discussing statistics, and because baseball is an individual sport, more so than any other team sport. Its popularity is partially derived from statistics.
You don't see people doing their own boxscore/stat sheet at a football game. You still see it all over baseball parks.
When PEDs were discovered to be the driving force behind why records were broken in baseball it was as if these players were erasing history. In football we expect these guys to use steroids, and what not, most probably do, but they're playing each other, so the statistics don't really change. In baseball, if one guy is using, and a pitcher isn't, that's a huge advantage.
By using PEDs baseball players have erased history, and history is what makes baseball. In football, no one gives a shit what a team did 3 years ago, let alone 20. No one cares that Peyton Manning broke Dan Marino's single-season TD record, for the most part. By using PEDs the game of football doesn't change in any real sense.
But in baseball, the use of PEDs changes the game tremendously.
And that's why there is a double-standard, which I fully accept.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Wrote It
Quite a few times over the last few years I've heard people say, "we talked about it", or "we discussed this", when what we/they did was text back and forth.
How come I never hear people say, "I wrote to" a person, when that's actually what happened?
The differences are obvious, but I feel like if you actually spoke with someone an entire conversation could be construed differently. Actually telling someone you "wrote" or "texted" with someone means an entirely different thing.
But more importantly, there was never a conversation, or a "discussion." You just wrote to someone, and they wrote back.
How come I never hear people say, "I wrote to" a person, when that's actually what happened?
The differences are obvious, but I feel like if you actually spoke with someone an entire conversation could be construed differently. Actually telling someone you "wrote" or "texted" with someone means an entirely different thing.
But more importantly, there was never a conversation, or a "discussion." You just wrote to someone, and they wrote back.
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