Silence is broken

It's incredibly unfortunate that I have not blogged since the Oscars. To my faithful, I apologize. I have lots to say tonight and I'll start with the reasons for my silence.

The library in this town does not allow me to even visit my own blog, let alone post on it. My current employment has the same filter. When I am home, it is difficult for me to separate myself from the Queen of Hearts and our little son in order to post. My work schedule is terrible and I truly have only a few hours a night to spend with my wife before she (and I) fall asleep due to exhaustion.

So there are the reasons and here come the opinions:

Today, I heard that the Patriots traded their fourth round pick for one of NFL's bad boys Randy Moss! So while on one hand I'm salivating over the thought of the Brady to Moss connection, I'm not so certain that Belichick can reign in this part time player. I am pleased that they only gave up a fourth round pick for him (as that is about all he is worth at this time) and if Randy can be rehabilitated the same way that Corey Dillon was, I'll be happier than . Let's hope it pays off

Continuing with sports, I'd like to offer to facts regarding the American League East: First place, The Boston Red Sox. Dead last, the New York Yankees! Need I say more? Well, I think I will anyway. Beckett has been a great surprise this year. Come from behind wins and a shut down bullpen spells a potentially very successful year! These two factors were very conspicuously missing from last season's Red Sox. Not to mention unlikely heroics by players not named Ortiz or Ramirez! Hey, I'll take 5 of the first 6 games against the Evil Empire (6 of the last 7 meetings if you go back to last season)! Looks like this could be a very good year. (See, Dr. James? No predictions!)

Another reason I've been absent from the blogging world is that when I do get a few moments to myself, I've been spending them writing a play. As it stands (in its very incomplete status) it is a four person play about a young idealistic university student who joins a terrorist group and is selected as the executioner of their most recent hostage, an older Assistant to the US Army Chief of Staff. They are forced to spend three days together before the student must end the Soldier's life. At this point, I'm still not sure how it ends so that's all the information I can provide.

Now to the more serious issues. I'm going to attempt to hide my next opinion here because I know that I will take a lot of flack for it, but here goes. Regarding the Virginia Tech tragedy: First, let me say that my heart goes out to the students who had to suffer (and are still suffering) through this ordeal. Also, I can't imagine the pain that the families are dealing with. Now for the unpopular portion of this post: First, I'd like to suggest that a campus alert was: a) unwarranted and b) illogical. The shooting in the morning appeared to be a jilted lover out for revenge and there was no reason to suspect that he would continue to kill. This is supported even further by the fact that the additional rampage didn't occur until several hours after the initial shooting. Had an alert been issued, it very well may have been revoked by the time the second shootings occurred. Many of the people I've spoken to who believed that a campus wide alert was necessary attended schools about the same size as my alma mater, just under 2000 students. VT is over 25,000! It is a small city. It's not something you shut down by flipping a switch. Now my second unpopular position: There was one classroom where the shooter killed or wounded about fifty students. This was the classroom where he chained the doors shut. All of these factors mean a few different things: 1) The shooter chained his own way out. 2) he had to reload. How did over 50 college students allow a man to pick them off one by one when he had to stop and reload and had no plan of escape? He had a emi-automatic weapon and, had they banded together, the students could have ended it there. He couldn't have gotten all of them at once. I'm not trying to make light of the situation, just asking some logical, glaring questions that others appear afraid to pose.

Finally, I've been outraged over Don Imus for a while, and it's time I vented about it. Imus is a shock jock. Nothing more, nothing less. Yet he seems to be held to a different standard that all of the others. Did anyone actually hear the stupid comment that he made about the Rutger's Women's Basketball team? It was a throw away. It was a sad, terrible, unsuccessful attempt at humor. It's clear that it wasn't believed, just something said to garner a response. And boy did it ever! Now the man has been fired for doing his job. It's tough to make a living that way! And who is it that came running to tear him down? The "reverends": Jackson and Sharpton. It's funny, I can turn on MTV, VH1, BET, or drop in any rap CD by an African American artist and hear African American women be called "ho's" with absolutely zero sense of humor. But God forbid a white man should say it. I think this points out several sad aspects of our society. First, and most pitiful: The need that Jackson and Sharpton feel to appear relevant. Their war is over. Racism has not ended, but the racism that they fought years ago, for all practical purposes, has been purged from our society. Yet here they are, at the forefront attempting to revive it so that they can swoop in and kill it again. Second, the cowardliness of major corporations. Many advertisers pulled their support of Imus' morning show following the incident. They're fine when Howard Stern makes fun of midgets, or when Mike and Mike rag on unemployed thirty year old men who live in their mother's basements, or when Christians are made fun of, or lesbians, or rednecks, or Republicans, or the President (if you look at his spending, he's no Republican), or former presidents, or Sanjya. But don't say anything about black people or we'll pull our funding. Why? Are they scared? Do they really care about the content of the show? Or do they care about how many people hear their jingle? This just happened to be "News-worthy" (which is a joke in itself) so they did the "right" thing and pulled their funding. Imus' "humor" is through insult. Why was this over the line and nothing else has been for 25 years?! Finally, (and perhaps the most disturbing) is the clear reverse racism that is now rampant in our nation. The "n" word is fine, as long as you have the right skin tone. For crying out loud, Imus didn't even make a universal comment about black people. He made a comment about 12 people. Some of whom happened to be African American! Imagine the fallout if he had said some racist generalization about all black people! I think the whole radio station would have been shut down! Anyway, I don't think the man should have lost his job over it.

Again, I apologize for the length of time I've been away. I hope this installment will hold you over until I'm able to post again. And never forget, the preceding has been just my opinion.