Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Knives and Daggers


Back with another view from the Dark Side.
I wish I could set music up as background music for the blog sometimes.
If I could,I would use this for knives and daggers.


I have a story about this film,but it is better suited for Things that make me laugh.

A big knife to those of these nut cases that are completely ruining any hopes of discourse at the various town meetings around the country on health care.
Both sides seem to have covered their nutcase quota,although the anti-health care crowd seems to have the edge in population.
My personal favorite was at a South Carolina event where some uninformed clown stood up and hollered "Keep your government hands off my Medicare'!
I am glad people are showing up,offering their opinions and putting Representatives feet to the fire with hard questions that they cannot dodge,however couldn't people be more professional and keep this to an adult level instead of the childish behavior often shown?
I don't claim to have all the answers to this issue,if you want more analysis on this,check out our friends over at Bag of Health and Politics for their take on things.

A BIG dagger to the Weather Channel,who have not seemed to learn anything from ESPN.
What does TWC and ESPN have in common?
As I am sure many remember,ESPN relentlessly pounded who they thought was a coming star down everyone's throat by the name of Stephen A.Smith.
Smith was annoying NBA fans by the bucketloads with his antics on NBA broadcasts and ESPN decided to start pushing Smith.
ESPN put out a quote that turned out to be the antithesis of what the sports fan is looking for on Smith when giving him a daily show "Quite Frankly"- "You may love Stephen A,you may hate Stephen A,but you watch Stephen A".
This became quite famous as no,you don't watch Stephen A as the show couldn't get a grip on a audience despite format changes,time slot changes and doing everything but eliminating Smith from the equation and resulting in a cancellation long after most shows had gotten the axe.
ESPN continued to stick Smith on anything that used a talking head despite the fact that most people just couldn't stand the guy and he brought little to the broadcast other than screaming at the camera until they finally understood and began to ease him from the scene.
Smith left the network a few months back,not because he was let go,"but because my desire to venture beyond sports into the world of news, politics and entertainment has grown."
Ok,so what does this have to do with the Weather Channel?
Well,they are in the process of pulling a "Stephen A" with their pushing of Stephanie Abrams.
Abrams,another screamer that seems to be in love with loud sounds,has failed twice in a prime time slot (despite a MEGA push) previously,yet has taken the same shtick to the morning hours,which is TWC's highest rated time slot since people want to check the weather before sending the kids to school,work etc.
Between the walking towards the camera (which I guess is supposed to show that she is TALKING TO YOU),the cackles and general odd behavior,Abrams is just plain annoying.
I feel sorry for her co-host in these endeavors,Mike Bettes.
I mean,what did Bettes do to deserve this????
Check the Youtubes at the post end for some of Abrams' antics.

Our final Dagger goes to Little League baseball.
I know,Shawn you coached for ten years and loved the game,why a dagger to Little League?
Well,frankly the dagger goes to two groups -Little League Baseball Inc and parents.
Parents because they cannot ever seem to allow players and coaches to do their jobs on the field and cannot resist the need to be a general manager instead of just a fan.
Despite requests from people that would like to see me return to the game,I don't see a return in the cards and that is mainly due to the crap from parents.
Remember this to parents,the coach cannot win-If the team is winning then the game should be just for fun,if the team is losing then the manager is a dummy that isn't winning enough games.
To the organization of Little League itself,you have become too bloated,too concerned with money and too concerned with everything but baseball.
If I had the money,I would love the chance to do what my hometown in Ashland Ohio does-set your own league,own rules,championship playoffs,everything decided by the people that should make the calls-the people involved in the league.
The hypocrisy that is Little League baseball is beyond what anyone that has never been involved with youth baseball and is simply sadder than you can ever know.
I may decide to do an entire post soon on Little League on a slow day and at least make any readers out there ponder a bit about things.



2 comments:

Mike said...

Ya almost have to feel bad for Bettes in the first video, they cut to him,and he looks like he just wants to crawl in ahole and die.. or better yet.. maybe have her crawl into said hole!!!

Shawn said...

He has to be thinking "what price do I have to pay for success"?
"Does it mean I have to suffer with this insufferable woman forever"?