Let’s all come back in several months and note how wrong I am.
We Don’t Need Abortion Police
I’m surprised in 2017 we still have to have this debate but fucking here we are, still having this god damn debate.
We’re never going to solve the abortion riddle until we start arguing the same thing.
Pro-choice people aren’t arguing for the right to have an abortion so they can open up abortion malls or factories or abortion marts or abortion convenience stores or abortion flea markets or abortion thrift stores or abortion drive-ins. All they want is for conservatives to keep their dicks and religion out of their business.
It’s not about having an abortion. It’s about having the right to chose whether or not they can have one.
Pro Tip: If you don’t want to have a fucking abortion, then don’t get a fucking abortion.
You don’t need to legislate it and force religious beliefs that are made up anyway onto people. A better solution would be to trust in your fellow humans that they won’t have one and, by all means, help those struggling with decisions to choose life if you are so compelled.
I’m sick and fucking tired of a bunch of old white dudes sticking their dicks into the business of women and thinking they know more about a woman’s reproductive rights than women do. And I’m basically a fucking old white dude. I’m mean I’m very close to Mike Leach territory. (“I’m a man! I’m 40).
Instead of wasting all the fucking resources to ban abortions and jeopardize the safety of women, maybe sink money into actual family planning services and education. Because believe it or not abortions are lower now than ANY TIME IN THE LAST 40 YEARS. And unlike all you fucking flat earth idiots who, when asked for proof, tend to say “look it up” or “you could find the truth if you wanted to”, I’m going to put a links here, effectively doing the research for you:
Here’s a link if you want state data from 2009 – 2013. You can download the excel and slice the shit out of it you fucking Excel wizard: https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/data_stats/abortion.htm
NOT ONLY IS COUNT OF ABORTIONS LOWER ANNUALLY THAN ANY POINT IN THE LAST 40 YEARS BUT THE US POPULATION IS SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER THAN IN 1969. BASICALLY, BARELY ANYONE GETS ABORTIONS AND YET WE WASTE ALL THE FUCKING TIME ARGUING ABOUT IT. FUCK YOU, EVERYONE, INCLUDING ME, FOR ARGUING THIS. YOU AND I ARE ALL STUPID.
Clearly we’ve been doing something right. You get more flies with sugar than shit.
That’s all I got. Good luck, babies.
Also, I tagged the Mets in here because it’s a story about abortions and I didn’t want them to feel left out.
Is “Eddie” Just “Basketball Blazing Saddles?” – Yes
I know this isn’t politics, but this is important. Also, don’t ask why I thought of this.
Eddie is just Basketball Blazing Saddles.
Whoopi Goldberg’s Eddie is an unlikely Cleavon Little’s Sheriff Bart-esque anti-hero. Both work in blue collar transportation and become the unlikely leader.
Frank Langella’s Wild Bill Burgess is the excellent Harvey Korman’s Heddy Lamar. That’s Hedley!
The Knicks franchise is Rock Ridge.
The Knicks players are the towns folks
Dwayne Schintzius’s Ivan Radovadovich is a very, very poor man’s Mongo, played by gambling Alex Karras.
Malik Sealy’s hateable Stacy Patton and Richard Jenkins’ Coach Zimmer are the equivilent but not equivilent to Gene Wilder’s fantastic Waco Kid.
Larry Johnson’s himself is the gang of rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists.”
Dennis Farina’s Coach Bailey is the masterful Slim Pickens’ Taggart. I love you Dennis Farina, but get your fucking shine box when it comes to choosing between you and Slim.
Coach Zimmer’s plan at the end of the game against the Hornets is essentially Sheriff Bart’s idea to build a fake town. Someone’s gotta go back and get a shitload of dimes.
“They said you were hung?”
“And they was right!”
Marv Albert calling the last play is essentially the townsfolk of Rock Ridge explaining the plan – they’ll destroy the fake Rock Ridge but they’ll think it’s the real Rock Ridge but we’ll know it’s the fake Rock Ridge.
Ivan taking the charge after the Hornets have one last chance is basically the Waco Kid shooting the dynamite.
The whole movie of Eddie is the farting campfire scene in Blazing Saddles.
Well, that’s the end of this post.
On Why We Should Ditch The EPA
We shouldn’t.
But maybe we should look at some of the stuff and tweak it. Just a thought.
On Ditching The Department of Education
Well, thanks to Mike Pence and every republican senator who received a generous donation from Betsy DeVos, that same Betsy DeVos is now the Secretary of Education.
This is stupid. She has no business being in charge of our nation’s education. But I don’t disagree with all of her ideas. I’ve come to realize my anger isn’t really with Betsy DeVos or even Mike Pence or Trump, but when it comes to education in America, the whole philosophy is off the mark for the 21st century and that is where my disdain lies.
The need for a Department of Education as we know it has sailed, in my opinion. Here’s my simple plan for unfucking our education system and getting America smart again. Yes I know that’s a very Trump thing to say but clearly we are spiraling towards a level of unheard of dumbfuckery. It’s not to late. Let’s get started.
- Eliminate the Department of Education as we know it today.
- Immediately form a council comprised of one republican senator and one democratic senator passionate about education, and four nominated and elected teachers. There needs to be a teacher with three years of tenure, one with seven years, one with fifteen years and one with twenty years. This puts a good sampling on the council. You can only serve once. What is their role? To oversee the distribution of tax dollars to the states, and manage an audit, and that’s about it. (Not a lot more than what they do today.)
- All tax monies collected by the federal government are deposited into an escrow. 75% of the collected annual revenue is distributed back to the states based on population. 25% of the annual revenue is then split by need to the bottom 25% of states based on population. This isn’t ideal, but we could certainly have someone smarter than me at math create a better split. To me, population is the key. A state like New York or California should get more money than Iowa but Iowa should still get a shot at some extra scratch to make it happen.
- The council’s only real job is to ensure two things. That money is handled appropriately and states are following the audit parameters. Oh, and that church and state do not mix.
- The government will contract a third party company to audit the states’ use of funds. Any state that fails to submit the audit or fails the audit according to process or content is ineligible for funds the following year until the prior year audit is met.
- Private companies will bid on this process via RFP and will be awarded a four year contract.
- RFP Answers will be posted in full on a simple website. Selection of the winning company will be voted on during the presidential election.
- There’s a lot of stuff that needs to be worked out on this, but people do RFPs all the time. We can iron out the kinks to make this happen.
- Part of the audit will be funds management, but a second part of it will be a standardized test. Criteria for these tests is below, and it will only make up about 25% of the criteria.
- All decisions on how federal money is spent becomes the obligation of the states, within the wide parameters of the audit criteria. Basically, you can’t spend it on a bunch of religion, etc. It needs to be with the intent of providing a quality general education to all children.
- Any piece of standardization becomes the obligation of the states, but states can work together to create this standardization. The main focus needs to be on true understanding and not rote, as you’ll read on below.
That’s pretty much it. There needs to be some oversight on the funds and an eye on the general process. A budget for audits and third party fees needs to be determined ahead of time, and that’s what the government pays. Fair pay for job well done. This stuff happens all the time in the business world and it’s time to eliminate the bureaucracy and efficiently make changes to our education system.
So why give the money and the power to the states? That’s easy. What works for Baton Rouge won’t work for Defiance, Iowa. Contrary to popular theory, I have pretty strong feelings that most teachers care about their jobs and want to educate kids to the best of their ability. Who knows better what the kids in the classrooms need than the people in the classrooms. It’s well documented and inarguable at this point that people learn at different rates and with different styles. Teachers need the flexibility and the funding to adjust to the nuances of their classroom year to year. That doesn’t mean states shouldn’t implement a standardized test now and again. But that should only be a portion of the measure. This next section will get a ton of fucking heat from people but I’m right and they are wrong, so let’s take a look.
- We have to completely rethink how we teach. It can no longer be about standardized tests where most questions can be answered by rote. How do we do this? That’s not rhetorical. We need to figure this out and it’s going to be fucking painful at first.
- All general education grades 5 – 12 need to completely shift from focusing on the ‘what’ and instead focus on the ‘how and why’. What does this mean?
- Getting the right answer is still important, but understanding why it is the right answer is more important. Don’t just tell kids that two plus two is 4. Explain to them why it is four. Explain to them how it is four. I know this is a pretty fucking easy concept to understand when I tell it this simply, but it’s the old adage if you give a gal a fish she eats for a day but if you show her how Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery is a metaphor for not following the crowd and show her how to apply it to current governments, local issues in the town, etc., that mother fuckette will be fat on knowledge and she’ll be able to feed others with her mental acumen and deductive prowess. Right? That’s how that metaphor goes? I’m pretty sure that’s how it goes.
- Maybe Common Core is not the ideal way to go about it, but absofuckinglutely kids need to learn there is more than one way to skin a cat. So taking the time early on in their lives to show them multiple ways of approaching a problem, and making sure they have a really good understanding of common and advanced concepts is WAY more important than being able to recite a bunch of shit for a test and then never retaining it. This will make kids so much more marketable as adults.
- For real. I know who the idiots are because they are the people who bitch about kids not learning the old way of math and science. You know what, actually keep teaching your kids the same old shit and I’ll make sure the people I care about learn both the old way and some new ways to solve problems, and then they can run circles around your kids. Have fun digging a ditch, you dumb bastard.
- I’d like to point out that there is absolutely nothing wrong with digging ditches or doing manual labor. If I could make enough money moving big round hay bales for a living you’d never see or hear from me again. But as a historic metaphor, fuck your basic kids. Here’s a shovel.
- Last but not least, every school in America must teach a basic life skills class each grade year where they learn one to two really, really important skills like how to manage money, how to balance a check book, how to buy a house, how to take out a loan, how to manage a credit card, how to care for a pet, how to set up a will, how to hold a garage sale. Things they will actually do later in life. How to use Excel. Email etiquette. These are important skills and this will be a requirement of the audit under my plan.
That’s it. At the local level, teachers will enjoy the autonomy to teach kids the way they need to learn, focusing more on true understanding concepts and how to learn than whether or not a third grader can memorize how to spell discombobulated. (FYI, I FUCKING NAILED THAT WITHOUT SPELLCHECKER!)
Are there going to be problems. Of course! There’s problems now. Will there be shitty teachers? Some! We have that now. Will there be misappropriations of fund? Truly! That’s why we’ll have to be diligent as we create the audit process. Will there by lessons learned? I hope so. That’s the point! But some other countries are doing some things right, and we should learn from them as we move forward to become brilliant again. And we need to stop selling ourselves short. There are already a ton of really smart people doing amazing things every day. But the dinosaur that is the Department of Ed is dead, and we don’t need a Jurassic Park on our hands. Keep the bones in the museum and let’s figure out a better way to do this.
UNION NOTE: I don’t care if the states bust ’em. But, under this new rule we would implement a league minimum of $35,000. Need more money to pay this exorbitant salary? Figure it out, states.
Let the hate parade begin.
There Is No War On Christmas You Fucking Idiot
The next Precident (sic burn) of the United States has gone out in public and talked about being able to wish people Merry Christmas again. Well here’s a newsflash son: The ability to wish people Merry Christmas never went away because there isn’t a war on Christmas. It’s just made up bullshit from people who love being the victim.
Are you aware of how I know there isn’t a war on Christmas? It’s because I’m not a fucking idiot.
“Merry Christmas.”
Holy shit. How did I get away with it? What will people think???
There isn’t a more made up war in the world than the fake war on Christmas people who love Christmas and love being a dumb asshole like to pretend is happening.
Are you aware of how big an asshole you are if someone wishes you Happy Holidays and you correct them or call them out for not saying Merry Christmas?
You’re the biggest asshole and I hope Santa or your mom gives you a War on Christmas. That’s a move I just made up where Santa and/or your mom take a dump in your stocking and when you reach in it’s worse than coal. Can we get that listed on Urban Dictionary, someone who is better at things than me?
Just be glad people said something pleasant to you, because they could have easily stole your wallet and called you a worthless cocksucker and forced you to eat old dog shit on the west side of the driveway in your Grandma’s front yard next to the neighbor’s bushes, you ungrateful fuck. Thing about that next time you want to start an inquisition about something so trivial.
I’m not going to wish you Merry Christmas. It’s not that I don’t like Christmas. It’s that I don’t like you.
Where Is Clive Owen When You Need Him?
I haven’t written much lately because I feel like we are living in a perpetual intro to a political thriller movie starring Clive Owen or Little Tom Cruise or Stath, or some fucking asshole hero here to save the day.
You know? Where it cuts to news stories and clippings of all the shit that leads up to some scenario requiring a real mother fucker to come in a save the day?
Yeah, still waiting on that. But hey, at least someone assassinated a Russian guy today. That won’t lead to more violence or anything.
Trade Thoughts To Date
Working full time and knowing literally no one who works for a pro team makes it hard for me to break news, but I can certainly react. Let’s take a look at what’s happened so far this off season.
December 8th
Boston Red Sox agree to terms with Mitch Moreland. Good for them. He can hit a little, but he isn’t a world beater.
The Cubs, Padres and Rangers made some minor league moves. Nothing of serious note at this point.
December 7th
The big news was five-fold. First, the Royals traded Wade Davis to the Cubs for Jorge Soler. The Yankees signed Matt Holliday to a one year deal. Aroldis Chapman signed with the Yankees. Adam Eaton was turning into some arms, and Carlos Gomez defected to Dallas. Let’s dig…
Wade Davis for Jorge Soler: Great deal. Wade Davis is one of my favorite players of all time. He helped win a World Series for my team. He is a mother fucker on the mound. But his arm is a liability, in my opinion. Better to get a really good young player for him now while his stock is at an all time high than keep him for sentimental reasons and have his arm go. I love Wade Davis, and I hate that he went to the fucking Cubs, but it’s a solid deal for everyone, although the Cubs are clearly shouldering the risk.
Aroldis Chapman and Matt Holliday to New York: This deal was for four years and $86M. That’s about $20 million too much. Especially since he worked so hard in the fall this year. I would have like this deal better at six years for the same money. But it’s the fucking Yankees so what do you expect?
The Holliday deal is smart. He belongs in the AL. It’s a solid bat who can play a field or DH.
Adam Eaton to Washington for Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Dane Dunning: Turning an aging outfielder into three 22 year old arms is a smart move by the Sox.
Carlos Gomez to Texas for one year: Fuck Carlos Gomez.
December 6th
There was one mega deal and a few smaller ones worth noting.
Chris Sale to Boston for RHPs Michael Kopech and Victor Diaz, INF Yoan Moncada and OF Luis Alexander Basabe. Great pick for the Sox (plural). The Whites are clearly rearming and the Reds are contenders. What a great trade.
The Phillies designated Michael Mariot for assignment and signed Joaquin Benoit to a one year deal. No real impact but I like Mariot.
December 5th
The Red Sox extended manager John Farrell’s deal. Houston continued their big off season by signing my second favorite player of all time Carlos Beltran to a one year deal, and The Dodgers signed Rich Hill to a three-year deal meaning he can now buy as many cats as he likes.
The Beltran deal is good but I think they overpaid. He could be fodder mid-year to a different contender, but I feel like Houston is the contender at this point.
The Giants signed Mark Melancon which could help their much shitty bullpen. I am too lazy to search the amount, but I know it’s a four year deal.
Rich Hill can be amazing but I think he’s weird, even for my standards. The deal was for three years, $48 million dollars and it makes absolutely no sense. There’s an excellent chance the Dodgers just wasted $45 million dollars. Holy shit, I can’t get over this fucking ridiculous contract. When will someone pay me for having a bunch of cats?
Steve Pearce also signed with the Blue Jays giving them a Ben Zobrist type but only he’s way worse at baseball than Ben Zobrist.
December 4th and 3rd
Nothing of note, but Seattle made a few modest deals.
December 2nd – A big day
The Braves signed Paco Rodriquez to a one year deal. If he screws his head on, they got him cheap this year. Less than $700K.
The Cubs signed Brian Duensing and let a bunch of shit go to free agency. Duensing is a veteran lefty out of the pen.
The White Sox signed Brett Lawrie and Avisail Garcia to one year deals. I wouldn’t give them anything longer than that.
The Twins extended Eduardo Escobar for another year. He’s okay.
The Brewers scooped up Scooter Gennett for a year.
December 1st
The Dodgers extended Scott Van Slyke for a year. Meh.
The Marlins picked up Eddie Volquez of the market. Was bummed the Royals didn’t make a qualifying offer to Eddie, even though it’s a good move to let him go. At least we would have gotten a compensatory pick for him. Love Eddie, hope he does really well in Miami, but glad we didn’t sign him. Although I think some of his issues last year were hangover from two long runs in the playoffs.
Several other teams signed some lesser free agents. No other big name deals.
November 30th
Couple of bigger deals. The Mets signed Cespedes to a four year deal front-loaded deal worth about $75 million. Okay. Whatever. He half-asses it too much for my tastes but he can be electric at times. They didn’t overpay, but I would have laced it with more incentives and less guarantee. Especially for a guy who gives up an inside the park home run on the first at bat of a World Series.
The Twins got a catcher by signing Jason Castro to three years. I didn’t see the deal, but he’s okay. No worse than Everyday Kurt Suzuki.
November 23
Houston signed the Scarlett Peen (Josh Reddick) to a four year, $52 million contract that I think will be really good for them. I like Reddick, dude has a cannon, and even if his bat is quiet, he’s a solid defender. Houston continues to scare the shit out of me.
November 21
The Cards signed Brett Cecil to a four year deal. Probably one year too long, but not a lot of three year deals signed anymore.
November 18
Blue Jays claim Kendrys Morales with a one year deal. Again, thank you Kendrys for doing the things you did, like eating less potato chips and hitting many bombs. This pleased me, and I am pleased you were on the team. And now goodbye, you are dead to me for signing with the Blue Jays. Fuck you.
November 17
The Braved picked up Bartolo Colon and RA Dickey. Combined 100 years experience pitching in the majors!
A few days earlier they signed Josh Collmenter to a one year deal. So they have some veteran arms next year for reasonable rates.
Overall assessments:
In my opinion, the Astros and Red Sox are the big winners so far.
Snake Oil? This Is Banana Oil.
Everything I thought would be stupid and wrong about a Trump presidency is coming true before he even actually takes the oath.
Companies figured out how to beat him.
Trump is a not really a great business man, he’s only a great promoter. This is fucking crystal clear in the Carrier/United Technologies deal. He didn’t do some revolutionary thing, he just did the same shitty deals that governments have been doing for years, and he’s really flexing his cock about the 1,000 jobs he “saved” but being pretty quiet about the 1,000 more that are still leaving and the fact that Carrier got a bunch of incentives to stick around. Before he even spends one second in office, companies already figured out how to beat him and get him to cave.
I mean, this isn’t debatable. His first big touting is a sham. But whatever.
Bigotry and racism will come out of the woodwork.
Fuck, do I even need to write about this? Half is cabinet are on record with inflammatory remarks. Before he even spends one second in office, we’ve already seen our country take ten steps back in the equality column.
He’s not going to drain the swamp, but he is going to raw dog you in the ass.
The only people on his cabinet who aren’t playing old school Hollywood baseball are racists.
He’s considering Sarah Palin and Rudy Guiliani for positions, and even his old pal Newt Gingrich, who’s picture is in the fucking dictionary if you look up “Washington Insider”. If he were anymore inside Washington, you could find it on Porn Hub.
He’s putting a bunch of yes men and con artists into important positions and it’s going to be bad.
You won’t have protected freedoms, you could actually have less freedom.
While everyone was concerned for eight years about Obama declaring martial law and taking away guns, we dramatically expanded the freedoms and rights in our country and more guns were sold than ever before. That is factual. You can try to dispute it, but that will show everyone you are the King of the Dip Shits.
Meanwhile, before he spends a second in office, Trump is already talking about repealing the rights recently afforded to American citizens, he’s talking about banning freedom of speech and he’s talking about banning parts of the internet. He recklessly tweets about newspapers and entertainment shows not being fair and that they should really be nice to him or be shut down. In other words, before he can even move into the White House he’s already, on multiple and document occasions, championed the limitation of the rights and freedoms of Americans. But what the fuck do I know, amiright?
It’s just another con job, but I haven’t figured out how he’ll truly profit.
Every single thing he’s done his whole life is about growing his brand and turning a profit, with no regard to who he shits or steps on in the process. That’s all. I’m right about this but I just don’t know how he’ll do it yet.
Waiting with baited breathe to find out, though!
PETA Is Fucking Stupid And Smart
Alicia Silverstone is a huge celebrity supporter of PETA. I guess you can support whatever you want and that’s great, but recently she became the subject of a confusing ad for, apparently, fighting the horrible wool industry.
In case you were wondering about what and where wool comes from, it’s fucking sheep hair. You give a fucking sheep a haircut, and then you make a coat or a merkin out of it. That’s it.
Is it cruel? I don’t know. Is it fucking cruel when the barber gives you a sick ass fade that makes your friends want to be you? Because that’s what we’re talking about here.
baseballandpolitics.net 