Come on down!...to say goodbye

I just had to comment on this.

The reason? I never thought I would see the headline. I seriously thought that the man would do the show until he died.

He might yet...he said he's quitting next June.

Even after that, I hear that "The Price is Right" is on a huge tape delay, so we may be seeing Barker on the show until at least next December.

Don't get me wrong: I don't WANT Barker to die on the set. It's just...wow. I seriously can't imagine Barker not doing the show. 35 years hosting "The Price Is Right"? 50 years in television overall? Especially in today's "work 'til you drop" atmosphere, I cannot possibly fathom anyone breaking Barker's record on either that show or any other show, for that matter.

I don't get to watch "The Price Is Right" anymore, but it's always something to flip on in the daytime that neither I, nor anyone else I can think of, for that matter, could hate. How can you not like, "The Price Is Right?" People win new cars, boats, appliances, cash, etc. It's awesome! And I wish I were on it!

And Barker made the show what it is. Sure, "Barker's Beauties" helped the show a ton, but Bob Barker IS "The Price Is Right." His appeal spanned generations. Even though he went through 2 or 3 other announcers, Barker remained a staple. He knew the games. He knew the people. He got kisses from 340-pound, 55-year-old women, and model-type 23-year-old women. He gives away more new cars in a month than some dealerships do in a year. If there is a man who can be called an "institution," it is Barker.

And now he's going to leave? I can't imagine who could replace him.

No matter who does replace him though, the show just won't be the same.

A Bright Spot for the Cubs

In recognition of Chicago Cubs fans finding the silver lining in every cloud...

Congratulations, Cubs!

You're better by comparison!

Chicago Cubs 2006 record against World Series teams: 11-11 (decent...)

Chicago Cubs 2006 record against World Series CHAMPION St. Louis Cardinals: 11-8

Yep. The last-place team in the National League (and 3rd-worst team overall) took the season series from the World Series champs.

Does that mean anything? Probably not.

But enh, the Cards were due.

Absolutely Stunning...Or Is It?

I refuse to get optimistic over polls.

Polls can lie...even today.

Ask Harry Truman in 1948.

Ask Carty Finkbeiner, current mayor of Toledo, in 1993.

Polls don't mean much.

What does mean much: this.

The Republican Party is surrendering Mike DeWine's TV ads in Ohio?

There's got to be a catch. Either they expect DeWine to pull it out in the end anyway because it's Ohio, or Republicans are planning a different strategy for DeWine.

It just can't be that the Republican Party is giving up a U.S. Senate race in Ohio. It just can't be that Ohioans have seen the end of DeWine's smear-happy commercials.

Can it?

Are Ohioans this mad over the Coingate scandal? Are they finally opening up to ideas that the Democratic Party might have? Are these polls really that symbolic of Ohio sentiment?

If so, I'd be stunned. Ohio hasn't went "Blue" for anything since Clinton was re-elected.

I'd like to believe that Ohioans have finally gotten fed up with a stagnant economy and empty Republican promises. I'd like to believe that Mike DeWine is going down with the rest of the old-guard Bob Taft brigade. I'd like to believe that Ohioans are finally going to make the right choice.

But read the title of this blog. I want proof...

Marty McFly enters politics

So Michael J. Fox has entered the political scene in the U.S., in Maryland, Missouri, and Wisconsin (CNN article here).

He is, understandably, advocating candidates who support stem-cell research, in the belief that such research may eventually provide a cure for Parkinson's Disease, a nervous disorder from which he suffers. Parkinson's causes its victims to shake, almost completely uncontrollably. How badly it affects Fox can be seen in one of his political spots here.

Republican backlash has come primarily from Rush Limbaugh, who said that Fox was either "acting," or, "off his medication." A competent doctor, seen in each article above, refutes this claim.

I am hardly surprised at Limbaugh's amazing lack of sensitivity, since this has proven to be an indispensable trait shown by Rush in the past. I am even less surprised, however, at Limbaugh's missing the larger point.

The larger point of which I speak of: even if Fox is acting or off his medication (and he claims that, ironically, he was TOO medicated), so what?

The only reason I am surprised at Fox appearing in these political ads is because I thought he was not an American citizen. He was born in Canada, but he must have acquired dual citizenship at some point. Apparently, he has lived in California for some time now, and though he is likely not a resident of the States in which his political ads are appearing, as an American, I believe that Fox has a right to convey his opinion on such an issue.

Does Fox suffer from Parkinson's Disease? If he doesn't, it's the greatest hoax in American history. Does he likely take medication to improve his ability to cope with the disease? I can't see why not. Will stem-cell research aid in coming up with newer, better medications to treat Parkinson's Disease? Maybe, but I don't know.

If Fox feels that such research will help, why shouldn't he speak up about supporting it? He's in pain, he wants help, so he's expressing his desire that Americans venture down the avenue of stem-cell research to investigate. What's the problem?

Republicans, who are largely opposed to stem-cell research, will say that the problem is that of Fox exploiting his disease for political purposes. My question is, how is Fox exploiting it if he's being open and candid about it? Isn't exploitation connotated with the idea that one person is using another person to achieve some sort of ill-gotten gain? If anything, in this situation, I see Fox using political candidates to push his own issues by piggy-backing onto their campaigns...and, um, that's no crime.

Democrats and Republicans alike receive money from special-interest groups and other issue-advocacy organizations in order that those candidates promote the agendas of those groups. Everyone in politics is guilty of this because that's how politics works. Even if donations to political candidates by these groups were to cease, little exists to stop these groups from putting issues on ballots, trying to sway the public to one side or the other of an issue. In other words, even if Fox weren't backing candidates here, he could push to have the issue of stem-cell research put on the ballots in certain states for approval or disapproval by the public.

And either way, Fox would be exerting his influence.

Bottom line: as things stand now in the political process, there is nothing wrong with what Fox is doing. He suffers from Parkinson's Disease, he thinks stem-cell research would help, and he spoke out about it. Nothing Limbaugh or any other critic could say would change the fact that Fox has a right to express his opinion about this issue that so profoundly affects him. So what if it was done to help one candidate or the other? That's how the system works.

What bothers me is Limbaugh and his supporters not recognizing the double-edged sword on this point. Limbaugh's show is entirely done for the political gain of the Conservative Right. Listen to his show, and this point is obvious.

If Rush can speak up about a point on an issue, he has to sit back and let the other side present their view. That's how the American system works. No side, especially Rush's, can have it their own way, all the time, even though that's how they'd like it.

Come and waste another year...

Please, make the pain of another season go away...

Havlat is injured too. He was injured last year. He'll likely be injured again.

I don't want to pay for Blackhawks tickets right now...I really don't. Why give money to a team that doesn't get it?

I think some of them actually just get injured so they don't have to wear the Chicago uniform out onto the ice. I really do.

I'm finding an East team to throw my hat upon. I'm really fed up.

The Chicago Sports Pessimism with Mark

I'm sorry in advance if that title is copyrighted. I claim ignorance.

So let me call it instead, "A Guy in DeKalb Making Observations About Chicago Sports"

But I just need to comment on a few things from this past week:

1) The Cubs hire Lou Piniella- That's it? That's your solution for curing a nearly 100-year World Series Championship drought? Lou Piniella? Look, the man has won one, count 'em, ONE World Series title, and that was before he just plain went psycho.
Pinella is not the answer. The answer is forming a cohesive team unit with strong pitching and competent hitting that doesn't constantly get injured. There, I'm instantly smarter than Jim Hendry (WHO INEXPLICABLY HAS KEPT HIS JOB!)
And now the Cubs are talking about getting A-Rod? Have you seen what he's done in New York? So let me get this straight: he'll face LESS pressure in a city whose media predominantly comments on baseball, on a club that hasn't won a championship in 98 years. Right.
I know what the Cubs are thinking: Cubs fans don't have patience to wait another year for a championship. That may be true, but the Cubs fans will be forced to have patience. Piniella will not get the Cubs to the World Series. No one will do so until the Cubs make a consistent effort toward winning, and Piniella was bribed to come to Chicago under this exact false pretense. Throwing money at the 7th-highest payroll in baseball is NOT making a consistent effort; it's just that: throwing money at the 7th-highest payroll in baseball. 99 years come next Fall, Chicago.

2) Bears fans drunk and ecstatic over beating Arizona: No, the Bears are not going to the Super Bowl. Playoffs? Sure. But is Rex Grossman a consistent-quality QB? Not by a longshot, if his performance against Arizona is any indication. I'll give them this: their defense is good. But the Bears' defense was good last year, and look how that turned out. I just don't buy that this team is good enough to win a championship, and I don't BELIEVE that Bears fans are actually saying that they'll go UNDEFEATED. Get off the Crack! The Bears are not going undefeated- not with three games against the Giants, Jets, and Patriots (all away games) and with inconsistencies remaining on offense.

3) The Bulls: yeah, I don't really care about the Bulls.

4) The White Sox: Hey Ozzie: aren't you glad you refused to play worthy players in the All-Star Game this year? I mean, since you obviously went back to the World Series like you planned...oh...right. Maybe you should have given those starters some rest last year, huh? Overrated manager says what?

5) The Blackhawks: Well, nice to see that they're in first place for the moment. Will it last? Yeah, that'd be nice. I'll give GM Dale Tallon this: he at least made the Hawks more exciting to watch by adding Martin Havlat and Bryan Smolinski. But he obviously overpaid for Khabibulin, and though Nikolai has been stout in goal so far this year, I don't buy that any among this trio has the power to stay healthy...or in Khabibulin's case, good. Good luck anyway, Hawks.

6) The Fire: Sorry, I don't drive a minivan with a soccer logo on the back, so I can't comment on this.

That's your Chicago Sports Pessimism...I'm Mark.

UPDATE: And...adding Alan Trammell to the Cubs' bench doesn't help anything...

This is funny. Please watch. And then scroll down.

Thanks September Fund

And this is sad. Please read.

A high school student, nearly 2,800 miles away in California, is a threat to President Bush? Really? Well gosh, don't forget to investigate employees at the Hello Kitty! factory too. I bet they were involved in some way too.

Does this high school student pose the same type of threat that homosexuals do? You know, because they're knocking down my door and trying to break up my engagement all the time?

Um, compared to North Korea right now, for example, how great of a threat does this high school student pose? Is she hiding nuclear weapons in her diary or something?

I've said it before and I'll say it again: damn, this government has some screwed-up priorities.

Northwest Ohio, You Make Me So Damn Proud Sometimes...

Teen Faces Litter Charge for Bra Antenna

By Associated Press

TOLEDO, Ohio - A teenager who put her bra on a car antenna before it flew off and led to a highway accident will be charged with littering, a prosecutor said. Emily Davis, 17, of Bowling Green, told investigators she took her bra off while her friend was driving on Interstate 75.

James Campbell, who was driving behind the girls, said he swerved to avoid the bra and his car flipped several times. Campbell, 37, broke a vertebra in his neck during the Sept. 26 accident. His passenger, Jeff Long, 40, broke several ribs.

A State Highway Patrol crash report, obtained by The Blade, said that the girls told investigators that before the accident the men were motioning to them to lift up their shirts. Both men denied making the gestures.

Davis will be charged next week with misdemeanor littering, said Tim Atkins, a juvenile prosecutor in Wood County. Atkins said he'll meet with troopers before filing the charge.

The girl's friend, Tabitha Adams, 17, of Bowling Green, said she told Davis not to hang her bra outside because she knew it would fly away, according to the report.

Atkins said no other charges were expected.

An Open Letter to Brian Vickers

Dear Brian Vickers,

Though I am not a NASCAR Nextel Cup driver, I feel that I must explain some fairly basic, and almost certainly well-known, concepts to you:

1. When fighting for the win at the end of a race, do not, under any circumstances, spin out your teammate.

2. When fighting for the win at the end of a Talladega race, do not, under any circumstances, do something that causes Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to crash.

3. Never, ever combine concepts 1 and 2.

But since you did, if I were you, I wouldn't go home for a while...you might find it burned down. I also wouldn't open your mail alone, nor would I go outside without a bodyguard.

As for the rest of your family, I'd talk to the FBI and ask about getting them into the Witness Relocation Program.

Oh, don't worry Brian, I won't do anything to you. In fact, your actions caused my favorite driver, Kasey Kahne, to finish 2nd. Who knows? NASCAR might even deprive you of your win (which, if they want their rules to have any teeth, they should) and award it to Kasey instead.

But I can't control other enraged Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jimmie Johnson fans.

Nor can I control those drivers on the track during future races.

Watch your back for a while buddy...

UPDATE: And by the way...well-said, Bill Elliott.

Your turn, Jim

"I'm gone, I won't be back. Somebody's got to take the blame, and it might as well be me."

Thank you, Dusty Baker. Throughout all the hardship, all the blame, you took it with class. You were a man, stood up to the critics, and basically said, "Yeah, I know we're losing, and I know I'm going to get blamed for it. Well, if they're gonna fire me, they're gonna fire me. At least I tried."

Yes, Dusty Baker did try. And he was fired. I can't see any reason why Jim Hendry wouldn't have fired him. Someone has to take the blame off of Hendry...

It won't be Cubs Team President Andy MacPhail either. He also took it like a man, accepted that things weren't going well, and stepped aside to let someone else give it a shot. MacPhail was equally blunt in his assessment of the Cubs' situation: "It's not just that we had a terrible season," he said. "I've been here 12 seasons and only two postseason [appearances] and to me that's not what I came here to do. Obviously, I've not been as effective as I wanted to be."

Thank you, Andy MacPhail. You acknowledged that you tried, that you had a goal to succeed, and that you failed. You did the right thing by stepping aside. And hey, even two playoff seasons is better than some of your Chicago predecessors could do.

So MacPhail is gone, Baker is gone...

I guess the only question to ask is, will GM Jim Hendry at least do the right thing and step aside as well?

I have a vision of Hendry, sitting in his office, watching the resignations unfold in front of him, thinking to himself, "Well, they're shouldering the blame. I guess everything's golden in my world!" Yeah, for the moment Jim, everything is "golden" in your world.

And why the hell is that?

It's always been easy to blame Dusty for the Cubs' woes. Hell, it would even be easy to blame Jim Hendry for not firing Dusty. The problem remains though, that neither Dusty Baker nor any other manager, should be expected to win with a complete crap team. No motivator could take this current team and get them anywhere beyond a third place finish.

And the only man left to blame for the construction of this team is Hendry.

Hendry stood by Mark Prior and Kerry Wood, though he knew, HAD to have known, that they would get injured again. He brought in players who weren't good beyond a supporting role: Jacque Jones and Juan Pierre. He thought he had all the pieces, and when he saw that he was wrong, Hendry signed known rejects like Phil Nevin. This was following the terrible signing of Jeromy Burnitz last year. Hendry also created a terrible farm system that was called up too early to save a team that was beyond saving. He relied on sub-par pitchers, and refused to go after a competent pitching coach to try to ameliorate the situation (Leo Mazzone himself was available last year).

Perhaps the worst sin Hendry committed this year: backing Derrek Lee with nothing, no power bat, no consistent substitute. When Lee went injured, the Cubs went down.

That's where Nevin was supposed to come in. Why again?

Instead, Hendry sat back and let Dusty take the blame. He distracted the team by leaving Baker's status open at the All-Star Break. He let Baker dangling in the wind with no life support, while he, for the most part, dodged criticism. Sure, the Chicago media and fans were hard on Hendry from time to time, but they were hard on Baker ALL the time.

And every time, Dusty's team came to his defense. When he was under pressure the most, they won for him. They showed Chicago that they would play for Dusty Baker. They even stood up for him again in the article on Baker that you can link to above.

But injuries crippled the team, and the overall lack of skill players ground the team to a halt. They might have played for Dusty, but they didn't play very well.

So the team sucked. So Baker sucked. So the Bleacher fans littered the field with trash in frustration. All the while, Hendry sat comfortably in his seat, last year when the Sox won the Series, and this year, as the Cubs were almost the worst team in baseball.

Enough. It's time for Hendry to get out of that seat. If MacPhail and Baker are out, Hendry should be out too. Cubs fans have been through 98 years without a World Series now, and they should not (and indeed Baker even said that they should not) be made to sit through another year without one. I think I speak for many Cubs fans when I say that I don't want Hendry to be given this off-season to try to put together a winner. I think it's a proven fact by now that he CAN'T put together a winner.

Proof: just look at this season. The free agent market was bubbling over with possible talent, but Hendry didn't get any of it. He either can't negotiate with other teams or he doesn't want to. The Cubs had a very good chance to make the playoffs in what was one of the weakest years for the National League yet, and they couldn't do it. They couldn't even make a run at it. For that reason, MacPhail rightly stepped aside. If I were Baker, I'd have resigned before Hendry got the opportunity to fire me. Why get gunned down by the man who can't shoot straight?

But I must digress. I could go on about the Cubs' problems all day. I can't even begin to address the problems with Tribune Company continuing to own the team (which will only serve to damage the team more. Tribune Company is so stingy with money and management that their cable company, Comcast, won't even put ESPN on basic cable, though many other national cable outlets have already done so. You get "local channels," some of which are in Spanish, instead. Thank you SO MUCH, Tribune Company).

The point is: The Cubs have many, many problems. The players took the blame. The manager took the blame. The Team President took the blame. Everyone, it seems, has shouldered some of the blame except Hendry. All Hendry can say after today?

"Maybe if I'd done a lot better, it wouldn't be this way."

At least you got that right, Jim.

Hendry's arrogance and cowardice should not be rewarded. I've said it before, and I will say it again: Kick Jim Hendry to the curb.

An Open Letter to Apple and iTunes...

Dear Apple,

Tell ya what:

Just sit down for an entire year, meet in a board room every day, and decide on every possible improvement that you are capable of making to iTunes (in light of technology that would develop in a year). After that happens, and ONLY then...

...release a new version of iTunes.

Look, I know it's free, but why am I downloading a new version every other week? It's a bit ridiculous.

Thanks.

Mark

It's Easy to Talk

Sure, being a million dollar athlete really gives you no reason to miserable.

Not much excuse when you voluntarily put yourself in the spotlight either.

Of course, when you want to get out of the spotlight and can't, maybe you have no one to blame but yourself.

But you know what really doesn't help?

When the media really won't stop harassing you.

Celebrity or not, when your privacy disappears, life is going to be HELL.

Let me make it clear: I don't like Terrell Owens.

I think he's either an asshole or a tool of Drew Rosenhaus. If you were either of these things, it'd be hard to say which way your life would be worse.

I don't have much sympathy for him...

...but everyone is capable of being depressed.

And it's so much worse when no privacy is left.

Want a possible reason that Terrell Owens would kill himself?

Maybe because he can't get away.

Maybe because even when he doesn't intend it, he's headline news.

Evidenced by this.

And this.

And this.

And this.

And this.


Would you be able to live if everything you did was in the media, and you were unable to live your own life?

Well...

This story is kinda bad...

...And certainly I don't condone this kid's actions...

...And the kid is stupid for not following the directions, which were apparently clear.

On the other hand, the pug is now at least nationally famous...for real.

So in other words, the kid's idea worked. Perfectly.

It went outside the bounds of the assignment, and drew the ire of animal rights' groups everywhere...

...But, I mean, it's kind of hard to argue with results, isn't it?

OU Fans...

Okay, I'm so sick of hearing about stories like these.

All right, the man made a bad call.

All right, the Sooners lost the game.

Yet, somehow, inexplicably, life...goes on.

IT'S JUST A SPORT.

IT'S JUST FOR FUN.

IT'S JUST A GAME.

GET A GRIP.

AND GET...THE FUCK...OVER IT!

There's never, NEVER any reason to threaten a guy's family.

Geez...

Dear Kids in America Today...Redux

As my good pal Shultzy pointed out recently, I don't get as many hits here on Blogspot as I did on Xanga.

I'd still like to believe I reach some people.

Just in case, this next post will be seen on both my Xanga and Blogspot because I think it needs to be said again, in light of the recent shootings in Montreal, and another Columbine-like plot uncovered in Green Bay, WI.

If there are any kids reading out there, please pay attention to this post. I cannot stand reading about these situations and wondering when someone's going to get smart and succeed like the Columbine shooters did. I worry more because my father, mother, brother, sister-in-law, and soon, my sister...are all teachers.

I think the saddest part about this post is that it wasn't that long ago that I wrote it because of a similar story.



Dear kids in America today,

For the love of God, stop picking on each other in school.

Look, I'm not saying this just because I was sometimes the picked-on kid in grade school. I'm saying this because this day in age, you might just get killed for doing it.

Don't believe me? Check this link.

Yes, these kids were caught because they were dumb enough to put their plans on MySpace

Yes, their putting it on MySpace was, in all likelihood, an obvious cry for help.

Yes, they probably have severe emotional issues (partly the result of bullying, no doubt).

None of these things really make any difference. Remember Columbine? No, you kids probably don't because you were too young to know or care at the time. Well, I believe today is the 7th anniversary of the massacre there. To fill you in, what happened was, two kids came into the school loaded with guns and bombs, and they killed a bunch of people. No one could stop them. The authorities couldn't come in time.

People made fun of these kids. People shoved them around in the halls. They responded with guns. Big, murderous guns. They started shooting almost everyone, and if they hadn't killed themselves, who knows when they would have stopped.

To fill you kids in some more, I can tell you that the media made a much bigger deal about violence in schools after the Columbine tragedy. They reported almost any incident where a kid brought a gun to school and threatened to kill someone.

The strange thing is, after Columbine, the reported incidents where kids brought guns into school threatening to kill people seemed to grow. It seemed like the only thing that bullied and taunted kids learned from Columbine was, "Hey, my parent has a gun in the front closet...I could that!"

The reports had younger kids every time too. A sad example is in the movie "Bowling for Columbine," Watch the movie, even if you hate Michael Moore. You'll see that, in Flint, Michigan, there was an incident where a 1st grader was shot in school by a classmate. 1st grade!!!!!!! And the little girl/victim DIDN'T pick on the shooting kid!

Today, apparently, the threats have moved to the internet. Fortunately, people read some of these websites where these threats are located, and action is taken on a much quicker scale. Still, I have a feeling that one smart kid or group of kids is going to come along, pass messages to each other on the internet, carry through with a plan, and that will be the end of it.

And then everyone will remember Columbine and forget its lessons all over again.

Please, tell me, kids of America today, why, in light of all this, you would taunt and tease one of your classmates today? Why would you take such a risk? How do you know that the kid you taunt and tease doesn't have a gun at home, and that all he needs is to find the cartridge and a way to bring it to school? How do you know that he isn't ready to snap inside and that he wants you to be his first victim?

And hey, whoever you are, if you've got problems at home, talk to someone outside your home. If you're having trouble in school, talk to your teacher. Do something, do ANYTHING to make yourselves feel more confident, just DON'T PICK ON OTHER KIDS!

You just might save your life.

There Exist Democrats in Ohio?

Everyone must watch this video.

Please, for your own good.

President Bush got smacked by this guy.

Facebook's Woes and Other Problems

I have seldom seen so much anger out of college and high school students than I have over the new Facebook News Feed.

For those unfamiliar with Facebook, or if you just haven't logged on in a while, Facebook News Feed pretty much lets you know EVERYTHING that happens with all your Facebook friends, and I do mean EVERYTHING. You know what groups your friends joined, who they became friends with (which is kind of silly, considering you don't know half the people your friends know at other colleges), and you know when they change something on their profile or "status."

The final result was, as so many people put it, "stalker-esque." People didn't want to know what some of their friends were doing, and more people didn't want others to know what they were doing. The resulting anger spawned countless groups on Facebook, including one that sent a petition to Facebook demanding changes.

The outcry sparked an apologetic letter from Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg that appeared on my Facebook homepage this morning. Here are some excerpts:

"We really messed this one up. When we launched News Feed and Mini-Feed we were trying to provide you with a stream of information about your social world. Instead, we did a bad job of explaining what the new features were and an even worse job of giving you control of them. I'd like to try to correct those errors now..."

"...We didn't build in the proper privacy controls right away. This was a big mistake on our part, and I'm sorry for it. But apologizing isn't enough. I wanted to make sure we did something about it, and quickly. So we have been coding nonstop for two days to get you better privacy controls. This new privacy page will allow you to choose which types of stories go into your Mini-Feed and your friends' News Feeds, and it also lists the type of actions Facebook will never let any other person know about. If you have more comments, please send them over."

I personally admit to joining the petition group: "Students Against Facebook News Feed." With all due respect to my law school colleague Evan, who does make a valid point ("My mantra - don't put or say anything on Facebook that you wouldn't want physically posted in your University's Union bulletin boards. Now that you are suddenly aware of what a dedicated person (stalker, employer, professor) could have - and now any person instantly can- found out about you, change it."), I still must protest these changes.

My reasoning: unfortunately, in both high school and college, there will be occasional stalker-esque boys and girls, and tensions among friends, couples, and certain social groups will run high. This being the case, these tensions might boil over if one friend sees his/her friend join a group or befriend an individual that the original friend cannot agree with. Bad things, especially if dealing with stalker-esque boys or girls, may follow from this. It seems silly that tensions should start over things on Facebook, but the reality is...it happens. There are certain innocent things that could cause enormous fights, and Facebook's lack of privacy features for News Feed seems to set the stage for such conflicts. If, on the off chance someone would be emotionally or physically hurt, or even killed over such things (in this day and age, I cannot say definitively that it wouldn't happen), I think the outcry at Facebook would be even greater, even though probably undeserved. For this reason, I cannot agree with Facebook's changes; inevitably, Facebook must do more to protect people's privacy.

That said, I think this decision was not thought out very well on Facebook's part. I understand where Facebook was coming from though, being that they are losing much ground to MySpace and maybe other websites in terms of users and features. The pressure to keep pace with these sites inevitably forced Facebook to brainstorm new, unwise ideas, and add a new feature quicker than it probably should have. At the very least, it looks as if Facebook panicked facing such competition. I cannot sympathize because Facebook's creators make much more money than I do, but on the same token, I cannot say that if I were Facebook's creators, I wouldn't have felt the same pressure to do the same thing.

Regardless, the one thing I wish more than anything else in the world is that the people on Facebook who protested these changes so boisterously put half as much passion and effort into other national and world causes as they did protesting Facebook. It speaks volumes about the current generation that Yahoo! wrote in an article (follow the link at the top), "Generation Y had previously been shockingly devil-may-care in its attitude towards privacy, but News Feed seems to be the last straw."

I cannot help but wonder if much of Generation Y felt remotely the same way about President Bush's wiretapping policies. I also cannot help but wonder if they even knew that a District Court judge ruled against the President's power to do this.

In that regard, perhaps this fury over Facebook's new feature highlights a bigger problem among Generation Y: the nearly complete inability to see beyond their own private worlds. If there IS such tunnel vision on the part of Generation Y, I fear for the future. This nation and this world cannot continue to espouse the attitude, "Nothing is important enough to make me care unless it directly affects me and my immediate surroundings."

I fear that such an apathetic and isolationist attitude could elect another President Bush, and such thinking seems even more dangerous as we approach the 5th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. I believe that it was partly the casual, "They'd never attack on American soil" dismissal of terrorist threats by our own leaders that led to the attacks. We cannot afford to have another generation thinking this way.

I am optimistic when I see people joining different political causes on Facebook. I can only hope that these people carry those causes over to make a difference outside the "Facebook box."

**UPDATE**

Facebook, responding to the pressure, has upgraded their privacy features to allow an individual to remove all news and notes from the News Feed feature. The petition group applauded the move and thanked Facebook for responding so rapidly to the protests.

Time will tell if the damage is already done, and I can only reiterate the rest of my concerns.

List Shmist

Can I just say how much I hate lists like these?

This time, CNNMoney.com took a study that only the most bizarre reader of the World Almanac could appreciate. In this study, it found the "Brainiest Cities."

"Brainiest," of course, means that many citizens have a bachelor's degree.

Not to say that having a bachelor's degree is a worthless thing because I do not think that is true in the least. However, that person with a "General Studies" degree, who took classes on a part-time schedule over the course of 7 years and likely barely passed can shove his "braininess" up his ass.

(Want to be depressed? The above statement might apply to Shaquille O'Neal, who makes more money than probably 95% of you)

Regardless, this particular list, like many that CNNMoney puts out, is pointless. Every city on it is basically either a population center or a college town or some combination of the two (Austin, Columbus, Omaha). The key stats that CNNMoney doesn't point out? Population centers tend to have major businesses in them and major businesses tend to want to hire people with college degrees.

So, the results of this list are just, um, shocking. Really, I'm surprised. Population centers and college towns tend to house smart people. No kidding. I bet you're next going to tell me that the sky is blue, infants are usually shorter than adults, and alcoholics tend to have liver problems.

And this article was the top story today.

Was money actually spent on this study? If it was, I'd bet that the people conducting it weren't from one of these towns.

I'm also sure they missed a town or two, or maybe there's a statistic or two that was off in the study. I'm also sure that there are plenty of other towns out there who house good, honest, hardworking people. Where's the list for friendliest people then?

What are readers supposed to get out of these lists anyway? Are they supposed to automatically move to these cities to affirm their intelligence, or take jobs that they may eventually hate? Are they supposed to move to these cities for their short commutes, which will inevitably cause long commutes when everyone moves there? Not that you would move to these cities. I mean, Bismarck, North Dakota is on this list...

Enough already! Home is where you feel at home. The best city in the world is your hometown, if you put a little pride and work into it. If you're so smart, live where you feel most comfortable. Find a job that fits your needs. Stop buying into these ridiculous lists, and better yet, email CNN or Money and tell them to give it a rest already!

I already did. I told them that the list was pointless and flawed. I reasoned that any list that would put Naperville, IL among the Top 5 Best Places to Live had to be illegitimate. Come on, have you been to Naperville? Have you put up with their crazy driving? Have you seen these shiny, plastic people?

...I've received no response yet.

It pays to be skeptical

And...I can't say it's particularly good to be right about this.

But it pays to be a skeptic, that's all I'll say.

Of the '60s and bus driver nightmares...

I'm a goddamn hippie.

This war in Vietnam is bullshit.

Impeach President Johnson...

...and Hendrix is awesome.

Sorry, I'm just in a 1960s sort of mood today. Mainly because I read this article.

Yeah, I'll approach the issue with caution because I am skeptical of the media, I don't know the entire story, and I do know how bad kids on the bus could be.

But man, you gotta know that this doesn't look good on its face.

Bus driver, in the south, in Louisiana, where racial tensions haven't exactly been LOW lately, makes black kids, but not the white kids, go to sit in the back of the bus.

I'm sorry, but I'd really like to ask the bus driver, "Why would you even chance it?"

Then again, who knows? This is the South, and though I love certain aspects of the South (namely the hospitality and the beaches of South Carolina), many people still consider their citizens backwards, and it might be because stories like this keep popping up.

Well, that, and the fact that they tried the most inane and nonsensical excuses to try and uphold segregation and other forms of racism in the 1960s. If you can find them, see the Supreme Court cases of Loving v. Virginia (holding that interracial marriage cannot be outlawed by state statute) and Cooper v. Aaron (where Arkansas pretty much asked if they could disregard an order of the Supreme Court to prevent integration of their schools. The Supreme Court, in a 9-0 decision, said, um, No). The justifications that the segregationists put up were pretty silly, to say the least. You'll have trouble believing that people once thought this way.

Or maybe you won't.

So... here we are, nearly 40 years after the last Civil Rights Act was passed, still talking about this stuff, still remembering it as if Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus just yesterday. I'm not saying that we should ever forget the lessons of history (and certainly we should not, as our President has shown), but I am saying that it's sad that we must still so vividly remember it, with stories like the one above, one with so much similarity to those days that it makes me feel like I might just be growing up in the 1960s (you know, that coupled with a war-hungry Texan in the White House, a pointless war with high casualties, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young on tour, and political dissension everywhere...gosh, it's more like the '60s than I thought).

So... Southerners... you're still drawing national attention for issues such as these. Please start asking yourselves if there is anything you can do to fix these situations. If there is, start doing it. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Southerners, I really do, but I hate hearing stories like these. These stories keep people in the North saying, "Southerners are backward, NASCAR-watching, beer guzzling hicks." I should note that I am a NASCAR fan myself, and I hate that sort of image as much as some proud Southerners do. Hell, why is there still this "political" distinction between "North" and "South?"

And please, Southerners, don't say, "To hell with you, I am what I am." What you are (indeed, what we all are) is a part of the United States, a nation whose government has went out of its way to solve these problems as best they can. Yes, they've been doing a pretty poor job of it lately, but strides have been made.

I admit, I'm not a Southerner, and I don't understand everything about being a Southerner. It's just that something's got to give with these things, you know? Something's just got to be done.

And soon.