He’s a graduate from Harvard! Oh and the first black President of the United States!!  Get a clue ASU.  It’s not about him it’s about you.  This whole bs about not giving a degree because he hasn’t “accomplished a body of work” did you read the first line I just wrote?  Face it your just looking for free press by stirring up a little controversy.  Cheap tricks and a sad state of affairs for a half ass state school that fancies it’s self as something more.  No offense to the alumni of course.

First off Joe I respect you very much. I find your commentary on ESPN to be of the highest caliber. However tonight about 8mins ago you said something that I simply don’t agree with. One of the solutions to better USA performance in the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to have the players start earlier like the rest of the international community, AKA: January. You said and I loosely quote “…practicing from January, February, March then playing a season from April, May… I think that’s to much to ask of the players…” that’s as exact a quote as I could make.

So what you saying Joe is that it’s to much to ask of a man to work for 9 maybe 10 months out of the year when his work is a game and his average salary is THEE MILLION DOLLARS? I understand it’s a sport and physically “demanding” but I can show you several other jobs that are far more physically and mentally demanding that pays 1/100 of what these guys are making and they work year round save a few weeks vacation and weekends! It’s absurd to say that it’s “to much to ask” of these guys to represent their country in the greatest game in the most highly acclaimed international turnament because they might have to work an extra month?!? I don’t understand your logic here Joe. You trumpet their commitment and passion but say working an extra month is “to much to ask”? How committed can they be if they have to work 9 months out of the year instead of 8?

Also it was discussed that it’s important to make Baseball an international sport. HELLO! Korea is the Olympic Champion, Japan is the defending WBC Champion it’s already an international sport! Like it or lump it all this discussion is just smoke screen to cover the fact that the USA doesn’t care enough about international competition to really compete. If it’s “America’s Game” then we aught to show it don’t you think? Put the accuses aside and play for the win.

Top of the eight, one out, runner on third. The man on the mound just got burned for two runs off a hard hit double to left field accompanied by an error on the out fielder. Your man coming up to the plate is a good contact hitting, fast running, lefty with some power. There’s only right handers warming up in the pen and the opposite skipper decides to pull the infield in. The wind is blowing hard from left field. The stage is really set for making it a one run ball game. And you bring in Evan Longoria? What the F@*#!

This maybe another problem with the US team in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). Evan hadn’t hand an at bat yet in the WBC, is that why he was brought in at exactly the wrong time? To give him an at bat? The US needs to decide if the WBC is just another way to get work in during spring or if it’s a competition on the world stage of the highest calibur for international play. Untill the MLB and the US players figure out what it is they shouldn’t even compete. Skipper selection should also take this into consideration. It’s the greatest international competition in baseball, bigger, in my mind, then the Olympics by far. So why are we treating it as if it doesn’t matter? It’s our game, and we treat the highest honor of winning the international championship, truly being the best in the world, as if it was just another pre-season game.

What the FUCK!

I write this as the US practically throws the game now in the bottom of the eighth. Sad.

I was watching Comedy Central tonight and was really struck by a the guest on The Colbert Report. At first I was surprised that he had such a D list guest. This went along with my assumption that something must be hurting in the Daily Show / Colbert Report booking wing of Comedy Centeral as Jon Stewart had Tom Selleck on. However as I listen to Colbert’s guess speak I realize something much more is going on here.

The guest was John Fetterman Mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania. He spoke of the devastating decline of his district and the town that he calls home. As I write this I try to access his website http://www.15104.cc/ and undoubtedly the shear volume of users right now is causing their server to crash. As I listed to him and the real problems he faced and his commentary on how we can so easily spend so much on the financial institutions who days later slap us in the face with corporate excess on tax payer dimes I discovered something new about Colbert.

John Fetterman, Mayor of Braddock was the future of public service announcements. Steven and the staff at The Colbert Report had discovered a real American story and a real American need and used their influence through the media to bring light on this issue. I’m also sure there are many other towns, cities, villages that suffer similar fates as Braddock. I was just surprised that it has taken a comedy show at it’s roots to show us the true face of the needy here in America. It’s a testimate to how embroiled our main stream media outlets have become with ideological, partisan and sensationalist views. We are left with only one half hour, late night, on weekdays to discover news stories that demand attention.

When I first started this blog I made a commitment to myself to make at least one post a day. For those few who follow Kuh-nek-shuhn I’ve clearly let that slip. However it’s not for lack of commitment. Rather things have taken off which is both a good and a bad thing. We all want to move forward and have continued success in our lives. However with that forward movement and increased success comes putting aside some things that we thought we’d never have to reduce or give up.

Now now, I’m not ending Kuh-nek-shuhn, but rather my ability to maintain it as a regular every day thing as diminished. It’s interesting how as we reach closer to our goals we have to leave some things behind. Never-the-less I’ve embarked on another addition to Kuh-nek-shuhn. Through-out the years I’ve written a few articles on things that have sparked my interest and I plan to begin introducing them to the online world. For those few how follow this blog please look forward to the addition of an “articles and essays” section containing completed works on a wide variety of topics.

Long live the weblog.

Loneliness is a major bitch. Remember your first time in a new place. That feeling. Where your on your own again and alone in the world. Sure there is family and friends elsewhere but what’s the point their miles away. I’ve always been good at being alone. Never the less those first few days or weeks in a new place, or even a place you’ve been before but this time your not near by your connections, are always a bitch.

I’ve never found that balance between going crazy in the local scene to meet people and being a complete hermit. I’m usually one extreme which usually leads me back to the same spot. Drinking alone and surfing the internet. Now it’s occasionally blogging.

It’s amazing how even in a city full of people you can feel alone in the world. Loneliness, defiantly one of the top five causes for excessive drinking and stupid decision making. I’m trying to keep both to a minimum. I think one of the saving graces of loneliness is that we do know there are other people out there, maybe not just like us, or even people who would want to have anything to do with us. But rather, lonely people. We’ve all been lonely and in that we share something in common which brings us a little, read micro teeny tiny bit closer together. But sometimes that’s all you need to lift your spirits.