WWPOTMD?

Unlike the title of this post may have you believe, this has nothing to do with the internet, pot or doctors. The title is an anagram: "What would Paul O'Neill and Tino Martinez Do?" I'll tell you what they wouldn't do. They would not let the Red Sox come into Yankee Stadium, in their last series in the Bronx, and take 2 of 3 in some of the most atrociously played baseball games this Yankee fan has ever witnessed. The "new Yankees" of superstars and overpaid primadonas simply does not have the passion and fire that the men to the left of your screen brought to all 162+ (they actually made the playoffs and won series in the playoffs every year) games; day in and day out. There is simply no grit, passion and fire on these Yankees. Teams who don't play with that don't win championships.

I was just discussing this with a good friend of mine, an incredibly intelligent baseball fan who appreciates all of baseball, not just Yankee baseball. I told him, "It's actually a good thing that the Yankees aren't gonna make the playoffs this year." As any Yankee fan would do he said, "How in the hell is that?" I responded by saying that this will weed out what I call the CEO Yankee fans; the fans who sit in the first level of every game in their blue Polo button down shirts and khakis on their Blackberrys the entire game who don't give a shit about winning but only saying, "Hey I went to a Yankee game last night with my sweet corporate seats". Any true baseball fan knows that real fans sit in the cheap seats because baseball is the working man's game in this country although its current form would demonstrate otherwise.

My friend and I went on to discuss that the reason why the fans of our favorite football team, the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants are such great fans are that they have endured a decade of bullshit in between championships. We, as Giants fans, have dealt with Dave Brown, Jesse Palmer, losing to Trent Dilfer and the Ravens 35-7 in the 2000 Super Bowl, all capped off with going 4-12 in 2003. Yet we still loved the Giants because they were OUR team, they're called the New York Giants but they play in the filth of the Meadowlands. They are gritty, they are tough and they play with passion. We endured a lot of terribleness before glory this year; making it all the sweeter.

Yankees fans are spoiled, plain and simple. We got to witness our team making the playoffs every year from 1995-2007 and 4 World Series, including 3 in a row. No other fans have experienced such a run, but all such runs must come to an end. The fans, like the team, have become richer. As tickets become more and more unaffordable for the average family, the teams payroll skyrocketed with players who have done what amounts to a pile of shit, either in the regular or post seasons in their careers as Yankees (ARod, Giambi, Damon, Abreu, Pavano, etc.). Perhaps next year us real Yankee fans (those who remember the whe Don Mattingly was the only shining light on the team) will see the true colors of those Polo blue CEO fans.

Yankees fans are the AJ Sopranos of Major League Baseball. They were given everything and pissed it away by being arrogant whiny little bitches. I love the Yankees and always will, but that organization and its fans need to wake up and appreciate all we've been given over the past decade. As I closed the conversation with my friend, "fuck giambi, fuck arod, fuck pudge, fuck damon, molina is cool, fuck abreu, i'm out."

American Injustice System

On Friday 25 April 2008, a New York City judge acquitted 3 NYPD officers charged with murder and reckless endangerment. They were on trial for killing 23-year-old Sean Bell outside a strip club in Harlem. He was killed after celebrating his bachelor party; it was the early morning before he was to be married. Now, perhaps, you may be thinking that Bell was up to no good, selling drugs or pimping whores, or something. He was not, he was shot at because two of his friends were suspected of having guns. Oh, and by the way, the cops fired a total of 50 bullets at Bell and his companions. One officer even had the audacity to reload and fire 31 shots single-handedly. Yet today, the 27th of April, these police officers are free men and Bell, his widow and his young child are without a husband and a father.

There are many issues I have with this verdict, other than the obvious protect-your-own cronyism of New York City politics. I could possibly understand not convicting these officers of murder, but acquitting them on charges of even reckless endangerment? Really? I could be charged with reckless endangerment by driving 50 MPH in a school zone. But I guess if you're a cop, the bar is so high that you have fire more than even 50 bullets to be convicted of such a charge.

If you really want to get your blood boiling, as mine currently is, read the following New York Times Op-Ed from today by former NYPD Lieutenant Kyle Murphy. This article not only proves how most police just love to pull the trigger, but how it seems that to be a cop you either have to have no ability to criticize a fellow officer, or you have to give it up that skill for the badge and gun.

Interestingly, Fmr. Lt. Murphy cites that the officers there on that fateful night were there on a prostitution sting. So, let me get this straight: in this country, in the biggest city on earth, we still feel that prostitution is something that should have armed officers outside strip clubs in the early hours of morning? Don't worry about murderers or robbers or muggers in New York City, no focus on prostitutes. Focus on the world's oldest profession of getting money for adult consensual sex. Yes, people, this is the real problem facing America. Murphy also says that Bell's friends were suspected of having guns (FYI, no guns were ever found). I also forgot that it was illegal to have a gun in this country (the 2nd Amendment was repealed the night before Bell was shot and killed). This case is a shining example of why everyone should arm themselves. Poorly-educated, trigger happy police officers have guns, and so should you. Although I would trust most people would know that one clip is usually enough to kill somebody.

There is a large consensus in America that just because someone is a cop, they are automatically immune from any wrongdoing. Sure, all cops are good guys. No. As any college student will tell you, cops are assholes. Many of them are good and honest people who just want to enforce the law sternly and fairly. But far too many are not, they love being cops because they love the power. Cops are people too, they are capable of amazing feats of heroism and also incredible brutality and stupidity. Too bad people are too complacent to riot anymore; the murder of Sean Bell calls for such drastic action. Regardless, this is a case of incredible injustice, but we don't have to put up with it.

"Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." - Frederick Douglass

Umm...I Guess I'll Drive

Flying sucks. Plain and simple, there is nothing fun about getting on an airplane and going anywhere. I can't speak for anyone else, but the thought of getting to an airport 2 hours early so I can wait in line to take half my clothes off, get scowled at like a convicted felon only to wait another hour for my flight in a tiny airplane not meant for someone with a 6'2" frame is not my idea of a good time. So why? Why is flying, the most efficient form of travel, such an inconvenient pain in the ass?

The answer, simply put, is that the major airlines in the United States have an oligopoly over air travel. There is no open market for air travel in America like there is in Europe. After flying all around Europe last summer, their system is not only less of a hassle, but a lot cheaper too. Airfares in this country have done nothing but rise since the $15 billion federal bailout of the airline companies in 2001. And why were they bailed out? Oh yea, that's right, because their own employees thought nothing suspicious of a bunch of Saudis with one way tickets to the afterlife. The airlines, along with the CIA, FBI and the Bush administration have as much blame for the September 11th attacks as anyone else. So how are the airlines punished after the largest attack on American soil ever? Free money!

"Hey airlines, we know you fucked up. Your mistakes led to the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans. Here's $5 billion".

"Why thanks. We know we fucked up too. So what we're going to do is pocket your money, fire our employees, raise airfares and make air travel a royal pain in the ass."

American neo-cons love to use the term "free market". Yet, we give government handouts to big business. If we really believed in free markets in this country, Bear Stearns, the airlines and countless others would be allowed to crash and burn to the ground like they deserve. If I invest my money and lose it all, does Uncle Same give me a million dollars for my trouble? Fuck no. This country has embraced corporatism and moved away from democracy. I wouldn't say we're getting closer to Mussolini's Italy because in Mussolini's Italy, the trains ran on time.

Ode to The Wire

It's been a while, but I had to take my Spring Break, work's been busy and St. Patrick's Day is what it is for folks of my heritage. Although The Wire ended its run more than three weeks ago, I find it fitting for a small and most likely insignificant tribute to perhaps the greatest television show ever created. While the last statement sounds quite hyperbolic, let me explain how I came to formulate such an opinion.

The Wire was one of the few television shows, or any form of media, to expose truth to its viewers on a weekly basis. Writers David Simon and Ed Burns lived a lot of what people saw each episode. They did not try to sugarcoat the actions of the stevedores' union nor the police department. Unlike a lot of the hip hop admiration that goes on in most media, The Wire in no way glamorized life in the street; making fast money selling drugs or hustlin' to get high. The show painted a disturbing and frustrating picture of young teenagers in a system that offers few options; a police department focused on politics and bureaucratic nonsense rather than keeping people safe, a school system trying its damnedest to do right by its students while consistently failing to societal conditions out of its control, and a city ruined by crony politics, the War on Drugs and neoliberalism.

To borrow a title from one of the last episodes, The Wire was closer to a five-season long novel by Dickens than a television show. It showed how the poorest of the poor scraped by on a daily basis to obtain the necessities: food, shelter and heroine. The show depicted how city hall politicians made decisions everyday based more on their own political benefit than for the good of Baltimore residents. Furthermore, the character development of unforgettable characters like McNulty, Omar, Bubbles, The Bunk, Herc, Carver, Cutty, Stringer Bell (just to name a few) is unparalleled in any television program I have ever seen. Even the immortal Tony Soprano was not as well-developed as Jimmy McNulty; few characters have the knot wrenching inner struggle of this alcoholic, cunning, brash "real police". There has never been a character like Omar. He was a violent stick up man with a huge shotgun who would stop at nothing to get revenge on anyone who crossed his path. Yet, at the same moment, he is the only character who never cursed and was openly gay (openly gay like waking up naked next to a cornrowed Puerto Rican man gay). Despite their usual homophobia, most NFL players labeled Omar as their favorite character. With Bubbles, The Wire bought a deeply troubled, yet lovable homeless drug addict into our lives.

Finally, and most importantly, The Wire was a show that explicitly and implicitly called for social change. It exposed us to the waste of the War on Drugs, the desperation of workers whose jobs have been outsourced to cheaper markets or to machines, the frustration of police officers trying to help people but bogged down by red tape and careerism. It showed how schools that only teach to the test not only do poorly on the tests but also fail the students in the long run. It painted a world of ambiguity where drug dealers gave money to kids for back to school supplies, a murderer had morals and a cop who broke all the rules actually made the city a safer place. The Wire was entertaining, but the reality it depicts is anything but. The real reason The Wire is the greatest television show ever created is that it makes us think about the world we live in, how fucked up it is, but also that there is hope. We are that hope and we can change the fucked up world in which we live.

JV Vietnam

If you are wondering where this picture is from, I'll tell you. Although it looks like something out of Platoon, this was an image taken last year in Iraq. It is one of the last pictures taken of an American casualty in Iraq. Rules implemented by military brass last year make it extremely difficult for photographers to publish pictures of wounded or killed soldiers. One of the rules stipulates that the photographer needs written permission from the casualty. It's really hard to get a signature from someone being taken to a battlefield hospital in a helicopter and it's even harder to get a signature from a dead man.

That aside, this picture's resemblance of a scene out of Vietnam bring me to my real topic. While all the candidates, as well as the vast majority of Americans ignore Iraq, many of our young men and women are coming back dead or wounded. Hawks point to the fact that there are far fewer deaths than there were in Vietnam. They fail to mention, however, that many of our soldiers are coming back without one or both limbs, other wounds, not to mention the psychological trauma of living through such horror. There have been, luckily I guess, 3,963 deaths in Iraq since the "war" began (it's not a war if it's not declared by Congress, but only the Constitution says that). There have also been 29,133 American wounded in Iraq. That's over 33,000 total casualties in this pointless war. That's far too high a number for the people who said the war would be a rollover victory.


In Vietnam, that war continued because the fear was if we pulled out, Communism would take over all of Asia and then the entire world. We stayed in Vietnam basically over ideology. So why are we staying in Iraq? Numerous reports have shown that not only did Saddam Hussein have no connection with the September 11th attacks, but also that al Qaeda has only grown in Iraq since we invaded the country. Iraq has diverted attention (what little there would be anyway) and resources from the forgotten war being fought in Afghanistan. By the way, bin Laden is still on the loose in Pakistan. We have no real ideological reason for being there. If we really wanted to end all dictatorships, we'd invade North Korea, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Sudan, and a dozen others. Furthermore, terrorism is rarely, if ever, state-sponsored. The thing that's so scary about terrorism is that all your need is pissed off young men, money and bomb-making materials. We went in to get Iraq's oil; we all wanted gas back at 50 cents a gallon.


The reason people started giving a shit about Vietnam is that the government instituted the draft. Once that happened, all the people on college campuses said, "Hold on, man. I'm not going over there to fight your war dude." They got pissed and, in time, we completely pulled out of Vietnam. Sure, many Vietnamese people got killed and that's a terrible thing. The blood is on our hands. If we leave Iraq many, perhaps millions of Iraqis are going to be slaughtered. The real question is how many Americans are we willing to sacrifice in the process? We are going to have to leave eventually, so why delay the inevitable? Why not get out while we can still save some American lives and limbs? We won't be leaving Iraq any time soon. Most Americans don't give a shit and the Democrats in Congress (who got elected to end the war) are a bunch of bed-wetting sissies. As long as they continue to give President Bush billions of dollars to fight this war, the war will continue. Congress needs to read the Constitution, realize that they control federal spending, and turn off the faucet.


I was once told by a professor, "Politics is the most deadly profession in the world." If you want to be in politics, you need to have the fortitude to make decisions that will cause people to die. Nobody wants to do it, but leaders HAVE to do it. Our political leaders now do not have the guts to do so. It is sad that we won't leave because we value Iraqi lives over American ones.

A Hope for America

Oddly, this post will probably not be the only time I go on for a while about a 72-year-old former gynecologist. Amidst all the talk about Hillary and Obama, McCain, Huckabee and Romney (people finally woke up to realize that Rudy doesn't know anything about how to run the country), one man is forgotten. It is this man to the left. Congressman Ron Paul (R) from Texas, if you didn't know, is running for President. He has crazy ideas about things like personal freedom, constitutionalism, smaller government and ending the war in Iraq just to name a few. Of the five remaining candidates in the Republican race, Ron Paul is the only true Republican remaining. Republicans, traditionally, have stood for smaller federal government, more states' rights and more personal freedom.

Perhaps most importantly, of all the candidates both Democratic and Republican, Ron Paul is the only one who is for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraqi soil. Yes folks, even the beloved Barack would not bring our boys home from Muslim lands. His logic for this is simple: we did the same thing in Vietnam and Vietnam did not fall apart as hawks claim Iraq will. It is simple really, millions of people are going to die in Iraq because of the instability that has plagued that country since the British ended colonial rule in the 1920s. The question is how many Americans do we want to be part of those millions of dead? My answer and Paul's answer is, as few as possible and the easiest way to do so would simply be to leave right now. bin Laden and other terrorists hate us because we are over on their soil. Leaving Iraq would not guarantee that we would never be attacked again, but it would certainly tilt the odds in our favor. Iraq, for the other candidates, is not even a topic of conversation at the debates (to which Paul is usually not even invited despite his rather large following and fundraising capabilities), which is frightening.

Speaking of frightening, I think fear is the reason why more people and the media do not want anything to do with this man, sometimes labelled a "radical". People in this country are too afraid of freedom or they simply don't care that they have none. We think we are all free because we can buy whatever we want or watch whatever we want on television, but this is only freedom to consume. Where is our true freedom, our freedom to live in peace? I shouldn't have to worry about my emails being read or my phone being tapped. I simply want to be left alone. I'll pay my taxes when I'm asked to, but other than that, just let me live. I don't need the government to tell me what to eat, what drugs are bad for me or that cigarettes are bad. I can figure out what is good or bad for me on my own; and even if something is bad for me, it's my choice to be an idiot and do it anyway.

I guess the whole point of this diatribe is that the thing that makes America the greatest country on earth, freedom, is the same thing for which Ron Paul stands. I may not agree with all his policies, but I agree with more of his than do I Hillary's or Huckabee's. America is supposed to be the land of the free. That statement has come into question in recent years. I truly believe that Ron Paul can make America free again.

Mitch the Snitch

For all the big fans of the Quikstop Blog, I apologize for my sporadic blogging since the beginning of the school year. 12 credits of graduate work plus an overseer of a boss. Furthermore, there really hasn't been much that I've felt I needed to write about. That being said, the release last week of the much-anticipated Mitchell Report really grinded my gears.

Former United States Senator and Northern Ireland peace broker George Mitchell released his report last Thursday. The report stated that steroid use in baseball was wide-spread and that the League and the Commissioner should take immediate action. Furthermore, the report named dozens of current and former baseball players accused of using steroids and/or HGH.

Who cares?

Even the most casual of baseball fans knows that plenty of ball players have been juicing for years. Why wouldn't they? Hitting 40 homers with 120 RBIs in a season means millions for these guys with few other skills. How many among us wouldn't inject ourselves with something if it meant the chance of financial security for ourselves and our families for the rest of our lives? Professional sports are just that, a profession. The whole point of a profession is to make money. Begging, stealing and cheating are all part of the game. Hell, it's the American way. No one ever called Rockefeller or Carnegie a cheater. The Mitchell Report, through evidence which is hearsay at best, has told baseball fans nothing knew and muddied the good names of current and former baseball players. David Justice, "Mr. Playoffs" was named in the report and all he did is inquire about how to get steroids; he never took them. Regardless, his career achievements are brought into question just because a locker room attendant was trying to avoid jail time for selling steroids.

All sorts of baseball writers and commentators always talk about baseball as part of America and its history. Then why are we, as Americans and as baseball fans, so shocked when scandal arises? Scandal, cheating and corruption have always existed in American life, so why should America's sport be any different from the rest of American society? 100 years from now, the steroid era will be nothing but a minor period in baseball and America's history. It is arrogant of us to think that this is the biggest scandal ever to hit baseball simply because it is in our time. Individual players may have gained an unfair advantage but umpires weren't fixing games or anything like that (i.e. soccer in Italy).

Considering that the major focus of Mitchell's report was to "move forward and look towards the future", it is pointless and damaging that he has ruined the reputations of many a good player in an effort to tell Major League Baseball, its owners, players and fans nothing they didn't already know. Did we really need to spend $20 million to learn that Roger Clemens took steroids? Umm, no. I would have done the same thing for a pair of bleacher seats and a hot dog at a Yankees v. Royals game. The whole report is just pointless. I'm going to watch baseball next year no matter what. The whole point of people watching baseball is for entertainment. Watching baseball makes us forget about all the other crap going on in our lives for a few hours. If nothing else, steroids made the game more entertaining. We must all ask ourselves as Maximus the Gladiator asked us, "Are you not entertained?!" We were all entertained in 1998 with the McGwire/Sosa chase for 61; they were both on steroids. To condemn all these players to baseball hell is hypocritical and un-American. I am still going to love and follow baseball with a deep passion. Derek Jeter is still the man and I still hate the Red Sox (but god dammit do I respect them). Those things will never change. Sen. Mitchell, thanks for peace in Northern Ireland and thanks for wasting my time.