mspurlin's Blog

I have long been a critic of our current mayor Will Wynn.  He has always been more concerned with other things than the betterment of Austin or its residents.

Like getting into drunken fights with college students

Or directing traffic on 5 th Street

But even I am wrong sometimes.  And today was the first day that I have to stand up and say that I am glad that Will Wynn is the mayor of Austin.  It could be worse.  We could be stuck with what San Marcos has.

See on Thursday San Marcos’ “finest” Susan Narvaiz got up to defend the despicable actions of officer Paul Stephens.  

Maybe you remember him.  He was the police that pulled over San Marcos couple Michael Gonzalez and Krystal Hernandez as they were speeding to an animal hospital in New Braunfels.  The dog died during the traffic stop.  Officer Stephens, he told them they could get another dog while the police just stood around taking 17 minutes to write a traffic ticket, even forcing Gonzalez out of the car.

So afterwards, the guy got Death threats.

Well now, that is taking this a bit far.  But the chief decided to only verbally reprimand the officer.  That’s it?  That’s all?

I was not really that upset about this story until I saw the dash cam video.  There is an obviously panicked group of individuals asking for help and the cops stand around and do nothing as if they had all the time in the world.  

And Mayor Narvaiz is trying to say what a great job this guy did.

I like how she points out that he is a veteran of the Iraq War, as if that some how absolves him from being an BLEEP and a bad cop.  

See, I don’t like dogs.  I had them growing up but I am not particularly attached to them.  But some people are.  And the indifference and slow moving actions of the San Marcos Police were quite disturbing here.  

What if it had been a person or a baby?  Well they would be dead too.  

Now I know that San Marcos is a glorified one horse town more famous for discounts on discontinued polo shirts and nike shoes.  

As well as getting drunk while floating in the river, but not in town cuz the bars close early.

But the poor people of that town deserve a better mayor?  I mean, sure, it is good to take a stand against death threats.

But she alleges that the dog was already dead when the traffic stop took place.  I guess Mayor Narvaiz is also a veterinarian.  Or maybe she is God and knows what is going on with every living being on the planet.  

Narvaiz says that the officer was guilty of saying mean things.  Sure, but there is a bigger problem here.

He is guilty of reacting poorly to an emergency situation.  17 minutes to sort through this thing?  Not listening to near hysterical people on the side of the road.  Who cares if it were a dog or not?  Police officers need to be able to quickly handle emergency situations.

This isn’t a sensitivity issue, it is a public safety issue.  It shows me that if I am in San Marcos, and an emergency takes place, I had better drive as fast as I can until I reach a real city with real cops.  Like New Braunfels, or Kyle, of even as far away as Austin.

Where, by the way, you could bet damn sure Police Chief Art Acevedo wouldn’t let cops get away with this kind of B.S. and keep their jobs.  

So I hope people in San Marcos love that Narvaiz doesn’t really care about public safety.  This time it was a dog.  Next time it could be a baby.  That is fine on her watch.  She is fine with the failure of a police officer to do his job.  

Course if you live in San Marcos, and feel differently, I would strongly recommend you email her.

Mayor_Council_Info@ci.san-marcos.tx.us&subject=Attentio
n: Mayor

I certainly will.

MORE INFO ON SAN MARCOS MAYOR

http://www.ci.san-marcos.tx.us/cityhall/citycouncil/

In fact I might even email Will Wynn and give him a congrats for not screwing anything like this up recently.

Oh boy, it MUST be getting close to college football season.  Those chuckleheads in the SEC are already starting to talk about how great they think they are, how much better they are than the rest of the country, blah blah blah.

It sure is a good thing that those SEC teams have the ability to play overrated Ohio State in the national title game every year.  otherwise they would risk being exposed for the pretenders they were.

So here comes Urban Meyer, talking up his quarterback Tim Tebow, who despite his Heisman trophy has yet to prove he could lead the Gators to anything close to where his predecessor Chris Leak did. 

Well Urban Meyer thinks pretty highly of his qb, telling the Miami Herald that Tebow is "the greatest player of our era."

I am willing to debate things, but i guess Meyer is referring to the era that started on January 5, 2006 because that is the date the Vince Young no longer played college football.  Or maybe "greatest in our era" is a consolation prize because Vince Young was THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME.

Either way, I think that Urban Meyer ought clarify.  If he doesn't, then he needs to watch this video, I am sure it will change his mind.

I write that because i think it merits pointing out in light of THIS RECENT STORY where he criticized the recent cover of the New Yorker.

Now I don't want to get into whether or not the cover is racist of an accurate attempt at satire.  Personally I think most people that would not get this cover as satire, the people who actually believe Obama is a secret muslim or some sort of terrorist sympathizer do not regularly read the NEW YORKER.  But whatever.  Maybe I am wrong.  Maybe there is somebody somewhere with issues of NASCAR weekly and the NEW YORKER on the back of his toilet.  But I doubt it.

What surprises me about this whole thing is that the BLIND governor of New York is somehow able to evaluated whether or not images are appropriate.  I am sorry, but I just don't think he can. 

I know that he can see certain things through his right eye.  But looking at and evaluating images is not something he does on a regular basis.  Sorry, but he just does not have the visual library of images to determine whether or not this is funny or offensive imagery. 

So if the NAACP wants to condemn this, fine, most their members can actually see.  But the blind N.Y. Governor, come on, he needs to wait and let others discuss this because he does not have the ability to properly judge the impact of this imagery.

The city of Austin is at it again, wasting all the tax payer money on needless PR stunts that benefit nobody.  And all this comes as the city is facing a major budget shortfall.  

The latest waste of time is an expensive parking lot renovation under IH-35 for reasons unknown.

One of the reasons city officials gave was the rise in car burglaries in this parking lot.  Officials say that there needs to be better lighting.  That is funny to me.  Cuz you know what is across the street?

THE D*** AUSTIN POLICE STATION!

So we need to spend money putting lights up underneath a freeway because criminals are so brazen they can steal stuff in plain sight of the Police headquarters building?

And really, most car thefts are the fault of the car owner.  Is there a stereo or ipod or money in plain view?  then you will have your car broken into.  it is just that simple.

City Councilwoman Sheryl Cole wants to build this thing because she thinks people on the east side of town feel separated from the rest of the city.  That is probably a legitimate concern.  But it begs the question:

How the hell will a new parking lot under a freeway alleviate any of those feelings?  Wouldn't it be smarter to take the money that is spent to beautify a parking lot and spend it on social services and improvements to East Austin?  Wouldn't that make the residents feel better than a parking lot the majority of them will never use no matter how pretty the sidewalks are?

Of course it would, but the Austin City Council has no interest in doing anything that is smart.  All they are is a bunch of grandstanding idiots.  I am sure the much maligned members of the Texas Legislature are sure happy that they meet every year in a city so poorly run by such a large collection of idiots that sometimes the local media does not even notice all the problems that the Legislature is creating.

East Austin has problems, so Sheryl Cole wants to waste money on a parking lot.  Maybe if she was so concerned about East Austin, she could have tried to meet with some of the residents before the council approved an RV park for homeless people in East Austin without ever telling anybody. 

No, we can't have that.  We have the inept city government that does not care what the citizens think or what would benefit them the most.

The mayor wanted to add tens of thousands of dollars worth of mandatory environmental upgrades to people's house.  They try come up with a plan for light rail lines downtown but never bothered to even figure out who might pay for it. 

Hell, even the city manager doesn't even read a newspaper or apparently own a television. 

So I hope every body enjoys this expensive and unnecessary boondoggle.   Enjoy the native plant landscaping.  Now somewhere around 75 people can park in a more lit parking lot when they go downtown to drink.  but they better be careful crossing the street to avoid pot holes, because those won't be fixed any time soon.  we have to buy plants to put in a parking lot that already works fine.

Now if you excuse me, I have to go throw up.  This happens following any discussion i have about the poor city leadership we have in this town.

In recent years the Athletic dominance of the United States has slipped a bit.  We no longer send a baseball team to the Olympics.  And we lost our most dominant sport after that American Hater Tim Duncan helped throw the basketball competition in Athens.

(On a side note, does anybody else think it is fishy that Duncan led the team that lost to the team that won, which was lead by his own teammate Manu Ginobli.  If ever there was proof that Duncan was a Benidict Arnold Treasonous Mother F-ER, this is it.)

Personally I blame this on the Soviet Union.  Once they went under, we didn't have a true sports enemy.  If Al Queda doesn't field an olympic team, who is Rocky Balboa supposed to fight in the movies to get us pumped up?

But It is the fourth of July, which means the hot dog eating contest is going on up on the east coast.  If ever there is a sport that we should dominate, it is this one.  Almost every American is too fat, from eating too much.

Only for the past decade, the sport has been dominated by Takeru Kobayashi, the Michael Jordan of competitive eating.  Kobayashi is of course, from Japan.  So the signature eating competition of the most American food there is,the hot dog, wasn't even won by an American.  Oh how far we have fallen in the world of sports!

Now I can admire Kobayashi's dedication, he is truly a warrior of eating.  He trains like an athlete. But he is dominating OUR sport and he truly doesn't respect  America. 

I mean, after all these years, he still doesn't even know English.  I mean, if Sammy Sosa can learn it, then Kobayashi can at least give it a chance.


So thank goodness joey chestnut came along and restored some of the American Glory.  Cuz if there is a sport that rewards overconsumption and gluttony, America better damn well be number one at it.

So three cheers for one of the great American sports heroes left, Joey Chestnut.

Not the people, but the term itself, and all that it implies.

I was watching one of the cable news channels the other day and some of the talking heads were discussing how Sen. Obama needs to woo "working class Americans."  You know how he defined them?

As Americans without a college degree.  This is a fairly common talking point that i see again and again. 

So what I want to know is what exactly is it about not having a college degree makes somebody a harder worker than me?  And because I WORKED HARD to get TWO college degrees, one of which was a MASTERS, does that mean these so called working class Americans are TWICE as hard workers as me?

Since I am not a "working class" American, what does it make me?  A LAZY class American?

I sure don't think so.  And if any of my bosses think I am lazy because i have two degrees, they certainly haven't told me in the nearly two years i have been with my company.

I find this term offensive and I believe people who say it sound stupid.  If you say it, then I would suggest you clarify what you mean.  Perhaps you should use the terms "blue collar" and "white collar" which describe a type of work rather than a character quality of the person who is doing the work.

And if I hear Obama or any of his campaign staff talk publicly about trying to get "working class" people to vote for him, he dam well better be talking about me, cuz despite how long I spent in college, I ALSO work for a living.

Ok so i don't much care for soccer.  It just seems boring to me.  But I am aware the the European championship or whatever you call is going on right now.

In fact, I was at a bar on Sunday with friends and we did not realize that the whole place was going to be filled with soccer fans who were screaming and cheering for a real barn burner of a game that ended in a scoreless tie. 

Anyway, it doesn't matter what I think about the sport because that is not what i am wanting to talk about.  I want to talk about how stupid the organizers are.  they don't know geography.

Why?  Because Russia was invited to play in the EUROPEAN championship.  Russia is not in EUROPE!  It is in ASIA!  Have these people in Europe ever seen an F'N globe?

I don't understand it.  Oh and Turkey is in this thing as well.  I guess you can make a case for Turkey being in Europe, but then you could also make a case for it not being there.  It isn't even in the European Union.

What's next, are they going to let Egypt play in the Euro Championship?  Hell why not let Canada's soccer team go over there since you apparently have interest in respecting geographic boundaries.

Russia?  Really? At least it is good to know that America is not the only place on Earth with really stupid people in it.

So it is once again time for the scourge of upper middle class bikers riding expensive motorcycles to descend on Austin and make lots of noise.  Now there are many events that come to Austin, but for some reason I hear more and more people complain about the motorcycles every year, and I just don't understand it.

I mean, it is never easy to get around or go to your favorite places when 100,000 or more people come into town.  But as far as big draws, this is one of the least annoying and inconvenient.  And it is certainly no match for the most God-awful weekend of the year, Lame by Lamewest.

So how does ROT stack up against LXLW "music" and "film" Festival?  Let's Compare them side by side, and see what they affect.

People

Advantage - R.O.T. 
Look I don't want to be mean, some of my very best friends go to LXLW, but the majority of people who come into town that weekend are snotty jerks.  Compare that with the mild-mannered accountants and lawyers that trickle in with their $50,000 plus bikes.  These people don't try and talk to me about some obscure band nobody has ever heard of and how great it is to live in some other city other than Austin.  Sorry I don't care.  Give me the cordial nature of the R.O.T. bikers every time.

Traffic

Advantage - R.O.T.
Bikers win again.  I don't know what it is about LXLW but there are so many idiots driving the wrong way downtown that I got into like three accidents this year.  Besides, motorcycles don't take up as many parking places as cars.  Plus, R.O.T. only takes up two and a half days, not the 14 or so that LXLW is messing up my city.

Music

Advantage - R.O.T.
Yea that's right.  They have better music playing in all the bars during the R.O.T. rally than the BLEEP that goes on in the LXLW.  The one year i volunteered at LXLW i knew a guy that worked pretty high up at the festival, and everyone was buzzing about the "secret" band that was playing.  it was BLUR.  BLEEP blur?  That is an alright band, but not a great one.   But because the organizers convinced everyone that it was a "secret" show, everyone HAD to get in so that they could be seen.   It is all about image with those people anyway.

Then any really good band that comes into town for that weekend nobody except the festival organizers and big shot executives and actors get to see anyway.  Sorry, i'd rather see bands for free and listen to the bars cranking out ZZ Top and Foghat classics that put up with the overrated garbage during LXLW.

Attractive People

Advantage - LXLW
You have to give them credit, there are not as many leathery looking old men and women wearing clothes that would have been too small on them twenty years ago at the LXLW festival.  I will give some credit where credit is due.

Inconvenience Factor

Advantage - R.O.T.
So if you want to go to your favorite restaurant or bar this weekend, you more than likely will be able to do so unless that bar is on 6th between Brazos and 35.  Even then, it will not be that much more crowded.  Most of the Bikers are out on the street watching their bikes. 

LXLW however, they obtain bars and restaurants all over the city.  I can't go to West 6th or the warehouse district because there are private parties all over the place, or some sort of VIP system to try and get around.  Even the worst bars on 6th street have lines coming out of them because some crappy band is playing there.   If you go out on the town and you don't want to go to LXLW, your life is shut down for a week.

Festival Organizers

Advantage - R.O.T.
This is rather obscure but it must be pointed out that R.O.T. has a big advantage here over the whiny cry babies that run LXLW. 

In 2007, the LXLW people went around and called the Fire Marshall on "unofficial parties" so that they could be shut down.  Then in 2008, they told this station that they were unhappy that "unofficial parties" were going on because it drained money and people away from the real parties. 

Well try not being a bunch of lame ass losers and people will want to go to your precious little parties.  I never hear about R.O.T. rally bikers complaining because a dozen people were riding their motorcycles around South Austin and not attending official events.  Why? cuz they don't suck.

Basically this is just a laid back weekend with loud motorcycles in town.  If you like to feel cool by complaining about people that are slightly different than you, go ahead, but don't expect me to listen.  this weekend does not really bother you much more than other weekends.  And unless you are a college student in your 20's the annoyance downtown outside of The Library or other crummy bars will not affect you.  Go to any other bar in town and you won't even notice the bikers are there.

Unfortunately, LXLW damages us all.  We cannot get away from it or escape it. 

Now I know I have gone on record with friends and many other people in saying that I no longer watch the NBA.  I used to be a Mavericks fan, but once they got screwed in the finals, and Dirk became the German word for "choke artist" I stopped caring.

Not that it doesn't affect me in minor ways.  There has never been a more annoying group of fans than San Antonio Spurs fans, and I have to work with many of them.  I was glad when the Spurs were eliminated so I didn't have to hear anything about them.  But I am completely indifferent to who wins the games and will not watch.

However, while i still will not watch NBA games, I do sincerely hope that the Lakers destroy the Boston Celtics.  There is nothing in the world I hate more than Boston sports teams, and their fans.  NOTHING.

There is no way that city deserves to have another title to celebrate.

NOT AFTER THE PATRIOTS DISHONORED THE LEAGUE AND AMERICA WITH THEIR CHEATING COACH

And certainly not after the way the fans of the Boston Red Sox have behaved over the past decade.  Those people annoy the hell out of me and I root against the Red Sox every time they play because I like to see their fans sad.

Firstly, they assume that nobody can dislike the Red Sox just because they don't like the Yankees and a lot of other people don't like the Yankees.  Sorry, that is just crazy.  Just because one person does not like your rival does not mean he likes you.  The Soviets were our allies during World War II because we could agree the Nazis were our mutual enemy.  But that didn't stop us from having a Cold War for the better part of 5 decades with the Soviets afterwards.

Also, there has never been, nor will there ever be again, a bigger group of bandwagon fans in the history of all organized sports.  there are people who CLAIM to be red sox fans who have no connection to the team, the region, or whatever.  And most importantly, these people were not fans before they started to get good in the 21st century. 

(note, this is contrasted with a team like the Cowboys, since they are America's Team, all people living in America can truly call themselves fans)

Like my buddy John, who grew up in San Antonio, always claimed to be a red sox fans because he did not like the band wagon jumpers who were yankee fans. 

So now we get the Celtics and people are starting to come out and say let's go root for them because we don't like the Lakers.

I happen to really admire the lakers. 

1. ALL their fans are fairweather fans.  That is great because they only come out when the lakers are in the conference finals.  I don't have to sit at work and hear that the lakers got screwed from a foul call not being called (like you spurs fans, looking at you Los)

And when the season is over, the fans go away.  Not to be heard until the next NBA Finals.

2. Kobe doesn't care if you don't like him.  He knows most people hate him, he knows people boo him, and he owns a tv.  he knows he is widely blamed for running Shaq out of town, as well as publicly throwing his teammates under the bus.

But he doesn't seem to care.  he doesn't go around trying to get people to like him.  he is an arrogant, selfish player that is just nice enough to get his teammates to help him to the NBA finals.  He is a villain makes no effort to hide that.

How refreshing is that? Too often in sports these days there are no bad guys.  The only time there are bad guys are when they do something illegal (michael vick) or when they become the center of large amounts of media attention (like T.O. is hated so very much despite never failing a drug test, being arrested, or doing anything except running his mouth in front of the camera)

But here is Kobe, the Darth Vader of the NBA.  A villain that know people don't like him and doesn't care.  He isn't whiny like somebody such as A-Rod because the fans don't like him.  Screw it, he just wants to win.  Well good for him, embracing what he is.  He is one of the few truly honest players left. 

Besides, how can you not root for a guy      WHO CAN JUMP OVER A SPEEDING ASHTON MARTIN?

I'd like to see KG do THAT.

So good luck to the Lakers.  I hope they crush the spirits of each and every person who roots for the celtics, and I hope they are sad about it all year long. 

Sorry Sammy, while I respect your insistence on speeding, I will no longer do it.  I have no options of public transportation, since I get off of work at 10:30.  I also live 7 miles away from work so I cannot walk or ride a bike, it would take me an hour and I would be covered in sweat.

So I have to find ways to conserve gas.  I have decided that from now on I will only be driving 55 mph on MoPac on my way to and from work.  So if you get behind me, be patient, cuz I am taking my time.  After all, I am only going to work, what's the hurry?

Probably not with prices reaching more than $4 a gallon.  But every day i walk by and see people doing something even more stupid.  Pouring water on grass. 

For some reason unknown to me my entire life, people seem to get all excited about growing grass in their yards.  Often times, these grasses are not native plants or drought resistant and require intensive care.  I.E. massive watering.  Why just today i saw a woman, at high noon, watering a patch of gas with a garden hose (which should be illegal but is the lone loophole in the city's new watering ordinance.)

My question is WHY?  Why on earth would anybody waste money, water, pollute the environment with fertilizer that gets into our water, for what?  to look at this BLEEP?




All the grasses do is waste our most precious resource, water.

It is called XERISCAPING people!  Learn about it.  Plant things in your yards that do not require watering.  Go to those last bastions of totalitarianism  in America, Home Owner's Associations, and demand the right to plant things other than grass that requires watering.

It is the single most important thing you can do to be eco-friendly.  We are going to run out of water at this pace before we run out of oil.  So if you want to be Earth friendly, don't worry about cloth bags at the grocery store, or hybrid cars, but get rid of the terrible grass. 

Let me start off by saying that I am 26 years old and have never in my lifetime seen a more dastardly, deceitful, no-good villain than Bill Bilacheat.  Nobody has done more to ruin his reputation and defile his sport in my lifetime than that dirty cheating son-of-a-BLEEP.

Not Pete Rose (who gambled against his own team.)

Not Roget Clemens (who has done everything short of sacrificing babies to Satan, though they are still investigating him.)

Not Michael Vick.  Not that NBA ref who gambled on games. Not Barry Bonds.

Nobody.

Bill Bilacheat is the worst, the worst of all time.  And Roger Goddell is simply getting up on television and lying for him.  Covering for him.  Trying to rehabilitate his image.

Adam “Pacman” Jones gets suspended indefinitely, at least a year, maybe more, for getting arrested and causing a black eye for the league.  Yet nothing has tarnished the game’s integrity more than the cheating of the Cheatatriots and nobody in the league bats an eye.  Lets take away a draft pick, but leave the Cheatatriots with their top ten pick acquired through a trade.  Let’s not suspend Bill Bilacheat, let’s just take some of his money, as if he needs it now that he has his tainted titles.

Nope, Roger Goebbels, err, Goddell, chief propaganda minister for the Cheatatriots, has been doing his best to minimize reaction to the worst cheating scandal since the white sox threw the World Series. 

The Matt Walsh Interview & press conference today is the latest example of Liar Liar Pants on Fire Goddell trying to help out his buddy Bill Bilacheat.  He announces that there is nothing new as a result of his meeting with Matt Walsh.  There was no tape of the Rams practice before the super bowl.

However, on ESPN at 12:20 p.m. or so, reporter Sal Palantonio reports that he spoke with an NFL lawyer who was present during the meeting.  The lawyer informed him that Matt Walsh had actually BEEN AT THE RAMS PRACTICE IN QUESTION AND PASSED ALONG NOTES TO A CHEATATRIOTS COACH!!

So what if there was no video tape, THE CHEATATRIOTS WERE STILL BLEEP CHEATING!!! THEY WERE WATCHING WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A CLOSED PRACTICE AND TAKING NOTES!!!

I don’t get it! They have no regard for the rules and people think that this is ok???

Oh and all the media want to let them off the hook, talking about how this is THE END of spygate.

BULL BLEEP it is.  It may be the end of the INVESTIGATION of Spygate, but not the end.

Was the Mitchell report the end of steroids in baseball? No.

Should we never talk about steroids again when we mention Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens?  They have career records and accomplishments that on the surface make them certain Hall of Famers.  However, when it comes time to vote the discussion will center largely on whether these men took performance enhancing drugs and the damage that does to their reputation.  Steroids will never be a dead issue when judging what they did.

The same is true for Spygate.  It will never be a dead issue.  These tapes were an integral part of the Cheatatriots game planning.  There are several angles, indicating more than one person was hired to film them.  They are edited to make it easier for coaches to determine what the signals meant.  They spent time and money and energy on this and we are supposed to believe Bill Bilacheat did not care or use the information?

Bill Bilacheat used to be looked at as one of the most successful coaches of all time.  His success in the salary cap era was unprecedented. Nobody came close to duplicating the success he had.  Course now, it is clear how he got an advantage over the other teams, and why he was able to establish a dynasty nobody else could. 

HE WAS BLEEP CHEATING!!

So Spygate will never go away, no matter how many times the pro Bilacheat media tries to brush it under the rug.  Cheating, Videotaping, Lying, these are words that will be connected to Bilacheat as long as people remember who he is.

Just like Pete Rose and Gambling.
Barry Bonds and Steroids.
Nixon and Watergate. 

Bilicheck and Cheating.

 

There are very few people that are talking about how the media has largely decided to ignore the cheating scandal.

Thankfully for us, the world has Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the comedic geniuses behind Southpark.

Not only have they created the funniest television show of their generation, worthy of being compared to the great tv shows of all time (like M.A.S.H., All in the Family, I love Lucy, etc.)...

But they have more courage to say things people don't like.  Like the fact that Bill Bilacheat is a dirty no good liar.

WATCH FOR YOURSELF (some material could be found objectionable, click at your own risk)

Not me, that for sure!  If you ever met me, I would probably be the biggest college football fan you would ever meet in your life, specifically the Longhorns.  And I don’t care if ANY of the Longhorn players ever get a college degree.  I watch football to see my team win, not because I think the people are academically successful.

Now the NCAA just came out with its Academic Progress Rate which is its current arbitrary way of determining who is a good school.  Now I have to give the NCAA credit for at least reforming this method.  The old method that they used to publish simply calculated how many players graduated from the institution over a 6 year period.

So if a player came to college and left early to go the NFL, it counted against the school’s “graduation rate”.  Or if a player transferred and went to another school it would count against the school, even if that player graduated somewhere else.  Or if a player died, it counts against the school.  That is why the University of Texas was penalized for the death of player Cole Pittman. 

So good for them for reforming them.  But let’s not hand out too many pats on the back for the NCAA.  This is only the latest form of ridiculous hypocrisy from the largest group of hypocrites in the entire nation.

I just don’t think it is the school’s responsibility to make sure people graduate. Should the school provide resources to help a student in trouble? Yes. Should a school be monitored to make sure they aren’t hindering the athlete’s ability to graduate, by forcing him to take certain classes that allow him to practice more.  Absolutely.

But should a school be punished if a kid goes to college and decides he just does not want to graduate?  Heck no.  These people are adults. If they don’t want to do the work to graduate, isn’t that their fault and not the school’s?

And why do we want to look at student athletes different than regular students?  My sister entered the University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 2002.  At the time, she was part of the largest freshman class in the history of UT.  My parents went to a parent orientation session where an admissions counselor told all the parents not worry, because that will be much smaller by the time these students were seniors.  At the time, UT had a 75% graduation rate.  

The university was actually encouraging kids to drop out so that the class size was more manageable.  So student athletes have to overcome institutional roadblocks and are expected to graduate no matter what.  Why is that?

It is not that hard to get a college degree if you do a minimal amount of work.  You can find an easy major and C your way to graduation no problem.  So some people just don’t want to take advantage of that.   Shouldn’t that be their choice?

And what is the problem if they leave early and go to a professional league?  More power to them, they may never need a college degree. 

I am not against getting a college degree.  I have two of them, one of which is a master’s. I think having a college degree offers you a great advantage.  However, I am not an elitist and I do not believe it is the only way to achieve happiness or success.

Bill Gates does not have a college degree.  Does anybody think he is not living up to his potential?  Neither do tons of other billionaires. 

I just think that some people should be taking responsibility for their own life.  If somebody remains academically eligible for a few years, but decides to leave college without a degree, that should be his choice.  I think it is a waste to lose an opportunity to get a free degree, but shouldn’t that be his choice?

 It certainly doesn’t matter to me on Saturday. As long as they are playing by the rules while in school, who really cares if they get a piece of paper with their name on it?  Not me, it is their decision to whatever they want with their life. 

See, the NCAA is trying to come down hard on some schools, especially smaller schools and take away their scholarships from schools like UT-Arlington, just so they can pretend college athletics are about education.  The NCAA does not get tens of BILLIONS, with a B, dollars from tv networks because these players are students.

Nope, they want to come down hard on these athletes because they want to keep up the farce that these people are amateur athletes.  They don’t want to have to pay them for the BILLIONS that people make off them. 

(and save your comments bloggers, I think that these athletes should make some money for their athletic performance.  When they make video game characters based on these athletes, I think some sort of small royalty or stipend is not that much to ask, especially since these kids cannot hold jobs while in school most of the time.  Nothing anybody says will change my mind on this)

So good job NCAA , stand on your soapbox and talk about education, as if your organization has anything to do with education and not athletics and money.  But just know, I have no interest whatsoever in whether any athletes graduate.  As long as they are academically eligible, I am fine.  If they don’t want their diploma, then let them get the heck out of there when they are done. 

...It is not going to help your team get any better at all!  You have squandered all the time that your team has to win a title.  You will never have another shot at it.  And you are the worst owner of a professional sports team in the state of Texas, and i sincerely mean that cuz i am right.

Let us take a look at the mess you have made of the Little Mavericks.

To start with, you were not some sort of great turn around artist.  Steve Nash, Michael Finley, Dirk Nowitzki were all on the team when you got to Dallas.  Don Nelson and his son Donnie already had assembled that talent.  That was the core of the team that helped initially launch the team into prominence. 

But you cam on and everyone gave you credit because you showed up just as the team started to gel.  Nice luck there.  You always received too much credit for that.

But you eventually ran off Don Nelson, perhaps one of the most successful coaches in franchise history, because you have an abrasive personality.  more on that later.

Then as the team matured, several players were changed.  Now some people will blame you for not resigning Steve Nash.  But I won't.  The team was better without Steve Nash, and the Suns certainly have done well with him despite having a better supporting cast than he ever had in Dallas.  MVPs aside, he will not ever be a championship level point guard.

But then you decide to help engineer the ruination of the current team by sticking with overpriced veterans like Eric Dampier (signed through 2011, also finished with ZERO points and ZERO rebounds in last night's loss. The starting CENTER had ZERO points and ZERO rebounds!)

And you traded away your most valuable assets for an aging point guard who was done playing at an elite level two or three years ago. 

This current team, second highest payroll in the league and second oldest as well, will not be better next year.  There is nobody that can be traded that will bring in any help.  They are finished with their run.

But do you know, Mr. Cuban, what the one thing you did that most ruined the franchise?  You BLEEP and moaned about the refs and made excuses for your team.  This directly led to their losses against the Heat in the finals.

Game 5 of the 2006 was the biggest scam job that i have ever seen associated with professional sports.  D Wade was not fouled at the end of the game, and should not have had a  chance to hit game winning free throws.  period, we agree on that.

But the Mavs could not recovers because you have created a culture of excuses that follow the team everywhere you go.  You run out on the court, you yell at refs, you blog about how inept and corrupt the ref system is, and then you wonder why the team you own is full of excuses all the time.  Instead of trying to overcome the bad officiating, they embrace it,as well as the fans, as some sort of conspiracy theory against the Mavs.  Excuses aren't just tolerated for your team, they are given to them by you yourself.

That is the main reason they did not beat the Heat, they could not overcome adversity.

Now you have fired Avery Johnson, the coach with the highest winning percentage in NBA history in his first 250 games.

But you did not fire him for on court performance so much as y ou fired him because you could not get along with him. 

Again, a coach leaves because he could not get along with the owner who thought things should be run differently. 

Jerry Jones gets crucified for being a difficult owner, a meddling owner.  Too bad he hasn't fooled the fans into thinking NFL refs are out to get the Cowboys and that is why they haven't won more superbowls. 

No you get a free pass because you are more personable and Jerry Jones has a salesman's look to him.  Even though he has done more with his team than you ever will. 

So go ahead and saddle another coach with your bloated payroll full of washed up veterans and ill fitting parts.  Then fire him too.  Trade Dirk if you want, he is the only player left with any trade value. 

Hell, you might as well coach the team yourself, since you apparently believe only you know how much everyone should play. 

As a former mavs fan, I can promise you one thing though, I will never root for the team again as long as you own them.  I hope you get fed up and sell them.  go buy a baseball team.  That is the one sport where an idiot billionare with a ton of money can simply spend his way to a title.  Sounds like a perfect fit.

I don't watch the NBA anymore hardly at all. I used to be a Mavs fan, but after David Stern stole the title from them and Dirk became a huge [insert word that rhymes with cushy], I gave up.

So I turn on the tv and see the Spurs and Suns tonigh for their game. The Spurs were winning, quite easily I might add. Yet still, Timmy the retard Duncan and his no good european and south american frriend were screaming and complaining on every play.

EVERY play Duncan doesn't score a basket, he turns to the ref and asks for a foul. They complain about fouls all the time. And i thought Mark Cuban was a whiny BLEEP.



So tell me, any of you out there that are spurs, why if the Spurs are such a good team why do they have to complain like little girls? They are the BLEEP champions, why can't they act like it? Why can't they act like they can overcome any bad fouls with their play? (which by the way they normally can.)

Can anybody answer this? I think it is because they have sleazy foreigners on their team, but that is just my theory.

Anyway, the lasting image of Tim Duncan will be him yelling indignantly at the refs, not anything that he actually accomplished.