There may now be some strong evidence that the Sony Pictures hackers came across a treasure trove of sensitive info when they broke into the movie studio’s networks. High-quality screener copies of Annie, Fury, Mr. Turner and Still Alice have reached…
After more than two decades trying but failing to forge a global pact to halt climate change, United Nations negotiators gathering in South America this week are expressing a new optimism that they may finally achieve the elusive deal.
It’s astonishing to believe a year has passed since the world lost Paul Walker. And while Universal Pictures would have you remember him as an action star as they ramp up publicity for “Furious 7,” it’s Tyrese Gibson that will always remember him as a brother and friend.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A body was found Sunday near Ohio State where police have been searching for a football player missing since Wednesday.
WBNS-TV, WCMH-TV and The Columbus Dispatch reported Sunday that police confirm a body has been found. But both police and Ohio State Coach Urban Meyer said they had no updates on the search for defensive lineman Kosta Karageorge The 22-year-old senior defensive tackle from Columbus was last seen at his apartment around 2 a.m. Wednesday. Team spokesman Jerry Emig confirmed that Karageorge missed practice Wednesday and Thursday, which his family said was uncharacteristic.
Karageorge’s parents filed a missing-person report Wednesday evening, and his mother, Susan Karageorge, told police he has had several concussions and a few spells of being extremely confused, according to the report. She said that at about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday he texted a message that cited the concussions and said, “I am sorry if I am an embarrassment.”
A former Buckeyes wrestler, he joined the football team as a walk-on this season. He has played in one game and was among two dozen seniors slated to be recognized at the final home game Saturday against rival Michigan. The Buckeyes won, 42-28.
During halftime at the No. 16 Ohio State men’s basketball game against James Madison in Columbus, pictures of Karageorge were shown and an announcement was made urging people with any information to contact police. Defensive lineman Michael Bennett said afterward that Karageorge missed practices and that teammates started getting nervous Thursday.
The team’s physician, Dr. Jim Borchers, has said he could not comment on the medical care of student athletes.
The player’s sister, Sophia Karageorge, told The Columbus Dispatch that he apparently was upset, and roommates said he went for a walk, dressed in black from his hat to his boots.
“We’re very concerned that he’s not himself and that he maybe doesn’t know what’s going on,” she told the newspaper.
She said after each concussion he followed trainers’ instructions and received proper care but “his repercussions from (concussions) have been long-term or delayed.”
She said he was without his wallet and his motorcycle.
Meyer described Karageorge as a hard worker and an important player in practice.
On November 26th, the nation’s highest-profile pollster — Nate Silver of the New York Times — gave ten teams a better chance of making the inaugural College Football Playoff than University of Wisconsin. Of course, it’s really just seven teams; the Badgers only need to claim the fourth playoff spot, so neither they nor their fans care if three of Silver’s ten teams make the playoffs ahead of them. With that in mind, it’s time someone pointed out that of those seven teams (Arizona, UCLA, Georgia, Mississippi State, Baylor, Ohio State, and TCU), three (UCLA, Georgia, and Mississippi State) have now lost a game since Silver ran his data, putting them outside the playoff picture. A fourth team (Ohio State) will of course fall behind Wisconsin if it loses to the Badgers in the Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis next week.
If Wisconsin beats Ohio State this coming Saturday — a premise made more likely by the season-ending injury suffered by Ohio State starting quarterback J.T. Barrett on Saturday — there will only be three teams left (Arizona, Baylor, and TCU) between Wisconsin and a berth in the first-ever four-team playoff in college football. But Arizona is almost certain to lose its game to No. 2 Oregon next week — and if it doesn’t, that win would leave Oregon out of playoff contention, thus putting the Ducks (rather than Arizona) behind the Badgers. There’s also a reasonable chance Baylor will lose next week to No. 12 Kansas State, though even if it doesn’t, the winner of next week’s Baylor-Kansas State game will be hurt — as TCU will be hurt — by the fact that the Big 12 doesn’t have a championship game. As between Baylor, Kansas State, TCU, and Wisconsin, only the Badgers (assuming a win next week) would be able to boast a Power 5 conference championship on their playoff CV.
While one team presently ranked behind Wisconsin — Georgia Tech — could still make their own case for playoff inclusion, if Georgia Tech beats No. 3 Florida State next week (which it would have to do to make the playoffs) it would, much like an Oregon loss to Arizona, put a team currently presumed to be a shoo-in for the playoffs out of the picture. In other words, No. 16 Georgia Tech beating Florida State helps the higher-ranked Badgers as much or more than it helps Georgia Tech. On a similar note, if No. 1 Alabama loses in the SEC Championship Game to No. 17 Missouri, Missouri still wouldn’t find its way into the playoffs — but Alabama might well drop out of them.
In view of the above, it seems surprising that Wisconsin hasn’t been much discussed in water-cooler conversations about the 2014 College Football Playoff. It may be that fans are waiting to see if Wisconsin can beat Ohio State; the problem, of course, is that midnight Saturday will be much too late to begin making a case to the nation and the CFB Playoff Committee whose final resolution will be determined just a few hours later. With the final CFP rankings due to be released this Sunday, if the surprisingly strong case for the Wisconsin Badgers making the College Football Playoff if they beat Ohio State is going to be made, it needs to be made right now.
The short-form summary of the case for the Badgers goes like this: a Power 5 conference champion with a top-ranked defense, likely Heisman winner, and Coach of the Year semifinalist, which also happens to be the hottest team in FBS football — assuming an Ohio State win next week, Wisconsin would have won eight straight games, with a stunning seven of those wins against bowl-eligible teams — deserves to be one of the four teams playing for a National Championship. The usual argument against the Badgers, that the Big Ten is a conference in decline, has lost its purchase since the conference began playing some of its best football in years. The Big Ten stacks up nicely against the other Power 5 conferences in almost any measure you could name. An argument more specific to Wisconsin — that it has two losses — is hindered not just by the fact that those losses came very early in the season (and the CFB Playoff Committee has emphasized recent performance), but also by the fact that one of those two losses can’t really be charged against the Badgers at all.
Here’s the somewhat elongated, six-point case for Wisconsin making the CFB Playoff:
1. The Big Ten Is Strong This Year, Which Means Its Conference Champion Should Make the Playoff. Based on the number of its teams in the CFP Top 25, the relative ranking of those teams, its FPI strength-of-schedule, and its success in non-conference games against bowl-eligible Power 5 teams (and Notre Dame), the Big Ten is either the third- or fourth-best conference in the country. If the first-ever College Football Playoff is to take a national view of the state of college football, there’s no question the top dog in the B1G needs to be in the final four-team grid.
2. No One in the Country Is Playing Better Than Wisconsin. If Wisconsin beats Ohio State, it will have won eight games in a row — tied with No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Oregon for the second-longest streak among CFP Top 25 teams. More impressive than this, seven of those wins will have been against bowl-eligible teams, and three (in fact, three of Wisconsin’s last four games) against Top 20 opponents. During its current win streak Wisconsin has outscored its unquestionably formidable opponents 280 to 123 — an average margin-of-victory of three touchdowns.
3. Melvin Gordon and the Chevy Bad Boys. The nation wants to see its best players play on the nation’s biggest stage, and Wisconsin’s running back, Melvin Gordon, is arguably the best offensive player in the country. He’ll either win the Heisman or finish a close second in the balloting, and it’s not hard to see why: during Wisconsin’s seven-game winning streak, Gordon has carried 178 times for 1,389 yards and 14 touchdowns — an average of more than 7.8 yards per carry, and basically an entire season of rushing yards squeezed into about half a season (given how many fourth-quarter blowouts Gordon sat out). By total carries, Gordon is the fastest player to reach 2,000 rushing yards in a season. But the Badgers aren’t one-dimensional; unlike offense-only juggernauts such as Baylor and Kansas State, Wisconsin also has the second-best defense in America, led by a corps of linebackers known affectionately as the “Chevy Bad Boys.” The Badgers’ humble, no-name overachievers will win the hearts of American bowl-watchers instantly.
4. The Committee Can’t Really Consider the Badgers’ Loss to Then-No. 13 LSU. Back in August, the Badgers dominated a Top 15 SEC team for three quarters, leading 24-7 at halftime and 24-13 going into the fourth quarter. Then two things happened: the Badgers lost two-thirds of their defensive line to freak injuries — two lineman left on stretchers — and the coaching staff erroneously thought Melvin Gordon had injured himself and took him out of the game. Through the first half (and one play) of the game, Gordon ran for 147 yards on 14 carries; after that, he had 3 carries for one yard due to an administrative error. The result? LSU scored 15 unanswered points in the fourth quarter and won the game. The upshot: the Badgers didn’t lose the LSU game on the field; rather, the coaching staff, aided by two freak (but critical) injuries, were the difference between a convincing Badger road-win over a top SEC opponent and a narrow loss.
5. The Badgers’ Only “Bad Loss” Wasn’t Actually So Bad. Losing by less than a touchdown to a Big Ten team that defeated then-No. 18 Notre Dame on the road and only missed bowl eligibility in its last game of the season is no crime. After all, Northwestern looked strong for most of the season, beating Purdue and a bowl-eligible Penn State team by a combined 67-20, losing to Michigan by only one point, staying within a touchdown of No. 18 Minnesota on the road, and giving a 9-3 Nebraska team all they could handle for three quarters, only to lose the plot in the final fifteen minutes. Early losses to a mid-tier Pac-12 team (California) and a possible MAC champion (Northern Illinois) were disappointing, but paint an unfair picture of this Wildcat squad. While two losses to bowl teams — Iowa and Illinois — admittedly weren’t pretty, nothing in Northwestern’s CV suggests that Wisconsin should feel any shame for having been in a position to beat the Cats on their final drive in Evanston.
6. Wisconsin Passes the Eye Test. Arguably the best offensive player in college football? Check. A top-ranked defense? Check. The nation’s longest winning streak by any team not named Florida State, assuming a win against Ohio State? Check. A conference championship in a Power 5 conference? Again, assuming a win next week, check. Early-season quarterback issues that have now been solved, with starter Joel Stave sporting a nearly 200 Quarterback Rating in his latest game (against a Top 20 Minnesota squad)? Check. A coach who’s a semifinalist for Coach of the Year in college football? Check. A fan base known to travel as well or better than any other? Check.
In other words, while we couldn’t have said this early on this year, now that we live in the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately CFP era, it’s easy enough to say that a likely-to-be No. 10 or No. 11 Wisconsin, assuming a win next week against a likely-to-be No. 4 or No. 5 Ohio State, deserves not only a Big Ten Championship and a bowl game but also a chance to play on for even more.
A former public defender, Seth Abramson is the author of five poetry collections and the Series Co-Editor for Best American Experimental Writing (Wesleyan, 2015). He is currently a doctoral student in English at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
Everybody plays Scrabble at least once in their life, right? Form a seven letter word, score 50 pts, use your Q without a U, challenge your opponents version of “EUOUAE” (a consonant-less word that’s legal? Yep!) then clink hot cocoa mugs together and call it a fun night, right?
That’s all well and good when it’s a friendly game around your dining room table with family. But playing with a competitive stranger online from God know’s where, who also cheats? Well that’s quite another story!
It all started when my children coaxed me to download the App, “Words With Friends” on my cellphone. What a neighborly sounding game it was! A few clicks and voilà! (I like to work “voilà” into a story so I can practice finding the tilde punctuation mark on the keyboard ) suddenly it was just as I remembered from my own childhood — except you could take all day long to formulate one word and nobody minded.
That was rather nice — mulling over the cyber tiles you were dealt, whilst mopping the kitchen floor or leisurely contemplating an adjective as you auto-shuffled the letters in the word, “nipples” around, searching for something less embarrassing during a gynecologist appointment.
You could even send gracious messages back-and-forth like “awesome word!” or “you got me there!” No rush, no muss, just clean, polite, old-fashioned fun.
Until none of my children would play with me anymore. Or my ex-husband, my cousins, my neighbor, my babysitter, my accountant, my Rabbi, my boyfriend, and not even my Tupperware Lady. Right! Like she was just soooooo busy — when’s the last time you were invited to a party that featured burping plastic containers?
Poor sports and sour grapes, every last one of them, just because I clobbered them all! One by one, I went through my Facebook victims, err contacts, systematically challenging familiar names to a friendly game until they all dropped off in defeat.
Then it happened. The invitation from “1OldTortoise” appeared and I took one look at his innocuous name and cockily clicked “Accept.” Easy pray.
But who was he?
His first word utilized all his letters — “ratines.” A noun meaning “heavy, loosely woven fabric,” my eye! In hindsight, “RATines” should’ve been my signal to smell a rat, not a reptile.
But I gave him the benefit of the doubt and made a few of my own 7-letter words. First “coupons” followed by “toenails” playing off his ‘S.’ Ha! Let him dispute that “toenails” wasn’t all one word. Then a communication slyly came across in that cute little message bubble in the upper right hand corner — “I was just clipping mine.”
Okay, ewww! And seriously? I needed to know an Aging Reptile’s feet grooming habits? I don’t think so. Not to mention I was immediately reminded of that classic Aesop’s fable, “The Tortoise and the Hare” because the sudden alacrity in which he fired his round of words was astonishing. He beat me eight times in a row just that one morning.
Gone were the relaxing days allowing me to pause and brainstorm for an hour. If I hesitated to respond in twenty minutes, a message would appear with an impatient ding, prompting, “1OldTortoise is waiting. Make your move!”
Really? Well he can just pull his wrinkly head back inside that cracked shell of his and sit tight. What business did he have rushing me like that? It’s just a form of recreation, after all. Besides it’s humiliating getting beaten in a game of wits and skill by someone like this. He was quickly turning “Words With Friends” into “Language With Enemies!”
And worse yet, I had the distinct impression that he was using a dictionary. His words were just too obscure. Nobody has a vocabulary like that. And once I lost by 200 points because my 8-year old “borrowed” my cell phone for twenty minutes. Still, it was infuriating.
And if he wasn’t using a dictionary, then he had some other devious way of drawing all the best letters for his own rack while leaving me with nothing but “ffhzxns.” Whatever that was, I so yearned to pluralize it!
Then one day it happened. I actually beat him! But as I rejoiced, a message bubble popped up all aglow. “Congratulations,” it proclaimed. “You managed to beat my young grandson who happened to be playing with my phone!”
Oh that was rich, really rich. What was this?? He was trying to diminish my joy. Make me feel foolish because I celebrated out-spelling a small child. One who probably called himself, “1Tinyturtle.”
The guy was so slippery, he may as well have been a snake. And persistent as all hell. Hell in a tortoise shell! The moment he won, like lightning, another invitation flashed across the screen-“Accept a new game with 1OldTortoise?” I had no choice. If I clicked “decline,” I knew on his end it looked as if I resigned. I wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. I played with a 102 degree fever, in the middle of movies, while studying for an exam, and even as I wept because our cockatiel died.
Finally I developed that “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” attitude. I downloaded another app called scrabblecheat.com. I am not proud of this behavior. But the tortoise was going down… I was determined.
Now I couldn’t sleep because of my obsession with winning. When I did manage to grab a little shut eye, I dreamt of glass enclosures at the zoo, housing 200-year-old (did they live that long?) terrapins. (Small edible turtles!) Or I would awaken shouting out, “QWERTY!”
The whole situation became truly absurd — he was cheating, I was cheating-it was as if there were two computers playing against each other. A tech war.
One night my mother came over for dinner and as we prepared the brisket and mashed potatoes together, I showed her my cellphone with the current “Words With Friends” game board in-progress on my cellphone.
“Ma,” I implored. “You were a high school English teacher. What intelligent word can you make with these letters?” She fished out her reading glasses and furrowed her brows. “Oh you’ve got a wise and worthy opponent here,” she said. “But use your Y and make “gravy.”
Bingo! With her help, I felt confident I would finally make turtle wax outa him. And that’s when I heard it. The familiar ding, and then the message bubble with a few sentences inside.
“Gravy! Clever word you made. Now make some for your brisket. It’s always dry.”
As I peeked into the living room, I saw my mom furtively typing into her own cellular device, beaming while nudging her glasses back up on her nose… Her Old Tortoise shell glasses.
“1TinyTurtle” was probably my own 8-year-old little boy that she occasionally had for sleepovers. And it’s good to know that my mother actually clips coupons (and not her toenails!) while playing me in “Word With Friends!”
Originally posted on Author’s Humor Blog
Give thanks. Get bargains. Give back.
In recent years, a new financial trifecta has emerged following Thanksgiving. First, Black Friday. Next, Cyber Monday. And third, #GivingTuesday.
Here’s the official definition:
On Tuesday, December 2, 2014, charities, families, businesses, community centers, and students around the world will come together for one common purpose: to celebrate generosity and to give. It’s a simple idea. Just find a way for your family, your community, your company or your organization to come together to give something more.
I like the idea that conspicuous consumption can give way to conspicuous compassion. So, with hopes it may inspire some readers, I’d like to share a true story that exemplifies the idea of giving while living.
Julius Rosenwald was a co-founder of Sears, Roebuck & Company. He created a foundation with his wealth and stipulated that all the funds be spent within 25 years of his death; the Foundation closed in 1948, having granted $63 million.
Mr. Rosenwald founded Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. He endowed the Tuskegee Institute and served on its board for 20 years, working closely with Booker T. Washington. In the American South, he showed innovation by using $4 million as matching funds to support the building of more than 5,300 schools and teachers’ homes.
But while his contemporaries Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller were building foundations that would limit giving to establish endowments in perpetuity, Mr. Rosenwald insisted that “the generation which has contributed to the making of a millionaire should be the one to profit by his generosity.”
A sense of pressing immediate needs also drove his decision to reject the perpetuity model. He expressed his philosophy this way:
Permanent endowment tends to lessen the amount available for immediate needs; and our immediate needs are too plain and too urgent to allow us to do the work of future generations.
By 1932, a remarkable 35 percent of all black children in the South received an education in a Rosenwald school.
Julius Rosenwald died that same year with the knowledge that his “giving while living” had made a significant difference to his own generation.
FOR MORE: Setting a Time Horizon – How Long Should Your Foundation or Giving Program Last? – a donor guide published by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
Cross-posted on Noozhawk.
Welterweight champion Johny Hendricks is set to make his first title defense, this Saturday, December 6, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, as he faces Robbie Lawler in the main event of UFC 181.
Returning to action after surgery to repair a torn bicep, Hendricks (16-2, 11-2 UFC) first claimed the title in March at UFC 171, scoring a unanimous decision over Lawler (24-10 1 NC, 9-4 UFC). The two now meet for a highly anticipated rematch, after Lawler worked his way back up the divisional ranks with a pair of wins.
“More than anything I’m just excited to be back in the Octagon,” explains Hendricks. “Now that I’m healthy… I’m super excited. The rematch with Robbie… is gonna be huge for my career for multiple reasons… because I have a feeling I might have a couple more rematches in my future.”
A four-time NCAA Division-I All American at Oklahoma State University, Hendricks is an elite wrestler with tremendous knockout power in his left hand, who displayed improved boxing and low kicks during his last outing against Lawler. For Hendricks, this will be his third consecutive title fight, having dropped a contentious split decision to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 167 before winning the belt.
Lawler, who has been fighting MMA professionally since he was just 19, is an accomplished striker, known for his brutal knockouts and punishing style. Now in his second run with the UFC, Lawler demonstrated his durability and tremendous chin during his previous outing against Hendricks, withstanding early pressure from the champ, decisively winning the third and fourth rounds by landing heavy head strikes.
This matchup should go the distance, with both fighters damaging each other on the feet for the majority of the contest, although don’t be surprised if it goes to the mat after a takedown or two. And while Lawler will come ever so close to capturing UFC gold, Hendricks will, once again, take this one via unanimous decision.
Co-main event: Anthony Pettis vs. Gilbert Melendez
A battle for the UFC lightweight title, this contest between incumbent champion Pettis (17-2, 4-1 UFC) and challenger Melendez (22-3, 1-1 UFC) has been building up for months now, as the pair have served as coaches on the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter.
Pettis, a flashy kickboxer from Milwaukee, won the UFC title in August 2013; however, he has yet to defend his belt, sidelined for the last 15 months due to a torn PCL. Best known for his “Showtime” kick, that saw him jump off the cage wall and land a foot to the head of Benson Henderson, Pettis, who has never been finished in competition, returns to action on the heels of four straight wins, the last three via first-round stoppage.
For Melendez, a former Strikeforce titlist at 155 pounds, this will be his second crack at UFC gold, previously losing a razor-thin split decision to former champ Henderson in April 2013. A boxer with tremendous fight IQ, Melendez is also coming off a long layoff; his last outing came in October 2013 at UFC 166, where he took a unanimous nod over Diego Sanchez.
“I adjust well and I have a gameplan and a strategy; I impose my will very well, and I feel pretty confident about it,” comments Melendez. “I’m not scared of Anthony Pettis… I feel like I’m more versatile. I know he’s very athletic. I think I have better boxing… I’m more aggressive, I think I have better wrestling, I think I have better grappling.”
Both Pettis and Melendez possess complete and versatile MMA games, and neither has ever lost via knockout or submission, so don’t expect this contest to end before the final bell. And while Pettis has shown some of the most exciting striking in MMA, Melendez will use strategy and tactics to box and wrestle his way to the decision victory.
Travis Browne vs. Brendan Schaub
The featured bout on the UFC 181 main card pits a pair of heavyweights, as both Browne (16-2-1, 7-2-1 UFC) and Schaub (10-4, 6-4 UFC) look to return to the win column.
At six-foot-seven, Browne, the UFC’s third-ranked heavyweight, is one of the taller athletes in the division, known for his high-level kickboxing and vicious elbows, which have led to six first-round stoppages inside the Octagon.
Schaub, who dropped a contentious verdict to Andrei Arlovski at UFC 174, is a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with knockout power, although his chin has often come under criticism after a trio of KO losses early in his career.
Expect Schaub to come out aggressively and force the contest to cage wall; however, Browne’s takedown defense is too strong, and he’ll catch Schaub in the clinch, taking the fight via first-round KO.
Todd Duffee vs. Anthony Hamilton
By the time heavyweight Duffee (8-2, 2-1 UFC) steps into the Octagon on Saturday night, it will have been nearly two years since his last MMA outing — a first round “Knockout of the Night” performance at UFC 155 — and once again, his game plan will be to employ the heavy-handed boxing that has led to eight knockout wins, including one in just seven seconds, a UFC record.
Hamilton (13-3, 1-1 UFC), who is coming off of a TKO win over Ruan Potts at UFC 177, is a powerful wrestler out of Albuquerque’s Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA, who likes to ground and pound.
While Hamilton may have more recent experience and momentum, it’s impossible to deny Duffee’s power.
Don’t blink during this one, as Duffee pushes the action to the cage perimeter and lands yet another first-round KO.
Abel Trujillo vs. Tony Ferguson
A powerful and punishing wrestler, Trujillo (12-5 1 NC, 3-1 1 NC UFC) returns to action for the first time since February, when he took “Knockout of the Night” and “Fight of the Night” honors for his performance against Jamie Varner at UFC 169.
Meanwhile, Ferguson (16-3, 6-1 UFC), a crafty Jiu Jitsu practitioner and boxer, looks for his fourth straight win and third of 2014.
Featuring two very different fighters, stylistically, this matchup of lightweights will come down to whoever is able to employ and execute their gameplan. And while Trujillo possesses the athleticism and aggression to move into close range and use his power, Ferguson’s unorthodox striking style and slick ground game off of his back will open the door for the submission win.
Best of the Undercard: Urijah Faber vs. Francisco Rivera
Faber (31-7, 7-3 UFC), who returns after a win over Alex Caceres at UFC 175, has long been touted as the UFC’s most popular fighter under 155 pounds, known for his frenetic pace, athleticism, and trademark guillotine choke.
Rivera (10-3 1 NC, 3-2 1 NC UFC) is a durable and brutish slugger with knockout power, who is coming off of a decision loss to Takeya Mizugaki at UFC 173.
This contest could go into deep waters, as Rivera should be able to thwart Faber’s early offensive threats. But eventually, Faber will move in for the submission and take the fight via tapout.
There is a moment when the foundation of things as they are cracks, when the dam leaks its fatal, irreversible drop, when the tectonic plates shift enough to do more than rattle the shelves. It is the moment when the past finally arrives and collides with the future, announcing itself like the proverbial bell that shatters as it rings. Ferguson is such a moment.
There is no going back from this moment. It is the last in a long line of unbearable betrayals against the African American community and our country’s principles that cannot, must not, go unanswered. Peaceful protests have their place, but so does defiance. And as much as I believe in the power of non-violent marching and the like, I fear they will not be enough this time. They have proven themselves ineffective. Think back to beginning of the Iraq War when four-and-half million people, more than in the entire history of humankind, demonstrated around the world to protest an illegal invasion of an unarmed country based on lies. Did it stop them? Did it even slow them? Not one bit.
The problem is that the Power Elite doesn’t care what we think anymore. Their control is absolute and their power so elevated as to be beyond our ability to threaten them. Back in the bad old days of Richard Nixon they still feared public opinion. That is why the Nixon administration passed OSHA, The Clean Water Act, The Endangered Species Act and established the EPA. Nixon may have hated the People, and god knows he didn’t respect us, but at least he feared us. And the threat of our retribution at the polls was enough to keep him in check.
No such check on power exists today. Our liberal class is dismantled, our elections are rigged, our votes redistricted to the point of absurdity, and our focus is so scattered by propaganda and infotainment that we are deaf, dumb, blind and nearly helpless to protest the abuses of power.
But then there is a moment. This moment. Mike Brown’s sacrificial moment. Let me be clear — we would all much, much prefer Michael was alive, but his death will mean nothing if we cannot convert his injustice into a moment when Power feels his pain. I am not suggesting that we take up arms or channel our rage into violence if for no other reason than this is a battle we will lose and lose badly. They have more guns, more soldiers, more money and almost all of the control.
And yet, we must devise a way to impact Power. If they will not respect us, then they must learn again to fear us. We must find a way to make them feel that that this is a defining moment not only for the African American community, but for all Americans who love Justice. We must demonstrate Our Power out in the open, across all communities, across an entire nation, in a radical eruption of our refusal to be controlled, manipulated, set up and knocked down as if we no longer matter. We matter. They don’t agree. We must show them why they are wrong.
Maybe it is a massive hunger strike, a national work strike, the occupation of police department steps across the country, I don’t know. There are people better qualified than myself to devise these kinds of strategies. Whatever it is, however, I do feel qualified to state the demand, because it is clear and eminently reasonable — we want a trial. Michael Brown and his family deserve that much. And we want it right now, in this moment, his moment, our moment, in which We The People hold the American System of Justice in our own hands again — in the name of a young life cut tragically short by the abuse of power, and in celebration of citizenry ready to reclaim their own.
It’s that time of year when the Christmas Nazis and the Thanksgiving Purists have a pissing contest with the rest of the world. Don’t pretend you don’t know them. They’re not opposing gangs in a Kirk Cameron film about how the liberal media grinds up Christmas trees to make Satanic Bibles. No, they are far more irritating than Kirk. You probably know a few Christmas Nazis or Thanksgiving Purists. They may be your friends or family. You might even be such a person. Hell, you could even fit into both groups.
Despite these scary folks, and the fact that I need to bundle up in 19 layers of wool just to get the mail (and that’s just email), I still love this time of year. I hate the weather. As a native Floridian who is trapped in the Midwest, I shiver from October through May. Still, even with the ice, snow, and endless clouds, I still love the holidays.
The fact that I refer to them as “the holidays” might irritate some people, and those people are Christmas Nazis. They believe that current liberal politics and evil atheists are responsible for “Happy Holidays.” Really, Bing Crosby is more responsible for this all inclusive greeting than President Obama. Christmas Nazis say things like, “This is MURICA! We can’t say Happy Holidays because we are a Christian country!” They think they are defending Christmas, or keeping it pure, or some other such bullshit. In reality, they are simply showing that they don’t know how to read a calendar.
Most of us understand that Christmas is not the only holiday within the four-week period from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day. There’s also Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Saturnalia. Those are just the holidays that are typically celebrated in the U.S. So, saying, “Happy Holidays” is not about excluding Christians, it’s about including everyone. Also, for me, it’s about talking less. As a work from home introvert, I’d rather just cover everything with two words than list all of the holidays with their appropriate “happy” or “merry.” I’m pretty sure Santa, Jesus, and Saturn would approve of simply being nice to everyone.
Some Christmas Nazis are also Thanksgiving Purists. You know, the people who get their panties in a bunch when Christmas items are displayed before the appropriate day. They might as well say, “Thou mustn’t put up thine Christmas tree before Thanksgiving.” Some Thanksgiving Purists get quite enraged about seeing Christmas decorations before turkey day. They post about this major crime on social media sites, some people blog about it, and others talk about it on TV. Some of them actually tell others when they are allowed to put up Christmas trees, lights, and other holiday decorations. It’s like they have some sort of “Asshole’s Guide to the Holidays” book, along with a color-coded calendar that they refer to. I would like to send people who are upset by seeing Christmas decorations in November on an all expense paid trip to a cave in the Middle East. This way they can get away from the offensive early Christmas decorations and learn about real problems.
Let me hear from you in the comment section. Are you a Christmas Nazi or a Thanksgiving Purist, or are you just someone who enjoys pretty lights and a decorated indoor tree when it’s cold and gray outside?
Happy Holidays!
This post originally appeared on Petty Thoughts.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
