Friday, December 14, 2007

what have you done for me lately?

(Joshua Masayoshi Huff)

Sorry for the relative lack of updates--it's finals time (three today)..but here we go. Don't worry, the lights are still on at the JJ Collective--we're not taking a winter vacation!

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Baseball's "Mitchell Investigation" Report was released today--today might go down as one of the most historic days in sports' history.

Download the entire report here (400+ pages)


List of players named in the report here

I won't kill it and talk ad nauseum about it, because ESPN is doing a great job of that. However, here are some of my reactions:

You'd think for all the steroids that the orioles took (tejada, roberts, palmeiro, segui, hairston jr, bigbie, gibbons) that the orioles wouldn't SUCK.

But man...they're terrible. Is this a sign that cheaters don't always win?

There's a lot of huge names on there other than the obvious ones like pettitte and clemens and tejada, aren't there? hundley?!?! dykstra? rondell white? knoblauch? mo vaugh? DENNY NEAGLE?!?!

Then again, i'm not surprised by david justice..haha (he'll get his justice, alright...)

It's strange that fernando vina was on the list, cause, uh, he's an ESPN analyst. imagine how awkward that's gonna be around the office. john kruk likened taking steroids to his alcoholism-"just because it's there doesn't mean you have to do it" (he's right, but man, it's gonna be uncomfortable for the baseball department up in bristol)

There's a lot of angels on the list, too. haha. angels on the naughty list.


I really looked up to a lot of these guys when i played baseball, you know? I remember using many of these guys in the aforementioned baseball sim that I used to play, and it's just really depressing to think that your childhood is really based on cheaters.

When I read all of this in the library (after I had time to let the report and list of names sink in), I was upset. really. I felt like, at that moment, had my childhood ended, but it had been a complete lie. It's sad Rick Ankiel was on them--Disney was negotiating talks with him about developing a movie about his great come-back. I'm glad they found out about this before they made the movie--it would have been such a lie, and kids really don't need that. These guys should be ashamed for themselves. I don't care that they did it to themselves--they're grown men and can destroy their bodies if they feel like it. But, come on--so many kids look up to baseball players. The American past-time? Fitting, isn't it, that the best players in our national game cheat, lie, take drugs and get rich all at that same time, isn't it? What does that say about American culture in general?

And, not to be weird--but anyway else think that Mitchell was a little unfair? He is a Red Sox fan, and two of the teams he busted most were the Yankees and Orioles--the Red Sox two biggest traditional rivals.


And let it be known that certain comments by certain pundits saying "The pitchers are justified in juicing because the batters were juicing" is absolutely ridiculous. It's like saying "dude down the block is robbing banks, so we should rob banks because it's the only way to keep up". Two wrongs don't make a right, homeboy. How did you graduate from college with that logic?

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And, one week after announcing my candidacy for the England job, England seem ready to name Fabio Capello as their coach. Capello gets results, but he coaches boring football--though England is very capable of playing this way, and all the fans are going to want are results anyway, so it's a match made in heaven.

They're paying him quite a bit, though. £4million after taxes. A bit more than my demands, methinks


And, of course, leave it to the English FA to worry about Capello's staff being all Italian an putting off the announcement as a result. Do you care about winning, England, or do you care about nationalism?


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And, for you non-sports fans, here are bsto's latest DCist articles (fresh as a pair of Nikes straight out the box):

Exploring the Early Americas at the LOC

Revisiting the Edmund Burke Monument

The Chinese had a memorial for those mercilessly killed at the hands of the Japanese army in Nanjing in 1937.

Think they'll hold a memorial for this or this? I am not a Japanese apologist--you have to look no further than my scathing criticism of Japan's World War II "Comfort Women" and my strong calls for an apology. Japan's World War II Machine was nasty--most people in America will never be privy to Unit 731 and it's sick experiments.

It's not like the Chinese are alone in this, though. Sure, America memorializes this, but do you think America will ever memorialize this or this or this?

It's easy to play the victim and not confess to wrongs--and the simple fact of the matter is everyone is guilty of it. Asia is in such a bad place because:
a) the Japanese don't admit to their sick, senseless war atrocities
b) the rest of Asia doesn't want to let it go

If Asia used all the time it spends bickering over textbook revisions and arguing over the legality and appropriateness of visits to temples to instead discuss regional security and peace, it could easily be the most powerful region on earth. Instead, in-fighting will keep the area from dominating world economic policy and politics.

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Oh, two videos as well:

Escort "All Through the Night"


In the vein of that "Hey Ya" Charlie Brown video--but cooler.



Justice "D.A.N.C.E." (live on Jimmy Kimmel)


Yes, I know this song is soooooo last summer, but this live video is just incredible. Having Stevie, Prince, Rod Stewart, Rick James and MJ (I mean, Justice do reference MJ's "P.Y.T." in the song) play the song for them was genius--though why is Stevie playing the drums?


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Happy Friday and have a great weekend, everyone!

(Arsenal v Chelsea on Sunday!)