More random nuggets of information

Taking Jay-Z out of the conversation, is it possible that Nikki Minaj is the best NY rapper doing it today?

And also in that vein, is Vybz “Cake Soap” Kartel (R) the best dancehall has to offer? Please let the answer to that question be no….

Raphael Saadiq performing with Mick Jagger @ The Grammys = Great look. Saadiq is easily one of the most underrated musicians of this generation.

Watched the Barcelona v Arsenal Champions League 1st leg on February 16th. The same Barca team that picked apart and destroyed Arsenal a year ago was deservedly beaten at the Emirates Stadium by Arsenal.

Koscielny (below) was marking Messi so closely I think the Argentinian superstar is still tangled up in his shorts! I'm looking forward to the return fixture in Barcelona.

Arizona, The new Teflon Don and the goal of the year

 “This is a battle of epic proportions; we’ve allowed the hijacking of the 14th Amendment.”

Senator Russell Pearce of Arizona; described as the architect of Arizona Bill SB 1070.

A cabal of Arizona lawmakers is (again) planning to rewrite the Constitution of the United States. They plan to pass legislation so that children born in the US to parents who are in the US illegally will not be granted citizenship. This to me represents another salvo in the long history of insidious prejudice by Arizona’s leaders and the people of Arizona.

Some may say it’s nothing more than petty politicians trying to make a name for themselves by pandering to peoples prejudices. I say these are the politicians that the people elected and they are pushing the people’s agenda.

This is the same state, Arizona, which 30 years ago refused to honor Martin Luther King’s Day as a holiday. This position at the time was championed by none other than that self-proclaimed maverick, John McCain. He eventually reversed himself on that issue, but as the most strident (at the time) opponent to a holiday honoring Dr. King, Arizona had clearly and unequivocally drawn a line in the sand. This is also the same state where in 2010 they proposed having police officers ask and check people’s immigration status at traffic stops. The starkly racist nature of this proposal is blindingly obvious, as is the fact that it harkens back to Jim Crow and apartheid.

The relationship between these things should be clear. This isn’t an anti-illegal immigration issue; this is the people of a state trying to push their own twisted agenda on the national stage. The explanations they provide behind this may sound logical and even necessary but the racist ideals and prejudicial application of this initiative cannot be denied. However you may feel about the issue of illegal immigration, this legislation is wrong and nothing good can ever come out of it being passed into law.

This is again the same place where less than two months ago a lunatic with a gun killed several people because he had a different political opinion. Some may say its unfair of me to paint such a broad brush stroke on the entire state, but the rhetoric is clear and consistent and seemingly unopposed. 30 years ago it took a systematic series of agitation by black public figures and boycotts of Arizona venues by black performers (including moving the Super Bowl) for Arizona to finally recognize the holiday.

Clearly hypocrisy and racism is still a major part of life in the Grand Canyon state.

Lindsey Lohan’s in trouble. Again. She’s not going to jail. Again. Yeah, this is kinda getting old, but I am constantly amazed by the way she gets by. I’m going to dub her the new John “Teflon Don” Gotti. Of course, even Gotti was eventually sent to jail….

Its only February, and the UEFA Champions League hasn’t even resumed yet, and its only an exhibition game, but Wesley Sneijder has possibly already given us the goal of the year. 2010 was certainly an incredible year for Sneijder. Champions League winner with Inter Milan, Serie A champion in Italy and World Cup runner-up representing the Netherlands. Along the way, he scored some amazing goals, but I dont think anything matched the one he produced this week. Check it out here.

Pitchers and catchers in two weeks.

Random nuggets of information

Andy Pettitte, in my opinion should be in the Hall Of Fame. If your baseball team has one game to win, he was the guy you wanted pitching. Pettitte may not have the greatest numbers, but 19 playoff wins is the all time mark. Clemens and Randy Johnson may have been better regular season pitchers, but with one game to win it all, no one in baseball was as clutch as Pettitte.


That being said, Pettitte most likely wont be inducted. There is a clear anti-Yankee bias in large parts of the media, and that will contribute to it. The confessed HGH use will also hurt. Too much for him to overcome, but he is deserving.

Everyone’s mad at Amy Chua. Her book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” is stirring debate and getting people angry because of her take no prisoners approach to raising her kids. Ms. Chua, who is Chinese American, a Yale University educated lawyer and mother of two, has even pissed off Chinese parents (!) with her scorched earth mindset. The online zine The Root has an article about it here.
I wonder what her critics would say if a West Indian parent ever wrote a similar book and ‘exposed’ the secrets to the success of people from the Caribbean? (Hint it generally starts with a sturdy belt at an early age…) You will notice in her recent Wall Street Journal article that Ms. Chua mentioned Jamaican parents-this woman knows of which she speaks!



While I may be in the minority here, I am more disgusted by the allegations against Roethlisberger than I am the crimes committed by Michael Vick. I say that not to trivialize what Vick did, but because I strongly feel that Ben got off lightly. I also think that his alleged crimes are infinitely more damaging to society as a whole than anything Vick did. I cannot root for a team led by Roethlisberger to succeed. For that reason alone I’m supporting the Green Bay Packers to win the Super Bowl.

The Middle East is still ablaze, and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight. I hope the fight for progress and democracy spreads to Iran and I hope no more blood is shed, God willing.

The final thought on the NY Jets season: They were a better team than the Steelers, but they greatest strength was their biggest undoing-the emotional approach to the game. They rode that emotion to victory over New England, and rightly so. They couldn’t summon the needed intensity for the Steelers and came out flat and got steamrolled. And even with that, there wasn’t a soul watching the closing minutes of that game vs. Pittsburgh that didn’t feel they were going to come back and win…they blew an opportunity to get to the Super Bowl because they were up and down in the game, and up and down all season. That’s what emotion does, takes you on a roller coaster ride. If they ever channel that energy into a consistent pattern of play game after game, year after year, they will be winners.

And they would be the Patriots…