And so it begins...

Too many uncollected or non-disseminated thoughts make for a cluttered mind. With that said, I am about to undertake the task of emptying the bin of my rather unfocused and slightly odd-shaped head, and those of you bold enough (or with enough free time) to take part will be its recipients. Thankfully, the price is free, allowing me to dump out these things upon you with little or no guilt. Well, actually...no guilt at all.


It is my goal to post three times a week, give or take, and to be nothing so formal as timely or informative. It is a brain dump, with the added bonus of somewhat colorful language from time-to-time.

I will run the gamut in this forum, from sports to politics to stock market goings-on to technology developments that fascinate my curious mind, probably even noting touchstones of popular culture along the way. This blog has been created for totally selfish reasons, but hopefully will serve a long-term purpose of entertaining the snot out of those who read it.


Enough with the introductions...on with the post:


Brett Favre has signed with the Vikings, Michael Vick is out of jail and on the field in Philadelphia, and Dallas breaks in its $243 trillion stadium (estimated cost) in a preseason game tonight. A ton of news and a ton of thoughts, but the highlights are as follows:


1) The NFL is back!


2) Retirement means different things based on how many decimal points your paycheck moves to the left.


3) Sports fans already have little time or patience for PETA. This dynamic will be tested in the Eastern time zone this year.


4) The recession hit some differently than others, particularly those who live near oil rigs.


5) The NFL is back!



For football fans, the stories will fall by the wayside once the games that count kick off. All of the stories that eminate from it, including one player going to jail for 2 years for shooting himself in the leg while another one does 24 days for killing a pedestrian while driving drunk, will be little more than footnotes on whether or not Ochocinco kicks an extra point in the regular season. While this should be a sad commentary on America and sports, it might actually be a good sign that things are returning to normal.


Much energy is expended daily on stabilizing life on a day-to-day basis, from paying bills to picking schools for one's children, and having a release that is a bit of a non-sequitur to where one hangs his hat is vital to the health of people as a whole. We can (and will) all decry the welfare of dogs, of wishy-washy behavior from matinee idols, corporate greed and the like, but it all serves the grander purpose of escapism for the masses. It is important not to lose sight of this, even when people do colossally stupid things. I can (and will) make the argument that the plight of animals is better for Mike Vick's actions being made public than they would have been had they never taken place...good comes from bad. That is the sole responsibility of society, to act in the aftermath of evil or ignorance.


As it stands, there are roughly 2.5 animals euthanized for every one that a shelter is able to adopt out to a family. Animal shelters are one of the grossly underfunded fields of charity out there, and all the pictures of the cutest animals these shelters have only serve to pull the heartstrings of our most ardent animal lovers out there. I have anecdotal evidence of this, as I have a wife who wants more than the three animals we already have, and I know many compassionate animal lovers of her ilk.


Since the trial and conviction of America's Number One dogfighter has taken place, millions of dollars, tens of thousands of volunteer hours and untold scores of other donations have been given to these shelters by people not normally inclined to do so. Add on to this the increased profile of the plight of these shelters and their animals, and only good has come from this terrible sequence of events. For once, justice was served on the guilty, remorse appears to have been gained by the perpetrator, and awareness of a leftover ill of old culture has begun its eradication process. Top that off by low-profile shelters becoming high-profile by nursing the surviving pit bulls back to health and adopting them out, and you have the recipe for recovery.


Now the question is: Will anyone allow Vick to regain his status as a human being?

My bet is most will, as America is the great land of second chances, but there will be those who believe that there will never be a good time for anybody to return to prominence after acts as horrific as those that Vick was sentenced for. The average sentence for operating a dogfighting ring is 5 years and a $20k fine according to the ASPCA website. Does two years, $100 million in lost income, pariah status for the rest of life and filing bankruptcy after being nailed to over $2 million in fines constitute a fair sentence for bankrolling one of these? Yes, it does, primarily due to the exposure that this tragic set of events has brought to the situation.

Vick's fame makes some believe that he was let off easy, and can now go back to his fabulous life. How fabuolous does his life look when he will be tormented by every lunatic for the rest of his career (now significantly shortened), must perform thousands of hours of community activity just to be able to perform that career, be paid much less for the remainder of that career, then have very few job prospects afterwards due to his previous choices? Anyone that says he needs more punishment than what is coming is not necessarily realizing that he will fade from even their memory soon enough.

Speaking of fading memories, didn't Brett Favre rememeber that he retired? Twice? Even reiterated that fact three weeks ago? The issue of him going to a rival of the team that he led for 16 years, won a championship with and built his reputation on is just insult added to injury for Packer fans. For his new team's fans? Conflict.

Favre was a Viking killer for 16 years, and now is to be welcomed into a terrible QB situation in Minnesota. He was only 6-9 in the Metrodome over his career, and he has never been too against throwing the ball to the other team (22 INT's - most in the NFL last year), plus he's Brett-freaking-Favre. Woe is to be a Viking fan in this upcoming season.

Dallas has a football team. They are popular. The owner is nuttier than almond butter. Naturally, he will spend ONE BILLION US$ DOLLARS to build a stadium. (Capital letters for those of you who miss getting spammed by Nigerian bankers.)

This monolith of a stadium claims, among other things, to house the two largest flatscreen TV's in existence. (Apparently the JumboTron's just don't cut it nowadays) Tickets in the relatively good seats are not only expensive, but one had to pay $100,000 for the right to buy them. Personal Seat Licenses, introduced to the NFL by the legendary thief Al Davis, have now infiltrated every new stadium in sports, and have done so at ever-increasing prices. With the empty seats down close at Yankee Stadium after their introduction of the new ballpark this last spring, I wonder if Jerry Jones (Cowboy owner) is just a bit nervous. Tune in tonight to see the Cowboy Albatross on display in the preseason...oh, and wasn't there a recession I heard something about on the news? A hundred grand? Really? They do everything bigger in Texas, including being greedy and wasteful, it seems.

It would be awfully sexy of me to continue to ramble on, but the stock market closed up big today, and I have to...um, fold laundry. Until next time, welcome.