Never give up, General Motors

This is brilliant!

Apparently giving up the fight to match reliability with foreign automakers, GM has decided to simplify their production process to have much fewer parts. Out of that decision comes the GMC bicycle...

This has many other benefits. No gas emmissions. Horsepower is determined by how strong the person "driving" the bike is, so they can pick a really high number and stick an * by it when advertising - "The GMC bike can get up to 1000 horsepower....*1000hp based on a REALLY STRONG person riding the bike" :)

Yep, must be about race

A couple of weeks ago, a fight between some players broke out at an NBA game between the New York Knicks and the Denver Nuggets.  It's no secret that NBA fights generally get a lot of press.  Most of you have probably seen clips of fans getting into it with players, etc.  Well, soon afterwards, several members of the sports media decided that the reason people make a big deal out of fights in the NBA MUST be because the NBA is mostly made up of black athletes.

Here is a link to a specific article related to this

You see, fights happen all the time in the NHL and nobody cares because the NHL is mostly made up of white athletes.  Fights happen all the time in MLB and nobody cares for the same reason.

You have to know where I'm going with this...

WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!!!

For one, when the press says people make a big deal out of fights in any sport, what do they mean exactly?  I'll tell you - They mean that THEY make a big deal out of it.  So they make a big deal out of it and then they accuse America of being racist.  Eye opening, huh?

As for the other sports, let's be real here folks.  Fighting is pretty much built into hockey.  Hockey without fighting is not hockey.  I don't care what the color of the skin of the players is, fighting is part of the job description.

As for baseball, fights are pretty rare there and they are usually the result of a pitcher hitting a batter with a ball multiple times.  Again, let's be real.  Pitchers are coached to hit batters on occasion.  So an argument could be made that fights are somewhat expected in baseball too.

I'll add another one.  Football.  The author of the article I linked above curiously left football out of the mix.  After all, football has it's share of fights.  I suppose the press doesn't make a huge deal out of it most of the time.  Football has a lot of black players last time I checked.

Oh wait, one more.  Nascar.  Very few fights.  Very big deal made out of it when they do fight.  Lot's of white guys in Nascar.

 

People getting upset about fights in the NBA has NOTHING to do with race.  It has to do solely with the fact that fighting is in no way expected to happen in the NBA.  That is probably one of the main reasons that fans are seated so close to the action.  When NBA players get into fights, they are potentially endangering the lives of people who paid a lot of money who paid to see them PLAY BASKETBALL.

It's amazing to me how the press can make up these types of stories and get away with it.  Essentially, they have diverted attention from the real issue, which is that fighting in the NBA (and other sports) should be dealt with much harder than it is being dealt with.  NBA players getting into fights with fans or with each other while being close to fans cannot be tolerated.  I'll bring back the NFL for just a minute.  When a player stomps on another player's head to the point where stitches are necessary, the player doing the stomping should be FIRED.  Period.  I don't care if the players are black, white, purple, green, or any other color, certain things are simply inexcusable.

Yeah, I'm gonna need a second opinion

I should have told this story when it happened, but it didn't really occur to me how blog-worthy it was until over the weekend.  So here it is...

 

Last Monday evening, my turning-one-year-old-in-a-few-days son, Roland, started running a fever.  He had just gotten his flu shot that day, so we wondered if the two might be related, gave him some Tylenol, and didn't worry.

On Tuesday, the fevers continued.  And they kept getting higher.  My wife called our doctor's office when Roland's temp reached 104.5.  They said to go ahead and bring him in.

We go to a fairly large pediatric group - made up of about 30 doctors.  They have several locations across the Memphis area.  We have a favorite doctor that we make appointments with when our kids have checkups, but on days that we walk-in like last Tuesday, we never know who we are going to get.

So the receptionist tells us we are going to be seeing Dr. Butler. 

(Ahh, Dr. Butler.  Time for something completely unrelated.  It occurred to me soon after we started taking our kids to this group that my parents took me to the same pediatric group when I was a kid.  Their favorite doctor for me was Dr. Dorothy Butler.  Thus, I was scared to death to see Dr. Butler walk in the door when I was a kid because that always meant I was going to get a shot or something else painful.  So when I hear my son is going to be seeing Dr. Butler, I start to wonder if I'm going to freak out a little bit when she walks in the door.  Well as it turns out, there are two Dr. Butlers in this group.  Richard Butler and Dorothy Butler.  My son was seeing Richard....)

So Doc checks my son out and sits down on his swivel chair and looks up at me and my wife with a sigh and says, "Y'all are in for a rough couple of days."  Gee, thanks doc.  Who do I write my copay check to again?

Oh, but it doesn't end there.  He goes on to tell us that our son doesn't have any infections or anything like that.  And that a virus is going around that lasts a couple of days and pretty much consists of a high fever.  And from there, he goes into something that sounded a lot like this (my thoughts in parenthesis)...

"Now, when babies get high fevers, the sometimes will have seizures.  This is completely normal"

(What??)

"There is no reason to panic or call 911.  Just stretch your legs out and lay him face down between them...So he doesn't choke if he starts to spit up."

(Wait...What??)

"His seizure will last about a minute and then he'll become totally unresponsive for about 30-45 minutes"

(WHAT???!!!)

"Again, do not panic.  After your son has been unresponsive for about 30-45 minutes, he'll start moving around again and should be tired, but ok.  This is completely normal.  If you call 911, all they will do is take him to the emergency room, run tests, find out all is normal, and send you home with a hospital bill."

(Seriously, Doc.  Are you gonna pull out a bucket of leaches here?... "If things get too crazy, get out all that 'bad blood' with these here leaches")

And that was about it.  Send the parents (who are now trying to figure out what to think about all they just heard) and their son (who thank the Lord did not understand what was just said) on their way.  The more people I told about this last week, the more I was completely dumbfounded at this doctor's comments.  Let me make one thing really clear at this point.

IF MY KID HAS A SEIZURE, I'M CALLING 911!!!

Oh wait, one other thing.

IF WHILE WAITING ON AN AMBULANCE TO GET TO MY HOUSE, MY SON BECOMES COMPLETELY UNRESPONSIVE, I'M TOTALLY GONNA FREAK OUT!!!

Some of the people I talked to about this brought up that if I did not call 911 and something was seriously wrong with my son, my face would be plastered all over the news as like the worst parent ever.

Anyway, I just had to share that.  It was indeed a two day virus.  Roland got over it on Thursday and is doing great now.  No seizures (...and no leaches...).  Thank God.

Long time no blog

Yes, it's been a while since I've posted anything.  Not a whole lot to blog about recently from my perspective, but I know all my readers out there are probably sooooo anxious for me to blog about something....anything!  So here's some things that have captured my attention lately.

 

 

New business idea

Since New York has decided to ban trans fat in their restaurants, a coworker and I have decided this opens up a great business opportunity - selling food loaded with trans fat on ebay!  Woo Hoo!  People of New York, do not worry.  We have Fed Ex right here in Memphis and we can get your lard to you ASAP!  It is a certainty that Tennessee, Mississippi, and our surrounding states will not ban trans fat anytime soon.  That would be almost as bad as trying to take away our guns!  Heck, studies have shown our area to be one of the most unhealthy in the country anyway.  We can be the "Trans Fat capitol of the world"!!!!

 

College Football BCS

Well, things kinda worked themselves out ok with the BCS I guess.  Gary has posted quite a few entries about the BCS over the past few weeks and I agree with him.  If Florida wins, then the BCS did pretty good this year.  However, there are plenty of cases that could be made that they did not.  This would be so much easier if they would implement a playoff system in college football.  I'm sure you've heard the argument.  I'm sure you have your opinion.  As long as you agree with me, then you are RIGHT!

 

NFL

The two teams I keep track of the most, NY Giants and Indianapolis Colts, are both on losing streaks.  Colts should be able to make it out of their problems and into the playoffs ok.  I have a theory that they are holding something back for the playoffs, and I hope I'm right or this will just be another disappointing season for them.  Giants are in pretty deep.  Team has been in turmoil for several weeks and they still have a ton of injured players.  On one hand, I'd like to see them pull themselves out of this and make it to the playoffs just so they can have something to be happy about.  On the other hand, it's become pretty clear that they need some changes.  Losing a lot of games sure does make it easier to make big changes.

 

Iraq Panel

News over the last couple of days has been about the Iraq Panel report that came out yesterday with proposals on how to fix the situation over there.  I haven't read much about it but one thing I heard on the news about it makes me discard it.  They suggested that we and Iraq enter into a dialogue with Iran and Syria on how to stabilize the region.  WHAT??!!!  Um, news flash - Iran and Syria are a major cause of the instability!!!  What is talking going to do?  I even heard one person say something to the effect of, "well, they probably won't listen to us, but starting talks would be a good thing."  WHAT???!!!!  So wasting breath is a good thing?  So yet another study on how to fix the situation in Iraq which results in yet another waste of time.

 

CNET writer's death

Some of you may have heard or read recently about CNET reviewer James Kim's death.  I subscribe to CNET's and numerous other tech blogs, so I've been receiving articles about his family's disappearance since the word got out.  Really really sad.  Also really amazing that he risked his life to go out and try to save his family.  When you read or hear these stories, you should realize that that's what true commitment to your family is all about.  He probably knew the situation was hopeless, but he still risked his life to try to do something about it.  It's unfortunate that his family was eventually rescued and he ended up dying, but his decision should not be questioned.