CON-VICK?

I swear the one time I myself contributed to the death of an animal it was entirely unintentional and I felt horribly about it. But for some reason I can't get my outrage going for this story about NFL quarterback Michael Vick operating some sort of dog fighting ring on his Virginia property. It surprises me a little with all the terrible things that happen every day in this world that this particular action has provoked such passion from people and attention from the media.

Don't get me wrong. I do understand that this activity is cruel to animals. I agree that it should be stopped and there should be penalties involved, but I don't know if I need Michael Vick to lose his career and his freedom for this action. This is probably the wrong thing to say since everyone is jumping on the bandwagon to throw the book at Vick, but that seems a bit harsh maybe.

What this does show me, if it is true, is that Vick is probably a man of little character and from that viewpoint it will be no great loss if he is thrown in jail for his crimes. I just won't be all upset personally if he isn't.

I do agree with the companies like Nike and Donruss and others that are dumping him as an endorser as I no longer believe he is useful as a commercial spokesperson. No one wants to hold up the dog killer as a person you should emulate by using their favorite products. And there should no doubt be criminal penalties involved if the charges are proven. My feeling is a fine equal to the value of the property he used for this plus the amount he profited from the activity. Then he should of course do some sort of community work for some animal related cause, the Humane Society or something. And give him probation for a lengthy period where if he does anything else that warrants jail time you could add on some. I am all for double punishing any fool who would piss away a multi-million dollar career twice.

But in the end it doesn't really matter to me and I am not sure why. I feel like I should be more upset by this but I'm not. Michael Vick could get six years in prison and if he killed those dogs in the cruel way described in some reports I would be OK with that. I would not protest or anything. But at the same time the NFL could allow him back on the practice field tomorrow and I would be OK with that also. If the penalty doesn't end up with him incarcerated, why shouldn't he play football if a team wants him. But Senator Byrd would probably disagree with me.

But keep in mind this is what the good Senator does when not speaking in Congress.


BO KNOWS when I first read that there was something called the One Man Star Wars Show coming to one of the local theatres I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. I liked Star Wars, but the idea of a guy on stage basically recreating the scenes from the first three films over the course of a little over an hour, by himself, didn't seem very entertaining. It seemed so silly I had to look into what it was about and I have to admit after seeing some reviews and clips on the internet now I just want to round up some Star Wars geeks have a few beers and check it out.

BO KNOWS I was excited when I first read about a large new state of the art regional library going in near my house. I use the library system frequently and my son likes to go and having a nice new larger library would be nice. But it now appears the project is dependent on the approval of a new library tax district. And while supporters did manage to get enough signatures to force the issue onto the ballot the decision will now be up to voters. Hmmm ...voters will decide whether to raise their own taxes. Good-bye library.


BO KNOWS there a many places I would like to see in my life but only a few specific events. I want to attend at least one Super Bowl. I want to be in Vegas during the first weekend of the NCAA tournament at least once. And now I want to go to Comic-Con. The title suggests it is a convention for comic book geeks but it has grown into this huge celebration of comics, movies, and video games which attracts thousands of visitors and more and more mainstream press attention. Many of the "geeks" go all out with costumes of their favorite characters and such. It looks like a lot of fun. Where else could you see sights like this.






OR THIS....

BO KNOWS in all the Simpsons hype I have come across an interesting internet site promoted by Burger King called http://simpsonizeme.com/# the idea is they will take a photo of you and make you a Simpsons character. Problem is the site is frustrating me by refusing to Simpsonize me despite repeated attempts. If anyone can get this thing to work let me know how you do it. If not talk to you next week.

WARNING: NO SPOILERS ALERT

Don't waste your time reading this entry today. There will be no mention of how the final Harry Potter book ends. There will be no leaks on who is nominated for any upcoming awards show. I will not be informing you how the next season of your favorite television show is going to end so you should simply leave this page and seek information on your entertainment future elsewhere.

What is wrong with people that when a book becomes so popular that they make twelve million copies available in the United States people will take it upon themselves to publicize the end before readers can even get a copy much less finish it?And who has time to photograph 700 plus pages and post them on the internet?

Why must we know who might be nominated for an Emmy award days before they announce the nominations for the Emmy awards? Why does every popular TV show have numerous web sites dedicated to telling fans what is going to happen before they have a chance to watch the show? Do we really need this information ahead of time? What is the rush?

And this need for speed of information is present in the news business too. Every local station who gets a reporter on the scene of some meaningless event first, advertises it for weeks believing our viewing habits can be swayed not by which reporter gets the story right but who drives the fastest. This leads to endless speculation and misinformation as they rush to get us something even if it is wrong. Why can we no longer wait for information to be gathered before it is presented?

Someone always has to be first in everything, but sometimes you should just keep your advance knowledge to yourself. I like my news correct, I like to watch my own movies and read my own books even if I can't beat you to the midnight showing/sale because I have other things to do. Put your digital camera away. I get it, you got the book first. Now keep your jpegs to yourself so the rest of the world can enjoy it just as you did.

This newest race doesn't even concern me as I missed out on the whole Harry Potter craze until the movies started so I haven't read any of the books. At this point I have decided to just wait until the final book comes out in paperback and buy whatever box set makes it on the market. Then I can enjoy these stories with my children when they are old enough to get out of picture books. I wonder if they will love these stories as much as millions of kids who are working their way to the end of the story today. I can't wait to find out. Oh wait, yes I can.

BO KNOWS that I have wanted an XBOX 360 for sometime, but my wife discouraged it correctly pointing out I have little time for video games. But now she fell in love with the Wii from Nintendo and decided we could get one of those. After a little research I found that the few games I like to buy each year will be available on the Wii so I was in. Then they were impossible to find, but now I have it and the system is pretty fun with the new controllers getting rave reviews on the video games sites. One complaint though since I am now an owner. There is a preview for an unbelievable looking Star Wars game coming out next year which for some reason will not be made for Wii. Please George Lucas the one thing I must do with my Wiimote is swing a light saber. Please get on this.

BO KNOWS I am a news junkie and read a lot of web sites and watch TV news daily, and I enjoy a good story about something strange and unusual even if it isn't of importance. If you like this sort of thing you must go to Fark.com. Good for at least two or three laughs a day. Guaranteed.

BO KNOWS I don't care much for the summer reality series that fill the TV void until the new season, but there is one I truly enjoy and that is "Last Comic Standing." Stand up comedy has always been one of my favorite forms of entertainment and there are enough good jokes in an episode to keep you laughing. I think this is the one form of entertaining I secretly dream of doing but will never have the guts to try.

BO KNOWS the race for the White House seems to be heating up a lot earlier than usual, but I was going to wait until a few Democratic primaries had actually been held to float out an idea I had for the election. It appears I have been beat to the punch by Anna Quindlen of Newsweek. She writes a nice article on the back page of the magazine this week about what the Democrats should do about the ticket and she probably does a better job of explaining it than I would have, so give it a read if you get the chance.

BO KNOWS the NBA is quickly losing popularity and relevance in the sports world and now we have a referee allegedly fixing games for gamblers in an organized crime ring. It can't get much worse for the league that had its lowest ratings in years even before this scandal broke. Now even the gamblers won't want to watch it as they can't trust the results. I don't know where the league goes from here, but they need some good press and fast.

Chasing the GOOAALLLLLLLLL !

I don't think it is going to matter. The Los Angeles Galaxy of the MLS is bringing in one of the most famous athletes in the history of their sport and paying him a potential 250 million dollars and I don't think it is really going to change anything. Not long term. We are going to see more people wearing MLS gear. We are going to see a short term boost that probably quadruples the previous audience for soccer on TV in America. But long term I still don't believe soccer is going to become a major sports draw.

I love sports. I read anything I can get my hands on about sports and during a month where there is almost nothing else to divert my attention I can name exactly one MLS team, the Los Angeles Galaxy. And I will give you a wild guess where I have heard of them. My guess is I am not alone among sports fans.

I can not tell you why the U.S. largely ignores a sport that seems to ignite such passion in most of the rest of the world. I do think it doesn't translate as well on television which is where a great number of American sports fans enjoy their games. Much like ice hockey my guess is it is a lot more fun in person, but I will never be able to tell you for sure because I will never attend a live soccer game. I am just not interested.

The conventional wisdom for the last decade has been as more American kids join soccer leagues the sport would gain ground in exposure and popularity. But while it is true more and more kids are trying it on the field that has not translated into success in the stands. It doesn't always work that way. I used to love to go bowling. I would go once a week and have a great time but I still wasn't going to watch it on TV.

Every once in awhile there is something that sparks America's interest that the soccer followers hope is going to ignite into a passion for the game. Of course the Women's World Cup was one of those events but my guess is the hype that followed that would have died down a lot quicker had Brandi Chastain kept her shirt on. So Becks ( is that what we are calling him) begins his American career by taking his shirt off in a magazine with his wife. My guess is in ten years he will be a lot more famous for that than for anything he does on the soccer field, at least in America.

BO KNOWS Pete Sampras is well deserving of his spot in the Tennis Hall of Fame. What I didn't know until this week was that there was a tennis Hall of Fame. Seriously, tennis and soccer. I hate July.

BO KNOWS Budweiser is not going with Dale Earnhardt Jr. to his new team next year. All the little NASCAR shops in the world are ecstatic as now all the freaks will have to replace all their jackets, license plates, car flags and scale race car models. NASCAR? Aren't their any real sports in summer? I should have written about politics this week.

BO KNOWS baseball attendance is up more than three percent this year but they lost me a few years ago. As a kid I collected every Topps baseball card from 1980-1989 and now I don't even follow the sport. I could care less. The most revered record in what was once America's most revered game is getting ready to be broken and I won't even be watching. Just a few years ago I would even attend a few games in Cincy a year but I haven't been since they opened their new park. The bad thing I don't even know why I quit paying attention. I just lost interest.

BO KNOWS by the next time I post the most anticipated book release in years will be over and many will finally know the fate of Harry Potter.What I can't believe is that people are so anxious to know they would buy a book to tell them what might happen in the book they want to read.

Until next week . Take care of yourselves and may the force be with you.

I CONFESS

I don't remember when it happened but at some point in my life this video went from the thing I most dreaded seeing on Saturday mornings to the thing I waited impatiently to see. It went from being the image that ended my morning in front of my beloved cartoons to being the image that announced the beginning of my favorite hour of the week. Yes my name is Bo and I am a professional wrestling fan.

I do realize that fewer things can destroy your credibility quicker in some circles than this admission but I am coming out. I can not deny who I am. I still sneak a peek at what is going on in the wrestling world when I get a chance despite the not so subtle judgement in my wife's voice when she asks, "What are you watching?" (I knew I should have put that TIVO in the basement)

There is no doubt that wrestling in not the highest intellectual form of entertainment. Many of the stories are way over the top or just plain stupid but that is true for a lot of the world's popular entertainment and you don't have to worry about people thinking you are a complete idiot if you admit you watch American Idol. But tell them you watch wrestling and wait for the reaction.

Doesn't matter. I can not deny that many of my absolute favorite memories of my childhood that did not occur in a Disney Park occurred near a wrestling ring. I will never forget the night Hulk Hogan came to Commonwealth Convention Center and pointed to the sign we had made to taunt his opponent as we sat in our ringside seats. Of the many Tuesday nights we spent at Louisville Gardens the one I will never forget is when Randy Savage first became a "good guy" back when those things really mattered and teamed up with Jerry "The King" Lawler against King Kong Bundy and Rick Rude. It was a great night ending with Lawler piledriving Rude on the stage as Savage dropped the elbow on Bundy in the ring.

My fond memories of wrestling are the reason why I hate when something happens to bring the mainstream media into the "sport". It always ends up being a full scale attack to condemn the activity and belittle its fans. This has been the case with the tragic death of the Benoit family. I think every station on TV settled for the same headline after it happened "Roid Rage?" Why I don't dismiss the idea that the drugs could have played a role in Benoit's actions should we dismiss all other explanations even before the toxicology reports are in. I have no doubt it will show Benoit had steroids in his system, but does that mean they caused him to kill? I am pretty sure Benoit has looked about the same the last ten years I have seen him in the ring, meaning he has probably been abusing steroids for a decade, why now do they cause him to murder his family? Plus if you pay attention to the news at all, how many murder suicides do you hear about a week? Are all these people on steroids? It was the easy story so the media jumped on it.

My favorite ridiculous media attack was committed by an ESPN Page 2 columnist named Jemele Hill. Her first criticism was of a WWE story line where they had killed off the owner Vince McMahon. She tries to connect a press release promoting the death in the WWE storyline to what actually happened. She writes, "The WWE got its wish, all right. The pro wrestling world was indeed leveled by a major death, creating the nationwide buzz it so desperately sought. Only this death wasn't staged, it wasn't McMahon's and it pointed to a much more significant problem in the "sport." WHAT? First I am going to guess that when the McMahon story line was introduced they had no idea one of their own was going to commit a gruesome murder-suicide. And I am prety sure they were not happy with their new "nationwide buzz". And to its credit the WWE immediately abandoned the fake death when real death became the story. Second it is entertainment. What is wrong with them killing a character on their own TV program. Ms. Hill does realize that even hardcore wrestling fans quit pretending this was real years ago doesn't she. That means everyone who knows the deal realizes it is just a story. Law and Order has stories "ripped from the headlines" all the time, killing off people in episodes that are "fictional and does not depict any actual person or event."(yeah right) But when WWE does it on their ENTERTAINMENT program something is wrong.

Then Ms. Hill makes one more arguement I can not ignore when she thoroughly researches an entire industry involving hundreds of people by watching a two hour documentary. She writes " Based on the things in "Beyond the Mat," we should almost be surprised when a pro wrestler doesn't die tragically." REALLY ? Based on one film about three wrestlers, one of whom was an idiot crackhead slowly killing himself in crappy hotel rooms, we should make this conclusion. Using that logic we could watch a few episodes of "Hogan Knows Best" and be completely shocked that all wrestlers don't live in multi-million dollar estates and help their children become pop stars. Either conclusion is ridiculous.

The one point we can agree on is too many wrestlers die at a young age. It is a physically demanding profession with too many nights spent away from home. One list I found shows 80 deaths before the age of 60 since 1985. That seems high and McMahon and his company should look into how to help reduce that problem among the people he makes millions of dollars off of each year. But here is another fact. Before Benoit killed his wife and child and then himself that number would have only been two less. (his wife worked in the ring at times as a manager) Where was the outrage then? Only when they had a sensational story to tell did the media suddenly care about the well being of professional wrestlers.

So the Benoit story is sad but don't use it to paint every wrestler as a roid rage maniac who lives a life of lonely drug abuse waiting for his tragic death. I hope the sport takes measures to stop some of these tragic deaths because it is sad to know that Rick Rude, Hawk, Junkyard Dog, Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig and many others who entertained me as a child are already gone. I wish they were still here. I am a wrestling fan.

BO KNOWS I have never wanted to be a black French guy named Tony so much in my life. Multiple NBA titles and Eva Longoria. My teachers were right life is not fair.

BO KNOWS naming a baby is a big decision but I saw a story this week that people now pay hundreds of dollars for consultants who choose a list of potential names for them. How ridiculous is this? I guess it does keep you from naming your child ridiculous things like Apple, or Kal-el, or 4real or my favorite Autumn Sullivan Corbett Fitzsimmons Jeffries Hart Burns Johnson Willard Dempsey Tunney Schmeling Sharkey Carnera Baer Braddock Louis Charles Walcott Marciano Patterson Johansson Liston Clay Frazier Foreman Brown. What did happen to Mary?

BO KNOWS I was never really a comic book fan but more of a lover of the cartoons made using comic book heroes. So I wonder when they will quit messing around and make the film I really want to see.

BO KNOWS most of you on the internet have already seen the last clip here, but if you haven't give it a look and have a good week.

STATE OF THE UNION


I heard someone make a comment the other day that struck me as funny. Now I am taking this out of context but in the midst of a conversation the line was " That is what we do, watch television and eat yummy food." It occurred to me that this is the kind of quote one could take and put in a very negative light. Many people would want to say that is what is wrong with America these days we watch too much television and eat too much yummy food. But why does everything have to be negative. Why do we hate ourselves so much.

The way I see it 1,270,987 men have given their lives in American military uniforms to fight for a way of life. In one way or another in places all over the world they have sacrificed so that Americans could (insert your favorite leisure activity here) and eat yummy food. Or whatever else makes you happy. This figure includes men from every conflict from the Revolutionary War to the War in Iraq. (including both sides of our own bloody Civil War). The problem is not that we do these things but that we have lost all appreciation for what it has taken to have this lifestyle.

There is a growing movement to focus too much on the negative events in our history and I believe it is clouding young people's perspective on America. Sure Washington and Jefferson owned slaves, but they also helped craft a document that when interpreted through time made it possible for all men and women to be free and equal. Franklin Roosevelt had Japanese Americans put in internment camps, but he also guided us through the Great Depression and a World War after which we were the most prosperous country in the world. Nixon lied to the American people and brought shame to the White House but he did bring our boys home from a war they could not win, and Reagan left us the burden of a great national debt but he helped end the Cold War and brought us together in a way that is hard to remember in this age of Red and Blue States.

I once scolded some students for sitting and talking during the national anthem and their answer to me was " I don't love America like that." Now I am not saying we should go back to blindly teaching a history where America does no wrong. We have made mistakes. Big ones. But look at the histories of every country that would criticize us and you will find crimes equal to or greater than our own. We should agknowledge our mistakes but at the same time we need to realize in just over 230 years we have created a great country where people have many opportunities not available to most of the world. We need to appreciate that. And we need to stand quietly during the national anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance because over a million people have died and sacrificed their opportunity for ours.

A promise was made a long time ago to all Americans. That we should have "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." And the effort to create a more perfect union is not easy as has been shown by people like Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King Jr. Change comes only through great effort. We have many problems in America today but the pursuit continues. So celebrate what we are today and do what it is you enjoy with your family and friends and eat yummy food. And then remember the promise says the PURSUIT of happiness. You have to chase it yourself.


BO KNOWS a lot of you don't enjoy country music, but if you do and you are looking for a really fun album to listen to you should pick up Fifth Gear the latest from Brad Paisley. He has some really entertaining stuff on there. My favorite was a song called "A Letter to Me" which was about writing a letter back to yourself at age 17. I even thought this would be a cool idea to write about until I realized most advice I would give to 17 year old me I wouldn't want anyone else to see.
BO KNOWS this case of the pregnant woman murdered in Ohio has brought out some disturbing statistics. According to Fox News the other day the second leading cause of death for pregnant women is homicide. Are you kidding me? I couldn't believe it. In fact i so doubted it I did my own research to disprove it and according to what I found not only is it true but in Maryland it is number one. Apparently they are really safe drivers there.
BO KNOWS President Bush finally made a decision I agree with. The Democrats are giving it to him for keeping Scooter Libby out of jail but in my opinion he did the right thing. Libby may have broke the law, but you know he didn't come up with this scheme on his own. Even if Bush didn't know about it you know Cheney did. You can't let your boy go to jail for doing what you asked him to do, not if you have the power to stop it. W did the right thing.