You Make It Too Easy, Angela

Today, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that German multiculturalism "utterly failed". Now, there are waaaayyyyyyy too obvious jokes we can make here ("Are we talking 1940 or 2010?" "Have you come up with a Final Solution yet, Angela?") that I'll refrain from making (oh, wait a second ...). I can deliver a whole bunch of rants about how Europeans love immigrants to lighten their load but not darken their doorsteps or, worse yet, their bloodstreams. I can go on and on about how fucked up race-baiting for votes is. I can even get smug and scoff about how this is just your colonialist past coming to bite you in the ass (though that wouldn't be too accurate in Germany's case--but when has being factually wrong stopped a blogger from ranting?).

Instead of all that, though, I simply want to ask a question to all these anti-immigrant white Europeans and European-Americans:

Just Win, Baby!

It's been a mighty fine, mighty comfy moral perch we've been allowed to sit on, we Steelers fans. Our beloved team's owners, the Rooney family, don't take no mess. They draft for character; they reward good conduct; and they tolerate no bad conduct. Player after player who have messed up wearing the black and gold end up getting a pink slip.

And they've been able to win with that philosophy. Raiders owner, Al Davis, made amorality famous with his "Just win, baby!" motto. But look where that's got him. The Raiders haven't won a Super Bowl since the Marcus Allen era, and they've been utterly abysmal since losing to Tampa Bay in the Big Game back in '03. The Cincinnati Bungholes Bengals tried the same strategy a few years back and only wound up collecting more parole officers on the sidelines than wins on the scoreboard.

But it's not as though morality wins ball games. This high moral road the Rooneys have taken hasn't always resulted in Super Bowl victories--just more than any other team. The Steelers have spent a lot of time in my lifetime sucking (remember the end of the Noll years?). But when they have, we fans have always been allowed to feel a little smug in our frustration.

We've been able to deride Ray "Murder" Lewis. We scoffed at the Jimmy Johnson Cowboys and all their legal troubles. All those thugs and villains, drug dealers and drug fiends weren't in Steeler uniforms. And I admit, it felt a bit nice being so smug, so morally superior. The Rooneys seemed so serious about this stance, I don't think I'm the only Steelers fan who started adopting it as their own.

"New Americans"??? Try Again, O'Malley

Now look, I often say and/or write the wrong thing. I often even revel in my own irreverence. But, truth be told, I actually do believe in the mission of the "Politically Correct." I believe that language can indeed influence and betray thought. If someone constantly uses the word "fag" in "polite" conversation, we can pretty much surmise how they feel about homosexuals, and, if I constantly called white people "honky," you'd know I was a 60-year-old former Black radical who lives in Hawaii with his Norwegian wife, eating tofu barbecue while puffing on that patchouli.

So, I am actually supportive of the whole PC movement, though I do confess I'm a bit conflicted. Anytime the PC factory comes out with a new term, I often find myself scoffing. As I did earlier tonight listening to the Maryland gubernatorial debate between Gov. Martin O'Malley and his Republican challenger (and former Maryland governor) Bob Ehrlich.

Tonight's new gem came from O'Malley, who has now decided on calling immigrants (legal or otherwise) "New Americans." It's so hard for me to figure out what my initial reaction to this new bit of political manipulation was since I got pissed at Ehrlich's own reaction to the new slogan.

"If someone breaks into my house, is that a new member of my family that night? It's not new Americans. [It's] illegals."

Medal of Honor: Trivializing Afghanistan

You know, you would think that the fact that the first generation to grow up with video games is already in its 40s would pretty much quash every controversy to arise over the latest video game. But I guess it's like when they used to tell our Baby Boomer parents that the "marijuana today is sooooo much more dangerous than what you smoked!!!"

Today's controversy is over EA's Medal of Honor, another one of those creepily realistic-looking, multi-player shoot 'em ups. Reportedly designed with the help of US armed forces, the game's furor is over the fact that it allowed you to play the game as the Taliban as well as US forces. Folks are basking in their own outrage (America's #1 reaction to anything that might just require thought), claiming that this multi-player option somehow "trivializes" what our troops are going through over there in Afghanistan.

Personally, I can't figure out how that can in the least bit be possible (they subsequently changed the "Taliban" to "Opposition Forces," or some such nonsense). When I used to fly my B-17 bomber missions over a digitized Europe with my old Intellivision, I don't feel I was in the least bit making light of what Jimmy Stewart, the Tuskegee Airmen, and the rest of our Fly Boys went through during WWII. But I don't think that's really the important argument in this whole broohaha.

I am more interested in the entire idea of what has actually trivialized our troops' struggles over there in Afghanistan. Just for the sake of a shorter post, I'll concede that Medal of Honor somehow does this. But I wonder what else may have had a larger "trivializing" factor in said conflict.

The Bill Campbell: Misanthrope Show -- Episode 6: Global Funk Ambassador

Please check out the new show. And don't be afraid to tell me what you think.



I Am Not a Witch * Neanderthal Lessons * Stones vs. Beatles 


________________________________________

Piotr Figiel - Dyplomowany galernik

Can - Vitamin C

Isaac Hayes - Theme from Shaft

The Temptations - Cloud Nine

Piramis - Mondj Egy Meset

Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot - Bonnie & Clyde [Herbert's Fred & Ginger Mix] Kaori - Good Life

Jungle Brothers - I'll House You

Isis - Hail the Words of Isis

Lonnie Liston Smith - Expansions

Hercules & Love Affair - Time Will

Steve Spacek - So Many Ways

Aloe Blacc - Want Me

Big Boi feat. T.I. & Khujo - Tangerine

Clutchy Hopkins w/Dorondo - Love of a Woman

Rolling Stones - Under My Thumb

Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band - If This Is Love (I'd Rather Be Lonely)

The Jackson Five - Hum Along & Dance

Billy Preston - Outa-Space

John Lennon - Whatever Gets You Thru the Night

Robert Palmer - Through It All There's You

Bill Campbell: The NFL Nostradamus

All right, I made a crazy prediction at work today. I think I'll share it with you.

The Steelers will go 13-3 (maaybeee 12-4), have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, and will win their seventh Super Bowl title.


And to continue the crazy ...

Hines Ward will pull a Bettis and retire on the podium, James Farrior will retire a few weeks afterwards, and Mike Tomlin and his peoples will get to work on the third Steeler dynasty ... starting in 2016 ... three years after Big Ben retires from football to join the priesthood.

Poohbutt on War

"War is not nice."



"I don't like war."



"You shouldn't give people boo-boos."



"If you give people boo-boos, you should give them Band Aids."



"You should give them hugs, too."






Watch your ass, Sun Tzu!