Two wrongs don't make a right.......

But, this does not mean that all wrong things are wrong to the same degree. Let me explain.

I have found the fallout of Max Hall's comments about Utah very interesting. I have seen 3 different reactions to his comments. First, BYU fans that are cheering the comments, obviously stupid. Second, fans, non-fans, and others who think he was wrong to say it, but understand where the animosity comes from. Third, people who refuse to aknowledge the source behind the comments and merely decry him as a classless jerk.

This got me to thinking about the idea of fans and to a larger extent people defending or at least explaining away bad behavior with the response that the opposition does it as well, as if that somehow makes it okay, or at least pulls the other side down to the same level of shame. I will try to illustrate my thought process with a few examples.

First, this one came to mind after I read Camille's comment about sports fans getting as bad as the political arena. I found this comment particularly astute. The animosity that has grown up around the BYU-Utah game is absolutely ridiculous. The anger, vitriolic comments, and actions that would shame people to their core at any other time seem fair game during the 'Holy War' week (a title I absolutely abhor). But, I also think the political analogy particularly helpful to my point as well. Just because two sides of an issue/contest whatever are both stupid, does not mean the are wrong/abhorrent to the same extent. For example. I had never before seen such anger and hatred spewed by a large portion of one group politically as I saw directed at our former President. It was sickening to the extreme, and though I continued to be more and more disillusioned with any politician on the right side of the aisle during the same time period, never did I feel as much disgust as I did for the left (generalizations used for conciseness), though they were both stupid, I was more disgusted with the left. This has now been eclipsed with the blind hatred spewed by those (mostly self-styled conservative republicans) who have taken up the banner of anti-immigration. Though I still disagree with much of what the left does, I am ultimately more disgusted by this faction of the right. They are not equal in stupidity.

Second, soccer fans. As I am sure Mark and Hilda will be quick to tell you, when they had to sit in the midst of Sam's Army during the U.S. v. Costa Rica game, that group of fans is rather disgraceful. I would not feel comfortable taking a child of mine to watch a game if they had to endure the profanity and obscenity spewed by the collection of idiots who have dubbed themselves Sam's Army and follow the U.S. men's national team around the country. That being said, their stupidity does not rise to the level of Mexican national team fans. I have never been more disgusted with a group of sports 'fans' as I am consistently with the Mexican fans. Batteries chucked at opposing players, bags filled with urine and worse dumped or thrown on opposing players/fans at any chance. I have more than once said that FIFA should not allow games in Azteca stadium until Mexico shows that they are willing to rein in their own fans. Sam's Army is a collection of idiots, Mexico's fans are a disgraceful stain on world sport that in my opinion should not be allowed to have a game played before them.

Utah and BYU. Now, I know that many of you will merely chalk this up to my own personal bias, but I think you should actually take a second to think over my points before you do. There are idiot BYU fans and there are idiot Utah fans. I don't think this can be disputed. I have attended many BYU football games (never against Utah, and I never will), I have also attended a BYU home basketball game, Alisa has been to several UofU Basketball games, and a few gymnastics meets, she has also been to a couple football games at the U. I felt disgusted at the BYU fans at the Basketball game, and frankly don't have any desire to go back, I found them immature and insulting. Alisa had nothing but good experiences at both the Basketball games, and gymnastics meets. The only complaint I have ever had at a BYU football game, was when the fans booed BYU's coaching decisions, I find that childish. Alisa was forced to move at one of her games, because of the incredibly large group of drunk and offensive fans in the student section. The question is what type of behavior is acceptable. At Utah football games, being drunk, loud, and profane seems not only to be accepted, but in some ways encouraged. While beer is not sold at the stadium many have been drinking for hours before the game at tailgating parties, and as I was informed by many Utah fans while in Law School, sneaking alcohol into the games was one of the easiest things ever. Whether the individual is a better person or not, a student who was drunk or profane at BYU would not go over well at all. This isn't to comment on the individual 'righteousness' of the fan, but what the culture of the stadium and school foster. Utah does its best to distance itself from all things Mormon and 'Utah-like'. You can list all the Apostles and GA's you want who graduated from Utah, besided the LDSSA, you won't find many on campus that care to remember that. Now, if you truly think that I am merely pulling opinion out of thin air, ask yourself this. Which campus has to completely cover every statue so that they aren't painted red? A BYU student caught drunk and profane at a BYU football game could very easily be kicked out of school, a U student might be escorted from the stadium. There is a different level of what is acceptable. While the idiots in blue are still idiots, and their actions are in no way acceptable, that does not make their actions equal to the idiots in red.

Now, how does this all pertain to Max Hall's comments? Well, to me, it helps me understand them. Are all of the U fans classless idiots, of course not, I have some friends who are season ticket holders, they are good people and would be incensed to see some of the stuff happen to people that U fans do. But, Max Hall's experience with U fans is thus, they verbally abused his family, and dumped beer on them. Then, for years, have used some of the most debased languange in chat rooms, message boards, and editorials including the school sanctioned 'paper' if you want to call the tripe that is the Utah Chronicle a paper, to describe him. Given him an obscene nickname that is freely bandied about by the majority of the vocal U fans. It is clear by the fact that no one does anything to rein in the Chronny that the administration of the U has no desire to foster any different attitude. Several of these things would not be found on the other side. Some of them would be, but not all. I really don't think it can be disputed, though both have their idiots, Ute fans, as a group are worse. It does not surprise me that Max Hall hates the U, their program, their fans, and the school. I understand it. Does that excuse it? No, he was out of line. He should be, and will be reprimanded by the league, and the school.

Anyway, the end result is this, the whole rivalry is getting stupid. And its being pumped up by media, and stupid fans. But the obscenity, the vulgarity, and the vitriol has to lay much more on the Utah side. Just read the articles in each schools newspaper, and the filthy comments that are posted on the U's. That wouldn't fly in BYU's paper.

The Gathering Storm

This is the latest installment in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. I will continue to refer to it as Jordan's even though Brandon Sanderson is, quite wonderfully, finishing off the series for the deceased Jordan. Luckily for all of us fans, Jordan left a plethora of notes and outlines, as well as haven already written somewhere in the range of 10-20 thousand words already. The 'final' book ballooned to a reported 800 thousand words, and subsequently is being published in three different volumes. So, basically, it went from a 12 book series to a 14 book series. Some may cynically see this as a money making ploy. I frankly don't care if it is, as long as I get more great story, and honestly when you pick up this latest book, it couldn't have been three times this size and been manageable.

On to the book itself. I will not put down any spoilers, I hate spoilers. (The most shameful experience of my life is giving the ending away to a movie for some inexplicable reason that I still can't comprehend, sorry Mark). Anyway, many Jordan fans began to be turned off around books 8-10. Admittedly, the story slowed to a snail's pace. I will not spend time defending the books as good, which they are, or explaining that on a second or third reading there are parts that you really get to appreciate, which is true, I will simply say that in books 11 and 12, the story jumps back to the amazing form that fans were used to at the beginning of this series.

The first thing I must say is that Sanderson did a masterful job at picking up where Jordan left and weaving Jordan's notes into a book that, frankly, is impossible to distinguish from Jordan's writing. I was leary that the books would have a different feel, being authored by a different person, but it did not. For you fans, do you remember the way you couldn't put down The Shadow Rising because of how compelling the story was, or the excitement of Fires of Heaven. The Gathering Storm should be placed firmly in the very top of these books, as good as any of them. Story's begin to resolve and it is clear that this series is headed quickly and decisively to an amazing conclusion. I wish I knew more people who have read it, so I could start talking with them about it, so far its just Alisa and me, as far as I know.

For those fans who gave up back in the slow time, come back and catch up with this series, I promise you won't be disappointed. For those who were tempted away by that flash in the pan George R.R. Martin, or any other of a myriad inferior writers/series, you need to catch up and read The Gathering Storm, it was a masterpiece, plain and simple.

400 thread count sheets

Holy cow. Just bought some 400 thread count sheets from Sam's Club the other day, put them on last night. I can't adequately describe how awesome they are. I'm used to just the cheapo 100-150 thread count sheets, which are fine, but wow, what a difference. If you have the chance, splurge, get some of these, its worth it.

Fourth on its way.

So, Alisa is pregnant with our fourth. We are both very excited. It will be interesting to see if the trouble making continues to be distilled in each subsequent child we have. Its like an exponentially growing amount so far. Anyway, she is due sometime in April, so at least she won't ever be cold this winter.

My Blog

So, its been quite a while since I posted anything here. This was kind of my outlet for my thoughts. Unfortunately, I realized how it can be taken and twisted, so, I kind of lost the passion for it for a while. This was the place that I wouldn't have to censor myself to make sure that everyone was okay with it, but now I have to worry as I post, who is going to read this? And what will they do with it. Its stupid, I know, but that is how it is.

Lance, yet again.

As many of you know, I am a huge Lance Armstrong fan. He is the only person, in my opinion, who can make the Tour exciting. When he doesn't race, I can understand everyone else's opinion about bike racing being like watching paint dry. But when he races, I'll get out of bed at the crack of dawn to watch a stage where he is going to make a move, go flying up a climb, and fight past people to cross the line first.

The most recent issue of Sports Illustrated had two separate articles about Lance, the first basically talking about how Lance is a giant hypocrite for not admitting that he dopes. It talked about how many people dope, about how in Europe its pretty much agreed upon that all of them dope, and that Europeans don't care that much, get caught, serve a supspension, all is forgiven. It hammers Lance for pages about how ridiculous it is for him to think that anyone would believe that he could be that much better, and not dope. The second article talks about the following commercial.



The person who wrote the second article took Lance to task for what she saw as almost unforgivable arrogance in trying to tie criticisms of him to the fight against cancer. She argued that he was making it impossible to critique him without coming off as being an opponent of what he stood for. Finally she finished with saying that he should be less forceful in his tone about his critics.

Thats a load of crap.

In the same magazine that she spouted that tripe, her editors felt the need to put in pages denouncing Lance as a fraud, and a doper, and a hypocrite. His tone seems to be right on the money to me.

There are many who claim there is no way he could be as good as he is, so automatically assign him to be a doper and a cheat. I find it amazing that the same label is not automatically put on Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Lebron or Kobe. No one claims that Barry Sanders must have been a juicer to run like he did, especially with the sieve of an offensive line that the Lions had. No one says you must be blind and naive to think that Joe Montana, or Steve Young must have been cheating to have the success that they saw.

You want hypocrites, look to the people who, because cycling isn't America's pasttime, are so quick to denounce someone who dominates the sport when they don't hold their sports heroes up to the same standard.

Is it possible that Lance has taken some performance enhancing drugs, of course. Of course it is possible that he has access to drugs that are impossible to detect over literally thousands of tests given at completely random times with more scrutiny that any other athlete in the history of the world....its possible. But it is out of the realm of logic to make the claim that because doping exists, that because people in his sport have doped, and because he has beaten those same people consistently for years, that he too must be guilty absent any and all evidence to back it up.

I'll still be excited to watch him win the Tour this year, and make no mistake, when they finish in Paris he'll be wearing the Yellow Jersey. The critics can continue to say whatever they want, this guy actually makes it exciting to watch men race bikes for hours at a time, tell me one other professional athlete with that kind of charisma.

Me and the BSA are gonna have a fight.

I couldn't be more enraged by the stupidity of this new BSA policy. Story here.

Apparently the BSA thinks its a grand idea to say that any scout or leader who is overweight, as decided by the BMI scale, will be banned from participating in many activities. It seems the rule is that if one is overweight you cannot participate in any activity that would take you more than 30 minutes from emergency medical help.

I have more than one problem with this. First, the BSA already required a physical to go to scout camp etc.. If someone were unable to safely participate the doctor would not clear them. Second, with the state of health in the youth of the country, is banning them really the good option here. But, if these were the only problems, I would just be annoyed, what enrages me is the use of the BMI to label kids and leaders.

I hate the BMI, I hate how it makes its blanket labels with no real differentiation between body type, or variables.

Now, I am the first to admit that I am overweight, and I am currently working on losing weight. But, I would direct you to this BMI website. It will tell you what weight you need to be to be considered not overweight according to them. For me? I would need to lose 78 pounds to finally drop into 'normal' weight. I would have to weigh 191 lbs. If this rule were actually enforced, I would have never been allowed to go to scout camp, work at scout camp, go rock climbing, etc.. I would have been unable to take my Varsity scouts down the Snake river a couple years ago.

It is hard enough to find adults who are willing and able to help out with scouting, if this is actually enforced, it would really be the death of any sort of outdoor/high adventure scouting.

I couldn't be more enraged at the BSA.