Blazing Inferno

I don’t have any children yet, but one of my sister’s lil’ Georgia Peaches is already reading at a very young age. For her birthday, I think I’m going to send a copy of the book that first lit my fire. The inferno that is the incessant pursuit of knowledge was sparked by that one book. I hated reading before that, sometime around the third or fourth grade, and I didn’t do much of anything aside from playing “war” in the woods with friends. I was always outside doing something or going on some sort of adventure. Discoveries of new places and the building of “forts” was a regular activity on the weekends from dawn until dusk.  Of course, this contributed greatly to Mom’s anxious moments and stress levels when I would come home with various wounds. No worries, though, because I think I turned out alright. 

            Soon after that first book, I became a huge comic book fan. I remember my first comic books like it was just yesterday that I treasured them, tension and drama increasing with each turn of the page. I am a firm believer in the power of reading, and I still read voraciously to this day. Last night, K and I sat down to watch a movie that we both meant to see in the theater. “The Dark Knight” was recently released on DVD, and one of my guys at work, Jon, let me borrow his copy. We saw “Iron Man” earlier this year at the theater with Scott and Jen, and we all loved it. It was the first great comic book movie. Most of them just don’t hold up well when depicted on the big screen. For whatever reason, something is usually lost. “The Hulk”, ”The Punisher”, and several other comic movies were far from good. “Spiderman” was good, but something just wasn’t the same. Casting has a lot to do with that, though. Even the “X-Men” movies didn’t really excite me, but maybe because I wasn’t a big reader of the comic. Don’t even get me started on “The Fantastic Four” movie. “Iron Man” changed that for the better. I loved it, and when a friend of mine (and fellow comic geek) said that “The Dark Knight” was better, I was skeptical to say the least. 

 “The Dark Knight” lived up to the hype and then some. Two and a half hours flew by like it was an hour. I must admit that in my heavy comic book reading days, I was a regular reader of these books: The Incredible Hulk, Batman, Detective Comics (Batman series), Iron Man, Spiderman, and Fantastic Four. These books made up the bulk of my interest, so I think I’m naturally drawn to these characters when it comes to cinematic adaptation. I’ve yet to see the latest version of the “The Incredible Hulk” with Edward Norton, but lackluster reviews have kept me from speeding over to the movie rental joint with reckless abandon. I haven’t bought any newly published comics since about 1995 or so, but I’ve bought some old comics (silver age mostly from the 60s) here and there to add to my collection. 

 It’s unfortunate that my little nieces live so far away because they are both big Spiderman fans. For now, the little house shoes with light-up Spiderman faces on them that I sent for Christmas will have to suffice. I’m sure I have a couple hundred comics I could let them read in a few years. Maybe someday, if I have kids, I’ll be able to share my comics and spark something good. I’d love to start the fire in someone new to the finer things in life. 

Wake Up

  Monday night, only a day after getting to see my beloved Steelers come through in the end for a resounding victory over the Dallas Cryboys, I was treated to a surprise appearance by the Pittsburgh Penguins on Versus. Well, I say treat, but in the end it was painful to watch. I caught the game right after the first intermission. Soon after starting the second period with the Buffalo Sabres, the Penguins looked to be in control of the game. They put one in the net to give themselves a nice cushion with a 3-1 lead. Well, as it played out, the Penguins played sloppily in their zone for the next thirty-five minutes, giving up ridiculous goals by not blocking out Sabres that were crashing the net. It was painful to watch the Pens fail on a 5 on 3 opportunity and 2 more power plays before it came to an end with the Penguins coming out on the losing end, 4-3 at home. 

  I haven't seen a game since then, because I only get to watch when they're on Versus, but I heard yesterday that they've been on a three game losing streak. Ouch. Well, last night, as I was watching the ESPN scroll, I saw that the Penguins finally woke up their offense with a huge win over the NY Islanders. 9-2 was the final count, with two unlikely players(Sykora & Dupuis) garnering hat tricks. The stars of the team, Crosby and Malkin, ended up with five assists and a goal between them. Not too shabby.  I'm glad to see they can rebound after some tough losses, and I'm hoping solid play will only build as they come up on the second half of the season. 

The Time is Nigh

              The times are tough, and I don’t think we’ve had even a taste of what is to come. This is one of the few times in my life where I will be absolutely elated if I am proven wrong. The world is an absolute mess- both socially and economically speaking. Here in our great country, Democrats argue with Republicans about what we should do to fix the matter. Most Democrats want the government to supply “bailout” money to anyone that may be hurting because of the credit crunch. Most Republicans seem to be the minority in voicing their correct assessment that government intervention leads us all on a perilous slope toward a socialist society. At what point did “we the people” allow the government to spend our hard-earned tax dollars in any way they so choose? I know we elect our representatives, but what is supposed to be a democracy is obviously not working. Government should be spending less and intervening less, but just the opposite has been happening since the end of the Second World War.

            I don’t have a PhD in political science, history, or anything close to it. I educate myself, and consider myself to be fairly intelligent. I don’t understand why so many people, who have plenty of history available to them for education, fail to see the problem with big government having so much power and control. This, I believe, is the fundamental difference between people that are for and against a government with more power than the people. The government of the United States was given permission by the people to govern and oversee the country and to work for the people. The primary reason for our declaration of independence from England was to be free from the hands of a big government. It seems that we are now trying to come full circle, with the only difference being that we are building our own big brother from scratch.

 It’s been said that all great societies, or empires, in the history of the world have gone through cycles of success that last a few hundred years. This would indicate that the US is on the back slope of one of these cycles, but in this instance as well, I hope it fails to come to fruition. An even larger picture is painted when one looks at the history of man as we know it. There are clearly 1500 to 1600 year cycles of man’s success and failure ever since the beginning of recorded time around 3000 BCE. I find it very interesting that the ancient Mayan calendar puts the “end of the world” at December of 2012 CE. This is roughly 1500 years after the fall of the Roman Empire. We could very well be on the precipice of tough times, indeed.

Vindicated

    The hit that Ryan Clark put on Wes Welker in last Sunday's spanking of the New England Patriots has been talked about quite a bit. See Scott's Blog. Clark got flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, which I thought was ridiculous. The league has told their officials to call things like this in order to try and protect players from injury. Most Steeler fans thought it was a bad call, and most Patriot fans thought it was a justified call. Well...The league came out today and said the hit was OK and there should not have been a flag thrown. Well, no Sh#$. 

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08339/932643-66.stm

    I can't remember the last time I was so happy about a Pittsburgh Steeler victory like I was after the New England game. Well, having said that, probably Super Bowl XL. The Patriots have been taking the Steelers to school for the last few years and it felt good to give them a righteous beating in their own house. 

    There's another huge game coming up this Sunday- The Cowgirls. I hate them with a passion. I absolutely despise the Dallas Cowboys. I have hated them since I first put on that black Terrible Towel t-shirt. Yes, that was probably at age three or four and I can't really remember much from that era, but I'm sure I hated the Cowgirls as much then as I do now. I'm ready to put to rest all of the smack-talking I'm hearing from the local Cowgirl fans and a few of my friends that are unfortunate fans. The forecast is cold, about thirty degrees, with a forty percent chance of snow. That is Stiller Football, and I can't wait for a game with an outcome just like Super Bowl XIII.

Justified

I was doing what most people do on a normal day on the computer. Clicking away, heading to my email account during one of my ‘not so busy’ moments when I stumbled upon a football story. This one was sort of football related, and turned into kind of a diatribe on the author’s part. It was a story about Plaxico Burress and his latest bad decision. You can read the entire story here:

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/8877402?MSNHPHMA

  Yes, Plax had a gun in a place where he shouldn’t have (establishment that serves mostly alcohol) and apparently doesn’t have a license (and therefore, the training) to carry a weapon on his person. I’m not arguing that he is not a knucklehead. There were reasons beyond financial for my beloved Steelers letting him go a few years back. He does not possess the kind of good character attributes that the vast majority of current Steelers have.

 There were a few lines toward the end of this particular story that really caught my eye, though. The first sentence is in reference to former Washington Redskin Sean Taylor being shot and killed in his home-he didn’t have a gun.

You wonder: would a gun have made any difference, though?

Perhaps. But I tend to think not. I'm still waiting for the first gun story with a righteous ending. You don't hear about the guy who popped the two burglars as they were coming through the screen door. No. The stories usually end like Plaxico Burresses, just not as funny. Or as lucky.

Funny, but one of my best friends in the world sent me a story a few days ago that would fill Mr. Kriegel’s self-proclaimed void. He hasn’t read any sort of stories like this because they never make it past the smaller newspapers to be reported on television or printed in big newspapers that cover mostly metro areas with a million plus readership. Big cities also tend to be the ones that have passed Draconian gun laws making it very hard for law abiding citizens to possess handguns, let alone carry one concealed for protection. This one was in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette:

  

LR home intruder fatally shot No charges yet for homeowner who fired at 2 men, killing 1 By Jacob Quinn Sanders Tuesday, November 25, 2008 LITTLE ROCK — A Little Rock man fired four shots early Monday at two men trying to break into his house, killing one while the other escaped, police said. Little Rock police have so far declined to charge Jason Cook, 27, with a crime for firing the shots. Investigators plan, however, to send their file to the Pulaski County prosecuting attorney’s office for review. According to a police report, Cook was on the phone in bed at 30 Rosemont Drive just after midnight when he heard his doorbell ring. Cook told police he was not expecting company. He told police he grabbed a handgun and walked down a hallway. He heard the doorbell ring again and then heard loud, banging sounds, according to the report, then saw that the door from the carport had been forced open. Two men walked inside Cook’s house, according to the report. Cook fired, hitting the first man three times, his wounds forcing him to the floor, according to the report. The second man ran away. The first man got up and dragged himself outside, according to the report. Police found Roderick Jacobs, 19, still alive outside Cook’s house inside a 1999 Buick Park Avenue, which had its motor running. Metropolitan Emergency Management Services workers drove Jacobs to St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center, where he died from his injuries later Monday morning. Though only a legal adult for less than two years, Jacobs had been charged with at least eight separate felonies since his 18th birthday in February 2007, Pulaski County court records show. He pleaded guilty to five of them, one was dropped in exchange for a plea deal and two more were pending. The cases included gun, drug and theft charges. Jacobs was scheduled for a bench trial Dec. 5 on charges of theft by receiving and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He faced a probation-revocation hearing set for the same day based on the same charges. He was on probation for a 2007 guilty plea after he was found carrying four grams of crack cocaine. Jacobs’ death was the 37th homicide in Little Rock in 2008, Little Rock police said.

 The perpetrator in the Little Rock case was probably not taking classes at the local community college, nor was he likely collecting money for a charitable organization at the time of his demise. Unfortunately, the world is full of bad people, and to own a handgun or rifle in order to protect oneself from such bad people is a right and responsibility I and millions of others don’t take lightly. I hope I never get put in a position similar to Jason Cook’s, but I can tell you I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to protect myself, my home, and the people I hold most dear. If that means taking the life of someone like this winner, uh..suspect, then so be it.

CZ