Oprah Quits

It’s about time… she’s really lost a lot of credibility in these last few years if you ask me. Like when she shut down the City of Chicago with this season’s ’flash mob’ for the opening show. Or how about how she exploits all these misfortunes, for example with Charla Nash whose face was ripped off by a chimp. All those commercials promising to show her real face. All exploitative tactics to keep people watching. The big reveal was touted throughout the length of the hourlong show, which only added to the sensationalism of it all. Not only that but Nash had stated that she couldn’t remember much of the attack… only to have the details of it thrown back in her face.

There are countless others whom Oprah has exploited and unfortunately that’s not her only crime.

Oprah Winfrey’s advice on health issues is another huge problem. Oprah has been continuously criticized for promoting cosmetic therapies that have been shown to be dangerous. Her recent deal with the ever quacky Jenny McCarthy hasn’t helped matters and has drawn criticism from children’s advocates, as McCarthy and her autism advocacy group, Generation Rescue, have been leading an ideological, unscientific crusade against childhood vaccines.

Her show is just not the same as it used to be. She’s all about the ratings now. Oprah Winfrey has got to be one of the biggest Diva’s ever. I say thank goodness to her quitting now. I just wish all these people would stop acting like her quitting is such a big deal. What a bunch of dopes!!!! Honestly you would think it’s the end of the world the way people are making such a big deal. I just hope Dr. Phil follows suit.

FAA Glitch

The breakdown occurred when a single circuit board in a part of equipment at a computer center in Salt Lake City, Utah failed at approximately 5 a.m.

The failure from that single circuit board started a chain reaction which ultimately obstructed the ability for traffic control computers in different parts of the country from talking to each other. This then caused air traffic controllers to have to do everything manually.

An important system such as this should not be dependent on a single circuit board for which there is no redundancy. There are enough delays at an airport as it is. The flight control system is about as old as Methuselah. Time for an upgrade don’t you think?

You can download an interview with JJ Green who is the National Security Correspondent at WTOP.

http://media.bonnint.net/wtop/16/1695/169509.mp3

UFC Black Eye – Get New Judges

Anyone catch UFC 105: Couture vs Vera? Boy oh boy… in what is becoming a blemish for the UFC, the judges yet again fail misserably at their jobs. I’m a huge Couture fan but this should be such a hollow victory for him. Just a quick recap for how judges score a bout:

Judging Criteria
Judges are required to determine the winner of a bout that goes to it’s full time limit based upon the following criteria:
-Clean Strikes
-Effective Grappling
-Octagon Control
-Effective Aggressiveness

Round 1 really didn’t have much going on but if someone had to win that round it should have gone to Couture for pushing Vera to the cage and holding him there for a good portion of the round.

Rounds 2 and 3 were pretty much the same thing from Couture. However Vera landed some effective strikes in both rounds and rocked Couture in both rounds with some clean strikes. Couture really didn’t do much of anything except try and hold Vera in place. Points for him for octagon control but Vera showed effective aggressiveness and landed clean strikes in both of those rounds.

Midway through the second round, Vera landed a high kick followed by another left leg kick to Couture’s side. Another body kick, followed by a big right and a knee to the chest and Couture was on the ground.

The judges got the score right but the decision completely wrong. It should have been 29 – 28; the winner being Brandon Vera.

I don’t even think Couture felt that he had won. He had the look of someone who was quite disappointed and in all honesty I thought he was possibly entertaining the notion of retirement before they announced him as the winner. Couture didn’t defend his win with much conviction and his explanation for the score was that “I controlled the tempo of the fight. It probably wasn’t the most exciting thing to watch.”

Unfortunately this isn’t the first time the judges have gotten it wrong. One only needs to go back to UFC 104: Machida vs Shogun to see poor judge scoring.

I blame this on the mentality that ‘one must beat a champion to become a champion‘. Of course you have to win… but I feel that people take this to mean that one must dominate a champion to get on top. We need to get rid of this though process. The fights should be judged as any other fight… the criteria used should be the same regardless of status.

As Bruce Buffer would say… “It’s Time“… Time for change. C’mon Dana White… it’s time to get competent judges or otherwise train them properly. I barely have a background in fighting and yet could do a much better job than any of these guys who you have judging the bouts. Even Joe Rogan is disgusted by the outcomes from these past two fights.

Judge who refused interracial marriage resigns

So I’m sure many people have heard of Keith Bardwell; the judge in Louisiana who refused to marry an interracial couple because of his concern for children. Apparently he has been advised “that I needed to step down because they was going to take me to court, and I was going to lose.”

Now don’t get me wrong. I do find the fact that he refused to marry the couple outrageous and a bit despicable, not to mention the fact that “the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State” as decided by the unanimous decision in the 1967 ruling in the case Loving v. Virginia.

On the other hand I am shocked at how many ‘family values’ groups are either keeping silent in their support of  Justice Keith Bardwell or otherwise expressing their disgust over his refusal to marry the interracial couple. It’s pitiful that that a majority of these people who support the firing of Keith Bardwell and declare their disgust of his decision are the same people who oppose same sex marriage and do so in an outward fashion.

As I stated above, I am well aware there is a law in place which does not allow for a judge to refuse interracial marriage, but I am just in shock that their was such a mob mentality to have this Louisiana Judge fired and yet barely a peep at the refusal to allow same sex marriage.

The fact is we shouldn’t allow a judge to refuse marriage between any couple due to race, religion or sexual preference. These rights should be left to the people.

On one hand to see the judge getting called out and forced to resign shows how far we have come as a nation and yet it leaves quite a glaring stain at just how much ignorance still exists.