ddain's Blog

There is no doubt that the nomination of Barack Obama for President is a great story about how far this country has come in terms of dealing with its racist past. Whether you like Obama or not, it's a wonderful sign that he's in position to become the president of this country considering it's sordid past.

But not everyone is probably happy about, namely Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

Consider how Jesse and Al are always playing the race card when talking about how poorly black people are faring in our country today. Of course they're premise that all that is wrong with the black community (in their eyes) is due to the white man and the obstacles he as put in place, but still, having a black person one big step away from being President of this country has to hurt their cause. And this, is a good thing.

Think about this:
For the last eight years we've had black Secretaries of State.
We have a Supreme Court Justice who is black, and we've had a black man be the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Home ownership among blacks is up.
We have plenty of CEO's of huge companies who are black men.

So it makes you wonder where Jesse and Al now stand? I guess they could harp on how the court systems are unfair to blacks and that there are more blacks in jail than whites. But the fact that most people manage to stay out of jail because they have high-priced attorneys is the key here, not the color of your skin (it worked for O.J., and last time I looked, he was black).

What's sad is that Jesse and Al avoid the main problem that affects the black community, the fact that many fathers abandon their families when their children are young. That is the bigger problem here, since that affects the guidance a child receives growing up (and leads to gang activity) and it also affects the financial situation (preventing children from attending college).

But there's nobody to blame but yourself in those cases, and that doesn't make Jesse and Al much money, so it's not good for their business to bring that up. Good thing Bill Cosby is around to do that.

....the walls are closing in.

The pressure is mounting.

Sweat...dripping down my scalp and it has become hard to swallow.

MY WIFE WANTS ME TO TAKE HER TO SEE "SEX AND THE CITY!"

Help!

I'm trying to keep up a good front, being honest with her telling her that I hated the show and couldn't stomach watching 2.5 hours of it with her if 30 minute shows were already too much to bear. She tells me that I had no problem watching it with her when it was airing on HBO. My reply is, "We were dating then and I wanted to impress you."

Sadly, such chivalry is lost.

Am I the only guy here who is holding the line on this. And ladies, are you forcing/asking your man to take you?

Help a brother out.

The NBA has enjoyed an entertaining season. After moving away from the referee scandal that plagued the sport last summer, we saw some exciting and interesting developments this season. To wit:

Some major trades that saw future Hall-of-Famers change teams (KG, Kidd, Shaq).

Races for the playoffs (especially in the West) where a top level team (the Warriors) missed the playoffs entirely as all entries had 50+ wins.

The re-emergence of the Boston Celtics as a legitimate title contender for the first time in 19 years.

A close race for the MVP Award (Kobe, LeBron, Paul, KG).

But now, with four teams left, we're looking down the barrel of perhaps a very boring NBA Finals that will put anyone who watches the game to sleep.

If we have another Spurs/Pistons series, get ready to catch up on your sleep. Not only have these teams played for the title a few years ago, but they are both really boring and predictable. I'm not advocating for a Celts/Lakers Finals (although that would be the most interesting), I'm just hoping we don't get Spurs/Pistons again.

I'm a Mavs fan, and so I don't really care who really wins, but I'd like to watch the NBA Finals without falling asleep, so I'm pulling for the Celts and Lakers to make it.

Thursday's decision by a four judges in the California State Supreme Court has sent shock waves throughout California unlike any earthquake possibly could. Despite legislation that is on the books that bans gay marriage, the law is currently null and void. So essentially, even though the majority of Californians do no want gay marriage to be legal, it is.

So that means Ellen DeGeneres and others can now marry their significant others.

But is this a good thing for gay people?

I submit to you that it isn't.

This qualifies as a victory for gay people who are seeking the desire to be "married" to their boyfriends or girlfriends. But did they do more damage to their cause?

You have to figure that the majority of Californians who do not want gay marriage, and expressed their views in a vote, are not happy, and are probably not  willing to bend in their stance. In fact, they are probably angry at these developments and are less tolerant of what gay people are seeking than they were when they voted.

I would imagine that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't help his bid for re-election by publicly saying that he would not do anything. Again, considering most of his constituents are against what happened Thursday, you would think he would have SOME interest in upholding the law.  

The image at the right is exactly the type of thing that many Californians find unsettling. The militant, take-no-prisoners attitude that many gay people show when it comes to fighting for their right to marry. Obviously not all homosexuals are like this, but it seems that they are not the ones whose views are heard. Moderate attitudes aren't sexy enough to be shown on TV as you know.

Personally, I think there's an easy solution to this problem that should satisfy everyone. I think the word "marriage" should be relegated to a man and woman. But homosexuals should have civil unions which will entitle them to the same legal rights that married couples have. This way, the word "marriage" is kept to a man and woman, but gay people have the same legal rights as heterosexuals do. Unless I'm missing something, this is a win-win situation.

And then we can all take to the streets and dance like this.

When you have a toddler at home, you often find yourself not watching the mature, adult-oriented programming you enjoyed when there were no kids around. Instead, you watch the Disney Channel a lot and plenty of Nickelodeon. I consider myself lucky that my daughter isn't interested in Hannah Montana yet, since I can't afford tickets to her shows. But there are other programs that I watch with her and after a while, you start to find some redeeming qualities in this kiddie programming.

Lisa J. Lennox can easily be considered one of Canada's finest babes of the small screen, dazzling us daily with her singing and dancing. She is clearly the cream of the Canadian crop when it comes to kid shows from the Great White North, eh? You can see her on "The Doodlebops" where she plays Deedee Doodle. She looks much better without the pink makeup and unflattering purple dress. If she ever came to this country, she could be the most popular Canadian export since hockey.

But let's shift our attention to another part of the world, and another TV show that I now watch on a nearly daily basis thanks to my  daughter.


Meet Caterina Mete!!!

This little Aussie pocket rocket is one of the world famous Wiggly Dancers on the show, "The Wiggles." Always smiling and shaking her short frame, 27-year-old Caterina not only shows off her boundless energy as a highly-trained dancer, but she has an occasional speaking role at the end of the program, often telling us that she hopes we enjoyed the show.

Yes Caterina...we did.

She has her own appreciation web page on MSN, which is a little odd but still, it's a testament to her rising popularity.

I think she's on tour now with the Wiggles, shaking her toned butt and legs all over the world. So Caterina if you read this,  please let me know if you can make a house call to my living room. It pays well....but lose the red coat.

Thumbs up Caterina...and a g'day to the rest of you.

Let's  talk about one of the greatest characters in the history of American television, and why he should be revered, respected, and emulated by people worldwide in order to make the Earth a better place to live.

James "Sonny" Crockett was an undercover vice cop, patrolling the streets of Miami with his loyal partner in search of drug traffickers and hookers whose only goals were to make money and make our society a worse place to live in. Sonny was an all-American wide receiver for the University of Florida where he ran a 92-yard TD in the final seconds of a game before transferring to what he called the "Southeast Asia Conference." Yep, Sonny was a war hero (he served two tours) as well as superior athlete. Combine that with a cool name, James Crockett with a nickname of "Sonny" and you have a guy who immediately makes you think of the word, "cool."


Sonny had a fashion sense that defined a generation. Sporting a t-shirt, Italian sport jacket, white linen pants, and sock-less loafers, this became the look to have. Combine a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses and a hot Ferrari with a shiny gold badge, and yeah, you have a true American hero, who defined the word "bad-BLEEP."

With a great man comes great friends, and in this case that man was Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs, who patrolled Miami with Sonny in a pair of Ferraris, one a Daytona Spider and later a Testarossa. Crockett and Tubbs teamed up in the pilot episode to chase down Calderone who had killed Rico's brother. At the conclusion of the show, Crockett asked Tubbs if he had ever considered a career in "Southern law enforcement." A great partnership was born.

Obviously a guy with these credentials had no troubles getting laid. The show started with Sonny banging fellow cop Gina Calabrese (played by Saundra Santiago) before he moved on to other conquests. Most notably, he was married to Sheena Easton before she was gunned down in the show, Julia Roberts was his main squeeze in the final season, and he was with Helena Bonham Carter for quite some time until she turned to drugs (which led her into the arms of Tim Burton). Sonny lived on a big boat in the marina with his pet alligator Elvis. Could you ask for better home protection than that?

How did it all end? Sonny walked away from his low-paying, non-appreciated job when politics yet again interfered with his ability to get the job done (wouldn't we all want to do this?). He took the car and moved down to the Florida Keys where he could spend the remainder of his days drinking "black jack," fishing, and banging hot women. What a gig.

And he had his own theme song...check it out below.

I recall several years ago when I worked at Fox Sports when a former New York Met legend was on Jim Rome's TV show. Unlike most sports celebrities who walked in and out of the building, this guy had no entourage and when he stood outside of the building waiting for his limo to pick him up, nobody was standing with him. Armed with a pen and paper and a desire to get his autograph, I strolled outside and approached this man, who was crouching down out of the wind, lighting a cigarette.

"Hey Nails! How about an autograph? "

This World Series champion looked up at me, blew out some smoke and said, "Sure."

That was my only experience interacting with Leonard Kyle Dykstra, known as "Lenny" to many. But for those who know him, calling him by his nicknames of "Nails" or "The Dude" is acceptable. Check out his baseball stats here to refresh your memory of his late 80's, early 90's, steroid-enhanced numbers. As you can see, Lenny loved to chew, in fact, Pittsburgh Pirates center-fielder Andy Van Slyke often called the outfield a "toxic waste dump" when he played against Dykstra's teams.

But this blog isn't about his numbers, but more about his fighting attitude. It seems that when Lenny hung up his cleats in 1998 his investment adviser didn't do right by him, and so Nails lost a ton of dough in the stock market. And that's where this story gets interesting.

Lenny rebuilt his fortune by purchasing car washes and is now an astute investor in the stock market. You seek advice? Find it here on this website where you can ask him a question. I just sent him one about whether it's a good idea to invest in China.

Today, Dykstra is a columnist for TheStreet.com, manages his own stock portfolio, and serves as president of several of his privately held companies, including car washes; a partnership with Castrol in "Team Dykstra" Quick Lube Centers; a real estate development company; and a new venture to develop several "I Sold It on eBay" stores throughout Southern California. Dykstra has helped bring to the forefront an investment strategy called "Deep in the Money Calls". He has also appeared on Fox News Channel's "The Cost of Freedom" business show. And he is publishing a financial magazine to help ballplayers invest their money better.

But this pales in comparison with his interview on HBO's "Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel." The idea that Dykstra is so wealthy, and can clean up to look somewhat business-like in a suit is contrasted with his grungy look he had as a player, and his liberal use of foul language. You can take the man out of the locker room, but you can't take the locker room out of the man.

I don't know about all of you, but I'm having a hard time figuring out who I'm going to vote for in November, as none of the candidates really excite me. None represent the majority of ideas I have, and all have seriously flawed policies on a myriad of things.

But after listening to what Barack Obama said Tuesday in regards to the inflammatory remarks made by his pastor, Jeremiah White, I can safely eliminate him as a choice.

It's not that I think he's naive when it comes to his Iraq policy, or that he has no interest in addressing the immigration issue, or that most of what he "stands" for is change for the sake of change. But what he didn't say Tuesday is bothersome.

Here is a passage from a sermon given by White regarding how blacks in America have been treated:

"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."

Here is one excerpt of what Jeremiah Wright has stated about 9/11:

“White America got their wake-up call after 9-11. White America and the Western world came to realize people of color had not gone away, faded in the woodwork, or just disappeared as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns.”

Obama chose not to disavow or denounce Wright, his pastor and mentor for over 20 years. He will not distance himself from a man who feels that US deserved to get hit by terrorists on 9/11. And Obama didn't really put a lot of distance between himself and Louis Farrakahn, a racist, anti-Jewish person who does nothing but harm tot his country when Farrakhan endorsed him.

I didn't like how Obama made excuses for White, saying that his words are often out of frustration and a feeling of disenfranchisement shared by many American blacks. Honestly, I don't understand how an educated black person in this country can still play the "victim" card anymore. Don't you think that Martin Luther King, Jr. would be thrilled to know how close we are to electing a black president? Don't you think he would be happy to know that a black man is a Supreme Court Justice, and that a black woman is the Secretary of State? And if you think about all of the blacks who own their own homes and businesses forty years after he was assassinated, I think King would appreciate the strides that have been taken in this country.

So when Barack is talking about victims of what he implied was white majority who has kept everyone down, I think he has missed the point. The problem with blacks today isn't about being kept down by "the man" as Obama, and many other Democrats would like you to believe, it's about the lack of father figures in many black families. It's about children born out of wedlock. You can't blame whitey for that.

I'm not telling you to not vote for Obama based on what he said, nor should anyone vote for him simply because he's black. And you shouldn't vote for John McCain simply because he's not a Democrat or for Hillary because she's a woman. But I think Obama, but not saying what he should have, hurt his chances to garner the votes of white people Tuesday.
At least he did with this white person. I'm very nervous voting for a guy who won't distance himself from anti-Semitic, American-hating people who only spread ugliness through their words.