How I have been wrong in one sentence paragraphs

    TMZ's releasing of the Ray Rice incident prompted a long-overdue stance against domestic abuse.

    Matthew Todd Miller only spent two months in North Korea.

    I still wag my finger in the direction of both culprits, but I must admit that I did not predict either's outcome.

Proposition: Let them boys play

    Michael Phelps has yet to master the art of the car-bar.
    If you didn't hear, Baltimore police arrested the big man for drunken driving last Sunday. It's his second offense.
    Professional athletes live beneath an intense spotlight. From behind television and computer screens, the general public judges these high-profile individuals' every move. I think most of us forget they are in fact people.
    Now, Michael messed up. Big time. He should be punished the same as I would be if I were ever convicted of drunken driving.
    My issue is how much further his punishment will go.
    The sports world, from the National Football League to the National Curling Association, has this ideology that they must strike down on their athletes mistakes with great vengeance and furious anger.
    It doesn't make sense to me.
    The night my varsity football team won a section championship, state troopers arrested my coach for drunken driving. He messed up, and because of the mistake, he's facing legal and social repercussions that will taint his image for life.
    But that Monday, he was in school doing his normal routine.
    Everyday people make mistakes. Teachers get DUI's. Dentists evade taxes . Police officers murder. Those people (basically) keep their jobs until they're thrown in the slammer.
    Michael will lose sponsors, supporters and admirers. He will get a nasty fine and I'm sure his mother will give him a stern talking to. A few more offenses and he could be in jail.
    So, why suspend him? Those big toilet bowls seem to be all he's good for.

Reeferbished image

    People smoke weed. The country has been on the green stuff for hundreds of years, but these days it's a little different.
    As the nation's legal system slowly accepts marijuana reform, much of the general public still seems to be stuck in the past.
    In a  New York Times article, Jessica Bennett discusses the efforts to bring public perspective on the substance to a modern view.
    Hundreds of articles about marijuana reform hit the Internet daily and none of them do much for me. Do I agree with the movement? Yes. Do I care? much? No. Not really.
    But I do find this piece interesting.

    "So where do branding specialists begin? For starters, they would like to stop calling it pot, thank you very much. Better to call it cannabis, the plant’s scientific name. (Less aggressive.) Rather than “smoke,” one “consumes” the “product.” (Subtler.) For those in the business — or cannabusiness, as it’s known — 9-to-5 chic is crucial, said the Cannabrand owners: no sweats, no tie-dye, no Bob Marley T-shirts."

    It's about time.
    The biggest obstacle in way of the effort comes in the form of this ingrained public image. I applaud both these young women for their keen eye for business, and of course Jessica Bennett's outstanding angle on such an over-reported topic.

Hop on the bag wagon

    Plastic bags are no mas' in California as of Tuesday.
    That's pretty cool, if you ask me.
    The ban, which is the first statewide ban of it's kind, is both awesome and long overdue. Where some see great progress, I see awful initiative.
    Since my brain could comprehend anything worth comprehending, I have known the world is a messy place. At the moment, I mean that literally. There is a lot of garbage everywhere. And it's because of the global obsession (the U.S. leading the pack) with disposable products. We're lazy.
    So lazy, that it took over 15 years of knowing a massive plastic island is lingering between Asia and California before such a law was passed. And I'm not mentioning all of that trash on the side of roads and whatnot.
    That's weak. But at least it's happening. I'm trying to be optimistic, but the effort is so astonishingly delayed I almost want to laugh.
    We are past the point of cleaning up the world, but my negativity cannot take away the fact that something is being done. Something. So I thought it was worth mentioning.

Don't Do That to my Johnny

    With a motion of his eyebrows Sunday, Kyle Shanahan sent Johnny Manziel on a 40 yard slap in the face.
    When I first saw the play, I loved it. In a nut shell, Johnny pretended to be mid-conversation with the coach yards from the sideline and first-string quarterback Brian Hoyer hit him with a quick 10-step seem down field. He ran twenty more before a light hit put him out of play.
    Brilliant. Johnny Football gets his first big yards in the NFL.
    Wait. But he did that as a wide out. That's not how we wanted this to happen.
    Now it's settled and I'm not happy. Johnny Football was used as Johnny Chimpanzee.
    The Heisman-winning rookie quarterback's first real call-to-action was nothing more than an act. And I will not stand for it. It looked like a mediocre shot at making the enormous sales of his jersey seem worth while. This embarrassing media stunt made my stomach churn.
    Manziel has worked his entire life to be an NFL quarterback. Quarterback. So the Browns should let him do that, even if now that means holding the clipboard.

We Are Rolling

    I'm lounging in a grey pair of Champion sweatpants, eating a bowl of Cinnamon Pecan Special K. That bowl sits about 500 miles from Washington, D.C. and 5,500 miles from the areas in the Middle East where U.S. airstrikes fell this morning.
    President Barrack Obama just addressed the press from the White House lawn, and really failed to give new information. I felt as if he had nothing more to offer than the articles I read before the brief conference.
    Obama spoke on the events carried out this morning, but didn't speak much on what happens now. A single morning of bombing cannot do much more than anger the people referring to the U.S. as a killing machine.
    So what comes now? It seems like the word we in the media wait to hear is war. A lot of meaning packed in three letters. But it seems difficult not to use the label, even if the commander-in-chief hesitates to say it again.

Pick Up That Chin, Matt

    Bad ideas come in all forms.
    I have quite a bit of work to do today, but I chose to spend last night at the bar with my buddies. That wasn't the best display of judgment, but after a breakfast sandwich and a Gatorade, I'm feeling alright. I don't think it was that bad of an idea.
    What I think is a very bad idea, is American Matthew Todd Miller allegedly entering North Korea in an effort to experience life in their infamous labor camps.
    "Mr. Miller was accused of entering North Korea with the “ambition” to deliberately violate North Korean law so he could experience life in a North Korean prison and later become a firsthand witness about the human rights conditions in the North, The A.P. and The Choson Sinbo reported." --NYT
    While believing anything from North Korea seems silly, I do believe this claim. It's just a weird thing to make up. So I have to assume Miller did actually incriminate himself for this cause.
    I'm curious how quickly the 25-year-old regretted this nifty idea.
    Quick scenario: I'm  an advocate of gun control. Do I shoot myself in the leg in order to tell the world how awful it felt?
    But in all sarcasm, he looks like he's pretty happy with his decision.

Despite my criticism of this ludicrous play call, I will be the first to buy Miller's memoir in six years. I have a decent title in mind: How To Ruin Your Life For Dummies.