Too Far?

Hmmm.
Did I perhaps go too far with my slander for Thursday? Will people understand that it's JUST A JOKE?
You tell me.
I've already gotten one email (yeah, I'm skipping school today as I have a long drive ahead of me) saying that it was, "a little over the line." Then again, I got another email saying, "It was pretty funny."
Either way, it's just a joke.
Here are some random thoughts this morning:
-It MUST have been a slow sports day yesterday. With all the basketball games (college or pro), the hockey games, and the college football games, Sportscenter still had President Bush pardoning Marshmallow as one of its top plays for the day. Now forgive me for being...slow, but when did a politician saying, "Ok, turkey, you get to live (think Dirty Harry)," constitute a sports moment? Seriously. Were players SO bad yesterday you couldn't find one more highlight. I've mentioned this problem in a previous post. When I was a kid, I used to watch Sportscenter every night before I went to bed (yes it was late, my family is a bunch of nighthawks). They had class. I would watch guys like Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann give the scores with the occasional joke. Now it's almost all jokes with the occasional score. What's next? Will they start showing Bush or other politicians signing documents?
"He's looking for the pen. Time is running out. He's going to go with the blue pen, which he calls 'Binky' according to friends. He's over the paper, and he lays the smackdown to that bill."
No?
Maybe it's just me.
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-Minneapolis was named the 34th most dangerous city in America. I find that absolutely fascinating. Maybe it's because I grew up on the East Coast, but I always thought of the Midwest as this quaint, safe place. Hell, when I told people I was moving to Minnesota, they said, "Oh, that's a really safe place. It has to be too cold to commit a crime."
Yet, now Minnesotans are afraid to walk around Block E as so many people have been beaten or robbed. Now, I've lived in St. Louis, which wasn't so bad. The thing that drags St. Louis down (or puts them so high on the list: 3) is East St. Louis which is technically in Illinois, but whatever. It's a hell hole. It's so bad that John Carpenter shot Escape From New York there because, "It looked like it had been hit by the Apocolypse." This was in the 80s folks. It hasn't gotten better yet. When I was in college, a girl I know had her car stolen, and it was dumped in East St. Louis totally stripped. Not a good day for her. The rest of the area? Pretty nice.
Then again, I've never been one to be afraid of walking or going somewhere. When I was five years old, I left my parents' apartment and walked through New York a few blocks to see them at their restaurant. There are parents I know, including mine, who are slightly horrified by that story. They think, "You were damn lucky. Today, you'd be stolen."
It's not just there. Both my sisters were mugged in almost the same spot in San Francisco. Not me. Maybe it's because I'm a guy, or maybe it's because I look crazy (beard, scruffy hair, kinda big, muttering to myself), but people leave me alone. I'm the guy who can walk down the center of a sidewalk, because everyone will move out of my way. On a really bad day, I can make people cross the street instead of walking by me. That's not bad for a white guy.
It's just fascinating to me that Minneapolis, which to me is quaint, is on the same list with Detroit, Cleveland, Compton, and more. That's all.
Ok, that's it for now.
See you all later.