David Stuns Goliath

Well...it finally happened. I knew it was coming....and it did. The freaking Patriots lost. Poor Randy Moss. Poor Tom Brady. Poor Bill...nah...fuck him. I don't like him anyway. But congratulations to the New England Patriots for failing. I knew you could do it. From the first snap, I knew New England had virtually no chance to win.

Now, New England can join an elite class of failures that includes Brooke Hogan. Seriously though, did New England think that the cheating scandal would not come back and haunt them? They cheated to beat the Rams their first year. They tried to cheat at the beginning of the season. They tried to cheat...and they were unsuccessful.

With the Super Bowl out of the way and the city of Boston in flames, I can honestly say this was the best Super Bowl since the one in 2000 when the Titans and Rams squared off. That was a great Super Bowl, game and commercial wise. No Super Bowl has come close to duplicating that great combination.

This one failed horribly. I've seen some horrible Super Bowl commercials (last year ring a bell?). This year's batch of commercials were not that funny. The few exceptions were the Doritos commercial where "human rat" jumped out and the horse training to pull the Bud Light carriage. The others were very lackluster, especially the lame "anti-drug" commercial.

Nevertheless, this game was very good. The best play, of course, came when David Tyree leaped up and caught one of the hardest passes all year. When I saw the play, I jumped out of my seat, pulling almost all of my ab muscles since my stomach hadn't fully digested the numerous goodies I ate during the game.

I will say that the last drive the Giants put on was the greatest one since the 2000 Super Bowl. It didn't end on a field goal and it was very decisive. Even though my Titans fell, I was very happy with the game. I still remember the conversations after the game at school the next day. Enough of the sentimental crap though. Time for business.

The Giants won on the road every game. That's very impressive. I don't think any other team has done that...but I could be wrong. However, the Eli Manning "dynasty" is upon us. It's his first ring, and it was an impressive performance by him. The only mistake was an INT that his player gave to the other team...idiot.

I am disappointed in Steve Smith's performance. For this to be his "comeback" Super Bowl and to blow missed opps like that...well...that's almost like how Donte' Stallworth played. I digress though; he has a ring. Moss and Stallworth do not.

As I see the end of the Bowl...I'm still disappointed. For all the hype, there weren't many good commercials. That hurt me...as I always look forward to the commercials delivering. I guess there's always next year. Maybe the Patriots will play fair and not cheat...but then again...maybe they need to cheat to win. But wait...I guess this Super Bowl proved something...cheaters never prosper.

Not As Good As It First Was

Well...it seems like we can't even trust our meat any more. The U.S. Administration has decided that meat providers do NOT have to provide label saying which is cloned meat and which is "natural" meat. Needless to say, I am highly upset at this tomfoolery.

Since when should I be comfortable with eating cloned meat? Why can't I have the natural meat that was not conceived in a science lab? I pay high prices for good, quality meat, and if I believe that cloned meat is not of quality, why shouldn't I be able to distinguish which is which?

While I do believe if they did have to provide labeling, meat companies would try to charge extra for "natural" meat, I still would like to know what meat I'm eating. The cloning technique isn't foolproof either. What should I do if I get some bad cloned meat in me? Will the same "natural" medicine treat me, or would I need to invest in some "cloned" meds? Too many questions...too few answers.

Cloning meat does have its benefits though. With the cloning of meat, you can essentially feed more people at a cheaper price (eventually). With more people being fed, then you can stop draining the animal wildlife, letting more grow naturally and in the wild, upping the game for hunters.

However, I don't see this happening. Because Americans have the tendency to be overly greedy, I see more meat being put on the shelves than consumers can buy. This will lead to the waste of meat that could be used to feed the poorer countries. But I forget, we don't care about other countries as long as we are taken care of.

I'm still against cloned meat, even with it's benefits. I want to know that meat is natural meat. Cloned meat is like a hand-me-down: it's not as good as it first was.

Where My Money At?

The agony and sadness of Haiti is unbearable for those who are lighthearted. With Wyclef Jean's new song, "Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)," a new light has been shed on Haiti. Wyclef shows one of the ways that Haitian women are forced to make money in order to feed their family.

If you haven't seen the video (which you can see on YouTube here), Wyclef shows how some women basically have to trick in order to make money. While it is often a choice in the United States, it is often not a choice in Haiti. Why? Let's look at some facts.

According to www.globalissues.org, Haiti is the third hungriest country in the world. The wealthy in Haiti, making up 1%, control nearly half of all of Haiti's wealth. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere (fourth in the world).

With virtually no money, Haitian women are forced to sell their bodies for sex, while Haitian men are normally locked in drug battles. Even though the Haitians are forced to do what they do, they still live on less than one U.S. dollar a day. While there has been efforts to improve Haiti by the United States, France, Canada, and the U.N., all of those efforts have ironically caused more problems than they have helped.

One of those efforts were establishing an election. However, the victor Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted after it was clear that he was hurting Haiti more than helping it. The United Nations, however, is still dedicated to helping Haiti grow, despite its failure so far.

Ironically, one of the people dedicated to helping Haiti is a U.S. outcast. He lives in Cuba everyday. His name is President Fidel Castro. Castro has been trying to aid Haiti for the longest, and is probably one of the only leaders of a nation that is really trying to help Central America.

Castro was the one responsible for sending in numerous Cuban doctors into Haitia after Hurricane Mitch in 1998. He was also the one that came up with a viable economic development plan for Haiti, which has yet to be followed by other nations.

Castro proposed that for every $1,250 of the $250 billion of the U.S. defense (1999) budget, one dollar be set aside. This would have given $200 million to the aid of Cuba which would help reconstruction and socioeconomic development in Central America and Haiti. While Castro is labeled as a dictator by the U.S., one can easily applaud his efforts to restoring a ravaged area of the world.

It's clear that the effort to restore Haiti will not be successful overnight. It will take years of patience and guidance by those with nothing to gain from the restoration of this country. Politics need to be taken completely out, so the areas that will immediately profit Haiti and Haiti only can receive the most attention.

Until then, all we can do is try to donate to the U.N. to help Haiti out. It's time that something right happens for that country in 2008. Just remember...she used to be the sweetest girl ever...