Bringing back the pimp slap-Lou Dobbs edition

Memo to any male member of Rachel Maddow's family: please check out the following:

Lou Dobbs on Rachel Maddow (from Dobbs' radio show. Check out the 2nd cut from the show)

Now, upon hearing Lou Dobbs call Maddow a "tea-bagging queen", please then follow my lead, as we find where Dobbs lives, ring the doorbell, form a line, and proceed to take turns pimp slapping Dobbs' swarmy, snotty a$$.

My respect for Maddow goes back to a few years. The first time I heard about her, she was doing a morning show on the pretty-much defunct Air America Radio Network. She was doing a show with Chuck D of Public Enemy, and comedian Lizz Winstead. The show was great. Informative, funny, and always worth listening to.

Maddow went on to have a solo show on the network, before moving on to television, where she can now be seen on MSNBC.

With that in mind, I was surprised, and pretty ticked off that Lou Dobbs decided that the best way to make his argument about Maddow's view on the alleged "birth certificate scandal" involving President Obama, was to simply call her a "tea-bagging queen".

Now, Maddow proves why she's a better person than me. She simply criticized the comment, wondering, what Dobbs was trying to say.

It's a noble question. Tea-bagging, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, refers to a guy putting his scrotum on the face of another person.

Now, unless there's some kind of "Crying Game" plot twist going on, I'm pretty sure that Maddow has no testicles, and couldn't physically tea bag anybody.

But, it didn't stop Dobbs from making the accusation. Perhaps, Dobbs was trying to make a back-handed comment about Maddow's sexuality. Maddow is a lesbian.

Regardless of the reason, Dobbs surprised myself and a lot of other people who have followed his radio show, and his show on CNN. Dobbs always seemed to be a voice of the middle; not favoring either side of the political spectrum.

That mirage is pretty much destroyed now. Dobbs' cavalier comments make it pretty clear he's auditioning for a job at FoxNews-looking to take his stupid and sophmoric sense of humor to an audience of people who would be much more likely to appreciate it.

That being said, Dobbs reminds us all what Jamie Foxx once said: "Sometimes we all need a good a$$-whupping". Dobbs reminds us that while we should be proud to live in a country where we have the right to say whatever we want, we sometimes should also accept the reality that some people will take advantage of that right, and use that right to demean others. It is during times like that, when I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with a good pimp slap. Just a quick "pop" across the face. Just a reminder to people like Dobbs, that, while you can say whatever you want to say in this country, there are certain lines you don't cross.

I'm reminded of Ari Gold slapping Adam Davies in Season 5 of Entourage.

Sometimes, you just have to put a person in check. Just sayin'.

Sports Rant, July 30th:

Why don't the Cleveland Indians just admit that they're not interested in winning? For the 2nd year in a row, the Indians traded away a Cy Young Award-winning pitcher. Yesterday, Cleveland shipped Cliff Lee to the Phillies for pretty much NOTHING.

Yup, I said it. Nothing. The major prospects that Toronto wanted in the Roy Halladay discussions didn't get moved in the deal to get Lee. So, are we to believe that Toronto's scouting is just that much better than Cleveland's, or is it something as simple as the Indians just not being interested in winning. And, it's time that the fans respond.

Cleveland is the second team this year that has pretty much made it clear that winning is not a priority. The Pirates have given away their entire team this year, in the midst of b.s. trades for prospects who'll never so much as excel at AAA ball.

Where's the fan outcry? At least in Pittsburgh, the GM was worried enough that he had to address the matter, by sending out an email to season-ticket holders, offering assurances that the team wasn't actually giving up. At least there was concern, which indicates that the fans were starting to grow a spine, and some intelligence.

Hopefully, fans in Cleveland will also start to develop that spine as well. Two Cy Young-award winning pitchers being traded in back-to-back years should give some kind of idea that their team really doesn't care about winning.

And, yet, the focus is almost always on the Yankees, and their spending. If the Yankees so much as spend a nickel, fans of other teams almost always cry "overspending", and start to whine about the lack of a salary cap.

Yet, there's no ranting and raving about teams like Pittsburgh and Cleveland tanking their teams, in an effort to reduce spending.

And, don't give me that nonsense that some teams don't have the money to spend as the Yankees. If an owner has enough money to run a franchise, they certainly have enough money to try and build it up. Especially, with the Yankees and Red Sox forking over several millions of dollars to pay for other teams' salaries, via the luxury tax.

In fact, when a team is operating on a payroll that is less than the amount of money the team has been given through the luxury tax, I'd say that's criminal, and the commissioner should look into it. But, Bud Selig has about as much of a spine as a snake, and thus teams can get by living on the cheap, and continue to reap the profits through the luxury tax.

So, the next time you wonder about why the "rich keep getting richer" in baseball, ask yourself: just how much money are the "poorer" teams actually spending to produce a competitive team? The answer might make you pretty sick. Just ask the folks in Pittsburgh.

Dice-K situation getting Dice-y

According to a story from MLB.com, the Boston Red Sox and pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka have had a difference of opinion, when it comes to figuring out Matsuzaka's pitching problems this year.

While the Red Sox have pointed to physical problems (most likely soreness devleoped from pitching in the World Baseball Classic before the start of the regular season), Matsuzaka has provided another theory: the Red Sox conditioning program. Matsuzaka claims that his training regiment from Japan allowed him to achieve great success, while his new regiment while playing with the Red Sox has been detrimental to his pitching.

Here's my response: Damare! (that's "shut up" in Japanese, according to About.com)

Maybe I'd be more sympathetic if Matsuzaka showed as much enthusiasm for pitching for the team that actually PAYS HIM, as he does for his national team. Maybe I'd be more sympathetic if it didn't appear that Matsuzaka is struggling more and more with geting outs with every passing season. Granted, we're talking about a pretty small pool of information to analyze, but the results speak for themselves: Matsuzaka throws a lot of pitches to get batters out because his stuff isn't good enough.

So, is it really Boston's fault that Matsuzaka's arm is becoming less effective? Um, no. Matsuzaka's stuff is just getting figured out by major league batters, and it's taking him a lot more pitches to get guys out. Need proof? Check out his post-season games during Boston's 2007 championship campaign. In the time it took Matsuzaka to get someone out, you could do your laundry, update your Facebook page, grab a nap, and check your mail, and still see the end of someone's at-bat.

Matsuzaka's wearing his arm out, and now he's starting to wear out his welcome.

The Red Sox have, in the last few years, figured out how to play winning baseball. Granted, it took 86 years to figure it out, but better late than never. So, to suddenly hear the whining of a unhappy, overpaid employee is just nauseating. Especially when the player seems to make it clear that he chooses country of origin, over country of employment.