Book of Daniel

The new comedy-drama series on NBC-TV called The Book of Daniel ignited a silly controversy by the American Family Association which piqued my curiosity to check the series out. Matt Drudge picked up the article about two NBC affilitates boycotting the series in Little Rock, Arkansas and Fort Wayne, Indiana. The American Family Association claimed that the TV series were making fun of Christianity.

Thanks to the brutal cold weather outside, I came home from the gymnasium and was in time for its brand-new series at 9 PM for its two-hour special show. I thought I'd watch the first 20 minutes to see what it is all about. The first 20 minutes hooked me up. In fact, the debut of that series probably made the AFA look like fools.

I came off being very impressed with The Book of Daniel. Once again, this show was created by a gay man, Jack Kenny. The popular show, Desperate Housewives, also was created by a gay man, Marc Cherry.

The series started off with a great cast of characters that has their worst tendencies: The Episcopalian Priest, Rev. Daniel Webster has an imaginary friend, and it is none other than Jesus Christ himself! Not only that, he has an addiction to vicodine, he kept on popping it all day long. The dialogues between Jesus Christ and Rev. Daniel Webster was great. I grinned when Rev. Daniel Webster joked with Jesus Christ, "I'm OK, but you're divine!" Jesus chuckled and slapped on Daniel's back and said, "Oh, I liked that!"

Reverend Daniel Webster's wife, Judith, is addicted to Martinis when problems arose, she always ran to get her fix of Martinis. Together, they have three children -- all are teenagers: Adam, Peter and Grace.

Again, this is interesting. Adam is Chinese who was adopted by the family -- that boy loves to chase after women and is now infatuated with a 15-years old girl. Peter is gay conservative (a future Log Cabin Republican, really!) whom the family seemed to enjoy teasing him about it. Grace inhaled weed and sells it as well. She was recently arrested for possession of marijuana.

Confusing? Actually, there is more to this, Judith's sister is lesbian. Daniel's mother has Alzheimers disease, Daniel's father, out of frustration that his wife do not recognize who he is, is having an affair with Daniel's boss at the Episcopalian Church! Daniel, as of now, is not aware that his father is humping his boss.

Oh, yeah, their housekeeper smokes weed outside of the house.

Actually, this show already spinned more subplots in less than 2 hours that can be addressed for a long time. Suddenly, two hours of shows are done. I wanted one more hour of that show.

You can bet that The Book of Daniel is going to be on my list each week along with Desperate Housewives and The Family Guy.

The Book of Daniel being on Friday night is not good idea -- but heck, you never know. It may surprise many. Or not.

Cheers,

R-

Sago Mine

For the last few days, I was not comfortable in talking about the Sago Mine Disaster which killed 12 coal miners and maimed 1 miner in Tallmansville, West Virginia. There was an explosion that ended up trapped 13 miners in the Appalachian mountains, the prospects of them surviving was slim because the levels of carbon monoxide was three times high, good enough to put people to sleep and die.

Then two days ago, my father told me that all miners were alive. I was surprised. Then the next morning, I woke up to learn that no, all miners except for one is dead. Why? Don't be so surprised, my friends.

This is the way of life for coal miners. In fact, the corporations that employs these miners enjoyed one huge advantage: good pay and subjugation. I know because I am part of that culture, whether you like it or not.

You see, my great grandfather was crushed to death in a coal mine not far from Norton, Virginia -- then few weeks later, my great grandmother killed herself because the property that my great-grandfather worked hard to provide a shelter for his family was merely owned by the company. The heartless company evicted my great-grandmother since the house is owned by the company. She had nowhere to go. It was pretty hard life. Totally unnecessary but that is what the corporations enjoyed the most: subjugate the lower class in the Appalachian mountains in the last 100 years.

Not only that, my father's father was also a coal miner and became the victim of Black Lung. He succumbed to that man-made disease at 67. One guy spoke on ABC's PrimeTime that it is sort of a culture for coal miners to stick together when bad things happen. He is right. Even I do not work in coal mines, a part of me cringed and groaned when I heard of people being trapped under the tons of Appalachian mountains. It is not right but that is part of coal miners' lifestyle, really.

It was disgusting to learn that the owner of Sage Mine has homes in Manhattan, Palm Beach and the Hamptons. And that he just issued his company to provide only $2 million to the victims and is hoping that people will donate money to help the families. Never mind that the owner of International Coal Group, billionaire Wilbur Ross, has not donated a cent to the families devastated by the disaster in West Virginia. But I was not surprised at all. That is what capitalism is all about. Subjugate others to enrich yourelf.

Not only that, the Bush Administration is responsible for what happened to coal miners in West Virginia, since the Bush Administration forbade the inspectors to be assertive and close the mines if needed. The Bush Administration has been cozy with the mine industry to relax the rules. And the result is what? We have this disaster that can be prevented in the first place.

Jack Spadaro, a retired employee of the Mining Health and Safety Administration, complained about the Bush Administration's negligence, "The inspectors have been forbidden from being as aggressive as they need to be, they can't go ahead and close the mine and use the authority that they have to do the job that they've been charged to do."

Was I ever surprised? No, not at all. When I heard that GW Bush expressed his sorrow about the deaths of 12 miners, I chuckled. That man is lying through his teeth. I'm curious to know whether if GW Bush is going to donate $ to the Sago Mine Disaster. Or will Wilbur Ross?

Or just ignore the coal miners in the next few weeks, like they always do for the last 100 years?

These men worked hard than Wilbur Ross or GW Bush did in their lifetime -- GW Bush spent 2 hours of his lunch breaks running up and down the park in Maryland. These men in coal mines are not allowed to work out for two hours during their lunch breaks.

Goes on to say how much wonderful this country can be.

Of course, it disgusted me to my core. And you should be.

R-

See Why I Hate Extremists?

In Virginia Beach, Virginia: The Xian nut Rev. Pat Robertson claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's recent massive stroke may be the sign of God's punishment for giving up the lands to Palestinians. Check this link for further information.

In Qom, Iran: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the radical Islamic extremist, hoped that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dies as well.

See any difference between two nutty religions? Not so much, to me.

Which is why I do not like religions at all. Their job is to defame each other as much as can be in order to prove which one is the best of all. Pathetic, is it?

On another hand, Jose Padilla finally made his first court appearance in three years (1,095 days) regarding his alleged participation with Al-Qaeda. Whatever happened to the Amendment VI for Jose Padilla?

According to the Amendment VI, it stands for:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

It is nice to know that the Bush Administration attempts to circumvent our very own constitution to subjugate the accused ones without providing them the right to have a speedy trial by any means.

Don't tell me that they are evil and they would not do that to us if given an opportunity -- but let's face the reality, we (our government) are supposed to be better than them. Therefore the government needs to put up with them and do the right thing. So far, we are no better than them. In fact, the Al-Qaeda got what they wanted us all along -- to be stuck in quagmire where they can say, "See! They are doing it to us!"

In order to be better than anyone else, we have to rise above the rest with dignity and pride. To deny Jose Padilla of his speedy trial, we simply shamed ourselves as Americans.

R-

2006 Seems To Be Cool So Far

1. I got in touch with a long-lost friend of mine, Will Sharpe.

2. Jack Abramoff's Scandal with Republicans. Democrats may have gotten $$ from Abramoff's associates but not from himself. Republicans did get money directly from Jack Abramoff.

3. My workouts are going well. I look forward to that magical number sooner than you think.

4. The anti-gay pastor from South Tulsa Baptist Church, Lonnie Latham, from Tulsa, Oklahoma was arrested for propositioning to a male undercover officer with oral sex at Habana Inn. You see, Lonnie Latham serves on the Executive Committee of Southern Baptist Convention and he criticized the gay people as "destructive lifestyle". Well, well, he was arrested at Habana Inn. Know what Habana Inn is? Check this link. I love it when I heard people like Lonnie get arrested. Such a hypocrite figure, but that is very common amongst the Xians, trust me.

5. No. 1 Southern Cal Trojans lost to No. 2 Texas Longhorns, 41-38 after they condescendingly led 38-26 with 6 and half minutes left. After that, it was all Vince Young as Texas pulled the red carpet from its floor. I'm so glad that USC Quarterback Matt Leinart was denied of picking up another trophy. And I look forward to read a blogger named BoiFromTroy whine about his so-called great team losing to Texas Longhorns. Congratulations to Texas Longhorns for doing something that not many teams did, beating Southern Cal in Los Angeles.

Cheers,

R-

Abramoff and Republicans

Jack Abramoff, a Republican lobbyist, made a plea bargain with the Department of Justice about his contributions to the political corruption in White House and the Capitol Hill. It is interesting to note that Jack Abramoff donated $261,918 to Republicans and special interests. And no dime was spared for Democrats.

In time, with the agreements of plea bargain, Jack Abramoff will identify the list of who's who that he contributed -- that will make Republicans squirm in their seats. Good.

It goes on to prove that Republicans are greedy and liars and will do anything to win the elections and votes -- if it takes money to do that, they will do it. For years, the Republicans accused the Democrats of many things and denied that they were equally bad. It is interesting to note that the majority of Republicans that were involved are Conservative pigs. When Abramoff's willingness to identify the participants -- we shall know whether if the Republicans were really patriotic or just greed who is in to enrich themselves with profits.

Did they vote for American's interests or just for themselves? My bet is that the majority of Republicans are doing it for themselves.

In that case if you want to read who's who that Jack Abramoff contributed, check this link.

UPDATE: Washington Post has the graphic that mentioned the list of Democrats being involved with the Jack Abramoff Scandal. But the majority of corrupted Congressmen are Republicans, though. They all have to go, but the problem is that the average American (in one poll, 71%) believed that it is typcal cultural of political corruption in Washington. Which indicated one thing: Will the Congressmen leave? Or will they fight to stay?

Stay tuned.

Cheers,

R-

Few Tidbits for 1.3.06

MICA Runway 2006: Ann Marie "Jade" Bryan launched the website of MICA Runway 2006 and she also announced the new scholarship in honor of Sarah Marie Pack. The MICA Runway 2006 will be held in New York on June 17, 2006. Check the link and be sure to read the press release and donate some to support Sarah Marie Pack's scholarship.

'Memoirs of Geisha' Criticized: Some hearing people are amused that Deaf people complained about hearing actors trying to portray as Deaf characters in many films. We try our best to educate or bash them that it is inappropriate to use hearing people to act as Deaf persons in the films and television shows. Some hearing people insisted that there are not enough Deaf actors to portray one. Excuses, excuses and excuses!

Well, this particular film called Memoirs of Geisha, there is an uproar about using Chinese actors to portray Japanese characters. Many people were offended that Chinese Director chose Chinese actors because they claimed that there are not "good" Japanese actors to fill the roles! If you try to google the title of that film and add controversy on the search engine, you'll see many blogs talking about it. But among one critic is Deaf himself, check this link for further information.

Sycamore Street? There was an article featuring about Sycamore Street in Staunton, Virginia. That particular street sits right behind the campus of Mary Baldwin College. It is unique neighborhood. A good friend of mine, Kevin, still lives on that street along with his family. Must be dull day for Staunton News Leader to mention about Sycamore Street!

Vote for Ronda Jo Miller! To some of you who do not know who Ronda Jo Miller is, she was the best basketball player (male of female) in Gallaudet University's history. She averaged 24.4 points per game and 14.4 rebounds per game. I had the pleasure of watching her play for four years at Gallaudet, including the most dominant game I ever had witnessed, Miller's 38 points and 13 rebounds against No. 2 College of New Jersey in the second round of the NCAA Tournament which Gallaudet shocked TCNJ by 10, 81-71 in Ewing, NJ.

Today, Ronda Jo Miller is still No. 1 in NCAA Division III in career rebounding leader and No. 3 in career scoring leader. And the NCAA is now conducting the votes to select the players to be part of NCAA Division III Women's Basketball 25th Anniversary Team. Ronda Jo Miller deserved this spot. She was one incredible player ever to play for Gallaudet's hardwood floor. Please pick Ronda Jo Miller in this link. Hat tip to Christian.

Confidential to Tim Kettering: Still bitter at me just because I offended your prick friends many years ago, pizzaface? Get a spine and move on.

Cheers,

R-

Two Deaf Schools Boycott Barry Strassler

California School for the Deaf-Riverside's Athletic Department has joined Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf's Athletic Department in protesting the owner of DeafSportZine by declining to share the reports and game highlights and to "opt out of the national sports rating system", according to DeafWeekly News' January 12 2005 edition. The owner of DeafSportZine is none other than Barry Strassler.

Citing the lack of professionalism, Barry has engaged in threatening and degrading behavior towards CSDR's Athletic Director, Len Gonzales. He mentioned, "What disturbs us the most, is that this is a one-man show and that you are incapable of being unbiased, fair and nonjudgmental."

I have to applaud Len Gonzales and Randy Shank for standing up to Barry Strassler. It is an open secret in the Deaf Community that Barry Strassler tends to behave inappropriately towards people that disagreed or even attempted to discuss over a simple thing.

In fact, one person in California has termed Barry Strassler "Strassholer". That is how bad it was/is for many.

I once had a spat with Barry Strassler when I suggested that he picks ten Athletic Directors of deaf schools to do the polls, you could see his face turning red as he bombarded me with insults instead of thanking me for making a simple suggestion. Later, I learned from different people who underwent similar experiences of dealing with Barry's malice.

This is the reason why CSD-R did not win the National Championship this year after its 10-1 run. So DeafSportZine's pick of Maryland to win it all is not really credible, to say the least.

I'm sure there are many readers who complained of Barry Strassler's tendencies. If you want to share your experiences with Barry Strassler, you may do so in the comment section.

Cheers,

R-