Gil The Jenius

Youth Citizen Journalist Network

2009-07-17T15:12:00.001-04:00

What began as a conversation about citizen journalism education between Claudio Alvarez-Dunn and Me in mid-2007 is now the Youth Citizen Journalist Network--YCJN. In partnership with the National Student/Parent Mock Election, the largest civic education organization in the world, the YCJN will launch this year as a pilot project in several schools in New York City, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Florida, Maryland and Montana.

Yes, Montana.

Other states will be added in a blend of citizen journalism and civic education--the basis of citizenship and democracy--that We are calling "Informed Democracy 101." To quote Ralph Nader: There is no daily democracy without daily citizenship. To build the democracy of the present and for the future requires that We educate Ourselves on becoming well-informed citizens about Our democracy and its issues.

Thanks to the support of Gloria Kirshner, President of the NS/PME and Tom Engleman, National Mock Election Coordinator and Board Member of the Dow Jones News Fund, the YCJN has a presence today at the National Civic Summit (the merging of new technologies and citizen journalism) and at the National Association of Secretaries of State conference, both being held in Minneapolis.

The YCJN will focus on middle- and high school students and the use of cell phones to help capture their community interests. Layered with this local (or hyper-local) focus will be a group of experienced journalists editing content and selecting national and international news that relate to developing an Informed Democracy. As newspapers and their influence dwindle, the need for the Fourth Estate to carry out its pivotal role as paladin of democracy increases and what was once the responsibility and privilege of a few is now the responsibility and privilege of all of Us. In the words of Bill Moyers: The quality of democracy and the quality of journalism are deeply entwined.

On a day that closes with the loss of the embodiment of trusted journalism, Walter Cronkite, the YCJN takes its first steps towards becoming a forum for developing engaged, enlightened and expressive citizens who apply the skills and standards of ethical journalism to build democracy, at home and around the world.

The Youth Citizen Journalist will develop with more partners, in more schools, communities, states and countries. It will grow in small steps, but each small step, each person who joins the effort, represents a quantum leap in the potential of developing Our democracy, or any democracy, now and well into the future.

As Abbie Hoffman wrote: Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles.

Say Hello to the Youth Citizen Journalist Network and get to know Us better. If you want to make a positive difference, rest assured We'd love to work with you.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Boricua U.S. of part of A. Stats

2009-07-17T09:21:00.002-04:00

It's the Pew Hispanic Center's Factsheet #48.

Go ahead, click the link and download the darn thing. Takes about 53 seconds. You can read the whole thing in about 142 seconds, unless you're a government employee, in which case it will take 5.2 hours for someone else to read it to you. Make sure to put in for overtime.

Some excerpts:

"As a group, Puerto Ricans are older than Hispanics on average but they are younger than the U.S. population. They are less likely to be married than either Hispanics overall or the U.S. population overall. The majority (55.9%) of Puerto Rican women ages 15 to 44 who had a birth in the 12 months prior to the survey were unmarried. The comparable share for all Hispanic women was 38.1% and the figure for all U.S. women was 33.4%."

Uh, more than half of Puerto Rican women who gave birth did so as single women? Woo-hoo! Boricua family values! And Let's not forget Boricua sex (non)education!!

"Puerto Ricans have lower levels of education and lower incomes than average for the U.S. population. They are less likely to be in the labor force, and among those in the labor force they have a higher rate of unemployment than either all Hispanics or the overall population. The rate of homeownership among Puerto Ricans is lower than the rate for Hispanics overall and the U.S. population overall. "

Okay, translation: "...less likely to be in the labor force..." means "Welfare parasites"!! Woo-hoo! Boricua work ethic!!

Uh, any positives? Uh-huh: "Among Puerto Ricans ages 5 and older living in the U.S., most do not speak English at home. Some 20.5% of Puerto Ricans ages 5 and older report speaking English less than very well, compared with 38.8% of all Hispanics." Boricuas speak better English than the average Hispanic!! Yeah!! So, uh, why do We have higher unemployent and, uh, lower income, which translates into lower homeownership than the average Hispanic?

Huh?

Welfare parasites!! Woo-hoo!

Stereotype? Well, if the statistics bear out the percentage concept of the single welfare mom with freeloading welfare chillo surrounded by 3.2 kids also headed for high school dropout status, then is it a "stereotype"...or is it a "type"?

A quien le caiga el sayo, que se lo ponga.

If the shoe fits...

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Standardized Suckiness

2009-07-13T14:12:00.002-04:00

This won't take long...

Has anyone else noticed that the local Department of Education has not released any figures about this past academic year's standardized tests?

The reason is stunningly obvious: The results suck, like a hyper-powered Hoover with nitrofuel in the enhanced turbo engine bolted to the ramjet booster.

Now, We need to assign blame here. That's S.O.P. and The Jenius is an S.O.P. fiend when it suits His mood. And this, My Friends, suits My mood:

1) The (maladroit)educational system's focus: You can say--and many have--that the educational system is a wasteland of freeloaders, freaks and freebasing felons, and you'd be right. But no system is designed that way (except for the legislature) and by lacking a coherent focus, the system ends up being a lurching wreck instead of a rolling wagon.

2) The teachers' union: Yes, I know there were two and now there's one, but they were all essentially the same "union," each pretty much divided along political lines. Not focused on educating, but on pushing propaganda, pay raises and more downtime for lazy, stupid people. Plenty of independent studies have shown that the stronger the teacher unions, the lower the quality of education. And We have a teacher's union that has the indomitable strength of a moronic autistic donkey on downers.

3) Parents: Let's face it: We are doing a sucky job as parents. We preach good grades, but Mammon forbid We actually read anything or watch educational TV, or better yet, dump TV for doing something creative and constructive. We preach applying yourself in school, but make heroes of those who excel at anything except school. We dump Our kids in school and expect the school to do the job We refuse to do and We also expect the school to reward Our little bundle of parent-induced neuroses with good grades just for breathing. We act as if learning were limited to school and meander about in a shopping/beery/ostrich-like haze that makes even the idea of learning a non-happening.

Here's what We can expect from the results: Major--and I mean major-- massaging of the report, to the extent it breaks almost entirely from past formats and measurements, in a lame smoky mirror attempt to divert attention from the core conclusion: Our kids are failing worse than before because We are failing them worse than before.

Let's see some freebasing felon in the Department of (Mis)Education stick that in his crack pipe and smoke it.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Business Tax (Dis)Incentives

2009-07-10T13:12:00.000-04:00

"Giving a tax incentive to a business to encourage economic development sounds like a great idea, but it is not. Tax breaks for businesses are little more than corporate welfare at the expense of hard-working Georgians. They amount to subsidies favoring a select few businesses over Georgia’s residents and existing businesses.

Proponents of tax breaks for new businesses argue the increase in jobs will make up for the reduction in revenue, but tax breaks for businesses rarely pay for themselves and often end up costing the state a great deal of money. That shortfall must be paid for by Georgia’s taxpaying citizens and business, which don’t have the benefit of that break.

Giving a business a tax incentive to move here may help that business in the short term, but in the long term the people who pay for that tax break also happen to be the employees and the customers of that company. Plus, it sends the wrong message to existing Georgia businesses: “If you stay in the state, we will use your tax dollars to subsidize your competitors.”

In June, after the North Carolina Legislature approved a $46 million tax break designed to induce Apple, Inc. to build data warehouses in the Tar Heel State, Scott Hodge, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation, had this response: “Too many legislators confuse targeted business incentives with policies that truly create a better business climate.”

“They are not. They only provide an excuse for lawmakers to avoid real tax reform. Targeted incentives are to a state’s economy what steroids are to the human body – short-term results that eventually weaken the bones, cause heart failure, or worse, impotency. Tax systems should not be used to pick winners and losers or micromanage the economy. Data farms in North Carolina might be a good thing, but it is much better for the marketplace to decide that, not government. The key to a prosperous economy is a tax system that provides a level playing field for all businesses and all industries...”

...The most equitable tax incentive that Georgia could offer would be to cut taxes on individuals as well as corporations to make Georgia more attractive to individuals and businesses – both old and new. This would lead to investment and job creation, encourage more businesses to move to Georgia and send the correct message to Georgia’s current businesses." (Emphasis Mine.)

No, I ain't moved to Georgia. I just used this article to answer this question: Guess what "economic strategy" Puerto Rico has surgically grafted (heavy emphasis on "graft") to its low sloping forehead of business development for 40+ years?

Uh-huh.

The Jenius Has Quoted.

Two Optimists

2009-07-08T12:12:00.000-04:00

I love how languages can express ways of thinking. I know two languages intimately and I've heard of others, so I know there's more than one way to think about a concept.

For example, English separates the concept of "being alone" into two distinctions: lonely and solitude. Lonely is the painful feeling of isolation, while solitude is the joyful state of feeling complete and in harmony. Spanish has only one word for "being alone"--soldedad--which means loneliness. In Spanish, soledad is forever negative, and for someone like Me who enjoys solitude, expressing it in Spanish would be akin to saying "I like being lonely" in English.

That just don't sound right, right?

I recently found out that another of My favorite words--optimism--has a dual nature in Japanese. On one hand, they say Rakutenteki to mean "hope that things will turn out well; a positive outlook," a similar definition to English. On the other hand, they also say Rakkanteki, meaning "facing challenges to give life meaning."

I was instantly taken by this dual nature of optimism in Japanese, grokking it fully. Life without challenges is Life without flavor, drab and dull. My oldest nephew once asked Me what My favorite games are, and when I replied he said "Why do You like difficult games so much?" and My answer was "They are the ones that challenge the most." Sometimes projects I undertake are far outside the realm of what others call "realistic" (namby-pamby dullards all), but they involve a whole lot of challenges that make Life (for Me) a lot more interesting.

I know for a fact I'm in a minority here. Most of the people I encounter are optimists in the "I hope I win the Lotto" mode, not in the "I have to get better to solve this" mode. To them, doing logic puzzles is akin to learning Sanskrit, reading anything other than gossip is like sawing their face in half and thinking to solve problems no one else sees yet is like baptizing a TV set in vinegar.

Sad. But then one can see how they are incapable of being true optimists, of embracing the energy of challenges and of rising to new heights to see farther and do more. That they are the majority is tragic. That I often feel as if I'm alone in this just means I feel...solitude.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

DisEducation Triage

2009-07-06T11:12:00.000-04:00

If a restaurant failed health standards 8 years in a row, should it remain open?

So what should be done with schools that have failed educational standards 8 years in a row?

Well, if you're the Puerto Rico Department of DisEducation, you pretend they don't exist. You act as if those schools were aberrations, even though schools that have failed No Child Left Behind standards (the Enron/AIG of educational standards) for 5+ years amount to 19% of Our total school system.

Nineteen. Freaking. Percent. That means that for 5, 6, 7 or 8 years--and now 9--19% or more of Our revolting excuses for schools have utterly failed in meeting the agreed-upon standards. Add in the schools at 3+ years of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) failure and you have over 34% of Our schools in sub-standard mode.

But look more closely at the problem and you see an even more alarming trend: Over 61% of the failed schools are junior high/intermediate schools, encompassing 7th, 8th and 9th grades. Almost half of the intermediate public schools We have are abject failures, not only at teaching, but at retaining students. For not only is there a teaching problem, the dropout rates in those grades starts soaring to disastrous heights and in full ostrich mode, the DisEducation herd pretends it isn't happening.

Billions of dollars have been funneled into this bottomless pit, made so by incompetence, politicking, ignorance, theft, immorality and short-sightedness. DisEducation is the department where Our Past lies buried, Our Present gets embalmed and Our Future is a wake.

If this (non)Administration, this (outhouse)legislature and DisEducation department were truly--truly--interested in resuscitating Our Future and making a true positive change in education, it would aggressively target intermediate schools to both reduce the failed-standards rate and dramatically decrease the dropout rate.

From restaurants to hospitals: Triage is the process by which the highest priority gets the swiftest treatment. Somebody explain to the Fools that triage is not a fancy word for raping the public treasury, but the conceptual lens needed to actually do something useful for a change.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

The Puerto Rican Dream

2009-07-03T10:12:00.000-04:00

Belated Notice of Thanks to Rebecca MacKinnon, who selected the last few of My posts that appeared on Global Voices Online. Ms. MacKinnon is one of the co-founders of GVO. Yes, I know it took Me a while to notice all this, but you know I'm just a Jenius...

What is The Puerto Rican Dream?

No, seriously. What is The Puerto Rican Dream? In 150 words or more, We can try to define The American Dream, and though there might be some debate on what it actually is, there is no debate on whether there is one or not.

For example, The American Dream can be seen as "rags to riches," "opportunity awaits for those who go after it," "everybody equal" or "hard work trumping class distinctions." There's a "can-do" spirit to The American Dream, a sense of hope and a bright future. Pundits use it as shorthand for what makes America great (referring only to the U.S. part of it all) and demagogues use it to lambast the opposition (as in "ruining The American Dream.")

So there is one. Japan has one, too, centered on self-reliance and resiliency, on coming together to overcome any adversity, the deep-seated knowledge that their will can outlast and ultimately triumph over any obstacle.

But what--pray tell--is the Puerto Rican Dream? What myth, mythos, conceptual image, word portrait, shared concept do We have that underlies if not supports Our cultural expressions?

I was born here. Spent half My childhood and most of My adulthood here. My Son was born here. Almost all My relatives were born and raised here. I have worked with thousands of people, read thousands of Our pages, experienced thousands of encounters, lived thousands of hours on this green patch of the Caribbean and for the Life of Me I can't describe The Puerto Rican Dream.

Cynically, many of Us would say The Puerto Rican Dream is to become the 51st State. That's not a dream: that's a surrender. Other cynics would say that the dream is to get more U.S. dinero in exchange for nothing. That's thievery or beggary, both of which We are guilty of. No, those aren't dreams, those are cop outs, the barking of dogs instead of the bracing thoughts of higher primates.

When things get tough, the Dream is what unites, what keeps an individual and a group moving forward. Despite the fact that I--amongs others--see The American Dream now as someone being so pathetic a TV producer makes them over for ratings gold, there is a long history of elements of that Dream coming forth in times of crisis to encourage, support and guide. Think World War II and the lunar landing program, examples of the U.S. of part of A. saying, in effect, "Yes We can."

Catchy phrase, that.

Are there similar examples for Puerto Rico? An example? When a crisis comes, when times get tough and the future looks dim and gray, what do We do? What is Our dream?

Rescue.

We dream of being rescued. By someone, somewhere, out there. No "Yes We can," but "Who can?" No "Let's go", but "Let's wait." No "It's up to Us," but "It's up to the U.S." Or somebody.

Our dream is not that of the cowboy or the samurai or the honorable knight, the proactive heroic figure battling alarming obstacles to set the world aright. No. We are, in Our dreams, the princess waiting to be rescued...by the hero.

Some of My brethren from Our Island will argue against My claim. They might say I'm a traitor, a vende patria or a total idiot for saying such a thing. Okay, they're perfectly entitled to being wrong about that, too. Because here's My challenge: Show Me We aren't the princess. Show Me We aren't the passive want-it-alls who can't--or won't--lift a finger to save Ourselves. Go ahead, try to show Me Our dream isn't "Save Me," that it is, instead, "Saving Ourselves."

Go ahead. Try. It isn't a dream, what We have, but a nightmarish willingness to sleep until the danger is taken care of...by the hero from somewhere out there.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Vote for El Yunque!

2009-07-01T09:12:00.000-04:00

This won't take long...

I know there's a campaign on to have El Yunque National Forest, the only tropical rain forest in the whole U.S. of part of A., declared a modern wonder. You know, like the 7 Wonders of the World, part III. Or IV.

I know there's a UNESCO New Natural 7 Wonders of the World campaign on because I see ads on dozens of pages across the whole wide GoogleTubes urging the User--in this case, Me--to Vote for El Yunque!

I must have seen that ad over a hundred times. Maybe missed it another few hundred times. Heard about the campaign somewhere and about how El Yunque was ranking high in this round. I think.

And then it dawned on Me that I should vote. Not out of some sense of Yo soy Boricua pride, but from the realization that is a veritable wonder that We haven't already screwed up El Yunque beyond all recognition.

If you saw this, then you'll know exactly what I mean.

So I voted. For El Yunque, ranked #3 in Group E. And I also voted for the Amazon rain forest, (ranked #1 in the same group as El Yunque), Mount Everest (#9 in Group C), The Great Barrier Reef (#3 in Group G), the Grand Canyon (#5 in Group D), Niagara Falls, (#2 in Group F) and the Galapagos Islands (#1 in Group B.) Rankings here. Vote here.

And maybe UNESCO's campaign can help Us keep saving El Yunque. From Ourselves.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Procedural Vermin

2009-06-29T08:12:00.000-04:00

[Once again, My Thanks to Global Voices Online for picking up another Jenius post, though this one creates in Me the vivid definition of "mixed feelings"...]

"How will this play out? Health nominee hung, Public-Private Alliances tabled, Convention Center named Stupid, Education nominee confirmed and the sequel "Cringing Larva, Horrid Vermin" playing out before Our bloodshot eyes..."

Quoting Me, of course.

In the words of a clown: How'm I doin'?

--Education nominee, a.k.a. Political Animal harboring drug-dealing parasite, confirmed.

--Convention Center named for Stupid Pedro Rosselló.

--Public-Private Alliances tabled as in "Politics trumps Potential Solutions."

--And today, Health Secretary nominee dropped like a lead bedpan, hung by political opposition that never even tried to vet him.

So by default (emphasis on "fault") the "Cringing Larva, Horrid Vermin" scenario is here, giving Me a 5-for-5 sweep.

Hold your applause. And your nose. 2005 is back with a vengeance: a mud-headed governor backpedaling like a drunken crab from a legislative whore hell-bent on destroying him politically. (Sorry, I wrote "whore." I meant "whores.") Only back then, there were two parties involved. Now there's only one. If you can call it a party. It's more like a drunken leper colony pretending to be the Royal Court of Narnia.

Six months into a (non)administration, The Larva, (non)governor Luis Fortuño, has yet to achieve Cabinet completion. Is this the model of government the state(of chaos)hood party said would be "the standard for progressive government"? (The name of the party is the New Progressive Party, so they made a play on words that... Oh forget it. It's too easy.)

Back in 2005, they smarmily excused their retarded behavior by claiming they were "defending the people's interests," a concept none of them could properly define in 50 words or less. Now what smarmy excuse do they have? None. So they claim "procedure," as in "analysis," "scrutiny" and "evaluation." Even if none of them could define any of those terms in 50 words or less. Using a dictionary. Read to them. Slowly.

Let's face it: We're in the slimy clutches of microcephalic vermin, sub-creatures subsisting on blind instinct and greedy hunger. To sustain and maintain healthy existence, vermin must be minimized, up to the point of destruction, if need be.

You can write the ending to that paragraph. Unless you're in the statehood party, where you'd be more inclined to "analyze," "scrutinize" and "evaluate" what you will never complete. Or understand.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Shame On (and For) Us

2009-06-26T07:12:00.001-04:00

There are times, very few times, when one feels intense shame for one's country.

This is one of them.

I lived less than a block from Ocean Park beach for over a year. I played football there, threw Frisbees, gained a massive scar along My left knee trying to catch an Aerobie, played beach volleyball there, swam, surfed, threw rocks, saw the sun rise and set, sat through a major thunderstorm with waves crashing several feet from Me...I felt at home there, on the sand, along the shore.

Puerto Rico is My home. It's where My heart is, where My son is, where My family and many of My friends live. Of them, there is never a feeling except a positive one. But when one sees what one's people are capable of doing...

No, this isn't torture. Or genocide. Those are horrible crimes committed by beasts. What this video shows is a crime, albeit a small one in the pantheon of evil. The shame comes not from it being a crime, but from the indifference leading to and suffusing it.

Watch the video, if you can, with the pseudo-cool jazz music as counterpoint. Look at what the camera captures with stark objectivity. And know that every piece of garbage--every one of the thousands of pieces of garbage--indicts Us with its clear message of unconcern, of consumerism, of brainlessness, of herd mentality, of disdain, short-sightedness and sheer incompetence.

As the alleged tourists said: It must be cultural. Before this video, I would have argued it was human nature.

Now I can only reply: Yes, I guess it is.

Shame on Us.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Stupid Convention Center

2009-06-12T06:12:00.001-04:00

Let's see... I'm just rummaging through here to see if I can find some kind of prediction, some kind of Jenius insight that I can turn into a blog post... Well whaddaya know...

The local excuse for a senate has approved a bill to name the Puerto Rico Convention Center the Pedro Rosselló Convention Center.

Hee-hee. Let's go to the replay!

"(Senate president Tomás Rivera, a.k.a.) Tantrum is even pushing the idea of naming the Puerto Rico Convention Center after (Pedro Rosselló, a.k.a.) Stupid, making it the Stupid Convention Center, which is perfectly apt as the damn thing is too small to attract mega-conventions, too big to adequately serve a majority of local expos, has lousy architecture that makes it non-modular and is saddled with too many parasitic employees to make it cost-effective.

So, yes, it makes perfect sense to name it the Pedro Stupid Rosselló Convention Center..."

Now, of course, Tantrum didn't push that bill through based on My scintillating analysis... or actually, he did: "...(B)y ramming that (the naming) down ([non]governor Luis Fortuño's, a.k.a.) The Larva's throat and by making the naming of the white elephant an equal-par issue with The Larva's cabinet--key players in any chance We have of making progress in the here and now--Tantrum is flexing political muscle in brainless fashion. Nothing new there. And The Larva is waffling and sidestepping. Nothing new there, either."

Good times, good times. Let's name a barren excuse for an economic tool after a barrel of excuses tool. The Stupid Convention Center it is! And all this wrapped in the pissant dick-slinging of two microcephalic (and microgenitalic) Fools with the vision of garden slugs. Hooboy! It don't get any better than this! Can you feel the excitement?!

I'm actually hoping the Stupid Convention Center gets condemned because of widespread black mold. That would help it match the color of its namesake's purported soul.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Above (My) Average Brethren

2009-06-10T05:12:00.001-04:00

There's a shortage of solutions on My Island.

We have problems--many problems--and though there's a super-abundance of empty-headed, knee-jerk criticism (not by Me), self-interested smarmy poppycock (not by Me) and overblown narcissistic shouting (again, not by Me), there is a very distinct lack of truly thoughtful discourse going on around Us, conversations that lead to real solutions rather than convenient-for-someone schemes.

I often have thoughtful discourse and sometimes it's with other people. Many of My friends and colleagues are of high intelligence, are aware of reality and can articulate a problem, an analytical approach and a series of potential solutions without resorting to demagoguery. We engage in this kind of behavior waaaay more often that Our average brethren. Off the top of My head I'd say We do this 153 times more often, in other words, Our average brethren would take 153 years to match what My colleagues and I do in one year.

Arrogant? Nah. It's just the truth.

But what, pray tell, do We accomplish with so much discourse, aside from either dampening or firing up Our initial attitudes about the subject matter?

Good question.

Wish I had an answer. Oh, I do, but it's kinda vague: We do this to keep Our eyes and minds open to act upon a solution when We see it emerging.

Yeah. A bit on the lame side. It smacks of passivity, of "Let someone else do the work and I'll jump on board as soon as there's a bandwagon that can support My weight." But even as lame as that sounds, it's light-years ahead of Our average brethren, for whom "solutions" not couched in terms of "Here's your check" have no chance of occupying space in their oh-so-narrow worldview.

I could say I'm getting to be a cranky, cantankerous curmudgeon, if it weren't for the fact that I've pretty much always been a pedantic, sarcastic smart-aleck. And I have no more defense for that attitude other than it keeps Me focused on trying to find solutions for Our woes, keeps Me going back to those who can seriously challenge My beliefs and prove Me wrong and occasionally thrusts Me in the position of actually having to put My money where My mouth is, which I do waaaay more often than...well, you know.

So that's My stand. Average Brethren: what's yours?

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Pirates Fever Boils Over

2009-06-08T04:12:00.001-04:00

I'm a Pittsburgh Pirates fan. Yeah, go ahead, scoff. Or pity Me. Even a Jenius has a soft spot in His head. And this is definitely Mine.

I wrote about this a while back, this affection for a team that, by now, has tied the record for most consecutive losing seasons in baseball history: sixteen. Uh-huh, 16 years of "Wait 'til next year!"

But next year is pretty much like the last year. Sixteen times in a row.

Last year, the Pirates traded their top player, Jason Bay, to the Red Sox and their quality right fielder, Xavier Nady, to the Yankees. What did My Bucs get in exchange? I think 4 minor league prospects and a glove. I hear the glove is making progress through Double A ball...

Now I find out that the Pirates, My Pittsburgh-Clemente-played-here-Pirates, have traded their current best player, Nate McClouth, to the... Atlanta Braves. Like one of the solid LaRoche brothers says, you start wondering who's going to be left, for in less than one season, the Pirates traded away their ENTIRE outfield so they could become starters for pennant-contending teams.

I'm just a Jenius, you know, but wouldn't three above-average outfielders HELP your freaking-ass team?!? With the LaRoche brothers, Jack Wilson and Freddie Sanchez, the Pirates had a solid core of young players, of which 3 are gone and who knows, maybe the other 5 will be, too. It's like a fire sale, only that the Pirate fans are the ones getting burned.

So three nights later, guess who recently-traded Nate hit his first home run against? Shit. Helped beat the Pirates, although Nate's replacement had 2 triples. Woo. And hoo.

And in their never-ending descent to cheapskate gutters, the Pirates actually signed the 2 Indian (from India) "pitchers" who sucked the least in some Indian "reality" show. I think they got them both for $40,000 and a crate of "The Simpsons" DVDs Barry Bonds left behind in his haste to stab steroids in his butt on the West Coast.

As it stands right now, the Pirates are 4 games under .500, their pitching is spotty, their hitting is typical of a young team (hot and cold) and the Indians are somewhere in reserve. I'd say their on a reservation clause, but I'm too disgusted to go there.

Will the Pirates win at least 81 games this year, when rumors fly that 2-3 more players are on the trading block? Hell, I don't think they can 81 games without Nate, Jason and Xavier. They didn't when all three were there, albeit younger. But now they're gone and We have youngsters peeking over their shoulders and dreading that call into the manager's office that says "You've been traded to..."

But I hope they can. I really do. So that after 16 miserable years of 5-year plans and turnarounds and getting a new focus We can actually see that 81 in the W column and sigh with relief. It's definitely not much, but it's what I'll take if I can get it.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Don't Care, Won't Care

2009-06-05T03:12:00.001-04:00

This won't take long...

I was asked--by My Special One--how I could be insensitive to the situation the displaced government workers are going through and essentially unmoved by the more layoffs to come. I wasn't asked that in order to point a finger or raise a welt from criticism, but more as a window to My thoughts.

Take a look:

---I believe most government workers--the bulk of the bureaucracy--are mediocre workers at best...and they know it. That's why they choose the "security" of government work, do a lousy job at it, hate it with a passion, but don't dare leave to actually have to earn a living in the private sector.

---I believe most government workers are replaceable with machines, better systems and dead space. That includes the legislative outhouse and its seepage systems.

---I believe the government started growing in number of jobs in order to make up for a lack of imagination, creativity and intelligence brought on by winning the faux-governor's mansion without being prepared for it. Yes, I'm talking about Luis "Piano Man" Ferré and his "stuff the government and build highways with my company's cement" economic disaster "plan."

---And I believe the self-same goverment, led by facetious weasels of all parties, have perpetuated the "stuff the government" blood sausage of plan in order to increase their levels of influence. Screw the economy, they cackle (weasels do cackle), We're in this for power!

So when--if...IF--those excessive jobs are hacked and slashed to oblivion, I won't feel any pain, remorse or sympathy for the clueless mediocrities who mark time in exchange for money, who clog the septic system like cement-laden feces and drag the talented and hard-working lot of Us down to their pathetic level.

The sooner they start wailing, the better.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Jenius Does Info

2009-06-03T02:12:00.000-04:00

Another Jenius Thanks to Janine Mendes-Franco for grabbing another of My posts for Global Voices Online. I simply must meet this woman...

Jenius Friend Kevin Shockey thought it would be interesting if I explained My information-sifting system. First, the why.

On a daily basis, I will send 3-12 e-mails to people, from My Special One to Family to Friends to Colleagues with links to stuff I think they would like. Many people do this; I do it constantly. For another, I write or speak about a wide variety of topics and will often get consulted on a topic to which I can provide a cogent reponse and expanded information.

There's a reason I'm known as a Jenius (though I'll concede this might not be it.)

So here's the system: I use Opera as My browser (almost always have, always will) and its start page for Me is Speed Dial, a one-page icon-sized preview of My daily websites. These are: Lifehacker, Madville, Metafilter, BoingBoing, Neatorama, Reddit, Mixx, Google News (personalized), Hey It's Free!, The Sports Guy and 9Rules.

Every morning I go to Lifehacker, Madville, Metafilter, Neatorama and Reddit, in that order. Takes Me about 10-20 minutes and I almost always find 8-16 links I can use. I will revisit each of these 2-5 times, depending on how much time I spend in front of My Mac and how bored I might be, adding about 8-18 more a day. (Yes, I kept track so I could make reasonable estimates. I'm very glad that's over.)

I visit Mixx and Hey It's Free! once a day; Google News and The Sports Guy 3-4 times a week and 9Rules once a week. From 9Rules I can get 12-30 links in about 20 minutes.

I also have a Session (Opera allows for saving multiple bookmarks to reopen as a group) called ZipBang (for reasons I misplaced in the flood) which has Synthesis, Dumb Little Man, Socyberty, Woot!, Zen Habits, Wise Bread, The Red Ferret Journal, Lifehack, Kottke.org and io9. (Eclectic Jenius be I.) I go through these in about 5 minutes, finding 1-3 links a day on average.

I have another Session called Twice Weekly (functional name this time) which contains 1001 Rules for My Unborn Son, Arts & Letters Daily, Buzz Feed, Cool Tools, Cool Websites, Dondequiera (a local blog sadly on hiatus right now), How to Save the World (Dave Pollard's astonishingly smart and irritating blog), My Digital Life, On Simplicity, Puerto Rico: A Paradise Lost?, Roasted Peanuts, Slashfood, Springwise and Stat of the Day. From these I get 2-5 links per session.

Then I have My e-mails, where I receive anywhere from 2 to 9 feeds a day on topics ranging from federal grants, tech news and online education to creativity/innovation, philanthropy/fundraising, sciences, health/medicine and board games. (Yes, I said "board games.")

Doing some quick math, you'll guess I spend about 80-120 minutes a day on this "information track" and you'd be right. You'd also guess I collect about 34-44 links a day, and again, you'd be right. But if only about 8-9 go out, where do the rest go?

I have over 11,000 bookmarks in Opera, with almost 95 folders in the Manage Bookmarks section. All of these are currently synched online (Opera does that automatically) so I can access them from any computer by logging into MyOpera. Most bookmarks are stored in My Action, To Do, Jenius or project folders (currently 4 are open; 2 more coming on board this weekend) or in several other folders, one of which is a series called GrabBag (now in its 10th iteration, with each one averaging 178 bookmarks.) (Yes, I counted.)

For sharing, I'll run every link I look at through a mental checklist, summarized here: Me (of course), My Special One, Kaleb, projects, colleagues, Jenius, friends, Twitter or trash. I recently re-upped on Twitter and its primary purpose is to serve as a File 12 before I go File 13 on what I'm reading.

Then (you didn't think I was finished, right?) I scan almost every link I open for links to other items that might be interesting (My longest segue, I think, took Me through over 30 websites and 3 hours) and follow those until I either have to work, reach a dead end or get bored. Lately My segues have averaged about 5-6 link trails a day.

I also receive some magazines (through Zinio) and do research on 3-4 topics a week which also lead Me down link trails. So if I tell you I spend, on average, 14-16 hours a week on "info-sifting," you know I ain't joking.

And all this I do for the simple pleasure of zapping My Brain with something new, whether it's a medical procedure, a political argument, a tech meme, a sport stat, a new technology, a business trend, breaking news, trivia, financial advice, science theory, science fact, science fiction or a landscape picture for wallpaper.

Oh, Twitter is back on My Speed Dial and I try to drop in on it 2-3 times a day. But much like listening to random conversations around town, it is boring. I'm looking around again to replace it with something useful and interesting, which shouldn't be hard at all.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Gluttonny Unleashed

2009-06-01T01:12:00.000-04:00

Oops, I did it again.

That line might make you think of Ms. Spears, and if so, please imagine the bloated fat skank, not the poster girl for Google porn searches. You'll see why in a minute.

First, some quotes:

"Will: Here "Gluttonny" takes a clear lead, rating at an 8 to "Tantrum"'s 5, largely because the latter hitched his will to former (mis)governor Pedro Stupid Rosselló while "Gluttonny" only pretended to hitch hers to The Larva's barely-existent will."

"3) She no longer looks to The Larva in the governor's mansion for guidance. Her smackdown of "Conny" was not an action The Larva would suggest or condone. This is the first clear action she takes that says she will act outside the narrow limits of The Larva's puny political acumen."

"I pointed out that unless The Larva handled those three aspects well, his term would end in 2012... Why? Because he would face not only public rejection as "another loser," but also internal rejection from "his" party, where candidates such as Thomas "S.S. Don't Mean Social Security" Rivera (soon to be Senate President) and Jenniffer "Gluttonny" González were already plotting to challenge for the governorship."

"For example, if "Gluttonny" (Oh boy, talk about a drumbeat...) had asked Me why I gave her that nickname, I would point to the post and say "You're in politics mainly for yourself." She could argue that I'm wrong, but the weight of the evidence--as I see it--shows her grabbing everything she can for her own benefit."

All four quotes clearly apply to (Out)House president Jenniffer "Gluttonny" González, she of the hefty...ambitions. Hard-nosed, sometimes vehement suppporter of dark horse candidate Luis "The Larva" Fortuño back when the choice was either him in his geeky awkwardness or former (con)governor Pedro Stupid Rosselló, the rabid mad dog of the Virginia lowlands. Time passed and "Gluttonny"'s hefty...support for now (non)governor Luis "The Larva" Fortuño has become a snarling grab for 2012 positioning.

At a time when the government's excessive size makes it the holding pen for a massive herd of incompetents, 'The Larva," after much mealy-mouthed handwringing, cuts 7,800+ jobs and "Gluttonny"--privy to every government and party discussion on this matter--suddenly turns around and lashes at the putative leader of her government and party and takes him to task in defense of those jobs.

Why? Why would "Gluttonny" do this? She's a high-ranking member of the same party the (non)governor belongs to (but doesn't lead.) She's a key legislative Fool--er, cog--in "The Larva's" (non)administration. So she's right there with "The Larva" in this much-needed step to restore Our socioeconomic strength.

And that's the problem. The solution is needed, but "Gluttonny" wants no part of it...for it severely interferes with her ambitions to replace "The Larva."

Don't think so? You're wrong. In this job-cuts solution, the other key ("key" as in "obnoxious") player is Tomás "Tantrum" Rivera, who has already made it overabundantly clear he wants no part of "The Larva" and has already staked his "higher ground" to belittle the (non)governor. Only "Gluttonny" is still seen as a "team player" on "The Larva"'s feckless and winless team.

Until today. "Gluttonny" has just made the first overt move on her positioning campaign for 2012. She picked her moment to keep "Tantrum" from gaining too much ground, for though he might still be tainted by his "I'm with Stupid" past, the party voters in general have short memories and low IQs. (So do the other party's voters, but I digress.)

So having pegged "Gluttonny" and her ambitions from Day One, now what? A warning: "Gluttonny" is not aiming for leadership. Leadership is beyond her and she's just perceptive enough to know that. No, her aim is power. And whether she hits the target or not with that aim, We're the ones who will take the hit.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

The Puerto Rican Way

2009-05-29T23:12:00.000-04:00

Today Our government downsized some 7,800+ employees, the vast majority of them temporary workers in the Department of Education; the rest were a small blend from other agencies.

Big. Fat. Hairy. Deal.

Yes, yes I know these are ex-workers who now face a higher degree of uncertainty in their lives. My response to that is: Boo. Hoo.

And before you fire a "But what if it happened to you?" at Me, I can fire first: I would never work as a government employee. I'm too damn smart. So there.

The fact remains that 7,800-something employees is but 10%--or maybe less--of the fat that needs to be trimmed from the government overbloat, a reckless excess that dates back to the late 1960s and has continued unabated until today. Maybe. Because unless it continues and gets into the 30,000-50,000 jobs cut range, today's cut will merely be another small bump down the long road to collapse.

Our pathetic excuse for a government has created, as Jenius Friend Kevin Shockey points out, the closest thing to a socialized democracy there is in the U.S. of part of A. Some 23% of all Our workers are directly employed by the government and some 24% more are indirectly employed. Toss in the hordes that do nothing else but sponge off of welfare and you can say that 60-70% of Our adults are purely government wards.

The situation is worse because the increase in goverment jobs came at the expense of Our economic growth, superficially bolstering income statistics and consumer spending while true economic growth and its motors (industry, business, entrepreneurism, research) were treated like venereal diseases.

And lest We ignore this point, both major parties and every lamebrain governor We've ever had, male or female, has contributed to the problem, all of them ignoring the obvious economic consequences of shoving 20 employees where 6 will do in favor of buying votes with cronyism. It's "the Puerto Rican way." And that's why I wouldn't work for the government: I'm too damn smart to accept "the Puerto Rican way."

So in the same spirit that "the Puerto Rican way" accepted with gritted teeth the "jobs lost when government changed parties," now We have to accept "jobs lost because the damn party is over." The free ride should have ended long ago, so if you're one of the 7,800+ that got dumped, boo freaking hoo. You never should have been there in the first place.

So maybe now you can stay within "the Puerto Rican way" and clamp onto welfare as your sole support. Then you can sit back and stare at your 45" plasma TV as the rest of the offal hits the ceiling fan.

If We're lucky.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Holy? Hell (No)!

2009-05-27T22:12:00.002-04:00

A priest, long known for supposedly making women's loins catch fire because of his chaste hunky looks, is caught on camera hugging, kissing and getting to second base with a bikini-clad woman.

A local "religious leader," a guy who slaps together a "religious" event in front of the Capitol Building every year--even has the gall to call it "Clamor to God"--goes through a nasty divorce where he hounds his ex-wife through the media and fights alimony with claims his multi-million dollar "empire" doesn't pay him anything more than a "small salary."

Another church here, one with a "creationist" museum that ranks up there on the reality scale with wax fruit, has long been infamous for selling its front row seats, for, you know, the exposure and networking potential.

Jimmy Swaggart. Oral Roberts. Jim Bakker. Ted Haggard. Fill in the list with other names, cuz brother, there are plenty. Toss in the local guys who sleep with underage children and "annoint" virgin brides-to-be with their "holy" staffs. Thrown 'em all in there. Then set the whole freaking pile on fire. Give 'em...Hell.

As a species, We've had religions since the first proto-human looked up and around and realized s/he felt small. And throughout that history, humankind has had millions of religious leaders. Some were good, many were forgettable, but some were just scum. And these scum are the ones that gut whatever souls Our societies may have.

That a priest was caught fondling a woman is, to Me, a public relations coup compared to the hundreds of priests who have violated--and violate--children. The ink and airwaves dedicated to this "religious leader" and his wretched antics were too many beyond what's needed to proclaim "He's a fraud." Same with Swaggart, Bakker, Roberts, Haggard with their various sex scandals, some giving, some receiving, and the local boys who in that and other ways pollute Our society with their fraudulent presences.

To Hell with them. To Hell with those who pander to their excesses, who absolve them of blame, who worship the ground they walk on and feed their massive craven egos with money. To Hell with all of them. Because they give Us Hell.

And if, like I, you don't believe in Hell, give them not indifference, but open scorn, the sneering disdain of the truly righteous for the cowardly vermin, the disdain they and their pathetic followers wear so boldly and cannot sustain because cowardly vermin simply cannot ever be truly righteous.

We have a society that is crumbling and these leaders are like glittering rotting fish in the moonlight, attracting the eye with their foulness while the night grows dimmer and the storm approaches. The ones We should heed are quiet, for true good doesn't yell or shout or clamor or weep falsely on thousands of TV sets. The good walks with grace while the scum stagger in their luxury digs.

The next time some priest ruins a child's life or some pastor has a gay fling or some church leader destroys a community, remember that the good is out there, always, and though the media and their idiot followers will rush to the story like dogs to vomit, the good, though often harder to find, is infinitely more worthy of Our attention.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Happy Birthday, Kaleb!

2009-05-26T05:26:00.002-04:00

You're 9 today! A growing boy with an emerging sense of self, a critical eye being honed and a sense of humor that's finding its voice.

Case in point: When I went off on one of My frequent flights of fancy concerning President Obama calling Me at 2 a.m. to wail about how he needs My help to keep solving the world's problems and I remarked that if I'd known how much work I'd have to do to prop up the President I would have run for the office Myself you quickly retorted "You would have been the last white President of the United States."

Cracked. Me. Up.

Another time, you patiently outlasted My stream-of-consciousness verbosity about something or the other and then deadpanned "Sometimes you really do have nothing in Your head."

And there are new depths to you that I am learning to admire. That sunny afternoon when you walked out of your school and told Me you'd been selected "Student of the Month," I high-fived you with a grin and then you took a deep breath and clenched your body in triumph with a heartfelt "Yes!" I knew you'd wanted to win that designation and that you had been denied it at the other school for religious idiocies, but only then did I realize how much you wanted it and how proud you were at having earned it. You deserved it. You have always given a strong effort and I admire you for that.

As I admire you for taking that determination to the basketball court. In Our sadly infrequent pick-up games, you are always the smallest player, but you play the hardest, running, jumping, moving, playing with every ounce of you in the game. You get frustrated, you get upset, but you clench your teeth and get back in the game. And when you make the right play--and you do that more and more--you cherish the moment in a way I never could. And you have learned to ask Me what you did right, though, based largely on My example with My play, you still spend a lot of time on what you did wrong. We'll both work on that.

There are times when I see anxiety in your eyes and in your face. Moments where you are uncomfortable, confused, lost. They hurt every time I see them because I would rather face a hundred such moments Myself than have you go through any painful moment. But I clench My teeth, tighten My gut and act like I don't see what you're going through. These are your lessons to learn, your way, and My job, My very difficult job, is to do nothing but make sure I'm there for you when you need Me. You are not an extension of Me to be controlled, but a brilliant boy who has long shown more abilities than I and thus merits the opportunity to develop in his own way.

And My heart rests easy because every time you truly get stuck, you do come to Me. I hope I haven't let you down, though I know I don't always have the answer you need. My most fervent hope is that even in My weakest efforts, I am giving you something you can use for when I'm not near, to help you in the future when Life seems to get more complicated and confusing.

But if I leave you with a lesson for now, it's that you can be who you are, that you can take pride in your strengths and be accepting of your weaknesses, building upon one while overcoming the other. Change is a constant and the best changes are the ones you make yourself, on your own, for your own reasons, whether they be in your heart or upon the world.

Your time as a child is drawing to a close, slowly, inevitably. But your time as My child is forever. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I love you, Kaleb. You are a wonder.

7 Shots, 5 Answers

2009-05-25T22:12:00.001-04:00

So seven shots were fired at Our Capitol building, pinging against the walls of the legislative outhouse in some atonal staccato rhythm. Nobody was hurt. And of course, there are questions, to which, of course, I have answers.

Question One: No, I didn't do it. I don't have an alibi because I don't even know when the shots were fired, only that they were.

Question Two: Yeah I wanted to do that...and more. I believe hundreds of people would answer a quick "Yes" to Do you want to take some potshots at the Capitol building? We're fed up. No, strike that: We're fucking fed up. These walking bags of excrement masquerading as political leaders have taken advantage of Our massively-blind partisanship and massively-blind indifference to turn Our Island into a laughingstock of non-progress. Shoot them? I'd welcome a firing squad or two. For now, We'll have to settle for shooting at them.

Question Three: No, this isn't a bad thing. For one, no one was hurt. For another, the audacity of the act (or convenient cowardice, if you wish) speaks of a decision taken to act because the act itself was deemed necessary. Like taking aim at a rabid dog's head, these shots were fired for a reason, and the fact is, many of Us can find legitimate reasons for such an action. Now you or I may disagree with the person's or persons' reasons, but they had one or more. And if they didn't have a reason, if they did it only because the outhouse was there and they just happened to have gun handy as they drove by, the very attempt says something about the perception of the legislative herd and it isn't good.

Question Four: A conspiracy needs a convenient hook, a plausible-sounding reason that makes a person say "That could be" and then the theorist (lunatic, idiot, propagandist) erects a house of cards that can only stand if the "That could be" premise seems real. There is no conspiracy here, no outlandish plan to have shots fired at the Capitolio to then push measures augmenting security and expenses for the legislative vermin inside. No, this was a random act, applauded by some, decried by a few and ignored by everybody else. After all, why get worked up over chipped marble when We can't get worked up over two murders a day?

Question Five: Yes, I wish it had hit one or two of the Fools. You can make your own guess as to who.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

None So Blind

2009-05-15T21:12:00.002-04:00

Over the course of several months, I had a multitude of conversations with people in different walks of life, in private and public sector jobs, from education and retail to government and services. At some point in the conversation, once I felt there was a modicum of interest in continuing it (on My part, not the other person's), I would ask: Who's the person who seeks new opportunities in your workplace?

Not once--not once--did anyone answer the question right off the bat. The most common response was open confusion. The next most-common response was to ask Me to clarify the question, always annoying as I felt the question was pretty much transparent. Which of your co-workers actively seeks new opportunities?

I received only two positive responses. One woman told Me her boss was always looking for opportunities and when I asked her to explain in what way, she spoke sourly of how he takes credit for work he didn't do and implied he might be trying to have an affair with his secretary. The other positive response was from an insurance agent who said he was the opportunity seeker in his office, but then he tells Me how bad sales have become and that he's looking for a government job because "My people need to fill a few holes."

I bet they do.

Seems that keeping one's eyes, ears and mind open in a search for opportunities is not common at all. A couple of people reacted like I'd asked them who ate babies. A few sighed and wished they saw opportunities, and whereas before I would have tried to coax them into seeing that they could, this time I let it slide. Not one made the mental leap from "wishing" to "I can if I want to."

Blame the educational system. Blame a society where blindness of this type is considered "proper." Blame it on politicians who make the word "opportunity" a synonym of "cheating." Blame it on a media that makes money off of seeing doom, gloom and despair everywhere and makes money off of making fun of hope, challenge and triumph. Blame it on Us who let this happen and do nothing when it's brought to Our attention.

Yes, blame. That's the caustic eyewash of those who want not to see. Sprayed all around Us, the none so blind. And We who keep Our eyes open to see often blink simply to disperse tears.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Cartoonish Characters

2009-05-13T20:12:00.000-04:00

I made a list of six names, six names known to many of My peeps here in the hood. And it instantly dawned on Me that each was actually a cartoon character come to life:

--Current (non)governor Luis "The Larva" Fortuño, who by his insipid physicality is a dead ringer for Waldo of "Where's Waldo?" fame, is actually Dilbert's Pointy-Eared Boss, talking mainly to himself, clueless to an nth degree and easily dominated by a dog.

--Tomás "Tantrum" Rivera, lead pack member in what passes for the senate here is Grumpy, a cross-armed, frowning, barking dwarf from sunrise to sunset. If he ever actually met Snow White, he'd wet himself.

--(Mis)Education Secretary Carlos "Limbaugh is My Bitch" Chardón is actually Baby Huey, pretending to be big, naive to the point of idiocy and unaware that his diaper is showing.

--Current Baby Huey appointee to the Federal Affairs Office of the Department of (Mis)Education, William "I'm Paranoia's Bitch" Ubiñas, is--who else?--Dopey, the hanger-on, a dwarf best left mute and best kept away from everybody else. If he ever met Snow White, he'd snort her. Again.

--Former (un)governor Aníbal "The Jellyfish" Acevedo, he of the recent exoneration from fraud charges is Kenny, of "South Park" fame: No one really knows what he's saying, he punks out like clockwork and yet he's still--annoyingly--there.

--And Former (con)governor Pedro Stupid Rosselló is PePe Le Pew, a malodorous beast wooing no one interested in him and tolerable only by other skunks. Or by dogs who no longer have a sense of smell.

No sense in extending the list to seven, ten or twelve: six is more than enough to taint the joy of cartoons for an afternoon...

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Lazy Or Stupid?

2009-05-11T19:12:00.000-04:00

Laziness.

Plumb laziness, as they say in the South. Or maybe not.

We are lazy.

By "We" I mean My Brethren here on the Island of Enchantment. How else can anyone explain the widespread and deep indifference We have to the crumbling nature of Our chaotic corner of the world? Indifference? That's just being too lazy to care. Despair? That's just being too lazy to make an effort. Ignorance? That's just being to lazy to learn...or too stupid.

Okay, now you've done it. You just crossed the line from "Hard-nosed-but-fair-analyst to insulting-jerk-possibly-racist-pig." It happens. Let's see where it leads Us.

If We're to choose between lazy or stupid, Let's be thorough and take them both at the same time first: Are We lazy and stupid?

Aside from the obvious candidates (Okay, since you force Me to: 72% of government employees [including teachers], 64% of Our so-called "media professionals", 48% of fast food employees, 34% of Our police force and 23% of Our politicians. [The other 77% are sub-humans.]), if We were vastly lazy and stupid, We'd be the mindless drones of a more capable, astute group who treat Us like feebs while slyly giving Us the illusion of power and choice when We actually have neither...

Bad example. But it strikes at the core of the matter: Are We lazy or are We stupid? Because from where I'm sitting, it very much could be that We're both.

Too lazy to seek solutions; to stupid to see that tough solutions are needed.

Too lazy to stand up for Ourselves; too stupid to see that it is Our only option.

Too lazy to learn about the world; to stupid to see that there actually is a world out there.

Too lazy to work at building; too stupid to see how much We're destroying.

Too lazy to find out truths; too stupid to see that truths need more than faith.

Too lazy to earn; too stupid to see how complicated Our begging really is.

Too lazy to praise; too stupid in Our criticism.

And if you think that applies to Me, I'll just say I'm lazy...the rest is up to you.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

A Thousand-Yard Stare

2009-05-08T18:12:00.001-04:00

I sit outside the office of My son's school every week, almost every day I go. I'm always reading. At his prior school, I'd talk to 1-2 of the parents--if they initiated the conversation. Over here, I don't bother. I don't dislike any of them; I don't know any of them. The two are not mutually inclusive.

Most days the conversation is so much white noise as I take in economics, science fiction, history, intrigue or whatever potion I'm pouring into My brain to keep it occupied on something other than Me and My Thoughts. But sometimes what emerges from the office is too sharp to ignore.

A young mother, mid- to late-twenties, petite, not very pretty and tries too hard to overcome that, only to come off as brittle. Her son is in third grade and doing poorly. Grades slipping from B to just above D. She starts out asking quietly what the problem is. I begin to take notice as her voice becomes querulous, ragged and shrewish.

She's blaming the boy for being lazy. She's interrupting the teacher--who may or may not be competent--and berating the boy for not telling her about that day's make-up test. She segues from lashing out at the boy to telling everyone in earshot, in excessive detail (almost three minutes, by My silent count), all her problems: the divorce, her job, her upcoming trip for a Master's program, her crash diet, her divorce lawyer, his divorce lawyer, her boss and his boss... and the boy wandered off, a thousand-yard stare that didn't lose an inch when she practically shrieked at him to get back here.

I had a long list of things I was going to write concerning this incident, small as it is, in the form of a microcosm of "Our Modern Life." By My estimate, some 7-8 paragraphsm maybe a little more. But the closer I came to writing this, the more three thoughts seemed to float above the overs:

---We are not her and never can be.

---One incident does not a trend make.

---Loneliness is seen in a thousand-yard stare.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Baseball's Broken Heart

2009-05-06T17:12:00.000-04:00

I just heard that Dodger outfielder and one of the game's greatest right-handed hitters ever, Manny Ramírez, has been suspended for an undisclosed violation of the league's drug policy. It is most likely steroids. And even coming from a player I don't follow closely on a team I don't care about, the news breaks My heart. For not only is Manny one of the game's greatest hitters and flakes, he is one of My son's favorite players.

When Manny left Boston--like a whiny putz--Jason Bay went from My much-beleagured Pirates to the Red Sox. My son's sense of loss was matched by My own, as Bay has gone on to prove that his ignored excellence in Pittsburgh is highly-touted in Boston. Manny went on to reignite his bat and lead the Dodgers to the playoffs. Bittersweet all around.

Over the past decade, Manny has combined hitting excellence with goofball earnestness and that makes him unique in the annals of baseball. He hits with the power and consistency that only a handful of men could ever match, names like Ruth, Gehrig, Foxx and Hornsby. Like Ruth, Manny is a man-child, a lovable loon who can wow you almost every time he swings a bat.

The past decade has not been good to heartfelt fans of baseball as steroids have gutted the grand ole game's image. Former heroes like McGwire, Sosa, Palmeiro, Clemens, Bonds and most recently the "golden boy" Alex Rodríguez have failed to live up to Our images of them. They make excuses, just as baseball management does. Excuses for lapses of judgement that each man at each point in time knew were lapses.

Fans like My son, little boys and girls, have grown up with this scandal. To them, the gaudy records in hitting and pitching have no historical context: they are not "all -time great," just "now." Clemens climbing into the all-time Top 10 in pitching wins is no big deal to them; Bonds passing Aaron was deliberately not a big deal, but they don't know that. We--the fans who grew up before the scandals--We know.

My dad saw DiMaggio, Williams, Musial, Jackie, Mantle, Snider, Ford, Feller, Roberts and more; he and I saw Mays, Aaron, Koufax, Gibson, Frank and Brooks Robinson, and of course, Roberto Clemente...and so many more: Schmidt, Rose, Morgan, Bench, Smith, Ripken, Jr., Boggs, Gwynn, Carew, Seaver, Carlton, Ryan, Palmer and dozens more. We know. We know better, because they were better. Better men. Men who played from the heart, not for the pocket. Men who played the game without violating its spirit. Men, not posers.

And now it seems that the sometimes irritating, always entertaining Manny is--actually--a poser. Not a hitting idiot-savant, but just...an idiot. A poser. Men such as Griffey. Jr, and Maddux, men with career records amongst the greatest the game has ever seen, are lost in the morass of poser-watching. And though the game goes on--will go on--suddenly for Me it has a broken heart. Maybe Manny's suspension is not about steroids, maybe it's about another drug or medication and that this is all a painful lesson on avoiding simple mistakes. But it doesn't seem that way and it definitely doesn't feel that way.

I haven't felt this kind of pain over baseball since the day Clemente died. This time, this pain hurts much less...but it hurts. I healed then, slowly, over time. I wonder how long it will take to heal now. And if baseball will have anything to do with that healing.

The Jenius Has Spoken.