Papacita

I hear where you're coming from, and as I said in my post yesterday I don't agree 100% with Kanye's comments, because one his lack of emphasis on the poor in general and two the idea of the government intentionally trying to make black people suffer is extreme, but I think he was spot on in his criticism of the media, because there is a negative slant in their coverage of African Americans in this crisis and on a regular basis, and I just as you can say that 9-11 did effect everyone's freedom, media bias does effect the lives of black people on a daily basis, because when you portray them as animals and as criminals, its going to be in the minds of police officers when they're making arrests, of jurors in criminal cases and so on--that stigma doesn't just go away, and maybe you could argue about the timing of the comments or what have you, but I feel it should be addressed immediately, and I'm glad he put it out there. This has the potential to effect all of us, so I certainly have no problem in him grouping himself in with the people of the area.

Typically, Kanye doesn't come out (in the mainstream anyway) speaking ebonics and comes of fairly articulate in most interviews, and even if that wasn't the case, the point remains that YOU are criticizing the man for grouping himself with other blacks when you're essentially doing the same thing. Now perhaps you meant that as some kinda sarcastic commentary...I dunno, but as it stands, that's a bit hypocritical in my eyes.

Ok, to those of you asking about this "sacred bond" as to why blacks identify with each other on a racial level, as if it's some absurd trait that's unique to us only...generally speaking, how often do whites--especially in the mainstream media--differentiate between the individual and the collective when it comes to African Americans. I mean, Czech can say that there's no common ground between Kanye and other blacks, yet you use mock ebonics when trying to mimick his speech. What is that? I've had white people--who at the end of the day I'd say are good people and really didn't mean any harm--come up to me without even knowing me saying shit like "yo, yo, yo homeboy! Wassup G" as if every black person in the world talks like that. You take somebody like John Cena--how many people on this board have referred to this man as a wigger? How many people have looked at guys like Cena and said that he's trying to be black? And I'm not even scratching the surface as far as stereotyping goes in America. And before someone says something, yes there are a lot of blacks out there who help to perpetuate a lot of negative stereotypes about our race--I don't think anyone would deny that--but when you're constantly getting the message from the majority--from those with the most say in the country that you're all alike, why are we wrong for being able to identify with one another and for thinking collectively? And shit, why aren't people criticized for speaking collectively about the 9-11 attacks. We weren't all in New York the day the towers dropped, but would you criticize someone from say...California from looking at the event as an attack on *them* and *their* freedom?

Scripting is my biggest problem with WWE today--it makes the show seem overly manufactured and it makes it way too hard to get behind today's characters since the majority of their promos come off as if their voices aren't their own. The backstage skits don't need to be done away with, but they do need to be revamped to seem more spontaneous...more realistic. I mentioned this a while back, but they'd benefit a lot from--rather than showing an entire segment where Teddy Long meets up with a UPN exec and discusses the direction of Smackdown--having a camera cut in in the middle of the meeting, filming things from...not necessarily a distance, but one that's not blatantly intrusive to the wrestlers so you won't have to work as hard to come up with an excuse to why they're there, why the wrestlers don't see them, etc. This along with less-scripted dialogue would add a lot of realism to the show IMO. Also, there needs to be more focus on in ring competition. One thing I hate about WWE now is that a lot of these guys seemingly wrestle for no reason. You don't hear about money, about rewards...I can't even remember the last time I've heard that a win or a loss would bring someone a step closer/further from a shot at the title. Right now, it seems as if the only reason people even wrestle at all is to settle grudges, which seems kinda stupid when you think about it. They need to develop some kind of rankings system--maybe a point system, so that way they can keep fans updated on wrestlers' progress during control center-like segments on Raw and Smackdown--and have these be the deciding factor in who gets gets title shots. The more focus on actual ring competition, the less they'll have to worry about coming up with storylines for the non-main eventers, because they'll have a built in storyline right here. And they need to do away with that "guy attacks champion, gets a title shot" stuff they always run. Other stuff...I'd definitely like to see the I-C Division built up again, since that was always my favorite belt when I was younger...same with the tag belts and other secondary titles. They should definitely cut down on the amount of PPVs. More variety in matches.

I agree with this for the most part. That's probably the main thing I've enjoyed about Raw and Smackdown lately, because the shows seem a lot more fresh without one guy all over the shows every week. I think they may wanna step things up with Batista a little bit though, because with the little amount of airtime he gets, I actually forget he's got the belt a lot of the time. Other than that....Smackdown's ring is pretty. Real pretty.

Honest question: Why are the protection of material goods even an issue at this point when lives are at stake? While you could argue that some of the people that are taking electronics and what not have misplaced priorities (but then again, maybe not when you consider that these people have just lost everything to their name, and while they may not be able to use the objects they're taking, they can be sold with the money from the sales being used as a means to get themselves back on their feet. Not the most practical thinking considering the situation, but if one looks at it from this aspect, it's not exactly the most irrational thing in the world), at the end of the day your job is to save lives. Worry about the TVs and shit after the fact. For you to suggest that people who take non-essential items should be shot--in essence equating human lives with meaningless goods (or at least that's how it sounds to me)--is fucked up IMO. As far as Kanye's comments go, I don't necessarily agree with them (I don't think you can just boil this down to race), but really I think it needs to be said. Say that it's divisive or what have you, but this notion didn't suddenly originate with Kanye--a lot of black people feel this way, and are passionate about it. The same stance he took last night were the same arguments I've been hearing all week on black-centered radio, on other websites and forums and judging from the MSN video, it's the same stance being taken by a lot of the victims in NO, and while you could argue that it's divisive to bring this issue up in an open forum, I think it's much more divisive for us to just sweep the opinion of a sizeable portion of the affected population under the rug just to keep a few feathers from being ruffled, because their voices go unheard, their resentment is just gonna fester and tensions will increase. And Kanye's a known black racist? I must have missed that memo.

Ok, I'm looking to trade in my old PS1, a few old PS2 games that I barely play anymore, and possibly my N64. I've never traded anything in before, and I'm wanna know first a good place store or whatever to get this done (I'm thinking someplace like Gamestop but I dunno) and two how much you can get off of a PS1 or N64 these days. Any help would be appreciated.

...but I don't have a Goldeneye. I've got some gold teeth and some copper crowns if anybody wants them though. I dunno. I really don't have much to offer in the way of games though (mostly WWE and NBA stuff, and maybe a few other PS1 titles I haven't looked at in years), and while I could see someone here going for my No Mercy, I'm not 100% sure I wanna part with that yet. I think there's a flea market or something around here and I think I may check with them first to see what I can get for this stuff, and if that doesn't work out I'll try ebay. Thanks for the input.

He called Hurricane "Katrina" when he came out, which aside from being tasteless was just stupid to begin with. Still nothing to make that big a deal about.

Say what you will, but in this instance I really don't see how anyone can come down on them. Anyone that was upset by this is either hypersensitive or just plain petty. I found this funny. He's more or less admitting that the only way to get ahead in WWE is to kiss ass.

I guess "trade in" really may not be the right term to use, since I'm looking more to get money back as opposed to new games/systems/etc. Are they good for that or would I be better off trying something else?

Meh, I really dug Raw tonight for the most part. Although I didn't like the ending (Flair's return was pointless), I was really into the tag main event. I'm actually liking the way they've handled Carlito and Masters the past couple of weeks. You can argue that they're green, not ready or whatever, but the show seems a lot more fresh with them in a more prominent role, and I enjoyed watching them interact with Michaels tonight. I liked Hardy and Edge, and agree with whomever it was that said this should've been what went down at Summerslam. Only thing that's kinda bugged me tonight as far is these two go is the stuff with Lita and the fact that they've just made her completely evil. I can understand why they'd go that route, since they don't want to take sympathy away from Matt, but still considering this program's supposed to be based on real life history, it'd help if she wasn't just COMPLETELY heartless towards Matt. I think having her show even a little compassion for him would've added a lot to the double KO spot at the end. The Angle/Cena stuff was ok, although they probably could've been given a bit more of a prominent role, and the rest of the show was harmless. Overall, this show had a really fresh feel to it, and for the first time in a while I was into it all the way through.

Man, they really suck on the stick, don't they?

Gotta disagree on Kane. His monster gimmick makes him a bit more natural in the heel role, but he's proven to be a good enough face when booked right (like his tag title run with X-Pac, for instance). I'm on the fence with Jericho, because I hate his face character.

Graphics are in.

Anyway, Punk's been using the Anaconda Vice the last few ROH shows I've seen, so I'd imagine that'd be his finish. The fact that it's basically HHH's finisher is reason enough for them not to allow him to use it.

The post Judgment Day 98 Raw when Paul Bearer reveals that he turned on Kane because he was weak: "BUT HE'S YOUR SON FOR GOD'S SAKE, YOU ROTUND DEMON!!!" Hearing him call Heyman a human boil on commentary one night during the Invasion angle had me laughing as well.

Yeah, I think that's definitely true. The reason I and most of my friends circa 95 became fans of his was because of his cocky/cool/arrogant approach to his matches. I used to love how he'd fuck around with his opponents during his matches (like one time he was facing I think Barry Horowitz and in the middle of the match he jumped into the crowd and just started relaxing in the front row) and for the most part he'd actually be able to get away with it. In 95, he was funny and came off genuinely cool IMO, but once he got the belt and they cast him as the humble babyface, although I remained a fan, he just didn't have the same appeal. The same thing happened to the Rock in his 2000-01 run to a lesser extent.

I think I see your point, and I didn't have a problem with Shawn's selling but I think that sort of logic is a little flawed because if anything, overselling Hogan's offense to the level he did makes it less believable (not that it's a problem considering the participants involved, but still). Also, overselling like that takes away from the guy giving the move and puts more focus on the move's receiver, so the idea of him doing it to make Hogan look good really doesn't hold up IMO.

You know, I'm a big Michaels mark, but if there's any truth to this at all, that's funny as hell. Makes me wonder if they'll have any second thoughts about going through with Austin/Hogan at Mania.

When I picture the arena, I kinda envision it being really with a lot of smoke and/or cobwebs or something like that. The idea about the vendors seems cool...maybe we could have somebody like the Missing Link or Warrior selling popcorn and stuff. Maybe for a Halloween show or something. I dunno.

I hate how this turned out, but how's this for the AS logo:

I agree with this 100%. I've always felt that it's a little unreasonable for people to expect a highly-competitive, formulaic match just about everytime out, and have wished WWE went with more one-sided matches just to keep things realistic. Also, it'd do a lot to convince the fans that a match could end at anytime, thus making the nearfalls a lot more believable.

You know, since I'm here I just wanna clear something up real quick. Milky is IDRM, right?

I'm listening to Jericho/Cena in the background and I've gotta say this line from JR cracked me up tonight: JR: Jericho's a sicophant. Coach: Do not use words you cannot spell, JR. JR: Can you spell "Topeka"? That's where you're gonna be headed if you don't shut up!