Archive for politics

George Zimmerman X DMX Fight Canceled

As much as I would enjoy seeing George Zimmerman get his ass whooped (regardless of whether you feel his killing Trayvon Martin was justified or not, he is a despicable human being for his antics post trial), I have to say I am relieved this debacle has been canceled.

I also don’t believe the promoter’s altruistic reasoning for a second, especially since he was the one who promoted this shit show in the first place (and released confirmation of the fight on the eve of Trayvon’s birthday. Really?!?!).

Read more, including the promoter’s response, on the notOkayPlayer.com post.

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And What Does a Real Man Look Like?

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Photo by Matthew Visinsky/Icon SMI/Corbis

Michael Sam is set to be the first openly gay player in the NFL next fall, assuming the Four Horsemen don’t appear and he doesn’t get drafted. Sam was SEC Defensive Player of the Year and first-team All American in 2013.

So, I begrudgingly give him whole-hearted support and admiration. Why begrudgingly? Because it’s sad that it still takes so much courage simply to admit who you are, it should be a non-issue. Hopefully more and more people like Sam will keep bravely standing up for themselves and almost as important, that people will continue to support him and others until sexual orientation is accepted across the board.

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Who Pays More in Taxes, You or the NFL?

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Leading question of course, the answer is you (if you paid anymore than $0 in taxes). The NFL is a tax exempt, not-for-profit organization.

Granted it’s not quite that cut and dry, revenue collected from merchandising and the NFL network falls under NFL Ventures which is taxed as well as the fees the NFL League Office collects from the 32 club teams. I will also be the first to admit that I am far from being an economist but there still seems to be something wrong and shady here.

The NHL and PGA also fall under this status (the MLB gave up the status in 2007 and the NBA has never been tax exempt) and the Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation recently estimated that taxes collected from the NFL and NHL would be more than $10 million a year.

I learned about this incidentally because some members of congress are trying to levy this status as a pressure for the NFL to change the racist name of the Washington Redskins.

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“Most Important NFL Commercial to Date!”

This is a pretty great commercial for all those who think the whole sports mascot racism isn’t an issue and too much of a fuss is being made over it. This spot speaks for itself, watch to the end. Kudos to the National Congress of American Indians (around since ’44) for putting this together-

Found via EverythingYouLoveToHate

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

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“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

As cynical as we here at CFC, and our generation in general can be, it’s impossible not to honor greatness. And though I may have some beefs with some of his views or not see eye to eye on everything, that’s the great thing because it’s being able to have those differences and still respect them that makes humanity great. So, cheers to the King.

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Born Losers, Die Legends

Tom Laughlin 1931-2013

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Tom Laughlin, best known for his role as Billy Jack, passed away last week. He was an actor, writer, director, producer, and activist and like a couple of us Common Folker’s he was raised in the brew city, aka Milwaukee. He was also influential in independent film, a “prototype for independent filmmaking and distribution.”

I only know about the Billy Jack phenomenon because of a film class on counterculture in college. At the time it was pretty easy to dismiss the because the films are pretty campy and dated and all about taking down “The Man”. Though, while it shares a lot of ideals of hippies in the 60s, it was also all about taking action and actually doing something instead of sitting on your ass and philosophizing about it (generally in the films this took place in the form of pretty rudimentary kung-fu, karate but you get the idea). I have to attribute part of this action taking to his midwest upbringing where if you’re going to be about it, you gotta be about it.

I digress, Tom Laughlin, and Billy Jack (loosely based on him), were men of action and an example of how one person, and each one of us, can really make positive change in things. So, cheers to a good life passed on.

And I’ll leave you all with a great “I’ll go berserk” monologue right before Billy Jack kicks some racist ass, as quoted in the Nytimes obituary-

“…when I see this girl of such a beautiful spirit so degraded, and this boy, that I love, sprawled out by this ape here, and this little girl, who is so special to us that we call her God’s little gift to sunshine — and when I think of the number of years she’s going to have to carry in her memory the savagery of this idiotic moment of yours, I — just — go — berserk!”

Click through for some more images…

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