Bring on the New Decade!

2009 was a year to remember. Also, the first decade of the 2000s was a decade to remember. Since 2000, the internet has been used more than ever and has become a major source of information, the greatest country in the world (the U.S) was attacked, the world has seen numerous natural disasters, several wars (religious and war on terrorism), three summer Olympic games, two winter Olympic games, numerous sports stars admitting to using performance enhancing drugs, one of the biggest ponzi schemes ever (Bernie Maddoff), one of the worst recessions ever, and two different U.S Presidents. Don’t forget that this has also been ten years of our lives that have been very interesting.

December 31, 1999: do you remember your parents and relatives going to the local grocery store and buying bulk food and water because of the Y2K scare? What a great way to not only start the new millennium but start off the decade. People were seriously afraid everything was going to stop working! Countless people believed that the computers would not be able to handle the change to the year 2000 and technology as we know it was no longer going to work. Mass panic. Obviously, we were all very ignorant because nothing happened and we have now made it to the year 2010. I mean, we do have another big fear coming in the year 2012. However, I will write about that on December 31, 2011.

In November 2000, there was a general election for the Presidency of the United States. The big contenders: George W. Bush and Al Gore. This was an election to remember. The state of Florida had some problems keeping track of the votes and after several times being re-counted, George W. Bush had won the election. To this day, there is still debate over the Florida votes; however, I believe they got it right. Shortly after Bush was sworn in, one of the worst days in American history happened. September 11, 2001 the U.S was attacked by Islamic terrorists and we retaliated by going to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The war in Iraq and Afghanistan is also another debatable subject but I will not be getting into that subject (however, where are you anti-war people now that Obama has sent 30,000 more troops!?!). Regardless what your opinions of President Bush, we should respect the office of the President and he did all he could during this time.

Some natural disasters that have struck that we will never forget will be Hurricane Katrina (August 28, 2005) and one of the worst tsunamis to ever hit Indonesia (December 26, 2004). Hurricane Katrina affected the U.S, more specifically the southern states like Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama (however, we only heard about the effects in Louisiana). After Katrina hit Louisiana was devastated (and many people believe this is what really hurt President Bush’s ratings) and FEMA virtually collapsed. This was a virtual collapse between local, state, and Federal levels of government which made the situation in Louisiana worse than it should have been. Most people blame Bush but the real blame should be put on the Governor of Louisiana and the Mayor of New Orleans for their refusal to communicate with the Federal government and make sure what was needed to be done. Once again, I will not be getting into the politics of this.

The last couple of Olympic Games have also been ones to remember. Numerous athletes have been caught cheating (Marion Jones, Maurice Green and countless others). However, the best summer Olympic Games of this decade were in 2008. We learned in 2008 that it is possible for one person to win eight gold medals (Michael Phelps). We also met the world’s fastest man Usain Bolt who smashed the 100 meter and 200 meter world records. It is also debated that Bolt has saved the sport of track and field. A few months after the Olympics, in the World Championships, Bolt continued to dominate as he ran an incredible 9.69 second 100 meter (a new world record). Obviously, 2008-2009 for track was a very impressive year! Even for American distance running this past decade has been special. We lost an incredible runner, Ryan Shay as he collapsed with a heart attack in the Chicago marathon in 2007. However, we had two runners break 13 minutes for a 5k (which has not been accomplished for an American runner in a really long time): Dathan Ritzenhine and Matt Tekenkamp. Ritz had an incredible year and so did Tek. Better yet, in the NYC marathon this year (2009) an American won it and that was the first time since 1985 when Alberto Salazar won: the winner this year was Meb Keflezighi. Many people thought Ryan Hall, another American was going to win, however Meb ran an incredible race. All in all, American distance running is back on the global scene and I am really looking forward to the next decade!

In these past ten years I have grown up. I have gone from middle school all the way up to now, my junior year of undergrad. This past year, 2009, was a really good year. A lot of sweet things have happened to me and I have grown up in one of the best possible times in history. Granted, a lot of things politically and economically are going bad, but it is still a great time to live. 2009, my 20th year of living, I would rate as one of the best years ever.

Here is what I am looking forward to in the next decade:

-The Republicans doing well in the 2010 elections and the 2012 elections
-Either go to grad school to attempt a PhD in political science/history or get a job
- The Kansas City Royals making the playoffs (hopefully, but highly unlikely)
-The Oakland Raiders making the playoffs again
-The Carolina Hurricanes winning another Stanley Cup
-American Distance running hopes of winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games
- The world ending in 2012! (Oh wait, that won’t happen)

Anyways, I hope that everyone reading this had a fantastic Christmas and they have a great New Year. Thanks to everyone who read this all year and a thank you to all who will continue to read this next year!

Happy Chrismanukkahwanzaadan

Do the words “Merry Christmas” offend you? Go ahead and think about that for a minute. Ok. The answer is most likely, “No, those words do not offend me.” Fantastic! So why do you go and tell me that I cannot say that to people? Do we not live in America? Does the First Amendment in the Constitution (thanks to those who catch my careless errors) not guarantee me the freedom of speech? If someone tells me one more time, “Oh you can’t say ‘Merry Christmas because you will offend someone’” I am going to give them some Christmas wrath. Seriously, I will say “Merry Christmas” to whoever I want. Obviously I won’t say that to someone who has a Yakama on so stop getting all hot and bothered about it.

Have you ever met someone that celebrates Kwanza? I doubt it. Kwanza kind of seems like a knock-off of Hanukkah. Really, Kwanza is something that the United States just made up to say “Oh hey, you’re black and you should have your own holiday so try this.” Kwanza was created by Ron Karenga in 1966 and it means “first fruit” (check out Wikipedia). So I think maybe I should make my own holiday and call it K-C Holiday and it has to be during the same time as Christmas just so people that have the initials “K C” can be recognized. This seems ridiculous, kind of like Kwanza.

Everyone wants to be recognized for something and with something. Well guess what! The world isn’t perfect. A lot of people do great things in their lifetime and don’t get recognized. Why can’t we just accept that there are some things like Christmas that is meant for everyone to celebrate despite the religious aspects. Obviously a Jewish family or Muslim family will not celebrate Christmas due to their own religion but they have their own special holiday.

I am really surprised that in the malls they haven’t put a menorah or a Kwanza candle thing in there yet. Better yet, I’m surprised they haven’t taken away Santa Claus because that is only showing one holiday and the malls are not being diverse enough.

My main point here is if I want to say “Merry Christmas” when I go shop during the holiday time don’t give me attitude and tell me I might offend someone. I think if people that are working want to say “Merry Christmas” to customers they should be allowed to if that is what they celebrate. If the employee celebrates Hanukkah, Boxing Day, or K-C holiday, they should be able to say “have a happy/merry/nice…” without anyone getting offended. Life would be so much simpler if people wouldn’t get offended about stupid little things or trying to be politically correct. We should start teaching this in schools: don’t get offended, people celebrate other holidays but it is okay for you to say what you want to. Of course that won’t happen because everyone wants to appease everyone. Well I am sick of it!
Have a freaking Merry Christmas!

I didn't realize that Golfers got the ladies. I need to change my sport!

I have decided to throw my two cents into the wide world of the web about Tiger Woods. This is an absolutely hilarious story because nobody would have thought that Tiger Woods of all famous sports stars would have been in on a sex scandal. Kudos to you Tiger.

Let me first point this out, I strongly believe that America is really the only country in the world that is obsessed with celebrities or the next crazy fad or story. Just a few months ago we were all talking about Balloon Boy and his parents that have an IQ of an eighth-grader. I feel to make this blog post exciting we should go over some pretty huge scandals or stories that we all know about.

So I know I am too young to remember JFK’s affair but oh man, the President of the United States having an affair should be a HUGE story. JFK of course was real classy. Come on, Marilyn Monroe was good looking in her day. Of course there are rumors of JFK having more affairs. Well we can move up to a more recent time that I was around for. Do you remember classy President Bill Clinton? Though I was younger I do remember most of what happened however, I am not sure how much coverage this got but I am guessing it got a lot of coverage. Well we all know Bill had some “sexual relations” with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office. Monica was just an intern at the time, but does anyone know what happened to her? I haven’t seen or heard of her for several years. All that I am going to say is that I think Bill could have done much better.

Do you remember Kobe Bryant’s alleged affair when he was in Colorado? That crazy girl took him all the way to court and he had to pay her to shut up. Obviously Tiger didn’t remember what happened to Kobe. Obviously Kobe even forgot what happened a few years ago because there are rumors once again that he is at it with someone new! Hey Kobe, stay classy. How about just last year in 2008 in New York? Do you remember what I am talking about? Remember Governor Elliot Spitzer and his hot affair? Good old Elliot paid $4,300 for a night of fun, he’s a bigger spender. I think Elliot should have tried to get something for free instead; it probably would have made him look a little better. However, he did pick a really good looking girl.

Of course all of those people that had affairs were eventually forgiven. Something new probably came up and their stories were old news. America wasted so much time on all of those stories hoping that something new would come up but nothing did. Eventually, there was a new story or fad that happened and everyone changed their attention to that. So Tiger, don’t worry about your alleged 9 mistresses (possibly more), everyone will forget soon! Even if people don’t forget I do not think that this will bother Tiger when he is out there trying to win some major golf tournament. Obviously, Kobe had no problem ignoring his affair while he was out there playing and trust me, basketball gets more coverage than golf!

It is only a matter of time that we will no longer be talking about Tiger Woods. Maybe some other dumbass will try to get publicity and send their kid up in a balloon just to get Tiger off the hook. I will leave on this question: Does it really matter what someone does on their free time? I know that he is kind of a scumbag because he had a wife and a kid but let’s be honest, this does not affect anyone reading this blog post. We do not know Tiger personally and the majority of America doesn’t either. I think we should leave the man alone and let him figure it out. If this ever happened to you are me we would not get this much coverage but our significant other would sure as hell be pissed and probably less forgiving because we don’t make as much money as the super stars.