Free speech and a Football game?

There is one thing that changed in the NFL three years ago and it is still missing today.

The right as Americans to Free Speech. When a player gets a touchdown or interception in the end zone, the rule is no celebrating by dropping down to the turf or spiking the ball.

Doesn’t this rule invade a little on the players right to free speech?

You bet it does! What it also does is belittle the organization for having such a rule. Why don’t they quit trying to take away players rights and instead impose a proper rule on the celebrating.

If they are afraid that a players celebration is disrupting things, than why not simply limit the display of happiness to a 5 or 10 second time limit. Anyone caught going over the limit will get a little bench time and that’s that.

Problem solved, the players still gets to do their thing, and the game continues on without a lengthy interruption. Plus by doing so, the NFL doesn’t look so uncaring and demanding any more.

The time has come, and it’s been too long overdue.

Bankruptnooption.

NBC SHOWS DETROITERS WHAT THEY REALLY CARE ABOUT!

The Stanley Cup play-offs. If you like hockey this is a major thing that happens every year and to watch your team go for the cup is a blessing of modern times and technology. Well modern times at NBC has finally gotten to the point of not caring about the fans and caring more about their TV ratings.

The usual procedure for out of town games, is to let the fans come down to the empty stadium and with our advanced broadcasting technology, watch the game on the big screens with our fellow fans and friends, while the game is being played at the other location. The times are rough in Michigan and especially around Detroit. Doesn’t NBC watch their own news programs, if they did then they would know that.

So why, when the world looks so bleak to millions, would they stop the fans from coming to Joe Louis Arena to watch the broadcast just because they want to increase their TV ratings.  They must not realize what is truly going on out here in the real world and that is nothing more than sad and driven simply by GREED.

There are businesses every day in America stepping up to the plate and helping people out any way they can and because of NBC’s ratings they go and pull that bull.

What they don’t realize is a little compassion for people who are having rough times would have gone a long way to help their ratings overall, had they advertised their options and stated they would still show the game for the fans, but it looks like they actually cared more about no one but themselves.

There are a lot of fans who had to stay home or go to the pub to see the game and I hope it caused their ratings to go way up, because when the series is done, there will be a large area of Southeastern Michigan blocking NBC from their favorite channel lists, thanks to their concern for the viewer count, rather than the actual million viewers who make up that count, and who attend the Stanley Cup Parade, the fans.

Lets see what NBC’s lack of human kindness and compassion for an area that is hurting, will do to their ratings in the long run. Someone who calls those shots for NBC should be fired for blocking the Joe Louis Arena from showing the game to a bunch of people who have nothing else to route for in their lives, because they are loosing their jobs and homes.

It’s sad that greed over TV ratings, could cause a major American broadcasting company like NBC, to do something as unkind as that in this day and age. That out of the whole group of NBC decision makers on that issue, not a soul would have the backbone to stand up and say, “For Christ Sakes, it’s so rough there that Leno went and did free shows there, before the car companies went bankrupt, and now we are going to stop the fans from being able to view at the arena, the possible final play- off game of the Stanley Cup Series, over a few damn rating points! I Think Not”.

But they didn’t have backbone or stand up with even an ounce of human kindness or compassion and the arena was dark and empty. The fans went elsewhere. Like their choice of favorite channels will, when the series is finished.

The Wings lost to the Penguins and NBC lost to it’s viewers.  (The last game will be in Jeo Louis Arena either on Thursday the 11th or Friday the 12th. We have received conflicting information on that.).

I wonder if NBC will be any kinder and let the Penguin fans watch that game in their arena. Probably not, were talking about NBC, Remember! But if they do allow it, it would appear NBC is prejudice against the Detroit Red Wings, now wouldn’t it.

This modern attitude that if you loose ratings or a customer there will be another, is becoming more the norm. It is not the way to do business if you want to truly be an example of success. Go back to the old way of  “the customer is always right” and where businesses made you happy to keep you their customer. Everyone would be a lot happier and businesses and their owners would return to being American Icons, that when mentioned would not just be a name, but would actually mean something to people again like companies used to.

Bankruptnooption.

Grand Prix Cars, Getting Scarier All the Time.

But this time someone is going to get hurt. I don’t catch many of these races but they need to lower the front end to the ground again.

If a piece of debris were to get under the raised section or it were to hit another car just right the driver would take the full force of the impact right in the groin. OUCH Yeah that’s what I said too!

This design is asking for trouble and I don’t want to see any of those drivers hurt before changes are made to correct this problem. So please, change this design Now.

Racing Officials are you out there. If anyone can get word to Roger Penski,  he can set them straight.

Bankruptnooption.

Tiger Stadium, Finish it off then Remember.

Just finish tearing it down already and then plan a memorial on that corner. Make the memorial triangular shaped and about three or four feet wide across each front side facing the streets. Only about as high as a seat back, that’s, it. Pour it out of concrete and clear coat it to preserve and protect the cement. On the front side facing Michigan Ave., put an actual carving or picture of the stadium and on the Trumbull side, a list of their pennant years and world series wins.  That’s what would face the street sides.

Now on the back  side, simply mold the concrete to resemble four stadium seats, or even one 4 place bleacher seat that would face towards where the stadium was, so people could sit for a minute and remember all the good times they had there, after looking at the front.

No taller than a seat back from the stands and triangular. Plain and simple. Just something people could stand next to and get a picture of them with the Stadium and list of wins on the front faces and then get a picture of them in the seats on the back side.

Remember to put a few drain holes in the cement seat bottoms. Now if you really want to make it an attention getter mount a casting of a Tiger on top, standing on two back feet jumping forward towards the street corner.

Easy cheep, complete, shows the stadium and tells the history. Plus seats on the back to sit and remember, and a big tiger for the kids, Finished.

If I had the money for the couple cubic yards of cement which is all it would take plus a little handiwork I would do it myself.

Do it Detroit and you will look good to everyone who loved Tiger Stadium.

Bankruptnooption.

Grainger, an Awesome Parts Store that turns away the public.

If you are the type of home owner who repairs a lot of your own stuff and you ever need parts, Do Not Go To Grainger.

You can walk in begging for the part and willing to pay them in cold hard cash, only to end up being sent out the door packing. They are well known through out the industrial and commercial business world out there, and they stock a lot of things that are hard to find.

But as a homeowner, Do Not Go There. Period. I don’t know if they ever sold to the public, but their way of doing business restricts anyone not associated with a business, from buying anything there. I feel that in this day and age, to refuse to sell to the public, when you are actually just a retailer and not a genuine manufacturer, is not very nice, but also a bad business decision to boot. Their bottom line could increase considerably, if only they sold to the public. I don’t know their reasoning behind it, but I know they sit there and do nothing, when they could have bailed out many people by selling them the parts they needed, that only they carry.

I know this first hand. That is my experience with them and I have tried to purchase something there several times, because they were the only place that carried what I needed locally.

If the reason is fear of returns, because customers say it will work and then return it, they could simply say, no parts sold unless they are a direct match, and or the salesman approves the replacement part. Period. This would not only solve their return issues, but allow them to be more of a driving force in the economy and to the towns they are in.

I hope that some day they reconsider their ways of doing business.  They loose out on many sales this way and until you hear the big announcement on your nightly news, with all the new advertising to go with it, I wouldn’t go there. As a retailer in America, they are not very friendly or supportive to the public in the cities they do business in, or elsewhere for that matter. So for now, if you search high and low you may be able to find the parts you need, but you might be looking at several hours of long distance calls and a few hour drive just to go see if they are indeed the correct parts.

Now if you need that knueter valve thing y on Christmas Eve, so you can fix your furnace and save the cost of an emergency repair service call, at 10 times the normal price, then you better just stay home and tell grandma and the children, that they better wear a warm robe tomorrow morning to open their presents, because it may be a little cold around the Christmas tree, Thanks to your present from Grainger.

Evolution and Extinction, There’s No Escape.

I hate to see endangered species as much as the next person, but what I wonder about is effects on evolution. We evolve as one small part of the universe and it’s been going on for a long time now. There are many changing factors on earth that can and will lead to the extinction of many creatures both big and small.

Many creatures have come to pass well before we got into the picture. Archaeologists have found the evidence left from many of these creatures of the past. It would be something unimaginable to be able to still see them all alive in todays day and age, but would they fit in.

Many of those from the past would now have to have been dealt with either by number management or in a captive manner anyway if they were still around. A pet dinosaur like Dino from The Flintstones cartoon, would be every boys dream. But what about when they grow up? Then they would not only be every dad’s nightmare, but also just imagine the neighbor trouble. You think the battle over the pit bull is big. What about people who raise exotic pets illegally from young, only to find out that they get big and unmanageable, so to avoid fines they are let loose somewhere only to resurface on someone else’s property and scare the hell out of them. Creating a big ruckus, and having to find a new place where they can live. That’s baby lions, cougars, snakes and alligators. Now imagine a growing Pterodactyl, or Brontosaurus, if that doesn’t scare the hair off your scalp. Wow.

The human race has become the major inhabitant of the earth, so what about living with the animals. If they are becoming extinct do to our actions, isn’t that still evolution? The only factor that is thrown in to complicate things is that humans have emotions and intelligence that not only make them enjoy and like animals, but also to be concerned for their wellbeing too.

We will change our ways so that fewer animals become extinct on account of us and the planet will continue to evolve with all of it’s inhabitants having a set period to use it. Let’s not become unintentional killers, but change our ways to preserve all living creatures even past their set time and most of all lets try to be sure that we are not shortening the time for any of them, and that includes us as well.

Bankruptnooption.

Mark Martin, A Veteran, A Winner, and The Start of a Trend?

Veteran NASCAR Driver Mark Martin, after having a long string of races, sometimes with some not so happy finishes, has keep up the fight and has become one of the oldest drivers to win a NASCAR Race. I am darn happy to see it. I would like him to stay in it as long as he feels he can do it and NASCAR signs his racing license.

So what I am wondering, is in the future will we start to see some older veterans staying in the sport and enjoying it longer. Veterans and their perspective rookies, mixing it up, for the fun of it, bumper to bumper. Spectacular.

Now we all know that there comes a time when a driver would weigh out all the consequences of racing another season and say that’s it, finished, but now that argument they have with themselves over retiring at a certain age, has a few new influencing factors they have to take into consideration.

The major factor the older drivers can now consider, is how the sport has been taking strides to make it very safe for all. Many innovative ideas have come to play and are proving to help the drivers sustain a major crash with less impact to their bodies. We all have seen some pretty grueling wrecks and it’s amazing at how the drivers more and more are walking away from them. With the changes in the cars, the addition of the Hans device and the advent of the safer barriers, along with many other safety rules and implementations, drivers can take the added safety into account when making that retirement decision now.

The older you get the more mortal we all start to feel, no matter what it is that we do for a living or otherwise. We are reminded even by NASCAR sponsors to eat right, watch our health and keep fit. So if a driver does all that and stays both mentally sharp, physically fit and the safety factors keep increasing the way they are, will the older veterans become more willing to stay in it a little longer? Will they have a little more fun and show the young ones they still got it and maybe win a cup, over the hot young rookies?

I placed my wager that Mark Martin would win another race before he retired and I bet that in the future we will see the average age of drivers increasing over the years, and as long as they have the desire and the health to do it, I hope they do.

So look out all you young guns cause Gramp’s not only has the skill, but he still has a trick or two left up his sleeve and has been waiting for the right time to use them.

CONGRATULATIONS MARK MARTIN, A Real Trend Setter.

Bankruptnooption.