dennisjames71

…Another great set of Random Thoughts this week, Y4L. First off, I love your title for Sarah Palin, the spokeswoman of the stupid. While I could care less about most aspects of politics; this dolt irritates me to no end. Why anyone would want to willingly listen to the ramblings of a person based upon her ultra-thin resume and experiences of being a quitter, is beyond me. …While I am happy that Raphael Soriano went to my other favorite team; I am sad to see the Tampa Bay Rays are now essentially the Durham Bulls with David Price and Evan Longoria. I would not be surprised to see a rejuvenated Baltimore Orioles team or the Blue Jays run the Rays down in the AL East this season. On the upside, I feel a great, classic Yanks/Red Sox battle throughout the season for the division crown. …No, the longest wait is being stuck behind the person who is waiting for the car leaving a parking space. …Although I am skeptical about Derek Jeter’s intentions about truly wanting to start spring training early…I really hope that he has a “fountain of youth” / comeback season this year because the Yanks are really gonna need him and maybe we’ll forget his off-season/negotiation acts this past fall.

Hey Y4L, I neglected to mention in my point about the burning of comic book, lurid detective novels, and pulp magazines…that this was done here in the United States between the late 1940s and early 1950s. How hypocritical that we damn Hitler (rightfully so) for doing the same thing just a decade before and then in Anytown, USA…they were lining up all the school children to systematically participate in these book burnings. Pretty disturbing stuff. “So what did you do today at school, son? “Well, we had an outdoor assembly where we all re-enacted the Fascist book burnings that Adolf Hitler practiced a few years ago.” “That’s great Johnny…just as long as those evil comic books were destroyed.” Anyway, a great source for this information is a 2008 book by David Hajdu called “The Ten Cent Plauge”. It highlights the censorship and purge of comic book and pulp stories of the late 40s and early 50s. Here is a great review of the book from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/books/10masl.html?_r=1 Man, I can’t believe I forgot to mention To Kill A Mockingbird… I think you are right that it will surely be the next book to be censored in the name of not offending anyone. I remember those Book-of-the-Month clubs at school. Next to anticipating the new baseball cards that would be released as a kid; I looked forward to when the next shipment of books would come to the classroom and I would be able to read something I chose. My dad used to take me and my sister to the library nearly every Saturday afternoon and those memories and the foundation that formed will surely last a lifetime for me.

Hey Y4L, Really enjoyed your Random Thoughts today…I dont think the Rays will lose 100 games but Im afraid that they are going to be looking at a distant 3rd place in the AL East behind the Yanks and Red Sox. Since Ive been a Yankees fan since I was about 6 years-old; its kinda weird that I dig the Rays too because Ive liked what they have done with their franchise and I enjoy watching them play. Knowing that the Rays were gonna lose many key components; I would have much rather have seen Crawford and Garza sign/trade with the Yankees. (Im still ticked off about the Crawford deal I suppose). I also shook my head for many moments about the Huckleberry Finn censorship saga. What an absolute slap in the face to the authors of the past and any aspiring writer in the modern era. I spent 2 years to acquire my MFA in Creative Writing (in 2009) and what does this censorship/political correctness garbage tell us?...that some political hack or fly-by-night family group next month or in the 22nd Century is going to censor the hell out of our work? You highlight the best point about this Y4L, that these FICTION stories need to be assessed in the proper historical context. It truly does not matter what was written in a work of fiction because it is from one persons (the authors) perspective and you simply cannot change it. These PC groups of today need to take accountability for peoples actions and behavior right here, right now and quit placing the blame on what someone wrote over a hundred years ago. I agree with Mykal94s comparison to Fahrenheit 451 wholeheartedly. People seems to have a very hard time with seeing things in their proper and historical context and also do not learn from their history. One person gets offended about something, a knee-jerk reaction follows and all of the sudden, the issue has to be of monumental importance. Case in point, not 3 years after the end of World War II and barely 10 years after Nazi Germany was regularly burning books en masse as a form of censorship; schools, churches, and family groups were publicly burning pulp magazines, novels, and comic books for the very same reasons. Talk about short-term memory loss. I agree with Dylan that next on the list of censored books will by the Sherlock Holmes series…then I predict Lewis Carrolls work, Oliver Twist, Forever Amber, The Catcher in the Rye, and most of Ernest Hemingways material. Heres a tip people, why dont you spend 2 minutes with your children and sit down and explain to them about historical context and what words are inappropriate to use instead of having your attention glued to your smart-phone or parking them in front of a television/internet? Youll be surprised…

That's pretty funny redeck. I knew I shouldn't have told you the story about that ultra-drunk girl at the sports bar who thought I was Matt Garza. Regarding the real Matt Garza, I've been pretty mad over the sudden mass-exodus of everyone from Tampa Bay. Yeah, what a horrible team they have had to suffer on the last 3 years. If we lose Soriano; the pitching staff goes down to above average and the offense (like last year) will only get worse. Instead on Longoria saying (in the 2K10 Commercial) "Are you ready to battle?"...he should say "Are you ready for 3rd Place in the AL East?" for the 2011 Slogan.

That is just Legendary HFLR. What a great accomplishment and I couldn't be happier for you. Your work is beyond amazing. I really dig Joakim Soria too, so that's really cool you met him and got a pic with him. :good:

Mark, Man, what a great early Christmas present to see you back here. This site will never be the same without you around. Thank you for the kind words. You, Y4L, and Jim have all been my positive influences in my rookie year, here at MVP Mods. I’m very happy to see your re-appearance and I hope you have a great Holiday. Take care friend. Dennis

Damn that's funny as hell DJ...I think I accidentally made a Dirk_Diggler74 account at one time when I was updating all the 1970s Stadiums this past summer.

I definitely wish you the same great Thanksgiving too Y4L. I always enjoy reading your contributions around here and appreciate your insight on the many topics you write about. You've been a great bud to me since I've joined up this year and you and many other members here have been an encouragement for me to want to contibute to the site. I wish you and your family the best on the upcoming holiday weekend.

Hey Y4L, As always...excellent presentation on this TC Mod review. Everytime a new one (or update) is released I look forward to reading and looking at your reviews. Great example with the 2 World Series Teams. I'm gonna definitely make some time this weekend to play a few games of this Mod. Dennis

Wow, I cannot remember ever being so bored in my life where I would get a thrill by texting someone sitting next to me. Needless to say, I couldn’t agree with you more, the prevalence of the cell-phone/in constant communication obsession is definitely a problem. The next generation of young people are going to be so socially maladjusted that if they cannot communicate through a cell-phone/texting/computer/twitter; they will be effectively lost. I am a counseling psychologist at a mental health center and I see this nearly every day with the younger people I talk with. Whether it’s a mild or major form of psychological problems; I find that the 17-23 year-olds seem to struggle with verbal communication in almost every capacity, more than older individuals. Younger people have a much more difficult time when trying to express themselves in person; but I bet if they could text/twitter someone; they would be more at ease. That’s fine and dandy that they are master phone texters; but what’s going to happen when they are trying to maintain personal relationships later in life or trying to get through a job interview without imploding? It’s no surprise that there has also been evidence that people who are so extremely dependent on this form of communication also suffer from greater anxiety; it because there is no such thing as “down-time” when you are attached to an electronic leash and have to be in constant communication. My worst cell-phone story happened this past spring when I was up in San Jose, Ca. 2 or 3 times a year I get up there to play (guitar) in my buddy’s blues/rock band and to hang out. We were playing this gig in April on a Saturday night and we had a substitute bass player because the regular one had a bad flu. I swear, in the middle of a song, the bass player’s phone went off/vibrated and he took it out of his pocket to check it. We found out later that it was a huge emergency, his girlfriend in the audience was texting him. I wanted to go Babe Ruth on his head with my Strat. Needless to say, we never used him ever again.

Thanks a lot for these downloads Y4L. I've been re-watching the Ken Burn's Basebaal documentary lately and these radio broadcasts are a great addition to the experience. :clapping: