Ordering Pizza in 2017???

A friend sent me this link : http://www.aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf

This is hilarious, but the scary part about it is that it's probably not too far away from being reality.

Want to know how to order a pizza in 2017?

Click the link and see. Turn up the volume. Listen closely. Watch the pointer carefully! 

Here was my response:

Yes - This is funny, but not sure how real it is.  Here is my take on this reality (If you care)

1) What the government is collecting is a one way street, they take from business but do not provide anything back, they want to keep it a secret.  The concerns I have is not around the aggregation of the data, which is what the NSA, an agency set up to spy on people is currently doing, but when they start breaking down the aggregation into individual monitoring.  Yes this is conceivable, but assuming the courts and congress prevent this from happening (large assumption, since they have not shown any resistance to date), then let the government collect this data and attempt to mine it looking for bad guys

2) I have no issues with business collecting information about their consumers.  My spending habits and past purchases are a vital piece of helping that business reconnect with me in order to get me to make a subsequent purchase. There is a relationship (CRM - Customer Relationship Management) they are establishing with me and building brand loyalty.  Again, unless there is an advantage or profit for the business to share customer information amongst themselves, i don't see this type of future.  Will business know more about me then I suspect?  Absolutely, but I don't see a national database, run by either gvt or business that will share all my information together in one.  This is when it becomes a real problem.  As long as my purchasing history and preferences remains spread out across multiple non connected databases, then I don't see this as a reality

Also this was produced by the ACLU, and not a big fan of them either

Thank you and happy Friday  :)

Happy 12th Birthday Jacob

12 years ago the world was a very different place

The World Trade Center stood tall above the Manhattan skyline

George W Bush was just a few months into his first term

And a little boy entered this world and changed my life forever

There was a baby boom that weekend in Stamford

And not a bed was to be found in the new Maternity Ward

Go home, they said, come back in a few hours

So it was off to Burger King we went to eat and return

After many hours of waiting out you popped

Giving us a scare as we waited for your first breath and scream

Eventually it came, soon enough, announcing to the world your arrival

And in that moment changing me from Man to Father 

FAN INTERFERENCE: A COLLECTION OF BASEBALL RANTS AND REFLECTIONS

FAN INTERFERENCE: A COLLECTION OF BASEBALL RANTS AND REFLECTIONS HITS SHELVES ON JUNE 21

Author Book Tour and Readings Slated Across U.S. in June and July

“…For those who love baseball for its charm, history and eccentricities and not merely as something to play a fantasy league around. It's for the true fans who populate the upper deck, not the party animals in the bleachers.” - Chicago Tribune

NEW YORK, NY (June 6, 2013) - Hitting shelves and online bookstores on June 21st, FAN INTERFERENCE: A COLLECTION OF BASEBALL RANTS AND REFLECTIONS  (Blue Cubicle Press, 2013) is an anthology of the best musings culled from over 15 years of the critically acclaimed Zisk zine -- the so-called "Baseball Magazine For People Who Hate Baseball Magazines."  Edited by MIKE FALOON (Go Metric, Egghead.) and STEVE REYNOLDS (Trouser Press, Party Like It’s 1999) and featuring contributions from academics to punk rockers, comedians to fans with an ax to grind, FAN INTERFERENCE examines the intersection of baseball, lifestyle and music -- all colored with bit of nostalgia, a great deal of humor and, often, a tongue planted firmly in cheek.

In addition to Faloon and Reynolds, contributors to the anthology include JAKE AUSTIN (author, TV-A-Go-Go: Rock Music on Television from American Bandstand to American Idol), SEAN CARSWELL (college professor, co-founder of the independent music magazine Razorcake and the independent book publisher Gorsky Press), KEVIN CHANEL (Punk Rock Confidential), BRIAN COGAN (The Encyclopedia of Punk), DR. NANCY GOLDEN (writer; wildlife toxicologist), JOHN SCHIFFERT (author, Base Ball in Philadelphia), TODD TAYLOR (founder and executive director of Razorcake/Gorsky Press Inc.), CHARLIE VASCELLARO (journalist, Washington Post, Chicago Sun Times, Los Angeles Times), ARI VOUKYDIS (comedian/writer, BuzzFeed, GQ, Grantland, etc) and REV NORB (musician; inventor of Sick Teen magazine, former writer for Maximum Rocknroll).

 “Baseball is the most important thing in the world. It's also completely meaningless in the grand scheme of life. These guys recognize that those two philosophies can co-exist in the human brain, which makes their writing a truly electric, and all too rare, jolt to the synapses.” - Variety

Slated for June 25^th at 7:30PM, the FAN INTERFERENCE launch event for will take place at The Bell House in Brooklyn and feature several of the contributors reading from the anthology.  For more details: http://www.thebellhouseny.com.

                                                       

FAN INTERFERENCE LAUNCH AND TOUR

FULL TOUR SCHEDULE (as of June 1, 2013):

Friday, June 28th - Easthampton, MA - Flywheel - 8:00 p.m.

AUTHORS: Mike Faloon, Steve Reynolds, Michael T. Fournier, Duncan Wilder Johnson

ADDRESS: 43 Main Street (In the Old Town Hall), Easthampton, MA

Sat June 29th - Cambridge, MA - Papercut Zine Library - 7:00 p.m.

AUTHORS: Mike Faloon, Steve Reynolds, Michael T. Fournier, Duncan Wilder Johnson

ADDRESS: Lorem Ipsum Books, 1299 Cambridge St., Cambridge MA

Sun June 30th - Portsmouth, NH - Riverrun Book Store - 5:00 p.m.

AUTHORS: Mike Faloon, Steve Reynolds, Michael T. Fournier, Duncan Wilder Johnson

ADDRESS: 142 Fleet Street, Portsmouth, NH  

Mon July 1st - Portland, ME - Word at LFK - 8:00 p.m.

AUTHORS: Mike Faloon, Steve Reynolds, Michael T. Fournier, Duncan Wilder Johnson

ADDRESS: 188 A State Street, Portland, ME

Tue July 2nd - Bangor, ME - Nocturnem at Main Street Music Studios - 7:00 p.m.

AUTHORS: Mike Faloon, Steve Reynolds, Michael T. Fournier, Duncan Wilder Johnson

ADDRESS: 56 Main St, Bangor, ME

Thu July 11th - Baltimore, MD - Atomic Books - time TBD

AUTHORS: Mike Faloon, Steve Reynolds Nancy Golden, Charlie Vascellero

ADDRESS: 3620 Falls Rd. Baltimore, MD 21211

Fri July 12th - Philadelphia, PA - Brickbat Books - time TBD

AUTHORS: Mike Faloon, John Weber, Mickey Hess

ADDRESS: 709 South Fourth St, Philadelphia, PA

Wed July 17th - Pittsburgh, PA - East End Book Exchange - time TBD

AUTHORS: Mike Faloon, Steve Reynolds

ADDRESS: 4754 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA  

Thu July 18th - Cleveland, OH - Mac’s Back’s Books - time TBD

AUTHORS: Mike Faloon, Steve Reynolds

ADDRESS: 1820 Coventry Rd, Cleveland Heights, OH

Fri July 19th - Chicago, IL - Quimbys - time TBD

AUTHORS: Mike Faloon, Steve Reynolds, Jake Austen

ADDRESS: 1854 W. North Ave, Chicago, IL  

FAN INTERFERENCE LAUNCH AND TOUR

ABOUT ZISK ZINE

Intending to cover baseball from a fan's perspective, the first issue of Zisk was published in the summer of 1999 and is now published twice a season. Named for the former “South Side Hitman” Richie Zisk, the zine is for those who love the charm, history and quirks of America’s pastime. The publication is edited by New York-based writers Mike Faloon and Steve Reynolds and is touted as "the Baseball Magazine For People Who Hate Baseball Magazines." 

For more information and additional tour dates, please visit:

Website: www.ziskmagazine.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ZiskTheBook

Twitter: @ziskthebook

FAN INTERFERENCE: A COLLECTION OF BASEBALL RANTS AND REFLECTIONS (Blue Cubicle Press, 2013)

Anthology - Paperback

238 pages Print - $22.95 / Kindle - $5.95/ PDF - $5.95

ISBN: 978-1-938583-04-9

#          #          #

Contact:         Meryl Cooper                                     212-260-8100

                                                                                    meryl@allencooperenterpises.com

Response to Obama Snooping on Verizon

My response to Obama snooping on Verizon

1) I am against the gvt snooping on my phone calls or in my business 
2) This is not a partisan issue, this is an extension of executive power
3) Republicans should have screamed this loud in 2002 when Bush enacted similar encroachments on our civil liberties, anyone who did not is a hypocrite
4) Democrats that criticized Bush in 2002, should be just as critical and outraged at Obama today, anyone who is not is a hypocrite
5) Lets make sure we all understand that this is the President of the United States (not a republican or a democrat) that is eroding our rights, and the office is doing this with the explicit approval of the entire Congress (both republicans and democrats)
6) So if you are outraged, and you should be, we have nobody to blame but ourselves, since we continue to elect the same do nothing knuckleheads that would rather fight about their party, about how to get re-elected, how to get the other party out of office, rather than what is right for the American people.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/report-nsa-verizon-call-records-92315.html#ixzz2VRLFEJ2K

Should A-Roid/A-Fraud play another game in pinstripes?

As I was contemplating my next post, I was considering writing about how I became a Yankee fan.  However this morning as the latest steroid news out of Miami was being discussed on the Boomer and Carton Show, they posed the question “Do Yankee fans want to see Alex Rodriguez play another game in pinstripes?” I figured I would put in my $.02

http://www.deviantart.com/art/A-roid-166973042

The fact is I have never been a fan of Alex Rodriguez.  I have written all the way back to his signing with the Texas Rangers in 2001 that he was a money grubbing bastard, even though he claimed that he signed with Texas because of the talent around him and the opportunity that existed to win there, in spite of the fact that his contract prohibited them from signing anyone other than Chan Ho Park.  This was the first of many cases where A-Rod, appears to be much less sincere about the words he was saying versus the actions we were witnessing.    I was against the ARod being traded to the Red Sox for Manny Ramirez in the winter of 2003, since I believed (and wished) that he would continue to have suffer on a mediocre team under a greedy contract, as he was then 2 years into a 10 year contract, already complaining about playing for a crappy Rangers club that could not compete on what they agreed to pay him.   I was also against the Yankees trading Alfonso Soriano for him in February 2004 for the same reasons.    Look how well the Rangers have done since they traded him away.

Finally, there was absolutely no reason for the Yankees to extend his contract for another 10 years in 2007, taking him through the 2017 season when he will be 41.  Yes I am sure the Steinbrenner family believed ARod would put fannies in the seats as he approached 713, 755 and 762(*) and this contract would ultimately provide a decent ROI, but they did not count on an admission of prior steroid usage in 2009 nor an utter disregard for the game of baseball that has pretty much alienated not only Yankee fans, but most baseball fans too.  Any goodwill that ARod had was pretty much destroyed last season when he checked out during the playoffs when he couldn’t hit, then decided to hit on chicks in the stands during a game, and finally he shows up on Opening Day in 2013, only to sit in the dugout, opting out of the player introduction since he is afraid of being booed.  So needless to say, I am not a fan.

None of that history answers the question of “should Alex Rodriguez play another game as a NY Yankee”?  For this I take a more practical and realistic approach.

First let me state again that I am fundamentally against steroids in the sport, but the fact remains that players are going to continue to do whatever they can to gain an advantage over the competition.   If they believe doing steroids, or HGH or something else in the future that will allow them to produce more on the field or in their checkbook, they are going to do just that.  I believe the Yankees and Mets have been singled out because the sources of the Mitchell report were New York based clubhouse guys.  Had they found someone to sing in another clubhouse, would that team been singled out instead?  It would seem that a 50 or 100 game penalties is worth the risk, since players continue to be rewarded with new contracts even with a steroid past, see Melky Cabrera 2013 contract as Exhibit A.   So, I have come to accept that performance enhancing drugs (PED) are simply a part of the game.  It is becoming a cat-and-mouse game, where MLB is policing and the players are doing what they need to do in public or in private to gain that advantage.  We can kick and scream, be outraged, etc but it is not going to the change the fact that this is the state of the game today

Now, finally my answer to the question at hand is based upon a few concrete facts:
• Very simply can he still play?
• Will he recover from the hip surgery sufficiently to swing a bat or field?
• Is he a better option at 3b or DH than anyone else on the roster?

My feelings about him as a player, as a person or whether he has done, is doing, or will continue to steroids in the future is largely irrelevant.  Is he going to help make my team better?  Is he going to help us win more games, make the playoffs and put the Yankees in a position to win the World Series?  All Yankee fans knew that at some point he would not be worth his contract (yes, this applies to Derek Jeter too, but that is whole other story), and that time may be now, or it might not.

Either way, if he is better than the alternative then yes he should play.  To punish him by eating the contract then trading him to another team or sending him to the minors so he never plays for us again is just ridiculous.  No other team would ever make the decision, and neither should the Yankees.  Now, if the clubhouse rebelled against him, like the NY (hockey) Rangers did against their former coach, John Tortorella, then they might have a case for making him go away, but I doubt any player will come out and publicly say anything negative about him.

The real question here is if he cannot recover from his injuries and become a productive player, will he do the right thing and retire, or will he pull a Mo Vaughn and remain the disabled list for 3 years, just to collect every last dime from his contract?  Time will tell.

This was written exclusively for www.baseballmemories.com