The premise of Buzz’s piece is that bron bron hasn’t done anything as bad ( in a real, criminal way ) as many other professional athletes – which of course is true. LeBron is not nearly as much of a problem to society as a whole as the Ben Roethlisberger’s (et all) of the world. But that is not my ( and I suspect others ) problem with King James.

My problem is the complete and total hubris, pomp, and self celebratory nature surrounding LeBron. I neither think that is entirely his fault, nor do I think it is the worst thing in the world. And it doesn’t make me hate him – but it is what makes me want to root against him.

It goes back further then “The Decision” – which at best was not the smartest PR move, at worst, well see the first sentence of the last paragraph. It started for me at the end of his run with the cavs. Even further back I thought that there was allot of hype for this admittedly amazing athlete who really hadn’t done much in a basketball sense at the highest levels. He had skipped college ( and maybe some of the things one learns in a final four? ) and had won allot of regular season games in admittedly sometimes spectacular ways.

I haven’t watched a regular season NBA game all the way through in a number of years, but I did see the highlights and watched the playoffs, etc. I have seen, what appears to me, LeBron give up in multiple playoff series. I would find it incredulous that anyone could debate he gave up in his last games as a Cav, but it looked to me like he had a year earlier as well. Somehow the give up – not being clutch – not being the finisher and yes, eventually not being a champion made all of the hype and spectacle surrounding him a farce.

There is nothing wrong with being Charles Barkley or Karl Malone – great, great players – but not champions – not “the chosen ones”.

And then – after “The Decision” and the negative fallout, surely LeBron learned from it, he certainly seems like an intelligent man. Maybe the spectacle pep rally thing in Miami was not his idea – but did he have to say not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, not 5, championships like that? Really? One thing every young baller learns early – don’t talk that stuff if you can’t back it up.

Add the decision, to the pep rally, to the chalk clap thing, the flops, the incredulous looks when a ref dare call a foul on him, making fun of an opponents illness – add all that up, combine it with the fact that he has never really won anything of significance in his entire basketball career – and then contrast it with his diminishing play on the court while still portraying the King James persona.

It just makes me want to root against him – which is not at all to be confused with hating him. It just makes me want substance to win-out over style, for teamwork to come out on top of super stardom. If enjoying the schadenfreude for a few days after the emperor ( or king in this case ) has been shown to have no clothes makes me a hater, in the parlance of our times, so be it. But I certainly don’t hate the man, even if it is fun to root against him.

But it is interesting.

Maybe the ‘Bucs ( the only other team in the NFC that could possibly claim that they should have gotten the last NFC playoff spot ) got jobbed this year, but them’s the breaks – if they would have won a few more games, then they could have taken the Saints place in losing to the first team with a losing record ever to win an NFL playoff game.

As it turns out, the current system gave us not only a NFC West title game on the last regular season game of the year, fodder for all of the mediocre sports analysts that somehow make a career of warming over all the same tired cliches and storyline’s, and an actually exciting NFL playoff game(!). If you think that is not an accomplishment then you have not been paying attention.

So, to wrap up, fair/shmair – win your damn division and you’ll get in the playoffs. You might even get a chance to beat the World Champs.

first by inflation,

then by deflation,

the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

The issuing issuance of the currency power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”

- Thomas Jefferson

So if you can come down to South GA in March, please stop by.

I will pick 5 of the submissions randomly on March 1st. I’ll cover the shipping as long as you don’t mind the slowest shipping possible.

First, you have to strip away your prejudices – Don’t pre-judge this with past football glory and lore of the SEC or Red River Shootouts. Granted, in the past the best football was played at gridiron powerhouses like Oklahoma, Florida, Texas, and ‘Bama, but Bear Bryant is dead and the limiting of scholarships has brought parity closer to fruition in the FBS.

Try and judge this strictly by these teams, this year – unless you want to consider that this is not Utah’s first big rodeo. They have already won a BCS Bowl game previously.

But, this year:

Utah played every game on it’s schedule and won each won. No other team did.

The above sentence is enough in every other sport, at every other level to declare a team a champion. If that is not enough for you, lets take it a step farther:

Utah won all of its games, did not play a cupcake schedule, and beat a storied football powerhouse from FBS’s premiere conference that was ranked number one for a large chunk of the season in a BCS bowl game.

Whew! Alright, if you can make it through that sentence and logic is you mental weapon of choice then you’ll have to agree that Utah should be Number 1!

I don’t care how close the games were – they won all their games against quality opponents. Winning all the games on your schedule is all you can do and something that Florida, USC, Oklahoma, all the other teams in the BCS could not do. Utah didn’t have an off night or a bad game, they were the superior team in every game the played.

Further, they did not just get lucky against Alabama. They did not need to run the statue of liberty against ‘bama in the last moments of the game. They straight up beat down the team that ran over the SEC in the regular season.

I might watch Florida and Oklahoma next week, but I won’t be watching the National Championship game, I watched the champs last night.

Hey Detroit – Maybe you should stop putting MP3 players, GPS crap, and seat warmers into your cars and build a solid drive train. Knock off the flip down TV’s, cup holders, and rear view navigation and make me a solid affordable car that gets my family from one point to the next safely.

Build me the modern version of the Dodge Dart with the slant six and then maybe I’ll buy one of your products.

Furthermore, if there is any justice, the next time someone tells me that we have a free market and capitalism is our financial system they should burst into flames in a inferno of spontaneous combustion. Part of business in a free market system is risk and failure. If you remove risk for certain companies ( by bailing them out ) then there is no free market – and if you don’t allow companies to fail then you remove one of the stages in the business cycle.

I am sure that there were people at one point in history, right before Henry Ford got cranked up, that were crying “If you don’t save the horse and buggy industry then thousands of people will lose their jobs.” “The horse and buggy industry is imperative to out national economy, if we don’t manufacture our own buggies and buggy whips then we will cripple our transportation system.”

So with out further ado JTk’s favorites of 2008:

Best Album of 2008: Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

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The fourteenth(!) studio album from the perennial and criminally unappreciated Cave prove that aging rock performers don’t have to turn into Sting like caricatures of their former selves.

Mr Cave explains the title:

“Ever since I can remember hearing the Lazarus story, when I was a kid, you know, back in church, I was disturbed and worried by it. Traumatized, actually. We are all, of course, in awe of the greatest of Christ’s miracles – raising a man from the dead – but I couldn’t help but wonder how Lazarus felt about it.

I would expect nothing less from Nick after all these years….

Best T.V. Showof 2008: Dexter, Showtime.

[youtube 1UJz0O2NjOo]

This was the easiest choice for me out of all of these categories. Showtime has finally pulled an HBO – creating the best hour on TeeVee each week by stretching past the bounds traditionally imposed by network executives and show sponsors. Dexter is like the best shows of HBO – The Wire, Deadwood, and the Sopranos – smart, funny, scary all in the same 45 minutes.

And Dexter Morgan himself reminds me of Tony Soprano in that you know that he is at his core a killer and yet you still find yourself rooting for him inspite of that. Most of my favorite TV shows have been ensemble casts ( Seinfeld, Deadwood, the Wire, Cheers ) where the support characters are at least as interesting as the protagonist – but not Dexter – Michael C. Hall is the show, it is all about him.

Best Movie of 2008: Batman – The Dark Knight

[youtube 6UBP2nXtRRo]

Okay, I can’t even believe that this is my choice, but after all of the crappy batman movies, ( not to mention all of the crappy superhero movies ever made – which is almost all superhero movies… ) and the hype this received with Heath Ledger’s death, the fact remains that Christopher Nolan created the best movie of the year.

I think all of the hype surrounding Ledger’s death would have put me off even more if he hadn’t been so damn good as the Joker – we are not talking about the Tommy Lee Jones 2 face clown of Batman forever, Ledger turns the joker into a complex and compelling character.

Best Video Game of 2008: Spore

[youtube jVH9Q8M8eaQ]

Leave it to Maxis (of SimCity fame) to create the most most unique and compelling game since, well, SimCity. Spore allows you to create the universe, to manage a species from its beginnings as a unicellular organism, through development as an intelligent and social creature, to interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture.

But that does not tell the whole story – the interface is a joy and the hours melt away as you take on evolution of your species – you really do have to play it to understand how engrossing it it.

Best Book of 2008: Nixonland

If the past is prologue, and I can’t argue that it is not, then this book is a must read for anyone that wants to understand why the political landscape is the way it is today. If you don’t agree, you should read how Rick Perlstein’s outlines Nixons so called “southern strategy” and watch how it has been applied by Lee Atwater, Carl Rove, et all. ever since.

Perlstein writes in a style that is readable and compelling and brings a fresh take to the tragic tale of not only Nixon but the times he presided over that still shape our divided country today.

Here is a transcript of our latest:

JTk: So, right now, for this year only, I think the Jets got a STEAL in their deal for a QB… What’s his name

JTk: And Green Bay, well, they are at least not as good as last year

StevieB: but the jets aren’t as good as green bay last year, either

JTk: Oh, I disagree

JTk: If I were you I would be very worried it the Steelers have to play the J E T S in the first round they are dangerous

StevieB: every team is

StevieB: but we had just said that the titans needed to lose one

JTk: right – you are stubborn man

JTk: I am telling you, don’t sleep on the Fighting Farves

StevieB: favre gets remembered for his great games, but everybody forgets how many times he presses and INT’s games away

JTk: You are missing the big picture

JTk: can’t measure everything, he makes him team better

JTk: period

JTk: some people make their teams worse

JTk: ( you have the list I believe

JTk: Some make their teams better

JTk: Farve is at the top of that list

JTk: Dude, this is going on the blog, this is as good as Peter King’s stuff LOL

StevieB: call me a hater if you want, but favre just doesn’t have it for me but make sure you put that i didn’t like mcnair for many of the same touchy-feely reason

StevieB: granted, if you have a fantasy league that doesn’t dock for INT’s, he’s great

JTk: numbers, numbers, numbers

JTk: numbers != football

StevieB: but a lot of my favre hating is because i went to school with a favre – and they all hated that part of the family…