I like Paul Finebaum...
Paul Finebaum is articulate, intelligent, and is pretty insightfull. He's really a nice guy in my opinion. He has always been to me at any rate. I know he sometimes uses people to promote his own agenda. Who doesn't. You can't blame the ultimate showman of throwing a little kerosene over a tiny spark to improve ratings. A lot of people think he is 'stirring the pot' as it is sometimes called. My opinion is a little different about what he is doing.
Open a serious dialogue about lunacy...
In order to have any sort of conversation about such bizarre behavior as filmed in a Krystal fast food joint in New Orleans, Louisiana you need to delineate the issues clearly. Mission accomplished on that Mr. F. What Paul has done is to make every football fan in two states (and probably more) to confront the stupidity of how seriously unbalanced a lot of fans have become regarding football or rivalries. Thank you, Paul. When you turn on your radio dial to WJOX it is a lot like seeing Lucy in Peanuts when she is the pyschiatrist The doctor is in. In this case we have Dr. Paul.
Unacceptable behavior but not unforgivable...
There is nothing commendable, funny, or remotely acceptable to what this Alabama fan did on that now infamous night. Stupid is the kindest term that comes to my mind. However; the` words sexual offender don't. This is story about some idiot who was so drunk he's passed out in a Krystal. The second part of the story is about another drunk who wishes he had passed out before arriving at the Krystal. I think the fact all this occurs in a Krystal pretty much sets the stage and location for such idiocy. I can't see this happening in Arnouds. It must be pretty embarrassing to be so drunk that people put food in your ears and mouth, and having no idea you are the center of such hilarity until someone says, "Hey Dude, I saw you on YouTube. You rock." Sticking your penis near someones mouth or closer was wrong; however, It doesn't make than drunk a pervert. It makes him a drunk and easier to understand why there are lots of things you shouldn't do in that state. I watched the video today. Not funny. Not funny in any manner. Did this young man deserve such an act to occur because he was an LSU fan who was passed out on his keester in Krystals? No, and I'd argue that in fact he deserved kind treatment because he was passed out. I'd further suggest that Krystal has a great deal of civil liability for allowing all these things to happen without making any attempt to stop your customer from having this happen to him. A corporation can't just stand laughing when a patron is being peppered with greasy fries and a greasy Johnson so to speak. As we all know now, corporations are people. I'd like to be the passed out drunks lawyer. I suspect you are going to have a good year for both you and your drunk who remembers none of the facts of his case.
Bystanders were cowards and woefully misguided...
The real lesson here is that there is nothing in the handbook of fandom that gives anyone free reign to act this way. All the other people who pressed in around to take pictures are more to blame than the two drunk idiots involved in PenisGate. Someone should have had the decency to say "whoa" what the heck are you doing? I suppose you could argue that the patrons were keenly aware this was all done as something funny, and not meant to be harmful. Still, it seems to me that common decency should have kicked in somewhere. But this is a football rivalry and all is fun and fair in football rivalries. The bystanders were laughing and trying to get close enough to get smartphone camera shots. These people have so little character that they didn't care if the young man was hurt or not. But this is football rivalry. There are no rules. It is much easier to be a character than have character.
We live in a politically correct era...sort of
Times change. I lived in Louisiana for a while when I was a young man. Back in those days such things would have been considered a rite of passage. It would have been one of those stupid things that drunk people did, other drunk people endured for being drunk. Drunk is not a word in New Orleans, it is a state of physicality. Back in the day, people would have said in publicly how horrible for such a thing to happen, while laughing their yahoos off in private. But today you can't do such things. The fact that this happened really doesn't bother anyone. It is the fact that we have become a society that must act like it bothers everyone. That hypocritical state of mind is the problem. None of us really think it was anything but a tasteless act of one drunk inflicted on the tasteless act of another drunk. If I was this young "victim" I'd be too embarrassed to have anyone arrested. I wonder if this guy is going to be arrested for public intoxication? He should be. But this is serious stuff now. Sexual battery is serious. Mandatory reporting is a life killer.
The laws involving sexual misconduct and their lasting effects are much too serious to let a trivial act of that nature be defined as sexual. There was nothing sexual about what happened. The indiscreet action was so absurd it caused bystanders to laugh .They did not sense danger for the passed out drunk. A whiff of redneck waxed through the crowd that night. A feeling of entitlement was born simply because someone supported a winning team in a big game. It was if the rules of life were suspended because of the belief that "we won, so we can do these funny things." It wasn't funny, and each of us stand charged with promoting a conviction that a football rivalry allows such leaps from reality. Charge the guy with public exposure. I'm not saying he shouldn't be punished. The act was not such that it should ruin his life. It should ruin his reputation. It probably already has done that. And at some point everyone of us was thinking "that other guy was so drunk he should have seen it coming." Truthfully, bad things happen when you are drunk. Ask both of these men if that is true. The real lesson here is that winning a football game is not reason to act like a damn fool. The further lesson is that if you have to get so drunk you pass out because your team lost you've got bigger problems than having french fries stuck up your nose or having your photo made with Mr. Johnson. I'm sure the New Orleans Police, the City Attorney, and the Parrish Attorney are going to act like rabid dogs. In America, it is more important to act like we are decent people than a lot of us actually are. Me included. Or as Billy Crystal used to say "it is better to look good than to be good." I've lived in New Orleans. They have corned the market on hypocrisy and are now transporting great quantities of the stuff to all Americans.
Trees and such...
13 years for poisoning trees is ridiculous. People kill other people and don't get 13 years. I don't know which is more ludicrous, the fact that a man would do such a stupid thing based on a football rivalry or an institution placing such high value on a football symbol. There are people in this country homeless, out of work, and one in every four children in this country is born into poverty. Auburn is an educational center. Act educated. Quit acting like Jack the Ripper went down Main Street and you lost all the co-eds. It is beyond the pale of belief that either Auburn U or the U of Alabama should place such importance on such unimportant things. It was an act of vandalism. It isn't the second coming of Joseph Stalin. Wall Street maggots stole trillion of dollars from our country and got paid big bonuses for doing so. Let's keep things in perspective. You want to put a man in jail for 13 years for poisoning trees?. I don't know what is worse, someone that would actually think it is rational to prosecute an act of an insane vandal and send him to prison for 13 years or fans whose identity is so fragile they want to see it happen. Worst of all, Auburn is an educational institution that allows this topiary hysteria to continue because they don' want to make their fans mad. There is a chance for real education here - It is time for the powers that be in Auburn to say enough is enough. The man is an idiot. Let him serve six months in jail but quit making your school look like you value trees more than providing quality educations. Auburn has a rare chance to be the school of forgiveness and work with their arch rival in lowering the rhetoric in football series which has gone beyond
irrational. To acknowledge how crooked such thinking really is would provide a quality education. That is maturity, and that is what being a decent person is all about. Surely our poor little State is better than equating our self worth to a football rivalry. It's football for heavens sake. It's a game. It's not life or death. It should be fun. If the schools want to do something about PenisGate and Harvey Updike just make sure fans who act that poorly cannot come to your games anymore. They have made public fools of themselves and let them reap their just deserts.
I think Harvey Updike was an idiot. I also think that Harvey Updike thinks Harvey Updike is an idiot. Probably two two drunks whose lives converged in a Krystal in New Orleans think they are idiots. They would be correct. Now we'll find out if elected public officials in a City where overlooking drug use and public intoxication is an effort to attract visitors, are going to act like adults or act like the drunks themselves. We will also find out if people in Lee County can use proper judgment against an imbalanced man or demand a sacrifice in the name of tradition. Where is the honor in that? Where in the Auburn creed does it say that you exact revenge and not equity?
Thank you Dr. Finebaum for reminding all fans just how stupid we really are. Thank you for reminding us how little our lives have become to allow these actions to be taken so seriously. We have become attached in very unhealthy ways to our respective schools. Attachments are the path of the unwise. So Dr. Finebaum the next time I hear someone criticise you I'll remind them there is indeed a method to your madness, and sometimes even a parable to be learned.
Open a serious dialogue about lunacy...
In order to have any sort of conversation about such bizarre behavior as filmed in a Krystal fast food joint in New Orleans, Louisiana you need to delineate the issues clearly. Mission accomplished on that Mr. F. What Paul has done is to make every football fan in two states (and probably more) to confront the stupidity of how seriously unbalanced a lot of fans have become regarding football or rivalries. Thank you, Paul. When you turn on your radio dial to WJOX it is a lot like seeing Lucy in Peanuts when she is the pyschiatrist The doctor is in. In this case we have Dr. Paul.
Unacceptable behavior but not unforgivable...
There is nothing commendable, funny, or remotely acceptable to what this Alabama fan did on that now infamous night. Stupid is the kindest term that comes to my mind. However; the` words sexual offender don't. This is story about some idiot who was so drunk he's passed out in a Krystal. The second part of the story is about another drunk who wishes he had passed out before arriving at the Krystal. I think the fact all this occurs in a Krystal pretty much sets the stage and location for such idiocy. I can't see this happening in Arnouds. It must be pretty embarrassing to be so drunk that people put food in your ears and mouth, and having no idea you are the center of such hilarity until someone says, "Hey Dude, I saw you on YouTube. You rock." Sticking your penis near someones mouth or closer was wrong; however, It doesn't make than drunk a pervert. It makes him a drunk and easier to understand why there are lots of things you shouldn't do in that state. I watched the video today. Not funny. Not funny in any manner. Did this young man deserve such an act to occur because he was an LSU fan who was passed out on his keester in Krystals? No, and I'd argue that in fact he deserved kind treatment because he was passed out. I'd further suggest that Krystal has a great deal of civil liability for allowing all these things to happen without making any attempt to stop your customer from having this happen to him. A corporation can't just stand laughing when a patron is being peppered with greasy fries and a greasy Johnson so to speak. As we all know now, corporations are people. I'd like to be the passed out drunks lawyer. I suspect you are going to have a good year for both you and your drunk who remembers none of the facts of his case.
Bystanders were cowards and woefully misguided...
The real lesson here is that there is nothing in the handbook of fandom that gives anyone free reign to act this way. All the other people who pressed in around to take pictures are more to blame than the two drunk idiots involved in PenisGate. Someone should have had the decency to say "whoa" what the heck are you doing? I suppose you could argue that the patrons were keenly aware this was all done as something funny, and not meant to be harmful. Still, it seems to me that common decency should have kicked in somewhere. But this is a football rivalry and all is fun and fair in football rivalries. The bystanders were laughing and trying to get close enough to get smartphone camera shots. These people have so little character that they didn't care if the young man was hurt or not. But this is football rivalry. There are no rules. It is much easier to be a character than have character.
We live in a politically correct era...sort of
Times change. I lived in Louisiana for a while when I was a young man. Back in those days such things would have been considered a rite of passage. It would have been one of those stupid things that drunk people did, other drunk people endured for being drunk. Drunk is not a word in New Orleans, it is a state of physicality. Back in the day, people would have said in publicly how horrible for such a thing to happen, while laughing their yahoos off in private. But today you can't do such things. The fact that this happened really doesn't bother anyone. It is the fact that we have become a society that must act like it bothers everyone. That hypocritical state of mind is the problem. None of us really think it was anything but a tasteless act of one drunk inflicted on the tasteless act of another drunk. If I was this young "victim" I'd be too embarrassed to have anyone arrested. I wonder if this guy is going to be arrested for public intoxication? He should be. But this is serious stuff now. Sexual battery is serious. Mandatory reporting is a life killer.
The laws involving sexual misconduct and their lasting effects are much too serious to let a trivial act of that nature be defined as sexual. There was nothing sexual about what happened. The indiscreet action was so absurd it caused bystanders to laugh .They did not sense danger for the passed out drunk. A whiff of redneck waxed through the crowd that night. A feeling of entitlement was born simply because someone supported a winning team in a big game. It was if the rules of life were suspended because of the belief that "we won, so we can do these funny things." It wasn't funny, and each of us stand charged with promoting a conviction that a football rivalry allows such leaps from reality. Charge the guy with public exposure. I'm not saying he shouldn't be punished. The act was not such that it should ruin his life. It should ruin his reputation. It probably already has done that. And at some point everyone of us was thinking "that other guy was so drunk he should have seen it coming." Truthfully, bad things happen when you are drunk. Ask both of these men if that is true. The real lesson here is that winning a football game is not reason to act like a damn fool. The further lesson is that if you have to get so drunk you pass out because your team lost you've got bigger problems than having french fries stuck up your nose or having your photo made with Mr. Johnson. I'm sure the New Orleans Police, the City Attorney, and the Parrish Attorney are going to act like rabid dogs. In America, it is more important to act like we are decent people than a lot of us actually are. Me included. Or as Billy Crystal used to say "it is better to look good than to be good." I've lived in New Orleans. They have corned the market on hypocrisy and are now transporting great quantities of the stuff to all Americans.
Trees and such...
13 years for poisoning trees is ridiculous. People kill other people and don't get 13 years. I don't know which is more ludicrous, the fact that a man would do such a stupid thing based on a football rivalry or an institution placing such high value on a football symbol. There are people in this country homeless, out of work, and one in every four children in this country is born into poverty. Auburn is an educational center. Act educated. Quit acting like Jack the Ripper went down Main Street and you lost all the co-eds. It is beyond the pale of belief that either Auburn U or the U of Alabama should place such importance on such unimportant things. It was an act of vandalism. It isn't the second coming of Joseph Stalin. Wall Street maggots stole trillion of dollars from our country and got paid big bonuses for doing so. Let's keep things in perspective. You want to put a man in jail for 13 years for poisoning trees?. I don't know what is worse, someone that would actually think it is rational to prosecute an act of an insane vandal and send him to prison for 13 years or fans whose identity is so fragile they want to see it happen. Worst of all, Auburn is an educational institution that allows this topiary hysteria to continue because they don' want to make their fans mad. There is a chance for real education here - It is time for the powers that be in Auburn to say enough is enough. The man is an idiot. Let him serve six months in jail but quit making your school look like you value trees more than providing quality educations. Auburn has a rare chance to be the school of forgiveness and work with their arch rival in lowering the rhetoric in football series which has gone beyond
irrational. To acknowledge how crooked such thinking really is would provide a quality education. That is maturity, and that is what being a decent person is all about. Surely our poor little State is better than equating our self worth to a football rivalry. It's football for heavens sake. It's a game. It's not life or death. It should be fun. If the schools want to do something about PenisGate and Harvey Updike just make sure fans who act that poorly cannot come to your games anymore. They have made public fools of themselves and let them reap their just deserts.
I think Harvey Updike was an idiot. I also think that Harvey Updike thinks Harvey Updike is an idiot. Probably two two drunks whose lives converged in a Krystal in New Orleans think they are idiots. They would be correct. Now we'll find out if elected public officials in a City where overlooking drug use and public intoxication is an effort to attract visitors, are going to act like adults or act like the drunks themselves. We will also find out if people in Lee County can use proper judgment against an imbalanced man or demand a sacrifice in the name of tradition. Where is the honor in that? Where in the Auburn creed does it say that you exact revenge and not equity?
Thank you Dr. Finebaum for reminding all fans just how stupid we really are. Thank you for reminding us how little our lives have become to allow these actions to be taken so seriously. We have become attached in very unhealthy ways to our respective schools. Attachments are the path of the unwise. So Dr. Finebaum the next time I hear someone criticise you I'll remind them there is indeed a method to your madness, and sometimes even a parable to be learned.
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