Sunday Fun Day Ramblings

July 5th is upon us, and everyone in Knoxville is trying to recover after an evening of debauchery and fireworks that more closely resemble artillery shells than colorful sparkly things.  

Yesterday when going to visit my parents, I couldn't help but mention to Mrs. CLS that the roads looked rather ghostly, even at 11:30 AM, on a Saturday for this town.  I guess you get used to the traffic after a while when you live in a larger city and seeing an absence of the same give you a reason to take notice.  

If you're in the market for something to read, go check out my friend Michael David Anderson's books "Teddy" and "Wake."  I'm kinda proud of him for being able to keep my attention through two books straight, and the Ace of Spades Book Club Thread  was even kind enough to give him a nod today.  Well done, MDA.  You can buy both of them on Amazon if you so choose, or if you follow @shadesofmidnight on Twitter and DM him with a nice request I'm sure he'll work out a way to send you a signed copy for the right price.  

If horror isn't your thing, I'd recommend "When to Rob a Bank" by the Freakonomics guys.  I got this on a suggestion from a friend for a plane flight to Boise and it's fantastic.  One specific section deals with odd names people give their kids.  I think first prize in my brain goes to the winners who named their child Shithead (pronounced Shuh-TEED, mind you).  Another neat tidbit  concerns the use of Aptonyms--the rare occurrence where you have a name that describes what you do.  An example they give is a copy editor named Paige Worthy.  

Congratulations are in order for Fergal Devitt (currently known as Finn Balor) for winning his first WWE title yesterday in Tokyo, Japan--the NXT Title.  Very cool WWE let him win it in Tokyo, which was Devitt's second home for a good portion of his career.  I wonder how he feels about this accomplishment given the amount of accolades New Japan handed him for the earliest part of his career--IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champ, IWGP Heavyweight Champ, winner of the Super Juniors tournament, etc.--and now he's the champ of WWE's developmental league.  Devitt's said that in his first thirty days with WWE he was only allowed to sit and watch the other matches at NXT's Full Sail tapings, and this has been confirmed by others who joined the company at the same time as him in separate interviews.  I get that the American style of wrestling is different from the Japanese strong style, and the new talent needs to adapt to the WWE way, but that's a heck of a way to tell someone that their accomplishments meant nothing compared to where they are now.  

Still, Devitt is a professional's professional, and he's taken it all in stride as he "resets" his career for the WWE.  Balor as the face of NXT is a good fit--he's got a connection with the fans, the whole "Demon" gimmick is over big time, and he's not a liability with the locker room or office.  He'll get called up soon to the main roster, and he'll do well at that level too.  Plus, it'll be cool to see the "Demon" entrance one day at Wrestlemania.  

Speaking of pro wrestling entrances, this is one that's put a huge smile on my face this week while I did billing.  I hope you enjoy a bit of the ridiculousness that is Grado: 

If you're interested in learning more about Grado, or the lunacy that makes up the mind of European wrestling fans, go check out the VICE documentary "The British Wrestler."  You can find a link to it here. 

That's all for today, folks.  Have a great Sunday. 

And Of Right Ought To Be Free and Independent States

Happy fourth of July weekend.  

Just remember as you're celebrating, we would have been better off without the whole independence thing. 

And also, be sure to teach your children that American independence is founded on colonialism and slavery, and therefore is a holiday not worth celebrating. 

Oh yeah, and lest we forget to pile on offense for this holiday, remember that it's not just racist, but sexist too, and those fireworks you're shooting off tomorrow are nothing more than military propaganda.  

This is how far we have fallen.  We have forgotten the reasons for why we did what we did on July 4, 1776, and turned the work of some of the most brilliant men who ever lived into nothing.  

After a mental midget who somehow escaped with a college degree from my alma mater spouted off a couple of years ago that July 4th was when we celebrated the signing of the Constitution, I decided to make a tradition of reading the Declaration of Independence on or about the holiday.  Each year I go back and remind myself that there were men who took it upon themselves to try and peaceably work with Great Britain over the differences that were really pissing off some of the colonies.  After that peaceable attempt didn't work, the colonies made a point to let the British know they weren't happy and something needed to be done.  When that happened, and the British still did nothing--in fact, they kept piling on the harsh treatment--the colonists said "Enough is enough.  It's time we did our own thing." 

And so, on July 4, 1776, these men who believed that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights" let the world know that they were fed up.  They let the world know in a document signed by representatives from the Colonies that they are well aware such matters as the dissolution of bonds from a government weren't to be taken lightly, and that they had tried to do everything to work their problems out with Britain and the King.  That having failed, the only remaining step was to become a new nation, and our founding fathers declared that day to be THE day, listing all the grievances we had with Great Britain in the document to let people know just how bad they'd pissed us off.  
 

Take some time today or tomorrow to read the Declaration of Independence.  I'm linking it here for you so you don't have to even bother with Saint Google.  Remember what Was, so it doesn't become what Will Be Again.  We're doing way too much to eliminate our nation's history as it is.  With our society's Urge to Purge, and focusing on relativism and deconstructionism, we're already removing the parts of history that weren't so great.  Let's make sure we don't do the same here with what made us the country we have today.  

When you forget your history, you forget what grounds us in time.  Even in an age where the only thing that seems to matter is the next celebrity offense on Twitter, we don't need that memory loss.