Things That Piss Me Off Tuesday - the radioactive oceans, baby killers & Johnny Football edition

Radioactive, and not like the Imagine Dragons song
Over two years ago now, a massive earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, triggering a catastrophic tsunami. In addition to all the lives lost and property damaged, the nuclear reactors dotting the coastline took a hit too, the worst being the plant at Fukushima.

The reactors themselves were damaged as were the generators that cool the cores. When they stopped working, the cores melted, releasing an untold amount of radiation in the days following the tsunami.



It was revealed last week that the makeshift cooling system underneath the facility is leaking, and that contaminated water has been pooling, that it may be spilling into the groundwater and possibly directly into the ocean.

The most recent proposal to stop it is to build a wall of ice, though that wouldn't even be ready until sometime next year.

The radioactive plume already in the ocean is set to hit the West coast of the US sometime next year. So far, it appears that fish haven't been adversely affected by the radiation...and that should all make us sleep easier at night, right?

Monsters Who Kill Babies and the Fathers Who Refuse to Help
Murderers of any variety aren't generally my favorite kind of people, but I firmly believe there is a special version of hell reserved for those who kill children.

I don't care who the intended targets were, I don't care what their grievance was with the other people involved was, I don't care how many deals went bad or how much money anyone else owed them....you don't shoot a baby in the head for any reason.

Ever.

And yet it happened again last week. The killing of Antiq Hennis in New York last week has been explained away as gang related, but I refuse to accept that. His father, Anthony, isn't even cooperating with authorities, which makes me sicker in some ways than the fact that this innocent child died.

In what universe does the father of a dead child refuse to work with the authorities to find the killer of his son?

Don't answer that.

It's probably the same universe where two teenagers shoot a baby in the face and killed him because his mother won't give them money.

Yeah, that happened too, this time in Georgia.

Johnny Football and Everything Wrong With Sports Culture
After the NCAA handed down his sentence last week for allegedly signing autographs in exchange for money (which they claim wasn't proven, but we all know happened), I ranted a good long while on my Facebook page.

NCAA rant. Ready? 

First thing....we all know he got paid, right???

Second...sitting for HALF of a game isn't much of a punishment. They should literally just slap him on the wrist during the coin toss. 

Third....at least the NCAA is getting their shit together faster these days so they can punish the actual rule breaker instead of handing out years of sanctions that affect other kids long after the offender is gone.

Fourth....anyone else amused that a FREE $100k+ education/room/board/transportation is totally fine, but a few bucks to sign autographs is THE WORST INFRACTION EVER?

Fifth....does ANY of this have ANYTHING to do with football? Hell no.

Sixth....um. I'm a bitter Trojan. That is all.

His so-called punishment was to sit out for the first half of the first game. Whoop-dee-freaking-doo.

The NCAA is so inconsistent when it comes to punishing players and teams that it really should just get out of the business of policing monetary exchanges. Anyone with two active brain cells to rub together knows that college football is all about money. 

What bothered me more after all this went down was the way Johnny Football acted when he was granted access to the field after halftime, and the way the sporting world responded. 

He taunted the other players, made money gestures on the field taunting the NCAA itself, then got benched by the coach for unsportsmanlike conduct to finish up the game.

The commentators? All they could seem to talk about was how great he played when he was on the field. 

This is what is wrong with sports in general, and our society at large.

We are willing to totally look the other way, we are willing to ignore the rules, we don't care that he rubs the fact that he got away with it in everyone's faces. Just because he can throw a damn football.

This, this right here, is why you should not allow your children to idolize athletes for their abilities, to idolize musicians for their songs, to idolize actors for the roles they play. 

These people aren't heroes, not until and unless they prove that they have integrity and humility. 

Manziel has neither.

He's a pompous asshole with an arm.

And he is thriving in a world that feeds on that shit.