Curt Schilling: "I'm tapped out & I blame government for not helping me enough"

Conservative darling Schilling

Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, never shy to share his conservative value opinions, just recently announced that he lost all of his money:

...Curt Schilling said Friday that the collapse of his 38 Studios video game company probably has cost him his entire baseball fortune, and he placed part of the blame on Rhode Island officials, including Gov. Lincoln Chafee.

Schilling said during a 90-minute interview on WEEI-FM in Boston that he put more than $50 million of his own money in the company and that he's had to tell his family that "the money I saved during baseball was probably all gone."  source

He is not the first former athlete to make bad investments, nor will he be the last. However, there is a unique twist to his story. Schilling has been notorious for expressing his vehement opposition to government spending and bail-outs:

Schilling is a self-described conservative with a disdain for big government, which he considers intrusive and overbearing. He is a big believer in people helping themselves and solving their own problems.

A couple of lines from an old post on Schilling’s blog, 38 pitches, sums it up:

“If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.

“A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.”  source

So after receiving $75 million dollars of government set-asides, who did Schilling turn to for help?

He missed a $1 million payment on the loan this week, then delivered a check that bounced today. Late in the day, he delivered another payment that the governor of Rhode Island says cleared.

Earlier this week, he asked his Rhode Island state government friends -- already on the hook for $75 million -- for more. source

And once again, we witness yet another conservative proponent of extreme individualism -- a flawed theory of every man for himself -- beg big bad government for a helping hand and a bail-out.

This hypocrisy runs deep in conservative politics/economics; and is akin to an avowed cookie hater always getting caught trying to steal not just some cookies but the entire jar of cookies.  

Alas, the GOP politics of our age: Socialism for their losses -- we bail them out -- and capitalism for their profits -- they keep the loot.   

Nubia: The Black Kingdom of Kush

Historians have long known about Kush, but relegated its importance to a vassal state of Egypt, significant only for its gold reserves. Early excavations in the Kush capital at Kerma suffered from the innate racism of the archaeologists. Fabulous grave goods, discovered in the 20th century, were thought to have belonged to Kush's Egyptian overlords. They didn't consider that a black African culture could have challenged Egypt's supremacy. - Dr. Timothy Kendall, a Sudan archaeologist


I found these videos about the Kushite dynasty in Ancient Africa fasinating. I do disagree with the presentation of Kush representing black Africa vs Egypt being non-black Africa: ancient Egypt or Kemet was also a black African civilization at its genesis. However, this mis-representation aside, these two videos are still very interesting and informative to watch.

Shackle Sneakers from Adidas: dead on arrival

I was sent an email from my sister regarding the shackle sneaker debacle by Adidas: my first impression was, here we go again.

It seems -- with perfect timing -- each new season we are presented with the most inflammatory and offensive advertising gimmick from corporations trying to tap inside the Urban market.

Can y'all please hire some folks with color in your Ivory Towers.

Nivea's insensitive ad  -- which they apologized for -- regarding re-civilize yourself seems to not have taught corporate execs a lesson. On the flip side, sometimes the Jesse Jacksons and Rev Als pick unnecessary battles by being overly sensitive, i.e. the much ado over nada regarding the Mary J Blige Burger King commercial singing about crispy fried chicken wraps.  


But slave like shackle sneakers, dayum, Adidas that is a no-brainer. On this point, I even agree with the media hungry Jesse Jackson:

The attempt to commercialize and make popular more than 200 years of human degradation, where blacks were considered three-fifths human by our Constitution is offensive, appalling and insensitive. Removing the chains from our ankles and placing them on our shoes is no progress

For Adidas to promote the athleticism and contributions of a variety of African-American sports legends -- especially Olympic heroes Wilma Rudolph and Jesse Owens and boxing great Muhammad Ali -- and then allow such a degrading symbol of African-American history to pass through its corporate channels and move toward actual production and advertisement, is insensitive and corporately irresponsible.

These slave shoes are odious and we as a people should be called to resent and resist them. If put into production and placed on the market, protests and pickets signs will follow. Adidas cannot make a profit at the expense of commercialized human degradation. source

And Jackson went on to say:

“I am stunned at the insensitivity,” Jackson said. “It was a gross insult. We were prepared to engage in a boycott in 50 markets. We contacted Adidas yesterday and contacted [National Basketball Association Commissioner] David Stern, who, in turn, within a few minutes called Adidas and had it cancelled. They cancelled it because they got a call from David Stern and the threat of a real boycott,” Jackson proudly declared." source

On this note: wow the NBA commish is rolling with juice like that -- for real.

Amos I mean Cedric

Maybe we can get the commish to call TV Land and have this ish to the left cancelled because it has buffoonery written all over itself.

Excuse my digression, back to the story at hand, the most offensive part to this shackle sneakers lunacy: Adidas was going to charge $350 per pair. GTFOHWTBS.