NBA! Listen to me dammit!!!

The top free agents this summer: Bosh, James, and Wade.

So the big argument right now is who will sign the top free agents this summer. I don't believe the question is WHO has the money, I think the question is: Who has the TEAM? The top four teams with money for MAX contracts are the Knicks, Nets, Heat, and Bulls. Now, The Knicks and Nets CAN afford to pay two Max contracts and nothing else. The Heat and the Bulls can afford one plus shop for a couple second tier guys. BUT James and Wade have already stated that they are looking for championships not money, Whether or not you choose to believe that or not is up to you. Of those four teams the Bulls are doing the best right now, They're 3 games above .500 and Derrick Rose is already showing signs that he's on the road to being one the premiere Point Guards in the league. On paper the best choice for any of them is to come to Chicago. If it was up to me it'd be James, I think Lebron would finally find Championship gold here in Chicago.

The Nets will have you believe that James and either Wade or Bosh will go there, Then they'll move to Brooklyn and live happily ever after with a trillion NBA championships. That is NOT gonna happen, It is retarded to think that any combination of two of these three men can win a championship with a team with depth. Did Jordan win those championships here alone? No, he had Scottie Pippen (one of the best Small Forwards ever!), Horace Grant, B.J. Armstrong, Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr, Toni Kukoc (name a better sixth man), Ron Harper, and a great collection of Centers that would put their bodies on the line for their team. The Knicks have the same plan too, and they're prepared to lose David Lee who has been carrying their sorry ass team all year long! You can't name me a successful NBA championship team that didn't have a strong core group of players! The Nets and Knicks will have Lebron and either Wade and Bosh and end up eating money. How can I possibly know that? The Orlando Magic! The Magic signed Tracy Macgrady and Grant Hill to max contracts back in 2000. They ended up with Grant Hill on the bench and T-Mac scoring a lot of points BUT no NBA championship. Mark my words if the Knicks or the Nets get two of these guys they will NOT win a championship right away. They don't have the depth, they don't have what you need to beat the Lakers. The Lakers are deep right now! They have Kobe who has made himself into one of the best players ever, Lamar Odom has sacrificed big money for NBA gold and is a great second and third option, Pau Gasol is great at collecting double doubles every night, Bynum is a beast, and Ron Artest is one ofthe best defensive players in the league. Two men cannot defeat that team in an NBA Finals series, you need a team.

What's gonna end up happening? James will go to New York or the Nets if the Cav's do not win the title. Wade will stay in Miami because they'll pick up Boozer or Stoudemire and go for Ray Allen or Marcus Camby. A team of Wade, Stoudemire, Beasley, Ray Allen or even Tyson Chandler can take over the Eastern Conference. Chicago will get Chris Bosh, I even think they'll go for T-Mac. At this point in T-Mac's career where he wants to grow up and be a champion, He's 30 years old that's still pretty young! I think he can help D-Rose with confidence and make up a pretty strong back court. The addition of Bosh with Luol Deng or maybe pick up David Lee if the Knicks sign and trade him and Deng. The Bulls will have to save some room to give Rose an extension, I think he's a vital player and will be Hall of Famer eventually. It's gonna be an interesting Summer.

Does anyone learn anything?

Well this April will be a year since two young men from the Pilsen Neighborhood were killed in a drunk driving accident. Joseph Frugoli a Chicago Police Officer was 3 times the legal limit for alcohol consumption when he slammed into the disabled car both men were in.

I've changed a lot over the years. One of the biggest changes I've made in my life was to stop drinking at all. I think alcohol makes it easy for you to make mistakes that can't be reversed. My biological father was an alcoholic and he chose the bottle over my sister and me. I won't make that choice in life because I'd rather not drink or indulge in any type of substance that controls what I do. I don't judge people who drink or do drugs, in fact most of my good friends do those things and I'm totally cool with it.

But there is one thing I won't forgive or condone: Driving under the influence of alcohol. You shouldn't do it, It's not worth it. One of my best friends brother died due to Drunk Driving, I won't go into any details about it out of respect to my friend. The best thing we can all do to make sure all these deaths are not in vain is to limit and control our alcohol consumption to a reasonable and responsible amount. If you have to drive, don't drink at all! The two young men from the beginning of this blog, their lives are over. All because an idiot drove under the influence of alcohol. If you loved those guys you'll NEVER drink and drive again. In fact you shouldn't have drank and drove when you found out those poor guys were killed in that accident.

I'm not here to be a moral compass, In fact I'm the last guy who should have a say in morality. This is more like I'm harassing for the sake of common sense. I'm a big fan of common sense and people using it. Driving under the influence is the most heinously STUPID thing you or any of your friends can do. Be safe everyone.

Scavenger Hunt items I found at my Ma's.

That's not a picture of my mom... its just of someone who reminds me of her!

Going to visit Mom isn't so much a luxury... sometimes it's a chore. Mostly I cant stand the constant "You're getting FAT!, How much do you weigh?, Are you an Orca??, I made all this food, why aren't you eating?" Yeah so that takes a toll on me, But this past Sunday, Kelly and I went over there (My parents live in Hammond, Indiana they relocated from Pilsen in Chicago. Probably so they'd be closer to their beloved Trump Casino.) I was ready for the same old wacky parental misadventures when I noticed something I hadn't in all my years of being "Favorite #1 son". My parents live in a house full of ridiculous shit! The more I sit here and think about it they've always had a ton of crap they don't need! Last summer Kelly pointed out to me that my parents had a sleeve of about 500 Nascar plastic cups (you know the plastic cups they give you at Burger King? The same!) Or how my Dad has like a million blank cassette tapes still in the package! Like he's going to send a crazy amount of mix tapes to a bunch of hoe's any day now. This isn't something so typical in Latino households so I don't want to blame it on their ethnicity. I just think they like to collect crazy shit!


Yes sir. That gem right there is a unicorn bookend! Can you even find one that ugly? Or at least the same one? If you can, send me a picture. For extra points actually know the person who owns it!


I know its a Killer Whale. Why is it on the wall next to family photos? It also doesn't match anything in that room!! There's no nautical theme in sight! Except for this stupid Orca!


Oh shit! Someone's rollin' VIP! I found this on my Dad's unused work bench in the basement. I bet He doesn't even know it's there! Wait a sec... VIP license plate, Mix tapes, and a box load of yellow rubber gloves? My Dad might be a pimp! Or he's getting a lot of freaky sex on the side.


Photo's of the grandchildren? No. Fuck those little bastards. We'd rather proudly display a full set Three Stooges bobble heads!! I saw a picture of my nephews first birthday underneath a set of Encyclopedia Brittanica A-F only. My parents decided that the rest of the set was just not worth the trouble.

The best part of it all is that my parents don't have a damn clue! I love them for the most part, But they need to get rid of a ton of shit. I think they could have the MOST EPIC garage sale of all time!!! Here's a few items I didn't feel like taking a picture of: Hologram Virgen de Guadalupe, Picture frames with the default white family still in the frame, year round Christmas tree, metallic catholic Saint's plates (collect the whole set), Weekend at Bernie's 2 (Dad's favorite movie), Steven Seagal Dvd collection (yeah they own a DVD player), and enough Laundry detergent, Downey, and Bleach to last a family of eight for at least 5 years! I'll see them next Special Event Day. Pray for me.

I'd LOVE to tea bag Sarah Palin's food!

So I'm sure many of you know that the Tea Baggers paid Sarah Palin a bunch of moneys to show up at their Tea Bagging Dinner and she gave a HUGE speech about how Obama is ruining the country and compares him to Hitler. By now I hope most of you know that far Right wing Republicans love to compare Obama to Hitler (Hitler killed millions of Jews for some of you who don't know) and liken the Obama administration to a Socialist regime. These Right wing radicals will say anything possible to have you believe that Obama and the Democrats are trying to take away all of your Rights as a American. I've heard the Rights talk about how they want to take away Religion from school (We should!), and how Obama wants to take away your guns (umm in my opinion we do need tougher gun laws), also that Obama didn't take the attempted Detroit terrorist attack seriously (The guy's in jail!). All of this lashing out and nitpicking stems from one issue: Health care reform!

I don't know if many of you know this but... Our economy really sucks right now. If you are oblivious to that I'm glad you have enough money to not give a shit about anyone other than yourself. But I personally think that this bad economy affects the people that really run this country: The Middle Class. The biggest problem that the Middle Class is having right now is paying for health insurance. This is the only wealthy industrialized country in the world without Health Reform! Why? Because rich republicans make A LOT of money from the Middle Class and a lot of our money goes to the MOST expensive public/private Health Insurance programs in the world! Republicans want YOU to believe that they are doing America good keeping Health Care Reform from going through! They are the only people not being affected by the Recession, In 2007 we paid nearly 3 TRILLION dollars in Health Insurance and services out of our pockets! Republicans would love to mandate the uninsured to be insured so that they can raise the prices of deductibles and co-pay. I believe Republicans will attempt to start off a "cheap" Health Care program that will look cheap at first but then raise the prices on the service dramatically... OH WAIT! Thats COBRA which was started up by Reagan and Obama had to bail out.

Look, I grew up in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. Its a poor neighborhood where the annual income is on average $15,000 to $35,000 (I think I'm being generous). I grew up surrounded by neighbors who had to rely on public aid and the ones who could not qualify because they made "too much money" to get public aid didn't have insurance. These Republicans who battle againt this Reform NEVER had to live like that. Do you think Sarah Palin ever had to worry about Mom and Dad making ends meet when she was a kid? Palin's parents worked for the board of education, That means she saw them home more than a lot of us saw our parents at home. Our parents worked wacky shifts and a lot of us were latch key kids. I'm not saying she grew up "rich" but I am saying that she did NOT grow up like us. Do you think they (Republicans) know what its like to wait at Cook County hospital for free treatment and medicine? Or that they went to some lady's house to get treatment or a vaccination because going to the clinic was too expensive? Yeah it's true we were pretty lucky that our neighborhood had a lot of funding from private companies and we did have help where we needed it. The point I'm trying to make is how do these people think they know whats good for us if they NEVER had to live or grow up like us? All they care about is the money that falls into their pockets! Oh so they donate once a year in large contributions... the only reason any of these rich bastards donate anything is so they can get a tax cut and keep more of their filthy cash. They don't care about us! I don't think Obama is the Alpha and Omega, but I do believe that what he is doing is trying to help the poor. I don't need free health insurance because I work for a good company that keeps the cost of decent insurance low for me. But if they decided to pass Health Care Reform and an extra $20 bucks would be taken out of my check a week to help people in this country that need it... take it.