The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

The musical life of a shock rocker can be typically summed up as an act that garners great short-term attention and success due to the controversy and with that, the intrigue that surrounds them, however, after this shock value loses its luster, the band quickly becomes a thing of the past. Fair or not, shock rockers then typically have a difficult time transitioning from shock rock musician to musician and being seen and critiqued on their musical talent rather than their on-stage persona. This may have never been more the case than with Marilyn Manson. With MTV still playing music videos and the Internet not being too far along yet, when Marilyn Manson came out with the 1996 album Antichrist Svperstar , he ultimately crowned himself as the new king of shock rock. This continued through the band's 1998 album Mechanical Animals , when the band shifted from industrial metal to space rock. After the tragic Columbine shootings in April of '99, though, Manson was largely (and wro...

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have called themselves "The Comeback Team," which can be seen displayed on billboards, bumper stickers, television ads, the internet, temporary tattoo stickers, autographs signed on women's chests, etc. Initially, I imagine the Republican Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates meant for this slogan to mean that by electing them, they'll bring the country back to where it should be in their minds - both from an economic and "moral" standpoint. America is going to "comeback" under their leadership, I'm sure is what was intended with the phrase. However, in light of a new Pew poll showcasing that President Obama leads Romney by 8 points among likely voters, perhaps the before-mentioned slogan was merely a foreshadowing of that. Of course, the slogan can be taken rather ambiguously and being the smart aleck that I am, I'd like to have some fun with it. I'll now concoct a few alternative sayings of the Romn...

For the second time in two weeks, the Philadelphia Eagles turned the ball over at least four times (five last week) and for the second time in two weeks, they won by a single point. The Philadelphia Eagles have turned the ball over nine times in their first two games (six interceptions and three fumbles) and yet have found a way to hang around in both games before quarterback Michael Vick has led them to a go-ahead touchdown in the final minutes. Looking at the turnover situation, I honestly have no idea how the Eagles are 2-0, yet looking at all the other statistics, I have no idea how they wouldn't be either. On Sunday against the always solid Ravens defense the Eagles converted 26 first downs, were 7 for 15 on 3rd down (46.7%), gained 486 total yards (129 on the ground and 357 through the air) and held onto the ball for 34:21. While the team only averaged 3.1 yards per carry, the Eagles averaged 11.2 yards per pass attempt and 6.5 yards per play. On the season, the Eagles ...

I've been fighting a cold the past 2-3 days, so I wanted to get to bed early last night, but couldn't bring myself to do that. The reason? Baseball. It was the final day of the regular season and there were four big games played last night which could have decided the wild card teams from both leagues, as the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays were tied for the final playoff spot in the American League and the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals were tied for the wild card in the National League. In the first week of September, Boston led Tampa by 9 games and Atlanta led St. Louis by 8.5. For Tampa and St. Louis to tie Boston and Atlanta going into the last day of the regular season was remarkable by itself. What occurred last night was even wilder. St. Louis had no problems with Houston, defeating the hapless Astros 8-0, to put them 0.5 game ahead of Atlanta. The Braves led for most of their game against Philadelphia, up 3-1 until fairly late and 3-2 going to the top of th...