ESPN.com has an interesting blog post titled "Donovan McNabb weighs in on QB talk," where QB challenger John Beck has already penciled himself in as the NFL 2011 Season starter, saying 'he sees himself as the number one QB' even though he's not taken a snap since 2007.
And Rex Grossman, known for coming up with timely interceptions and fumbles to lose games that matter, was quoted as saying he will "definitely" be the starter.
But according to this hard-core Washington Redskins fans this blogger talked to at the 2011 NFL Draft, Donovan McNabb's their man for 2011. Here's the Redskins fan interview video, made after the 2011 NFL Draft Red Carpet:
Frankly, and I agree with the fans I talked to, the Redskins problem is Head Coach Mike Shanahan. He needs to make a commitment to McNabb, and stick with it. What's not right, is that Grossman had a "brain-up" on McNabb, only because he played in Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan's offensive system the year before in Houston.
If Mike and Kyle are really truly good coaches, they can work with a sure-fire NFL Hall-Of-Famer in Donovan McNabb.
And if they can't then it's time for new coaches.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Hepatitis C African Americans, and INCIVEK
Hepatitis C is a viral infection that causes swelling and infection of the liver, and is particularly active within the African American Community, and at a level called "chronic," representing 22 percent of all known carriers in America.
How this infection spreads by simple blood-to-blood contact and is difficult, if in some cases impossible to detect early on.
Hepatitis C impacts an estimated 270 million to 300 million people Worldwide, 30,000 people in Santa Clara County and 12,000 people in San Francisco, and 2,400 new cases were reported in 2010.
An exciting new drug called INCIVEK, made by Vertex, is said to be the breakthrough drug of the future, today. Moreover, Vertex claims INCIVEK beats the current 40 percent to 45 percent cure rate; patients have a whopping 80 percent cure rate in clinical trials done thus far. But with all this, it's not a vaccine, and it's not yet approved by the FDA, but it reportedly increases the chance that someone undergoing treatment for HVC will be cured by the end of treatment.
This is an interesting - hell, exciting - new development that this blogger will be following in the coming weeks.
Stay tuned.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
John Russo: City Of Oakland "Morally Questionable"; Part One
As of June 13th, John Russo 'transforms' from Oakland City Attorney to Alameda County City Manager, under a five-year contract that immediately give the hope of stability to a small island town that's seen a lot of instability, with five interim executives over the last six years, alone. In moving across the Oakland Estuary, Russo ends a period of both living and working in Oakland that started when he was 28 years old; he's now 52 years old.
The next video interview will be after June 13th, when Russo sits down as Alameda, California's CEO, or more normally called, City Manger.
But on Monday, Russo, in conversation that produced the 38-minute-plus, video, had a lot to say about why he's leaving Oakland. He was relaxed, especially since cases and office management c decisions now fall to his three chief deputies, Randy Hall, Barbara Parker, and Vicky Laden, who handle litigation, Oakland City Council matters, and personnel decisions, respectively.
On that Monday, they didn't need to check in with Russo, but he was on hand to provide advice, and to finish projects and prepare for his move to Alameda.
On The Decision To Leave: Mixed Feelings
Russo says he has "mixed feeling" about the decision to leave Oakland. Not that he's unhappy about it, but, as explained above, he's leaving Oakland professionally for the first time since he came here from St. Louis in 1987, and before than from Brooklyn, where he's from. I've known John since 1990, and his entire life has been devoted to Oakland, so this move's a huge deal, for him and for his supporters. Like me.
While I have had different feelings, Russo doesn't feel he was "pushed out," of Oakland as we talked about in the video. "There are some people who are opposed to the gang injunction, there are other people who are opposed to the Fed's position on pot farms," he said. "Which was not my position; it 3was the Fed's position. There are some people who are opposed to the gang injunction who have this fantasy that 'The voice of the people has spoken,' and I have left as a result. That's really an ignorant position on so many levels. But on a private level, I can tell you, it's totally not the case."
John says that contrary to the views of some the gang injunction ordinance, which sets up boundaries and cracks-down on targeted gangs in Oakland, is "very popular. Particularly in the neighborhoods where we are seeking them."
John says he's leaving because he has "strong fundamental legal disagreements with the new leadership. (Oakland Mayor Jean Quan) and those who are speaking most loudly at the Council. And because I have fundamental moral disagreements with the direction that this government is taking in dealing with the crises that face Oakland."
Why Russo Did Not Stay And Fight
As I said in the video, Russo could "throw a punch that would be a nuclear bomb." Russo could publicly call out Oakland officials, and, in the most extreme case, bring a lawsuit against his own government. (And Russo did not, I stress, NOT, offer those as options; that's strictly from me).
But he didn't do that.
"Yeah, there's no doubt, if I wanted to stay here, and wanted to do what some of those opponents of mine claim I'm doing, If I wanted to gum-up the works. Somebody in opposition to what the government was doing in this role, could bring the government to a dead halt. And on certain issues, believe me, I'd love to take a different posture than this government has taken," he said.
"I think it's ethically inappropriate, because the city attorney has to follow the policy of the Council. It doesn't mean we have to tell the council what they want to hear about the law, but we have to enforce the policy of the council," he said, and by extension, the administrative policy of the Mayor of Oakland.
Russo says he's not the right person for the job.
Russo says that Oakland's problems in public safety and finance are "gripping the city," and he's totally opposed to the debt-based solutions being considered. And he said "The directions that the government is moving now are morally...not..uhm... They are, I think, morally questionable, and I could no longer serve, ethically, as City Attorney..." Russo, struggling to find the right words, said.
That's part one; part two on Wednesday.
NY Giants Expert John Fennelly On The NFL Draft 2011
John Fennelly is one of the top NY Giants bloggers, and a perennial expert on the doings of Big Blue at Giants Football Blog. In this rare video, Mr. Fennelly took time with this blogger to talk about the New York Football Giants performance in the 2011 NFL Draft. He's now joined Zennue62.com NFL Draft expert Bill Chackhes at Football Reporters Online.
John says that the Giants "did exactly the opposite of what everyone expected them to do" in the 2011 NFL Draft. He says Jerry Reese took the best players that fell to the Giants, starting with Nebraska Cornerback Prince Amukamara, and then UNC Defensive Tackle Marvin Austin in the second round, and who didn't play football in 2010 because he was suspended. "The Giants have a long memory," John says. "They don't care what you did as a senior, can't you play football."
For more of Fennelly's observations, check him out at Football Reporters Online, and at Giants Football Blog.
Stephen Hawking, Meet John Lennon: "Imagine There's No Heaven"
Continuing this blogger's video criticism of Stephen Hawking's comment that Heaven is a fairy tale, one reason why the professor's receiving so much bad press over his take is it's mean-sprited presentation. For example, The Guardian UK's Michael Wenham writes "Hawking says some admirable things, but the idea that I believe in life after death because I'm afraid of the dark is insulting."
Wenham's point is essentially that Hawking's presentation is lacking in any nicety that would make it palatable. Instead, he hits us over the head with the idea that we're all, eventually, broken down computers. Thus, my statement that Hawking never achieved orgasm, for a computer is unfeeling, and certainly not a believer in God, or a God of any kind, and will not say "Oh God! upon reaching the great climax of sex.
Hawking not only fails to make the critical cognitive leap from science to spirituality, he doesn't stop to even consider the power of faith and feeling. In discussing Heaven, Hawking didn't consider the approach of that great Beatle, John Lennon.
In the classic song, "Imagine," Lennon famously sang "Imagine there's no Heaven. It's easy if you try.." What John was trying to convey is a picture of a World without religious or national barriers, and he did so without insulting anyone who believes in Heaven.
That Hawking chose to insult, rather than to persuade with allegory and song, is telling about his overall character. Does Hawking love humanity, or want it to just go the way of broken down computers?
I wonder.
Meanwhile, I imagine there's a Heaven, and it's easy for me to try.
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