Posted on

Contradictory Medical Reports

By: Billy BeerSlugger

You know seems like every week I read or hear something in the about what is or is not good for your body that is completely contradictory of a previous medical study.

Yesterday it was that diet is indeed a factor in kids having Acne. The study suggests that a diet high in chocolate, potato chips and low in vegetables is linked to Acne. Which is complete bullshit because a potato chip comes from a potato which is a vegetable and they’re cooked in Vegetable oil. Previously I was told by the media and medical world that diet had nothing to do with acne and previous to that I was told to avoid chocolate and salty foods like potato chips.

I was told that a glass of wine a day was good for your heart which is great because I then convinced myself that beer has the same effect. Now a study comes out and says that any kind of alcohol for women increases their chance of breast cancer.  Awesome.

Coffee is good for you… wait a minute coffee isn’t as good for you as they previously thought. An aspirin a day is beneficial to the heart… oh but wait a minute it’s not good for the stomach lining… or the heart possibly.  Vitamin E prevents cancer.. oh but only in people that don’t already have cancer. Antioxidants are great for you… Vitamin C is great for you… You need to get a full days supply of Calcium.  I’ve seen studies to the contrary on every single one of these things.

So what are we supposed to believe? The Scientists or the Scientists? Do we go by who got the more prestigious degree from the best known University? Pick out of a hat? Do you believe the one that best suits your needs, ie. I’m going to drink my glass of wine every night no matter what they say?

Who’s got the agenda and who is doing the actual non-biased work? I think in the 80’s the tobacco companies funded studies to conclude that smoking had no direct link to Cancer so one thing to look out for is who is funding the study. Another thing to look at is the sample size. If the study has 14 people taking Vitamin E and 13 taking a placebo you can’t really conclude anything except that you need a larger sample size. Another thing to look at is assumptions based on a study.

Consider this: One study suggests a link between drinking alcohol and developing lung cancer. However, the newscaster that reads the findings conveniently leaves out the fact that a good portion of people that drink alcohol also smoke cigarettes. Yes there may be a link but is alcohol a direct cause?

I think what i’m trying to say is that studies and statistics can be manipulated pretty much any way a person or entity wants. Take for instance a Phillies game where some obscure stat will be shown on the jumbo tron as a player walks up to bat: “Carlos Ruiz is hitting .421 in home day games with a runner on 2nd base when facing left handed pitching”. Now shorten that to Carlos Ruiz is hitting .421 and that’s essentially what we are being told about these medical studies in the media. The shocking statistic but none of the details.

Posted on

Swine Flu Redux

It's Science
It's Science

By: Billy BeerSlugger

Oh, you thought that shit was dead? Think again.  This H1N1 Flu strain is here to stay people and the media is going to whore the shit out of it to keep you watching and reading the news. Apparently half of the United States is going to have it at some point this cold and flu season. Teachers are told to take extra precautions in cleaning and kids hand sanitizing. I’m sure you’ll see a newscast about “What You Can Do To Avoid Swine Flu” and or the effects of Swine Flu when you do get it because… IT’S INEVITABLE!!!!!

The CDC gives out weekly updates and I can’t go a day without seeing H1N1 on my iGoogle page with my newsfeeds. Don’t say I didn’t warn you because this thing is going to make a comeback bigger than Robert Downey Jr.’s. Be prepared to be scared and please by all means believe everything you hear on the news! Those fuckers are infallible.

Posted on

Power Rankings Week 2

Sports with Bob McFlurry

The latest ESPN NFL Power Rankings have our Philadelphia Eagles ranked at #4. I would love to know what these people are smoking. We’re talking about the Philadelphia Eagles right? In Philadelphia? Ranked ahead of the Colts, Chargers, Titans and Vikings? Hell half the league could beat us on Any Given Sunday and that’s being realistic even if McNabb is at QB and healthy.

I don’t know why people were so high on the Eagles this year. All we got was a starting tackle and guard (who is coming off major knee surgery) in the offseason.   We picked a WR in the first round of the draft who was supposed to be dynamic and figure in the return game and this guy might have 20 catches this year and doesn’t seem to be getting any reps at punt returner. We also got Shady McCoy in the draft to spell Westbrook and it seems like a good fit. We finnally have a true fullback which is great.

However, is the team that drastically different from the one that needed a miracle to make the playoffs last year? We may have gotten younger on Defense but did we get better? Nothing on Offense changed except the Tackles, the backup running backs and backup QB. I don’t see how or where we got significantly better on either side of the ball.

Desean Jackson is great and has worked out better than I have expected but is he a true number one receiver or just an overall game changer from either special teams or the receiver position. Is the guy going to go for over 1,000 yrds and 8 TD’s? Only time will tell.

Yes the NFC is wide open, yes we trounced Carolina in the First game but we also spanked the Rams on opening day last year too. All this being said I’d rather be the underdog or middle of the pack than be in ESPN’s Top 5.  I’d rather people be surprised at the Birds play than be disappointed by it and given their Ranking and no real upgrade in talent that’s probably what’s going to happen. Plus the Eagles are really good at disappointing us.

Now, I’m talking about a world even with Donovan McNabb fully healthy, it’s the same team as last year with a few more injuries and some unproven guys taking over for some veterans. I’m just not sure how you measure these things but whatever the apparatus or reasoning they’ll be out of the top 10 by week 5 and shouldn’t have even been in the top 5 in the first place. How many question marks does one need to convince you that there’s at least 10 teams better than the Eagles right now even before McNabb’s injury.

Not to say they won’t make the playoffs or make a run at a Superbowl but an elite team the Philadelphia Eagles are not right now and you will probably see a defense picked apart by Drew Brees this Sunday at the Linc.  Only time will tell but I think I’m smarter than the guys over in Bristol right now.

Posted on

The Inside Track with Ace Rothstein 9/18

Quick recap from last week – 2 wins and 2 losses. We were so right about 2 games even predicting the final margin of victory in the Nebraska game, and we were so wrong about the other 2. Anyway let’s get back on track and win some money.

Clemson – 6 ½ over Boston College

Death Valley is one of the greatest and most intimidating stadiums in all of college sports. Boston College is starting a freshman here on the road! Boston College is going to have a rebuilding year with many new faces. Clemson is supposed to be in the mix for the ACC Championship game and should come out on fire after last week’s loss to Georgia Tech on the road. Clemson also has had a couple extra days to prepare for this one because they played on Thursday of last week. Look for the Tigers in Death Valley to destroy this young quarterback – Clemson by at least 10.

California -14 over Minnesota

Now I usually tend to stay away from Road Favorites that are in double digits but this one is just to intriguing for me. California is one of the best and most explosive teams in the nation. Some people even say they are going to give USC a run for their money. I look at this Minnesota team and see a team that should have lost against Syracuse and against Air Force. We all saw last week how much bigger and stronger the teams in the PAC 10 are against the Big 10. California rolls big in this one.

New England -3 ½ over the Jets

I know New England is coming off an emotional win on a Monday night but I don’t think the New England players are going to treat this as a let down game. Rex Ryan has been running his mouth all week and it has got some attention from New England. In the second half of the Bills game, Tom Brady was flat out awesome. Belichick made the necessary adjustments at halftime and their offense was clicking. I will take my chances against a fraudulent rookie quarterback in Mark Sanchez to lay an egg.

Bonus Pick

I don’t like any other NFL games so I am going with a Bonus 7 point teaser

Green Bay Packers teased -2

Atlanta Falcons teased +1

The Cincinnati Bengals do not have the veteran leadership, or the coaching to go on the road and win a tough game after last weeks’ heartbreak. Green Bay is for real this year and they will win the game.

I don’t even know where to begin with Carolina.  This is a team in disarray after last week.  The Georgia Dome will be rocking for which ever quarterback the Panthers decide on.  This line might be a little inflated because of last week but Atlanta still wins this game.

Posted on

Non Music Television -NMTV

MTV's "Moon Man" Award
The Award for Best Vidoe Never Shown On MTV goes to....

By: Billy BeerSlugger

I haven’t went out of my way to watch an MTV Movie or Video awards show since about 2002 or so. I was kind of taken aback on Sunday night around 1 or two am when I was drunkenly flipping through channels after a 3 day booze fest in Avalon NJ known as my friends wedding.

I couldn’t quite figure out what was going on as Beyonce had been given the award for best video and then they brought Taylor Swift out to give an acceptance speech. I didn’t know what was going on but later found out that Kanye West had burst on stage to make a scene when Taylor Swift was given another award and what I saw was a redo on her acceptance speech.

Now if you didn’t know this by now, Kanye West goes on stage and makes scenes at awards shows. He has done it numerous times, this time was the first time he was outraged on behalf of someone else instead of himself for not winning. Now the dude was wrong, he knows it (if it wasn’t a publicity stunt to begin with) but I’m not hating on him because this is what the guy does. If you don’t want him on stage then put a security guard on him or don’t invite him at all. He’s like a sex addict at an orgy, he just can’t help himself when it comes to these things.

I think the bigger issue here is that MTV chooses to still have a music video awards show at all.  I haven’t seen a music video on MTV for years. I’m not sure when they play them.

Here’s a sample of what they have on tap today:

Engaged & Underage

Made

Teen Cribs

Degrassi: The Next Generation

Made

Parental Control

True Life: I’m a Bisexual

True Life: I’m Polyamrorous

Real World

Real World Reunion

The Bitch is Back: The Hills Preview

Daddy’s girls

How do you get off having a video awards and not show any fucking videos all day. How do the kids today know what video’s to vote on if they’ve never seen them? Or does MTV just pick them?

What they should do is scratch the MTV Video Awards and make the MTV Pseudo Scripted Reality Show Awards where Lauren Conrad, Kristen Cavalerri, Heidi Pratt and Whitney Port can duke it out for best female performance.  Spoiled teens that are given material possessions in place of parenting battle for “Best Crib My Parent’s Bought”. You would have condom challenged girls vying for the prize of “Best Teenage Pregnancy”. Best Manufactured Drama Situation goes to…. I could go on and on but you get the point.

How are you a Network called Music Television and not show any music.  That would be like a CNN (Cable News Network) showing reruns of sitcoms all day. It’s that ironic.

Someone told me that they play video’s on MTV2 or something but I can’t even find that noise on my cable box. What happened to the good old days when music mattered MTV? You used to be all about the Music. Now you’re just a 24 hour commercial and set a bad example for teenage behavior.

Or maybe I’m just too old.

Posted on

What is the Business World Thinking?!

Your mother should have taught you better...
Your mother should have taught you better...

By: Gene soft cialis Yuss

 

I took a hiatus for the summer.  Between the beach, getting into grad school and conquering NASDAQ I really didn’t have the appropriate amount of time to devote to BeerSlugger.com.  But the summer is over and I must vent…

At an early age we are taught some of the basic fundamentals of life: look both ways when you cross the street, cover your mouth when you sneeze (apparently the sleeve is better than your hand – thanks mom), etc.  Most of these simple actions people are becoming more and more too inconsiderate to continue.  But there is one lack of sense and decency that I just cannot take any longer.

Since when did people give up eating like a respectable human being?  Why is it that every business meal I attend has without question someone that chews with their mouth open?  This is probably one of the most disgusting habits that somehow eked its way American culture.  Next time you are out and people are eating look around – everyone is doing it.  There are probably not many mannerisms that spans Democrats and Republicans/fat broads and models, but lack of courtesy to your fellow diners does.

Even less appealing than the uncouth open mouth cialis pill chewer is the noise-making-chewer.  There are certain people in my life that do this.  I try to help cure them of this coarse behavior, but these kind of people don’t seem to want help.  They don’t realize they have a problem.  Maybe we need to take a page out of the ‘How I Met Your Mother‘ script and start holding interventions for deplorable public behavior.  It would be LEGENDARY…

Is it just me, or does it seem like everyone is acting as though they are on a casting audition for ‘The Flamingo Kid‘?  While this is one of my favorite Matt Dillon characters, second only to “Damn, all I have are these Nepalese coins,” I really wouldn’t want to eat with the guy.

The few of you out there with class – and given this website’s audience I may have the wrong venue here – I implore you to assist me.  Others’ parents have failed them.  Society at large has failed them.  We cannot and must not fail them too!

Every person that I interview I also take out to eat.  If they chew with their mouth open, then their resume hits the shredder.  Qualified or not, blonde or not… you have to pass the first test.  It is not much, but it is a start.  The last thing that I need is to have an 8:30 res’ at Dorsia and my date have rice fall out of her mouth in front of Paul Allen…

Posted on

Shawne Merriman Vs. Tila Tequilla

tila-tequila-antzBy: Billy BeerSlugger

I know I’m somewhat late on this story but I like to err on the side of caution when dealing with celebrities and a woman getting beaten or raped by a man because it always seems like the guy in question (at least initially) is guilty until proven innocent. Take the Duke Lacrosse case, Kobe Bryant’s alleged ass raping of a young Colorado woman or Ben Rothlisberger’s recent accuser as examples of the media going off and over-sensationalizing a story and then being wrong about it.

The first time I heard about this story I’m going, “why the fuck is Shawne Merriman dating Tila Tequilla?”. There has to be about a million bi-sexual girls that would bang Shawne Merriman that don’t look like they starred in the animated film Antz. Not to mention the whole bi-sexual reality dating show she starred in getting slobbered on by male and female tools alike on national TV.  It just didn’t seem like the kind of sound decision that a steroid shooting, purple mohawk sporting linebacker would make.

Then I came across this from a local San Diego new station purporting to have the inside scoop after interviewing people in the know.  Allegedly, Merriman went into his bedroom with two women, Tila Tequilla went in after and Merriman asked Tequilla to join the festivities which is perfectly reasonable request to a known whore bag. She became enraged, threatened to have sexual congress with a member of Merriman’s entourage, got naked and tried to leave the premises. It is said this is the point that Merriman restrained Tequilla and 911 was called.

Pretty much the kind of behavior you would expect from a steroided up monster and the strumpetish star of the first mainstream bi-sexual, reality/competition TV dating show.

I won’t even really offer you an opinion on who I think is right or wrong, I’ll just say that this is why I rarely have sex with 3 girls at once anymore. Crazy girls tend to exaggerate stories but they are also the only ones who will bang you with two of their whore friends. It’s like playing with dynamite and if it happens to explode you either have a court case or herpes… or both.

Posted on

The Inside Track with Ace Rothstein

The number one handicapper in sports is devoting his time and his plays to the Beerslugger’s of America. Sit back and relax while Ace makes you money every week.

Nebraska -21 over Arkansas St.

This line should be around -28. Nebraska is coming off beating the 2nd best team in the Sun Belt Conference in Florida Atlantic 49-3. They looked good in all phases of the game especially offensively. When a team is rolling offensively in the beginning of the year watch out. Coach Bo Pelini knows he has to blow these non BCS school’s out in order to move up in the polls and have a chance at knocking off someone in the Big 12 Championship game. Arkansas St is an inferior team to Florida Atlantic and most ‘cappers picked Arkansas St to finish lower than Florida Atlantic in the Sun Belt. This game is so low because Arkansas St went into Texas AM last year and beat them. First Texas AM was one of the worst teams in the country last year. Second Bo Pelini is not going to allow this team to sneak up on anyone. How many times do you think Nebraska players have watched the game film from that game? Nebraska rolls by at least 28.

Oklahoma St -15 over Houston

Oklahoma St is coming off a great game against Georgia where they saw one of the nation’s fastest and top defenses. This will be a huge drop off going up against the much maligned defense of the Houston Cougars. Last year in this match up Houston gave up 699 yds and 56 points! This game is going to be played on turf which makes Oklahoma St.’s playmakers that much faster. Also Oklahoma St has been handed a golden ticket in the Big 12 with Sam Bradford’s injury. This team could be your Big 12 champions and they know it.

Carolina +2 ½ over Philadelphia

Sorry Eagles fans. I have never seen an Eagles team with so many question marks heading into a season. Sure this team can be good come the end of the season but right now they are in disarray. Carolina’s Defensive line is one of the best in the league and will be coming after McNabb all day. Philadelphia’s starting offensive line hasn’t taken a snap together once this preseason and never in their lives. Julius Peppers might be matched up against Winston Justice and that could spell trouble. Maurice Jones Drew will have a big day against Philadelphia’s depleted linebacking core. Carolina outright at home.

Green Bay Packers -3 ½ over Chicago

Buy the ½ point to 3. Never get beat by the hook!!!! Green Bay is coming off a good season, so they should be the talk of the NFC North, right? Wrong, all the talk has surrounded the Chicago Bears and the Minnesota Vikings. Green Bay has been forgotten and this line reflects that. The Chicago Bears vaunted defense is an absolute fraud! Last year Aaron Rodgers torched this team and Ryan Grant torched them on the ground. I understand now Chicago has a quarterback, and he is a good one, but that doesn’t solve their defensive problems or the offensive playmaker problems. Green Bay by double digits.

The number one handicapper in sports is devoting his time and his plays to the Beerslugger’s of America. Sit back and relax while Ace makes you money every week.

Nebraska -21 over Arkansas St.

This line should be around -28. Nebraska is coming off beating the 2nd best team in the Sun Belt Conference in Florida Atlantic 49-3. They looked good in all phases of the game especially offensively. When a team is rolling offensively in the beginning of the year watch out. Coach Bo Pelini knows he has to blow these non BCS school’s out in order to move up in the polls and have a chance at knocking off someone in the Big 12 Championship game. Arkansas St is an inferior team to Florida Atlantic and most ‘cappers picked Arkansas St to finish lower than Florida Atlantic in the Sun Belt. This game is so low because Arkansas St went into Texas AM last year and beat them. First Texas AM was one of the worst teams in the country last year. Second Bo Pelini is not going to allow this team to sneak up on anyone. How many times do you think Nebraska players have watched the game film from that game? Nebraska rolls by at least 28.

Oklahoma St -15 over Houston

Oklahoma St is coming off a great game against Georgia where they saw one of the nation’s fastest and top defenses. This will be a huge drop off going up against the much maligned defense of the Houston Cougars. Last year in this match up Houston gave up 699 yds and 56 points! This game is going to be played on turf which makes Oklahoma St.’s playmakers that much faster. Also Oklahoma St has been handed a golden ticket in the Big 12 with Sam Bradford’s injury. This team could be your Big 12 champions and they know it.

Carolina +2 ½ over Philadelphia

Sorry Eagles fans. I have never seen an Eagles team with so many question marks heading into a season. Sure this team can be good come the end of the season but right now they are in disarray. Carolina’s Defensive line is one of the best in the league and will be coming after McNabb all day. Philadelphia’s starting offensive line hasn’t taken a snap together once this preseason and never in their lives. Julius Peppers might be matched up against Winston Justice and that could spell trouble. Maurice Jones Drew will have a big day against Philadelphia’s depleted linebacking core. Carolina outright at home.

Green Bay Packers -3 ½ over Chicago

Buy the ½ point to 3. Never get beat by the hook!!!! Green Bay is coming off a good season, so they should be the talk off the NFC North, right? Wrong, all the talk has surrounded the Chicago Bears and the Minnesota Vikings. Green Bay has been forgotten and this line reflects that. The Chicago Bears vaunted defense is an absolute fraud! Last year Aaron Rodgers torched this team and Ryan Grant torched them on the ground. I understand now Chicago has a quarterback, and he is a good one, but that doesn’t solve their defensive problems or the offensive playmaker problems. Green Bay by double digits.

Posted on

I hate Gene Wojciechowski

Gene Wojciechowski
Gene Wojciechowski

By: Bones

I watch a lot of sports, and likewise I read about a lot of sports too. It’s only natural that I have developed strong feelings about certain broadcasters and columnists. This particular article is all about the incompetence and nonsense spewed form the pen of one of the worst columnists in the universe, Gene Wojciechowski. As an avid reader of ESPN.com, this guy is somewhat unavoidable- he writes quite a few columns, but they are such useless drivel I finally stopped reading them all together. I can pretty much get the gist of whomever’s dick he’s sucking from the title of the column anyway- because that’s half of what he does, devotes an entire article to unabashedly slurping someone. The other half of what he does is get up on his high horse and condemn someone. It’s one or the other with this guy, and that pisses me off. There’s no objectivity whatsoever. A typical Gene article reads like this: slurp, slurp, slurp…token 1 or 2 sentence paragraph glossing over reason why what he’s basing his column on might be bullshit, slurp, slurp, slurp. The points he makes are only backed up with jokes (cheesy ones), not facts. He doesn’t do any reporting- his ‘articles’ are always on some widely reported story. It’s like he wakes up, reads the papers, then decides, yeah I can pick a side on that story, take my info from stuff I’ve read, and back it up by never mentioning the other side of things. Supposedly a ‘National’ columnist, he is nothing of the sort. He writes about two things- Chicago and Tiger Woods. He makes a living off of making predictions, being wrong wrong wrong, then writing a column the next day owning up to being wrong, and giving tons of excuses about why he was. He does it so often that I think he writes both columns at once, or writes 2 columns ahead of time- one if he’s right (which never happens) and one if he’s wrong. What bothers me the most is that he seems to think that admitting that he was wrong absolves him from being a clown. And what makes it even worse is that the tone of his articles is always so arrogant, like he could never be wrong. Lets take a trip through his archives to prove my point.

8/13/09– Guarantees Tiger will win PGA after he leads after 54 holes. He didn’t, so…

8/15/09– Writes the obligatory ‘yeah, I was wrong’ article

7/13/09-Slurps Tiger for the British Open. He got cut so…

7/16/09– apologizes

7/6/09– Predicts Cubs will win NL Central by comfortable margin.

Soon- article saying, hey I was wrong, but…gives many excuses.

6/17/09– Slurps Tiger for the US Open… doesn’t happen

6/21/09– I’m wrong.

4/7/09– Slurps Tiger for Masters…are you getting the picture now?

Its not just Tiger, its Favre, or John Madden. It’s almost gay, the tone of these articles. They aren’t ABOUT anything- just about how awesome someone is. Its one thing to be a golf writer and be forced to write about golf. But he can write about whatever he wants and chooses to slurp people. Or maybe he will make a generic bullshit list, like the top 50 such and such. He probably wrote that shit 4 years ago. Look, this isnt one of my stronger articles in terms of logic or reasoning, but I am honestly worked up writing about this tool.

3/2/09– Gene rips Cutler for being a baby

4/2/09– Gene loves Cutler now.

1/21/09– Gene writes article about how wrong his NFL predictions were- a yearly occurrence. “It takes a real man to admit when he is wrong”.

1/11/09– guarantees Eagles to beat AZ in NFC Champ game

1/26/09– Calls AZ ‘no fluke’

OK, Im done, you get the point. I fuckin’ hate this guy, he should be fired.I wouldn’t give him a job to cover high school sports.