Archive for the ‘Anarchy Journal Constitutional’ Category

Ethan Carter III Forced Me to Stop Being a Michael Bennett Hater

Posted: July 16, 2014 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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by @anarchyroll
7/16/2014

My personal taste in professional wrestling and professional wrestlers leans towards a faced passed, aggressive, technical, high impact maneuver style (both in wrestler and match style). Neither Ethan Carter III (picture above to the left) or Michael Bennett (picture above to the right) fit with what I listed, and that’s not just fine, it’s good for pro wrestling.

As I have grown up I’ve become less dogmatic when it comes to personal taste, especially when it comes to personal taste in entertainment based subjects. In my adolescence I would have been the smarkiest, snarkiest Mike Bennett hater on the internet. But that is when I was naïve enough to think my personal taste and opinions deserved to be conformed to by the outside world.

For the longest time I didn’t understand why Mike Bennett was on the ROH roster, then I learned he was dating and later married to former WWE Diva and Playboy Playmate Maria Kanellis. The increased attention and publicity someone like her could bring to ROH if she was associated with it explained why they would bring him in, but not why they would keep him for years.

Michael Bennett is completely different from anyone else on the ROH roster. He is very much a look based, body guy. He gets heat from the jealously of male wrestling fans, or as they’re most commonly known, wrestling fans. It is hard to get heat on the independent pro wrestling scene. This is because the wrestlers are usually trying to get pops from the crowd via high spots or are so untalented, they get booed for being bad at their chosen profession. There have been several matches that I have seen in person where Mike Bennett deserved to get booed for not having the talent to deserve the spot in the company he was/is in.

But he has grown, he has improved, he has evolved. ROH has shown confidence in Bennett in 2014 (notably allowing him a high-profile one on one match against the most popular wrestler in Japan, Hiroshi Tanahashi at War of the Worlds in May). Bennett is now going to be representing ROH on a tour of Japan and he has earned it. How? Certainly not for being a skilled technician in the ring. Bennett gets heat, and heat is what draws money in pro wrestling, not high spots. If high spots drew money, then ROH and WWE would have opposite financial standings.

Ironically, Michael Bennett did nothing to make me see this. It was only after Ethan Carter III (formerly Derrick Bateman in NXT) debuted in TNA earlier this year and had a string of what I thought were very impressive matches did I realize that I had been judging Bennett completely wrong. I read so much anti Carter/Bateman talk on the internet it completely threw me off, I thought he was very entertaining. The words used to describe EC3 were essentially the same words I used to describe Bennett.

Guys who are more about look than technical proficiency always have had and always will have a spot in professional wrestling. EC3 and Bennett are much more technically proficient than many body guys that have come before them but many fans don’t see/realize this, why? John Cena obviously.

Hahaha, it’s all Cena’s fault. You’ll notice that there is not much text below this, so a long anti Cena rant is NOT coming. But with Cena being over exposed and over pushed for now over a decade based on him being a body guy, the fan base that watches pro wrestling as their dominant form of consumed entertainment, is not just tired of Cena, but of all body guys…Bootista anyone?

EC3 and Bennett are not to be confused for Bret Hart or AJ Styles, nor would they contend they should be. If one can look past the fact that both men are in better physical shape and are better looking than they are, they will see two young professional wrestlers who love the business, respect the business, and want to become better at their craft.

I can see the effort and improvement in both of them every time I see their matches and/or promos. If a person can’t, they are letting emotion and bias be fuel for negative emotion directed towards them…which means that both EC3 and Bennett are doing their jobs.

 

Poisoning the #Water for 300,000 is Worth $11,000

Posted: July 16, 2014 in Frackishima
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by @anarchyroll
7/15/2014

Did you know you could poison the drinking water for 300,000 people and the only penalty you’ll face will be an $11,000 fine?

Freedom Industries is the company responsible for the West Virgina Chemical Spill that took place in January. 10,000 gallons of the chemical MCHM (used in coal production) spilled into a river that was the main source of fresh drinking water for 300,000 civilians in West Virgina across nine counties in the western part of the state. They have been fined $11,000 by the Labor Department of the federal government.

Freedom Industries has since filed for bankruptcy, and a bill regulating chemical tanks has been passed in the wake of the spill. But $11,000 as a penalty for leaving 300,000 people without drinkable water for ten days?

My attention is pulled towards stories that involve mass poisoning of fresh water. A vast minority of the amount of water on planet Earth is drinkable. We can’t survive as a species without fresh water. Yet we seem content with having the essence of life poisoned at a rate that could be classified as habitual and doing virtually nothing about it. What does that say about us?

Poisoning the essence of life should at least carry a penalty similar to a DUI. I know people who have gotten DUI’s who have had to pay more than $11,000 when it was all said and done. Is drinking and driving a vehicle on an empty road in the middle of the night worse than poisoning water for 300,000 people?

40 people were sent to the hospital from drinking or simply being exposed to the contaminated water. If I did something that sent 40 people to the hospital, would I not face a penalty more severe than an $11,000 fine?

There is no law without order and no order without law. If people can get away with stealing, murder, and rape then it has been shown throughout history that people will murder, steal, and rape vastly more than if there are immediate and severe consequences for those evil actions.

I certainly classify poisoning water as an evil action, do you?

If we continue to let companies and corporations break the law without having to worry about the consequences everyday people have to worry about, why do we think they’ll do the right thing and follow the laws/rules? Do we think that for profit corporations will engage in a thought and decision-making process in a way that is evolved beyond human nature?

The Supreme Court has said that corporations are people. If companies and corporations are people, then shouldn’t we  punish them for hurting people the way we punish individuals for hurting people?

 

 

Wage Stagnation is the Silent Killer of #Economic Equality

Posted: July 15, 2014 in Excess and Algorithms
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by @anarchyroll
7/14/2014

Wages have not kept up with inflation or the consumer price index for over thirty years. That is what is meant when you hear people talk about wage stagnation.

As long as wages remain stagnant compared to how much stuff costs there will never be a fully robust economic recovery.

Wage stagnation is why there is currently an all time record high of income inequality in America.

This is why you don’t need a degree in economics to understand why all debates over economic issues in America are made to seem overly complicated on purpose. Because if people were paid more for their time and effort, they could buy more things. But wouldn’t those things then be more expensive? Yes, but people would be making more money. It would be a cycle, kind of like the cycle our economy is on now but less vicious and soul crushing for the generationally poor.

You’ve heard about class warfare between the 1% of earners who possess more wealth than the other 99% of earners in the country, right? That is the heart of the Occupy Wall Street movements and protests. Why is there such a gap in income equality? Why is there class warfare? Why is there a sentiment that the “game” that is the US economy is rigged and the American Dream is dead? The underlying cause/answer is wage stagnation.

Wage stagnation is not an accident, it has been done very much on purpose for almost half a century. The haves don’t want to pay the have-nots an honest salary for their honest work and have been allowed to get away with it. The 1% could make the choice to pay their workers more. But other than it being the right thing to do, why? After all, paying the masses a living wage would mean less one-percenters could afford private yachts, jets, and islands.

Wage stagnation is tied directly to the rise in consumer debt (people use credit to pay for necessities they don’t have the money to have because they don’t get paid enough), student loan debt (parents and students need to take loans because they don’t get paid enough to pay for college tuition), and mortgage debt (not being paid enough to afford a home). Being able to afford a home is the center piece of the American Dream. To afford property, not simply to achieve financial prosperity as many would have you believe.

Until wage stagnation is addressed and done away with, very little else matters in terms of turning around America’s economy for 99% of the population. To deny this is to deny reality, or be apart of the minority of the population that is benefiting from the system as it is currently constructed. There is no gray area or in between.

A living wage is the only humane solution to this problem. But traditionally, humanity and the American economy don’t always go hand in hand. The fierce resistance to paying a living wage in America is only the most recent example.

#BeachLife Now Means No Swimming Due to #Pollution

Posted: July 10, 2014 in Frackishima
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by @anarchyroll
7/10/2014

I suppose my generation will be the generation that grows up to say, back in my day, you could actually swim in the water at the beach.

Thanks to massive amounts of pollution and bacteria, beaches are now strictly for selfies, volleyball, tanning, sand castle building, and of course drinking.

Poisoning of water is something that always gets my attention. Mainly because we can’t survive without water, we being human beings.

I wonder if the people who are big on the #BeachLife social media trend will care as much about the environment as they do their own self image and egos.

Some generation will eventually have to care in mass about water pollution. The Greatest Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Y polluted the Earth exponentially more each time around as if there was a prize at the end. Well I guess there is, the prize is the privilege of being able to go to the beach and not being able to swim or even touch the water due to the public health hazard the bacteria causes. But I’m sure breathing the air coming off that water is still perfectly healthy. Certainly no worse than the air breathed in citing in bumper to bumper highway traffic.

In 2014, Ronda Rousey is a Great Fighter & Women’s #MMA is a Joke

Posted: July 7, 2014 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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by @anarchyroll
7/7/2014

One great athlete does not make a sport or a division.

I don’t believe Ronda Rousey is a great fighter BUT I will be happy to concede that point a thousand times over if her biggest fans/supporters will concede this; that there is no such thing as a credible women’s mixed martial arts sport or division. Ronda Rousey may be a great fighter. I certainly won’t deny her skills in the Judo discipline. I certainly won’t pretend like she doesn’t know submissions like the back of her hand.

But whether one considers her great or not, she is a one woman sport.

Royce Gracie to this day is considered one of if not the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. The UFC was launched on his back. But when Gracie was a one man sport, the UFC was not taken seriously. When he was dominating his competition quickly and submitting them all easily, the vast majority of the public considered him great and the sport a joke. So why is it different for Rousey? Because she’s a woman? Because she’s a very attractive woman?

PS: Gracie was a one man wrecking crew in open weight, one night tournaments, not fighting twice a year between film and photo shoots.

Anderson Silva dominated his weight class for almost a decade. And he was forced to sporadically move up to the light heavyweight class to test himself and to keep the fans from getting complacent watching him dispose of both worth and unworthy challengers. There literally is no other women’s weight class in the UFC.

Again, make no mistake, regardless of Rousey’s skills and abilities as a fighter, she was given the first women’s UFC title belt at a press conference because Dana White saw potential to make money with her. To exploit her sexuality and box office appeal, not to grow the sport of women’s mixed martial arts. No one else from Strikeforce (where she was Bantamweight champion before the company folded) was handed a belt at a press conference.

Watching UFC 175 where Rousey disposed of her “opponent” and “challenger” in 16 seconds showed the UFC’s non stop corporate spin; from the second the joke of a fight ended, throughout all post show activities. Showing the replay, hyping Rousey’s greatness, showing the contender list, and of course everyone with a UFC microphone trying to convince their viewers and themselves, that the women’s bantamweight division is stacked with good fighters; not a bunch of scrubs OR women that Rousey has already beat.

I have no doubt that if three to five years of investment of resources from the UFC that women’s mixed martial arts can have multiple, legitimate weight classes filled with world class female fighters; none of which are true presently. But now there is a very talented, very attractive champion with nothing resembling a challenger near her. Rousey’s only challenge is how many movies can she film before her next training camp. Anyone who thinks her next fight will be an actual threat to her title reign then you’re a mark or you’re a UFC employee with very strict marching orders from the top brass.

Rousey is not a protected paper champion (except for the not fighting Cyborg thing), she is a paper champion because she is light years ahead of her time. When a person has no equal to test their greatness against, are they great?

Rousey does not exist in a vacuum. She is not a scientist with an advanced theory that no one in the world is smart enough to produce. She can choose to test her skills and her greatness outside of the women’s bantamweight division. If her and/or the UFC are only willing to feed her undersized, unqualified women’s bantamweight “competitors” to draw ppv buys from a public willing to buy into their propaganda, that’s fine. But unless her and Dana White are willing to actually test her skills against either women’s featherweight fighters or you know…the other kind of mixed martial artists…then, well, hey who cares about credibility when you’re cashing checks like the checks her and Zuffa Entertainment are cashing???

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