Michael Vick, PETA Wants Your Brain Scanned; What About The Rooneys?

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Michael Vick, you've spent two years in the slammer for running a business that revolved around dog-fighting and harming our furry friends. Now, you're confined to your home and reportedly a $10-per-hour construction job. Think you're going to be forgiven? Ha! Michael, you're going into a harsh United States of America, with far less religious people than there used to be. Think I'm kidding; just check out the Pew study that reports more people than ever don't declare a religion.

That's a bad thing because it means they don't subscribe to the concept of forgiveness, Michael. I don't care what anyone tells you, a person who has no religious background or interest is a person to be feared because they don't have a moral compass to guide them. (And if they tell you otherwise, run, don't walk, to the nearest exit!) So forget winning 20 percent of America over, they're long gone. That group has to have someone to hate to make themselves feel alive, and they're going to pick you as their target.

Oh, and PETA wants your brain scanned to see if you're a psycho. I'm serious.

PETA? You know them. PETA stands for "People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals," and their cause is certainly just and it's a great organization to be sure. But PETA has failed in its history to really get vocally involved in curbing dog racing, and remained silent when it was revealed that The Rooney Family, which owns the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers were owners of a dog racing business.

What? You didn't know that? Yep. They owned, ah, excuse me still own, the Palm Beach Kennel Club. And while PETA has expressed its displeasure with dog racing, it never mentioned the Rooney's activity or asked Steelers President Dan Rooney (and Ambassador to Ireland) to take a brain scan.

What? Folks tell you dog racing's less violent than dog fighting, so that's ok? I'd like to meet those people; yeah, right. According to PETA - yep, PETA - dog racing culture selectively breeds such that dogs who don't make "the cut" are killed. Just like the kind of activity you were punished for, right Michael?

Yet where was PETA when the NFL worked with the Rooneys to restructure their ownership agreement with investor partners and all of this dog racing business was revealed? Silent. Quiet.

And what did NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell say? Well according to ESPN and the Associated Press he said:

"The initiative frankly was that they had changed their business operations, and the gambling operations had gone more into gambling," Goodell said. "It was of greater concern to us than the original horse racing and dog racing. That initiated some discussions, and it really just had to get resolved for the club."

So let me get this straight: gambling was more deemed more problematical than dog racing? Now, I love the Commissioner - he's a treasure and a smart political operative - but maybe he should have said "gambling, dog racing, and horse racing are all activities we're concerned with and want the Rooneys to get out of as soon as possible," don't you think?

Me? What do I think? I'm outraged! I really am.

Where's PETA? Where were the calls for a brain scan of the Rooneys? And why the hell isn't anyone on their tail about this?

Michael, people will offer all kinds of reasons: they're rich; you're not. They're white; you're black. They're connected; you're not. Whatever the reasons it's not right. And while it's not just that they go unpunished for their activities and you get raked over the coals, you also can't point a finger at them. That would be wrong and you're not the right messenger. Keep your head high and pray to God for all the strength you're going to need to navigate through the sea of clowns and jokers you're about to deal with.

PETA wants your brain scanned. Do it. Get it over with, then visit Oprah. Then maybe, just maybe, someone will put the ball in the Rooney's court.

Just pray baby.

Get The Zennie62 Widget Made By Steve Kloft!

 

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Right out of the blue, I get this email from my friend Steve Kloft, who's an established Internet marketing guru, announcing he's created a widget containing links to my SFGate.com postings, my main blog Zennie62.com, my Twitter tweets, and my YouTube videos!

Steve, thanks a million! That makes up for the 600 mb Bay to Breakers videos I'm still uploading, the nutso cyberstalkers , and all the crap I've had to deal with that comes with just expressing my opinion! But as I've said before, there are good people out there, fortunately I know them and they have away of just appearing when you need a boost: Steve's an example.

Here's the widget:



You can get your own copy at this link:

http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/zennie-abraham

And thanks again, Steve! That was a bolt out of the blue!

Star Trek Formed My Longtime Friendships

 

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Today the long awaited Star Trek movie is out and like any nerdy Trekker, I'm excited. I got our tickets 10 days ago and didn't have to stand in line, contrary to what you might think. But the real story here is that on Saturday, May 9th, I'm going to see Star Trek with my long time friends Bill Boyd and Lars Frykman.

This is an Oakland Trekker story in brief.

Bill, Lars, and I met in Oakland in 1976 when we were 14 years old at what was then called Bret Harte Junior High School, now Bret Harte Middle School. I was new to Oakland, having moved with my mom to the city from Chicago as my mom was in search of better schools for me. How times have changed!

The Bret Harte Star Trek Club

I was a big Star Trek fan and wanted to start a club at Bret Harte. I had no clue how to do this, so my friends said "You should talk to Bill Boyd or Lars Frykman!" So I was introduced to Bill, who at 14 had the deepest voice I've ever heard in my life, and has the same voice today! Then there was Lars, who's just unique and uses terms like "GROK" the meaning of which I've forgotten.

At any rate, Bill and Lars are white; I'm black. But in Star Trek, as Doctor McCoy once said, "People are different. You get used to those things." We formed a diverse set of people, all interested in science and led by Craig Pryor who famously worked through all of the problem sets in our calculus book before the end of the semester. But whom I bested in a massive debate on American versus foreign cars - I took American and won!

But we were and to this day are great friends. At Bret Harte in 1976 we made the most money of any club at our carnival taking in $104.76. We did it with a game Craig came up with where you throw a set of "Tribbles" (from the Star Trek episode "Trouble With The Tribbles") our moms made from fur and stuffing at a ping pong ball suspended from the air from a vacuum cleaner.

You laugh.

But Star Trek was the show that brought all of us together and caused us to work conventions in Oakland and have parties and get girlfriends. And it was because Star Trek continues to show a positive view of the future and how we relate to each other.

I can't wait for Bill, Lars, and Craig to see this and I can't wait to see Star Trek, even if the movie messes up the San Francisco Skyline.

New TV Show by Zennie62's On BART and Oscar Grant

On Saturday, May 2nd, my new television show starts. It's called "The Blog Report With Zennie62" and features the use of my video blogs in a weekly 30-minute format broadcast and co-produced by CoLoursTV in Denver. The start time is 3:30 PM Pacific Time, 6:30 PM Eastern Time and the show is replayed at 11:30 PM and 2:30 PM respecfully.

If you don't have a TV you can see the live stream at CoLoursTV.org. or Zennie62.com

The first show focused on selected events that occured after the shooting of Oscar Grant by BART Officer Johannes Mesherle on New Year's Day. It opens with my walk through a riot-ravaged downtown Oakland where I talked with many people about what happened, including a group of kids who were some of the rioters. Then we focus on the words of "DaveyD", America's foremost hiphop reporter and voice of the street, who shares his observations of how Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums handled the situation. And finally we hear from Dellums himself. This is not the last time I will visit this issue, but it's a good place to start the show.

The standard format is to present politics, news, sports, and tech in some combination for each show. Sometimes it's me talking about an issue; other times it's me talking to someone else, and with this show we will feature the work of other video-bloggers. It's a vloggers' playground.

The show will have a deliberate vlogger feel. Videos that you see on my channels at YouTube, Blip.tv, and other places make up the show. There's no studio; the camcorder is the star instrument. That means we can go anywhere at anytime and quickly make a video. It also means I can share what's happening in the news on the blogsphere in video form and show it on "The Blog Report". A lot of ground we can cover considering I never dreamed of having my own television show, but this whole road I've taken has been totally unplanned by me.

"The Blog Report" all started last year when I met Art Thomas who's the Executive Vice President with CoLoursTV at a media walk-through for the Democratic National Convention in Denver. He lived in Oakland before moving to Denver and so we had a lot to talk about. I was looking for a sponsor for our show at the time, so I sent a proposal to Thomas. That exchange turned into an idea for placing our videos on CoLoursTV and that became the concept called "The Blog Report With Zennie62".

Our first concern was how to get the videos up on television without a loss of at least the quality that is seen on Blip.tv and Viddler, which have the sharpest video uploads (that written, I love YouTube and the quality's really improved over time such that it's competitive with the two, but YouTube's best system is the website design and its "viral" nature as well as The YouTube Partner program.) I think we solved that problem and I understand the TV version looks even better than what you're going to see here.

I look forward to your feedback and questions. We're seeking sponsors and there are some organizations we simply want to establish strategic partnerships with, so please contact me. The possibilities for this are many and should serve as an example for a possble future for newspapers as well.

If you're a video-blogger located anywhere in the World and have material that's not longer than 4 minutes tops, notify me via email at zennie@sportsbusinesssims.com and we'll go from there. I prefer the video is already uploaded on some site, Brightcove, Blip.tv, YouTube, etc, so I can see it.

I wish to thank Art Thomas, Damon Purdy, and Tracy Winchester of CoLours TV, as well as Steve and Bernard who made me look good in the promo. I also wish to thank Google / YouTube for their support and encouragement and specifically Chad, Emily, and Hunter. A big loud shot-out to the iReport team at CNN: Lila, Henry, Rachel, David, Nicole Saldi, and the rest. And thanks to the team at CNN Special Projects, Errol and Jessica, and to Roland Martin and his staff at CNN for discovering me. Finally, thanks to the San Francisco Chronicle for seeing the value in how I do what I'm doing and providing a platform. To the National Football League and Commissioner Roger Goodell, Greg Aiello, and Frank Supovitz ("Mr. Super Bowl") And of course, thanks to my Mom and my relatives in Chicago and Tennessee.