Normally a quote from Tucker Carlson would not warrant any attention at all, but a funny thing happened to Dave Zirin the other day on his way to work apparently.  He decided to spend seven paragraphs of The Nation space with name calling and general bitchyness directed towards Tucker and his employer Fox News.

He could have just simplified things by stating, ‘Tucker Carlson is an asshole’ and moved on but he didn’t.

After his diatribe against Tucker that was reminiscent of a gay basher spouting off after missing his meds, Dave Zirin then proceeds to quote Dostoevsky, an antisemite known for his christian platitudes made famous by his book Crime and Punishment, which is ironic as the book was written by Dostoevsky after the writer gambled away all his money.   Now Zirin quotes him in defense of a man that ran a gambling ring in Virginia for years before filing bankruptcy himself.

The problem is that Tucker Carlson is likely guilty of saying something sensational and it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if it was intentional.  I personally don’t think it is the first time either.  But hey, I think he’s an asshole and I generally ignore him.  Regardless, Michael Vick is a person and we have long advocated that he should not be harmed or injured as a punishment for his crimes.

The other problem is that Dave Zirin has attempted to defend Michael Vick from Tucker Carlson accusing Tucker, the US Government and US society in general of dehumanizing African American men and locking them up disproportionately as compared to men of other races(note in this limited article there was no mention of women).

Now it is true that Michael Vick is African American.  In my humble opinion, African American men ARE locked up at a shockingly high rate and at very disproportionate percentages as well.  A reform of this system is long over due as well as a fundamental need to reconsider what is effective and appropriate in regards to crime and punishment.

There are many factors that contribute to the imprisonment of African Americans at disproportionate rates.  One of those factors is people that encourage African American males to engage in criminal activities whether it’s the gangs that virtually impress kids in grade school to faux gangster rappers that glamorize gang life as opposed to creating art that is an outlet to express the reality of gang life.  They prey upon kids and help to recreate and re-enforce the cycle which Zirin lightly references as the new Jim Crow system.  A system that has unfortunately too many African American males contributing and feeding the system.

That’s where Michael Vick stepped in many years ago.  Michael Vick came from a very poor area, grew up witnessing the worst aspects of this system.  He unlike the lion share of his fellow African Americans won a lottery with far longer odds than any other.  He made it into the NFL.  He grabbed the winning ticket and signed amazingly large contracts.

He attracted a following of young boys and girls from all races and almost as fast as he did that, he started funding the Jim Crow system that helps to dehumanize African Americans.  He funded dog fights and purses for dog fights which enticed drug dealers and criminals to come to his house and bask in the presence of his celebrity.  He worked to legitimize these illegal activities showing the kids just how cool it was to be Mike, to be in his presence doing what he did, fighting and killing dogs for fun.  When his plea bargain was scripted, Michael Vick was supposed to provide evidence against other criminals, but he didn’t deliver.  (debt not paid)

He came out of prison and won the lottery for a second time.  But this time he won a lottery with even steeper odds than the most difficult lottery on earth.  He won a job back in the NFL straight out of prison.  There are almost no other professions on the planet that pay more than $30k a year that will give you your old job back if you can still do it after you kill a bunch of dogs by hand for sick fun and fund an illegal gambling operation like Michael Vick did.

I’m not asking that you do it yourself, but hypothetically ask yourself, would my boss or company hire me back if I did what Michael Vick did?

You can bet your sweet ass that the answer to that question is No!

Vick toured a number of middle schools and his old house and dog fighting barn and kennels but never asked after his dogs again.  He talked to kids about how he was sorry that he got caught and how they shouldn’t do what he did because of what happened to him.

He’s not the most eloquent guy, and I don’t fault him for that very much.  Or rather, I wouldn’t care if he weren’t going to schools and talking to kids where his poor choice of words will probably result in more kids getting in trouble. 

Michael Vick is a loser with a long history of harming the people he influences.  He seems to be a psychopath or what is referred to these days as a sociopath, a person with a personality disorder.  Not exactly so much of a medical disorder but a description for the way this type of person acts.

“Psychopath – A person with a personality disorder indicated by a pattern of lying, exploitativeness, heedlessness, arrogance, sexual promiscuity, low self-control, and lack of empathy and remorse.” ~ Princeton Wiktionary

But the thing is that Michael Vick is still human.  He’s all too human with all of his flaws and the reality of his history and accumulated misdeeds.

No Tucker Carlson he shouldn’t be killed for what he did, and no Dave Zirin he doesn’t get a pass for what he did because he was the victim.  Michael Vick was the victimizer of both dogs and people and for that we should all be wary of him and not empower him to repeat his past misdeeds which is why we advocate that he should not have the soap box of the NFL and the millions of dollars of spending power that come with it, because year after year after year in the past Michael Vick used that platform and that money to guide people down a path straight to prison.

Michael Vick could have before he went to prison and since he got out of prison, worked to help African American males avoid this New Jim Crow system, but he didn’t do a damned thing to undo his handy work.  On a very bad day, Tucker Carlson may be shocking and possibly border line racist and Dave Zirin, who might be jewish, may be a little confused as he quotes an anti-semite on the topic of racism in prisons.  But odds are that neither of them are as bad as Michael Vick was on any good day in the last 10 years.

In short, I think Michael Vick is an asshole too.

Over the last few years, we have heard some stupid arguments in defense of Michael Vick’s actions running an illegal dogfighting/gambling ring and killing dogs himself. Stupid arguments that we do not agree with what so ever such as:

• Its common for people coming from poor areas to fight dogs (run illegal gambling operations with endorsement and NFL money and pay their friends and family to keep this up year after year for 6 years or better)
• Michael Vick didn’t know what was happening at his house (despite his own confession and multiple witness testimony and evidence)
• Michael Vick’s father wasn’t around enough
• Dogs are not as important as people so who cares what he does
• No people actually died (not including a witness that provided evidence to the Feds and who was a business partner /buying/selling dogs for the fights )
• If you eat meat, then you shouldn’t care if Michael Vick kills dogs
• Michael Vick has no influence over children so it shouldn’t matter (followed quickly by)
• Michael Vick has brought more attention to dog fighting and animal abuse which is good for children hence it helps when he speaks to them (most of these people have never heard Michael speak publicly I suspect.  It is painful, almost as bad as listening to George W Bush speak publicly.)
• Other celebrities fight dogs, why pick on Michael Vick?  (stupid is as stupid does in company?)
• There are even worse felons in the NFL (Great excuse this one, kind of like saying Stalin wasn’t so bad as long as Hitler was around or vice versa)
• Other people fight chickens, and bulls and Sarah Palin likes to shoot or kill just about everything that is big enough to hit with a bullet (just a reminder these are stupid excuses and we do not agree with them)

All that said, one of the most tired excuses of late is the excuse that Michael Vick has paid his debt to society after serving time in Federal prison plus a month or better on house arrest.  After paying such a substantial debt to ‘society’ he should be allowed to play in the NFL and earn as much money as he can get for what’s left of his possible career.

Well, I’ve got news for everyone.  The debt is not paid off yet.  He is still on probation until November of 2012.

He’s got to stay out of trouble, criminal trouble mostly, but other types of trouble as well for two more years before his penalty will be complete.

At that point this argument might hold just a little bit of water, but until then.  Its complete crap.

On an Unrelated Note – President Obama thanked the owner of the Eagles for giving Michael Vick a second chance.  I’m going to save the ‘second chance’ conversation for another day, mostly.

However, I would like to ask President Obama when millions of unemployed workers, who have been out of a much lower paying job longer than Michael Vick was in prison, when will they get a second chance?  When will all of those people that lost their homes in scandalous foreclosures due to bank’s forging documents and utilizing predatory practices, when will those newly homeless people get a second chance at a home?

For that matter, why doesn’t President Obama let Charlie Manson out of jail on a pardon to go out into the world and receive the second chance that is obligatory in American culture?

The reality is that we don’t get second chances.  Second chances are not normal, they are not natural, and most people of every stripe and financial background rarely get a second chance.  There is a perfectly valid reason for this.

Sometimes a person can screw up so badly, they can make so many mistakes (for six or seven years) over and over and over again that ultimately all the people around them, all the people that know of them or read about them in the news, all people will learn that these people cannot be trusted in certain circumstances.

Charles Manson is a good example.  I wouldn’t trust Charles Manson in almost any circumstance.

Michael Vick is a different example.  He may not be as bad as Charles Manson, but the courts have decided that he is never to be trusted with a dog again, no matter how much he wants another dog to help improve his image.

Many people also think that Michael Vick is a terrible role model for kids, teenagers and young people in general, because for years he ran an illegal dog fighting and gambling ring where dogs were killed, tortured, fought against each other, where illegal gambling activities were sponsored and probably a lot worse.

You do something like that for 6 or 7 years and it is not a mistake that you might get a second chance to do better next time.  You did very very wrong many many times.  Charles Manson didn’t even get to commit his crimes for that many years in a row!

Resetting the clocks back to zero and ignoring everything that has passed is completely ignorant.  You can bet your sweet ass that President Obama is not going to forget the past and give Kim Jong Il a second chance to start all over.  He might negotiate from where we are, but start over with a second chance.  No way in hell.  Same goes for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran.  Are we going to suddenly trust that nut job and give him a second chance?  I doubt it.

Let’s bring this a step closer to home.  How about Mark Fuhrman?

Would we trust Mark Fuhrman to go work as a detective again and provide testimony in a case involving a minority?

You can if you want to, but I wouldn’t trust him again with that type of thing.  I wouldn’t send him out to high schools either to talk to kids about race nor would I have him go talk to kids about why using the n word in every day speech is a bad thing.

That’s the point, there’s a line that a person can cross and after that point, their trust worthiness is gone.  Or at least it is gone for anyone that has enough brain power left to recall what they did.

Ignorance may be bliss, but it is ignorant first and foremost.  There is no wisdom in trusting the fox in the hen house after he’s killed your chickens for six years running.

To recap, the Debt is not paid off, there are no second chances in life for anyone (except Michael Vick) and anyone that tries to tell you different is either a politician, a pr firm for the National Felon’s League maybe or a liar.

Michael Vick sucks as a NFL football player.  His televised ‘comeback’ is about as important or impressive as a well scripted WWF WWE (insert any wrestling network acronym here) match.  That’s all that really needs to be said. 

Unfortunately, the press is winding Michael Vick up just like they loved to do when they helped make George W President in 2000(didn’t vote for him and I did live in Palm Beach County at the time) or marching us along the path of hope and hype with Barack Obama 8 years later (did vote for him).

The press loves to knock down any celebrity that comes along, let the public grovel in their down fall, and then like an epic tale help build the same celebrity up out of their own ashes.  In a news cycle that is compressed into shorter and shorter intervals every year, its no wonder that they are doing the same thing with Michael Vick just over a year after he got out of prison.

Well, truth be told they have to.  There probably won’t be a season next year.  No season, no Michael Vick resurrection.  So its got to be this year.  Sure the NFL knows this too, because it sells a lot more tickets and puts a lot more asses in seats and in front of the TV if there’s a sensational come back story that is being played out in front of them during a season when most teams are playing some of the worst football that has been played in decades.

Enter Michael Vick.  You may recall Michael, he’s the guy that during his entire previous time spent in the NFL set up an illegal dog fighting ring in his home and when he had extra time on his hands used to beat, mutilate, hang and drown his pets for fun.  He’s the guy that helped pay for big stakes in dog fighting matches and legitimize the events with his presence luring teens and young men and drug dealers etc to come hang out together and watch the blood spill on his carpet (that he later went back and displayed on his BET reality show).  Classy.

So I had to laugh today when I read the New York Times article chiming in to help push Michael Vick back up onto a pedestal, a public position that he has proven so good at handling in the past.

Of all the hype that writer (lets call him a writer and not a reporter, I don’t know his work but judging by this article . . .)  John Branch, indicates that Michael Vick’s countless detractors (I guess I’d fall in that category) really are only worried about one thing.

That feeling might also describe the sickened feeling of Vick’s countless detractors, those disgusted that someone who systematically tortured dogs is back making millions of dollars in the N.F.L.  NYT article by John Branch

Yep, that’s right.  We are apparently concerned that Michael Vick is making millions.  (Snort)

There is some incisive analysis and consideration that went into that now isn’t there.  After all, this was never about the NFL’s piss poor standards, this was never about sponsors promoting a person that enticed young people into a life of crime and drugs, this was never about a guy that never gave a shit about his fans, his team etc.  This was never about breaking the law, involving himself with drug dealers and at least one murder(one of his partners was murdered within a few days of the raid on his home in April of 2007 still an open case), this was never about the type of psychotic that can torture and murder dogs with his own hands and then go out and shake hands and speak with kids at local schools and clubs in Philadelphia. 

Nope this was always about the money that goes into Michael Vick’s pocket.  All of us ignorant detractors only wanted to see Michael Vick working a menial minimum wage job at McDonalds.

WRONG.

I will be the first to say that this tale of Michael Vick is about as stale and rotten or rotted as a story can get.  But there is little wonder that the NFL would capitalize on Vick’s return financially.  He was a cash cow before he went to prison and every corporation likes to have that kind of meat around to milk more profits into the bottom line.

And just like professional wrestling the story line of the golden boy, turned bad boy, turned felon, resurrected and turned golden boy all over again is about as tired as Michael Vick himself.

There’s no story here, this is just the same BS on replay in a season that is headed towards a dead end of a nasty contract fight.  And contract fights don’t sell tickets, they don’t endear fans to anything, but if the NFL can go out on a note of impossible odds, a rags to riches to rags to riches redemption story featuring Michael Vick and the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl, you can bet the league will pull out all the stops (bad calls) to make that happen.

I’m not calling the NFL corrupt anymore than I’m calling Michael Vick a psychotic felon.  Ethically challenged corporations can get away with far worse things than dog fighting, and the NFL is hardly a bastion for ethics.

As for Michael Vick, on a personal level, truthfully I hope he doe take the money and run(frankly its not in Michael Vick to do something good with his money, prove me wrong on that and Michael Vick can have this website), because the NFL is going to capitalize on him left and right and he essentially doesn’t have many options for endorsements anymore.  He can only suckle from the breast of any owner that will let him. 

He’s basically at the mercy of the NFL without any other options, they are pimping him out like a sex slave and making all the money.  Their only incentive is to prop him up more and more.