Nurse the Hate: Thoughts, Prayers and NFL Week 14

 

As some of you may or may not know, my brother Krusty teaches at UNLV.  This is normally a great gig as it allows the faculty to hone in on the true keys to Las Vegas living such as Player's Card free coffee hustles, insider sports betting "tips" from casino bartenders, and free lunch with video poker machine play.  The downside is having a second mass shooting in recent memory in Vegas, this time on the UNLV campus last week.  Krusty didn't come in contact with the gunman, but heard the gunshots ring out while students and faculty scurried to safety or stood bewildered as to what to do.  He works in the building next door, so the shooting wasn't conceptual.  Three of his colleagues got gunned down for no reason at a place he goes every weekday. 

An active shooter on campus is so common now that everyone drills for the event.  What was once so unthinkable an event like the Texas Clock Tower shooter is so expected that every school (and large public space for that matter) has protocols in place with how to handle someone randomly murdering strangers with guns.  It's hard to imagine.  As a society we have decided that it is acceptable to have a daily mass shooting rather than adjust any gun policy.  As of last week, there were 627 mass shooting events in the United States this year.  The same people that are losing their minds about a woman terminating a dangerous pregnancy in Texas and losing a fetus will not under any circumstances discuss changing gun policy that is so ineffective that 328 people were killed by guns last week.  It's insane.

Something struck me as I watched the "thoughts and prayers" and reactions to the "unthinkable" shooting episode that might not have even made your radar.  This shit is so common now that I think the New York Times relegated it to well down the page by the Holiday Cookie Recipes and theater reviews.  What we are doing now in response to these events isn't working.  Let's embrace it instead.  As we have decided as a society that this is just the way we do business, why do we close down the school for the semester after this shooting?  If I'm UNLV, I send those kids back in to take their finals as soon as the cops dragged the shooter's body away and loaded the morgue with the victims.  You're traumatized and can't take a Marketing 202 Final?  Toughen up kid.  In this country we don't give a shit about a random murder spree.  That event wasn't a "mass shooting".  That was "an expression of Constitutional rights".  Your exam starts now.   

The students and parents will go wild.  "You can't make me take an exam.  I'm fucking freaked out."  Too bad.  This is how we live in the USA.  Get used to it or change it.  Vote these gun lobby toadies out.  The minority has decided that everyone gets a gun, can carry it around with concealed carry, and any change in that policy would somehow piss on the grave of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and John Adams, three guys that apparently loved a good automatic rifle shootout.  Look it up.  God Bless America.  Until someone really demonstrates the insanity of acceptance of mass shootings have become, we will repeat it just like we have been doing.  Doing what we are doing now IS NOT working. 

Moving on, let's look at this week's games.  There are so many QBs hurt right now, the people of Cleveland are celebrating the performance of Joe Flacco last week like the Browns just signed 1981 Joe Montana.  It was so odd to see the Browns have QB play that looked... professional?  Sure, they lost to the Rams, but Flacco didn't even seem to know the plays yet.  The fact we are debating about who has the edge in QB play this week in the Jacksonville v Browns game- 38 year old Joe Flacco or injured CJ Beathard/really injured Trevor Lawrence- shows you were the league is right now.  Jacksonville on a short week in a shitty cold front rolling in off Lake Erie is a bad spot.  I don't really know if either of these teams is any good.  EVERYONE is hurt on both sides.  I'm taking Cleveland at home with Ward back as #1 corner to eek out a close, sloppy, probably unwatchable game.  Cleveland -1.5

I don't know if you have noticed, but the Bears have quietly morphed into a "sorta shitty" team, a big notch up from "maybe worst team in the league" status where they were back in September.  When I have an opportunity to bet against the Lions playing outdoors in December in Chicago GIVING points, I take it.  I got this at 3.5, and that's a big half point.  My love for the Bears isn't, "they're going to kick the Lions ass". It's more along the lines of "I bet they lose in heartbreaking fashion late but Detroit doesn't cover" area.  Chicago +3.5

Gimme Philadelphia +3.5.  Look, I think Dallas is good but I'm not sure how good.  They usually beat the crap out of bad teams but are they in the circle of trust to cover more than a FG against a good team?  Philadelphia has been running a gauntlet in their schedule, but this is a big game for both teams.  The last thing the Eagles want to do is lose home field advantage and a Playoff bye.  Meanwhile the Cowboys are still alive to win the East.  This is max motivation on both sides.  Hurts looks banged up, but I believe in him in a big game more than I do Dak, and that's only because I watch a lot of football.  

Current Record 19-20-1