Thoughts on Paris

It seems that whenever tragic events of great suffering unfold I find myself attracted to the Twitter hashtags and other various online commentary related to these events. I am less interested in what the profit driven media has to say about these sort of events and more interested in what actual people without such a motive have to say. Since I have heard about what happened and is happening in Paris I have been spending much of my time looking into the thoughts and feelings of people around the world in reaction to these events.

One of the topics centered on in these reactions has been religion. The reactions regarding the intersection of the Paris attacks and religion are spanning several spectrums. I have read tweets from some of those who self-identify as atheist calling out religious ideology in general as the cause of this tragedy. I have read comments from some of those who self-identify as Christian who perpetuate the idea that Islam is inherently violent and thus justify grouping all who call themselves Muslim in with these attacks. I have read posts from some of those who self-identify as Muslim who are desperately pleading to disassociate Islam from the attack by pointing to specific entries in the Quran which show the peace that they see as representative of Islam. I have read the thoughts of some who want to take the focus off of religion entirely because they do not see how it could be related.

Most of my personal thoughts on the matter are with the people of Paris. I imagine that they are feeling terrified right now. Sadness and anger are probably also very prevalent. They need a sense of security and safety and stability and respect. They are extremely lacking in all of those needs right now. They also need some support and empathy from the rest of the world right now which is something that many people are also offering. There is a lot of that in the online discussion and it is good to see.

I do not want to be the person who says that we need to take the focus off of religion. I know well that just as some receive a sense of peace from the ideals of Islam or whatever religion they follow there are always those who can use alternative text in the same book to justify such inhumane acts. I think it is important to discuss the influence that religion has in any event. But as much as some of that influence might cause suffering, some people need the influence of religion, however flawed it may be, to give them solace in these times.

I have been the self-identifying atheist who quickly rises up to call out religion as the cause of all the suffering. I can appreciate the need to understand why things like this happen and to want to have a solution to the suffering no matter what ideological affiliation one might identify with. But our problems are more complicated than that.

The blame never lies in one place. Yes, the ideas of religions can be used to justify horrendous acts. But to abolish Islam, Christianity, etc. is, to those who peacefully follow those philosophies, to make an enemy in the abolishers for taking away their source of solace and community. We are all participants and influencers in a world that allows people who commit these atrocities to exist. If there is blame to be dealt it belongs to us all.

Perhaps instead of focusing on who or what ideas to blame, it would be more useful to focus on the unmet need. The attackers maybe needed a sense of community. In the common worldviews which offer an abundance of sides to take, labels to adhere to, and others to blame it is no wonder that some find their sense of community in such aggressive groups. Groups such as these who have come to the flawed understanding that in order for their to be peace for their group those who they can identify as “others” must be destroyed. The need for understanding can never be met with violence. One who wins a violent conflict never proves who has the truth. They only prove who has the strength. Understanding is not found there.

I guess I just needed to get these thoughts out. These events will likely be an ongoing worldwide discussion for a while. I think that the best thing to do is to react with empathy and support for the suffering, discuss how we all might come to a common understanding of the world, and take non-violent actions which help cement the sense of community that has the potential to result.

Kirk Aug

Kirk coordinates SeedSing's Idea Farm. Follow him on twitter @kirkaug.

Welcome to SeedSing Stories

Having a story and owning the world go hand in hand

The central idea behind SeedSing is to let the average person have a voice. One did not need to be rich and connected in order to have their ideas heard. Our pop culture and politics is controlled by an incompetent media that only cares about ratings and influence, they do not care at all for the truth. Our world has a lot of problems, and voices without influence need to be heard. The truth needs to have a spot in our discussion.

SeedSing Stories is a place where we encourage people to talk about who they are. Understanding each other as real people will help us connect and understand each other's concerns. We may talk about or political views, but what made us feel this way. There are types of music and movies we enjoy the most, but what causes us to find worth in one thing and a guilty pleasure in another. SeedSing Stories will allow us to understand each other as real people, and not just a jumble of words extolling our grand virtues.

SeedSing Stories is meant to bring humanity back to discussion. The internet is a big open space with a lot of anonymous contributors. Being anonymous makes one into the mob. Individual voices will change the world. I want to learn about the individuals and join their voices together into a movement to fix the world. Your stories deserve to be heard. Do not keep quiet anymore.

I plan on telling stories of my days working with clowns. Other contributors have stories of living in world where gender roles have been reversed. You have stories equally, if not more, interesting than these. Your stories will give others moments of humor, knowledge, and inspiration. Share them with us. Let the world know we can fix it because we survived. Let your life lessons be another persons curriculum.

We want to know what you do with your life, and why. What event, or series of events, informed your world view? Bring us your stories. Plant your seed and let all of the world hear your song.

We look forward to understanding who the people are in the world around us.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. He looks forward to what happens with SeedSing Stories and does remind everyone we have a few rules around here. 

Ty is tired of idiots who fight coffee and embrace racism

Idiots make my head hurt

I don't get political on this site ever. I'm not into politics and I feel that's its best, for me, to keep my political beliefs to myself. Politics are RD's thing and he does them well. But, two recent news stories have really gotten to me. They've both made me angry for very different reasons. I feel that I need to talk about these things because, if I keep them inside, I'll explode.

I am going to start with this whole Starbucks thing with the red cups. First of all, who really gives a shit about the cup that you're drinking delicious coffee out of? I've never noticed the cup before, but these recent stories coming from jack ass religious people are boiling my blood. The religious right is complaining that Starbucks is unholy because they aren't doing their Christmas or holiday cups this year. They're just doing a red cup. First of all, I like that Starbucks is trying to not affiliate itself with any holiday. A corporation shouldn't have to tell or show you their religious beliefs. Who cares what you believe in, as long as you aren't hurting anyone and the product is good? That's what I say. But, these asshole Christians coming into a Starbucks, or going on live TV or social media and degrading Starbucks for "taking the Christ out of Christmas" need to get a god damned life. Hey assholes, maybe the people who run Starbucks don't celebrate the same holiday that you do. People all over the world celebrate different holidays. That's why people should say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" this time of year. Not everybody is a Christian, I hate to burst your bubble Catholics and any other iteration of Christians. Also, how do you know that your "God", if there is even a God(I personally don't believe there is) celebrates Christmas? Just because your dumbass Bible tells you so doesn't make it true. The Bible is as reliable as someone saying, "I heard it from a friend of a friend". It's all hearsay and conjecture, and written by governments so the established white people stayed in power. It's ridiculous story after ridiculous story passed down and rewritten many times. Basically, the Bible is a crock of shit. It's as reliable as a story from "In Touch" magazine or "Us Weekly". It's a rag, and it's false. I used to believe pretty heavily in this stuff, and if you do believe, that's great for you, just don't stuff your religious opinion down my throat, I don't care. But, I grew up and was taught science through my folks. Now, I am a man of facts, not faith. So, all you wacko Christians going into Starbucks and saying your name is Merry Christmas, get a life and find some real things to complain about. Instead of bitching and moaning about a stupid cup, put your religious fervor towards something that matters. Try helping starving children overseas and in America. Do something that helps, stop complaining about a cup.

A bunch of imbeciles.

The other thing that has me upset is this whole situation going on in Columbia, Missouri at the University of Missouri. To get it out in the open immediately, I side with what the students and players did, going on strike until that racist, ignorant and arrogant piece of shit president resigned. They did the absolute right thing. What makes me angry are people out there calling these students and athletes spoiled and arrogant and saying that their scholarships should be revoked. What kind of ass backwards shit is that? These kids did something very important and took a stand against racism. Why should the football players have to give up their scholarships? Why do people think that going on strike made these kids feel entitled? How is what they did any different than when we have a labor union strike? These laborers, who seem to be the majority of people that dislike what the students and athletes did, get upset when another company comes in and undercuts them, offers a lower price to make a product and that certain company goes with the cheaper price. Then, while driving around or taking my son to his basketball game, I have to see grown ass adults holding a sign that says "Shame on Lucky's Market" or "Shame on insert company name here" for hiring non union workers. I'm sorry, but I thought your beloved America was a country that was built on commerce. Why wouldn't a company take a cheaper price to give you the same product? Who gives a shit if the name Boeing is attached when some other company can make me the same stuff for a lesser price. So, I ask again, why is what the students and the athletes at the University of Missouri did any different than when laborers go on strike? The only difference I see is racism. The now former president of the University of Missouri was and is clearly a racist. He does not care about students of color. Take their non violent protest when they stood in front of his Corvette and he had his driver, because of course he has a driver, rev the engine and eventually bump into some of the students. What the hell is that? Why don't these kids deserve to feel safe? They are away from their families, most of them in a new town, and they have to deal with stupid ass, privileged white boys yelling racial slurs at them and the president of the university does nothing. That's a crying shame. Did I miss something, because I thought we were in the 21st century. This is supposed to be a golden age where everyone is equal. Men, women, white people, black people, brown people, Chinese people, so on and so forth. But, this doesn't seem to be the case on Missouri's campus right now. They reverted to the 50's, and that was not a good time in America. I find it totally obnoxious that the people complaining the most about the protests are white people, that I assume. are all conservatives. That's absurd. Get over yourselves. We are all equal, contrary to what you dumbasses believe, and what these kids did was 100 percent in the right. Stop bad mouthing them and telling them they deserve to have their scholarships revoked. If they deserve that, all the laborers out there deserve to have their jobs taken away when they go on strike. Fair is fair, right? Conservatives will tell you an eye for an eye, right?

Just stop with all the nonsense and realize that we are in the 21st century. Not everyone celebrates, or even believes in Christmas, and we are all created equal. That's what they wrote in the Constitution over 200 plus years ago. We are all equals. And a big thank you to RD for giving me this platform to get on my soapbox about these two issues today. I needed to get this off my chest. I know I'll hear from people in the comment section and all I can say is, this is one man's opinion on these issues.

Take it or leave it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. His goal in life is to attend a gay wedding in Indiana that serves pizza at the reception. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik

The Democratic Party is Hurting Voter Turnout

The average democrat on election day

Once again we have another fringe republican beat the polls and win a major election. The good Democrats across the nation point the blame squarely at low voter turnout. If people do not vote, bad people get elected. We have seen so many people talk about this phenomenon. When people do not vote, their own interest suffers. When republicans win, it is because democrats do not vote. This has been the conventional wisdom for decades. Democrats lose, blame the voters who did not vote. Democrats win, it was a great get out the vote effort. The same story election after election. If voter turnout is the only way for Democrats to win, then elections that experience low voter turnout must be the fault of the Democratic Party.

Once upon a time the modern Democratic party cared about elections in non-presidential years. Throughout most of the 20th century the Democratic Party had a stranglehold on the US Congress, and the majority of state governments. The platform of the democratic party fit well with the humanity of the electorate. The great Reagan electoral slaughter of 1984 saw the Democratic party maintain control of the House of Representatives and gain seats in the US Senate. The media will tell you that everyone loved Reagan and the Republicans in 1984, but that is just not true. When the Democrats won presidential elections, they controlled the entire federal government. In 1992 Bill Clinton won the White House, and the Democratic Party had solid control of both chambers of Congress. Two short years later the Republican Revolution of 1994 saw the GOP take control of the US House, Senate, and many state governments. Since 1994 the Republicans have gained more and more control of state governments, and they have increased their hold on the US Congress. Near the end of 2015 31 state legislatures are completely controlled by the Republican Party (8 are split control, leaving only 11 state legislatures run by the Democratic Party). The Republican party has 32 State governors (they will take control of Kentucky in 2016, and may lose Louisiana later this year). Things are getting better for the Republicans, and much worse for the Democrats. 

The interesting trend to look at is the election of Republican governors in states that Obama won in 2012. There are a number of states that vote for the Democrat at the top of the national ticket, and then tend to go for the Republican in state races. These states include Florida, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The interesting thing to look at with theses states who are blue and red is that each of these states do not hold their governor elections on the same year as the presidential election. The Democratic Party invests heavily in these states during for the Presidential election, yet in the off years there is no financial or human capital remaining to mount a statewide campaign for the governor's mansion. The local party leaders are rewarded for winning the state for the president, yet they are never called to task for losing the state governments. It seems like most of the Democratic Party cares very little in trying to govern in they very states they value so much every four years.

Money is crucial to elections. Starting with the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, the DNC has funneled most of the campaign contributions to the top of the ticket. By 2012 the Obama campaign was hording money, while the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was begging for funds. The funding for republicans in local elections is far larger than that of democratic candidates. Currently the Hillary Clinton campaign has a record amount of money raised, yet no local democrat is benefiting from this war chest. Who can blame the Clinton campaign, they are just following the accepted practices of the Democratic National Committee. They are telling democratic voters that only the presidential campaign matters.

This is not a new problem, it started in 1994, and the Democrats in Washington DC always have some response. In 2005 DNC Chairman Howard Dean implemented a 50-state strategy, and in 2006 the Democrats took total control of the US Congress. Many of the established class of Democratic party operatives disagreed with Chairman Dean. They wanted to continue and sink money into "winnable" races. These Democratic Party experts were the ones that left the cupboard bare to begin with. Unfortunately the Paul Begalas and James Carvilles won out, and Dean was removed from the chairmanship of the DNC after the 2008 elections. Under Tim Kaine and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic Party has seemed to give up on any state race that is competitive. Giving up on these races allowed the Republicans to gain control of many crucial state legislatures in 2010, just in time for congressional redistricting. 2010 happened to not be a presidential election year. The Democrats still won the White House in 2012, and have continued to lose seats in US House, Senate, Governorships, and State Legislatures.

The DNC says they care about more than the Presidential election. They recently launched an effort to assist local races with Advantage 2020. The cynic may look at their plan and realize it coincides with a Presidential election year. Where is the plan for 2015 (already failed), 2016, 2017, 2018, or 2019. Social media allows us to lay the groundwork at a lighting fast rate. The truth is the Democratic party has ceded the states to the Republicans. Once they were handed over, the Republicans built a system to make elections difficult for the Democrats. Gerrymandering, voter id, right to work, all of these were implemented recently. All of these new policies push down Democratic voter participation. The DNC sat back, complained a little, and did nothing to strengthen the state parties. The Democratic Party wants to inspire only every four years.

That is the key word, inspire. People who vote democrat want to be part of something. They want to change the world. They need to be inspired. In Kentucky Jack Conway did not give anyone inspiration, and very few turned out to vote for him. He lost. In Ohio Ed Fitzgerald was as uninspiring of a candidate ever, and very few turned out to vote for him. He lost, badly. The Republican party has built in a method to turn out voters. Every election, no matter the office, the republicans get out and vote. They are inspired. 

The endless complaints about voter turnout, and people voting against their own interests, will never end. Complaining about the same things, will get you the same results. Democrats must want the same results, because they keep complaining about voter turnout, and they keep losing. Solve the voter turnout problem, then you can win. The Democrats have the White House locked up for many elections, it is time to win back the states. The voters are not losing elections for the Democrats. The lack of excitement, financial resources, and inspiration is keeping voters away. Stop complaining about low voter turnout. The Democratic Party is to blame for the fact people will only vote for them ever four years. Do something new. Be inspirational.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. He really wants to be inspired by you. Come write for SeedSing.

The Greatest American Band Debate: Digable Planets

I'm going to get back to music that I enjoy today for my nomination to the greatest American band debate. Last week, I nominated the Beach Boys, but I made it abundantly clear that I loathe the Beach Boys. Today, I'm getting back to mid 90's rap music and I'm nominating Digable Planets.

I know a lot of people may not know who Digable Planets are, they only released three albums, but everyone knows one of their songs. I'll get to that song in a bit. Also, of their three albums, I only like one of them. But, the one I like is classic and way ahead of it's time. Much like my Sugarhill Gang blog, I nominated them based on one song, Digable Planets get the nod simply based on one classic album. The album that I'm speaking of is called "Reachin (A Refutation of Time and Space)". This album came out in 1993 and it was totally different from anything I'd ever heard. I hadn't yet discovered A Tribe Called Quest, so the jazz influence that Digable Planets used on this album was completely new to me. The way each of the members rhymes on each of the songs is very much their own unique style. The three members are named after insects, they went for a whole vibe of being insects from another planet on this album, very weird but very cool. Their names are Butterfly, the leader, Doodlebug, the city boy and Ladybug Mecca, the fierce feminine voice of the group. Butterfly has a very cool, hip way to how he raps. He sounds so confident and comfortable doing what he does. He is one of the most underrated and best rappers I've ever heard. Butterfly brings the "street" to the group. He's got a gruffer voice, but he also reads poetry on this album and speaks truth on political beliefs of the band. Ladybug Mecca is awesome. She's a strong female and she can rap with the best of them. Some of her verses on some of the songs are incredible. She is/was a true genius of a rapper. They use jazz as the driving force in their sampling on this album. Now, I don't care for jazz music, but put a beat to it and some good rapping, I'm totally on board.

As I said before, Digable Planets came to me before Tribe, so without them, I would've never found Tribe. A Tribe Called Quest is one of my all time favorite groups and you can read why I like them so much on the site involved within this very same debate. "Reachin" came to me as a pre teen. My brother Seth, who's been on the podcast before, introduced to them. I was listening to Ma$e and Puff Daddy and Seth gave me this record and told me to "enjoy some real hip hop". He was right on the mark, and I listened to this tape, that's right, I remember when there were tapes, so much, I wore it out and my folks had to buy it on CD for me. I love everything about this album. I used to listen to it on my Walkman while playing basketball with my friends. I was, and still am, totally obsessed with this album.

It opens with "It's Good to Be Here". This is a great song. They talk about their love for music and the fact that they're just happy to be performing together. This song proved to me that all bands don't hate each other, some really do enjoy the other band mates company. After that song, it's great song after great song, in my opinion. Songs like "Pacifics", "Where I'm From" and "What Cool Breezes Do" are classics. "Pacifics" is a groovy, jazzy rap song. It's a great early 90's rap tune. "Where I'm From" shows the band giving love to their hometowns. It's a great song for anyone from either Philadelphia or New York. "What Cool Breezes Do" is almost a full on jazz song. There's rapping on it, but this song is more about the instrumentation. "Time and Space (A New Refutation Of)", has Doodlebug reading poetry and the rest of the band doing straight forward rap. It's pretty great. The song I spoke of earlier that I thought most people would know is "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)". This song was played pretty heavily on the radio in the 90's and I still hear it in commercials from time to time. The chorus is the most memorable part. simple lyrics, "I'm cool like dat, I'm cool like dat, I'm cool like that, I'm cool" and they switch it up a little with, "I'm cool like dat, I'm fly like dat, I'm hip like dat, I'm down like dat". I guarantee most of you know this song when you hear it. Later in the album they have great songs like "Jimmi Diggin Cats", "La Femme Fetal", "Nickel Bags" and "Swoon Units". "Jimmi Diggin Cats" has the band expunging the fact that, if Jimi Hendrix was still alive, he'd be a Digable Planets fan, and it's hard to argue with them listening to the song. "La Femme Fetal" is a song that's way ahead of it's time. The lyrics call out people that oppose places like Planned Parenthood and talk about how insane right wing Christian nut jobs truly are. Had this song been released now, it would be all over social media. Back then, it was kind of overlooked and that's a shame. The song is about a young couple who decide to abort a pregnancy because they live in squalor and don't have the means to take care of a child. It has a great message and for the pro choice people out there, me included, this is a great statement song. I love this song so much. "Nickel Bags" is about exactly what you thin it's about. Each member takes a turn talking about how much they like weed and why it's so good. This is a love song to marijuana. Also, this was ahead of it's time too. Release it today, it would be a mega hit. "Nickel Bags" would put Afroman's "Because I Got High" to shame. "Swoon Units", the second to last song on the record is a straight ahead rap song. Each rapper is rapping fast yet smooth and the beat is very bass heavy. It's a good song. This album is a rap masterpiece and I love every minute of it.

It's kind of a shame because they peaked so early, but "Reachin" is a great high point to have in their short career. I love this album and I love Digable Planets. I hope this piece brings new listeners to the group and you discover this great album.

Digable Planets, you get my nomination for the discussion of greatest American band today.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He is still washing the Beach Boys stink off his mind and needs some great hip hop to clear his thoughts. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty is overjoyed about "The Knick" and "Ash vs Evil Dead"

Good tv is on. The couch is calling

Today I'm going to talk about two TV shows on premium cable channels that I absolutely love. One is new and the other is currently in it's second season. One's on Cinemax, the other, Starz. They're both great, but for totally different reasons and I'll tell you why I like them both.

First, we will start with the Cinemax show that's currently in it's second season. The show is called "The Knick". "The Knick" takes place in the early 1900's at the Knickerbocker Hospital in New York. They focus on the earliest days of surgery and the doctors and people involved with the hospital. The way they film the surgery and show how primitive it was back then is astounding. The surgeons don't wear gloves. They hand crank blood through tubes. They always have a group of people watching the procedure while the lead surgeon explains what they're doing, almost teaching a class. Every surgery has the risk of being fatal. They use liquid cocaine and morphine as anesthesia. It's truly incredible and heart racing to watch them perform the procedures. The main character in the show is John Thackery, played eloquently by Clive Owen. Thackery is a surgery genius. He knows more than anyone in the room and he's always finding new and inventive ways to perform surgery. Problem with Thackery, in season one, he's addicted to cocaine and can only do procedures when he's high. Clive Owen plays Thackery as a junkie very convincingly. You can see when he's craving the drug, and you can see how it makes him laser focused and the best surgeon in the world. You also see him at his worst, be it bedding a nurse, taking way too risky chances in surgery or hanging out in an opium den. Spoiler alert, at the end of season one, Thackery is taken to a rehabilitation center and to get him off cocaine, they give him a new drug called heroine. That's where season two picks up, but there's another critical story line, there's a lot of critical story lines, but this is the most important in season one. A young African American surgeon, who's almost as talented as Thackery and just as smart, is brought to the Knick to work with Thackery. Here we meet Dr. Algernon Edwards played fantastically by Andre Holland. As I said, he's just as smart and innovative as Thackery, but he's a hot head that gets into fights on purpose and he's a man of color in the early 1900's, so there's a lot of turmoil surrounding Edwards. He's not accepted at the hospital by Thackery at first, but as season one goes on, Thackery sees that Edwards can help move this hospital into the for front of modern surgery and they begin to work together. There's many other characters, all very good, but these are the main two characters of the show. Back to season two. They're three or four episodes in now and during the season premiere, we see that Edwards is now chief of surgery since Thackery is in rehab. One of the other doctors goes to the rehab facility and saves Thackery from the abuse the doctors there are putting on their patients. Thackery returns to the Knick to see that things have changed with Edwards at the helm and he's miffed. Thackery also cannot perform procedures because he is off cocaine. He eventually gets back to doing cocaine, but he's now snorting heroin as well. In the most recent episode, Thackery saved his old love from dying from syphilis by giving her a fever of 108, and by gosh, it works. This is the Thackery I've been waiting for. We haven't seen a whole lot yet from Edwards, but I know spmething big is coming and I'm giddy at what the rest of this season will bring. Steven Soderbergh is the genius behind "The Knick" and I'm glad they have a show like this on television. "The Knick" is must watch TV.

The other show lands in multiple genres. It's gory, it's horror, but most importantly, it's a comedy. This show is on the Starz network and it's "Ash VS. Evil Dead". This is a reboot of sorts. "Evil Dead" was a very popular B horror movie in the 80's with Bruce Campbell playing the lead role of Ash. Everyone knows that in "Evil Dead", Ash and his friends and girlfriend find a book and the book releases the evil dead on society in search of putting Ash six feet under. The movie was huge for both Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi. It gave them horror and comedy cred. I love "Evil Dead", so when I heard a TV show was in the making, I was very excited. Two episodes in and I absolutely love the show. It's just as gory as the movie. It's just as scary as the movie. But, most importantly, it's funnier than the movie. The show is played to huge laughs coming from Bruce Campbell and his sidekicks, Pablo(Ray Santiago) and Kelly(Dana DeLorenzo), his colleagues at his crappy job. Bruce Campbell as Ash is just as funny and aloof, yet a shockingly good fighter, as he was in the movie. His trademark chainsaw hand is back too. That was awesome when they busted that out in the season premiere. In the premiere, Ash and his book summon the evil dead while he and a prostitute get stoned together. Ash is the only guy who knows how to fight the demons, and he's the best man for the job. As I said before, the gore is still alive and well on "Ash VS. Evil Dead". If you remember the movie, you have to completely remove the demons head to kill them. They do this with gusto on the show. It's so gross and brutal, but Ash has a quirky or stupid catchphrase every time he defeats a demon, it's played to uproarious laughs. They're only two episodes in, but they've already killed a dozen demons. That's a lot of death for two episodes. This show has all the potential in the world and I'm happy to see Bruce Campbell in a starring role that he desperately deserves. He's awesome and "Ash VS. Evil Dead" is awesome.

"The Knick" is on Friday nights on Cinemax and "Ash VS. Evil Dead" is on Saturday nights, so you can watch them during the weekend. "The Knick" is in it's second season, but the first only had ten episodes and they've only aired three or four from season two, so catching up will be easy. "Ash VS. Evil Dead" is only two episodes in, and you can watch both of them On Demand. Do yourselves a favor and watch these shows. They're totally different from each other, but they're both great.

You'll thank me later.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He first thought "The Knick" was about former NBAer and US Senator Bill Bradley solving crime on Capitol Hill with his epic basketball skills. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Soylent: The pet food for people?

Since we are not Soylent, sales have been challenging.

Being a house pet must really be nice, ya know? You never have to think about what to eat. It is just the same thing for every meal. You can rest assured that as long as you eat that one thing and only that one thing, you will get a balanced nutritional serving.

Us humans on the other hand have it tough. Options. Nothing but piles and piles of options. Always either fighting off an urge to eat more leftover Halloween candy or worrying about whether another bowl of pasta might make three too many. If only there were an option to fill my cupboards with a single product that would satisfy all of my nutritional needs and make it so that I do not have to put any more effort into my nutrition than to consume said product every so often.

Enter Soylent. “Soylent is a meal replacement beverage, advertised as a "staple meal", available in both liquid and powdered forms. Its creators state that Soylent meets all nutritional requirements for an average adult.” (via Wikipedia)

When I first heard about Soylent the first thing that came to my mind was, “is it made of people?” This as I had only been subjected to the 1973 film Soylent Green and not the earlier term reference in a 1966 science fiction novel Make Room! Make Room! which featured a product called Soylent made of soya and lentils. Soylent’s name apparently comes from the novel, but I am still suspicious.

Soylent has gone through several revisions since it was released as a product for consumers to utilize. The first versions came as a powder which needed to be mixed. The powder was shipped in bags that contain 3+ servings. They are available in various quantities and there is even a monthly subscription option for those who want to put this diet of nutritional ease on autopilot.

Now in revision 2.0 there is a ready to drink bottle. You can subscribe to get 144 bottles a month for only $348. It apparently does not spoil, even unrefrigerated, for a year. What is claimed to be in it, if you are one of those who believe the claims that it is not people, is soy protein, algal oil, isomaltulose, vitamins, and minerals. Each 400 calorie serving contains 33% carbohydrates, 47% lipids, and 20% protein. The product is vegan and the bottle is recyclable.

Reports on the taste of the substance are highly variable. Some find it surprising, some find it disgusting, others have more of a neutral stance on the taste.

So I suppose I need not envy my dogs’ tightly simplified diet any longer. I too can have the option of no options. I am not sure if I really want to try this or not though. After all, my dogs are always begging for table scraps. What about you. Would you try a diet of Soylent for the benefit of making your dietary needs super simple? Let me know what you think.

Kirk Aug

Kirk cultivates the Idea Farm here at SeedSing. He is curious why they did not name Soylent Bachelor Chow. Follow Kirk on twitter @kirkaug.

The Cowboys and the NFL do not care about the safety of women

This means more to the NFL than decency and repsect

Today I was going to write an irrational hatred sports blog about the Dallas Cowboys.

A lot of people hate the Cowboys and I'm one of those people, but I hate them for different reasons. That blog will have to wait until a future date because I have a newer, even bigger problem with the Dallas Cowboys and one irrational hatred blog wouldn't be able to cover it. This deserves it's own separate blog. I have a big, big problem with how this team is handling this Greg Hardy situation.

From the top of this organization all the way to the bottom, they've mishandled this whole ordeal. First of all, the Panthers did the right thing when they cut ties with this monster last offseason. I know he was under contract and that he was supposed to come back after his year long suspension for hitting a woman, but the Panthers did the right and respectable thing cutting ties with him completely. They wanted to move on from this horrible person, and they didn't want him involved with anything they did as a team. That's a wise decision by a front office. So, he gets released and he's a free agent able to sign with any team willing to take a chance on this woman abuser. Who should that team be? None other than the god damned Dallas Cowboys.

America's team they still call them.

What a crock of shit.

The Cowboys are no longer America's team. They're almost as irrelevant as the Cleveland Browns. ESPN is the only network that seems to cover these two teams like they matter. They don't. But, of course the Cowboys signed him. They needed a pass rusher and they went out and got one of the better pass rusher in the league. They figured, who cares that he's a loose cannon that, at any minute, will turn on you and use physical abuse if necessary, they needed a defensive lineman.

Prior to this season, world class moron Roger Goodell gave Hardy a ten game suspension, then dropped it to four games when a court agreed that was enough for his heinous crime. Let me say it again, he physically abused a woman. He beat her and left brutal bruises on her body and a court agreed that he would only miss the same amount of games that they tried to give Tom Brady for under inflating footballs. How on Earth is this allowed by the most popular sport in the US? Why do they let these abusers back on the field so soon? I guess, if you're a good enough football player, what you do in your personal life doesn't matter. You can be a woman abuser like Hardy. You can beat children like Adrian Peterson and you can bully teammates so much that they consider suicide like Richie Incognito did. Doesn't matter, these guys are good football players, so they get second, third, fourth and so on and so forth chances. Some stupid ass GM for some irrelevant team will sign them.

As I said before, the Cowboys are also rans, the Bills haven't been good in over a decade and the Vikings are finally having their first real success since they drafted child abuser Adrian Peterson. I will say, Peterson, at least on the surface, seems to show some kind of remorse, but what he did what so heinous, I can't look at him without disgust. Incognito doesn't seem to care what people think of him and I'm sure he still bullies people and Greg Hardy is an insane person that should not be in the NFL. Let's look at some of the things he's done since being reinstated by the league. His first game back was against the Patriots. During the week of practice leading up to this game, while being interviewed, he made some odd and inappropriate remarks regarding Tom Brady's wife Gisele Bunchen. He said, and I'm completely paraphrasing, something along the lines of "I hope she's there to see me crush her husband" and "I hope that I see her and her sisters in the crowd because they're very attractive". I'm sure in his mind, he thought he was complementing them. He couldn't be more wrong. This is inappropriate and if anyone said stupid shit like this at any office job, they'd be fired in less than one second for sexual harassment. This was very bizarre behavior from Hardy. This should've been strike one and should've been a sign to the front office that more stupid ass, Neanderthal behavior was to come from this monster. The Cowboys did nothing about this situation. Then, a couple of weeks later, during a game, he verbally berated some special teams players for giving up a big play during a crucial moment of the game. You could see him, on live TV, screaming obscenities at these teammates of his. He threatened these guys with physical violence. Dez Bryant had to step in the way and be the voice of reason. Dez Bryant is one hell of a football player, but he should never be counted on to be the voice of reason. Hardy proved in this moment that nothing has changed with him. He's still the same psychotic monster that thinks the best way to solve conflict is physical abuse. After the game, Jerry Jones was asked about the incident and he said that he loved the compassion coming from one of the teams leaders. Are you flipping kidding me! This is not what a leader does. A leader doesn't scream in people's faces and threaten them with violence. This is what a psychopath does. How in the world can Jerry Jones think that this is, not only okay, but a sign of leadership? It's baffling. Then last week, Deadspin, one of my favorite websites, released photos from the night that Hardy abused his then girlfriend. The photos are haunting. They're some of the most brutal things that I've seen in quite some time. This woman had bruises all over her body. The 911 call was released and the back and forth between the caller and dispatch was scary. It was as bad as what I imagine the recording of the guy getting eaten by the bear in the movie "Grizzly Man" sounds like. It's also very terrifying to see what was said during the call. After all of this was released, Hardy released a statement and said what every repeat abuser says, "I'll never do this again", "I was young and dumb", "It was a lapse in judgement", basically, a bunch of crap. He doesn't mean these things when he says them. His law team gave him something to read and he read it. He didn't give it a second thought after reading and went about his day. I assumed he would have been cut before their game last night. I figured this would be the third strike and the Cowboys would have to let him go. He was and is becoming the nuisance that he is and he's a very big problem. He's the definition of a distraction. But, did the Cowboys and Jerry Jones do the right thing and let him go? Of course not. Jerry Jones said that the Cowboys were giving him the second chance he deserves. I'm at a loss for words.

How can Jerry Jones be so blind to doing the right thing? How can he think that he and the Cowboys can help make Greg Hardy a better person? They can't. My mother has worked with battered women and children for the last 20 plus years and she tells me all the time that these guys don't change. Once an abuser, always an abuser and I agree with her one hundred percent. Greg Hardy is a monster and should not be playing in the NFL. He shouldn't be playing football anywhere. He needs to be in anger management and taking classes on how to be less of a total asshole. I guess that I'm naïve though. How many correct decision has Jerry Jones made in the past ten years? How many correct decisions has Roger Goodell made since he's been commissioner of the league? The answer is a resounding ZERO. Both of these guys are morons and they will continue to let monsters like Adrian Peterson, Richie Icognito and Greg Hardy play as long as they're making money hand over fist. It's a shame because the NFL is the most popular sport in the US and young kids see this behavior and will think that it's okay to be abusive or that bullying is okay because if they're good enough at football, they can get away with it with very little to no punishment. That's a frightening scenario.

I long for the days when the biggest problem was Mike Vick fighting dogs. He went to jail for 18 months for that. He paid a very large price. Peterson, Icognito and Hardy, all they had to suffer was missing games for their horrible crimes. Use that as context for the next time you argue with someone about how the NFL punishes players harsher now than they did 5 or 10 years ago. Mike Vick went to prison. The three guys I mentioned, Hardy being the main culprit, have seen no jail time and they're all considered leaders of their respective teams. That's the state of the NFL today, and that's a crying shame for a sport I, and the rest of the country love.

Get your act together NFL. You're in danger of losing more fans by letting horrible people like these guys stay in the league.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He does not actual enjoy writing about anything the NFL commissioner does, it is quite frustrating. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

"Barefoot Contessa" is one thing you and your mother in law can agree on

Oh the things Ina could do to you

What does one do with a new baby and his working wife on maternity leave?

As I stated yesterday, I've been watching a good amount of day time TV with my wife being home. I've also let it be known that I've been watching a good amount of the Food Network. The Food Network is pretty much the perfect channel to have on in the background if you like ambient noise. During the day, it's pretty much all straight forward cooking shows. The night time is when the competition shows come on. So, during the day, having that ambient noise in the background is nice when I'm blogging or when I'm cleaning or doing something around the house. I do watch pretty much all the competition shows too. With my wife being home, we watch shows like "Pioneer Woman" and "Everyday Italian" and "The Best Thing I Ever Ate". We also enjoy the competition shows like "Chopped", "Cutthroat Kitchen" and any iteration of the "Baking Challenge", be it Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas. The only shows we avoid on the Food Network are, anything involving human douchebag Guy Fieri and their awful rip off of "The Chew" called, "The Kitchen". First of all, "The Chew" is terrible, but, "The Kitchen" makes "The Chew" look like "Breaking Bad". "The Kitchen" is awful.

None of these shows compare to what I believe to be the greatest show the Food Network has ever created. I'm talking about "Barefoot Contessa" with Ina Garten of course. This show is absolutely perfect on every level. First of all, Ina Garten is the best host of any cooking show ever and yes, I think she's much better than Julia Child was. She has a very soft, calming way of talking about food. She never raises her voice to show appreciation of food like Fieri does. She doesn't need any catchphrases like "BAM!" or "winner, winner, chicken dinner" or, "that's money", she just talks about food like a normal person. She also seems to get the very best ingredients. She made steak the other day and my mouth was watering when she brought out the cut of meat. It looked so good and it was clearly the best quality her butcher had. Same thing when she made bone in lamb chops on a recent episode. She has an affinity for fruit tarts. The fruit she gets is the freshest fruit I've ever seen. I didn't know strawberries could look that red and fresh. She also hand makes all the crusts for these tarts. When the finished product comes out of the oven, I want to go into my TV and eat this delicious looking food. She also makes all her drinks fresh. Sure, most people do this with alcohol, but how many people go out to their garden and grab the freshest mint leaves I've ever seen? The only person involved with my life that does this is my mother in law. I've never seen anyone else use fresh herbs from their garden to cook besides from mother in law and Ina Garten. Ina also made a fresh hot chocolate for her husband Jeffrey, I'll talk more about him later, and it looked dynamite. She boiled milk and half and half in a big pot, used big hunks of what I'm sure is expensive milk chocolate, put semi sweet chocolate and used vanilla extract and ground decaf coffee. I used to work at a Saint Louis Bread Company and we used real milk and Hershey's syrup to make our hot chocolate and RD, my brother and founder of the website, used to refer to this as "orgasmic" (ed note: yes it is). Ina's hot chocolate puts Bread Company's to shame and I don't need to taste it to know this, I can judge it simply based on seeing it. Simply look at the ingredients I listed.

Now, the food is the main part of her show, as it should be, but she also seems to be the most genuinely happy person I've ever seen. She has the perfect life. She loves her husband Jeffrey and he reciprocates this love ten fold. When he gets home from work or a trip and Ina has a big meal ready for the two of them, he lights up. But, he doesn't just light up at the site of the food, he's happier to see Ina and she's just as happy. Each embrace is different, but they all share the same amount of love. These two are clearly soul mates. When Jeffrey is working, Ina seems to have an endless number of friends involved in many different occupations. She's friend with carpenters, florists, college students, painters and butchers, just to name a few. These people love Ina and she loves them back. It doesn't hurt that she's making them delicious food and has these friends of hers be her "tasters". We all know the food is delicious. I'd love to befriend Ina and become one of her "tasters". Very few things would make me happier in my life. She also has a beautiful home in the Hamptons. Jeffrey and her are clearly well off and the pictures of her home during the show hammer home this point. I don't say this because I'm envious, I say this because Jeffrey and her deserve this. They both work hard and are very accomplished in their fields, so why not live lavishly? Good for them.

One other thing I like about Ina was told to me by my mother in law. She never competes on these competition cooking shows because she feels like 1) cooking shouldn't be a competition, you should cook because you love it and 2) she won't compromise her ingredients, she believes you should use the best ingredients available to you. This makes me like Ina even more, and I'm already a HUGE fan. I wish there were more chefs and personalities on the Food Network like her, but Ina is one of a kind. I don't think her show is on anymore, she's probably happily retired from making a show and doing whatever she wants, as she's want to do, but at least we have reruns. I look forward to these episodes twice a day. I love her show and her whole vibe. Ina Garten is the best thing that the Food Network ever had and I'm glad they still air "Barefoot Contessa".

Ina, you're a national treasure, thanks for everything you do. And thanks for being you, you're the greatest.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. "Cooking a Steak" would be Ty's favorite food show, if only it existed in the real world. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Thank You for Inhaling: The Lessons of Ohio's Failure in Trying to Legalize Recreational Marijuana

Not the new buckeye

Ohio's attempt to legalize recreational marijuana went down to  defeat on election day. It was beaten quite soundly. I do not think that Ohio's Issue 3 was a good law, it was a terrible law. Bad law or not, it was much better than the archaic laws we have right now. Our very own Kirk Aug goes as far to say the marijuana laws are flat out racist. I tend to agree with this sentiment. Because Issue 3 did not pass, using and possessing Marijuana is still highly illegal in Ohio. Doctors can not prescribe it. Users are considered criminals. People who sell it will go to jail. Marijuana is still illegal because of greedy investors, bad politicians, and out of date political thought. Marijuana is still illegal in Ohio because my home state refuses to face the present.

What is the saying that applies here? Perfect is the enemy of the good. Many of my pot supporting friends, let's call them pot smokers, would tell me that they were hesitant to support issue 3. Why would illegal pot smokers not back a legalization measure. One simple word - monopoly.  They were uncomfortable with the fact that issue 3 gave a monopoly to a few well connected donors. I also had the same reservations, yet I still supported the initiative because it made marijuana legal. I am not a pot smoker, but I believe in legal weed. I constantly found myself arguing about the true definition of a monopoly, and what a good law compared to a perfect law even means. I was having these arguments with supporters of legalization. I had trouble convincing them of voting for Issue 3. Lose your most loyal supporters and things will not turn out well on election day.

The word monopoly is where Responsible Ohio lost the legalization battle. The ballot initiative itself had the word monopoly in it. There is another aphorism in politics that says if you are defending, you are losing. Issue 3 was on the defense from day one. I kept seeing commercials on tv with plenty of attractive white people espousing the benefits of legal weed. At the end of each commercial the fine white folk, usually Nick Lachey, would tell me to vote yes on 3 and no on 2. The commercials would always reference the opponents, and opposition arguments, of legal marijuana. In there own commercials Responsible Ohio was making the oppositions case. They were defending, therefore they were losing.

The biggest failure of Ohio's attempt at marijuana legalization was not the defeat of Issue 3, it was the victory of Issue 2. The Ohio legislature put Issue 2 on the ballot as a way to protect the good citizens of Ohio from groups creating a monopoly on new state businesses. The wording of Issue 2 is intentionally vague, and many experts have said the law could stop citizens from trying to move Ohio into the future. The new law passed by issue 2 would add another political layer of bureaucracy to the referendum process. If there is a citizen movement to change the government in Ohio, you better hope the non-partisan committee who is reviewing your request is politically on your side. Marijuana legalization did not just lose this year, due to the passage of issue 2, legalization may have been lost in Ohio for a generation.

 Another failure of the pro-legalization movement is how Responsible Ohio used the idea of progress to hide their greed. The Issue 3 ballot initiative was not launched until the general public was frozen out of any business opportunity associated with future marijuana business in the state. The Ohio legislature used the anti-monopoly idea as a way to hide their reach for more power. All of Ohio lost when Issue 3 was defeated and issue 2 was victorious. The Buckeye state lost needed tax revenue, lost resources being tied up by the moronic War on Drugs, and lost the chance to be at the front of the line of an inevitable part of future society. Ohio also lost the ability for citizens to try and create progress in their state. 

If you want legal weed be truthful with the voters, know that greed will drive your most loyal supporters away, and believe in your message. I for one was looking forward to visiting my local legal marijuana dealership, owned partly by Oscar Robertson. I was going to give this whole smoking marijuana thing another go. But alas there will be no legal way for me to get my weed.

Where the hell do I go now?

RD Kulik

RD is the Head editor for SeedSing. Without marijuana he will just continue to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes. Those are way safer. Tell him your solution to America's problems by writing for SeedSing.

Join Ty while he checks paternity tests with "Maury Povich"

You are NOT the father. Now who is a good boy.

Sometimes the worst television can be the best entertainment.

With my wife on maternity leave, I've been watching some day time television with her that she normally doesn't get to watch since she doesn't get home from work until 4pm. I don't usually watch any day time TV, my son and I are usually out doing stuff, and my newly born daughter will be joining us on these excursions when my wife goes back to work. But, my wife has two months left on her leave, so day time TV will be a staple. One of the shows that she loves is "Maury Povich".

First things first, this show is utterly ridiculous and totally fake. These people know exactly what they're doing on this show, and if they have any questions as to how to act, producers and the behind the scenes crew gives them direction. This, I'm sure of. But, I've grown to not only enjoy "Mo Po", as we call it, but I look forward to watching it everyday at 3pm Saint Louis, Missouri time. It's like a train wreck. It's terrible, just down right awful, but I cannot look away. I love how bizarre and insane and just plain wacky this show is. Nine times out of ten, it's a DNA test to find out who is the father of some infant, or it's a lie detector test to find out if someone is cheating on someone else. In the rare case, we get both of these in one episode. Man, this is exciting when you know, not only is a DNA test coming, but there's a lie detector test as well. Sometimes, very rarely, they do a "where are they now", or a "boot camp" episode and we do not tune in for these, but that barely ever happens as I've already said. "Maury Povich" is the epitome of bad reality television. Like I said, it's completely fabricated, but that doesn't make it any less hilarious.

Now, it is bad, but it's watchable bad. It's a better version of "Sharknado". Readers know how I feel about "Sharknado". "Mo Po" is enjoyable. It's dysfunctional and stupid and a total mess, but I've grown to love it over the past couple of weeks. And Maury Povich seems to have taken this lot in life and run with it. He was, at one time, a true journalist with a moral compass. Go look at some of his older versions of his show, most of the time the topics were legit topics. He was a real journalist tackling real subjects. He was good at it too. He met and married Connie Chung and they're still married to this day. They were both reputable journalist and TV personalities and one day, that all changed. Connie Chung is off TV now, to the best of my knowledge, and look no further for her "breakdown" to the moment she was singing on top of a piano and "dancing". It's a hard watch, but it's also pretty god damn hilarious. And Maury's case, I think one day, when he was reputable, he thought that it would be a good idea to have a lady or ladies on that may not have known who the father of their child was. Sure, at the time, the mid 90's I believe, this was a good and groundbreaking idea. It would give these ladies closure and these fatherless children would at least know who their dad was as they grew up. Then, one day, the DNA test results came back negative and the man on the set was not the father. Holy shit was this a huge deal! The crowd went nuts. People on the stage were either crying, cheering, dancing or doing all three at once. This was the moment when Maury just ran with it, in my opinion. I think, since he's a pretty smart person, he saw an opportunity and he figured, okay , this is what I am now. He decided that he would do only DNA test result shows at first. These gained a lot of steam, but after awhile, they became stale and predictable. That's when he introduced the lie detector tests and the decoys. Boom! A total new thing for his talk show was born and it's been like this ever since. As I said before, it's either a DNA test or a lie detector test, or both, Monday through Friday on "Mo Po", and I love it. These are always met with the same response. The people on stage are always yelling and talking over each other, someone inevitably calls Maury 'Murray" and the tests results always deliver both good and bad news. Sometimes, when the man isn't the father, the guy starts doing a dance and the lady runs off the set screaming and crying. These are my favorite moments. They're hysterical. When the guy is the father, or he's lied during the lie detector test, or he's caught hitting on a decoy, the reaction is always the same. The guy claims he was set up, or that the lie detector was wrong, or he will take care of the child, but he wants nothing to do with the baby's mom. And their reaction to this news is always hilarious. You can tell the guys who know they're going to get caught because they always have a coy smile when the lady is talking about them cheating or not taking care of their baby. During all this, Maury just sits back, let's the fight build to a boil, and just when it's about to get physical, he gets the results folder and they get down to business, it's fantastic.

The real reason for this post today is not only to give love to "Maury Povich" the TV show, but to let everyone know that I will be live tweeting today's episode from the seedsing account. So, read this article and at 3pm Saint Louis time, check in with @seedsingrdk to see my tweets. My wife will be watching with me, of course, and she will chime in with her thoughts too. Join us for the hilarity.

See you all later today.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He does not feel the need to go on Murray's show to get DNA results for his kids, at least not yet. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

How Kentucky's Low Voter Turnout will Become a National Headache

I will need a lot of Kentucky's best product to get through these election results

Yesterday the Commonwealth of Kentucky elected only the second Republican Governor in 40 years. Business man Matt Bevin crushed Democratic nominee Jack Conway with a margin of victory over 8 percentage points. Democrat Conway had never trailed in the polling leading up to election day, yet he could not even muster over 45% of Kentucky's participating voters. In August the Bevin campaign was cut off from national money because the Republican Governor's Association thought his defeat was inevitable. Within two hours of the polls closing, the AP declared Bevin the winner. Kentucky will have a governor the nation did not expect, and the nation will have a large headache because of this.

How did Matt Bevin win by such a large margin when the polls, and money, were constantly against him? The candidate himself was very problematic. Matt Bevin made his money on Wall Street, missed paying his taxes (a few times), refused to release his tax returns, defended cockfighting (then lied about it), and has been fighting with his own party for years. Most candidates with this kind of baggage could not win a primary much less the Governor's Mansion. How is it that another false Constitutional Christian Conservative can beat the polls. There have been many excuses, and the professional media has tried to protect their interests with these excuses. The Democratic party uses the excuse of an outsider wave created by Donald Trump and Ben Carson. The correct answer tends to be the most obvious one, low voter turnout.

Kentucky's voter participation for their statewide races will come in just over 30%. Less than one third people eligible to vote did end up voting for their state elected offices.  Low voter turnout always benefits the Republican Party. People who subscribe to white Christian male victimhood will always vote for their Republican savior. Rich, mostly white, business men will always make time to vote for the Republican who will cut the taxes of the wealthy. The people who rely on state aid tend to vote in very small numbers. People who work multiple jobs have trouble getting out to vote. Many millennials do not think voting in non-presidential elections is that important. These groups tend to make up a majority of the Democratic base. Thirty percent of the eligible voters came out and strongly supported Matt Bevin, and the rest of the country will now have to pay for that apathy.

The broken political media has already used Bevin's election to create a narrative of tea party reemergence. These media personalities are invested in creating a political horse race culture. The truth of Kentucky being a small state, with historically low voter turnout, does not work with the media's horse race narrative. Bobby Jindal has been a disaster as Governor of Louisiana, and he is treated as a credible presidential candidate. Carly Fiorina was an awful CEO and comically bad senate candidate, yet she is treated by the media as someone who could be a successful President. The entire Republican Presidential field is littered with incompetence, and Matt Bevin as President will become their newest cause celebre. The press will use the charismatic Bevin as a placeholder for tea party competence. His star will keep rising until he inevitable feels the "calling" to run for president. Once that day happens, 2020 I predict" Governor Bevin's record in Kentucky will be conveniently forgotten about.

 How do we know that Matt Bevin's policies will be failures? Governor elect Bevin's ideas are on par with those of Jindal and Kansas Governor Sam Brownback. Destroy the state health system tied to the Affordable Care Act, privatize all public education, alienate minorities and the LGBT community, and cut taxes for the wealthiest of residents. In Louisiana, Kansas, and many other red states these policies have amounted to record deficits, horrible schools, and national ridicule. Matt Bevin has defended and promoted those ideas as good for Kentucky. He defended Kim Davis, a person who is anti-constitutional. He wants to destroy a successful system that insures nearly half a million Kentucky residents. He wants to starve the public schools and enlarge the religious ones with state money. Every single one of Matt Bevin's campaign promises has ruined other states economies.

Thirty percent of Kentucky's eligible voters felt the need to come out and elect a governor. The voters who participated got the governor they wanted. The voters who stayed home will see their beloved commonwealth race to the bottom and join states like Kansas and Louisiana as cautionary tales. When Bevin runs for reelection, if he runs, the nation will already be familiar with the "outsider" Governor from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The press will have begun the hagiography of Republican savior Matt Bevin. 

It makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He thinks polling may be a good career, because success seems to not be a requisite skill. Come join the conversation by writing for SeedSing.

The Greatest American Band Debate: The Beach Boys

It is frustrating when a lot of people like something you may despise. 

If we at SeedSing are going to be a competent and commendable website, we need to give recognition to things that we may not like, or even hate in this case, but other people adore. We kind of did this on the podcast when I had my brother Seth on and he talked about his love for the Grateful Dead. I'm clearly not a fan of theirs, but Seth loves them and we gave him yet another platform to opine on why he loves them. I'm going to tackle a band that I truly despise for the greatest American band debate, but a ton of other people, easily in the millions, loves and adores. Today, I'm going to talk about, not really make the case for them, just talk about the Beach Boys.

Let's get this straight right out of the gate, I really, really, really hate the Beach Boys. They're bubble gum pop music in my opinion, and I think Brian Wilson is one of the most overrated musicians of all time. Had he not had a nervous breakdown, he wouldn't be the "icon" that he is today. There'd be no movies or books about him, he'd just be another run of the mill musician. He's not genius, not even close. So, have I laid out the fact that I really dislike the Beach Boys enough yet? I think so, but my hatred will bubble up throughout this post today. Let's get to why a lot of people, not me, think they're not only the greatest American band, but the greatest band of all time. First of all, they introduced, or some even say, invented the California surf rock sound. This sound was very popular in the 60's, and is kind of making a resurgence nowadays. People like to say that they have the best vocal harmonies of any band ever. I don't hear it, but fans seem to think they're the greatest. That's high praise to be told that you have the best harmonies of all time. That's a huge accomplishment in music. Brian Wilson is the unquestioned leader of the band, and he wrote and orchestrated pretty much all of their music. This is music to fans ears, but not that impressive to me because I don't like their music at all. Their music sounds simplistic, but fans adore this. He wrote their biggest hit "Good Vibrations". This song epitomizes California rock. It's poppy with an easy guitar riff and the vocals couldn't be anymore "beachy". That's what I like to refer to their harmonies as, "beachy". That means, to me, that they sound like they're singing on the beach, in every song. Kind of a happy go lucky vibe to their music, also known as "pop" music. Everybody knows the song "Good Vibrations", so, for all intents and purposes, that makes them one of the greats. That sentence just hurt my brain. God, I hate the Beach Boys. "Good Vibrations" came after their most critically acclaimed album, "Pet Sounds". I've tried with this record, and I just don't get it, but critics and musicians and fans adore it. It is the essential California rock record. People will tell you that they brought psychedelia to the masses with this album, but I'll take any Pink Floyd or Jimi Hendrix or even any YES album over "Pet Sounds" for my psychedelic music. "Pet Sounds" opens with another humongous hit, "Wouldn't It Be Nice". This song is not psychedelic, it's pop. The Beach Boys thrive with songs like these. "Good Vibrations and "Wouldn't It Be Nice" are in their wheel house and songs like these were massive hits because this is what the masses liked and still like. It's poppy and fun and while they may be sad lyrically, they sound happy, so fans like them and think they're happy songs. "Good Vibrations" and "Wouldn't It Be Nice" are no different than current songs like "Honey I'm Good" by Andy Grammar or "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz. They're all bubble gum garbage, but the masses love it. They called the album "Pet Sounds" because they literally use pet sounds. This is like the stupid stuff Phish does, using vacuums as instruments, that people seem to think is innovative. It's not psychedelic, it's stupid. But, most critics heaped praise on the Beach Boys for doing this. They thought it was ingenious, and only a musical "genius" like Brian Wilson could pull this off. 

Soon after "Pet Sounds", Brian Wilson started to lose his mind. This wasn't like Syd Barrett from Pink Floyd, who literally did lose his mind, I feel like this was, what some today would call, a media ploy. I feel like the Beach Boys wanted to be even more famous, so they made Brian Wilson go nuts. I'm sure he has a problem, but he's still alive and making music, so he couldn't have been that nuts. The Beach Boys, and more famously, Brian Wilson did gain even more notoriety after this. The band broke up after "Pet Sounds", but some iteration of the Beach Boys still made albums up to 2012, and they're still touring. What they may be most famous for, post Brian Wilson, is the fact that they recorded "Kokomo", but even bigger than that, they play live with John Stamos. This makes them very lame, in my opinion, but when "Full House" was a massive hit, being on the show multiple times, as the Beach Boys were, they were remembered and gained even more fame. Older fans would see this and think, hey they're still doing it. And younger fans, they loved them some "Full House" and teenage, and even a lot of adult women, loved them some John Stamos. They regained their old fans, and brought a whole new generation of fans by being on "Full House".

In 2004, Brian Wilson released the album "Smile" to huge critical acclaim. I believe the editor of this website, RD himself, bought this album when we lived together (ed note: yes I did). He would put it on, and I'd think, Jesus, this is crap. I think even RD hated it too (ed note: yes I did), but he would listen to it and try to like it. I don't get the love, but fans loved it. The love for the Beach Boys is very weird to me. They've won tons of Grammys and other music awards. Some magazine named them the most influential American rock band(bull shit) and they're still beloved to this day. I've said it many times, I HATE the Beach Boys, but if we are taking this debate seriously, they need to be mentioned. I know a lot of people will read this and call me a hater, and I definitely am a hater of the Beach Boys, but at least I took time today to put them in this discussion. I also know that I left out huge chunks of their career, but I don't care enough to mention any of it. I feel I covered what is best known and what made the Beach Boys famous. 

This post was very hard for me because I'm a music snob and the Beach Boys boil my blood. But, I did it, I made the "case" for the Beach Boys as the greatest American band. I know this will read very different from my other greatest American band posts, but you have to put bands in this discussion, even if you dislike them. Go ahead Beach Boys fans and skewer me in the comment section, I know it's coming and I'm ready for it. 

Bring it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. While writing this piece, Ty was humming along the Blue Jean Committee's hit song "Catalina Breeze". Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty Needs to Change his Super Bowl Picks: NFL Midseason Redo

Ty made some cookies to apologize about the Colts pick

Much like my blog yesterday, I'm going to tackle the NFL at the midway point.

Week 8 just ended and most teams have played 7 or 8 games. You can definitely get a sense of who is a legit contender, and who are the bottom of the barrel teams. I'll go over my previous division winners and I'll pick who I think will win their division now, and the wild cards from each conference. I'll also pick the MVP, coach of the year, offensive and defensive player of the year and offensive and defensive rookie of the year compared to my season preview.

Let's start with the AFC. The AFC East is being led by the New England Patriots at 7-0. The Jets are 4-3 and the Bills and Dolphins are 3-4. I was wrong about this division, picking the Dolphins. They've kind of gotten back on track, but they were just destroyed by the Patriots and they were a mess before firing Joe Philbin. The Jets and Bills are both middle of the road, but the Jets are playing much better than I thought with Ryan Fitzpatrick at QB. The Bills are a typical Rex Ryan team. They play good defense, have a subpar offense and blow games. The Patriots are clearly the class of this division. They're on a war path since the stupid "deflate gate" bull shit and Tom Brady and Bill Belichek are playing and coaching with anger, and they thrive that way. I don't think they'll go undefeated, but Tom Brady is playing like the MVP and they'll win this division easily. I shouldn't have doubted them. In the AFC North, the Bengals are leading the division with a 7-0 record. They're playing lights out defense right now, but they have to prove it in the playoffs before I trust them. The Steelers are 4-4 and just lost LeVeon Bell for the rest of the season, they're toast. The Browns are exactly what everyone, save for ESPN, thought they'd be. They're mediocre on offense and defense and people still talk about Johnny Manziel like he's an important player. The Browns stink. The Ravens are a shockingly bad 2-6. They've blown games that they should've won, and they look pretty bad on defense without Terrell Suggs. They're the most disappointing team in the NFL in my opinion and they just lost their best receiver for the year with Steve Smith SR tearing his ACL. The Bengals will run away with this division, no problem. The AFC South is a joke and this division made me look like a moron with my preseason preview. The Colts are in first place, but they're tied with the Texans at a dreadful 3-5. Andrew Luck is clearly hurt and their defense stinks. Screw you Indy for making me look like an idiot. The Texans are terrible. Their "vaunted" defense can't stop anyone, and their offense is bad and just got worse with Arian Foster going down with a season ending injury yet again. The Texans stink. Jacksonville and Tennessee have three wins combined. They're playing as everyone thought they would. Blake Bortles may not be that good of an NFL QB and the Jags defense is not good. The Titans are being led by a rookie QB, I know he's missed the last two games, and they may not win another game all season. Mariota is going through growing pains and he has no weapons on offense and their coach is pretty bad, and just got fired. I'm still picking the Colts to win this division, but they may only win 6 or 7 games and they will get crushed in the playoffs. The AFC West has been surprisingly competitive. The Broncos are still the best team and they're undefeated. Something is going on with Peyton Manning, but the Broncos are winning with their league best defense. They're lock down on that side of the ball. The Raiders are 4-3 and in second place. Derek Carr is a star in the making and now he has Amari Cooper to throw to. Their defense is playing halfway decent led by ageless wonder Charles Woodson. The Raiders may actually be good. The Chiefs had a brutal schedule to start the season and started 1-5, but they've won their past two and look better, even with Jamaal Charles out for the year. They have a good tight end in Kelce and a deep threat in Jeremy Maclin. Their defense is good as always. Unfortunately for them, they dug themselves to deep a hole and they won't be able to get out of it. The Chargers are a team in flux. They don't know if they're moving to LA, and they have no fan base. Phillip Rivers is on the back half of his good playing days, and Melvin Gordon hasn't lived up to the hype. The Chargers aren't a threat anymore. So, the playoff teams from the AFC will be division winners, Denver, Indy(UGH!), New England and Cincinnati. The Wild Cards will be the Jets, I can't believe I just wrote that and the Raiders, I really can't believe I just wrote that. I was wrong on Miami and Pittsburgh has suffered some brutal injuries, but other than that, I think I did okay. The Patriots are coming out of the AFC with little push. Denver is the only team that can compete, but they won't be able to beat New England in Foxborough. The Patriots will represent the AFC again in the Super Bowl. 

To the NFC. We will start with the NFC East. This division is a joke. The Giants are leading it with a 4-4 record, and they just gave up 52 points to the Saints. One week they look good, the other they look bad. The Eagles and the Washington professional football team have matching 3-4 records. How they got there is different. The Eagles play awesome defense, but their offense is bad. Chip Kelly is supposed to be an offensive genius, but he doesn't use DeMarco Murray properly, he relies on Sam Bradford too much and he has no real receivers. The Eagles are bad. Washington is lucky to be where they are. Kirk Cousins got way too riled up after a comeback victory over Tampa Bay. He's a terrible NFL QB, but who else do they have? Their defense is not very good either. Basically, they got very lucky three times and that luck is going to run out. The Cowboys have been plagued by injury and stupidity. Tony Romo and Dez Bryant missed multiple games. Joseph Randle is facing punishment for drugs and they're now starting Darren McFadden. Greg Hardy is a lunatic and doesn't belong in the league. And Jerry Jones, boy is he going nuts. The Cowboys may be the best team in this division, but that's not saying much and they are too far behind at 2-5 to win this division. The Giants will win the division and they will probably do it with only 8 wins. The NFC North is led by my beloved Packers at 6-1. They've looked pretty bad on offense the past couple of weeks though and the Broncos just throttled them on Sunday night. They'll fix what ails them, but they need a quick fix. They also need to use Eddie Lacy more, if he's healthy. The Vikings are playing pretty well, with a 5-2 record. But, let us not forget why their star player, Adrian Peterson, was out all of last season for beating a child. Announcers seem to have forgotten this, but I haven't. He's a monster. The Vikings are winning with good defense and the emergence of rookie receiver Stefon Diggs and smart QB play from Teddy Bridgewater, not child abuser Adrian Peterson. The Bears and Lions are equally bad. The Bears are 2-5 and as long as they have Jay Cutler at QB, they'll continue to be mediocre. The Lions are a dreadful 1-7 and they can't catch a break. They're also poorly coached and Matt Stafford is not a franchise QB, he's barely a starting QB. Calvin Johnson deserves better than this. The Packers will win this division. The NFC South has been surprisingly decent. The Panthers are 7-0 and playing awesome defense and Cam Newton is playing fantastic football. They also have a really good run game. The Falcons are 6-2, but they're not that impressive, save for Julio Jones and Devonta Freeman. Those are the catalysts of this team, not Matt Ryan. He's been erratic all season. The defense is serviceable. The Saints are 4-4 and Drew Brees is beginning to look like his old self, but he doesn't have any real weapons. Mark Ingram has been solid, but he's not a star and Ben Watson has been playing good at tight end, but that's it. And their defense, woof, they're bad. The Buccaneers round out this division at 3-4. They've played better than I thought they would and while Jameis Winston has looked bad at times, he's had his moments and Doug Martin may be turning his career around. But, they are still a bad team led by a rookie QB. Carolina will win this division. The NFC West has been as competitive as I thought it would be. The Cardinals lead it with a 6-2 record. Carson Palmer has been lights out and so has Larry Fitzgerald and Chris Johnson. They have a potent offense. Their defense is still really good too. Barring injury, this team should be considered a legit contender. The Rams are 4-3 and they look good one week, but bad the next. The emergence of Todd Gurley should definitely help this team out. He's been awesome. And their defense is still one of the league's best. The Seahawks are 4-4 and they've looked very unimpressive. Russell Wilson is not living up to the contract he got. Marshawn Lynch can't stay healthy and they don't know how to use Jimmy Graham. He's the best tight end in football, save for Rob Gronkowski, and he's only getting 4 or 5 targets a game. Their defense is giving up fourth quarter leads as well. They do not look like the "dynasty" that a lot of people predicted them to be. The 49ers are a total mess. They're benching Kaepernick in favor of Blaine Gabbert. WTF! He's a terrible pro. They have no running game, they traded away Vernon Davis and they can't get the ball to Torrey Smith or Anquan Boldin. Their defense is okay, but when you're on the field for 45 minutes of a 60 minute game, you get tired and when you get tired, you give up points. The 49ers stink. Cardinals win this division. So the NFC playoff teams will be division winners, New York Giants, Green Bay, Carolina and Arizona. The two wild Cards will be Minnesota and Saint Louis. This means I was wrong about the Eagles and the Seahawks. Neither will make the playoffs. I'm torn between Arizona and Green Bay, but Arizona will suffer some kind of injury and the Packers will figure out their offensive problem and they will win the NFC.

So, that gives us a Green Bay and New England Super Bowl. I'm going to stick with the Packers. They're the one team that can beat the Patriots. As far as the awards go, I was wrong on almost all of these. First of all, the MVP is Tom Brady. He's torching this league and he's on a mission. I picked Aaron Rodgers, but he's struggled lately and Tom Brady has not. Brady will also win offensive player of the year. Defensive player of the year will be Charles Woodson, not Ndomakong Suh. Woodson is still playing at an elite level and he makes the Raiders a real threat. Winning this will put him in the conversation as greatest defensive back of all time. Coach of the year is still Jeff Fisher in my opinion. He'll lead this team to a Wild Card spot and that alone gives him the award. I picked Melvin Gordon as offensive rookie of the year. He's been not so good mid way through the season. However, Todd Gurley looks to be a beast. He's setting records and rushing for a lot of yards on a good Rams team. Gurley is, hands down, the offensive rookie of the year. I picked Bud Dupree as defensive rookie of the year, but he has just blended in with the Steeler defense, he hasn't really stood out. Marcus Peters, however, has been a pretty good cornerback for the Chiefs from day one. He's my pick for defensive rookie of the year.

So, there you have it, my mid way NFL picks, Some are the same, some are different. Tell me why I'm wrong and give me your picks in the comment section.

Thanks

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He thinks Tom Brady is over inflating footballs just to screw with the NFL. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik

First Annual Get Your Ass Out and Vote Call to Action

The beginning of the end

Hello All

It is election day. I assume many of our good readers are well informed of the candidates and issues. You all probably woke up bright and early, presented your voting credentials, and are now wearing the "I Voted" stickers to the embarrassment of your non-voting friends, co-workers, and family. To all the good voters out there, good job, you make America proud. 

The preceding paragraph represents less than 30% of America's eligible voter population. Off year congressional elections have voter turnout rates less than 50%. In over 75 years we have seen Presidential election turnouts rate top out at 65% of eligible voters participating only one time (1976 - Jimmy Carter's victory). What the hell is the problem? Why do people not vote? The onslaught of the 24 hour media, and the subhuman conversation on talk radio, make elections into a quasi philosophical battlefield. Cowards like Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck use their time on publicly created radio and television airwaves  to claim America will be ending if their chosen politicians do not win. The professional left (once again thanks Robert Gibbs) makes every election into a referendum of their latest cause. With all of this noise, very few people actually vote, especially in non-presidential elections.

What the hell is wrong with you people? I get that a non-presidential election is not very exciting, but it means so much more to your life than you know. The national (and most state) Democratic Party has totally given up on local elections so they can win the "Best in Show" ribbon that is the Presidential election. Way to go Democrats, Obama won two elections. How has that worked out? We have the psychopaths of the tea party in congress now, non-stop obstructionism, and the glowing profiles of dirt bag Paul Ryan because he is the least crazy person we could get to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The Democratic Party's lack of developing any local candidates, and supporting them, has led to nut jobs like Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and worst of all Ted Cruz. The mighty party of the people has completely failed at building a strong stable of candidates, and left the power to the most self serving political movement in American history.

The people who are on your school boards, city/town councils, and municipal courts have a ton more power over your lives than anyone who is elected to Washington DC. Your kids go to schools run by the philosophical whims of the school board. Your emergency services are managed by your city councils. Your home values are dictated by the people elected today. Yet nobody seems to care. We all get excited to vote for history (Obama) or vote to take our country back (anyone in the modern Republican field), but we care not to vote for the person who will give the next generation a chance to thrive. What is wrong with us? The election you do not participate in today will elect the crazy person to your school board. That person will next move on to win a city council race you refuse to vote in. Next thing you know, that crazy person is being featured on "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" as another crazy right winger who belongs in the 1800's. They got there because we refused to stop them from winning their first election.  We elected them by not participating.

Wake up and get your ass out to vote. I know that levies, school boards, and trustees do not excite our electoral urges. Grow up. Your home values, your kids education, and the overall future of our society depends on who wins this November 3rd, 2015. If you decide not to vote, I will blame the next Ted Cruz on you. 

Vote.

(Special thanks to FairVote.Org  for help with research. Plus I do know about John Oliver's recent episode about local elections. I only wish he did the episode a few weeks ago when people could still register to vote.)

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor of SeedSing. He does not know what to write over the next year because Hillary has already won the 2016 Presidential election. Is he wrong? Go tell him.

Ty Makes a Few Updates to his 2015 College Football Preview.

Ty  predicts he could throw this ball over those mountains.

We are a bit more than halfway through the college football season and I wanted to take time today to see what I got right, wrong and what I want to correct in regards to my college football 2015 season preview.

I feel like I've done a pretty good job with my picks and predictions, but there's things I definitely got wrong or need change. I'll go through each conference that I previewed and I'll pick the four playoff teams and who I have for the Heisman. On with the mid season preview.

Let's start with the SEC. I had Alabama winning the SEC, and I still believe they have a good chance to win, but I didn't think that LSU would be their biggest challenger. I thought a team like Georgia or Ole Miss or even Texas A&M would challenge them. But LSU and Florida have been their biggest competition, and I think LSU will beat Alabama in their big game this weekend. Georgia has been plagued with injuries and poor QB play. Ole Miss, who beat Alabama this year, played their best football in my opinion already. And A&M, who was supposed to have a good defense this year, has been inept on offense lately, and Alabama and Ole Miss ran rough shot on their defense, they're not at their level yet. Florida has been surprisingly good this year. Sure, their QB is now suspended for the rest of this season for PEDs, but this team wins with defense and running, and they're doing those things very well. I don't think they'll finish the season as strong as they've started, but had you told me at the beginning of the year they'd be a 9 or 10 win team, I would've called you crazy. But, they're on their way to that number easily. LSU, in my opinion, is the team to beat in the SEC. They need to beat Alabama this weekend, which I already said I think they will, but they've been stout on defense and their running game, behind the new Heisman front runner, Leonard Fournette, makes them the favorite. They don't have a QB that's really division one caliber, but neither does Alabama and while Alabama does have Derrick Henry running the ball, he's no Leonard Fournette and LSU's defense is better. LSU is my new pick to win the SEC.

On to the Pac 12. I was completely wrong about this conference. I assumed that Oregon would continue to dominate as they have for the past couple of years, but then they ran into Utah. Utah destroyed them in Oregon and they haven't been the same team since, switching QB's weekly it seems and opposing teams torching their defense. Oregon took a big step back. Utah, after throttling Oregon, looked like the team to beat, but they got pounded at USC. Utah is still good and a team with one loss, can still win this conference. USC has beaten Utah and California, but lost to Notre Dame and still have to play UCLA. They also fired their coach for being drunk on the sideline, so this team is still a mess. UCLA is good, but they lost Myles Jack for the year, and they are led by a freshman QB, who looks like he's hitting the freshman wall. Then we have Stanford. They shit the bed in their first game at Northwestern, but since then, they've looked completely dominant. This conference is going to come down to Utah and Stanford and I'm going to pick Stanford to win. They just look so good right now.

The Big 12 looks just how I thought it would look. Sure, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma look good, but they aren't on Baylor or TCU's level. Oklahoma State is undefeated, but they just gave up 53 points to Texas Tech and that doesn't bode well for the rest of their season. Oklahoma is okay, but they've blown one game already and given their history under Bob Stoops, they'll do it again. Baylor looked like they were going to give TCU a run for the conference until their QB went down with a broken bone on his neck. Their offense was running like a well oiled machine, but I don't think that will happen with a back up QB. That's unfortunate for them. TCU is winning games with Boykin running their offense to perfection. He's putting up video game numbers and will continue to do that the rest of the year. Baylor was going to challenge, but TCU will win the Big 12.

The Big 10 has been pretty predictable except for one team. Ohio State is still number one, but they've looked unimpressive and now their starting QB has been arrested for drunk driving. Their new back up QB, when he's not busy complaining about losing the starting spot, should have went pro last year because he's looked pretty blah this year. Their coach is also a piece of garbage. He goes on TV and bad mouths the way other teams handle their punishment and then gives a lame punishment to JT Barrett and he also recruited and stood by a convicted murderer while head coach at Florida. Michigan State is undefeated, but had Michigan been able to punt the ball, they wouldn't be a top ten team anymore. Their early season home win over Oregon doesn't look so impressive anymore. Iowa has been the biggest surprise to me. They're undefeated and the rest of their schedule is a cake walk. But, even if they win the Big 10 championship game, they won't, the committee would be hard pressed to put them in the playoff. They're not that impressive and neither is their schedule. Northwestern looked like they may have surprised after a 5-0 start, then Michigan shut them out and Iowa hammered them in Northwestern. They're not that good. Michigan has looked very good on defense, with the Minnesota game being a lone exception, but they are very unimpressive on offense. They'll win 8 or 9 games. Penn State plays good defense, but they can't protect their QB. And Wisconsin has disappointed. The rest of the Big Ten is not good. Unfortunately, the Michigan State-Ohio State game will decide this conference, and I have to begrudgingly pick Ohio State. I hate them so much, but they will win the Big 10 this year.

The ACC is between two teams. Clemson and Florida State are the only teams worth talking about. Duke got screwed, Miami is light years behind, NC State and Georgia Tech are completely disappointing and the rest of the conference doesn't bear mentioning. Clemson is a much better team than Florida State and should win this conference with ease.

The AAC, the conference I gave very little mention to will get the same. Memphis has an impressive win over Ole Miss and are undefeated. Houston has an explosive QB and are also undefeated, and Temple is 7-1 with a pretty stout defense. They all have yet to play each other, but I think Temple will win. They've played the toughest schedule and they have the players on defense to stop both Houston and Memphis.

The two independents I mentioned in my preview, Notre Dame and BYU have had decent seasons. Notre Dame has looked good despite losing Malik Zaire in the first game, but their wins aren't very impressive and the toughest team they played, Clemson, pretty much shut them down. Their coach is also an insane person. BYU started with two very dramatic wins, but when they play upper level division one teams, they don't look so impressive. Boise State suffered an early season loss to BYU, but looked good after that, climbing back into the top 25, then Utah State hammered them. This version of Boise State is not as good as previous Boise State teams.

So, where do we stand today? I think I did a decent job. My original four playoff teams were Ohio State, Alabama, TCU and Michigan State. Today, my final four is, Ohio State, TCU, Clemson and LSU. Two changes, that's it. I think the title game will feature TCU and Clemson, and I still have TCU winning. They're outside the top four right now and they got screwed last season, so I think they will play with a fury unmatched and prove the committee wrong from last season. They're still the best team, in my opinion. As for the Heisman, I'm going to stick with Tevoyne Boykin, but Leonard Fournette has been extremely impressive. If he can do to Alabama what he's done to every other team this year, he will probably win, but Boykin is putting up humongous numbers and he will lead TCU to a title. How do you not award him the Heisman if he does that.

So, there's my corrections from the midway point of the college football season. Tell me why I'm wrong in the comment section, and give me your picks.

Thanks.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. This is his 100th post on SeedSing. Congratulate him by following Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty says Boo-Urns to Halloween

AHHHHHHH

Today is Halloween eve.

I don't care for Halloween as I mentioned in my blog yesterday. Today, I'm going to give specific reasons why I dislike this "holiday" but, I'm also going to tell you things that I do enjoy about this time of year.

Let's get to the annoying stuff. First of all, adults dressing up in costumes. This is fine if you have kids and you dress as a family, I get that. For example, my three year old is going as the Hulk this year, so my wife is going as Catwoman, she's wearing kitty ears and will have a bit of face makeup, our three week old is going as a mini Catwoman, she has a sleeper with cats on it, and I'm going as the Punisher, I'm wearing a Punisher t shirt. This is fine in my opinion because, this holiday is for kids, and more specifically, toddlers. Toddlers like dressing up, going house to house showing off their costumes and getting candy. That's what Halloween should be about and parents dressing up with their kids is totally acceptable. The problem I have is the people in their mid 20's and early 30's, kid free, using Halloween as an excuse to dress slutty, offensive or down right stupid. I'm sick of young kids dressing like "sexy kitty cats", or "nurses". Look at the movie "Mean Girls", and you'll know what I'm talking about. These teens use Halloween as an excuse to dress inappropriate. Or, take Julianne Hough last year thinking it was okay to dress in black face because she went as Crazy Eyes from "Orange is the New Black". That's so wrong and extremely offensive on so many levels. Don't use Halloween as your excuse for being a racist Ms.Hough. And guys with their dumbass " God's gift to women" costumes or their "sexy firefighter" bull shit, give it a rest. You're all a bunch of douchebag wannabe frat boys and you make me sick. Halloween is for kids and candy, not for dumbass Millenials that need another excuse to get drunk and act like morons. Grow up.

I also am completely fed up with the stupid Halloween puns. If I have to hear one more time about"spooktacular" savings or "prices so low they'll frighten you", I'm going to destroy my television. I don't understand the marketing for this. Do they want me to be afraid that I'm going to save money? I thought that was a good thing. I've also been watching a lot of Food Network with my wife who's on maternity leave. They have a show called "Chopped" and instead of sticking with this name, which is a pretty good name for a cooking show, they've been calling it "Choppedtober". That doesn't make any sense. Why add tober because it's October? Why don't they call it "Choppedgust" in August or "Choppedcember" in December? Why does October and Halloween only get this treatment? It's totally baffling and pretty god damn stupid.

I also don't enjoy being frightened and I hate scary movies. I've been to one haunted house in my entire life and I had to remove myself from the situation almost immediately because a worker dressed as a clown scared me so much, I thought I was going to have a panic attack. I'm terrified of clowns and during Halloween, people dressed as clowns, especially creepy clowns, scare me more than anything I've ever encountered in my life. I don't like that people prey on other people that are scared of certain things by dressing in a costume as someone's fear. That's the worst thing about haunted houses. They're designed to startle you, and who really likes being startled? It doesn't feel good. And scary movies, no thank you. This is pretty much the same thing as haunted houses. I know that they're fake, but it doesn't change the fact that they scare me. I saw the "Shining" once, at a sleep over when I was a teenager and that movie still haunts me to this day. My wife suggested we watch it during the day on Halloween and I immediately said no. There's no way I'm going to watch that movie because I know the consequences that will come afterward. I'd much rather watch something like "Cabin in the Woods" or "Evil Dead". Sure, those movies are scary, but they're also campy and hilarious. I don't like straight up horror movies. Never have and I never will.

Now there are some good things about this time of year. First of all, the candy. My god it's everywhere, and 90 percent of it is delicious. Give me a Reese's pumpkin or any kind of chocolate treat and I'm happy as a clam. I love all candy this time of year except for the most foul, grossest shit ever created, candy corn. I also really like pumpkin seeds and I love pumpkin pie. Those are two great things that come out this time of year. My wife loves the pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks and that's only available through November. I love the season. Leaves are falling, there's a nip in the air and it's a good time to be out doors. We get a new "Treehouse of Horror" this time of year, as I explained yesterday. We also get to turn back the clocks one hour, gain that extra sleep, and have shorter, colder days. I like this.

There's a lot of bad, but there's also some good. I may hate Halloween, but at least Thanksgiving, Christmas, cold weather and family gatherings are right around the corner. As a lady on a recent "Chopped" said, "my favorite part about Halloween is November 1st". I whole heartedly agree with her and I love this sentiment. Only two more days until this dumb "holiday" is over.

We've almost made it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. His fear of clowns was reinforced by a bean bag toss board painted like a clown and a faulty laser tag gun. Ask him all about by following Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Treehouse of Horrors is one of the only good things about Halloween

No trick or treating for me. The Simpsons is on.

With Halloween only two days away, FXX has been showing all of the "Treehouse of Horrors" episodes of "The Simpsons".

It's been quite nice.

I wasn't a big fan of the first iterations of these Halloween themed episodes, but since I met my wife, I've grown to enjoy them quite a bit. She has always been a fan and she has turned me into one as well. When they first started to show up, around the second season I believe, they took them too seriously, in my opinion. The first "THOH" was and still is a classic, but the three stories were pretty dark, especially the "Raven" segment. They took Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem , made Homer the main guy from the story and had a raven that had Bart's head super imposed on it. He recited the poem as Homer went crazier and crazier. It was funny in some parts, but for a "Simpsons" episode, it was dark. Homer went insane. This became a tradition after the huge hit that was their first "THOH". They do one every year, usually airing them the week after or a week before Halloween. Today, I'm going to tell you about some of my personal favorites and some of my wife's favorites. I'll pick out mainly segments because sometimes the whole episode isn't great, but of the three segments, one is usually a home run.

I want to start with a recent "THOH". Season 26 had a great second segment with "A Clockwork Yellow". Barney, Homer and Moe played the cronies from "A Clockwork Orange", with Moe playing the Malcolm McDowell character, Alex. This was a fantastic spoof of a classic movie. Moe went through all the same things Alex did, but played it for laughs. For example, when Alex was being reprogrammed, they forced his eyes open and made him watch horrific videos of heinous crimes. In the "Simpsons" "THOH", they did a close up of Moe, eyes pried open like Alex's, but he says, "this is the only way I can sit through terrible Fox programming". It was genius. My favorite part of the segment was when Homer, playing the oafish thug, meets Marge and they play the scene where, in "A Clockwork Orange", it's very sexually graphic and pretty gross, "The Simpsons" played it with Homer eating massive amounts of food, sleeping and totally ignoring Marge. They pulled it off like only "The Simpsons" can.

Season 12 had a great opening segment to their "THOH". It was entitled "G-G-G-Ghost Dad" and it was about Homer's death being for told via a newspaper horoscope. Despite the family's hesitance to let Homer leave, he does anyway, not scared of death, and awaiting a comment from a "handsome" co worker, he presumes it will be Lenny. On his way to work, Homer gets hit by a pick axe, nearly misses being crushed by a metal structure, has an unexplained growth thing and gets bitten by a rattlesnake. He arrives at work and gets his compliment from Lenny, saying," if I may compliment you Homer, that's a mighty nice rattlesnake biting your arm". He arrives home and is fine, but then he eats one single piece of broccoli and immediately dies. He becomes a ghost, eats the broccoli again, dies again and becomes a ghost once more. He has to do one good deed before he can get into heaven, and all his attempts end in failure until he saves a crying baby from going into a busy intersection. Unfortunately, the angel doesn't see this and Homer is banished to hell where Satan gives him noogies and weggies while saying "ha ha" the whole time. It's hilarious.

One of my favorite "THOH" of all time is from season 10, titled "Hell Toupee". In this segment, Homer gets a hair transplant from newly dead convict Snake. At first everything is all peaches and cream and Homer looks great. But, prior to dying, Snake tells the three people that ratted him out that he was going to get them. After the hair transplant, at night, the hair takes over for Homer and controls his actions. He gets revenge on both Apu and Moe, two of the three guys that ratted him out. The third is Bart. This is where the conflict begins. Homer and his new hair do trap Bart is his room, and Bart does everything in his power to convince his dad to not hurt him. Homer finally rips the hair off, thus saving Bart, but the hair comes to life and tries to get him. They get the hair off Bart and while it's trying to escape one of the funniest moments on the "Simpsons" occurs. The hair, that has sideburns, lifts one of the sideburns, a la a fist, and wags it in anger before Chief Wiggum guns it down. It's a classic "THOH" segment.

My personal favorite "THOH" is from season 8 entitled "Citizen Kang". This one is great from top to bottom. We get Bob Dole and Bill Clinton impressions. Kang and Kodos become Dole and Clinton. While dressed like Dole and Clinton, Kang and Kodos hold hands to " give each other protein strains", speak in their typical monotone voice and are together constantly. We get great lines like, "abortions for none, BOO!, ok, abortions for all, BOO!, ok, abortions for some, miniature American flags for all, yeah!" or, " well, I guess I'll just vote for a third party candidate. Go ahead throw your vote away, ha ha ha" and, my favorite coming from Kent Brockman, " Clinton's contributors credited his attitude to an over tight neck tie" when talking about Kang disguised as Clinton saying something very wrong. This is, by far, the best segment of any "THOH" that "The Simpsons" has put out.

I know that my wife loves any "THOH" that has Kang and Kodos involved. She really liked the new one where Sideshow Bob finally gets Bart and keeps killing him over and over again, she's a big Sideshow Bob fan. I know she likes the segment where you find out Maggie is really Kang's daughter and they go on "Jerry Springer". Those three are just off the top of my head. She likes them all, but she talks to me about those more than others.

For all the flack that I give Halloween as a "holiday", I truly despise it, at least we do get a new "THOH" every year. I know that they will always be good because it's part of "The Simpsons" universe and pretty much everything they do is great. "THOH" may be one of the few things I like about Halloween. I still have to deal with the stupid puns and people in their 20's and 30's, with no kids, dressing up like it's a real holiday, but at least I get one thing that I know I'll enjoy and that I look forward to every Halloween.

I guess I'm trying to say, Halloween will always be lame, but "The Simpsons" will always deliver with a great new "Treehouse of Horror".

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He likes people and thinks clown make-up is ok, but people wearing clown make-up are the worst. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: Wu Tang Clan

Today for the greatest American band debate, I'm nominating the Wu Tang Clan.

I love Wu Tang. They're one of, if not the best rap group of all time. People will throw out Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five or Eric B and Rakim, both I will be writing about on a later date, but Wu Tang is far superior. They have great, very memorable songs, but they get my nomination simply based on the fact that almost every single member of the band is still performing rap music and some are doing great things in acting. The fact that these guys not only have hit record after hit record while with Wu Tang, but most of them have had hit records as solo artists. That doesn't happen too often, but some of the members are more known for their solo stuff than their Wu Tang stuff.

I do want to mention some of their famous songs still, and I'll do that right now. Songs like "C.R.E.A.M.", "Wu Tang Clan Ain't Nothing to F$&k With",  "Protect Ya Neck", "Bring Da Ruckus" and "Killer Beez". "C.R.E.A.M." Is an awesome, classic rap song with a great, great chorus. It's an acronym for cash rules everything around me and that's the epitome of a classic rap lyric. I love it so much. "Wu Tang Clan Ain't Nothing to F$&k With" is such a cool, dirty, hard core rap song. They put themselves at the front of greatest rap group with this song. They let it be known that they were the best, and anyone coming to get the crown, step off because you don't mess with Wu Tang. "Protect Ya Neck" is grimy rap at its best. This song is filthy in all the right ways and it gave each member a chance to shine. "Bring Da Ruckus" is a cool rap song about bringing the noise to rap. It's a joyous song about the beauty that is rap. "Killer Beez", while not one of their best songs, has the coolest music video ever. Each member kind of morphs into a bee while rapping and it was very, very cool. Check it out if you haven't seen it.

But, as I said earlier, they're getting my nomination because of the members of this group. This is a murderers row of all time great rappers. Let's list them off right now, RZA, GZA, Method Man, Ghostface Killah, Ol Dirty Bastard, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, Cappadonna, Masta Killa and U God. See, some of the best of all time. U God is still making solo albums, but he's probably the least famous. Masta Killa hasn't made an album since 2012, but he's still active with Wu Tang and he still performs live with the band. Cappadonna was in the first iterations of Wu Tang and he still performs with Theodore Unit, another hip hop group with Ghostface Killah. Inspectah Deck was a performer and producer for Wu Tang and received critical praise for his lyricism and way he rapped. He did some solo work, but now he's a top of the line producer, mainly doing things for Wu Tang. Raekwon is awesome. He's made a great career for himself as a solo artist, and he was an integral part of Wu Tang at their height. He's credited with creating "Mafiosi" rap. He's got one of the coolest styles of rapping that I've ever heard. We all know about Ol Dirty Bastard. He was one of the grossest, yet coolest rappers I've ever heard. His style was all his own and it will never be duplicated. His most famous lyric, "ooh baby I likes it raw", is disgusting and glorious. I loved ODB and I still miss him. Rest in peace. Ghostface Killah is my favorite member of Wu Tang. I love his style of rap, and his solo albums are the best of the bunch. His style is grimy and gritty and politically conscious. He's achieved critical acclaim for his work with Wu Tang and his solo stuff. Ghostface Killah is one of the all time greats in the world of rap music. Method Man has gained more notoriety for his acting than he ever did with his music. Now, that's not to say that he's not a great rapper, he is. Just listen to the Wu Tang song "Method Man". It's about him and he's the star on the track. But, he's taken to acting like a pro. He's been a star, a role player and a cameo guy and he always crushes. Just look at his role on "The Wire". He played "Cheese" and he was excellent as a thuggish drug dealer and, spoiler alert, when he got shot in the face, I was stunned. GZA is a genius. He wrote the majority of Wu Tang's songs and is the founding member of the band. He always seems like the most level headed guy in the room. He deserves way more praise than he gets. Without him, we never would've gotten Wu Tang. He has maintained a successful solo career as well. I love everything the GZA does. The final member, RZA has the most critical acclaim in music and acting. He's right up there with the GZA. Where the GZA started Wu Tang, the RZA produces everything they do. He's also, for most people, the first name you think of when talking about Wu Tang. He's made a ton of solo albums, he's appeared as a guest on a ton of albums and he's, hands down, one of the greatest rappers of all time. He's highly in demand. As far as the acting, not only has he done as much, if not more, than Method Man, but he's also written and directed movies. He's appeared in movies like "Ghost Dog", "Funny People" and "Coffee and Cigarettes" (ed note: Plus he was the Blind Master in the G.I. Joe: Retaliation - awesome movie). In these bit parts, he all but steals the show. He's a great actor. He's also written and directed and starred in "Man With the Iron Fists", both one and two. While these aren't the best movies, they're campy throwbacks to old school Kung Fu movies and he wrote them. That's impressive. He's right up there, influentially, with the GZA.

Wu Tang Clan is an all time great. This blog was easy for me to write because these guys are so famous and so influential to rappers today. Look at a group like Odd Future and tell me they're not striving to be the next Wu Tang. Wu Tang is awesome and they absolutely, 100 percent deserve to be in this discussion. These above reasons are why.

And remember, Wu Tang Clan ain't nothing to mess with.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He yearns for a Wu Tang Christmas sweater. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Let Me Respectfully Explain Why Your Team Stinks: Ty is Sick of Hearing about the Mediocre Cleveland Browns

The football uniforms are the ugliest part of the city

I'm going to get back to some sports hatred today. I haven't visited my irrational hatred blogs in awhile, and I figured now would be a great time for that.

We are almost halfway through the NFL season, and while I was watching the Red Zone Network this past Sunday, I couldn't help but notice how much they kept showing the god damned Cleveland Browns. Never mind the fact that the Patriots and Jets were playing an important conference game, or the fact that the Dolphins were throttling the Texans or the Saints were surprisingly beating down the Colts, in Indy, they kept showing the Browns, who were losing by 18 against the Rams. This made my blood boil, and I realized at that moment that I hated the Cleveland Browns. Not rational, had never thought that much about them, but the constant cut away to Johnny Manziel on the bench and their douchebag of a coach Mike Pettine with his snarky face on the sideline had me very irritated. So, I'm going to try and explain for new found hatred for the Cleveland Browns.

Let's start with the name of the team and their former owner. Paul Brown owned the Browns in their first go around in the NFL. Let's put aside the fact that he was a terrible owner and look at the name of the team and the colors in their uniform. They do have brown jerseys, their away jerseys by the way, but their pants and jerseys, and most importantly, their helmets are bright, bright orange. Why aren't they called the Cleveland Oranges, or the Cleveland Bull Dogs since their fans are called the "Dog Pound"? I'll tell you why, Paul Brown wanted the team to be named after him, so he called them the Cleveland Browns. How egomaniacal and arrogant is that? You own a team and you name them after you. This isn't a child, or a pet, this is a professional football team. This is what a child would do if they owned a team. They'd name them after themselves. It's so stupid and very annoying. I was informed by RD that the Paul Brown family now owns the Bengals and the Bengals stadium is called Paul Brown Stadium. Apparently this guy and his family can't get enough of hearing their own name. It's pretty appalling. Their uniforms are also pretty dreadful. When they do wear the brown away jersey, the brown looks like poop. Sometimes brown can look good on a uniform, like the old school Sonics uniforms when the space needle was brown amidst the green and yellow. It worked for the Sonics, the brown that the Browns use is terrible. It's the worst kind of chocolate pudding color. Then the helmets are an almost highlighter orange. It's so bright. It's more orange than a basketball. This is a terrible, terrible choice. The people who designed and created these uniforms have worse taste than I do, and I wear t shirts and shorts everyday. Basically, I have no taste for fashion, but I feel like I could come up with a better uniform.

Now, lets look at some of the coaches they've had that have sailed ship almost immediately, or they fired without giving them a chance. Guys like Eric Mangini, who everyone thought was a genius, but now he struggles to find work as a coordinator. They thought he could turn this team around and gave him a big contract. He did not last that whole contract. Bill Belichek got out of there as fast as he could. He took the job, realized the shit show that was the front office and bounced. Now, although a lot of people will call him a cheater, he's one of the best winners in all of the NFL. Mike Holmgren tried the whole GM/coach thing, and the coaching part worked for less than two years. This team has never really had real NFL caliber talent, and Holmgren realized that and just stayed on as GM. He left as the GM a couple of years ago when he realized that they wouldn't let him take the players he wanted in the draft, or trade and sign players they needed. The front office wanted to sign and trade and draft players that would sell jerseys, they don't seem to care about winning all that much.

Speaking of the front office and decisions they've made with players, let's look at two recent picks, Trent Richardson and Johnny Manziel. To Richardson's credit, he had one good season, his rookie year, but he could not produce after that. They should've seen this coming. When he was at Alabama, he wasn't even the primary back. Alabama doesn't feature one running back, they play multiple. This works for them in college, but when these guys get to the pros and are expected to be the "man", they can't live up to the hype. Mark Ingram and Eddie Lacy are realizing this now. Lacy can't stay healthy and Ingram is the starter in New Orleans, but they barely run the ball. Richardson just recently was cut by the Raiders, so his NFL career is all but over and he will be considered one of the biggest busts of all time.

Now, god damned Johnny Manziel. Johnny freaking Football. What a waste of talent and a roster spot in the NFL. He's a spoiled rotten rich white boy that hasn't had to work for anything in his life and feels entitled. Sure, he won a Heisman, but so did Matt Leinart and Chris Weinke. He also clearly has a problem with alcohol and possibly drugs. He checked himself into rehab for "unspecified reasons" this summer and he seemed to be back on track, according to ESPN, but he was recently pulled over for speeding, allegedly pushing his girlfriends face into the window of the passenger seat and having alcohol on his breath. He has a problem. He's also not that good of an NFL player. He abandons plays too early, he throws passes way too short or way too long, gets destroyed by linebackers and safeties when he scrambles and can't read defenses. He's a smaller, worse version of Colin Kaepernick, and Kaepernick is truly terrible.

Which brings me to my final and most important part of why I hate the Browns, the continuous coverage of this mediocre franchise on ESPN. They talk about the Browns almost every single day, as if they're relevant. They are a perennial 4-12 or 5-11 team at best. But, watch ESPN and you'd think that they were competing for playoff contention and Super Bowls. They talk about the Browns as much as they do the Patriots, but it's all love for Cleveland and all hate for New England. Why is that? Are the people at ESPN in bed with the people running the Browns? Sure seems like it to me. To put in even more of a perspective, they cover the Browns more than the Packers and the Broncos combined. That's insane. Those two teams have been to Super Bowls recently and in the Packers case, won their Super Bowl appearance. And the Broncos have Peyton Manning and one of the top defenses in pro football. They're relevant. They talk about Josh McCown and Johnny Manziel more than Tom Brady these days and I thought that was impossible. The Browns are irrelevant and have been for more than a decade now. Johnny Manziel will never be the star that ESPN wants him to be, the front office will always screw something up, they'll continue to make stupid hires for head coaches and continue to lose. They're a down trodden franchise and people need to quit talking about them like they matter. These are the many reasons I hate the Browns.

Now please Cleveland Browns fade into obscurity. It's your destiny.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He is in the market for a Johnny Clipboard shirt, help him out. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.