The Table: Bad Badminton, Snoop Dogg Roars, and a 12 Year Old Thug

Philip NelsonInternational

Olympic scandal is hitting the Badminton Court. What? Is this really a story? I know the British just received their first gold in rowing. I know Phelps won his 19th medal and now is the greatest Olympian of all time. I even know that the US is in the lead right now with 24 medals over China’s 23. But when there is lack of heart in Badminton, something has gone totally wrong with sport. The Chinese and Korean teams are blamed for playing less than enthusiastically in the first rounds to get a better draw. It is called strategy, and the Olympic committee can complain all they want. If you create a system that is not competitive just to draw out a tournament, then this is what happens.

What is the most ridiculous sport in the Olympics?

National

We go through many changes as we age, but few of us can ever get status to change our name. Recently, in the same chord with P Diddy, Hannah Montana, and Prince, Snoop Dogg has changed his name to Snoop Lion. After Snoop’s recent religious journey to the holy island of Jamaica, a Rastafarian priest suggested he is more like a lion than a dog. After hours of smoking weed and a minute of clarity, Snoop Lion appeared from the tent. He has also released a Reggae album under the Lion. He might also be heading to Celebrity Rehab soon. That is almost as weird as Dennis Rodman creating a children’s book.

What animal should be associated with your name?

Local

With the dog days of summer coming, violence often heats up on our asphalt streets. We have a 12-year-old thug holding up 5 people in the Penn area during the daylight hours in less than 24 hours. We also have a strong show of support to keep a 22-year-old menace off the streets of Kensington. While the Philly gun courts are some of the worst in the country for convictions and keeping felons off streets, these two stories speak of the tension and problem that most of us have become immune to in the news. We have to send a stronger message about gun violence in this city, and the time to ramp up the message is now after the Aurrora killings. Many of us are hostages in our communities because of guns and thugs, it is time for legislation to fix it. An unregistered gun in the city should equal jail time and should be treated as a violent crime. Move if you don’t like it.

Do you think Philly should have its own gun regulations? 

Comments

[Nick Carraway]

Snoop Lion! Not as hardcore as Snoop Dogg but I like it. I think is change my name to Nick Hippo. Not because I'm large, but because I enjoy laying around in the water but can also be a deceptively good runner.

[James Dugan]

I think it is time for the Snoop just to go down to one name. I have to get his reggae work. If I had to go with a name, well, I like hawk. They soar high above and like roadkill. I like to drive far and eat at diners along the way.

[Patrick Edmonds]

1. I hate this argument, but I would go with archery and shooting.
2. I'd like to be associated with a tiger, but some prick already has that as a first name and gets lots of attention, so I guess I'll go with a Honey Badger.
3. I think the nation needs new gun laws, but Philadelphia specifically needs new judges before more laws. Many of the necessary laws to get the truly violent criminals off the streets already exist, but the judges in Philadelphia simply refuse to throw the book at some of these thugs. Every case should be as aggressively argued and supported as the one you mentioned above and things would clean up very quickly. In the suburbs of many of these big cities, when you're a convicted felon arrested with a gun, you go to jail for a long time.