I've been tinkering with things in my head, trying to come up with an all ecompassing manifesto as to what i believe in. It's a little overwhelming, so instead, i'm going to just go point by point. My goal is to have 10 points, but that's mainly only b/c I'm a conceded human being and i think that my five fingers are so utterly important.

1) A tie only goes to the runner when you are up at bat.

While there are those who would label me as a bitter, negative person, I tend to disagree. I just think I see clearly and the world just happens to be a miserable place infested with selfish human beings. But, and this is a rare occurence, I'm willing to admit that I may be wrong. The thing that caused me to question my own beliefs happened at a softball game.

No matter how honest a team is, no matter how small the stakes are, there is always going to be controversey during the game. There will always be a close play where one team swears that the runner was safe, while the other team would bet the farm that the guy was out. How can this be? how can 10 sets of eyes (belonging to honest and fair people) see black, while another set of 10, equally fair and honest, see white? If they aren't trying to cheat, then what's the explanation?

Expectations and hopes must play a huge part in observations. If i'm in the field, i'm expecting and hoping that the guy is going to be thrown out. As the play develops, those hopes cloud my objectivity. I see the guy as "out", in part b/c that's what i want to see. It's not conscious or malicious....it's just human nature.

If honest people can be clouded during a simple softball game, it stands to reason that they could misjudge much bigger things. I no longer think that Americans are "evil" in their blind loyality to such a horrible government. Nobody wants to be from an evil country. They want to hold onto and cherish the misguided idea that their country is the best in the world. They want their baserunner to be safe.

I sincerely doubt that this new theory of mine will make me any less angry when complete idiots rave about the heroics of Pat Tillman with subjective rhetoric of "no, but he was defending our freedom...it's DIFFERENT." Even though such sheep can't help being so blind, the fact that they are still affects me. They allow the evil to exist. But regardless, at least now i can sleep easy that they aren't evil themselves, just very weak. Almost handicapped, if you will.