2014 End Year Wrap Up In News, Pop Culture and Current Affairs, With An Awards Type Twist

Another year is ending and it's time for my second list of the year. Not many repeats but plenty of newbies. It appears ignorance continues to be as big of an epidemic as Ebola was.

Repeat:

OJ/Zimmerman award: Oscar Pistorius. You got off scot free. My advice: run with your artificial legs and hide.
Violent NFL player: (tie) Ray Rice and Suh. Ray, Ray, Ray. C'mon man, worry more about behaving than having to defend yourself when things go south. Suh, this goes double for you.

Dirty Butt award: The Kardashians. As much money as you ladies have, you all could put on some clothes.

Unjust award: The U.S. Justice System. You will continue to receive this award until matters improve. People have had enough of this unjust violence and killing.

Network that needs to be canceled: VH-1. The awful programming and TV movies continues. You are not a quality network at all when Hit The Floor is arguably your best show.

Newbies:

Corporate rant: Krispy Kreme doughnuts. When you all have a special, you need to staff and plan properly. I work in a packaging environment and your sluggish work ethic would not be tolerated. Perhaps you need the motivational manager from Target to come in and put some fire in you all.

Fake out award: Josh Shaw. C'mon man I know you're just a young man. But you should have learned how not to lie long ago, like kindergarten.

Troubled athlete: Jameis Winston. You're down to your last strike. Go ahead and go pro before you taint yourself further

Television rant: One Hour Premieres/Finales. This breeds an attitude of laziness and lack of creativity. I know you're required to produce x amount of shows/series. A two parter should neither be the premiere or finale. Cliffhangers have long been played out also.

Ratchet behavior: black weddings. Please, my people, try not to keep hungry guests waiting at the reception. And have everything organized. Here's a suggestion: ensure that the ceremony and the reception are at the same venue or close by.

Show Me The Money: Todd Gurley. You were on your way to the Heisman. The only honorable thing you did was being honest about breaking the rules.

Restaurant rant: TGI Fridays. Your endless apps promotion is like false advertising. You should make it more clear that it's one appetizer per person per visit.

Questionable behavior: these new names for children. It's like parents are being too creative. Some of the names are even hard for the adults to spell. Follow the KISS principle and stop trying to make children bigger targets for bullies.

School rants: excessive teacher workdays and awards days. I don't care what anyone says, the students are out of school now more than they ever have been. And all these excessive awards shows is doing is giving them an extra sense of entitlement.

Cell phone rant: Alltel to AT&T. You guys have NOT handled these merger well at all. You all better pray that I am not contacting the FCC in a few weeks.

Arrogant athlete: Brad Keslowski. You win one championship and you think you're the best in the game. Sit down somewhere and get back in line.

Overpriced accessory : athletic watches (Garmin, Fitbit, etc). How about RunKeeper, or one of the many other smartphone apps out for free and give me that $200?

Government issue: Roads in South Carolina and North Carolina. They haven't been properly maintained in over five years and people's vehicles are being destroyed. I suffered three flat tires over a weekend, unacceptable!

Ignorant outspoken one: Elizabeth Lauten. You should know you can't come after the President's children.

The what the what: Malaysian plane sonars. Ok this is two missing planes in a year's time. Get it together please!

Happy New Year and continue to live a life that will keep you off of lists like these

Domestic Violence: The NFL edition

This is my second piece on domestic violence and including rough beatings.

Unless you have lived under a rock this week, you know exactly who Ray Rice is and what he did. The details are clear, but it appears the timing of the video evidence is in doubt.

There is also Adrian Peterson and Greg Hardy. Hardy had a CDV case pending from the summer and in the wake of the Rice debacle, was deactivated from this week's game. AP28 was also inactive after pictures of his severely beaten child surfaced.

OK now I am not going to devote much time in this article to AP or to Hardy as the details are still fuzzy and it appears commissioner Roger Goddell is simply trying to make an example out of everyone with his zero tolerance policy on many issues.

Now don't get me wrong. I am very much against any blatant domestic violence. There are differences between discipline, defending yourself and simply beating the brakes off of someone when there are alternate methods. Also, I applaud Goddell and his efforts to keep the league safe and family friendly. He is setting a strict standard.

However, it appears the video was in his hands longer than he admitted. Why he is avoiding that issue (which he has been known to do) is a mystery.

Now in my mind, you cannot justify the Rice situation. He beat his then-fiancee like a man, and then try to drag her out of the elevator. He definitely deserves to be punished, possibly for the entire season. However, another team should give him a second chance if he can show he can control his anger and try and handle things, such as his alcohol intake, more carefully.

Either way, Goddell will still be league commissioner and he will continue to run it in a no-nonsense fashion. The NFL players need to get used to that and realize while they are human, the public eye is always on them.

Do you think Ray Rice should play football again? Do you agree with Goodell's punishments?