Black Labs

My girlfriend, Amanda, and I recently bought two black lab puppies. Currently they are 12 weeks old. We've had them for about a month now. I am really surprised at what good pets they make. I have had dogs before, but never labs. They can be trouble sometimes, but overall they are very good. I am amazed at how smart they are and how fast they are learning things. They know their names, come when they're called, they are crate trained, and they figured out the doggy door at our house. We have a boy and a girl dog. Onyx, the boy, is a little slower than his sister Torre. I did not pick Onyx's name and am not crazy about it, but Amanda loves it. I picked Torre's name because of Joe Torre, the former manager of the New York Yankees, and current manager of the LA Dodgers.

Torre appears to be the smarter dog by far. She is a lot more relaxed and seems to take to things a lot faster than Onyx. Torre was a middle sized puppy from a litter of ten. Onyx was the runt of the litter. Onyx is a lot more hyper, and is a little slower at understanding things. Amanda and I have dubbed him "Special Ed." She finds this humorous because she is a special ed teacher, and found it only fitting that one of her puppies has a "learjavascript:void(0)ning disability."

So far, things have been great with the puppies. I love coming home and getting greeted at the door by both of them. They are always very excited to see the both of us, and follow us around EVERYWHERE. It is fun watching them develop and seeing the different things they learn everyday. It seems as though when one dog figures something out, the other catches on relatively soon. They are great pets and are a lot of fun to play with. I think Amanda hasn't fully caught on that eventually they are going to be big dogs. She likes to think they are going to stay puppies forever.

When it comes to disciplining them, it turns out I'm the softy. Amanda is very strict and yells at them constantly. I however, have trouble yelling at them because they are really cute. It's kind of like a good cop/bad cop situation. I let them break the rules once in a while, like getting on the couch. Apparently that is a big no-no, but I don't mind having them on the couch with me. They have started to realize when they do something wrong. This is apparent when they want nothing to do with Amanda when she is yelling, they usually go to their crate or to me.

I'm very glad we got these two puppies, they are a lot of work, but a lot of fun at the same time.

Political Correctness In Sports

I do not have a problem with political correctness overall, just in sports. When teams have to change their logos and names because of this I think it is a travesty. For one, names and logos are points of pride. A team calls itself the Indians, for example, because Indian warriors are thought of as fierce, proud, fearful people. The idea behind a logo or mascot is to identify a team with the characteristics of that mascot, not to belittle a culture of people. The only instance that I can think of that is overly offensive is the Washington Redskins. This is blatantly a racial slur towards Native Americans. This would be an acceptable to change the name.

Where do we draw the line though? Because teams are changing their names to avoid stereotypes, should Notre Dame change the longstanding name of The Fighting Irish? Should the Pittsburgh Pirates and Oakland Raiders change their logos because they pictures of stereotypical pirates? The eye patch could be offensive to sea roaming, ne'er do-wells (pirates). Should the New York Knicks change their name because its an outdated word for pants? Should the Yankees change their name because its an offensive term for northerners?

Take for example my high school, Oneida High School. For as long as I can remember we were the Oneida Indians. Since the age of political correctness, we are the Oneida____. When I was in school, all of the Indian logos were taken out of school. We built a new gym and on one baseline it says "ONEDIA" and the other baseline is blank. On TV and radio we are still referred to as the Indians, but there is no such proof in the school itself. By using names like Indians, we identify that team with the proud characteristics of Indian Warriors. They are proud symbols that are celebrated by fans, not belittled.

Does it end when all teams change their names from Indians to the subtle, less offensive, Peacocks? Nobody is afraid of a peacock. This bring in Syracuse University. The logo used to be The Saltine Warrior, which was an Indian Warrior proudly shooting an arrow straight up into the sky. In my opinion, the coolest logo in sports. The statue of the Saltine Warrior is still on the Syracuse Campus today, but it is no longer in use. Instead of the proud Saltine Warrior, they use Otto the Orange. Fruit does not strike fear into the hearts of opponents.

Something needs to change before every team in sports has to change their name to something non-offensive. Its not even Native American groups that are causing the problem, most of them have no problem with the use of Native American names and symbols. Its the colleges, and team owners that are afraid of pissing people off, for no reason, that are causing the problem.