Only Adding To Our Legend

Witness History

Being an avid basketball fan I've been following the NBA playoffs pretty closely for the past two weeks. With the first round wrapping up, it's been pretty exciting to say the least. Z-Bo and the Memphis Grizzlies whooped on the San Antonio Spurs, making it only the fourth time an 8th seed has beaten a number 1 seed. We all saw the return of Frobe Bryant with this dunk over the Hornet's Emeka Okafor in game 5. The Bull's Derrick Rose demonstrated his MVPness all over the Indiana Pacers. And to top it all off, the Atlanta Hawks beat the Orlando Magic 4-2, even after Jameer Nelson thought he could tell the future like Ms. Cleo.

With all the said and done, the top headline in the NBA remains the same. It's not the question of Kobe Bryant tying Michael and winning his sixth ring, or Phil Jackson retiring. It's not the clinic Derrick Rose has been putting on (he has without a doubt become a top 3 player in the league this year). It's not even about what team will win the whole thing. It's about LeBron James. All eyes are on King James, The Chosen One, Bron-Bron, Cleveland's Most Wanted, or whatever people are calling him now-a-days. When LeBron infamously said that he was bringing his talents to South Beach at the end of last year to play along side Dwyane Wade and that other bum, the bar had been set. At that moment it became bigger than the Miami Heat, and even bigger than the rest of the league. It became about LeBron winning a ring, and winning a ring now. When the Heat began to struggle early in the season critics and fans alike labeled them as a bust. 1/3 of the way into the season and the experiment seemed to be failing. Then they began to look like the team they should have been and went on multiple win streaks. They became the NBA's N.W.A. They went from fan favorites to the league's most hated team. Then came the late game issue. While the Miami Heat were destroying the weaker teams, when it came to winning close games against tougher opponents they struggled. The Heat are 1-18 in making shots in the last 10 seconds of the game while they are down 3 or fewer points. The clutch problem had been with them all year and continued into the playoffs when LeBron was blocked by Sixer's Elton Brand on a potential game-tying lay up in game 4. Miami would go on to win the series 4-1.

So as Miami prepares for the second round in which they face the Boston Celtics (who swept Carmelo and the Knicks) , the pressure is up and the goal remains the same. He no longer can blame losing on his team like in Cleveland because he has another top 5 player in Wade. The goal is winning, and anything else will be a failure. A failure that may go down as one of the biggest in sports history.

A Drug[law] Free America?

So I'm watching HBO's The Wire the other day (if any of you know me then you know that it is my favorite show) when one of the episodes catches my attention. Somewhere in the middle of the critically acclaimed season three I get to the episode titled Hamsterdam. Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with the series, Hamsterdam is a section of Baltimore where the police have made drug dealing legal. The rules are actually quite simple. If you sell drugs in the designated areas the police will leave you alone. If you choose to sell drugs elsewhere the police will fuck you up and then proceed to charge you with the harshest penalties. It essentially works until the national news circuit gets word of it prompting city officials to shut it down. Now although it worked in the TV show my question to myself is would it work in real life?

Short term answer: Yes. Long term answer: HELL NO

Now to clear something up when I say drugs I mean hard drugs such as heroin, cocaine, etc. (the ganja should have been legalized a looong time ago anyway). So going back to the question, at first it would work. To be honest it would really work. Just think, it would be a society where the two worlds would be completely separated. If you to want indulge yourself in the drug culture you know exactly where to go; if you want no part in it you'd never see it. In the show the areas where routinely patrolled by uniformed cops, so there would be some supervision. With all the drug traffic in one small area the rest of the city would be drug free, making the community better as a whole. Crime would be down and moral would be up. Even going back in history we see that the first thing prohibition did was make bootlegging increase, so it's safe to say that perhaps the same thing is happening with the drug problem. Besides, it seems that drugs are here to stay, so why not just make them legal in the most run down part of the city?

So it seems like the obvious thing to do is to make a Hamsterdam in every city. But what happens when the honeymoon period is over? We all know that besides the obviously destruction drugs do to the community and to those who use it one of the main reasons drugs remain illegal is the violence that is associated with it. And where does this violence stem from? One word: competition. Competition for customers, product, turf, and everything else is the one aspect of the drug game that would make something like Hamsterdam impossible in the real world. In an area that small and regulated it would become saturated with all different kinds of dealers all looking to make a dollar at everyone else's expense, and that would lead to a situation where everyone loses.

Although an idea such as Hamsterdam seems like a dream solution in all reality it's just that; a dream. A dream that would later turn into a nightmare. Maybe there is a solution to America's drug problem, but making an area for dealers to do their thing isn't it.

New Music: Fabolous - The Soul Tape

After months of waiting Loso finally releases his new mixtape The Soul Tape. With appearances limited to Paul Cain, Red Cafe, Lil' Wayne, and Lloyd Banks it's not feature heavy which is a breath of fresh air. The usual Fab mixed with all soul samples. One Word: Niiiice

Download Mixtape | Free Mixtapes Provided by DatPiff.com

Witness History

A Drug[law] Free America?

New Music: Fabolous - The Soul Tape

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