Poor Sportsmanship.

There has always been a well established antagonism between athletes and the officials overseeing their sports. In their desire to win they see the officials as the reasons for their failures. Sometimes they are right. Officials are humans who make mistakes. After all, no one is perfect. However their calls are final. Rarely are their decisions overturned. At the U.S. Open Saturday a line judge called a foot fault on Serena Williams. It was clearly a bad call as video showed that Williams had not faulted. However, her reaction was over the top. She had her say, started to resume play, and then decided to say some more. That decision cost her the match. She obviously wasn't having a good day. The match had been delayed 32 hours because of rain. Serena had dropped the first set 6-4 and was losing the second. The bad call pushed her over the edge and she lost it. It still doesn't excuse her for her reaction. She has been punished, being fined $10,000 and faces further punishment. After something like this happens it takes a little time for the publicity storm to pass. Fortunately for Serena, Kanye West provided the perfect distraction.

MTV's Music Video Awards have a history of being controversial.
In 1991 Bret Michaels and C.C. DeVille of Poison got into a fistfight. In 1996 the fighters were David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen, though they used words instead of fists. In 1999 Lil' Kim paved the way for Janet Jackson with a very revealing outfit. Britney Spears has shocked people several times with her outfits and behavior several times. Eminem had his fight with Triumph The Comic Insult Dog in 2002. 2003 centered on the kiss between Madonna, Britney Spears and Christine Aguilera. I could go on, but you get the idea. This year however Kanye West topped them all. Taylor Swift won the award for Best Female Video for her song "You Belong with Me." As she was giving her acceptance speech West came on stage to proclaim Beyonce's video for her song "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" was one of the best videos of all time. West found himself tossed out of the video awards. I don't remember where I read it but someone commented "I didn't think that was possible".

The fallout for West was swift. This isn't the first time his remarks have gotten him in trouble. He seems to suffer from terminal Foot In Mouth Disease. Even President Obama called him a jackass. He offered a half-hearted apology on Jay Leno's show, where he revealed he is taking some time off. Considering public opinion today, if he didn't he would get a very bad reaction wherever he appears. It wasn't until Taylor Swift appeared on The View that West finally called her and apologized.

I really think he doesn't understand why people are upset. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Tomorrow I will talking about a major disagreement I have with someones opinion. However much you disagree with someone, you don't do it the way Kanye did. When someone is getting the spotlight you don't spoil their moment. Of course not everyone thinks she deserves the award. There were five nominees and each of them got votes. She was the winner. It takes quite an ego to go up there and proclaim your opinion is the right one. I am impressed with Beyonce's reaction to the whole controversy. Her video won the award for Video Of The Year. She called Taylor swift up so Taylor could give her acceptance speech. I have never been a big Beyonce fan, but it was a very classy move on her part and I applaud her for it.

Things will not always go our way. Our favorites do not always win. (Spoken like a true Cubs fan.) Complaining about it doesn't solve anything. It only leads to arguments. The best thing to do is say I disagree and move on. Both Serena Williams and Kanye West have tarnished their reputations. Time will tell if they have learned from their mistakes.
Travis was right. Adverbs describe verbs.
Today's question is Grade 2/Grammar.
How many singular nouns are in the following sentence? "Jeff went to the park to see the flock of seagulls."

I didn't know they had seagulls in Indiana, Jeff. As far as the nouns go, I knew how many were there. 135-22.