Rant #1,551: Bits and Pieces

Thanks for all the well wishes for my wife, not necessarily here, but she received a ton of them on Facebook.

She really is the greatest.

Now, for some other pressing issues of the day ...

Mets, Pepsi, Porch Beverage Agreement: The National League Champion Mets no longer have a beverage partner. Yesterday, Pepsi and the Mets parted ways after six seasons.

Thus, the fabled "Pepsi Porch" is no more, and that massive Pepsi sign at CitiField has to come down.

Pepsi said that it already had a strong foothold on the New York baseball scene, with its beverages being sold at Yankee Stadium, and it wanted to concentrated its baseball efforts at the refurbished Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Now, when a team is successful--and the Mets were in 2015--they usually gain sponsors, not lose them, so this is a rather odd situation indeed.

And we are talking about millions of dollars involved in such deals, so perhaps they simply could not come to an agreement for the 2016 season, and Pepsi chose to move on.

Who will have exclusive rights to beverages at CitiField now? Well, if it isn't Coca-Cola, who else could it be?

President, Bibi Meet to Discuss Violence In Israel: President Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, met the other day to discuss various topics, including how to quell the violence that has overtaken parts of Israel.

Bibi once again vowed that the ultimate goal is a two-state solution, but let's be honest about it, he was simply stating what our President wanted to hear.

There can never be a two-state solution until the Palestinians dump Hamas as their leader and stop their barbaric ways against Israelis.

Currently, there are daily slashings of Israelis for nothing more than being Israeli, and many of the slashers are young Palestinians, some even pre-teens, so it just proves that they are being taught from the womb to rub out Israelis.

Some justify the violence, saying that it is the result of years of antagonistic behavior against Palestinians by the Israelis.

However, anyone with their thinking cap on knows that many people think that this "antagonistic behavior" started the very day that Israel won its right to exist, in 1948. Its very existence is "antagonistic behavior," and as the first non-Muslim country in the Middle East, Israel has always been a target for its neighbors.

The problem is that Israel doesn't take such behavior lightly, and will strike back quickly and thoroughly to protect itself against this idiotic violence.

If the Palestinians want their own country, act like a 21st century people, not like barbarians, and maybe they will get somewhere with their supposed plight.

How anybody can support this surly bunch is beyond my comprehension, and should be beyond anyone's comprehension.

Sexting Scandal In Kings Park: Right here on Long Island, there is a huge scandal that is unfolding in usually quiet Kings Park, a rather well-to-do section of Suffolk County.

It appears that a sex act between 14 year olds, or at least young teens, was captured on cell phone video by a third young teen, and the video was sent around to numerous students in the school district.

Not only are the kids in trouble who participated in this situation, but the school district has suspended numerous kids for nothing more than being sent the video.

Look, No. 1, this is child pornography, and no one wants to be saddled with having sex offender status placed on their heads, something that will impact them the rest of their lives.

Why kids are being suspended for being sent this garbage is another matter. The school district is probably protecting itself, in particular if any of this video was viewed on school grounds. I think that they have been advised that they could be accused of being accessories to this crime if they don't show that they are at least doing something to police its view on their property.

The whole thing may simply boil down to these two factors: why do young kids still not understand that what goes on the Internet stays on the Internet, even if it is wiped clean off computers, tablets and phones, and second, why are phones permitted on school campuses in the first place?

We live in a society that seemingly has no cares about sex at all. Kids can see it for free on the Internet, see acts that are way beyond their years to understand. Kids are growing up too fast, and they allow things to go on between themselves, in public view, that they don't think about until probably after the act is done.

As for cell phones, why are they permitted on campus to begin with? Some would say that it is a safety issue, but you know what? If my mother needed to speak to me due to some emergency at home, all she had to do was call the school, and they would locate me and get the phone call to me.

There is absolutely no reason to have cell phones in school, and they should be banned, period.

And we must continue to try to teach our children that putting themselves in jeopardy on the Internet is wrong, wrong, wrong, period.

University of Missouri President Resigns Over Racial Furor: The head of the school was forced to resign after students claimed that he was insensitive to racial unrest at the university.

Well, the lunatics are definitely running the asylum over there, and anyone with a brain on his or her shoulders knows why he had to resign, and it has nothing to do with racial unrest.

The school's football team threatened to not participate at all in football activities, including playing games, which would cost the university about $1 million per game not played. It would also foul up the future recruiting process, and throw the entire athletics program into complete turmoil.

That is the reason he was forced to resign. Rather than cost the school millions of dollars, he kind of made himself a martyr for peace there ... more like a piece of the dollar than anything else.

The school and its college community amounts to roughly around 40,000 people, and there have been a couple of racial incidents over the past few months that detractors claimed were handled insensitively by the administration.

So they decided to make the president a scapegoat, and in this PC world, where "white guilt" is prevalent, they knew what they could get away with, and they went about doing it.

You know that this was simply an anti-white situation when some claimed that the president benefited off his white privilege, and they would have it no more.

They want more educators of color at the school, they want this, they want that. They don't want the best to teach at their school, they simply want more black educators.

If these educators qualify, fine, but if they don't, and they are only being hired for their skin color, then who is that benefiting exactly? Not the vast amount of students trying to get an education there.

And what of the football team? They are not there to be educated, they are there to play football, which is another story for another time.

What should have happened is that the president should have stood his ground, and the poor, spoiled brats would have lost their athletic scholarships. I am sure mom and dad would be so happy about that, now having to fork over thousands of dollars to put their kids through school like the majority of people have to do.

But this is not a perfect world, and yes, the racial incidents were quite unfortunate.

However, to take the school hostage was just as unfortunate, but our society allows this to happen with this "white guilt" nonsense.

Some feel it is payback time ... do you feel this way?

Happy Veterans Day: Yes, today is Veterans Day, and it is not a day to simply be off from work (I am not), and a day to shop 'til you drop.

Let's honor our real heroes, our military men and women who defend and protect our country and allow us to live our lives like we want to live them.

My dad was in the Marines from 1949 to 1951 or so, as part of our defense during the Korean War conflict. He never went to Korea--my father in law did, also as a Marine--but he served his country here.

These are our real heroes, not our overpaid and overpampered athletes, not kids taking sex videos of themselves, not people making ludicrous demands because they can get away with these demands in the environment we are in now.

Our real heroes are the Marines, Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Coastguardsmen who protect our country from threats from others.

I salute them today, and we all should.

Let's not forget what this holiday is really all about.