It seems like only yesterday when middle aged white people were up in arms about a new show on MTV – Jackass. Featuring the now infamous Johnny Knoxville (not to be confused with Bears Rookie WR Johnny Knox), and his pals Steve-O, Wee Man, and Bam Margera.

After 3 seasons Jackass was canceled (not without a few movies being released however). Shortly thereafter Bam was given his own TV series on the network; Viva La Bam, which chronicled the presumably fictional life of his family and friends. Many felt his antics towards his overweight father, and befuddled mother were funny, which is why the show lasted from 2003-2005.

Tired of his act, and looking for new life interests, he become engaged to a young lass and married her in 2008. Then, in a typical move for most gentlemen who get married, starred in a in a pornographic movie produced by Gina Lynn. Yes, you read that right – Bam Margera was in a porno. I asked my pastor at the local church if it was acceptable for me to Google Gina Lynn for this story, but was told my young feeble mind would only be corrupted with sinful images. I’ll have to assume she has a physique men find desirable and want to fornicate with.

Of all the potential outcomes after Viva La Bam, porno was probably not high on the list. Passed out in a ditch from OD’ing? Probably the most likely. Suffering major head trauma which left him as a vegetable the rest of his life? Based on his reckless disregard for his body, I’d have said that’s a definite possibility. But porn – not exactly what most of us had in mind.

This officially marks the end of Bam’s career (not that it was much to begin with). He now can start the healing process, and make more television that appeals to 13 year old punks. God speed Bam.

Google may be dropping their “google.cn” in China altogether, citing frustrations with restrictive Chinese laws regarding content.

Story from AP (Courtesy of Yahoo! News):

BEIJING – China tried Friday to keep its censorship row with Google from damaging business confidence or ties with Washington, promising good conditions for foreign investors but giving no sign it might relax Internet controls…

If a compromise isn’t worked out within the next few weeks, the company intends to shut down Google.cn and pull out of China. Rubin said Google hasn’t set a deadline for breaking the impasse…

Images from the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protests cropped up in Google.cn’s search results Thursday, leading some Web surfers to conclude Google had begun to defy censorship rules. But Rubin said Google.cn is still censoring its results to comply with China’s law and protect its employees there.

As is well known, China has a strict set of censorship rules for all content within its borders.  One example of this is obviously… porn.  Just last year alone, over 5,000 people were arrested by Chinese authorities for pornography-related offenses.  While Americans certainly love their porn, turning it into a multi-billion dollar industry, it could be argued that porn itself could be done without.  At the very least, if a country had a moral opposition to porn, American businesses could learn to operate within China on those terms.  It’s not like porn-related concerns are really going to interfere with other ventures, right?

In 2008 “The Dark Knight” became an astronomical success, heightened by a cunning performance from Heath Ledger before his death.  Currently the film has a domestic gross of over half a billion dollars.  Think of the business opportunity available in China, the world’s largest population.  Now remember that opportunity was stanched before ever getting the chance to flourish.

Quoted From CBC News (full article here):

It did not elaborate on what it meant by “cultural sensitivities,” but the New York Times speculated that the Hollywood studio may have been concerned Chinese censors would be offended by scenes shot in Hong Kong, including those in which Batman, played by Christian Bale, nabs a Chinese money launderer.

Another potential point of conflict, it noted, was a brief appearance by Edison Chen, the Hong Kong singer and record producer who appeared in sexually explicit photographs posted on the internet in 2008.

“Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Brokeback Mountain” were also banned citing similar reasons.  So it’s clear that huge opportunities for both creative expression and financial prosperity are losing their legs in China for the sake of hoarding information.  As a result, Google has grown tired of China’s restrictions, and has threatened to drop “google.cn” from its operations and pull out of China entirely.  Keep in mind Google is a company that believes information should be free, and information should be freely accessible, so it’s not entirely unrealistic to see Google do this.

Exacerbating the problem is the fact Google believes they, as well as other U.S. companies were attacked by Chinese hackers.  Specifically, human rights activists were targeted.

From Official Google Blog: (full story here)

…we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.

I agree with Google’s take on this, as most Americans probably would.  It is time for American companies to show China that when it comes to free information, there are firm rules.  Either all of it goes, or none of it.  Right now Google is one of the few companies with the international fame and domestic success to both embarrass China with its withdrawal while thriving economically.  More power to them, and hopefully other companies follow suit until China changes the way it handles or hides information.

Whenever the calendar rolls over to a fresh set of double digits the mainstream media loses its collective shit. You can’t buy groceries without seeing 50 tabloids looking to capitalize on the phenomenon. Going on Yahoo yields links to the greatest failures of the decade (Balloon boy made the list!)

No one would do this unless schmucks like you and I became very intrigued by their opinions and thoughts on the past 10 years. But what fun is just rehashing the past 10 years when I can look back in history and come up with some funnier and ultimately less disappointing lists than the starting lineup of Tim Kurkjian’s all decade team in baseball.

The 60’s

Best Thing: USA! USA! We put a man on a celestial body not named “Earth” for the first time in the history of mankind; and we did it before those dirty Soviets. I was born about 15 years later, after the fall of the Berlin wall. This is important to know, because whenever I encounter a Russian, a white hot rage runs though my body. I want to defeat them at everything: sports, economics, political policy, poker, drinking, and most importantly space exploration. If they put a man on mars before us I’ll consume rat poison on the spot. All this, and I didn’t even grow up during the Cold War.

Worst Thing: People were so stoned and high during most of the decade that it wasn’t until 1969 that people bothered to look at the world around them. Coincidentally this was when a small pocket of nerds and scientists who never used illicit drugs launched a rocket to the moon. Almost 75% of Americans thought they were still high when watching the footage.

The 70’s

Best Thing: Umm… Uhhhh… (consulting Wikipedia)…. Civil Rights!? The beginning of the Environmentalist movement? Good things for sure, but this was possibly the most boring decade. Looking back, I’m glad I wasn’t born until the 80’s.

Worst Thing: The Oil Crisis. Had we only taken a more progressive approach to finding a long term solution for energy, maybe we wouldn’t need to have diplomatic relationships with terrorists. Instead, we just bullied our way into more oil. This is like sitting down on your couch and having the button on your jeans come undone. It’s a sign you need to workout and lose weight. Instead you change into sweatpants.

The 80’s:

Best Thing: The Jamaican Bobsled Team! Here’s how bizarre this was. If you go to the summer Olympics in Rio in 5 years, ask someone if the Ukrainian Beach Volleyball team qualified. I’m guessing there are going to be a lot of blank “you can’t be serious, really?!” stares.  There were certainly more memorable events during the course of the decade, but these 4 guys from a tropical climate captured the worlds attention for 2 weeks during the winter of 88. They also inspired a movie, Cool Runnings which to this day remains one of John Candy’s finest performances.

Worst Thing: AIDS. Of all the decades worst this has to be the top of the list right? We went from doing lines of coke off a girls ass then fucking her, to having to carry around condoms and a written contract with a pre-penetration safety and well-being checklist. All because 2 dudes got confused.

The 90’s

Best Thing: The Internet goes live. Nothing more needs to be said, but I will anyways. It forever changed the way we communicate and watch porn. No other invention in the last 50 years even comes close to the cultural impact of the internet.

Worst Thing: Political correctness. White people were (and still are) afraid of being seen as sexists, racists, and necrophiliacs. They start acting like a woman has never seen or heard of sex acts while at work, hire minorities so they are seen as progressive and most certainly not racist, and generally do nothing about the whole necro thing. Can’t win em all.

The 2000’s

Best Thing: YouTube. Human beings do stupid things. Thanks to this wonderful service, we are now all able to revel in the misfortunes of others. I firmly believe that we as a people have devolved due to this. People will now risk their own well beings to get 100,000 views on YouTube. You don’t see whales purposely beaching themselves for a laugh. Even with that said, YouTube ranks as changing entertainment forever.

Worst Thing: September 11th. Whenever an entire religion (albiet the extremists) attack your countries basic principles of freedom, that is never a good thing.  Everything I said about the Soviets in the 60’s can be doubled for Islamic extremists today. The attacks changed the world as we know it, and most certainly not for the better.