S.1 Ep.3 "Mr. Denton on Doomsday"

Al Denton played by Dan Duryea is the former quickest and sharpest shooter in the West. However, the audience sees Mr. Denton as the washed up town drunk doing anything even humiliating for a drink. One evening Al meets a traveling salesman, Mr. Henry J. Fate, played by Malcolm Atterbury. Mr. Fate is a "Dealer in Everything". He offers Al a potion that will bring him to his former glory for ten seconds. A young shooter with the name of Pete Grant, Doug McClure, comes into Al's small stereotypical Western town and challenges him to a duel. What Al doesn't know is that Pete has also met Mr. Fate. When they meet for the duel, Al sees his opponent has the exact same empty tiny vial of potion. Both men are left with injuries in their hands which disallows them to ever use a gun again. It's always an interesting night when fate intervenes.

Mr. Denton realizes that Mr. Fate was the ultimate blessing in a covered wagon. He'll never be able to shoot again which means he'll never be asked to participate in a duel and take a life again. This episode shows how desperation can make a person go to such measures as taking an unknown substance to get ahead.

SPIN

This tale is the oldest in the book. Yes, the metaphoric book of life we all know. Is it that metaphoric? Perhaps the reference to the book is really Grimm's Fairytales!

Think tortoise and the hare or sports players and steroids. We are a society known for finding ways to one-up each other and get ahead of the other guy. Hard work is great and all but what about hard work done twice as fast and produce twice as much content? Since our world is about efficiency, shouldn't we all be on steroids, Ritalin and Viagra? If you're not the best, you're behind.

Baseballs' Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire have admitted to steroid usage. Ultimate Fighting Championship's (UFC) Chael Sonnen and James Irvin have all tested positive for steroids.

An article on San Francisco's SFGate online publication states that nearly 1 million high school students use steroids for sports. It's honestly not that surprising to me. We're all taught to be the best we can be. Some of us need help.

Besides the competition of sports, another competition is battled everyday. Up the the plate are the students who take 15-21 credits a semester, work part time and support themselves while stress slowly kills them. The majority of high school and college kids wish they had ADHD or ADD because then they could be prescribed the magical drug that makes it harder for them to compete against those kids who are diagnosed with such disorders.

Adderall, Ritalin, Concerta and Focalin are students 4 best friends. Take one in the morning and typically students are up until the next morning. Oh, the time saved! The paperwork completed. The essays come easy and the workload becomes manageable. Is it fair? Not really. Is it logical? Of course! Our societal motto should be, Can't deal with it? Diagnose it!

An article from TheWeek.com links to another article from The Chronicle of Higher Learning. I would link the CHL article however, it's premium content and will more than likely be hidden away from public display shortly. I'll post it as my next blog post for those interested.

Nonetheless, the main point is COLLEGES ARE TRYING TO BAN OUR FRIENDS! This isn't Facebook! You can't just click a button, sign an electronic signature and never see them again! How dare they try! Sure, their points made sense, but it's a catch-22 because where would all the ADD kids go to school? Segregation? Discrimination? They will all become the super efficient race and the rest of us will be left behind.

Whomp, whomp.