We love the Premier League at Beacon of Speech. But there's a huge shadow across the league this year, namely Manchester City's 114 (out of a possible 115) Premier League financial and non-cooperation violations. What is a fair punishment? Oh, you've come to the wrong place for that. If you go by past league precedent, it would be a 160 point deduction. You deduct 80 points this year, City is relegated, then you deduct 80 more points when they return. What would that look lik

It was an historic day in the SEC: (1) Georgia lost to Auburn (6) Alabama lost to Tennessee (7) Texas lost to Florida It is almost unprecedented that so many SEC Top 10 teams lost in the same day. But let's focus on the Tennessee game for right now. Tennessee wasn't some heavy underdog, they were ranked # 14 in the country and had recent success at home against the Crimson Tide. Alabama were only 7 point favorites on many betting lines. Many Volunteer Fans were confident for

The Interlopers: Preview Under Screen Shot On Sunday Night, I started to watch The Interlopers. After 45 minutes, I gave up. It was too sparse for my tired brain. But, because I'm neurotic, I was afraid that I potentially could have missed a great movie, though I doubted that. So I cheated and went to Rotten Tomatoes, there were exactly 2 reviews to guide my thought process: 1/2 Star out of 5 - "Had to shut it down after 45 minutes." 5 Stars out of 5 - "I would give this movi

Over at cleveland.com, one of their crack reporters touted: The Cleveland Sirens "Will Be Absolutely Impossible to Ignore." When I clicked the link, the article was behind a paywall.... And it was from August. Hmm, so far very easy to ignore. Googled WNBA Sirens tickets, they aren't on sale yet, but memberships are so you can buy tickets in the future. I won't be doing that. The Cleveland Rockers played downtown from 1997-2003, I never went to see a game, I never once tried t

If you're in the Education Business, you are very familiar with the name Abby Zwerner. For those unfamiliar, Abby Zwerner was a first grade special education teacher that was shot by one of her 6-year-olds (Student X) after her school's administration failed to act on multiple reports that the young student had a gun in 2023. There were a number of red flags in the case: The student was a Special Education student that had an IEP (Individualized Education Program) that dictat

Transcribed from Howard Stern's Promotion of his new HBO Max Show: I have no greater joy in life than knowing that I work with great people and I come into a company that appreciates me who allows me the flexibility as I get older to put together a schedule that I want. It's an amazingly unique opportunity in media to have that kind of freedom Sirius XM, God Bless You. Think I'm making a transcription error? Here's the video. At Howard Stern's peak, right before he jumped to

Should you telecast executions? The simple answer is no. Once you do that, you start down a slippery slope away from a model First World Country to a banana republic in the Third World. In the First World, executions should be exceedingly rare. When they do occur, they should only be performed years after an offense, and after all legal avenues have been exhausted. The question of guilt should a clear, beyond a shadow of a doubt. Even then, the execution should be low key, an

We try so, so hard to write with a level head at Beacon of Speech, but it doesn't always work out that way. Back in 2024 was the last time we lost our cool, adding Lori Vallow to our list of people FOR SURE going to hell: Lori Vallow Former NFL'er Aaron Hernandez Rock Hall of Famer David Crosby Former Pop Icon Michael Jackson Now today I add my first Pastor, Robert Jeffress of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. What did Jeffress do that was so egregious? Here's his qu

According to the USA Today, Colorado State's Jim Mora was caught in a confusing situation: "Speaking after the game, Mora confirmed he had relieved Summers of his play-calling duties mid-game, but that it was his defensive coordinator's decision to leave the field. He did specify that Summers was "no longer with the program." Jim Mora? That guy has got to be 90 years old. What's he doing coaching Colorado State? Oh, it's Jim Mora Jr., another Nepo Baby Coach who couldn't fill

Last night, videos of Metallica started to flood my Facebook Reelz feed. Not from the band itself, but from entities like Visit Las Vegas and The Venetian. When I went to bed, I whined to my wife, "I wish I wasn't deaf, I would've liked to see Metallica at the Sphere." Then I paused, "even if I could hear, I wish I had $10,000 laying around the house to go see them." Editor's Note: Metallica Tickets at the Sphere START at $1,500. Since I live in Cleveland, the rest of the est

When I woke up today, I had no intent on writing this list. None at all. Then I got tipped off to Andy Greene at Rolling Stone's Top 10 Songs About Cleveland List. It was terrible. Let's start with the introduction: Taylor Swift Wrote a Song About Cleveland. Here Are 10 Other Great Ones You know what? Here's Greene's crappy list. (10) “Pancho and Lefty,” Townes Van Zandt (9) “Missing Cleveland,” Scott Weiland (8) “Cleveland Is the Reason,” Kid Cudi (7) “Cuyahoga,” R.E.M. (6)

Back in 2024, we wrote the borderline mean article: Rooting Against Nebraska QB Dylan Raiola Why would we root against a poor 19 year old football player, straight out of high school? Because Dylan Raiola, while in high school, committed to play football at Ohio State. Then Georgia. Then Nebraska. Why did he choose finally chose Nebraska? What did the Cornhuskers offer that the Bulldogs or Buckeyes didn't? Well, according to ESPN, Dylan Raiola chose Nebraska because of......G

Do you know why the New England Patriots won all those Super Bowls? Because Bill Belichick was a jerk with a one track mind. He didn't care if you helped the Patriots win last week, he didn't care if you could help the Patriots win in two weeks, he only cared if you could help the Patriots win THIS WEEK. After Tom Brady's career ended, a reporter confronted Brady about being "relatively" healthy. Brady then ran through a laundry list of injuries he played through, including m

We are loathe to talk about our day jobs at Beacon of Speech, but I saw something so patently absurd that I felt compelled to give you a peak behind the curtain. I work as an Administrator for the Avon School District. We are critically short of support staff, specifically bus drivers. Because I have my CDL, on some days I find myself driving a school bus. Let me tell you about Avon. It is the wealthiest municipality in Lorain County, it is one of the Top 25 Richest Cities in

Now there wasn't enough room on the headline, but it should read: How the New Salary Cap Would Kill Baseball in Cleveland, Minneapolis, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, and Miami. But since Beacon of Speech is based just outside of Cleveland, we're going to start there. According to Spotrac, these are the bottom 10 teams in payroll: Record / Average Age / Payroll (2026) Year in and year out, the Guardians challenge for the playoffs while having a bottom 5 payroll in Major League Baseba

Over at Revolver, their readers declared that these are the Top 5 Live Albums of All Time: Iron Maiden - Live After Death Alice in Chains - Unplugged Pantera- Official Live: 101 Proof Metallica- Live Shit Binge and Purge Kiss Alive Uh, no. Other Top Live Album Lists: Rolling Stone Louder Variety Billboard Deaf Man Vinyl But to be honest with you, Live albums are notoriously tricky to rate. Why? Because what is your angle? Is it a band that can re-create album cuts with even g

Everyone in America has watched The Wizard of Oz at one point or another, there's no one unfamiliar with the concept that there's a Wizard of Oz movie. If you want to read a nice blog about the story of the film, here's one: The Story Behind the Film. But until this week, I don't think I realized how omnipresent the movie continues to be in American Culture. Earlier this week, a co-worker of mine was excited to go see The Wizard of Oz at The Sphere in Vegas. Starting price fo

In 2024, Quarterback Nolan Good led the Avon (OH) Eagles to the Division II State Championship in Football over Cincinnati Anderson. After that magical season, Good chose local MAC school Kent State as his NCAA Division I school of choice. Despite taking a few snaps in 2025, for all intensive purposes, the season was nothing more than a redshirt year for Good. As a Redshirt Freshman this year, he was 2-4 passing with about 40 yards rushing in very limited duty. Artist's Rendi

The above meme is how Beacon of Speech feels about the Middle East in a 4-panel nutshell. You can stop reading right now, I don't care. But as an American, these are acceptable views on the Israeli/Gazan conflict Don't Care. Israel is right, Iran is wrong. Gaza is right, Israel is wrong. Israel is wrong, Iran is wrong, Gaza is wrong. We should bomb Iran. We shouldn't bomb Iran. We should continue to support Israel monetarily. We should defund Israel. Any combination of Israel

Back in February of this year, we wrote that the band Mushroomhead had effectively split into three bands: Three Mushroomheads ??!??. Pretty strange for a band with only one Top 40 Single (2006"s Simple Survival) and two Top 40 Albums. Fast forward 6 months, and I could now argue that there are 4 Mushroomheads! Man, I never thought we'd be returning to the Mushroomhead article. For those too lazy to click on the original link, our comments from the first article are in quotat

I just celebrated my 25th Wedding Anniversary with my beautiful wife, so I am VERY out of touch with what the kids are up to today. But...... Standing near the back of the Oktoberfest Crowd this past weekend, there was an old man wearing lederhosen, leading the festival-goers in chants of "Who Stole the Keeshka?" Since I was the Designated Driver, I did not revel in the sing-a-long, I grew tired of it fairly quickly. As my eyes wandered to people-watching, I noticed a woman w

On September 9, 2026, Mary Kay Cabot wrote another softball article filled with optimism for the Cleveland Browns: Can Deshaun Watson improve to 8-0 against the Jaguars in his first NFL start in 22 months? Mary Kay Cabot I read the first paragraph and literally started screaming NO! No, he can't. The Cleveland Browns were 3-23-1 since they came back in 1999 on opening day. So Mary Kay was optimistic, Fred at Beacon of Speech was pessimistic. Final score? Jacksonville Jaguars

THE ALIENS: According to WIRED this week - The Trump Alien ‘Disclosure Speech’ Rumors Are Reaching a Fever Pitch. Do I believe the aliens are going to end modern society? If they have mastered interdimensional travel, they could...but I think they would have done it by now. I am absolutely positive there are aliens. THE AI SINGULARITY: According to the Wall Street Journal this week - How Would AI Actually Kill Us All? Do I believe AI is going to kill us all? I don't know. Acc

The Equal Earth Map in Dark Blue / The Mercator Map in Light Blue As you well know, the shape of the Earth is an Oblate Spheroid, not unlike a kid sitting on a beach ball. How well does an oblate spheroid convert to two dimensions? It doesn't. For the last 500 years or so, the The Mercator Map has been the classroom standard, despite making countries in the far Northern Hemisphere grossly oversized. It also gives the appearance that Antarctica is the biggest nation in the wo