Tony Soprano Says...

"You know my feelings. Every day is a gift. It's just, why does it always have to be a pair of socks?"

Traitors

In physiology, the word, 'accommodation' has a special meaning. It's what a nerve does when it's constantly stimulated--say, by a paper cut. It hurts like hell right away...and certainly keeps hurting for a long while...but not as severely as at first. The nervous system is 'accommodating' the pain to make it more manageable.

This is a lot like the response of the body politic to the Bush Administration. After a while, you're simply dulled to more outrage in what those people are doing to destroy our country. But even amidst the nightmare of Iraq, the lingering sorrow of Katrina, the endless hypocrisies and outright lies, we need to marshall strength to fully internalize the danger represented by the firings of U.S. Attorneys who were deemed insufficiently political.

One of the hallmark boogeymen of the radical right is the 'activist judge'--someone who will put his own personal political views above the law. As with so many other of their yelps, this is pure projection--assigning to others the exact thing which you, yourself, are guilty of.

A case in point is the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., longtime clubhouse for activist judges of the radical right. Two members with impeccable whack-job credentials, David Sentelle and Laurance Silberman (now retired), have been vital instruments for attack dog conservatives. Sentelle was a full co-conspirator in the costly and fruitless Ken Starr follies. Silberman served as co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, where he helped fully shift blame from the White House to the intelligence community for the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Other current and former GOP appointees to this panel include Robert Bork ('high executioner' for Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre during the Watergate era), Clarence Thomas (steadfast supporter of 'states rights' until he flip-flopped in order to deliver the throne to Bush in 2000), Antonin Scalia (see description for Thomas), Ken Starr (raised as the son of a Texas Church of Christ minister, which fueled a lifelong obsession with other people's sex lives), and current Chief Justice John Roberts (the 'good one', who claimed no intent to overturn Roe v. Wade, despite being married to a member of the oxymoronically named Feminists for Life).

These 'jurists' define the danger of the 'activist judge'. Historically, they will bend or break the law in any way required to make sure that their particular beliefs are served. These are the kind of people who voice no concern when a delegation of right wing congressional aides is dispatched to Palm Beach County to bang long enough and hard enough on glass windows until the court-mandated recount of a presidential election by terrified workers is permanently ended. Scalia is the one who explained his vote on that same election issue as necessary, or '...candidate Bush might be deprived of his victory'. Not an activist bone in that body, is there?

Anyway, if you're clued in at all to the controversy over the U.S. Attorneys General, the White House now admits its role in a plan to replace certain of those prosecutors based on criteria that included those who, "...exhibited loyalty" to the administration, or those conversely who, "...chafed against administration initiatives". The U.S. Attorney in Arkansas was dumped in order to make room for an assistant to Karl Rove. The young, 30-something aide at the Justice Department assigned to carry out this plan was himself lobbying for appointment to the prosecutor's job in his home state of Utah.

The story gained momentum when it was revealed over the weekend that a prosecutor in New Mexico had received phone calls from a GOP member of the U.S. Senate...and a GOP Congresswoman...to make sure indictments of key Democrats were announced before the 2006 elections. When he refused to make that promise, he was hung up on. And soon thereafter, he was gone.

How can this be possible? Be legal? Actually, it wasn't--until a provision allowing it passed through unnoticed as part of the Patriot Act. At the time, many Americans trusted these people to keep us safe. But what happens when the people protecting you...are the ones you need protection from?

The simple paper cut may mend over time. But the Bush crew slices deeper every day. There is no accommodation. Their incision has now reached muscle, and threatens bone. How do we make the pain go away?

diderot

Media Sins: Sex Sells

I don't know that I've ever been called a prude, but even I have my limits.

I enjoy prime time dramas that can present issues revolving around sexuality in an intriguing or even humorous manner--the new NBC show Friday Night Lights is a good example, I think. But as we've all seen, too often sex presented in a purely exploitative light is the last refuge of a desperate TV executive producer.

A case in point is the Today Show--once the indomitable force of morning TV. But recently, ratings have declined. Consequently, we get a pre-show tease this morning promoting the following stories:

• Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff calls homosexuality 'immoral'
• Presidential candidates with histories of infidelities--can they be elected?
• 'Victim' of a sexual liaison with a (hot, blond, young female) teacher in Colorado on set for an 'exclusive' interview (!)
• New research showing that men's sperm count may decrease with age (!)

Everyone knows what kind of topics infest afternoon fare like Dr. Phil and Jerry Springer--but the Today Show? At 7am?

This is the same Today Show that will regularly lament ever-earlier sexual experimentation by teens, and the pornographic dangers that loom on the Internet.

Sophocles is generally credited with first writing the words, 'look to thyself'.

Maybe he had just finished watching Matt and Meredith.

diderot

Blame Baseball

Even the nation's sportswriters sometimes get tired of writing about baseball and its steroid 'scandals' (while somehow ignoring the fact that the average size of NFL players mysteriously increases by about 25 pounds of muscle every two weeks).
So, as a change of pace, these writers have now picked up a new fungo to beat MLB ownership about its collective head--the multi-market game broadcast license granted exclusively to DirecTV.
Now, off the top, I'm not saying this is a good thing. Even though I don't know how any of the traditional networks, or even ESPN, could ever devote enough bandwidth to give you access to virtually every game played. Would cable systems even agree to add to, or 'borrow' enough of, their existing channel menu to allow this? I don't know--and again, that's not my point.
What needs to be underscored is that this scenario--giving all-game rights exclusively to DirecTV--is actually not newsworthy at all. Because the NFL has been doing exactly the same thing for the last five years or so.
Have you ever heard a peep of complaint about that? No. Because it's the NFL. Deep in the recesses of the sportwriter mind is simple contrast: "Baseball ownership--bad. All other sports ownerships--good."
I worked in print and broadcast news for 20 years. I can assure you that sports reporters are not highly regarded among their peers on the basis of pure intellect.
This opinion is not unwarranted.

diderot

Bill Walsh

Good story in Sports Illustrated this week on Bill Walsh, the former 49ers coach and his bout with leukemia. It had a little special meaning for me.
Way back in 1986 I was at a clinic in Chicago at the O’Hare Hyatt. Bill Walsh was one of the guest speakers and of course the room was full. He did a nice job speaking on the West Coast Offense but a little too sophisticated for most of the high school coaches (especially the ones with huge bellies who wouldn’t know a dig route from a stalk block). He thanked the audience and with Dennis Green left the podium stating he had to catch a plane back.
About 20 minutes later, after trying to explain some of what he said to a couple other guys, I was going back to my room. In a corner of the lobby were Walsh and Green, pretty much hidden out of sight, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway because the free beer for the coaches was on another floor. I just wanted to go over, introduce myself, thank him for his insight and leave him alone. I pumped up, walked over, introduced myself as a HS head coach down in the Peoria area and so forth. It turned out that his plane was delayed and rather than waiting at the airport they decided to wait at the hotel.
I started to walk away and Walsh said, “Coach, if you’ve got a couple minutes I could go into a little more detail on the offense because with the time I had we just scratched the surface”.
'No Coach, I have to go drink beer with a bunch of high school guys up on level 3 can you wait'? He looked at me, saw that I was being my usual sarcastic self and started to laugh. So there I was in the seat next to Dennis Green and Bill Walsh in the time it takes to say, 'mother may I'. I was there for exactly 46 minutes--I know it was 46 because I looked at my watch and timed it. When a concierge came to tell them their car was waiting we got up, shook hands and he complimented me on the quality of my questions and my overall comprehension. Now he could have been lying through his teeth but I don’t think so, not at all. So here is what I learned (other than football X’s and O’s) from Bill Walsh:

--NEVER overestimate your opponent--not underestimate but overestimate. His theory was that too many coaches worry about situations that will probably never happen instead of practicing their own stuff to make the opposition burn practice time in needless preparation. Boy, is that one true. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen defensive coaches change everything they are trying to do so that they can “cover” your formations and motion. My defensive guys would always worry about motion here and motion there and I would tell them, “What do they run from all these motions?” And they would say, "the same stuff they always run." So what are you worried about? And they would always give me the, “what if”. Screw the what if--nobody has that much time to do all that stuff. Consequently I learned to use lots of formations and motion but very few actual plays. Worked for me and for Walsh.
--Never stop tweaking what you do, especially when you are successful; keep finding ways to disguise and misdirect.
--Attitude and effort are more valuable than talent. He said, 'now when you have Jerry Rice you have both which is ideal', but always take effort and attitude over talent.
--Just because no one is doing it, don’t be afraid to try something innovative and new because from that you get your best ideas. He made the comparison to surgery and told me that almost every major surgical procedure has come from what was learned treating the wounded in war. Interesting.
--Treat your assistants with respect and dignity and always help them to be upwardly mobile if that’s what they want to do. This line is the main subject in the article. No one in football history has had a greater influence on the number of coaches now working in the NFL and college.

Hortense

A Chicago Story: Cheeseburgers

The Three Guys were emailing yesterday and I mentioned my strong memory of the first time I ever ordered something by myself in a restaurant: a cheeseburger when I was about 10 or 11. It was a single-counter, bowling-alley shaped greasy spoon in my neighborhood. What I remember most is how quickly I finished that and paid, absolutely petrified I was doing something wrong.
Oketo answered with a similar, but much better story:
'It was a place called Brown's, after its owners, Dickie Brown (who went to my grammar school) and his older brother (whose name escapes me), who was killed years later drag racing on Dee road when it still known as Forest Preserve Drive. Anyway, same thing, I took my 59 cents and ordered a cheeseburger.
Now, I was afraid that I would be seen doing this since 59 cents was a lot of money to my family and they would not want it wasted on a burger. Like you, I can still remember how afraid I was of ordering wrong or being seen. Once they gave me the burger I took it out of the store and road my bike to Oriole Park to eat it. Theory being it was natural for me to be at the park but not on Harlem avenue--if seen.
So, I get to the park but by the time I get there the grease has eaten through the paper bag and the cheeseburger falls on the ground. The bun opens and the meat lands on the ground. It picks up stones, cinders, dirt etc. However, I was not about to throw away this watershed moment so I scraped off the crap and ate it. It's funny. That incident is so ingrained in my head I can still remember the fear of being seen and the actual taste of that burger with all the sidewalk condiments. Why would those experiences be so vivid for each of us after all this time?'

Two Sets of Books

Amid the fallout this week over the conditions endured by some rehabilitating war veterans at the Walter Reed Medical Center, there is an admission that should not be ignored--in fact, it should be shouted from the rooftops.

ABC News anchorman Bob Woodruff--himself a casualty in the Iraqi theatre--reported that there are actually 'two sets of books' recording the number of wounded U.S. service people in this pointless war. The first, for public consumption, puts the count at about 23,000. The second, the one we've never seen, says 205,000.

205,000.

Why the discrepancy? One spokesman explained that a lot of those additional patients are just seeking dental treatment.

Remember, the people who launched this war--those hideous, delusional, treasonous liars--are the ones who tout their concern for our 'brave people in uniform'. But they are, in reality, the ones who ignore them.

Shame on them.

diderot

Who am I?

Let's face it. We're Americans. Nothing fascinates us nearly as much as ourselves.

But are we who we think we are?

Here's another way to test yourself...and your loved ones, if you can make them promise to reveal their profile (scroll down to the questions).

diderot

17%

When I was in the news business, we aired a lot of stories about 'first woman this', and 'first woman that'. Couldn't get enough of those landmark accomplishments.
You don't hear nearly as many of those anymore. Maybe this is why.
While equality is still some distance away, there's no disputing how far the world has come, on a number of fronts. Progressives are winning.
Now, if we could just get those poor women out of their burkas...

diderot

In Defense of Baseball

In spring, a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of...spring training.
And I have no doubt this baseball season is going to be a trying one, with attention all season long perversely tuned in to Barry Bonds' pursuit of the career home run record. Sort of like the sporting version of the Anna Nicole Smith decomposition. (And how ironic that Bonds reportedly is subjected to constant death threats because his accomplishments are 'tainted' by drug use. It wasn't too many years ago that Hank Aaron, the man who holds the record, was himself subjected to similar treatment because his efforts were 'tainted' due to the color of his skin.)

In any case, this will only ratchet up the complaints of trouble-makers like hortense who proclaim, "baseball is NOT the national pastime anymore!" To which I can only reply, "duh!"

Baseball was dominant in the first half of the last century for a lot of good reasons. First of all, it was effectively the only sport. The NFL was in its infancy. College sports were mainly the concern of the few who went to college. The NBA and NHL and, amazingly, even snowboarding didn't even exist yet.

What's more, the game was woven into the fabric of life. Everyone played in the afternoon. You would probably take your break from the factory floor and run into the sales office, where they had a radio, to get an update on the score. On the way home on the streetcar, you might hear, "yeah, Appling doubled his first two times up, drove in three runs, and we held on, 4-2." At dinner, especially if there were sons in the family, information would be shared on exactly what had happened...and, "by the way, did you hear the darn Yankees won again?" Even a disinterested wife or daughter could not avoid being exposed to the names and the lingo of the game. It had no competition; it did not divide on the basis of politics or religion (and eventually, even on race); and in most places, it was as safe as talking about the weather, even if Cubs/Sox or Yankee/Giant/Dodger loyalties did generate more lively discussion in some cities.

Yes, those days are gone. And in that sense, obviously baseball is no more the national pastime than churning your own butter. But this is different--FAR DIFFERENT--from the erroneous accompanying claim that baseball is no longer America's favorite sport. The elevation of this myth to accepted fact is largely backed by the assertion, "football has better TV ratings." Like a White House spinmaster standing behind his podium, this is a distracting, fallacious claim designed to deflect attention from the actual truth.

Yes, on a Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati in the middle of October, more people are going to be watching the Bengals game on TV than were viewing the Reds play on a Tuesday night a couple months before. But so what? The NFL plays one day a week. The NBA and NHL a couple times a week. Colleges follow a similar schedule. Baseball plays virtually every day for six months. Detractors claim that makes for an 'unfair' comparison. So what? You want fair? Have the NFL play six times a week.

It seems obvious to the point of absurdity to compare how many people actually buy tickets to attend sporting events in a season--period. (And total TV ratings follow in lockstep). Isn't this the way leadership is judged anywhere else? Is the nation's 'number one' automobile determined by how many vehicles are sold after 7pm? Do corporations report their sales and earnings just based on what happened south of the Mason-Dixon line? "Top" is the equated with "total".

So stop for just a second and guess how many total people annually pay to attend (or view on TV) the following sports: Major League Baseball; minor league baseball; the NFL; college football; the NBA; and college basketball. Rank them in order in your mind.

Then take a look at this and understand who unquestionably is #1:






diderot