Cultural Conscience

Tim Donaghy, The NBA, And Moral Bankruptcy

     It comes as no surprise, at least to me, the woes now besetting professional sports. They are but sign and symptom of what is wrong in our society today. Donaghy, an NBA referee accused of betting on games he officiated as well as some he did not, resigned from the league on the 9th of July after he and his attorney almost certainly got wind of an on-going FBI investigation of Donaghy’s alleged connections with organized crime. Apparently, Mr Donaghy incurred a debt to the mob of some $100,000 of dollars, and the mob, as is its poisoned way of doing business, found a way to “recruit” Mr Donaghy into doing its business. To say this puts the 150 plus games, - including playoff games - Donaghy officiated into question is a major understatement.

     First, because the assumption is Mr Donaghy is the only official involved, and only his game results are being questioned. Rumors persist that Mr Donaghy may well take others down with him, if he goes. The NBA had enough problems as it was without this coming along. I have been a basketball fan my whole life, from high school through college level and the Pros when the Indiana Pacers first showed up in the old American Basketball Association. In fact, it was the old ABA that contributed the last major change to the NBA, the three-point shot. Since then, what I’ve noticed changing, is these games are really becoming boring, and many of the players attitudes are best described as ” lackadaisical“. The league needed a major shakeup -maybe this will do it-but I doubt it was Commissioner Stern’s preferred method of change.

     Of course, part of the problem is Stern himself. To say he “coddled” his referees is an observation made by many writers. To say his judgement might be questioned is simply to state a certainty.   Indeed, something Donaghy and Stern have in common, the Pacer - Piston basketbrawl , illustrates what I mean. Donaghy, and the other officials at that mess, were all accused of allowing it to get out of hand by “underreacting” to the circumstances.

     Stern “over reacted” insofar as he threw the book at Ron Artest by suspending him for the entire season while the Pistons Ben Wallace got off with, I think, a six game suspension and he actually started the fight. The thing to understand here is the Pacers owners, the Simons, had long been personal friends with Stern and even went to New York to try to get a break on the unfairness of Stern’s decision. The result was a break in the years-long friendship between Stern and the Simons.

     In the case of Donaghy, he has shown signs of either/or mental and emotional instability before. Trouble with a neighbor, a postal worker, a fellow referee at a union meeting, and apparently several golf course incidents are reported. An unstable personality, coupled with a gambling problem, is a recipe for disaster.

     The implications of this disaster go far beyond sporting leagues. Everyone wants to judge Michael Vick and the dog fighting. Everyone wrings their hands over damage to the NBA image. No one wants to realize the sporting leagues problems are but the mirror image of society’s problems as a whole. “We The People” bred them. And who is to blame for this? Ah! There’s where the trouble starts! The “Success at any Cost” crowd has put money ahead of morality at every turn. The “Personal Responsibility” bunch is all about how everything is your fault and if people would just “own up” to their errors, all would be well. I also include the “Failure is not an Option” bunch. Noble, indeed are those words, but realistic they are not. Sometimes faliure is not simply an option, but unavoidable. Lip service is still given to “You learn more from your failures than you do from your successes”, but few really believe it.

     With the emphasis on success, and success defined as material wealth, who has any right to feel outraged by a referee perhaps throwing games, and feeding a gambling addiction? It’s a fair bet the most upset ones are in fact the gamblers who probably lost money they shouldn’t have, and who are they most upset with? Those who took money from them in bets that were tainted by possible “interference” in game calling. The Personal Responsibility crowd - and I too favor taking personal responsibility - fail to take into account that “no man is an island“, that we are the products of our time, our culture, and they leave their imprint on us as we do on society as a whole.

     And this “driven” society, when it beholds the Michael Vicks, the Tim Donaghys, the Barry Bonds, will so quickly rise up in judgement and condemnation and judge them “personally”,  but at no time will they see “They” are US…

          Written By Farcall At The Request Of The Sportswizard.

Michael Vick, Fighting Dogs, And A Media Circus

     Breaking news from ESPN; NFL Commisioner Roger Goodell  has told Atlanta Falcons Quarterback Michael Vick to stay out of training camp until the league reviews charges against him. As everyone knows by now, Vick was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for animal cruelty and abuse at property he owns in Richmond, Virginia where evidence points to dog fighting, gambling, and basically the torture death of numerous dogs, mostly Pitbulls. A visit to several blog sites and to the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) website shows feelings run high in this case.

     Now, I hate to sound like I’m defending Michael Vick, if he is  found guilty of the charges. Indeed, you’ve got to remember I’m viewed as a bleeding heart Liberal in some quarters and I absolutely ABHOR any form of animal cruelty. My natural inclination is to say that if Vick and friends are guilty as charged, they should be soaked in water and electrocuted, shot in the head, hung, or body slammed on the floor until dead, as is alleged against these defendants in their treatment of losing dogs. But, sooner or later, unlike Conservatives, a Liberal finds his reason comes back to the forefront.

     The fact is, Michael Vick hasn’t been found guilty of anything, yet. We have what is called a presumption of innocence until proven guilty in a court of law, not in the court of public opinion. PETA  has an online petition calling for his suspension from the league. Posters on blog sites I have visited today are wishing literally everything on Vick, including gang-rape in prison. I hope a jury of his peers can be found that has not already convicted him in their own minds. One writer on a blog even went so far as to point out in Virginia his jury would be mostly white, thus bring in a race factor and someone else stated that the US District Court Judge - with the interesting name of Henry Hudson - was noted for handing down harsh sentences. In this case that could mean Vick might get 6 years in jail time - thus giving a chance to the gang-rapist one blog poster was hoping for - and as much as a $350,000 fine.

     Now what prompted the gang-rape wish was the Media - you know, the Liberal Media that likes to coddle criminals - mentioning a device they called a “rape-stand” was also in the property seized from Vicks residence. Well, the “Liberal” Media wasn’t doing much “coddling” with that inflamatory and dishonest statement. The device in question is actually a “Breeding Stand” which can also be used as a grooming stand for washings, and flea and tick treatments. It can be bought retail for $200 from a lot of professional breeders who realize, sometimes, the female simply will not accommodate a breeders wishes and needs to be restrained. As well as treatments, it also can be used for artificial insemination. This Media spin, to make it sound as bad as possible before judgement is even rendered, is also designed to be as divisive as possible, and I believe is an attempt to invoke the “Race” card and add yet furthur problems to this already divided country.

     Or, as another poster on a blog put it, “If a white guy owns one, it’s a breeding stand. If a brother owns one, it’s a rape stand.” There’s a lot of truth in that, even when it’s the “Liberal” Media throwing fuel on the flames in the name of “Coverage”. What do I think? Based on what we’re getting from the same Media, it doesn’t look good. I find it almost impossible to believe Vick didn’t know what was transpiring on his own property. If, and I say IF, he is found guilty, he should get the maximum jail time, the maximun fine, and not only barred from ever taking another “snap” in the NFL, he should even be banned from attending a game as a spectator for life.

     But that’s just my opinion! I don’t know if he’s guilty or not yet, even if much of the country and the Media want to set themselves up as Judge, jury, and gang-rapists.

     Let’s let the law decide.

     Written by Farcall, at the request of the Sportwizard.

Special Note: Thank You, Mayor Bloomberg

     Thank you Mayor Bloomberg, for taking the time to send a personal comment regarding my article on this blog “Michael Bloomberg and a Third Party Run.”  I admire your dedication to your “Day Job” and the nonpartisan approach you are using in it. I respect your stated reasons and wish you the best success in your work.

     But I would ask you to please keep in mind one thing: by the time Election ‘08 rolls around, we will have suffered through eight years of deception and  misinformation, a “Contract With America” that did turn out looking a lot more like “A Contract On America” and an ongoing slaughter of our young people in a misguided, underfunded, mismanaged war that never should have been fought.

     We have been beguiled by spin masters that weave everything but the truth. We have watched a mostly Republican Congress that has rubber-stamped most of what the President wanted in Iraq, and they still couldn’t get the job done. We have watched a President run a national debt up into the trillions of dollars. A debt owed mostly to China, and will take how many generations to pay?  And still there are those who defend his actions. We have listened to Democrats asking questions, but not the hard ones. Why did we pursue  Saddam Hussein so hard, and catch and hang him, but Osama Bin Laden is either still running free, dead, or planning something else, and no one seems to know which, or where he is? Now that Democrats have a degree of control in both Houses, you’d think things might change, but they seem more interested in pandering to new Moderate Democrats, than they are in resolving the Iraq problem.

     Every once in a while in history a moment comes along in which one man can make a difference. It happened in Athens, during the Golden Age of Pericles. As Edith Hamilton put it, “For a hundred years Athens was a city where the great spiritual forces that war in men’s minds flowed along together in peace; Law and Freedom, Truth and Religion, Beauty and Goodness, The objective and the subjective - there was a truce to their eternal warfare, and the result was the balance and clarity, the harmony and completeness, the word Greek has come to stand for. They saw both sides of the paradox of truth, giving predominance to neither…” (Edith Hamilton, “The Greek Way to Western Civilization”  1963, p 248)  Itilacs mine.

     And I realize the greatness of that age; it’s very symbols stand at the top of this blog for that reason.

     One man, Pericles, in his nonpartisan approach, brought the warring factions together and produced a Golden Age that still stands at the pinnacle of human history. Are the American people fed up enough with - business as usual, special interest lobbyist, infringment on our rights and excuses for incompetence? - I think they are.

     Give us a chance to prove it.

     Run, Mayor Bloomberg, run.     

NBA Champions San Antonio Spurs

Congratulations to the San Antonio Spurs for winning their fourth title in nine years.  It is absolutely amazing what they have accomplished within this short period of time.  What is more amazing is the little publicity and respect they are getting for what they have done and how they have done it.  They really have created the Quiet Dynasty!  I believe much of this has to do with San Antonio being a smaller market, and they don’t have the glitz and glamour (bling bling) of the larger cities like Miami, LA, New York or even Chicago.  

This bunch of ballplayers goes to work everyday with a “lunch pail” attitude like the citizens of their city.  When these players practice, they practice hard and pay attention to what coach Gregg Popovich has to say.  Coach Popovich must feel like the luckiest coach in the NBA, because he knows when his players leave his practices they are going home to their families. He doen’t have to worry about his players getting themselves into troubles, like barfights in the middle of the night, carrying  concealed weapons, or collecting DUIs.

I know bigger NBA cities look at the Spurs team as being as bland as Vanilla ice cream, but maybe it is about time for the NBA Commissioner David Stern to stand up and applaud the San Antonio team and city for doing things the right way.  The Commissioner needs to take this team and market it around the country and the world, showing what the NBA League can become, instead of its current reputation of a league of thugs.  I really do believe if David Stern can market the NBA, with the respect and accountability of teams like the San Antonio Spurs, he just might win the fans back with higher attendences and higher viewer ratings. 

Congratulations again to the team and the city, for all four championships and most of all, for doing it the right way.  

Sportswizard      

2007 NBA Draft

Who should be the number one pick in the draft, Greg Oden or Kevin Durant?  Actually, it’s a no brainer. Soft-spoken giant Greg Oden is a given.  7-foot centers of his talents don’t come along very often, maybe once in a generation.  He will also be a great addition in the Portland community on and off the court.  The Portland fans will come to adore him.  He looks like a middle-aged man with the fun-loving heart of an eight year old kid. 

I don’t want to take anything away from Kevin Durant, because he will be a great superstar in the league.  Matter of fact, I predict he will win “NBA Rookie of the Year” next year, because his offensive skills outshine even Oden’s now. He will probably single-handedly boost ticket sales so high that it will help the city of Seattle to commit to building a new arena for the Supersonics.

Portland Trailblazers brass: You CAN NOT make the same mistake you did in the 1993 draft, taking Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan.  So don’t screw it up again, take Greg Oden.  If Trailblazers management is really struggling with this decision, please pick up the phone and call the Indina Pacers, because Larry Bird and Donnie Walsh will most definitely know who to take. 

Indianapolis is going to miss you Greg!  When you return home for your first NBA appearance, be ready for a standing ovation from the Conseco Fieldhouse faithful, Big Fellow.  Go have a great career in Portland, and make the Hoosier State proud!

Sportswizard

Michael Bloomberg And A Third Party Run

     All we can do is hope. A viable candidate for a viable third party charge at the White House in 2008 is just what this country needs. As everybody knows by now, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg withdrew from the Republican Party to become an independent, triggering off wide speculation he is considering a try for the Presidency. It’s reported he was a lifelong Democrat until his run for Mayor in 2000, and at that time switched to Republican.

     He has been described as a “political independent, a social moderate, and a fiscal conservative”. He is known to support gay marriage, abortion rights, gun control, and stem cell research. He must be causing Erectile Disfunction in the mass of Christian Rightest who are usually so wrong. I suspect he will be accused of worst than that if he does run. But by golly,  he might be the right prescription at the right time for the limpness of our government.

     That is not to say I think he’s the best candidate in the field. I don’t know enough about his positions on the issues yet, especially those that interest me the most like: Science education - wouldn’t it be nice if our kids could learn some?  and Space Exploration - manned and unmanned -so we could harvest the mineral wealth of the solar system…and let’s not forget Religion, which I’m all in favor of as long as it doesn’t try to shove our knowledge back to Pre Columbus times.

     I know the common wisdom is he could not win, and that’s probably correct. Third party wins in the last hundred years are rare, to say the least. But he could, maybe, have a better chance than many might think. What he could really bring to the Presidential race is a wakeup call to the two major parties that business as usual has grown old.

     Already the discussion has started about who a Bloomberg candidacy would hurt the most. Republicans say Democrats would suffer most because Bloomberg is so - Liberal - on things like gun control. After all, everyone should be armed to the teeth, right? Then a tragedy like Virgina Tech would never have happened, because someone could have “popped” the shooter before more victims died. Forget the fact that there’s about a “Virgina Tech” a day on the streets and alleyways of this country, and roughly a Vietnam War fought in our cities every two years. We just have to have more guns…  Bloomberg is no Liberal. It’s just the Republicans have been sucked so far right, anything slightly Moderate  is considered Liberal.

     Democrats feel their party members are happy with their candidates, while Republicans are torn about theirs. Very true for the most part. The darlings of the Necons and Christian Right Wing, Brownback and Huckabee, just aren’t that strong in the field, and should one of them get chosen to lead the party in ‘08, they’re little more than Bush clones and they will go nowhere. The mainstream Republicans and the few “True” Conservatives left know this.

     The real Bloomberg impact would depend on how mad voters are about the lies, the distortions, the evasions of the last several years. It would depend on how many feel during all of these trying times the Democrats - like the News Media - failed to ask the hard questions when really needed. I understand after the 9-11 attacks, the atmosphere was one of “For us or against us.” If you questioned, you were look at almost as a traitor. But the bad times is when the loyal opposition is suppose to do that.  For the most part, the Democrats failed.

     Bloomberg has the personal wealth (about $5 billion dollars) to run a seriously dangerous campaign against the establishment. And what if - just imagine it! - there should be three Presidential contenders from New York, Hillary, Rudy, and Mike Bloomberg?  Strange things could happen. If Bloomberg doesn’t run, I think Clinton wins New York. If he does, Clinton might still win, but many would find Bloomberg’s more Moderate positions appealing.  In such a race on the national level, a real dilemma is handed to the Necons and the Christian Right. Stay home and vote for “none of the above” . Or vote for the lesser of three evils - a protest vote. That would go to Bloomberg, and might knock New York State into the proverbial “Cocked Hat”. On the national level, we will find how Americans really feel about the last seven years.

     I see a Bloomberg run maybe sending the election to the House of Representatives, where an expected Democratic Majority would have a big Poker Game (so to speak) on their hands, with Bloomberg as the dealer. Of course, in that case Clinton wins, right? Well…probably…but what if Right Wing Republicans and Democratic Moderates and some others just decide to be contrary…

     Run, Mike Bloomberg, run. Make this election real interesting. And a lot more honest.

World News Notes - Special Edition

     I’ve picked up on rumors circulating on the web that both CNN and the New York Times have information indicating Texas businessman H Ross Perot may be considerating a Presidential run in 2008. At this time I’m trying to confirm these rumors. The best I can say at this point is I hope to God not. The man in his past Presidential attempts was judged by many as “crazy”. I am totally in agreement with this.

     While I agree a 3rd party candidate might be just what we need, we need one in touch with reality. We’ve already got enough who aren’t.

World News Notes Vol 4

     Lordy, this is going to hurt. I’ve dreaded doing this, but right is right and credit must be given where it’s due. Ann Coulter finally got something right. In her article of 6-13-07 entitled “No drug smuggler left behind“, she berates President Bush for his handling (or lack of)  illegal immigrants and makes a guy wonder if he’s really wanting to keep out the “Illegals”, or if he wants to punish those who come in the “legal” way.

     Now you’ve got to wonder what kind of day Bush is having when Ann Coulter disses him.

     I mean, when a van load of illegals tries to “run” the border, Deputy Sheriff Gilmer Hernandez  attempts to shoot out a tire to stop the vehicle, misses and wounds an illegal, what would you expect our government to do? Hold the van and the illegals? Have the officers fill out a ton of paper work concerning the discharge of a weapon? Of course. That’s logical - paperwork is the bane of law enforcement anyway - but it’s there for our protection.  Logic, however, is the most alien thing to this administration.

     United States Attorney John Sutton - a Bush crony - decides to prosecute the Deputy. The United States government judges the best punishment for the illegal aliens is:  Give them all a “Green Card” and - hold on now - $100,000.  $100,000 dollars? Not even just the injured guy, but all of them?  Well, that’s it. I’m giving up my American citizenship, moving to Mexico and become a citizen there. Then I’m coming back! Not just once, but  oh, four or five times in company with a van load of illegals. Sooner or later someone else will shoot - and in a crowded van the odds are I’ll be relatively safe - and I’ll be rich!

     Then, I’ll look for a country to live where the government’s IQ is higher than a Texas Tumbleweed’s.

     Speaking of IQ’s and Texas…This just in from Yahoo! A driver in Austin Texas accidentally hits a little girl maybe three to four years old. The girls injuries are not life threatening. When the driver gets out to check on the child he’s surrounded by about 20 men who proceed to beat the tar out of him. A passenger in the car gets out to help the driver and is beaten to death by the their assailants.

     God bless the Lone Star State. Please. Because they need all the blessings they can get. Rootin- tootin’ six shooter packin’ cowboys in dire need of mentally entering the 21st Century. Texans love to point out they were once a country unto themselves and could still be if they had too. I suggest we let them. From the region that gave us Trent Lott, Bush the First, and chip-off-the-old-tumbleweed Lil ‘Bush 2 , I’ve had enough.

     I also suggest there should be a total ban on any other Presidential Candidates from Texas for at least the next 50 years… 

Science And The Presidency - The Unspoken Issue

     Does it matter if a candidate for President of the United States accepts the fact of Evolution, or not? According to a recent poll, some 53% of the American public says the answer to that question would have no impact on whether they would vote for any given candidate. When Senator Obama can stand up before a meeting of church leaders and say “More people in America believe in angels than in evolution“, - and it’s true -then I think it matters a great deal.

     In a nation where only 18% of teens show any proficiency in science in general, - the lowest score in any developed country - the question of evolution takes on far greater importance than the general public is aware of. It goes beyond evolution to a basic inability to understand and use the Scientific Method. It goes to a constant, political laden agenda and misinformation campaign of the Christian Right, an agenda that would shovel a ton of Medieval crapola into high schools and higher education institutions across the country.

     The Scientific Method involves the ability to collect facts, to know which are relevent and which are not. It involves the ability to reason - God, I know how scary that is to some - to choose among conflicting datas which is the more reliable and which more suspect. You learn to see patterns that may not always be obivious on the surface and then you refine things through trial and error and in time come as close to truth as it’s possible for humans to get.

     Wouldn’t it have been great if the Bush administration had used a little more of the Scientific Method before getting our young warriors murdered in Iraq?  The inability to use scientific thinking is the inability to reason, period. And when you haven’t the ability to reason, Bush happens, a lesson for all time if ever there were one.

     Do we really need another President who is uninformed about science? Who thinks the World was created maybe 6,000 to 10,000 years ago in six, twenty-four hour days?  A President who will be asked to make decisions on stem cell research, abortion, a return to the Moon, and who knows what else, involving science? What is at stake here is an ability to make a rational choice and the guts to stick to it. It’s an ability to understand.

     A case in point that has nothing to do with science, but does with the ability to reason. Mike Huckabee, 44th governor of the State of Arkansas is a self - proclaimed Creationist and defender of the pseudo-science of Intelligent Design. I love that label, Intelligent Design. 99.9% of all species that ever lived are extinct, and that shows Intelligence? Now Huckabee is one of the darlings of the Christian Right for just that reason.

     On his blog today, I ran across a statement to the effect that Muslim Radicals were killing people in the name of an Impersonal God, Allah.  When called on that point by a reader, it was explained that what “Mike meant” was in Islam you could never really know God -in the Christian sense. That seemed to please other posters who started to sing the praises of Huckabee’s “Common sense” approach. Now, I hate to break it to Mike, or anyone else who thinks the same way, but if there is a God and his name is Allah, then on the Day of Allah a lot of people would find out just how “personal” He does take things.  What is meant in Islam about “Not knowing God” is the realization that the finite cannot ever grasp the truly Infinite. The part cannot fully understand the whole.

     It is an attitude many Christians would do well to try to grasp. Huckabee was not in full possession of the facts. He couldn’t breakout of his Judeo-Christian thinking to try to understand another viewpoint. He could not reason. All of these traits are needed by the next President. We should be asking every Presidential Candidate where they stand on Science in general and Evolution in particular and deducing from their answers their ability to understand facts, to reason, to think out of their tiny little boxes.

     Or someday that 18% of high school students who were proficient in science? - may become a higher standard of academic achievement to shoot for…

Night Terrors - Election 2008

     Sometimes nearing sleep, things seem to shift shadow like and form new images in my mind. This has been going on with me, off and on, for sometime now. I have stated elsewhere on this blog that the Evangelical Christian Right will not like the prospect of giving up power in the 2008 Presidential election and give it up they will. Add into that the Necons - whose unholy botch of this country we haven’t even seen the worst of yet - and certain fears come along and take on a life of their own.

     What we have is a President who simply never gets the message. He didn’t in the last off year election which returned the Democrats to control of both Houses. He didn’t during the outcry for the removal of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General, and it took him darn near forever to send Donald Rumsfeld packing. Yet he is as pliable as clay in the hands of Tricky Dick Cheney and a total puppy to the lies of Master Deceiver Karl Rove. Such a man while perhaps not smart enough or brazen enough to come up with the scheme I’ll suggest could yet be easily duped into it by others.

    This is a President, like the ECR, who doesn’t want to lose power and more than that, those around him don’t want him to, either. Especially Cheney and Rove.  After all, God talks to him as he said, and surely to  - God - God would never condescend to talk to the likes of Obama, or Hillary Clinton. I mean, God is a Necon, right? So let’s consider three things.

     First a bill has been signed into law to the affect that in the event of another massive terrorist attack on the country, or a major National Disaster the President would have the power to reorganize the country to preserve the government and preserve the freedoms of the people. That is, all three branches of the government, Judicial, legislative, and, of course Executive, would in theory be in the hands of one person. Now the idea is the President would kind of be the overseer of the branches. But this President has a history of overreaching the authority granted him under the Constitution - witness the unauthorized wiretappings of American Citizens.

    Witness also Alberto Gonzales’s stated opinion that in times of National Emergency - which would have to be declared by the President - it would be permissible to suspend the Bill of Rights, the Constitution of the United States, and other important legal protections until  the crisis was passed. That also would be determined by the President.

     And let’s factor in one more thing. A poll taken before the 2004 election, asked something on the order of:  If another terrorist attack against America occured before the Presidential Election, should the election be suspended and Bush continue as President until the crisis had passed? That was the most chilling question I’ve ever heard. Even worse, 29% of the American public thought it was a good idea. You have to wonder what part of their anatomy they had their heads embedded in. This country votes in the middle of wars. There was a war going on in 2004 as I recall. The same one going on now, even though we were assured the Mission was Accomplished.

    Now, maybe it’s nothing except my own distrust of power, and the addiction power brings. But I know I will sleep a little better when this President is out of office, and Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales returned to whatever realm of the Twilight Zone they escaped from. I know my nights will be quieter when anybody sits in the Oval Office, from any party, and we have safely made it through another Presidential Election with our freedoms - and our skins - intact.

     But God help me, I can’t help but worry. Just too many little things in place…too many ifs, and how many things could be declared a National Emergency..?