Too stuck up

I have found a new team to hate, The New England Patriots! Maybe hate is too strong a word. Bill, I am too full of myself, Belichick needs a complete makeover, personality included. Whenever I get stuck watching what not to wear with my spouse, Homeless Bill is my first choice. Now his on screen persona is unbearable. Tom Brady is likeable and Wes Welker is a terrific guy. Why don't they have their people talk with Coach Bill?

The defense has gotten off easy. Rodney Harrison's first game back was standard Patriots, well maybe old school Raiders, with a quick cheap shot to remind everyone who was the sheriff in town. I should bitch too loud, he got his message across and it didn't cost his team, but another smug, arrogant asshole.

It is somewhat amazing. Steinbrenner, Jerry Jones, Dan Synder, Isiah Thomas and Bill Belichick. No players to hate, only management. Oh for the old days of hating on Latrell Sprewell and most of the Yankees.

At least, New England gives the writers of the sports world something to talk about.

Raising the Bar

A common phrase I hear is raising the bar. If this meant a new drinking establishment was being opened I might be near the front of the line. Alas, it is talking about demanding more from someone. As an educator I hear this from my dean. I believe he means well, but when I address my students asking them to do even the minimum is usually a waste of my time.

We have "raised the bar" many times over the past 20 years. If the bar was as high as we had hoped over time, no one could reach the bar. That might be the problem with raising the bar.

When I was younger I was considered an over-achiever. When one of my superiors raised the bar, I worked harder to get on top. Even when the bar was set for most to attain, I still had the inner desire to be the best. Now days the kids I work with are happy for the most part to pass. Very few try to excel, though they still want good grades.

My theory is that over-achieving parents, of which I am one, have made life easy for their children. When these parents observed their children not excelling, they assume it must be someone else, because as an over-achiever we know it could not be poor parenting. This fosters in our children that they are not responsible for anything. Now I don't think that this is true for all children, some just are happy to get by and work in a standard 8-4/9-5 job. The kids that excel primarily come from one of two backgrounds, low to middle income families and they want to escape or from parents that push and push their kids.

I hope I pushed my kids enough that they self actualize and work to suceed for their own personal reasons. But I know at some point I have felt like I should have pushed them harder.

Please don't raise the bar to high for your kids, but do raise it a little

Barry Bonds

I love watching Barry Bonds hit a home run. His swing is sweet. What annoys me is all the ESPN talking heads that bash Barry for using performance enhancing drugs and then what is the first highlight on Sportscenter, "Bonds hits another home run moving closer to Henry Aaron!"

ESPN needs to decides which way the network is going to go, either support Bonds or ignore him. Dan Patrick, Keith Oberman, Colin Cowherd, Mike Greenberg, ... everyone talks about how abhorred they are with Bonds passing the most "hallowed" mark in sports. Who defines the most hallowed marks? ESPN, sportswriters, fans, players, Hall of Famers?

One of my favorite sports moments was in San Francisco a few years ago. The Giants were hosting the Diamondbacks. It was 77 degrees, abnormally pleasant for San Francisco in July. Bonds versus Randy Johnson. Bonds homered in the Right Center off Johnson. What a sight!

ESPN get over it. Athletes have been taking performance enhancing drugs forever. Did the boys and girls at ESPN ever read Ball Four. I wonder if Dan Patrick would ever take advantage of any of his Sportscenter anchor buddies to get further ahead?

Weathermen

First I want to apologize to all the women that predict the weather. I am not sure whether (no pun intended) to label all people that provide weather information on TV and radio as weather person, weather man or that person that gets paid a lot of money and gets the prediction right 50% of the time.

Now that I have warmed up, why do the people telling us the predicted weather only have to get it right some of the time.Can you imagine working as an accountant or a lawyer and only getting the information correct 80% of the time. You would be out the door before it closed. I enjoyed the movie The Weatherman with Nick Cage, because I now appreciate the fact that some (maybe most) of the people telling me the weather for tomorrow may not actually understand what they are saying. I understand that a 50% chance of rain means that in the viewing area 50% of the area should get rain, not that there is a 50% chance that everyone watching the forecast will get rain.

What are the criteria for doing the weather. Good looking, but not too good looking. Look intelligent, but use no more than two-syllable words. Make the people trust you, kind o flike a used car salesman.

Media

Recently in the local newspaper a big deal was made about the death of a young woman that died of a drug overdose. Her mother had been a habitual drug user and just when the mother got her act together, the young woman began her life with drugs. The newspaper painted a picture of this pitiful family and how everyone should help them from themselves. Sorry. I feel sorry the family and their friends, but this happens everyday.

I feel sorry for people hurt but natural disasters, job layoffs or victims of crimes, but self induced problems. Mental illness, maybe, but why don't they get help (or their family help them get help). I feel sorry for people dealing with the red tape of government, not the government dealing with bad PR. Feel sorry for the kids of broken homes, they didn't cause their parents breakup, but they have to deal with it none the less.

As a society we want to help everybody else's problems. Look in the mirror, we all have our own problems to fix. Help those we can, but for the most part let them fix their own problems.

Does Iraq really want our help in forming a Democracy? Or do we (US Government) want to force the ideals of Democracy on the world because we feel it will fix the world's problems.

I feel sorry for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan that were going about their lives and had to deal with the political issues of their countries, but it is NOT our problem to fix their issues amongst the tribes.

Duke Lacrosse

Wow! One year after the Duke Lacrosse scandal and everyone is beating up the DA, the media, the Duke University Administration and Jesse Jackson. The DA might have been wrong about things, but can you imagine what would have happened to him IF he had said, "well there is not enough evidence to go forward." Just another case of the rich, white kids get off.

The media, bashes the Duke players for racial remarks, insenitive comments about the strippers, underage drinking and hiring strippers off campus. If they hadn't bashed them, oh well boys will be boys.

The Duke Administration jsut protecting the school image. Those hooligans, the girl probably wanted it and now she is trying to cash in on the rich, white boys and big, bad Duke University.

Jesse Jackson. If he doesn't say strong things against the boys, then he obviously is an Uncle Tom.

So let's look at things in a calmer eye. Did everyone go off the deep end and assume guilty before ALL the evidence was in? Absolutely! Was everyone trying to cover their backsides? Absolutely! What if it happened again tomorrow at Stanford, Yale, Harvard or Princeton? Wouldn't the same group of people be after the boys heads? Absolutely! Now there might be more caution in their attacks, but if the schools did not respond quickly AND place some responsibility on the boys than they have not done their job.

So, was the Duke Lacrosse team wrongfully accused AND charged with sexual assualt? According to the North Carolina Attorney General they were. But don't most people think that maybe they were partly to blame for the whole incident?

Gas

I ate some beans for lunch and two hours later I needed to find someplace where I could be alone. It wasn't the stink, but the sounds leaving my body. Why do things like beans, raw broccoli, soda and beer give people gas?

When I used to fly in the Navy my crew would have competitions to see who could have the loudest and stinkiest farts. I recall one time when my navigator snuck back from the cockpit laughing to beat the band. A minute or so later I heard over the intercom, "Who the f*&% shi% in my flight station?"

I used to think that farts were just a guy thing, but everyone seems to get a kick out farting. It is kind of like the Uranus jokes, they never grow old. Oops there goes one from my wife.

Don Imus

I find it strange that in 2007 a man, regardless of the color of his skin, speaking on the radio would say the things Don Imus did about the Rutgers women's basketball team. the fact that he is White only makes it a bigger issue. I wonder, as have several others, what if a male rapper had made the same comments?

My wife and I discussed this today. She thinks that the youth of today have gotten over the race issues with each other. Black kids, white kids, asian kids, gay kids, they all see each other as just kids. Maybe that is true, but let someone's parent or uncle or teacher use the same expression and suddenly they are a racist, bigot,... I don't condone removing words from our language, that would be silly to even try. Though I suspect the politician would waste valuable taxpayers dollars and time discussing the issue. But if our world has gotten so politically correct that we can not say people are short, fat or mentally retarded, why would a public figure consider saying anything that controversial. Is Don Imus an idiot? Of course not, he is a radio guy shaking things up for ratings. If not for the political correctness police, he would still be ranting everyday. Even Howard Stern knows which boundaries not to cross.

As for the rappers, it is their musical expression. Plus they are primarily black, thus using racial slurs towards each other or as part of their music is acceptable. I wonder if Don Imus would have gotten fired for calling George Bush "just another honkie." Billy Packer got a little heat over using a homophobic phrase, White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen used a gay label for Chicago Sportswriter Jay Mariotti.

So what words can we not use anymore, besides the obvious ones? In DC a few years ago there was trouble for the word niggardly, because people are uneducated. Soon we will not be able to say that someone who is happy is gay, afraid it will be misinterpreted.

Introduction

This is new to me. I felt I needed a place to put my thoughts. Some positive, some negative and some just plain goofy. Anyone that wants to provide criticism, positive or negative, please do so. I will back later today to express my views on the weather, George W. Bush, Iraq and the state of political correctness.