Once again I'm (a) too lazy or (b) too brain locked to spend a lot of time writing something coherent and substantive, so I'm going to resort to my old fallback, QUICK HITS.
DRUM ROLL, PLEASE!!!
(1). Tiger Woods- Too bad about the accident. And I really don't give a damn about the other stuff; was it a domestic dispute, why he won't talk to the cops, was he fooling around with a female diversion in New York.
I don't care. Talk about the "silly season", as a certain college football head coach put it.
(2). Charlie Weis and Notre Dame- Once again America's premiere Catholic University, which stresses moral integrity and doing the right thing, shows how its really done. Its win more and win bigger, or your out. Not that this is a surprise; Weis' tenure was dead after he lost to Navy earlier this month- the following losses to Pitt, UCONN, and Stanford just made the firing a little more expedient. I'm not shedding any tears for this one ( as you'll see in the next segment). I'm not a Charlie Weis fan or a Notre Dame fan....but notice how they treated a loyal alum who just wanted to succeed on his dream job. Quite frankly, anybody who leaves a high profile Division One college job for ND next stop should be the funny farm- you'd have to be a complete whack to make the move.
(3)More Notre Dame Kudos to ESPN's Kirk Herbtreit who finally told it like it is on last Saturday's COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAMEDAY. Herbie asked, "Why do people still care about Notre Dame"....and added that the program has been irrelevant since 1993. I agree- Notre Dame has not been a true player on the national stage since today's incoming freshmen were in preschool. Notre Dame demands and gets special handling from the media and the public, and they get it- and they don't deserve it. I said it before in another post, and I'll repeat it here- Notre Dame football is like Old World aristocracy. The Irish and their fans live off of memories of The Glory Days, off of the accomplishments of previous generations. There has not been one Notre Dame team to warrant the attention they demand since the tenure of Lou Holtz, which ended in 1996. Notre Dame has their own television network (NBC) broadcasting their games and shilling for them. They have an abysmally unfair arrangement with the Big East in which they are in the conference for all sports except football, where they maintain their independence. Yet, Notre Dame is included with the Big East when eligibility for the Gator Bowl is concerned- they can take a spot guaranteed to the Big East under certain conditions. They won't join the Big East for football, and yet- I'm doing this from memory- they have lost the last three games they've played against Big East members; Last year against Syracuse, and this year versus Pitt and UCONN. Don't even get me started on the BCS which continues to give the weight of one of the six power conferences when determining BCS bowl eligibility. This is a total joke and a travesty. Its time to bring them into the 21st century, at long last. They don't deserve or warrant special handling, and haven't since the beginning of the Clinton administration. If they want a BCS bid, let them have to win one in a conference just like other member schools do, or like the Boise States and TCU's have to, as an at large with no more kid gloves. I'm not speaking out of jealousy, I'm talking about fairness here.
4. Afghanistan Tomorrow night President Obama will unveil his Afghan strategy. And this has me scared to death. How long does he think we can withstand an open ended war after eight plus years of American presence? We keep asking the same people to do the same job year after year...less than one percent of the American public is affected by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. "Stop loss" keeps troops on active duty after their term is up. We've never fought a war this long using troops in this manner. Maybe its time for America and and Americans to reconsider the cost of war, and the fairness to those who will be involved and of their families. If a war is to be fought, the American public must be willing to go forth and sacrifice even more- if you support a war be prepared to pay more taxes or even see a draft reinstated. If you can't go for that, and your representatives won't go for it, then maybe it would be expedient to find an alternative to armed conflict.
5. "Good Will to ALL Men....and Women" Yesterday in The Home News Tribune I saw an article that said Catholic churches in New Jersey were sent a letter by the state's bishops asking the faithful to pray for our members of the State Senate and General Assembly to oppose a bill to allow gay marriage in New Jersey. At mass yesterday, it was not read, but maybe it will be in the future. It is interesting...the Church will not marry a Catholic and a member of another faith unless certain things are agreed to. That being the case, they could just refuse to sanction same sex marriage because it is against Church rules. Since the Church doesn't believe a Catholic's marriage in a ceremony outside of the Church is valid anyway, then I ask this.....what's your beef? They don't believe a civil ceremony is valid under the eyes of God, so doesn't it logically render their opposition as a moot point? Sadly, the Catholic Church has gotten on the same side as those on the far, far right on this one.
Maybe I won't be so blown away by the crassness of this hypocrisy if the Church did admit that "higher ups" did know more than they admitted during the priest sexual abuse scandal. Frankly, I find it very hard to believe that so few knew so little about something so widespread that hurt so many.....where was the leadership and the accountability? Part of the Church's response was to deny the priesthood to anyone who was homosexual, and not acknowledging the difference between homosexuality and pedophilia. The Church hierarchy got their convenient scapegoat.
And don't dare to try to tell them otherwise....because (God knows)...they know best.
