NFL: No Fan League

It is beyond my comprehension why anyone would worry about the possibility of an NFL lockout or cancelled season. In this day and age when a multi billion dollar industry is able to thrive while the people who follow it struggle to pay their mortgages or to put food on the table, if it wants to close up shop, let them. It's clear the NFL does not care about their customers -- the fans.

Both players and owners are making record money during the worst economic crisis since the great depression. During the Depression, if you played in the NFL you also worked another job during the year because you were never going to get rich as a player. Owners ran bare minimum operations and the game's popularity paled to the popularity of professional baseball and college football. Today, the NFL is the king of American sports and it wants to shut down so it can continue to thrive. This doesn't make any sense.

During the Great Depression, the cost of game tickets, hot dogs, beer and parking were so cheap they were affordable to just about anyone. They remained that way for another forty or more years. Today, however, two game tickets on the forty yard line cost more than a pair of season tickets cost my dad to Raider games in the 1970s. In those days, you could bring in all the food and drinks you could consume rather than having to pay eight bucks for a beer, five for a hot dog and the equivalent of college tuition for season tickets.

The National Football League does not care about the game's future as much as they do their cut of the pie. Long snappers make a million dollars a year just to snap a ball to a punter or the holder on field goals. Owners use their teams as cash cows to line their wallets with more money than even they dreamed and still both the players and owners want more. It's why tax payers have to agree to finance new stadiums every twenty years or risk losing their team to another city. Roger Goodell will never be happy until television viewers have to pay to watch any game on the tube. The league is like those two shady "boyz from the hood" sketch on In Living Color. All they want is "Mo money, mo money, mo money."

The league showed its true colors at the most recent Super Bowl when they over sold tickets and left hundreds of fans to watch the "Big Game" (The NFL owns the rights to the words Super Bowl and actually makes you pay to use them) on large screens set up outside the new Cowboys stadium in the cold. Then, they had the nerve to try and low ball the victims into quick settlements to avoid an embarrassing lawsuit for the fraud they pulled.

The NFL can count me as one of its former fans. I do not intend to return to the game anytime soon, not when both the owners and players insist on a larger piece of the pie that can only come by costing fans more of their money. Players can hold out all they want; I don't care. Owners can restructure the game any way they choose; it doesn't matter to me. Roger Goodell can spin any issue any way he wants; it won't make a difference to me.

The NFL is now just as irrelevant to me as Major League Baseball and the NBA, two other leagues I have quit following. When every decision that is made results in a more expensive game for the average fan to watch it becomes obvious the game is not about the fans.

So go ahead guys, take each other to court, lock up facilities, and cancel entire seasons. I am now among those who are no longer a follower of the No Fan League. I can enjoy a lazy Sunday afternoon or Monday night watching Modern Family, The Office, or a good movie I have on Tivo knowing that the only thing that matters is my enjoyment.

Time To Reinvent America

Whenever there are difficult times, it is easy to get caught up in the uproar of lost jobs, pay cuts, and increasing cost of living and just focus on mere survival. Survival is a natural instinct but one that is holding us back during this massive economic down turn. It has resulted in a paralysis of leadership left trying to navigate us through a horrendous storm of events while at the same time keeping us from seeing the future.

From my perspective, America’s future is more of the same cycle of boom and bust with longer periods of bust than boom until we make some real changes. There is a saying, “If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always gotten.” This is true when it comes to our economy and will remain true until we eliminate our dependency on oil.

We missed our chance to reinvent ourselves, and in the process, the world, in the 70’s when OPEC held a gun to our head and drove up the cost of oil. Rather than freeing ourselves from future threats, we waited them out and ever since have gone through a continuous cycle of economic ups and downs complicated by our dependence on much needed energy from other nations.

We could have, and should have, moved toward more alternative energy sources for our cities and transportation needs but failed to. Rather than developing wind and solar energy projects on a massive scale, high speed rail systems, or greener cities, our leaders decided to maintain our dependence on OPEC and large American oil corporations and the result has been disastrous.

Republicans and democrats have been too caught up in pointless ideological arguments over issues like abortion, gay marriage, or taxes to sit down together and wean ourselves from our dependence on greedy people. We have continued to elect, and re elect, leaders who are tied financially to oil corporations rather than elect leaders with a vision and desire to move our nation to the forefront of self sufficiency.

Forty years has been enough time to turn our country into a place where every home and building produces their own energy through solar or wind power. It has been enough time to manufacture cars that no longer require the use of gasoline to transport us from our homes to work. High speed rail systems could be in place to replace the cars or planes we use for moderate commutes. It is enough time to have turned our country from an energy dependent nation to an energy supplier and provide millions of Americans with an array of jobs that today, we can only dream about. Instead, we continue to follow the path we have always followed and seem surprised when it leads us to the same destination.

Now is the time to change all of this. America, all of us, voters and elected officials, has to begin to do what is necessary to maintain our greatness and lead us toward a future of opportunity; one where our young have a sense of hope that their hard work in the classrooms will result in new jobs in new industries that pave the way for not only their own success, but the future of the world. If we fail now, we will struggle to cope as we watch other emerging nations pass us by and relegate us to has been status. Is that the future we want?

Greatness Going Unnoticed

Philippe Gilbert accomplished something today no athlete before has ever done and no one in America noticed it. Gilbert, a professional road bicyclist for the Omega-Pharma-Lotto team became the first rider to ever win the four classic races of the Ardennes in the same season. To put this in perspective, what Gilbert did is the equivalent of Carl Lewis winning four gold medals in 1984.



Today, Gilbert out sprinted the tandem of Frank and Andy Schelck to win the prestigious Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic to become the only rider to take it along with the Brabantse Pijl, Amstel Gold, and Fleche Wallone titles over a two week period.

However, unlike Lewis who only had to defeat a dozen or so competitors in his events, Gilbert defeated fields of over 150 riders, many whose only goal was to box him in and keep him from being the winner. Gilbert prevailed over the best the world has to throw at him and he did it on four successive occasions. How many golfers, race car drivers, or tennis players can win four successive events without taking a break?

Gilbert's greatness has not been followed in America where professional cycling falls under two categories; the Tour de France and drug probes. However, in Europe, cycling is a combination of the pro golf tour meeting NASCAR with entire cities lined along narrow cobbled streets, often times affording the riders no more than three or four feet to race shoulder to shoulder.

With races covering over 120 miles in distance and filled with punishing climbs and harrowing descents, it takes an athlete who actually enjoys suffering rather than being pampered like American athletes. Racers compete in temperatures from freezing weather on snow plowed roads to summer heat that exceeds 120 degrees on the pavement. If you ride, you will suffer.

Teams select their own designated gunslinger and do everything they can to set that person up to win a race that might finish with an eight mile climb up a mountain road that averages a ten percent gradient or a sprint in which dozens of riders draft and pass one another at over forty miles an hour to win by as little as a tire width.

Despite all of this, there is usually very little coverage of these events by the American press even though we have our share of great riders not named Armstrong. Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner, and George Hincapie represent the old guard; contemperaries of Lance Armstrong and great riders in their own right. Then there are young guns like Taylor Phinney and Tyler Farrar who seek to add to the glory established by Armstrong and Greg Lemond.

While we can always follow the upcoming Tour of California or Tour de France on an obscure cable Channel, we are hard pressed to find anything more than a sentence in our sports pages covering the spring classics or two other grand tours, Giro de Italia and Spanish Vuleta. It's too bad because we missed out on something that was truly a once in a lifetime accomplishment by a Belgium athlete whose grit, strength, stamina, and courage would serve us all well to pause and appreciate.

Legalizing Pot is Not the Real Issue

Much has been in the news lately about the movement to legalize marijuana. Proponents will tout the many beneficial uses of the drug as well as financial windfall for cash strapped states while opponents feel it will lead our youth toward harder drugs. In reality, legalizing pot would only serve as just another way for our government to make money off of another American vice while giving us another means to escape the unhappiness that pervades this country.
Marijuana has been part of the American culture long enough to where it is not going to go away nor is it going to lead people to harder drugs who would not otherwise have done so.

As someone who last smoked pot thirty years ago, it seems to me the concern should not be over whether or not to legalize the drug but rather over why so many people in our country feel the need to turn to so many other options to numb themselves from the pain of their lives. Americans rely on alcohol, prescription drugs, over the counter drugs, energy drinks, and caffeine to get themselves through their days far more so than they do on harder drugs. A pot head is no more dangerous than someone loaded on Valium, drunk on tequila, or doped up on cough syrup but somehow we think marijuana will turn everyone into crack heads or worse. There seems to be enough medical evidence to support the use of marijuana for a slew of maladies so there is no reason Americans should not have it as a choice over the equally harmful drugs prescribed by their doctors.

It does not concern us that beer is cheaper to buy than bottled water and the market for highly caffeinated drinks has never been better. People are living longer thanks to advances in medicine but with their increased years come increased pain. If smoking a joint helps ease the pain as well or better than a narcotic prescribed by a doctor, what’s the problem? We fear our children will gain access to marijuana and be lead to harder drugs but don’t give a second thought about the drugs they can get hold of from our medicine cabinets. We also do not hesitate to put them on meds for their anxiety, depression, or hyperactivity because as parents, we have become too busy with our lives to put in the time to parent the children we bring into this world.

It’s not even a question of whether or not we need to add another legal drug into our culture that already has access to plenty of others. The real question should be are we willing to part with the ones that are currently legal and no more harmful or beneficial than marijuana?

We get angry inside when we see someone purchasing cigarettes and booze with their food stamps but don’t give a second thought to the person who does the same with cash. While it would be nice if the person on welfare was gainfully employed and buying decent food for their screaming child, it does not keep the hard working, sleep deprived American from getting jacked up at Starbucks in the morning and turning to Ambien in the evening. We are grateful when a parent slips their kid some NyQuil when they board a plane and who cares if someone tosses back a few shots of tequila after a day of work? We even ask our doctors for a little something to take the edge off our pain because at least that’s not as bad as turning to a local dealer or growing a few plants of our own in the back yard.

Americans should be more concerned with the rampant use of legal drugs than over whether or not there is any danger to adding marijuana to the list. Marijuana is no more dangerous than cigarettes, alcohol, prescription drugs or over the counter drugs and people are hypocrites to speak out against the use of one while as a nation we over indulge in the others. Maybe, before we decide against legalizing marijuana, we should consider banning our legal drugs.

Military Might and Our Nation's Future

Time magazine just came out with a report on military expenditures of nations and to no surprise the United States government took home the title of top spender. In fact, our government spends more money each year on its military than do all the other nations of the world combined. It is this kind of commitment that keeps us from achieving greatness in medicine, education, and technology and allows smaller nations to surpass in far too many other areas.

Over the last decade, military spending increased 81 percent to 687 billion dollars and when politicians tell you it’s a result of fighting terrorism, they’re wrong. France, England, Japan, and Russia have all had to deal with the growing threat of terrorism and yet they have kept down spending on the military. Only Russia, whose spending represents 4.3 percent of its GDP, comes close to our current level of 4.7 percent. And the rate of our increase, 81 percent, is no where close to the rate of inflation this past decade.

Iran, one of our biggest worries, only budgets 1.8 percent of its GDP on the military, down 18 percent from 2001. However, our Middle East watch dog and faithful arms buyer, Saudi Arabia, increased their spending by 63 percent since 9/11 and we still do not understand why other nations view us as a military threat.

China, with the fastest growing economy in the world, increased their military spending by a staggering 189 percent this past decade and yet it still only accounts for 2.2 percent of their GDP. The United States needs to find a way to bring down its level of spending to be more in line with our European allies or rivals from Asia if we are going to remain an economic power. We simply can not maintain the current levels.

Once we bring military spending in line, we will then be able to tap into financial resources to challenge other nations on the scientific, academic, and technological fronts. To do this means we have to be willing to allow other nations to shoulder the responsibility of policing the world. As it is, we are dangerously close to only having our military services and might to offer up to other nations in exchange for their superiority in manufacturing, technology, energy, and research.

It may well be that the future of the world will be split up among nations who share their particular superiority with others in exchange for services they no longer produce. If it comes to that, we may have to rely on our military services in exchange for the energy, technology, and overall ingenuity we once were noted for.

Stop The Insanity

I am not sure I should post this on Thoughts on the Run or Know Moore News because of the ridiculousness of it so I will run this on both sites.

Donald Trump is considered by many republicans to be a viable candidate for a presidential run in 2012. Yes, the family values party now thinks the thrice married, reality television host, and real estate tycoon could be a better candidate next year than any number of a slew of no names being mentioned.

On top of this, he has been applauded for questioning President Obama on the major issue of... is Obama really an American citizen? Couldn't he at least go after him on a real issue like the choices he made on this year's NCAA Basketball bracket? If there is anyone out there who still believes Obama is not a U.S. citizen born on American soil then please file your papers to run for the political office of your choice. I am sure you will have no trouble finding wealthy republicans to finance your campaign.

Trump running for president makes about as much sense as letting Don King handle your money. You know it's a bad idea and watch in amazement when others disagree. Nothing good can come of this unless you host a late night talk show.

However, I get it. I understand why republicans support the guy. He has plenty of money to challenge Obama giving republicans time to groom the candidate of their choice for 2016 when the office is more winnable. Still, are republicans aware if they run with Trump, intelligent Americans, a disappearing breed, will never take them serious again. Fortunately for them, if Trump does run, plenty of voters, the few who are wealthy and the many who believe reality shows like The Apprentice are actually real, will vote for him.

Imagine, if that happens, Trump will have to downsize by moving into the White House, take a huge pay cut, and deal with problems he never imagined he would have to handle. In other words, he would get a good taste of what the rest of us have to deal with thanks to eight years of George Bush's economics.

Will someone please stop the insanity?

A Jury Of His Real Peers

So a jury of eight ordinary women and four men were unable to find anything wrong with Barry Bonds other than he obstructed justice during the feds BALCO investigation. Bonds, according to the jury, was not found guilty of knowingly taking steroids. Perhaps he should have been tried by a jury of his real peers. I bet it would have made for some interesting conversations in the jury room.

Mark McGwire probably would have said in response to Barry’s increased muscle mass while he was clubbing home run after home run, “It looks to me that the defendant was probably just consuming a normal protein shake, the kind they sell at GNC while getting in extra batting practice. I find him not guilty.”

Mark’s rival and fellow juror, Sammy Sosa, would follow up with, “You know, the defendant’s head probably grew so large due to sun exposure. If he had just gone to the guy who made my ball caps, he would have given him the same cream he gave me to rub on my scalp to help the cap slide on. I find him not guilty.”

There would also be this gem from Jose Canseco, “I feel bad for the guy. I know what it is like to be an out cast in the locker room. I too once had golf ball size acne on my back and never felt comfortable changing with the rest of the team. I would just hide in the bath room. He has to be innocent.”

Manny Ramirez would then chime in with, “Barry helped me a lot and I never cheated. He was the guy who turned me onto loose fitting, extra long game pants so people would not suspect anything of my massive legs. Guys like us are not treated fairly when we have so much more testosterone than the normal guy that we have to take female fertility drugs just to test normal. It’s not fair. He is innocent.”

Finally, jury foreman, Roger Clemmens, would proclaim, “Barry is a testament of the hard work guys like us do and for what? We get no respect and we have to fight for every multimillion dollar contract we sign. I am just like Barry and guys like us would never cheat at anything. Not baseball, cards or marriage. He has to be not guilty.”

There you have it. A true jury of Barry’s peers would find Barry to be the victim of a government sting operation aimed at bringing down our top athletes and run by nerdy lawyers who are nothing more than jealous of the physical greatness these athletes have achieved. Barry should demand to be retried by a true jury of his true peers so he can clear his name once and for all.

A Stern Warning?

Kobe Bryant was fined 100 thousand dollars for an anti gay slur he directed at a referee. Is this the NBA’s way of sending him a message they will not tolerate such acts or just their way of appeasing Gay and Lesbian groups on the eve of the playoffs?

First of all, the fine amounts to nothing more than chump change to Kobe. Remember how much he spent on a ring for his wife after his little episode in Colorado? The fine will not keep Kobe from uttering similar slurs at refs, opponents, or even team mates. At best, it may make him think twice before doing it within range of a microphone.

David Stern fined Kobe because he wants to appear to be a strong leader who will not put up with such comments but in reality he hopes this is enough to prevent picketing outside NBA arenas as the playoff arrive. To Stern, image is everything. However, there are worse messages tattooed on the arms of NBA players and the music they use to pump themselves up before a game often has messages that would make most people squirm and yet Stern could care less as long as protest groups do not complain.

Then there are the fans that pay big bucks to attend games while getting liquored up and screaming the vilest comments to players who have the audacity to do something as horrible as miss a shot. To Stern, they are just exercising free speech. So are the fans who unfurl posters of bikini clad women to distract players shooting free throws. Stern does not find these acts demeaning in any way because it’s all part of the NBA experience that keeps guys like me at home in front of the tube instead of attending games live.

If Stern wanted a clean, family friendly product, he would do more than slap Kobe with a meaningless fine. He would institute a drug testing program that would make what other professional leagues do look as though they are in the dark ages. He would clean up the off court behaviors of players who continually act in embarrassing ways with little or no consequence. He would rid the league of the “ghetto” image it carries among our youth and require players to participate in “give back” programs to those in the community far less fortunate than the players.

Instead, Stern hands down a swift fine, puts on a smile, goes before the cameras and does a little damage control before breathing a sigh of relief and hoping it is enough to avoid any protests.

With Stern warnings like this, it is a wonder David Stern has been able to remain commissioner of the NBA for more than two decades.

Fast Food Leadership Doesn't Beat Patience

Ronald Regan asked Americans to consider one thing before deciding on whether or not to reelect him to a second term of office. Were we better or worse off after four years of his leadership? Americans overwhelmingly responded their approval and elected him to a second term.

It won’t be that simple in 2012. To begin with, President Obama came into office while the country had yet to hit rock bottom due to factors he inherited. A year from now, there will be many of us who can say their lives are worse off than before he entered the white house. I know my pay has decreased while my kids’ college tuition has increased at a much faster rate than inflation. We now carry the burden of another war to add to the wars Obama picked up from the Bush administration. Gas has shot up to over four dollars a gallon and shows no sign of decreasing any time soon. The town I live in is struggling more today than it did three years ago and improvement does not appear in sight.

But is the election of 2012 about whether or not we are better off after four years of Obama or is it more about how we define ourselves as a nation?

Much of our woes, I believe, are the result of what I call our fast food mentality. America has become increasingly impatient over the course of my life and it is this impatience that has compounded our problems. It has resulted in a quick fix approach to our long term problems by our leaders and we are now being forced to pay the price for problems that were never really solved in the past, just merely just put off.

It is why states like mine, California, are broke. Rather than dealing with financial troubles in their early stages, our leaders decided to borrow on our future hoping the bills would never come due. Like our diets, we wanted our problems solved quickly and without much fuss. However, most of us know a fast food diet will lead to major long term health concerns just as our fast food solutions have finally resulted in our nation’s poor health.

One of the things I hear troubles Americans about President Obama is he seems to take too much time before reaching a decision. While many view this as a weakness, I see it as a strength. We had eight years of knee jerk reactions and look what it got us? Sure, we felt good when President Bush was quick to identify the enemy who attacked us on 9-11. We were supportive of his claim we needed to go after Iraq despite him not waiting for the evidence to back his claims. We loved it when he wore a flight jacket and declared victory despite not being able to tell us when our troops would come home.

The quick fix approach has been used by both political parties, in part because once someone gets elected to office; they are under tremendous pressure to prove to an impatient public they have accomplished something. Otherwise, they risk not getting reelected.

President Obama can be criticized on several fronts. You can argue against him on how he has handled our wars, the economy, health care, and just about anything else. These arguments are largely based on our political beliefs and nothing more.

However, if we pause longer than it takes to click from one web site to the next, we should be grateful that in a time of epic uncertainty we have a leader who is patient enough to listen to everyone and who takes his time to make what he believes is the right decision while allowing the public time to argue it on political terms rather than the knee jerk, emotionally charged arguments we have grown used to.

What's to Celebrate?

I guess, if you follow the news, we should be celebrating the fact there will not be a government shut down. What's to celebrate?

Our elected leaders, in a game of political chicken, finally did what we elected them to do. They agreed on a budget for the next year. Now, both sides are celebrating in the same fashion a football player does when his team is losing but he makes a first down or a tackle. Why are they celebrating for doing their job, especially when we have not won anything?

Do we have a balanced budget? Have we paid off the federal deficit that is crippling the lives of most Americans? What have our leaders done worth celebrating? I don't get it.

The same people who are claiming this a great day in American democracy were willing to continue funding the wars that are ruining our economy while letting the rest of our government shut down. They were willing to sacrifice our children's future by ending federal support of our public schools. They were willing to tell senior citizens that after a lifetime of paying taxes they would not be receiving retirement checks or health care benefits paid for in advance. Small business owners struggling to keep their businesses open were also going to be sacrificed as well as job placement programs, highway programs, mail delivery, and anything else you can think of the feds have their hands on.

Except war. War is sacred to our leaders because they believe there is no better way to show the rest of the world we stand for something. However, any government willing to choose to fight for others in far away lands while telling its own citizens it can go without is not a government of the people and by the people.

And the really sick part of all of this is knowing these same leaders will be up for re election next year and in most cases, they will be overwhelmingly returned to the job they are currently doing.

Celebrate? No. When I see the president given line item veto powers, I will rejoice. When I see the house and senate filled with third and fourth party representatives, I'll cheer loudly. When I see our government's priorities shift from American interest to American needs, I'll party like it's 1999. Until then, I will continue to wonder how we are able to accomplish all that we do given the poor leadership we have.

Good Roidance

So Manny Ramirez decided to retire from baseball rather than face a 100 game ban for using a banned substance. I'm not surprised.

Many never respected baseball and no one should be surprised by his decision. What should have shocked people was the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were willing to pay him millions of dollars this year after his record of cheating and quitting. Manny has to rank among the all time greats in both of those categories.

Manny quit on the Boston Red Sox on multiple occasions, usually about the same time he wanted to show them his worth so they would cave in and pay him more money. Eventually, they tired of his act and sent him to the Dodgers where he carried the team to a rare playoff appearance and was the toast of Los Angeles. The following season, he was greeted with a 50 game ban and went into the tank after that.

No one should be surprised Manny chose to quit rather than face the music. Now that he has left the game, maybe all those wannabe Mannys will lose those extra long cut and baggy game pants he ushered into baseball because Manny couldn't wear the same uniform everyone else wore. Maybe players will abide by team policies regarding haircuts rather than looking like one half of Milli Vanilli, one of the other great cheats in history. Manny cared only about Manny and it showed in how he was unwilling to respect the tried and true traditions of great organizations like the Red Sox and Dodgers.

I only hope that some of Manny's past employers do the American thing and sue him for the money he he stole from them by cheating. Maybe someone will file a class action suit on behalf of the fans for all of the extra money they had to pay to see the quitting cheat. With any luck, Manny can spend his retirement years in the American court system fighting off one law suit after the other or dealing with federal investigators looking for someones head.

It won't happen because Manny will quit on America just like he quit on baseball. He will leave the nation he came to and cheated out of millions of dollars and return to his homeland, a hero. All I can say to Manny Ramirez is, "Good roidance."

The Sounds of War

The sounds of war

are not found in explosions of bombs, or rocket blasts; Nor are they found in the rumbling sounds of approaching tanks, or helicopters passing over head-- Around the clock sound bites and expert analysis are not the sounds as well; but rather, they are found in the cries of children left parentless, the crumbling ruins of cities destroyed, and the approaching knock from a military officer at someones front door.

Role Model or Just Lucky?

Bristol Palin earned $262,500.00 last year as a spokesperson for teen pregnancy prevention. Let me put this another way. Bristol Palin earned as much money last year as six first year teachers earned in combined salary in my school district and she has nothing more than a high school education. It helps she has a mother who may one day become president of the United States, although if that happens by popular vote, I swear I will move to Honduras. I am not going to bash Bristol because she is making bank that I am not making. No, I am going to bash the people who think Bristol serves as a role model to the teenage girls who do not have a famous mother or get to appear on reality television shows. You know, the ones who all too often end up collecting welfare while hard working tax payers like us flip the bill to raise their kids. When Bristol says, "I wasn't prepared at all" for motherhood and all the hard work that it entails, I believe her. However, when you have a famous parent willing to use her daughter's plight to heighten her own public image, then mommy dearest is going to help you profit. Bristol was given a team to schedule her days and ease her parenting load while helping her to profit from her adolescent error in judgement. I would guess that 99.9 percent of all pregnant teens in our country are not given the tools that were given to Bristol and are left to really struggle with raising a child while they decide whether or not to watch Sesame Street or Jersey Shore. And remember, $262,500.00 was her earnings. This came after writing off business expenses for travel, food, lodging, and clothing. Don't forget, the Palins love their clothing. It only cost the republican party 150 G's to clothe Sarah and her clan for the three month presidential campaign in 2008. If the people who hired Bristol to speak to teens about the challenges of motherhood really wanted to make a difference, they could have gone into any town in America and found someone who could really relate to high school girls. Bristol Palin represents the greed of other Americans who find ways to profit off of the deeds, or misdeeds, of others. Remember, not every teen mother gets to sign a book deal, tour the country, appear on television shows and become rich in the process. Most are left with the stark realization that their lives will be forever changed and challenged in a way they never planned or hoped for and are ill prepared for the task. If Bristol Palin lacked the brains to use birth control, I am certain she lacked them to figure out how to profit from her plight. But then, you don't have to when your mother does.

It's Time For A New School System

Few can argue against the idea of not allowing our schools to leave children behind and thus giving up on their value to society. Indeed, it is a noble idea to think our education system is currently capable of meeting the needs of every school aged child in our country, making it nearly impossible to leave behind the skills and talents of every American student. However, before establishing the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, it would have been wise if our leaders had seen to it to put in place the necessary money, man power, and construction of an educational system capable of such a task.


How many publicly controlled organizations meet all of the needs of the people they serve? Does our health care system do this? What about law enforcement? How many of our elected officials meet the needs of all of their constituents? Expecting schools to do this is not fair, especially since more schools are being expected to do what was once, and still should be, the job of parents.


Aren’t parents suppose to meet the needs of their children before schools do? It’s called responsibility, something too many Americans have become too good at not accepting. NCLB gives adults, and teens for that matter, permission to bring children into this world and then wash their hands of their parental responsibilities while also allowing them to blame our schools when their kids turn out a mess. Thanks to NCLB, schools have now become increasingly more convenient excuses for what is all too often parental failure.


If NCLB is such a wonderful concept, why not broaden it to include a college education at public expense for everyone? After all, a high school education does a person little good these days so why not really go the distance to ensure success for everyone? And after a guaranteed college education, maybe our government can ensure job placement within our field of study while also tossing in housing, health care, and the freedom to do as we please without risk of consequence.


No Child Left Behind looks like a good idea but when broadened to a No Life Left Behind, it amounts to nothing more than an attempt to guarantee an equal life rather than an equal opportunity while in the process, allowing us to avoid responsibility. It almost sounds like a sociopolitical system that ends in “ism.”


Rather than assigning schools blame, our government would be better off setting them up for success so that our children can succeed. They should invest more money into classrooms and less on stealth bombers so that teachers can be hired and class sizes can be reduced. They should provide greater incentives for the wealthy to donate money to public schools instead of private universities. They would require housing developers to build new schools to help ease our urban sprawl rather than burden the tax payers. And they should require parents to be more directly involved in the education of their children rather than encourage the current curb side drop off and pick system in place.


Once all of this is in place, it becomes quite reasonable to expect our schools to meet the needs of all our children. However, the success of public schools requires public support and not merely public expectation. If we really do not want to leave any child behind, then it is time for total buy in to a new education system rather than trying to maintain the over burdened one we currently have.

We Need More Chris Mullins In Sports

I read where Chris Mullin was voted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame today. If there was a Hall of Fame for good guys, Mullin would easily be a first ballot entry. I have never met Chris Mullin before but have two stories to make my case. I am sure if you asked around, you’d find hundreds others like these.

My nephew, Ryan, was once the ball boy for the Golden State Warriors in the early 90’s. It was a great job for any high school basketball junkie and Ryan was certainly one. One night, while I was pointing out to Ryan’s father, Tay, how I thought Ryan could land a scholarship because of his talent, he told me how his son became so good at hoops. Tay was maybe all of five eight while Ryan stood a good eight or nine inches taller. Tay told me how every chance he got, Chris Mullin would work with Ryan during shoot-arounds. We hear endless stories of professional athletes who treat ball boys, buffet line workers, and others associated with the team as lowly servants. It takes a special person who is as busy as a star athlete to take his own time to pass on his knowledge to a kid in high school.

My best man in my wedding, Dennis Brown, was once the head basketball coach at a small private college in the Bay Area, Holy Names University. One day, Mullin dropped by wanting to know if the gym was available for his annual basketball clinic. The school where he usually held it at had a scheduling conflict and Mullin was trying to find another site. The gym was available but after checking it out, Mullin noticed it only had one set of retractable baskets, the kind that can be raised to the ceiling when not in use and lowered when needed. Determined to hold his clinic, Mullin asked if the University would mind if he paid to have two more sets installed. He could have easily gone elsewhere but he probably figured here was an opportunity to not only help kids with his clinic but to also help out a small university with a tiny athletic budget.

In today’s world of self centered and self promoting athletes, we need more stories about guys like Chris Mullin. I am sure there are plenty others like Chris out there but, like Chris, they are too humble to make it public knowledge.

Our Cheating Ways

Today, we are better than ever at catching athletes who use performance enhancing drugs. However, cheaters continue to stay one step ahead and even when they no longer do, cheating in sports will continue. It’s just the nature of competitive sports. It’s one of the reasons why I am glad my three kids pursued performing arts in school rather than athletics.
  In the early days, athletes used to unwind from games by consuming more alcohol than was healthy and then pop a few “pick me up” pills given to them by the team doctor before their next game. No one cared because everyone did it and the press never thought it was worth reporting.
Now we have tests that not only show what kinds of drugs our athletes abuse but also the specific amounts. We even know if the drugs were administered via an I.V. thanks to a test that shows the level of plasticizers in the blood. It also helps that we have a more inquisitive press who is more than willing to out the drug cheats.
 But lets face it, athletes are still going to cheat. It’s just the nature of competitive athletics. Sure there is still “good sportsmanship” which only means not to complain about the other team’s cheating after a loss. You do not complain about them stealing your signs, filming your practice, or altering their equipment after losing. You publicly accept the fact they beat you fair and square and admire them for how they did it while privately stewing inside. 
Back in high school, the refs used to check the padding on players during pregame warm ups to make sure they were not slipping anything illegal inside them. Then, we retreated back to the locker rooms for “final instructions” and went about “altering” our equipment. While we were doing this, we knew full well our opponents were doing the same thing. It was an accepted practice. 
My brother, an ordained minister and high school quarterback, once taped cut off thumb tacks on the tips of his fingers and thumb on his throwing hand so he could better grip the football during a game played in the pouring rain. He was looking for that edge that would help the team win. 
During my senior year, I badly injured my ankle and was pretty much no use to my soccer team. Still wanting to help, I limped around the sidelines during games and asked my coach if there was anything I could do to help the team. He asked me if I could go in and play long enough to get the other team’s best player to throw a punch at me, getting himself kicked out of the game. I gladly took on this task and when I succeeded and we won, the coach paid special recognition for my sacrifice. 
There may come a day when there is a drug test that will make it impossible for any athlete to get away with the use of any performance enhancing drug. However, the cheating in sports will remain. Whether it is a corked bat, excessively curved blade on a hockey stick, or Vaseline rubbed all over a tightly tucked in football jersey, athletes will always look for a competitive edge. That’s why when one gets busted for a performance enhancing drug they are always welcomed back by their team mates after their suspension. Their team mates know they were only looking for an edge to help the team win and in our society, winning is all that matters.

Lets Simplify Taxes

I do not know anyone who enjoys paying taxes. It is a necessary evil but the system we employ is anything but democratic. Here is what I propose we do with our tax system:

1. Why doesn't everyone pay the same tax rate? It is neither fair or makes sense that our tax rate is based on the amount of income we earn. Everyone should pay the same percentage of their income to the federal government in the form of taxes and that money should come off the top of our paycheck to rid ourselves of corporate loopholes and with holdings. Our W-2 forms should simply show us how much money we earned and how much we paid in taxes; nothing more.


2. State taxes are a joke too. State taxes should be raised from a flat state sales tax rate. I will let the law makers determine that rate. If we do not like it, we can vote them out and elect new ones. There can be additional taxes in the form of car registration fees or sin taxes, otherwise, the taxes from our purchases should cover our basic needs.


3. We, the people, should determine where our tax money goes. What better way to show the will of the people than to let them decide how they want their tax money spent? Instead of filling out tax forms to pay taxes, each year we could fill out forms checking off where we want our tax money spent. If I want all my money to go toward fighting wars or combating terrorism, then I should have that right. At the same time, if I'd rather have better schools, roads, and health care, I should be able to choose those areas instead. Wal Mart does not tell me what I can buy with my money, why should the government? If I go into a store and they do not offer what I want, I am under no obligation to make a purchase. Why should I be obliged to buy what I do not want with my taxed money?


4. You snooze, you lose. If I do not return my tax spending request form by April 15th, then my money would go into a general government fund. The decision where and how to spend that money would then be handed over to our law makers. As it is, they seem unable to make timely or wise decisions so I do not think too many Americans will hand them this opportunity. Since our money has already been taken out and there are no with holdings, we become tax spenders instead of tax payers which does not sound so bad. Plus, lets not forget, the money that has been taken out in advance is earning the government interest.


5. Do we really need them? Not taxes; politicians? Look, they can't balance a budget so we end up either with fewer services or higher taxes. Either way, we take it in the shorts under the current system. Under my plan, the people receive what they want at an equally applied tax rate. It's time we let the people decide what is done with their hard earned money rather than letting disconnected politicians continue making poor and fiscally unsound choices for us.

Feeding The Problem

I am sick and tired of the public school system being used as the state's welfare system. Why is it a school's responsibility to feed our children? We all know breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Without it, it becomes difficult to focus on the most basic tasks. It is true for those of us in the work world and it is true for our kids in school.
My employer, the Hemet Unified School District, does not make sure I eat a nutritious breakfast each day. However, like all other school districts in California, they willingly feed our children. Why? When it comes right down to it, it is all about test scores. Hungry students do not score as well on standardized test as students who are well fed. Based on the girth of or school children, we should have the smartest students in the world but do not come close.
I resent seeing my tax money used to feed our children simply because we have allowed the dysfunctional to continually procreate. And believe me, we have far too many dysfunctional adults pumping out dysfunctional children.
This has nothing to do with living in a low income area. I have seen countless students from low income homes arrive to school fed and focused on learning to think this is a poverty issue. It is not about poverty as much as it is about our priorities. If you can have a kid then you better be able to feed him three square meals a day. If not, you are dysfunctional and have no business raising children.
I admit, I grew up in an affluent community. My parents also raised eight children. We all got up early enough and did not leave the house without having eaten our breakfast. We also arrived to school on time and knew if we could not meet these simple expectations, the privileges of the day were not ours to enjoy. It does not take money to understand and value these concepts. Unfortunately, today we have too many parents unable or unwilling to model these behaviors to their children.
If you are a teen aged parent, chances are you are dysfunctional. If you are a parent living off of the welfare system, chances are you are a dysfunctional parent. If you work and commute such ungodly hours that you rely on schools to raise your kids, you are a dysfunctional parent. And if you can make sure your little Johnny has a new pair of soccer cleats but can't get him to school on time, you are a dysfunctional parent. Quit having kids! Please, I can not afford to raise them anymore.
One school recently reported feeding 911 students free breakfast; over 80 percent of which were delivered to their classroom by student volunteers. At a cost of $1.25 per breakfast, this works out to almost 200 thousand dollars a year. In other words, they pay the equivalent of four teacher salaries to feed students. What economic sense does this make? At a time we are laying off functional tax paying teachers, we are feeding children who will in too many cases become dysfunctional adults like their parents and be unable to hold down a job.
I read a quote from one parent who said, "My son would rather have slept in late than eat a meal." Fine, let him. See how long he makes this choice once he realizes no one cares if he chooses to go hungry. He may change his priorities but do not expect me, and other tax payers, to feed his sleepy butt.
Democracy and welfare do not go well together. To be a democratic state requires citizens to actively participate in the decision making process and accept the will of the majority. In a welfare state, you decide what level of life you want to exist at and rely on hard working tax payers to pay for the rest. It is time to return to a state of democracy and end these ridiculous programs before they turn hard working tax payers like me into welfare recipients because we no longer can afford to meet our own needs after we have paid to meet the needs of others.

Can Anyone Tell Me...

1. Why does the cost of state run colleges increase at five to ten times the rate of inflation?


2. Why do I have to balance my budget but our government doesn't have to?


3. What is so special about "special elections"?


4. Why would any government build nuclear power plants in earthquake zones?


5. Why doesn't California have solar panels installed on all roof tops?


6. What exactly is "clean" energy?


7. Why Libya and not Yemen, Syria, The Ivory Coast.......


8. Why do we keep incarcerating people when citizens do not want prisons built near their cities?


9. Why do states release violent sex offenders?


10. What good does it do to expect our kids to learn what was never expected of us?


11. How come Americans are so quick to purchase the latest electronic devices but so slow to purchase alternative energy sources?


12. Why does a new year begin in January while a fiscal year begins in July?


13. How can corporations be allowed to pay fewer taxes than the average citizen?


14. When will Nicholas Cage make a good movie?


15. How can there be such a thing as a safe level of radiation?


16. Why, at a time when Americans are getting fatter, do we make skinny jeans?


17. How come the "War to end all wars" has failed to end war?


18. What's the difference between pre owned and used?


19. Why isn't there a flat tax rate?


20. How many countries invest more money in fighting wars than they invest in education?

Guest Commentary by Dan Jorgensen

Bring Our Boys & Girls Home! I've had enough. I'm tired of these wars. We need to speak up and let our Representatives and our President know that we have had enough. Bring our boys & girls home! Bring our brave soldiers back to the United States, back to their communities, back to their families. Ten years of fighting is enough! Ten years of bloodshed and innocent lives maimed and destroyed is enough!I'm a proud citizen of the United States of America. I still think this is the best country in the World. But I'm tired of being lied too and misled. The U.S. attacked Iraq and Afghanistan in reaction to the 9/11 bombing of the Twin Towers in New York. It was justified to go after the Terrorist camps in Afghanistan but there was no justification for attacking and invading Iraq. We were told that they had weapons of mass destruction. That turned out to be a lie. We were told our military was going into Iraq as liberators to set the people free, that they would be dancing in the streets. Well, we know the dancing lasted for a few hours and then the bloodshed continued. We did not liberate them, we killed their brutal leader and bombed their countryside. We sacrificed our soldiers and we killed their fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, grandfathers, grandmothers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives and their sons and daughters.I live in Southern California. I like going to the coastal cities of Oceanside and Carlsbad. Recently when I was in Carlsbad, I saw several young military guys walking around with prosthetic arms and legs and some with scars on their face and arms from their injuries of war. Young men permanently maimed for their sacrifice for our country. It made me mad. I respect the soldiers but I hate the way our leadership has misled our country into these wars. When is enough, enough? What is the goal of these wars? Is it really worth the sacrificing of our young men and women? I have heard several well meaning people say "they (the soldiers) are fighting for our freedoms". I hate that saying. It is misguided at best and a complete lie at its worst. They are not fighting for our freedoms---that war was fight many years ago---they are fighting for our government and at they are fighting for the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, and now for Libya. What freedoms could we possibly gain from these wars? Lets be honest with each other, these wars are being fought for former President George W. Bush and the congress he had, and now, to my dismay, they are being fought for President Obama and the present congress. President Obama promised to end these wars and bring our soldiers home. He has given no indication at all that he is going to do that anytime soon. But we are at fault as well. In this democracy "by the people and for the people", we are supposed to speak up if we don't like something. It is time to speak up. It is time to get mad. It is time to demand that we bring our men and women back home. It is time to say 'quit wasting those billions of dollars on war and destruction and put it to use for people in this country. Quit sending billions overseas to other countries in aide (to buy their allegiance) and spend that money on our country's people'.Bring our men and women home!

Valley Chronicle Commentary

My following commentary was printed in the Valley Chronicle. April 1, 2011 Recently, there has been much disagreement over whether or not a verbal agreement was made between the Hemet Unified School District and Hemet Teachers Association over how many teacher layoff notices would be issued in any given year. HTA claims they were assured no more than thirteen teachers would be let go while the district claims no such promise was made. Consequently, much anger has been expressed by HTA members, to which I am one, over the recent issuing of 86 RIF notices as well as who received them. The problem is not whether or not a promise was made and subsequently broken, but rather what happens to our children now that the notices have gone out? If this district loses 86 teachers before the start of the next school year, we can expect the following to happen. First; we will see larger class sizes. Data can be skewed to show anything but 27 years of teaching tells me when you increase class sizes, learning decreases. It’s basic math. There simply becomes less time for teachers to work with students who struggle with a subject. Why would our school district choose this route at a time when our children are expected to master concepts never expected of our decision makers, especially when they have not eliminated all non essential programs? Second; we will see a continued drop off in teacher and student morale. Kids are already burning out at an earlier age thanks to the inhumane pressure we place on them. While this is happening, teachers are burdened to no end to improve test scores by administrators who fear the loss of their own job should they fail to reach district expectations. Next, our children will become unhealthier than ever. This will happen because the district will again rely on increasing PE classes to try and keep down the numbers in Math and Language Arts because those classes mater in the state’s eyes. While we expect more from our kids academically, we fail to hold them accountable for their increasingly poor fitness scores. But then, what do you expect to happen when PE classes often have more than 70 students in them? Student health will continue to decline as our school district removes Behavior Health classes from the high school curriculum. Who needs a class that helps curb teen suicide, pregnancy, STDs, and violence? As long as the kids score well on their state exams, nothing else matters. Our students will also be more ignorant of the world they live in thanks again to a district that has removed Geography from the high school curriculum. Our young men and women do not need to know what’s going on in a world that suffers from war, famine, radiation fall out, or global warming because they will have mastered the art of taking standardized tests. We do not live in a standardized world and can no longer afford to fool ourselves into thinking we can cut back on teaching and improve learning at the same time. The Hemet Unified School District needs to pass a resolution to never layoff one teacher or eliminate any course before they can show they have eliminated all nonessential and extra curricular programs. It’s time they put education first and eliminate the real waste.