Thoughts From A Vacation

After a nice two week vacation to Lake Tahoe, Chico, and the Bay Area, I realize the following:

1. July and August in Lake Tahoe are hard to top. You get perfect weather with plenty to do and it is tremendously affordable when you compare it to other popular vacation spots.


2. Congress and the debt ceiling issue shows us just how little our elected leaders do for us. They prefer to play a game of political chicken knowing the only losers will be the people they represent.


3. I may have to enter next year's Death Ride. 139 miles and five passes; each more than eight thousand feet above sea level now seems possible with my new bike.


4. Roger Goodell is not so honorable after all. How can he claim an agreement is in place when he has not run it past the people he is negotiating with? Al Davis and the Raiders were actually right for once by being the only team to not vote on the agreement.


5. This year's Tour de France is shaping up as one of the best ever in its history. Tomorrow's final time trial will determine the winner. The top three places are separated by a mere 57 seconds and that's after two thousand miles of racing.


6. I can't feel sorry for three tourists who ignore a posted sign and set foot in a raging river to get a photo taken only to be swept over Vernal Falls in Yosemite. How long before their families sue the National Parks for not preventing their act of stupidity?


7. The space shuttle flew its final flight and now what? Maybe we can make education, health care, job creation, and poverty our next frontiers.


8. U.S. women come up short against Japan in the Women's World Cup final but somehow I think there will be a lot of advertisers looking to sign Hope Solo to deals.


9. Breaking Bad began its newest season last Sunday and my DVR did not record the opener. I'm hoping it records a replay before this week's show.


10. I've said it before and will say it again: Do republicans really think they can win a presidential election next year with the group they have right now? Like many others, I am beginning to think they are doing everything they can to wreck a second term for Obama just so they can win the White House in 2016. Bipartisan politics is dead.


11. The NBA has a labor lockout too. No one cares. In fact, no one will care if it continues into next year. However, if the NFL does not start up in September, Americans will insist the president gets involved.


12. Back to the dept ceiling and the NFL. How uninformed are we? Most Americans can tell you how they feel about the NFL and its labor issues but don't have a clue as to the ramifications of what will happen if our debt ceiling is not raised.


13. A balanced federal budget sounds great but is not possible in our present form of government. When presidents have a line item veto to eliminate pork from bills; when we stop getting ourselves into so many costly wars; when we understand the difference between needs and wants; when we quit thinking we are entitled to everything we want; maybe then a balanced budget becomes possible.


14. I still do not like the idea of making the rich pay more taxes. Why? Because they are on the receiving end of almost all tax loop holes. Lets just make them pay their fair share like the rest of us. I still think a flat federal tax rate is in order and it is to be collected monthly and not yearly.


15. Tiger Woods fires his caddie. Why is this news? Are we so desperate for controversy that we can not let a golfer make a change as to who carries his clubs? The Giants fan who was beaten on opening day in the parking lot of Dodger stadium just had to have more surgery. Two more men were arrested and yet we make a bigger deal about Tiger looking for a new caddie.


16. Who do you find more repugnant, Casey Anthony or Nancy Grace?


17. I caught Justin Timberlake on Conan the other night. How can you not like this guy? He can sing, dance, act, and he more than held his own in the humor department with Coco. Now if only women found him good looking he'd have it made.


18. So Charlie Sheen will be getting a new television show based on the Jack Nicholson character in Anger Management. Lets hope this does for Charlie what the movie did for Jack. That way we won't have to listen to Charlie any more.


19. I caught Bristol Palin's interview with Dr. Drew last night. If she was an honor student in Alaska then that state is leaving a lot of its children behind. She has no business being a spokesperson for anything.


20. If you are a bicycle enthusiast like me, then South Lake Tahoe is the place to ride, especially if you enjoy climbs. Angora Lake Road, South Upper Truckee Road to the top of Luther Pass, Meyers Grade to Echo Lake, and Heavenly Valley will all leave you in awe while gasping for air. Also, not to be out done is the climb up Honey Run Road from Chico to Paradise. In two hours, I saw three cars and one deer.

March Madness

It's March which means the NCAA basketball tournament is in full bloom. Big deal!
I refuse to watch a basketball tournament in which the NCAA crowns a national champion when they refuse to put in place a football playoff to do the same. The leaders of the NCAA are hypocrites. They attempt to portray the image of an organization that holds its participants to high standards while they pursue athletic excellence. What a load of crap that is.
The NCAA is about one thing: money. They would implement any system that would generate a greater profit for them. It's why they have a playoff system in every sport but football. As soon as they can come up with a football playoff with a larger payoff than their current BCS (Bogus Championship System), they will.
The NCAA is an organization that uses young men and women athletes as their own source of free labor. While the NCAA makes millions of dollars off of their athletes, remember, these athletes are not allowed to make a dime for anything they do outside of their sport.
The NCAA, not the athlete, profits from jersey sales of football and basketball players but won't allow the athlete who shines in it to hold a summer job because they are on scholarship. Excuse me, but any kid on a scholarship who has the drive to earn money should be applauded. I don't care if it is doing yard work, waiting tables, or dancing at a strip club. If they can find a legal job to do then they should be allowed to do it. Remember, those same schools do not prohibit students on scholarship for academics from earning money so why shouldn't an athlete?
The people who coach these athletes are paid quite handsomely by the universities. They also earn additional money for the television and radio shows they "host" to promote their team as well as money for advertising products from companies looking to cash in on their success.
I don't know about you, but I have never attended any sporting event or watched one on the television to see someone coach. We tune in to watch the athletes do their thing and the NCAA claims these money making magnets should be happy just to have a scholarship. Lets not forget, these scholarships are not even guaranteed and can be revoked each year.
Just for once, I would like to see these student athletes do something really bold; something that would hit the NCAA where it hurts. When tournament time rolls around, after a long regular season where thanks to ESPN their talents have been show cased to no end, I would love to see these basketball players go on strike. I would love to see them tell the NCAA, "We're done working for free."
Any player with an ounce of talent does not need the NCAA tournament to know if they have the goods to play in the NBA. Most know mid way through their freshman year if they have the talent for the next level.
However, if enough of the top players from the top programs went on strike and forced the cancellation of the NCAA tournament, they would send a message to the hypocrites profiting from their hard work. Television revenue would have to be returned hurting the NCAA in the only thing they care about, their wallets. Networks would have to scramble for new programing and face the consequences of lost viewership and advertising revenue. Vegas would see a huge loss in money bet on tournament games while fans would have to go back to work rather than come down with a mysterious case of flu during the tournament. It would, for lack of a better phrase, result in a new March Madness.