Saturday, April 24, 2010

An Unwanted Sexual Assault by Any Other Name is Still a Sexual Assault


In  an earlier post I discussed the case of Michael Vick being reinstated into the NFL after doing time in the Federal Pen for running and bankrolling a gambling ring involving dog fighting.  (A $30 million contract and this guy is interested in chump change made from dog fighting?)  Apart from the brutal treatment of the dogs, one would have thought the gambling offense would have permanently barred Vick from pro-football.  Other sports leagues like the NBA and MLB have barred players and referees for life because of gambling.


The post also discussed other dubious NFL characters like Lawrence Phillips, the Nebraska running back that once dragged his college girlfriend down several flights of stairs at a college dormitory... what a he-man!  In both cases, obvious sociopaths are/were allowed to pursue lucrative NFL careers.  The NFL is also the same league that doesn't think Rush Limbaugh is fit to be an NFL owner, yet a part owner of an AFC franchise that is known for a very public urination incident is fit to own an NFL franchise.  The NFL is a strange institution.  Many of the players have attended college for varying time periods.  (Most of them spent more time in classes during four years of college than Barack Obama spent "working" in the the United States Senate during the four years he was a Senator. Obama attended Senate sessions about 143 days total.) 


For some reason, the NFL is a haven for thugs and misfits.  Yes, I know that NBA has its share of thugs, but it pales in comparison with the NFL.  A couple of seasons ago, there was running gag as to whether the Cincinnati Bengals would be able to field a football team because of the abnormal number of Bengal players being arrested.  The Oakland Raiders have lived off an overblown outlaw image for years. Their fan base is so notorious that a local bail bondsman runs this ad whenever the Raiders come to town. 




Humor and showbiz aside, there is a dark side to the NFL's crypto-outlaw image.  Rae Carruth, an emerging NFL star with the Carolina Panthers is doing time for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend Cherica Adams.  Carruth had already lost a paternity suit and apparently didn't want the additional financial obligation of another child.  What a stand-up guy!  Carruth was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle, using an instrument to destroy an unborn child (he probably had her killed because she wouldn't get an abortion at a legalized murder mill like Planned Parenthood) and is serving a prison sentence of 18-24 years.  Thankfully the child survived.  Kind of ironic isn't it?


My local team, the San Diego Chargers has had its share of misfits and felons.  Terrence Kiel died in a car crash on July 4, 2008 after leaving a party.  Kiel pleaded guilty in February 2007, to felony and misdemeanor drug charges for shipping codeine-based cough syrup to Texas and the Chargers released him.  The Chargers recently traded flash in the pan cornerback Antonio Cromartie to the New York Jets.  Cromartie was involved in a recent barroom incident involving a thrown champagne bottle hitting another patron in the head...  but reallyCromartie is truly a class act because it was probably a Cristal Champagne bottle that slipped from his hand!  BTW, Cromartie is currently facing a paternity suit in San Diego.  So he's negotiating the terms of child support.  (Hey, it's a lot better than Rae Carruth's approach to unwanted pregnancy, n'est pas?)  But after watching his last two seasons of play, I don't think that Cromartie will reach the five year mark to get a fat NFL pension unless he spends the rest of his career as a back-up or a kick returner.  Apart from the usual DUIs and a Tila Tequila aficionado, the Chargers are a relatively tame NFL team.  In the 2010 draft, they seem to have drafted a quality character guy in Ryan Mathews, a seemingly genuine "aw shucks" guy.  Mathews would follow in the footsteps of another quality character guy, LaDainian Tomlinson who now plays for the New York Jets.  Of course I could be as wrong about Mathews being an "aw shucks" guy as I was with another first rounder also named Ryan over a decade ago.  Ryan Leaf is now doing time for a drug offense.


So what's all this discussion leading to?  A week ago, a district attorney in Georgia decided he would not prosecute Ben Roethlisberger in connection with a sexual assault complaint filed by a 20-year-old female college student.  While "Big Ben" has escaped the long arm of the criminal law process--again, he's still facing a civil lawsuit in Nevada from another woman alleging a sexual assault by "Big Ben."  But Roethlisberger did get firm disciplinary action from the NFL.  Big Ben got a six game suspension from moral sentinel and NFL Commish Roger Goodell.  But knowing the éclair spine of Roger "Not so" Goodell, it will probably be reduced to four games.  The NFL is a business after all.  Fans want their heroes to play!  And the Steelers are one of the legendary franchises in the NFL.  Do you really think that Goodell will allow the iconic Rooney family's business to flounder while their franchise QB languishes in saloons looking for some "touch"?   I doubt it.  If Goodell was willing to allow a sadistic  dog-killing bookie to be reinstated in the NFL, this latest peccadillo should land Roethlisberger in the Pro-Football Hall of Fame and a juicy blurb in Penthouse Forum letters.


Boy, do I miss the good old days as when then Charger star defensive back Leslie "Speedy" Duncan gladly signed an autograph for my little brother (and me) in the sporting goods department of the old Broadway Department Store in 1969.  Forty years later I still remember it like it happened today.  During the Golden Age of Pro-Football, players were regular guys that held real jobs in the off season and gladly signed autographs.  With the Super Bowl, Big Media, Mega Beer Brewers, and Big Gambling--the Pro-Football Valhalla of a young boy's imagination is long gone.  Too bad.  Boys and grown up men need more stand-up guys to look up to.  We all do.







Thursday, April 22, 2010

Earth Day - the Rocky Headed Horror Picture Show

I can't stand tree huggers.  I once quit a class at a local community college because the course professor was an ardent tree hugger.  She ran the class like a totalitarian regime.  Ironically, the class was one on mediation fundamentals.  Mediators are supposed to be open minded and fair individuals.  Go figure how they pick professors or mediators.

As a rule, I can't imagine a more inflexible person than a tree hugger unless it is a Liberal-Fascist.  Tree huggers however, are to be distinguished from the conservationists in that conservationists believe in using natural resources  responsibly.   Tree huggers are like misers hoarding wealth so no one ever benefits.  The key character trait  of Eco-Nazis is always control.  For example, responsible management of natural resources means harvesting trees in intelligent ways so that (1) they are not depleted so that future generations can benefit from the Earth's natural resources and (2) we stop having these out of control wildfires.   One of the best and most responsible environmental groups is Ducks Unlimited.  Here's a TV spot with Morgan Freeman explaining what Ducks Unlimited does.


See the difference?  These people want us to co-exist with nature.  The Eco-Nazis want to use nature to control us.  They don't give a rat's ass about Snail Darters or people.  And it's people's fault for having too many babies.  One group is offering condoms for life to stop human overpopulation.  Talk about misanthropes, these guys make the Una-bomber look like Mother Teresa. 

I remember as a kid in the mid-1960s watching a CBS documentary featuring futurist Herman KahnKahn offhandedly said in effect that the next radical leftist movement would be in the then-emerging ecological movement.  Eco-Fascism is a pejorative term used to disparage Leftists by pointing out that Nazi Germany pursued an environmental policy not unlike today's tree huggers. On pages 381-389 of his book Liberal-Fascism, Jonah Goldberg discusses the similarities between "Green Fascism" and the global warming advocates.  I can sum it up in two simple words:  CONTROL FREAKS.  

I dislike the concept of the "carbon footprint."  Why?  Well the Doubting Thomas (and paranoid) in me imagines a future criminal offense in which people could be jailed for breathing too much carbon dioxide into the environment.   With the American Mugabe, Barack Obama, now ruling by fiat I can imagine him sending a political opponent to  Gitmo for re-education.  Or as the immortal Strother Martin colorfully put it in the movie Cool Hand Luke:

 

Yep, that's why they want total control--to get your mind right.  I love Big Barack!  So they've started with health care reform (read deform) to get control of your body and mind.  Now they're working on your economic future with Cap and Trade (crap and spayed) legislation and a proposed value added tax, a.k.a., VAT.

Cup of tea anyone? Let's party! 


Post Script:  Today is Vladimir Lenin's birthday.  I thought you might like to know that fact.