I have been to Mexico a few times, and I have been to the bull fights a couple of times. I think it is barbaric and I never liked it (I went the second time with The Indignant Wife who had never been). I always rooted for the poor bull, which is drugged and already bloodied by the time the bullfighter came out and put the poor animal out of its misery.
Well, a bull got some measure of revenge this week, leaping out of a bullfighting arena in Spain and rampaged through the crowd, injuring at least 30 people
The incident occurred at an arena in the northern town of Tafalla during a performance meant to showcase the acrobatic prowess of bulls, rather than an actual bullfight. The local newspaper, Diario de Navarra, reported that two people were admitted to hospital: a 10-year-old child who was trampled and a 47-year-old who was gored by the bull. According to reports, the bull weighed more than 1,100 lbs., and there were 3,500 spectators.
Of course, just like in the film Spartacus, the hero eventually loses. Employees of the bullring managed to control and kill the bull. Let’s see this “sport” ended very soon

Former major league pitcher Roger Clemens was indicted for obstruction of Congress and other charges related to statements he made to a congressional committee in 2008. Once again, it appears that Roger Clemens does not think that the normal laws apply to him and that he can bowl over Congress and the law like he did batters.
Clemens denies guilt, as one would expect. The charges themselves stem from a 2008 appearance by Clemens and his former trainer, Brian McNamee, before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In their sworn testimony, the two contradicted each other, with Clemens denying that he used performance-enhancing drugs. McNamee’s testimony, as well as the Mitchell Report on performance enhancing drugs headed by former Sen. George Mitchell, stated that Clemens had used banned substances at various times in his career.
This is probably the week that Roger Clemens has been dreading ever since the testimony in 2008. He had to have known that he may have committed perjury, and not just in a courtroom, but to the United States Congress, and broadcast around the world on television and the Internet.
My question is: why Clemens first? Mark MacGwire testified that day, and has since revealed that he did take steroids, Human Growth Hormone and other banned substances. Rafael Palmeiro pointed his finger at the committee members denying he took steroids and then tested positive the very next season. Sammy Sosa tried to hide behind a lack of expertise in the English language (a language he spoke very well on television as a player) to make his denials.
Why Clemens? Because he steadfastly denies using drugs even now? Because Palmeiro and McGwire have already faced public shame and, to an extent, a place in baseball purgatory? Why not Sosa? Maybe because he doesn’t spend as much time in the United States? (And maybe after Sosa’s Michael Jackson-like skin whitening pictures, prosecutors felt that prosecuting Sosa was too creepy?)
The only answer I can come up with is that the prosecutors went after Clemens because there was another witness that contradicted his testimony and there may be enough physical evidence (the vials and blood that McNamee kept) to prove Clemens lied.
As I’ve said, the only way to clean up “the Steroid Era” once and for all is a blanket amnesty for all who play and once played and then any player who used and is voted to the Baseball Hall of Fame gets this fact on their plaque for posterity.
Roger Clemens has not pitched since 2007 but, like Palmeiro, never retired. No team hired them because of the fallout of the testimony and, in Palmeiro’s case, the positive test. But Roger Clemens had a Hall of Fame worthy career playing for the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, Houston Astros and New York Yankees. He was the first pitcher to win seven Cy Young awards, posting a record of 354-184 over 24 seasons. He was also known as a surly and thoroughly unpleasant person. Now, he may be remembered most for being, with Barry Bonds, the poster boys for steroids. And, based on their upcoming trials (Bonds’ trial is scheduled to begin in Spring 2011), both maybe among the best known convicts in the US prison system.

I tried to avoid the N-word filled rant of Dr. Laura Schlessinger, but I can’t. I know she was making a point about the N-word on her August 10 radio show, but she’s nuts. In the broadcast, she used the N-word 11 times while giving “advice” to a black woman who called about a problem with her white husband’s friends who use racist words.
“Black guys use it all the time,” the conservative shill told the woman. “Turn on HBO. Listen to a black comic and all you hear is (the N-word).” Dr. Laura told the woman that she was being too “hypersensitive” about race and needs a sense of humor if she’s going to be married to a white man.
Point 1 – yes, we use it (and probably shouldn’t), but for white people to use it is demeaning. I guess all she was trying to do was point out what a horrible injustice it was that Black people get to say the n-word and white people don’t. So sad for her. She’s probably jealous that she doesn’t have a black man to come home to.
Then, in announcing that she was giving up her radio show over the controversy on the Larry King show made things worse. “I want to be able to say what’s on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful, without somebody getting angry, some special interest group deciding this is a time to silence a voice of dissent and attack affiliates and attack sponsors,” Schlessinger said. “I’m sort of done with that.”
So, her “First Amendment rights” are being violated. Point 2 – She is as wrong about this as she is about everything else she discusses! The First Amendment protects speech from being halted BY THE GOVERNMENT! The “court of public opinion” can decide what speech is acceptable and what isn’t, as can sponsors and media outlets. We don’t go around calling people names because it isn’t acceptable!
What is scary is that ever since President Obama took office, it is now “alright” for certain white people (not stereotyping myself), mostly dumb, or playing to a very dumb crowd, all kinds of racist comments and actions, as those it was now OK. It is not OK.
And, if we needed to show the insensitivity of Republicans, Caribou Barbie herself, Sarah Palin has once again taken to Twitter to say something stupid Sarah Barracuda tweeted, “Dr.Laura:don’t retreat…reload!” (I guess she is thinking about hunting Alaska game from helicopters again.)
Anyway, I believe is discourse; and I believe in disagreement. As I told the Tea Party idiots that I regretfully engaged on Facebook; I think that disagreement is healthy. Argue about the deficit, OK; make points based on facts – good. Let’s talk about that. Most of the talk from the Right is either fear mongering, or lies, or designed to fuel the ugliest prejudices of gullible (mostly) white people. They have alienated most black people (and the conservative ones are propped up like mannequins and look foolish); and with the immigrant issue, they have pissed off most Hispanics. And since the United States is becoming more Hispanic, ethnic and interracial, it seems illogical to me to anger the future majority of the country? Anyone remember the Whig party?

I’m bored with the big stories of the day. All I can come up with are shorts:

• Rod Blagojevich was found guilty of 1 count under the indictment; judge declares a mistrial on other 23 counts. This means we have to go through this all over again. Oh boy!
• By the way, who were on the Blagojevich jury – Big Ten football officials?
• Brett Favre is in Minnesota after several teammates when down to Mississippi to convince him. I guess they know how to kiss ass.
• Too bad Cleveland Cavaliers’ owner Dan Gilbert didn’t learn how to kiss LeBron James’ ass this well.
• My take on Favre always was – knew he was coming back all along. I didn’t follow the annual “will he or won’t he” in the press that had nothing better to report on.
• I hope that the Bears Julius Peppers or some other defensive lineman “retires” Favre for good!
• For the second time in three games, the Chicago White Sox grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory. Saturday night, it was a home run in the 9th inning against the Tigers; last night it was a 2-run homer in the 10th inning from former Sox Jim Thome. This is getting REALLY OLD!

I do watch local news television in the morning, mostly to see what the weather is going to be for the day and the coming days so that I can advise The Indignant Wife and The Indignant Children. I usually look at the NBC and ABC local affiliates. Occasionally, I would channel surf pack CBS’ “Money and Monsters in the Morning.” This show was like a radio style show with sports commentators Dan Jiggetts and Mike North and Chicago Sun-Times financial reporter Terry Savage. It was abysmal and it has been cancelled. Its cancellation is no surprise to me.
I like Dan Jiggetts; he’s a decent reporter, but he has been partnered with Mike North for far too long. North, a former hot dog seller across from Wrigley Field is a boorish moron who is fully in the Jay Mariotti/Jim Rome School of controversy for ratings sake. Never mind whether the argument is based on fact or even makes sense – North will speak his mind (limited that it is). He has been able to turn his blather into a multimillion dollar radio career, but the numbers required to be successful in radio is vastly different as to what the ratings are required for television.
Ms. Savage didn’t help the equation. Her column is so simplistic that it isn’t finance for dummies; it is finance for utter ignoramuses. She was hired to speak at my previous employer, one of the Federal bank regulators and before an audience of finance professionals, she gave us a history or overview of our own agency. She didn’t have anything new to say; certainly had no insights or interesting thoughts to impart and these comments are equally applicable to her newspaper column.
Putting the two together may have seemed like a good idea, but Ms. Savage knows little or nothing about sports (and little or nothing about finance for that matter), and Mr. North has limited knowledge about much of anything. Mr. Jiggetts was in the middle, trying to be ringleader of the circus, but it never felt natural.
So, as I said, CBS has cancelled the experiment. It won’t be missed.

Gracing the cover of GQ magazine this month, LeBron James gave an interview with the magazine in which he blasted Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, and growing up in Akron, Ohio hating Clevelanders. James said he doesn’t think Gilbert, who bashed James in a letter immediately after he announced his decision to sign with the Miami Heat, ever cared about him. “My mother always told me: ‘You will see the light of people when they hit adversity. You’ll get a good sense of their character.’ Me and my family have seen the character of that man,” James said.
What, he didn’t kiss your ass nearly enough? Paying you millions; building the team around you; spending millions to bring the best talent possible to try and get you a championship. Not to mention the huge dollars he offered you to stay in town. (The cynic in me asks whether James’ mother, who has been said to have been sleeping with one of her son’s teammates, doesn’t like Gilbert because he wasn’t getting her enough dates.)
I am not a shill for sports owners, many of whom are as reputable as used car salesmen and as cuddly as cactus. I don’t know much about Gilbert, but it seems like he legitimately tried to do what sports owners are supposed to do – do all they can to put the best product on the field, court, etc., and try to win a championship. And he was pissed off when you joined the other two amigos and went to Miami. He has the right to do that and it shows to me that he does care about the things that matter.
According to ESPN, James told GQ of his hatred for Cleveland growing up, “Clevelanders, because they were the bigger-city kids when we were growing up, looked down on us. So we didn’t actually like Cleveland. We hated Cleveland growing up. There’s a lot of people in Cleveland we still hate to this day.”
Don’t worry LeBron, most of the city of Cleveland feels the same way toward you.

One of the benefits of being a sports fan is the chance to boo or heckle a player, a coach, team management, or ownership (or all of the above if you can do it). But freedom of expression is not valid in Bethlehem, Pa., the site of the Philadelphia Eagles training camp.
Jim Devlin of King of Prussia, Pa., a 43-year-old fan of the Eagles said that he was trying to stir up conversation by wearing a Washington Redskins Donovan McNabb jersey (McNabb, a six-time Pro Bowler who spent 11 seasons with the Eagles, was traded in April to the NFC Eastern Division rival.)
But the Eagles weren’t amused. Security guards asked Devlin to remove the replica jersey he was wearing on the sideline. Devlin removed it without complaint, but later said in a local radio interview that the guard who confronted him said the request had come from Head Coach Andy Reid.
A spokesman for the Eagles denied that, saying Reid was not aware of Devlin’s presence and that the guards were acting to calm the commotion created when reporters crowded around the fan while practice was in session. Sure; that was it.
What amuses me is that one of the benefits of being an owner, or a coach or a sports general manager is fame. Everyone in town knows how you are, even if they couldn’t pick you out of a police lineup. But with the money and fame comes the second guessing, and no town does more second guessing than what some believe are the toughest sports fans in the country, in Philadelphia. I guess I’m most surprised that Devlin didn’t put up much of a fight. Philly fans are know as brawlers and I am surprised he just took the jersey off.
One would think that people who work for a Philadelphia sports franchise, whether it was Coach Reid or not, would have thicker skins….