Before I left, I wanted to write a post on the whole Chick-fil-A situation. I know, that’s so “last month, we’ve had a number of issues to get pissed off about since that happened,” I can hear you say. Well, there’s a current issue that makes this relevant – trust me.
When the bigoted head of the organization made his anti-gay comments and started the LGBT and supporters protest and show of support led by former GOP Presidential candidate Gov. Mike Huckabee, I knew that it was just another tempest in a teapot. The hard liners on both sides get to see each other on the street; that’s about it..
I was also very much against the Chicago alderman who said he would stand against a Chick-fil-A restaurant in his district because of it’s CEO’s anti-gay stance and comments. Wrong. The restaurant has every right to open a store wherever it wants to, just like I have the right to not shop there. The best way to make change is just not spend money there. You don’t need to protest; you don’t need to make a big fuss – the people who know will stop shopping there. The ignorant and bigoted will go there. Maybe there’s enough bigots to keep them in business, but perhaps not.
For example, the owner of Jimmy John’s sandwich shops is a donor to one of the Pro-Romney Super PACs that have come up with some of the more outlandish ads against the President. Do I get a poster board and start marching? No, I just stopper eating there – he’s not going to use my money against my best interests. Now, if more people vote with their wallets, it may not have much impact, but it might?
This leads me to the latest old white, GOP man opening his big mouth to show his ignorance. Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), who won the GOP primary for the Senate from Missouri, was interviewed over the weekend, and he attempted to justify his extreme opposition to abortion by claiming that victims of “legitimate rape” rarely get pregnant.
In an interview, the GOP Senate nominee was asked if he supported abortion in the case of rape. “From what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” said Akin said of pregnancy caused by rape. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume maybe that didn’t work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist.”
There has been a call, including from some Republicans for Akin to step aside in his race against Democratic incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill, but they shouldn’t. JUST DON”T VOTE FOR THIS IMBECILE! Of you live in Missouri, make sure to go to the polls and make sure that other people who also think that this ignorant knowledge and attitude is not acceptable in a United States Senator, and vote against this turkey.
I remember the protests that were going on when Martin Scorsese’s “Last Temptation of Christ” came out. Lots of protestors, planned boycotts, against a movie that was made on a shoestring and would have probably earned less without a public protest. I’m a HUGE Scorsese fans, so I went out and saw it (fortunately, Chicago is a blue place, so I didn’t face the wrath of Christians as I tried to see the film), but I know a few people in line with me would never have seen the film without the hubbub.
My argument is, instead of welling, just get the word out and make your money talk. I’m sure any Chich fil-A restaurant on the North Side of Chicago will have difficulty. Don’t spend money there – quietly tell everyone you know about your stand. Then, when the store goes out of business, that’s the true karmic retribution.

There is a ton of coverage every single day from ESPN, to Fox Sports, to NBC Sports, to the local news on the day’s winners and losers. But the college conferences, which have been battling for memberships with money and bowl prospects and television networks, are the true winners and losers.
The winners have been noticeable: the SEC, the Big Ten, the ACC, the Pac-10, which have or are in the midst of adding schools, and other conferences like the Big East have been losers, trying to survive amidst a number of schools leaving. But, we haven’t seen a conference fold until now. The Western Athletic Conference, hit hard by conference realignment, will drop football after the upcoming 2012 season according to the Denver Post.
“I think that sometime in late July it became apparent that it was unlikely we could continue with football,” WAC commissioner Jeff Hurd was quoted. “We looked at every option we could think of. With the geography we have in terms of schools, it presents a challenge.”
With schools such as Boise State and Fresno State regularly defeating teams from the other “bigger” name conferences, the WAC was viewed as a capable league. But the conference’s best teams have left over the past few seasons. Boise State, Fresno State, Hawaii and Nevada have already left the WAC, and San Jose State, Utah State, Louisiana Tech and Texas-San Antonio will leave after this year.
The real question now is whether the WAC will survive as a non-football conference? Reportedly, the WAC needs to add two or three new members to reach the NCAA minimum of seven schools for next season. There are a number of potential candidates, but are they big enough to generate enough income to make it worthwhile for the WAC to remain in business?

The thing about sports is that you play to win. Like that rap done from NFL coaches’ speeches – in the words of former New York Jets’ Head Coach and current television analyst Herm Edwards “You play to win the game!” Imagine the competitive instincts of a Michael Jordan; as talented as he was, he was even tougher because he hated losing. HATED! People that I know that played cards and golf with him talked about how he wanted to win every time, all the time.
Contrast that with eight female badminton players from China, South Korea and Indonesia. The women were disqualified from the Olympics for trying to lose matches yesterday.
The Badminton World Federation (who knew there was such a thing, who is it comprised of; and what do they do?) held a disciplinary hearing where the players were accused of playing to lose in order to face easier opponents in future matches. The obvious “tanking” drew boos from spectators and warnings from match officials.
When I first read about this, I couldn’t imagine doing it unless there were gamblers and money involved, but it made sense when the stories reported that the eight players concerned had all already qualified for the quarterfinals of the tournament before the final matches of the group stage.
The disqualifications mean the world’s No. 1 pair, Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang of China, are out of the competition. In the first of the Tuesday matches, Wang and Yu played South Korea’s Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na in a game in which “neither side seemed to be exerting themselves,” the official Olympic news service said.
According to SI.com, “after a several serves by both pairs went into the net, the tournament referee, Torsten Berg, was called to the court, the news service reported, ‘where he warned all four players amid a chorus of boos from the crowd.’”
The South Koreans eventually won the “repeatedly interrupted match,” securing first place in their group, but that puts them in the same side of the draw as Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei, the Chinese duo who are ranked No. 2 in the world.
An hour later. the second match in question took place, South Korea’s Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung against the Indonesians Meiliana Jauhari and Greysia Polii. At least twice according to the Olympic news service, Berg was called onto the court “with the crowd calling for the players to be sent off.”
There have been numerous instances when teams have “laid down” allowing other teams to score in order to get the ball back faster; and there have been plenty of allegations that teams have thrown games to get better draft picks/positions, but to do so in such a ham-handed method in front of witnesses who apparently know what they are watching is kind of dumb. If you’re any good, you’re going to face the other best team eventually, so you are just prolonging the inevitable. Unless of course, you’re used to never have to worry about the reaction from the spectators?

• Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud “Head in the Sand” Selig told reporters at Target Field that he will retire after the 2014 season when his contract ends. This goes against popular opinion that Selig will stay until 2016 to pass Kenesaw Mountain Landis as the game’s longest-serving commissioner.
My only statement is, why wait, Bud? You’re 78-years-old, and while baseball’s interest and revenues have gone up during your tenure, you turned a blind eye on performance enhancing drugs ravaging the sport while records fell like dominoes.
Do true baseball fans a favor Bud, and retire now. The next guy can’t do much worse.

• And in today’s “who cares” category, Jerry Sandusky’s defense attorney Joe Amendola told The Associated Press by phone that his client was beside himself over the NCAA and Big Ten sanctions levied on the Penn State football program.
Amendola says Sandusky said that even if people believe he’s guilty of the crimes for which he was convicted in June, it would be “ridiculous” to think Penn State administrators engaged in a cover-up.
This is the precisely the attitude that got the university in trouble – the safety of young men is less important than the football program, and even when discovered, Sandusky is more concerned over the sanctions than when he took from these children. I know that many pedophiles have a warped view of reality, but Sandusky is truly delusional.

There are just too many stories with the Olympics in full swing. I didn’t see the Opening Ceremonies, but I’ve seen pictures, but I have seen a lot of women’s volleyball, some basketball, and a little swimming. I’d like to make a couple of comments on happenings in the pool.
• First, we have to take our collective hats off to Michael Phelps, who tied then broke the Olympic medals record today with his 18th and 19th medals. His tie-breaking medal came as he swam the anchor leg of the 4X200-meter freestyle relay, earning the United States another Gold Medal. The United States team of Ryan Lochte, Conor Dwyer, Ricky Berens and Phelps won in 6 minutes, 59.70 seconds. France took the silver in 7:02.77, while China was third in 7:06.30. Earlier he had to settle for a silver medal in the 200-meter butterfly.
With 19 career medals spanning three Olympiads, Phelps moved one ahead of Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, who won 18 medals in the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Games. Phelps now has 15 golds, two silvers and two bronzes.
• From the positive to the 600 lb. gorilla in the corner; Chinese teenager Ye Shiwen set an Olympic record to win the 200-meter individual medley at the London Games on Tuesday, adding to her gold in the 400 IM. The 16-year-old Ye took the lead in the final lap and clocked 2 minutes, 7.57 seconds, shaving 0.18 off her own mark set in Monday’s semifinal. Inevitably, people are asking the question – where did this young woman come from and is there “chemical” aid in the form of performance enhancing drugs? The head of the World Swimming Association, John Leonard, described her swim as “unbelievable” and suggested that there may be more to it.
It’s a shame, but with China’s history of doping, doctoring athlete’s ages on official documents and a fanatical need to be considered superior athletically on a world stage, more than any other country, almost every medalist from China is given a measure of skepticism. Especially with Ms. Ye swimming a faster leg in the 100-meter freestyle than American champion male Ryan Lochte.
I would like to congratulate Ms. Ye, but I realistically can’t.

There is no place in the world that I love more than London. Growing up in the 1960s, London had it all: The Who; The Beatles; 007; Doctor Who. I have long said that if I could pick up my home and change my lifestyle very little, I would move to London in a flash.
As a kid, I was a dedicated Olympic watcher. In those days, it was the only time that Western sports fans got to see the best from Russia, Cuba, and the rest of the countries behind the Iron Curtain. But it’s 2012 – the Berlin Wall has been down for 20 years; the best hockey players in the world play in the NHL; the best track and field athletes are competing regularly against one another.
The positives in world politics however have weakened the Olympics. Yes, the average person places a great deal of relevance on the Olympics, but if you’re paying attention, the best are competing all the time. Take tennis for example: how will the best tennis players in the world competing against each other be much difference from Wimbledon, which ended a couple of weeks ago?
But, it’s still the Olympics, and I’ll be watching as much as I can, and I know it sounds like an old man griping, but it’s not like it was in the past….

On the same day that William Balfour was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences for murdering singer Jennifer Holiday’s mother, brother and nephew; crime entered the life of another celebrity – Cal Ripken, Jr.
An unknown person abducted Mr. Ripken’s mother from her Maryland home Tuesday morning. Fortunately, Vi Ripken was found safe Wednesday after someone abducted her the day before, investigators said.
Reportedly, a man with a gun showed up at Mrs. Ripken’s home between 7 and 8 a.m. The man forced her into a vehicle and drove off. Later reports say that the man put sunglasses on Mrs. Ripken and they drove around all day and made stops for gas. The suspect made no mention of Cal Ripken, an indication that he might not have known she is the mother of the Hall of Fame baseball player.
but said
About 8:30 p.m. last night, police in a couple of jurisdictions discussed a report of a suspicious vehicle. Information from that call led to the investigation of Ripken’s whereabouts. She was found unharmed about 6:15 a.m. this morning in a vehicle near her home.
Investigators are looking for a motive. Aberdeen police said that they have no knowledge of a ransom being demanded. The suspect did take Mrs. Ripken’s credit cards and it appears he has used them at several places.
A spokesman for the FBI in Baltimore, said the FBI is helping local police investigate the case. Police are looking for a white male in his late 30’s to early 40’s last seen wearing a light colored shirt, glasses and “camo pants.”
This is the type of thing that happens to hockey players with families in a former Iron Curtain country. I know that times are hard and getting harder, but it is a truly sad person kidnapping an old woman.
While it appears that this miscreant didn’t know who he had kidnapped, almost every famous player will have to consider spending money on protection not just themselves and their immediate family, but parents too.