So many stories – so little time:

• Once again, there are reports that Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard is asking to be traded. If I were owner Rich DeVos, I’d grant his request. I’d trade him to a Russian team for a case of vodka and that might be asking too much.
• According to a few sources, Katie Holmes, who filed for divorce from Tom Cruise just before his 50th birthday this week, is scared for her daughter Suri from ominous men apparently from the Church of Scientology. Katie – you knew you were marrying a nut in a cult; what did you expect when you wanted out? Anyone thinking of “Rosemary’s Baby?”
• Now that Maria Sharapova and Rafael Nadal have been defeated at Wimbledon, maybe this means a wide open women’s game, and a break in the “Big 3” on the men’s side? I think that tennis is more interesting when you don’t have 2-3 players so much better than everyone else.
• The entire island of Britain is holding its collective breath hoping that Andy Murray, aided by coach Ivan Lendl, can be the first Englishman to win at Wimbledon since 1936. Maybe a motivated Murray can do it, but Djokovic may be too tough.
• CNN and CBS anchor Anderson Cooper announced he was gay this week. This is the biggest non-news story in some time – most people assumed he was gay all along. What’s more important is that it shouldn’t matter.
• The Paterno family is asking that all e-mails and correspondence regarding the Jerry Sandusky case be released because random leaks are smearing the late coach. According to the e-mails leaked earlier this week, Paterno was fully involved in the decision not to turn in his former heir apparent when sexual allegations surfaced. We knew that Paterno’s legacy was already tarnished, but it may be trashed entirely; but I have to ask if Paterno’s family is certain it wants all of the information made public?
• I’m not surprised that conservatives are mad at Chief Justice of the Supreme Count John Roberts for casting the deciding vote for President’s Obama’s heath care reform bill. The moneyed interests felt that they had the ruling all bought and paid for like everything else in government. The problem – Supreme Court justices are appointed for life and don’t have reelection campaigns to launder money for them.

I’m taking a couple of days to be with the Indignant Family – have a happy and safe Fourth of July, and I’ll be back with you next week.

It hasn’t been a good month for the cult of Scientology. The “religion” created by hack 1950s science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, has millions of followers around the world, and one of the primary ways it finds to attract people are the rich movie celebrities are Scientologists.
Two of the most open are John Travolta and Tom Cruise. Travolta even brought one of Hubbard’s creations, the truly terrible “Battlefield Earth” to the screen. But both have been in the news recently, and not in good ways.
Rumors that Travolta was gay have been commonplace for years, but they have reached a new crescendo with numerous lawsuits from men claiming that the “Pulp Fiction” actor fondled or tried to commit sex acts with them. Even a pilot who was employed by Travolta for years admitted that he and Travolta had a long term affair despite Travolta’s marriage to Kelly Preston, who is also a Scientologist.
To me, whether Travolta is gay or not is his affair (no pun intended), and what happens between Mr. Travolta, his wife, and others is their business. It is much easier (and more fun) to poke fun at Tom Cruise, a devout Scientologist and the subject or gay rumors for nearly as long as Mr. Travolta. Cruise flipped out when courting actress Katie Holmes by jumping on the couch on the Oprah Winfrey Show like an orangutan on uppers. It was announced that Ms. Holmes will be divorcing Mr. Cruise, which will once again bring forth the weird stories about her soon to be ex-husband.
Again, Mr. Cruise’s issues are his and you cannot measure my indifference with scientific notation. It is always sad to see a marriage end, especially with a child involved. An interest or concern I have is for their daughter.
But I think that Scientology and its followers are “bat-sh#t’ crazy. As you can imagine, I am not particularly religious, and while I think it’s all mostly made up, the longevity of the major religions; being raised in them; and the good that religion does bring to people keeps me from calling them “bat-sh#t” crazy. (Acknowledging the harm the organized religions have done in wars, killing people, and separating people.)
But Scientology is “bat-sh#t crazy” According to Wikipedia – “Scientology teaches that people are immortal beings who have forgotten their true nature. Its method of spiritual rehabilitation is a type of counseling known as auditing, in which practitioners aim to consciously re-experience painful or traumatic events in their past in order to free themselves of their limiting effects.”
Ok, fine, that’s a little weird, but not more than the other religions. Scientology goes into “bat-Sh#t’ crazy land when it comes to extraterrestrials. According to Wikipedia again, “advanced teachings involve the story of Xenu (sometimes Xemu), introduced as the tyrant ruler of the ‘Galactic Confederacy.’ According to this story, 75 million years ago Xenu brought billions of people to Earth in spacecraft resembling Douglas DC-8 airliners, stacked them around volcanoes and detonated hydrogen bombs in the volcanoes. The thetans then clustered together, stuck to the bodies of the living, and continue to do this today. Scientologists at advanced levels place considerable emphasis on isolating body thetans and neutralizing their ill effects.”
This is “bat-sh#t” craziness. This does not mean that I wish bad things to happen to Tom Cruise or John Travolta (or Kirstie Alley, Lisa Marie Presley or the other famous and non-famous Scientologists). Believe what you want; but your “religion” is nutty, and just like the other religions, please don’t try and convert me to your madness.

Late last week, when the Pennsylvania jury started deliberations in the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse trial, I hoped that justice would be done, unlike the Roger Clemens jury who winked and nodded as Clemens was allowed to walk on all charges. Of course, other than the fact that sports were involved in each case, the gravity of the charges against Clemens was a drop in the bucket compared with Sandusky’s.
The testimony reported by the media from Sandusky’s victims was harrowing, shocking and sad; but you never know what a jury will do, especially with so many members of the jury faculty, or alumni of Penn State. Fortunately, the jury came back with a guilty verdict on 45 of the 48 counts against Sandusky, a situation that will most likely be a life sentence for the 68-year-old former Penn State defensive coordinator.
One of the stories coming out after the trial was as fantastic: the defense wanted to quit, but the judge wouldn’t let them. They knew that Sandusky was a sexual predator and they wanted out, but they were forbidden to do so. This makes the whole trial even sadder; Sandusky believed that he could wiggle his way out of trouble; so he had a trial, even though he had to have known he was guilty. By forcing the victims to relive their horrific experiences, Jerry Sandusky stole what little remained of these young men’s innocence.
Of course, this is not the end of the story. Several former Penn State senior administrators, the former athletic director, and others may be prosecuted in the days and months ahead over covering up for Sandusky. Like Watergate, “who knew what, and when did they know it” will be the question facing the legal system. And the question that no one in Happy Valley wants to know, did venerable late Head Coach Joe Paterno know, and could he have been prosecuted if he hadn’t died last January?
There are a lot of articles that suggest that the NCAA death penalty, the ultimate penalty that guarantees at least a one year shut down of a sports program, should be leveled at Penn State? I can’t decide: on the one hand, the program was placed above the safety of young men, which I think would deserve harsh punishment. On the other hand, however, all of the people that were involved at the highest levels of the institution, and athletic department who were involved in the cover-up are no longer employed at the institution. As I said, many of those people will be in front of a judge soon, and Paterno is dead, but his legacy is permanently damaged, perhaps beyond repair, especially considering what has yet to become public.
However, none of the current players had anything to do with it; no one in the student body were involved, and even the alumni can’t be blamed for what they didn’t know, other than feeding a football beast so large and powerful that many felt that it had to be protected at all costs.
All I do know is – everything about Penn State football – all the wins and losses, championships, bowl appearances and victories now has a sad grey pall over it. No matter what, the Penn State program is the sight of a tragedy – like Ground Zero or Dealey Plaza in Dallas. Perhaps time will lighten the stain, but I don’t know if anything will make it disappear completely.

Well, the sun came up this morning, and it’s a beautiful day in Chicago. The Indignant Family are all alive and well. There were no floods, earthquakes, or natural disasters, so why does the day seem so crappy? Maybe it’s because the Miami Heat won the NBA Championship last night?
I had no great feeling one way or the other about LeBron James before “The Decision” television trashed his image for all time. I felt (and still feel) for the fans in Cleveland – no titles despite some great players playing in town; and to have the greatest in-state hero leave for the big dollars, is depressing to an area already hard hit by the economy.
My issue was and is that Pat riley and the Heat ownership tried to buy a championship by signing the “Three Amigos” – James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. Never mind that Wade and James play the same game except James is taller. But the young Oklahoma City Thunder couldn’t keep James from achieving his NBA Championship.
We James haters knew it would happen eventually, because LeBron James is one of the most gifted players to ever play the game, but I have to admit that I had hoped it wouldn’t be this year. If they had lost, it would have been fun to watch the fingers get pointed – is James a loser? Is Wade done? Would Bosh have been dealt? Certainly, Coach Eric Spoelstra would have lost his job. It would have been amusing to watch.
But we won’t get that chance as James redeemed himself and has a championship under his belt. Many people say that he has quieted the critics; but I say the naysayers are whispering, not yelling. But we must congratulate James on officially joining the NBA All-Time elite.

One of the most aggravating parts of being a fan of major college football has been the ceaseless argument over which school is the national champion. Yes, there was a BCS title game, but the participants in the game chosen by the “Bowl Championship Series” were as flawed, incomprehensible and arcane as the old coaches and sportswriters polls. And they seemed about as arbitrary.
But the winds of change are blowing through college football: there have been proposals to actually pay athletes; and now, a playoff system. The heads of the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and Notre Dame (why they always get included is beyond me – they haven’t been a viable contender for a national championship in over 25 years – except of course in the muddled minds of the Domer alumni and their fans) announced that they had decided on a playoff system to begin in 2014. The plan still requires approval from the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee.
The plan revolves around 2 semi-final games to be played within the current bowl structure, probably on a rotating basis. Then a “Champions Bowl” would be played by the winners.
That part sounds fine, but where this model and the earlier BCS and Polls systems fail is who decided who plays? Will it be some computer program, which was the old BCS and was about as accurate as weather forecasters?
It appears that it will be a group of men (I don’t think there’ll be any women), like the selection committee for the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments. The difference is that in these cases, the committees are picking 68 and 64 teams, respectively. The nice thing here is that any mistakes the committees make end up washing out eventually. Sure, there are teams that could have made the tournament, but what are their chances of winning the whole thing? Slim, at best.
Now, these “August” men will try and pick the four best teams in the country, and as usual, the picks will be skewed toward the major conferences. Small schools can have undefeated or 1-loss seasons, and maybe they can play in the Bug-tussle Bowl somewhere, but will they get a real chance to test the big boys? No.
Plus, NCAA, conference, and school officials have no qualms about voting for their constituent members to the detriment of fairness and other schools. For example, if there are 5 major teams with one loss each, and let’s say that Wisconsin’s one loss was a 4 touchdown blowout in their last game, does Jim Delany try to get the Badgers in anyway? Or does the SEC think that their conference championship game, decided by a field goal in overtime isn’t enough and that those two teams should make up half of the playoff field?
A playoff is a step in the right direction, and the money will flow in even greater quantities to the whole NCAA. But the back room way that the participants are chosen will eventually stink like week old fish – just like it always has.

I was frankly shocked by the verdict brought down by the jury in the Roger Clemens case yesterday, but I guess I shouldn’t have been. More and more often, the rich and famous get off, while poorer unknowns go to jail, and often it seems, on bogus evidence or testimony (especially in capital cases, it appears).
I wonder what is happening here. From what I hear, prosecutors are under staffed and over worked (as are defense attorneys), and maybe that’s it? They have so many cases, that they can’t do a good enough job on the big cases? Or, maybe, they aren’t that good? From what I read, the evidence was solid, but perhaps given the choice between Clemens’ former trainer Brian McNamee and Roger Clemens, the jury WANTED to believe the big league pitcher.
For the second time now, the Federal Government has tried to convict former superstar athletes of perjury by testifying that they never used performance enhancing drugs. First, it was Barry Bonds, whose record of drug use was much more well documented than Clemens, but he was found guilty of one count of the multiple count indictment. Now, here’s Clemens, acquitted quickly. Perhaps, the juries are saying “look, I’m in the room with Roger Clemens! Maybe if I vote to acquit, we can all get autographed pictures?”
Both Clemens and Bonds will continue to say that they never used PEDs, but the verdicts don’t say that. The verdicts say that they couldn’t be proven (except in one case for Bonds) of lying in court of never taking PEDs. The simple fact is – both of these narcissistic athletes did whatever they could do to remain superstars long after their physical skills should have waned. They both lied about it, but it couldn’t be proven in a court of law beyond a reasonable doubt.
Many fans didn’t care about drugs then, and don’t care now. They (like MLB Commissioner Bud “Head In The Sand” Selig) wish the whole talk would go away. Forget about the steroid era, and let’s just accept those gaudy statistics that the players put up in those years. But what about the players who weren’t juiced? What about the players that should have won battling titles, home run crowns, and pitching statistics, but were overshadowed by the huge-headed, steroid acne bunch?
That is the importance of sports – fair competition, and, unlike war, someone can win, no one has to die, and we can come back and play again tomorrow. That’s what kids should be getting out of sports – fun, exercise, and perhaps a lucky few can make a living at it. But not by cheating.
By all accounts, Roger Clemens is an s.o.b., and even with the allegations, was one of the dominant pitchers of all time even before PEDs came into the picture. But he is still a liar, and people that don’t care about that cannot call themselves sports fans.

Since we last spoke, there were three deaths of people in the news that are worthy of mention.
First, there was the great Cuban heavyweight boxer Teofilo Stevenson, who died last week at the age of 60. Stevenson looked like Ali, but the only time we Americans could see Stevenson was in the Olympics. He was not as fast as Ali, but he had a better punch. But Stevenson avoided the opportunities to defect, saying that he was loved by millions in Cuba (in turning down the millions he could have earned as a boxer in the West. Stevenson vs. Ali – the greatest fight we never got to see.
But we did get to see the life of Henry Hill, small time member of the Luchese crime family. Hill was a gangster turned informant, and his story was the basis for the Martin Scorsese film “Goodfellas.” Hill was played by Ray Liotta, the center of the colorful mix of sociopath “Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci), “Jimmy Conway” (Robert DeNiro), and “Paul Cicero” (Paul Sorvino). I believe that it will stand as one of the seminal films of our era, if not be critics, but by the public. I know that hardly a week goes by when I’m not quoting the film (usually Pesci’s “I’m funny” bit).
Finally, we have to mention the death of Rodney King. King of course, was videotaped being beaten by a number of Los Angeles Police, which led to riots, and eventually prosecution of the officers and their supervisors. King was always close to the wrong side of the law, but he was mostly harmless and didn’t deserve the beating he received. King got a great deal of money from the city in damages, but I think the money left quickly, and King was another footnote of history.