While some might say that the Raiders allowing 17 points in the final eight minutes of a 24-23 loss to the Bills could have proven the straw that broke the camel’s back for Al Davis, Lane Kiffen’s days as head coach of the Oakland NFL have been numbered for some time. But it appears that the senile old man has finally found grounds to fire Kiffen. Both ESPN and FoxSports.com have reported that the Raiders were going to fire Kiffen as early as today (hasn’t happened yet, however).
The questions about Kiffin’s status have been lingering over the organization since January, when the coach and owner were at odds over the defensive coordinator in a dispute that led to Davis sending Kiffin a letter of resignation to sign. Kiffin refused, but Davis overruled Kiffin and kept defensive coordinator Rob Ryan on staff. Since that time, Kiffin has been publicly critical of personnel moves, openly distancing himself from moves he felt were made by the owner. Even Kiffin admitted last week he probably could have handled his relationship with management better.
This is another black eye on what had been one of the top organizations in football, but after appearing in Super Bowl XXXVII to Tampa Bay, the Raiders have the lowest winning percentage in the game. What happened? Well, the team grew old fast; couldn’t rebuild fast enough; and Al Davis refused to change with the times, running through coaches like water as he tried to win the way his teams did in the 1970s and 1980s.
Some thought that the hiring of Kiffin, then the youngest head coach in the game, might help bring the franchise into the 21st Century. But Davis, refuses to release the reins on the team, and it is painfully obvious that he no longer has any business trying to run an NFL franchise.
So, the Raiders will have another coach before the end of the week, and some decent talent like JaMarcus Russell and 2008 top draft pick Darren McFadden will suffer through another wasted, losing season. It appears that the Oakland Raiders are in the same position as the Chicago Blackhawks 15 months ago: it is obvious that the team won’t move forward until the owner (Davis in Oakland; Bill Wirtz in Chicago) dies. The Blackhawks are exciting and on the upswing. Oakland fans have their Al Davis voodoo dolls out.

Houston players are still upset about having to play the Chicago Cubs in Milwaukee following Hurricane Ike. For those who may not have noticed, Major League Baseball scheduled two games of a scheduled three game series in Wrigley Field north, namely Miller Park in Milwaukee. With the difficulty of getting tickets for Wrigley Field, it is not at all surprising that Chicagoans buy tickets for Milwaukee and then make the 90 mile jaunt up the lakefront.
Of course, the Cubs won both of the games played at Milwaukee’s Miller Park, including a no-hitter by Carlos Zambrano and an almost no-hitter by Ted Lilly. However, this explanation fell on the deaf ears of the Astros. Listen to what the Astros’ Doug Brocail told the Houston Chronicle: “the thing is we had days at the end of the season that we could have played a single game plus a doubleheader if need be, and to make us go up and play at North Wrigley like we had to on no sleep, it was absolutely ridiculous. If it was New York or Boston, it would have been played at the end of the season. I truly believe that, and I think 99.9 percent of our teammates believe that. But no, we’re the Houston Astros.”
It was so bad that Commissioner Bud Selig took out a full-page ad in Sunday’s Chronicle, explaining the process behind the decision. The letter read: “In making the decision to play there, I recognized the advantage the Cubs would have in playing in such close proximity to Chicago and had there been a better option, I would have taken it. All of us involved in the decision regret the frustration the Astros and their fans felt about playing two games in Milwaukee.”
Sure, Bud. There were no better options than to drag the Astros away from their homes and families in the middle of the night when their concern is on the damage to their homes, so that they can play in Milwaukee. There were a couple of days at the end of the season to play in case the games were needed, but that might throw off the television networks. And, if you played the games in say, Los Angeles, the local fans might not have come out, but in Milwaukee, there were plenty of rabid Cub fans who would fill the stadium, which makes the owners of all three teams: Astros, Cubs, and Brewers happy.
I don’t think the Astros would have made the playoffs even if there had been no Hurricane Ike, but this is another blunder committed by commissioner Selig; and yet another reason that the former used car salesman should be retired. He has no ownership interest in the game anymore, and his decisions have been flawed at best. It’s time for new blood in the commissioner’s office.

This is the last week of the 2008 baseball regular season and there are too many stories to count. Let’s “touch all the bases:”
• First, I would like to congratulate the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs have a magic number of two, which means that the team will clinch its division any day. It isn’t easy to be picked to win a division before the season and then go out and win it (unless you are the Red Sox or the Yankees when they’re good). This is even harder with a 100 year championship draught and 63-years without a World Series appearance. They have to be considered likely to make the World Series this season. Unfotunately, Cub fans are foaming at the mouth. You know that the Cub faithful are just waiting to go nuts and they will very soon. It’s fans like this that is a primary reason people hate the Cubs.
• Meanwhile, Mets fans hate to see September come. One year after having the most colossal collapse in baseball history; losing the NL East division title on the last day of the season after having had a 7½ game lead to the Phillies, the Mets have blown a 3½ game lead this year, but stand ½ game behind the Phillies, but slightly ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers for the wild card. The Mets have gotten better with Johann Santana coming over from Minnesota, and the team got rid of Willie Randolph and replaced him with Jerry Manuel as manager during the season, but the Mets play poorly in September, and I don’t think that anyone can fully explain why. Are they tired? Is the pressure too much? I don’t know, but we have three teams vying for 2 playoff spots, making for some interesting baseball this coming week.
• Speaking of the Brewers, the team gave the heave-ho to manager Ned Yost last week with just 12 games remaining. I know that often such moves are made for a quick boost to the team, but it hasn’t worked. The Brewers had been 3-12 in September under Yost and faced a vital four game series against the Cubs, but the Cubs won 3 of 4 games from the Brew Crew, the last of which was a come-from-behind, 12 inning loss to the division leader, a game which effectively eliminated them from division contention. Fortunately, the Brewers are fighting for the wild card. But I ask a question: Brewer management stated that Yost was fired because he was too tense and causing too much pressure on the team. But, what do they expect firing Yost did to the team?
• In the American League, the upstart, feel good Tampa Bay Rays are almost certain of making the playoffs, either as AL East division champion or wild card. It shows that almost anyone can win in baseball these days. That is, except for the Royals, Rangers, or Orioles.
• My Chicago White Sox currently hold a 1½ game lead over the piranha, the Minnesota Twins. These two teams haven’t been separated by more than 3 games since, it seems, the Vietnam War. The Sox had built a 2½ game lead, but losses to the Yankees with the Twins beating the Rays, led to the shortened lead. But it seems like the Twins were playing the Royals every other week, whereas it seemed that the Sox were always playing tougher teams, but the Sox get those Royals this weekend, while the Twinkies face the Rays again all weekend. If the Sox take care of their business (hopefully a sweep), any stumble by the Twins could get the South Siders closer to the AL Central title.
So, that’s the story in baseball. If both the Cubs and White Sox make the playoffs; a strong argument can be made that Chicago is the center of the baseball universe, especially if the Yankees and Mets don’t make the playoffs.

It seems like violence was the order of the day in Toronto this year at the time of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival but most of the violence wasn’t on the screen. First, some moron rushed the stage during an Oasis concert and fought with the Gallagher brothers before being subdued. Now, the brothers have deserved a good ass-whipping for many years just for being obnoxious, but for a fan in Toronto to leap on a stage to fight them is way out of character for the mostly laid-back Canadians.
Less surprising were reports that a New York Post critic hit Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert over the first weekend of the festival. It wasn’t surprising; first, it was a New Yorker, most of whom are rude and obnoxious. Add to that the fact that the man was a movie critic, but obviously not a major one; gave him a chance to be obnoxious like the big stars, and he used it. Ebert said that the incident was minor and is over, but I get the feeling that this is one movie critic that is on several “black lists” going forward.
Anyway, this was my ninth film festival, and I saw a number of interesting films, but I went without the Indignant Wife and the Indignant Daughter because the Wife is expecting a child soon and travel was not recommended for her. So, instead of staying for eight of the ten days of the festival like usual, I just went up for five days. For the first three days, freedom was nice; being able to stop at stores when I wanted; watch whatever I wanted on television; eating what I wanted; was great. But by Monday, I really missed the family, especially seeing some films that prominently featured children made me miss my daughter. But, enough of the background, here is a summary of my time at this year’s film festival:

Friday, September 5

I arrived in Toronto in the middle of the day, picked up my tickets and went to my first film. As I headed to the Ryerson Theater, I ran, almost literally, into Geoffrey Rush from Shine, Quills, The Tailor of Panama, and most notably, The Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. He didn’t have time to talk, but he was very nice anyway.
My first film was directed by Richard Linklater, director of, most famously, Dazed and Confused, but also School of Rock, and the “live” animated features Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. His latest film is Me and Orson Welles, and, to be honest, I was interested in the director and the subject (being a great fan of Welles), but it also shows that I am a bit out of touch on popular culture for younger people. As I waited in line, there was a lot of screaming near the front of the theater. As it turns out, the star of this film is Zac Efron, star of Disney’s High School Musical television show and films. I had heard his name, and you would have to live in a deep, deep cave under a large rock to not have heard of High School Musical, but I had no idea what all of the screaming was about.
Anyway, Efron’s character does an impromptu audition for Welles, played by Christian McKay, on the street in front of the Mercury Theater in 1937, just a few days before the company is scheduled to perform what is thought of in retrospect as a historic production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Efron gets a small role in the production; meets and romances an office worker with high ambition played by Claire Danes, and learns the ways of the world from Welles, Joseph Cotton (well played by James Tupper), producer John Houseman (played by Eddie Marsan, who has done fine work in films such as The Illusionist, V For Vendetta, and The Last Hangman) and the rest of the cast.
Efron gets to sing (of course), and in his first “serious” role is alright, but the star really is Mr. McKay. He has the famous Welles voice down, but he also has the slightly chubby look down, and he really becomes Welles complete with his womanizing, vanity, and budding genius is the Welles we know from history. I am not big on picking deserving candidates for Academy Awards, but Christian McKay deserves more than a passing look from the people that vote for Oscar.

Saturday, September 6

It seems as though there is always one anime film that I watch at the festival every year. This year, I was excited to see the latest film from Mamoru Oshii, the director who brought us the Ghost in the Shell films. Unfortunately, The Sky Crawlers didn’t live up to the previous films. The animation of the aerial dogfights was amazing, but the story was a confusing jumble. Two corporations are at war in some future Earth, but the battles are redundant and don’t seem to have a purpose. Meanwhile, the characters are straight out of Philip K. Dick: they have no memories; they don’t know if they’re real or robots and when they die, they can get recycled. A new flyer joins the post and engages in dogfights, but he has some connection to the post commander, a woman with the only child anywhere around. She says that the new pilot is her old lover that she killed, and it is his turn to kill her. On top of that, the post commander; and another women character, a flyer, are drawn so that they are indistinguishable other than their uniforms. Out of uniform, it was almost impossible to tell one from another. The story was derivative and confusing, and the characters not compelling enough for the viewer to want to spent time trying to figure it all out. Overall, the film was worth seeing for the incredible flight animation, but only for anime geeks.
My next film was a Finnish film called Sauna. You could summarize this as The Blair Witch Project mixed with Berman’s The Seventh Sign and M. Night Shamalan’s deeply flawed film The Village. The time is 1595, and a vicious war between Russia and Finland has ended and a small team of men comprised of two Russians and three Finns are charting the new boundary between the countries. Two of the Finns are brothers; the elder, played by Ville Virtanen (and resembling Max Van Sydow in Bergman’s film), had been a soldier in the war and has done some unspeakable things. The younger, Knut, played by Tommi Eronen, is more studious and has the best maps of the area. At the outset, the pair are staying with a local farmer and his daughter, but the soldiers end up leaving with the father killed and the daughter left alone in a fruit cellar. The younger brother is guilty about the farmer and the daughter, who aroused him, and wants to go back to see what happened to her. The older brother wants to finish the project and go home.
The mapping project is going well until they reach a swampy area, in the middle of which is a small concrete building, a sauna. The members of the party begin seeing things, especially Knut, who sees visions of the daughter, dead. And they come upon a village in the middle of the swamp with unusually clean people living a hermetic existence. But in the middle was always the sauna, which was important to Finns in medieval time because saunas were supposed to wash away memories and even sin. Babies, married couples and even dead people were put into saunas.
Overall, the film did have its creepy moments, and there were certainly enough questions left hanging to keep one interested. After the screening, I got to meet the director, Annila, Antti-Jussi and both actors. Mr. Annila was not interested in making a horror film as such, but the medieval time frame, the concepts of sin and redemption, and returning from fighting a brutal war struck a chord. The actors were very nice but unfortunately, I never got to ask whether Mr. Virtanen whether or not he was trying to mimic Mr. Van Sydow.
The final film of the day was truly unusual for one thing – I had never seen protesters at a film festival screening before. A number of religious people were protesting Bill Maher and Larry Charles’ new film Religulous. The pair had screened a 10 minute clip at last year’s festival and this year, they brought the entire movie. I have only watched a few minutes of Borat, Mr. Charles’ previous film, but I knew from regular viewing of Mr. Maher’s television show, that it was going to be a scathing indictment of churches and religions. And it was; taking us to places throughout the world and basically showing how ridiculous religion is. But, unlike several current books on the subject, Mr. Maher and Mr. Charles remain agnostics at heart. They cannot say that there is no God, but the chances are long that God doesn’t exist. And, at any rate, the people they interview at the Evolution Theme Park and other places are just begging for ridicule. And Christianity isn’t the only target: Judaism and Islam get their due as well.
Both Mr. Maher and Mr. Charles were at the first showing (I was told that Mr. Charles was also at the second showing, which was unusual, most times directors leave after the first showing), and their discussion was funny. Asked if he had hired the protesters for publicity, Maher said that any protesters he would have hired “wouldn’t have been so lame.” And when asked whether he was concerned about threats, Maher said that he had already pissed off the Christians and other groups. The people he was worried about were the Australians. Ever since Maher showed up at a Halloween party dressed as Steve Irwin, the “Crocodile Hunter” impaled by a fake ray tail, Maher said that the Aussies “were really pissed.”

Sunday, September 7

At first, I only had one movie today. I was not able to get tickets to see this Russian gangster film called The Ghost, but I was able to exchange it for a very interesting little film from Japan. But before we get to that, I saw a film called It Might Get Loud. I usually try to see at least one documentary each year at the festival, but this year, the “heavier” documentaries were playing over the last weekend, when I had already returned to Chicago. So, I saw this film, directed by Davis Guggenheim, documentarian and television director, whose previous film was the Oscar winning An Inconvenient Truth. This film however, involved a must less serious topic: the electric guitar, discussed by three of rock’s greats. Representing the old rockers: Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page; from the next generation – U2’s The Edge; and for the newer folks, Jack White of White Stripes and The Raconteurs. The film traced the careers of each of the guitarists with Page giving more background of his life before Zeppelin, which I found quite interesting. White gave us a tour of Detroit, his family, and his music, and while I did listen to both of his bands before, I am even more interested and impressed by his “back to basics” playing now. Uniquely, The Edge seemed to be the one who was looking past the age of the electric guitar. Most of The Edge’s material is effects driven, so he came off a bit, like the techno-geek of the group, with Page and White showing the blues influences in their work.
Disappointed in not getting to see The Ghost, I got a ticket to see a second choice, a Japanese film called Vacation. This film is an indictment of the death penalty in Japan. A prison guard, played by Kaoru Kobayashi, is among several guards working on a death row in Japan. One of the convicts is Tatsuro Mishima, played by Ren Osugi; a gentle soul who spends most of his time drawing intricate landscapes. The guard, named Taru Hirai, is getting married on Saturday to a woman who has a young son from her previous marriage. The marriage appears arranged, and the two adults are trying to learn about each other, and the Hirai is trying to find a way to bond with the 6-year-old as well.
Unlike in the U.S., condemned prisoners are not told of their execution date, and the guards are told that Mishima will be executed at the end of the week, the Friday before the wedding. The guards are even told not to show any change in behavior in order to not tip off the prisoner. Of course, a couple of the less experienced guards are extra nice to Mishima and he has an idea that his time is up. Hirai volunteers to hold the prisoner after death (the preferred method in Japan is hanging) in order to gain one week’s vacation, which allows the new family to go away on holiday.
As one would expect, the hanging casts a pall over the wedding ceremony and over the “honeymoon,” but at the end, all of the characters are trying to find ways to move on. The director, Hajime Kadoi, said in the Question and Answer session following the film, that he had made Mishima a very sympathetic character, leaving out what he had done and showing us only his grieving sister, who came to visit him in prison. The most harrowing scenes were when Mishima is taken to a “holding area” just before execution without stating what he did. Mr. Kadoi said that these scenes before the execution made him sick to his stomach. In terms of truth, one of the actors worked as a guard on death row for several years before working on this project, and the director stated that he would check with the former guard for authenticity.
Apparently, many of the executions in Japan go one without the public scrutiny that happens in this country when an inmate is executed. As I stated above, I was shocked that people didn’t know their own execution dates. While the rule of law has taken a severe beating in this country over the past eight years, I would think that not telling someone their execution date would be considered “cruel and unusual punishment.” However, the people staying in the same apartment with a friend in order to attend the festival and I had a discussion as to why Asian movies always have unhappy endings? We didn’t know, and while this film did have an execution near the end, it had a ray of hope as the boy, the woman and the new husband/father seemed to be building a relationship.

Monday, September 8

The day started out with my first, big budget, Hollywood film. This time, it was a film directed by Richard Eyre, whose last film was the excellent Notes on a Scandal (which also played the festival in 2006, but didn’t fit into my schedule at the time). This year’s release was called The Other Man. Once again, Eyre examined a story about adultery; this time, successful businessman played by one of my favorite actors, Liam Neeson, is married to successful shoe designer played by Laura Linney (a woman that yours truly finds sexy as all hell). One day, looking on her computer, Neeson retrieves his wife’s phone messages off her cell phone, and one of the messages is from a man who proclaims his love for her. Neeson tries to find out who this is, eventually findings a folder on her computer which is encoded with a password. Breaking through, there are numerous pictures of Linney and a dashing man played by Antonio Banderas including bedroom shots. The rest of the film is Neeson hunting down Banderas’ character in Milan; eventually meeting and building a relationship over chess without letting Banderas’ character know who Neeson’s character is.
Although clearly a melodrama, the ending of the film is unexpectedly not action packed and left me glad that it didn’t turn into Sleuth or some other revenge drama, but still, it didn’t have the emotional punch of Eyre’s earlier film.
A lot of people were excited about my next film, Kai Wai Wong’s Ashes of Time Redux. Mr. Wong has gone on to direct many great films including In The Mood For Love, and Chungking Express. Ashes of Time was a 1993 film that was one of Mr. Wong’s earliest films; a martial arts film about five people who come through a desert, fight bandits, and mull on the subject of love and loss. Maggie Cheung, the late Leslie Cheung and Tony Cheung Chui Wai, all recognizable to North American audiences now, were no-name actors when this film was produced, and so, I thought it would be interesting to watch this film.
The “Redux” version reportedly smoothed out the narrative and has a totally new musical soundtrack, but I still couldn’t understand the story. The martial arts passages, choreographed by Sammo Hung, were filmed in an indistinct, dusty style, and it was hard for me to discern characters, much less care about them. It was, however, tremendous to see Mr. Wong at the festival for the first time since 1995. It’s also too bad that his film didn’t move me.
Like anime, it seems like every year, I watch at least one film about Nazis. The final film of the day was delayed because we had to wait for all of the paparazzi to take pictures of the film’s star, Viggo Mortensen. This film was called Good, and in it, Mr. Mortensen plays a college professor who wrote a novel about euthanasia in Germany in the 1930s. The Nazis read the book, and approached him in the late 1930s to write a treatise on assisted suicide for the sick and injured. Of course, this is just thinly disguised cover for death camps to come later.
Mr. Mortensen’s best friend and fellow former German soldier in World War I is Maury, played by Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy of the Harry Potter films). Maury is a Jewish psychiatrist who fails to leave German as the Nazi harassment of Jews intensifies because “he is as German as anybody,” but is forced to come to Mr. Mortensen’s character for help in leaving Germany.
Meanwhile, Mr. Mortensen’s character has been seduced by a student; left his cold distant wife and children for her; dealt with his ailing mother, who was the model for his novel and eventually dies, and, reluctantly, becomes a mid-level officer in the Nazi party. Eventually, he discovers what the Nazis are up to, after his friend has disappeared.
This film is pedestrianly directed by Vincente Amorim, and would have been a decent made for TV movie without the acting of Mr. Mortensen and Mr. Isaacs. The student/second wife, is played by Jodie Whittaker, and while she is attractive, always comes off as being a villain and so, anything she does was suspect to me. At the end (Spoiler Alert!), when she ends up having betrayed her husband and his friend, it was done in a very rushed pace, not letting the drama settle in, or tension build. I know that second wives, especially ones that “steal” husbands away from first wives are to be portrayed as hussies, but Ms. Whittaker was portrayed only as an opportunist. I don’t think Ms. Whittaker was bad, I think that the director wasn’t up to the material.

Tuesday, September 10

This was my last day of the festival this year, and I only have one complaint. In years past, only the Galas, with the stars and directors showing up on the red carpet cost extra. If you bought a book of tickets or a daytime pass, films at the old Elgin Theater were still eligible. This year, all of the Elgin screenings were treated like Galas, meaning that the ticket price was $40 Canadian. This is quite steep for the average film goer, and so, it was no surprised that the theater was just over one-half full for a daytime showing of Spike Lee’s Miracle at St. Anna. On top of that, while sightings of Mr. Lee were numerous, once again, I failed to see Spike even once (I was outside of a private party for the film on Queen Street, but they didn’t invite me in, even with me wearing my Obama ’08 cap. Imagine that!)
Anyway, as you may have read by now, the film is based on a novel concerning four black soldiers from World War II’s Buffalo Soldiers regiment in Italy in 1944. One of the men, a towering G.I. named Sam Train (played by newcomer Omar Benson Miller), while carrying a priceless bust from a destroyed bridge, finds a young Italian boy in a farm as the Nazis attack the regiment. Three other black G.I.s played by Derek Luke, Michael Ealy and Laz Alonzo end up behind enemy lines with Train in Tuscany; trying to escape; save the boy; and the villagers. The film is too long (a flashback section from the soldiers’ time in basic training in Louisiana is unnecessary), but the performances are excellent throughout, not just the black soldiers, but the Italians, particularly the young man played by Matteo Sciabordi made this one of the best of the festival.
While I might have been disappointed that I didn’t get the opportunity to ask a question of Spike Lee in my Obama hat, I needn’t have worried. Director Rod Lurie told me that he had gotten his Obama hat at the Democratic National Convention. This does have some relevance since Mr. Lurie directed one of my favorite Washington/political films of the past several years, The Contender. That film was about the first female vice presidential candidate, played by Joan Allen facing allegations of sexual improprieties when she was in college. After helming the television series Commander-in-Chief, Mr. Lurie again faced the subject of women facing power in his latest film Nothing But The Truth. This film is based on the Valerie Plame case, but with major differences. After a failed presidential assassination attempt, the United States is at war with Venezuela, which has been tied to the attempt. Kate Beckinsale plays a political reporter who stumbles on another mother at her son’s school who happens to be a CIA operative played with cold indignation by Vera Farmiga. The agent filed a report that Venezuela had nothing to do with assassination, and therefore, the country had gone to war on false pretenses.
Ms. Beckinsale is a long way from vampires and werewolves in the Underworld films. She writes the story, but the White House sets loose an independent prosecutor played by Matt Dillon, who is more than willing to prosecute the reporter unless she reveals her source. Good performances by Alan Alda as the defense attorney; Noah Wiley as the newspaper’s counsel, Angela Bassett as editor-in-chief of the paper, and David Schwimmer as Ms. Beckinsale’s husband are not wasted. The film is smart; and ultimately sad for both women and their children: the reporter and the outed spy.
Overall, it was another good year for the film festival. I saw eleven films and can say that only the films seven through ten were mediocre and only Ashes of Time Redux didn’t grip me. Over the years before I had this blog, my friends and I have posted our thoughts on the Toronto International Film Festival and right or wrong, we have rated our films from best to worst. Here is my list:

1. Miracle at St. Anna
2. Nothing But The Truth
3. Me and Orson Welles
4. Religulous
5. Vacation
6. Sauna
7. It Might Get Loud
8. The Other Man
9. Good
10. The Sky Crawlers
11. Ashes of Time Redux

Roger Ebert wrote that there were critics, particularly Rex Reed, that said that this year’s Toronto International Film Festival was a disappointment and he wouldn’t be returning next year. Well, Roger said that the comments were petty and that overall, he had a pretty good time despite being hit by a rolled up newspaper. I agree with Roger, and I wasn’t hit by anything or anybody. I don’t know if the Indignant Children’s school schedules will permit me to come again next year, but if it does, I’ll be back.

A friend said that he couldn’t wait to see my evil opinion on the financial mess this country is in. I have stayed away from the subject because there are tons of articles in every newspaper and magazine on the current financial crisis, and, to be honest, I didn’t think I needed to add to the fray, but since I’ve been asked, let’s get evil.
The excrement is really hitting the rotary oscillator this week. It wasn’t enough when the housing bubble burst; manufacturing is down; unemployment is up. This week, bad investments have led to the bankruptcy filing of venerable Lehman Brothers, and the acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America in a deal that was probably put together at the offices of the New York Fed in lower Manhattan, just four blocks from Ground Zero, and the place where JP Morgan Chase was “urged” to acquire Bear Stearns last year. In response, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 500 points; the largest fall since the 2001 terrorist attacks on September 11th.
To my mind, flawed Republican ideology aided and abetted by Democrats has led us to this financial precipice. Since Reagan, the key word in economic policy has been deregulation, deregulation, and more deregulation. The market doesn’t need government oversight; the market will regulate itself. There’s only one problem with that: the market will not regulate itself; in fact, there will be more financial hanky panky with the foxes guarding the hen house.
And that’s what happened. The PhDs went into the back rooms and came up with more exotic instruments that were so confusing, no one but people with doctorates would understand them. But, there is one thing that Wall Street does know, how to get money from investors, with the mantra “Hey, every Tom, Dick and Harry – you can get rich in the stock market.” When actually, the call came out that Wall Street needed more suckers to fleece in their intricate schemes.
Then, in 2003/2004, interest rates were so low, banks were literally passing out money on the street. Why not? Money was cheap; find some dumb suckers to lend to; pass on the risk to the “market” and pocket the profits. And, if you get into trouble, the government would come in and bail you out at taxpayer expense.
As you may know, I teach credit to bankers, and in my first lecture of my course, I tell young lenders that if you make a loan that you know your borrower cannot repay, you have done a disservice to your bank, and worse, to your customer. The mortgage brokers and banks that took advantage of the poor and put them in houses that they could not afford should be jailed and all of their precious assets seized. And that may still happen to the small guys out pounding the pavement for loans; but the big guys make too much money and have too many friends in high places to ever face the music over their acts. And, since corporations are “people” according to the law; they can’t be dissolved for committing too many crimes.
As often happens however, the chickens come home to roost, and some of that very bad “paper” the companies passed out has come back to choke them. Bear Stearns – history. Merrill Lynch – purchased. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – bailed out by you and me, my friends. As this is posted, there are reports that the Federal Government is about to bail out insurer AIG to the tune of $50 billion, and yes, I wrote BILLIONS. Lehman Brothers – bankrupt after 150 years, because, ah shucks, we don’t have enough money to privatize everybody.
Why? It’s simple – there is no one in government with enough power to control the markets. I know that the conservative religion is small to no government. But government has a place; to keep people playing by the rules, and, if done right, keep the rules fair for everybody. But, with the special interests owning Congress on both sides of the aisle, regulation died, and the risk to the country and the people rose significantly.
Admittedly, I used to be a bank regulator and the Fed and former Chairman Alan Greenspan will take some well deserved blame from the pundits, and they deserve it. But so does John McCain, and his buddy Phil “the recession is in everyone’s mind – this is a nation of whiners” Gramm. Every Republican legislator who voted for deregulation over the past 30 years is to blame. And again, Bill Clinton’s administration, and the Democrats who went along with the deregulation craze when the Democrats had control of Congress are to blame. Not to mention George W. Bush and his cronies who are spending $350 million per day that we cannot afford on a worthless war in Iraq – they’re to blame also. But, ultimately, those of us who voted these bums in, on both sides of the aisle; we’re ultimately to blame, because we are getting the government we deserve. And if John McCain wins this election, we might as well change the name of the country to the Racist, Fascist States of America.

As I mentioned, I watched protesters picket the Bill Maher/Larry Charles film Religulous and I found the film hilarious. But there were two signs that I found most preposterous. First, there were a couple of signs that said: “Don’t Put Down My Religion.” This is completely stupid because if a movie can shake your faith, your faith ain’t worth a hill of beans.
But the sign that bothered me most is “I’ll Pray for You, Bill.” Now, as you know, Bill Maher doesn’t need me to defend him; besides, he has better, more highly paid writers than me, but I can see Maher telling someone who is “praying for him” to “fuck off” and rightly so. To me, this is the height of hubris; some schmuck who goes to church every weekend, but treats everyone like crap the rest of the time, is not only going to condescend to “pray for poor Bill Maher,” but is so confident in his own righteousness; so certain that they are among the “saved” and going to “Heaven;” that anyone who even speaks a contrary opinion is a “poor” or deluded.
I think the overly religious are poor and deluded. Who do you think you are, coming down off your high horse to pray for someone who disagrees with you? One of the things that have caused religion problems to intelligent, thinking people is the philosophy to make people think like you do. Maybe in the 1st Century AD, converting people to your religion was important just to keep your religion alive. But now, if you want to believe in Allah, Mohammed, Yahweh, Odin, Zeus, or any other deity, that’s fine, but keep it to yourself. But to sit there and pompously say that you are going to “pray for Bill Maher;” save your f@#king breath. If we’re wrong and you’re right, it’s our asses, and our problem. Don’t try to save me, mind your f@#king business.
Bill Maher doesn’t need you to pray for him. Pray for yourselves and your deluded notions that you have all the answers and are going to heaven. He is an agnostic and has a right to his opinion. As far as we know, it’s just as correct as your “faith”

We have played just one game in the NFL and already two start players are having knee surgery and will miss the entire rest of the season. The biggest name, of course, is Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady, who was submarined last week against Kansas City. It turns out that he tore his ACL and MCL in the hit. (Of course, the cynic in me says that this gives the three time Super Bowl MVP time to knock up more super models, but that’s harsh.)
The other player is San Diego linebacker Shawn Merriman. We knew he had a bad knee; he was expected to have season-ending surgery two weeks ago, but Merriman tried to play on the knee last Sunday, and he was but a shell of his normal self. So, now, he has changed his mind and is having the surgery.
And, the usual call has gone out (including from my friend Rick Telander) that further rules should be implemented to protect quarterbacks; to keep the best players like Brady on the field. His argument – who pays to see Matt Cassel play? My next door neighbor, David Wheeler and I went through all of the NFL quarterbacks and divided them into four categories: elite; successful (top quarterbacks who have been successful, but just aren’t in the elite category); prospects (young QBs for whom the jury is still out on whether they will become quality signal callers) and the bottom tier (journeymen, former backups, has-beens, and never-wases). We determined that 17 of the 32 teams were starting quarterbacks this week in the latter two categories.
So, should the NFL enact more rules to protect quarterbacks? (Personally, I think more research should be placed on improved equipment for all players, because football was not meant to be played by men with the size and speed of today’s player, which I think has relevance to both Brady and Merriman, but that is another matter.) I don’t think that rules to protect quarterbacks will improve play. I think that QBs are protected too much already. Are they football players or ballet dancers?
The question really is, where are the top quarterbacks? We listed only four signal callers in our elite group: Peyton Manning, Brady, Brett Favre, and maybe Matt Hasselbeck. Guys like Tony Romo, Eli Manning, Carson Palmer are in the second group. What’s happened to quarterbacks?
For QBs, it started, I believe, when the Ravens won the Super Bowl. Their QB was Trent Dilfer, whose job was to not blow it for the defense. They ran well, and Dilfer threw less than 20 times per game. But more teams took the philosophy, “if we don’t have a premier QB, all we need is a great defense to be competitive.” It has worked, but it has lead to a devaluation of the position.
But this is due to a lack of talent coming from the colleges. Where are the great QBs? Purdue was a quarterback factory, but it isn’t now. USC quarterbacks have been very successful in college, but other than Palmer, disappointments in the pros. But, as NFL teams have devalued quarterbacks on the one hand, they still draft quarterbacks as though they remain highly prized, and that was caused by Dan Marino. Marino fell to the AFC Champion Dolphins amid rumors of a bad knee, and went on to a Hall of Fame career. Pro scouts still live in fear, I think, of passing on the next Dan Marino. And if you look at the elite guys, Favre was drafted in the third round by Atlanta; and Brady was also a late round selection. Only Peyton Manning came out of college a star and kept playing at a high level.
Or maybe it’s bad pro coaches who can’t cultivate quarterbacks? Or maybe we’re just in a bad period for quarterbacks? Who knows? But enacting new rules on the basis of knee-jerk reaction to top players being injured is short-sighted, and diminishes the game.