The Underwear Bomber

First it was the misguided shoe bomber Richard Reid, who with the promise of spending eternity in paradise with seventy-two virgins, attempted to bring down an airliner with explosives packed in his shoes. Now comes the equally confused and delusional Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, with an explosive substance packed in his drawers, was intent on bringing down a plane bound for Detroit on Christmas day before the triggering device malfunctioned and fellow passengers intervened to subdue him. All which raises the issue what Abdulmutallab intended to do with the virgins, his genitalia having been destroyed by the explosion. Such considerations apparently do not enter into the minds of religious fanatics utterly certain about the rightness of their cause.

Tiger Overkill

The New York Times columnist Frank Rich has dubbed Tiger Woods most deserving of the honor of person of the year. I don't buy Rich's conclusion because Tiger, after all is said and done, simply isn't that consequential figure. That said, I do agree with Rich's reasoning:

What makes the golfing superstar’s tale compelling, after all, is not that he’s another celebrity in trouble or another fallen athletic “role model” in a decade lousy with them. His scandal has nothing to tell us about race, and nothing new to say about hypocrisy. The conflict between Tiger’s picture-perfect family life and his marathon womanizing is the oldest of morality tales.

What’s striking instead is the exceptional, Enron-sized gap between this golfer’s public image as a paragon of businesslike discipline and focus and the maniacally reckless life we now know he led. What’s equally striking, if not shocking, is that the American establishment and news media — all of it, not just golf writers or celebrity tabloids — fell for the Woods myth as hard as any fan and actively helped sustain and enhance it.

People wanted to believe what they wanted to believe. Tiger’s off-the-links elusiveness was no more questioned than Enron’s impenetrable balance sheets, with their “special-purpose entities” named after “Star Wars” characters. Fortune magazine named Enron as America’s “most innovative company” six years in a row. In the January issue of Golf Digest, still on the stands, some of the best and most hardheaded writers in America offer “tips Obama can take from Tiger,” who is typically characterized as so without human frailties that he “never does anything that would make him look ridiculous.”

Chris Henry

The accidental death of Cincinnati wide receiver Chris Henry apparently from a domestic dispute with his girlfriend strikes me as absolutely senseless. Henry, a talented athlete with, to put it diplomatically, a checkered record off the field, was from all accounts was finally beginning to turn his life around. Sadly, another professional athlete's family will be without a father because of bad choices.

Tiger, Tiger

As Tiger Woods struggles with damage control in the wake of revelations about marital infidelities, several thoughts come to mind. We never really know the public figures we eagerly anoint as heroes and therefore should not be surprised when they come up short. Contrary to received opinion, athletic prowess should not be confused with character and values. And finally, in a rational society Woods' behavior would be regarded strictly as a private matter between he and his wife.

Go Steelers

William Woodson, an apparently avid fan of the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, kicked his girlfriend's puppy to death because the puppy was misbehaving prior to kickoff in a game with the hapless Kansas City Chiefs. Jailed for his extreme method of discipline, Woodson recounted that the puppy resisted going for a walk and was barking uncontrollably. Mr. Woodson's animus was rooted in his unhappiness that the girlfriend had brought the dog home in the first place. In light of the Chiefs stunning overtime victory over the Steelers, it is fair to say that the girlfriend was spared a similar fate.

Going Rogue

Sarah Palin, former Republican vice presidential candidate, has kicked off a nationwide promotional tour for her memoir Going Rogue. The book, which has been described, in par,t as a score settling effort, accuses the McCain campaign of micromanaging the mercurial former Alaska governor. But the question nobody seems willing to deal with is, why did McCain's people deem it necessary to monitor and control an individual who, as they say, would have been one heartbeat away from the presidency? That they apparently felt it necessary demonstrates that they believed that Palin lack the qualifications for the office of vice president.

An Idiotic Headline

A letter to the editor Washington Examiner Newspaper regarding a particularly stupid front page story on the Washington Redskins:

Re: Redskins are still Indians, November 17th.

Of all the professional sports franchises in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area, the Washington Redskins are indisputably the most popular. So I get it that the Examiner would devote front page coverage to the United States Supreme Court's refusal to hear arguments from a group of Native Americans that the team's trademark is patently offensive. What troubles me is the meaning of the headline "Redskins are still Indians." Are you suggesting that the high court's action is tantamount to saying that Redskins is an acceptable term? (Suppose the situation was different and the team was named the Washington Honkies, would the headline read "Honkies are still white people"?) Or, that the current roster of players are Native Americans? And what is the point of trotting out the photograph of the buffoonish Zema Williams, the misguided negro who poses as Chief Zee and unofficial team mascot? (There is perhaps hidden meaning in an African American masquerading as an Indian for a team that had to be forced by the Federal Government to accept black players).

Essence of Cool

There is interesting piece by Peter Aspden of the Financial Times attempting to explain to a friend the essence of "cool" and ending up, not surprisingly, with the man who personified the concept - Miles Dewey Davis:

He still didn’t really get it. We went on like this for a while. I wish I could have sent him to an exhibition currently running in Paris, which would have saved us both a lot of time and arcane argument. We Want Miles, at the Musée de la Musique, is a tribute to a figure who was so cool that he actually produced a work of art called Birth of the Cool, not even allowing for the pre-existence of this precious philosophical state.

Miles Davis made most of his profound announcements with a few long, sparse notes from his trumpet or flugel-horn. They spoke with uncommon eloquence, but he wasn’t bad with words either. A man of towering confidence, he knew humility. Towards the end of his career, he was asked, in a video clip shown here, whether anyone had influenced his musical style. “Not really,” he rasped, “but I used to want to quit when I was with Bird.”

An Appropriate Response

Last night John Allen Muhammad was executed by lethal injection in Jarratt, Virginia, specifically for the murder of Dean H. Meyers who was gunned down as he pumped gas. But of course Muhammad along with Lee Boyd Malvo was responsible for the murders of ten people in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area in September and October 2002. As an opponent of capital punishment, Muhammad's death sentence initially gave me pause but I have since come around to the view that there are some crimes so heinous, so horrific by their very nature that a death sentence is the only appropriate punishment. John Stuart Mill, in his 1868 Speech In Favor of Capital Punishment, said it best:

When there has been brought home to any one, by conclusive evidence, the greatest crime known to the law; and when the attendant circumstances suggest no palliation of the guilt, no hope that the culprit may even yet not be unworthy to live among mankind, nothing to make it probable that the crime was an exception to his general character rather than a consequence of it, then I confess it appears to me that to deprive the criminal of the life of which he has proved himself to be unworthy solemnly to blot him out from the fellowship of mankind and from the catalogue of the living is the most appropriate, as it is certainly the most impressive, mode in which society can attach to so great a crime the penal consequences which for the security of life it is indispensable to annex to it.

Death Cannot Part

That this is a sports crazed society is a given. But news that some fans’ passions extend beyond life itself takes the phenomenon to entirely new level. “From baseball parks to football stadiums to golf courses, sporting venues regularly field requests to scatter a loved one's cremated remains at the pitcher's mound, under a goal post or on a fairway overlooking the sea -- anywhere a sports hero has trod and triumphed.”

On Grumpiness

A University of South Wales researcher Professor Joe Forgas writes that while cheerfulness fosters creativity “negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world.” The professor’s experiments suggest that miserable people are far more superior at decision-making than their happy counterparts. As an individual who has often been accused of being grumpy, this is welcomed news because it brings perspective to a condition so universally misunderstood. Of course, there is the danger that I am simply embracing this information because it provides a convenient justification for my propensity for peevishness. But so be it.

A. I.

After sitting out three games because of injury, Allen Iverson made his much anticipated debut as a member of the Memphis Grizzlies against the Sacramento Kings. In eighteen minutes of action, the Answer scored 11 points. With characteristic honesty and selfishness about his role as a reserve, he proclaimed:

I had no problems (with the hamstring). I had a problem with my butt from sitting on that bench so long. That's the only thing I got a problem with.

Go look at my resume and that will show you that I’m not a sixth man. I don’t think it has anything to do with me being selfish. It’s just who I am. I don’t want to change what gave me all the success that I’ve had since I’ve been in this league.

Roy DeCarava 1919-2009

American photographer Roy DeCarava, who died at 89, spent his career chronicling the African American experience, including his native Harlem and jazz musicians. This is an example of DeCarava's work - a photograph of saxophonist John Coltrane and drummer Elvin Jones.

Obama's Hoops

Obama's fondness for hoops - games are held featuring only the fellas - is apparently causing consternation among some women supporters who feel that Obama's female staff are excluded from access to the president and therefore are being marginalized. This falls in the category of the silly non-story that is much ado about nothing.

Recipes

Clarissa Ward, in The Art of Recipe Writing (Financial Times Oct. 17th) writes:

Home cooks divide into two groups: those who use recipes as mere suggestions or guidelines, and those who follow instructions as if they were sat-nav systems. As one who has sweated over the difference between “gentle boil” and “lively simmer” on the reader’s behalf, I’d like to request that everyone follows the recipe as written, if only once. At the same time, I issue a disclaimer: if it smells like it’s burning, then it probably is.

As a home cook with modest skills, I strive mightily to be counted among the ranks of the first group, although with varying degrees of success. But slavishly adhering to the recipe as written, there's nothing challenging or interesting about that approach.

John Brown's Raid

A letter to the editor Washington Informer on John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry:

To the Editor

Askia Muhammad (John Brown's Body October 15th), on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, asks rhetorically: "If you had lived in the time of John Brown and Robert E. Lee and John Wilkes Booth, which side would you have been on?" A more relevant question is, if you had been a contemporary of John Brown, whose side would you have been on: Dangerfield Newby or Hayward Shepherd? Newby, a former slave, accompanied Brown on the raid and also planned to rescue his wife and six children who were held as slaves on a nearby farm. Shepherd, a quintessential dutiful black man who was killed trying to alert authorities to the raid, was later hailed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans as "a faithful employee and Baggage Master of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was murdered in furtherance of John Brown's nefarious scheme . . . ."

Hef No Longer

There is something terribly depressing about Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, the hedonistic octogenarian, lounging around in the fabled Playboy Mansion, dressed in trademark silk pajamas with the trio of "girlfriends" in tow. Hef is not unlike an aging entertainer or athlete in denial about the ravages of time, viagra notwithstanding.

Snyder's Follies

Much of the discussion about the dysfunctional Washington Redskins has focused on the public emasculation of its head coach Jim Zorn whose days are numbered. The attention, however, is terribly misplaced because the one constant in Washington's descent into mediocrity is the owner Daniel Snyder. Snyder has single-handedly transformed Redskins into Oakland Raiders East.

And what has he done to earn this dubious distinction? 5 coaches in 10 years; thrown untold amounts of money at free agents - some clearly past their prime (Deion Sanders and Bruce Smith); terrible drafts and often no draft picks at all (3 choices from last year don't have 10 receptions among them); hired the supremely inept Vinny Cerrato to be in charge of football operations; fired Norv Turner whose record was 7 and 6 with only 3 games remaining in the season; fired Marty Shottenheimer who actually laid the groundwork for making the team competitive; hired Steve Spurrier who lacked both the temperament and commitment to compete in the NFL; brought Joe Gibbs back, putting him in charge of player personnel despite the fact that Gibbs was never very good at it even in the glory days; hired Jim Zorn as offensive coordinator before bringing in a head coach; bumped Zorn up to head coach despite Zorn having no previous experience and, in addition, entrusted Zorn with mentoring Campbell and play calling; brought in Sherman Lewis to be "another set of eyes"; after more than 20 games where Washington has failed to score 30 points in any game "asked" him to relinquish play calling and then handed the job to Lewis; announced later that Lewis will communicate the plays to Sherman Smith who will in turn relay the play to Campbell, Zorn's duties presumably are limited to challenging calls, deciding when to go for it on 4th down, etc.

Today the aforementioned Cerrato, VP for football operations, made it "perfectly clear" that Zorn will remain as head coach for the 2009 season and quite possibly beyond. Those of us who have been around Washington are familiar with one Richard Milhous Nixon who frequently prefaced statements, usually less than truthful, with the expression "let me make one thing perfectly clear." As with Nixon, Cerrato's declaration should be viewed with skepticism.

An Unlikely Defense of Sharpton

A letter to the editor of the Washington Examiner newspaper that places me in the unusual position of defending the Rev. Al Sharpton, a man who I have loathed since the Tawana Brawley affair:

Re: Al Sharpton is today's Orval Faubus, October 19th.

The perfervid Star Parker writes, "[Al] Sharpton blocked Limbaugh like Gov. Orval Faubus tried to block black children from entering Central High in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957." This is a ridiculous argument. First, to equate an activist's campaign against a radio talk show host's effort to purchase a professional sports franchise with an Arkansas governor's defiance of federal law in preventing children from attending school is, on its face, a risible absurdity. Second, attempting to buy a footabll team is a privilege while seeking an education is a right. Third, whatever influence Sharpton had in bringing pressure to bear on the NFL and the investment group, he lacked the actual power to prevent Limbaugh from acquiring an interest in the team. Faubus, on the hand, as the highest ranking state official, wielded enormous power in depriving a group of its constitutional rights. And finally, Limbaugh was unceremoniously dumped not because of his conservative politics - the truth is, that club of billionaire owners is every bit as conservative as Limbaugh - but because he is a polarizing figure whose presence would bring unwanted attention to the league and, most importantly, interfere with the flow of commerce. Ironically, Limbaugh was insuffiently conservative for the club. On the original point, Al Sharpton might be a lot of things but Orville Faubus he isn't.

Portis's Incoherence

Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis says the problems confronting the team aren't Daniel Snyder and management but the media and the fans. Making his weekly appearance on WTEM 980's The John Thompson Show, Portis's trademark incoherence was in full throttle - and about as impressive as the team's offensive output:

"I think it's just gonna come down to not worrying about the media," Portis said. "You know, everybody want input around here. Being in Washington, D.C. and having so much focus on this team, everybody want their way. It's a fan that want Jason Campbell benched, that want Colt Brennan to play right now, and Colt Brennan injured. You know, it's a fan that want me benched and they should have drafted Knowshon Moreno from Denver; look, they didn't, Denver did. It's always, 'Oh, this could work.'...

"Every time you look at headlines, every time you see a story, it's 'The Redskins suck, the Redskins can't do it, the Redskins down again.' We're 2-4, we've still got a lot of football left. Philly was 2-4 last year and went to the NFC Championship game. Philly did that as a team. I'm sure their fans was killing them, the papers was killing them, but somehow, some way, you've got to keep searching and keep trying to find a way until you find it.

"And I think the pressure [is] on Mr. Snyder, and he want to win so bad. And everybody's [saying] 'Oh, get him out of here, he need to sell the team, he's what's [wrong].' It's not him. I think he brings in everybody that he could possibly bring in that he think gonna help this team. I think if you look at the talent on our team, we've got a lot of talent. We've got great players. We've gotta go out and do it. It's no coaches playing for us, it's nobody in the front office playing for us. The scout evaluators, whoever they bring in, I mean, they evaluate talent. We've got talent. It's just the execution. So it's on us."

The Distraction

All the whining by conservative commentators over Rush Limbaugh being unceremoniously dumped from the investment group seeking to purchase the St. Louis Rams of the National Football League is quite comical and more than a bit disingenuous, particularly when they gloss over than negative statements he has made about black people throughout his career. The point that gets overlooked is that Limbaugh's chances of being welcomed into the exclusive club of NFL owners were slim and none, even before the firestorm of reaction he received once the matter was made public. The bottom line is that this conservative group were not welcoming of a polarizing figure whose membership would hit them where it hurt the most: in their pockets.

Dead Man Walking

Washington Redskins head coach Jim Zorn whose team in the first 6 weeks of the 2009 season has faced opponents who had yet to record a victory and, despite having the easiest schedule in the National Football League, has only managed a pitiful 2 wins and 4 losses, a cumulative record of 10 and 12 in less than 2 full seasons. Zorn, however, cannot shoulder the entire burden. That distinction falls squarely on the owner Daniel Snyder who since acquiring the franchise in 1999 has hired 5 coaches, which is on pace to equal actress Elizabeth Taylor's penchant for discarding husbands.

Happy Anniversary Denny Green

Without a doubt, Denny Green's meltdown in a post-game interview from October 16, 2006, following the Chicago Bears' dramatic comeback against Green's Arizona Cardinals, must rank among the greatest in the annals of sports.

The Fall and Decline of WPFW

As of this writing, the once consequential and serious WPFW 89.3 FM has started its annual fall pledge drive, a drive that more than usual takes on a particularly feverish air of desperation with the survival of the station being at stake. Concerning this sorry mess, a few observations:

1. Those charged with the responsibility of running WPFW are guilty of mismanagement and malfeasance in squandering a valuable resource.
2. To continue pledging financial support to the station, without any assurances that it will reverse course, is tantamount to throwing money down a proverbial rat hole.
3. The usual hackneyed arguments - for example, that it is "the lone beacon of jazz music and political truth on the Washington, D.C. area radio airways" - no longer hold sway because of the aforementioned (1) and because of a changed media landscape that pretty much renders the station a nullity.
4. Instead of prolonging the inevitable, WPFW should be allowed to suffer the fate of organizations that fail to keep pace with a changing environment: it should be allowed to die.

In Praise of Mathias Kiwanuka

Kudos to New York Giants defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka for speaking out against the notion of playing for Rush Limbaugh, who is part of group trying to purchase the St. Louis Rams of the National Football League.

"All I know is from the last comment I heard, he said in (President) Obama's America, white kids are getting beat up on the bus while black kids are chanting 'right on. I mean, I don't want anything to do with a team that he has any part of. He can do whatever he wants, it is a free country. But if it goes through, I can tell you where I am not going to play."

"I am not going to draw a conclusion from a person off of one comment, but when it is time after time after time and there's a consistent pattern of disrespect and just a complete misunderstanding of an entire culture that I am a part of, I can't respect him as a man."

Obama and Nobel Peace Prize

When I first heard the news that Barack Obama had been selected by the Nobel Committee as this year’s recipient for its Peace Prize, I thought it was a put-on, not unlike the headlines frequently associated with the satirical newspaper The Onion. Whatever Obama’s promise and idealism, the point is that after barely nine months in office, he has accomplished very little in the area of international relations and world peace. About the only thing that can be said is that the Committee was making a political statement, namely, that after eight years of American unilateralism and heavy-handed arrogance as displayed by the Bush Administration, it was endorsing Obama’s commitment to international cooperation and diplomacy. In essence, Obama got the prize because he isn't George Bush.

Fail to the Redskins

Carolina 20, Washington 17.

I am not the least bit surprised by this outcome. In a week where running back Clinton Portis calls out fullback Mike Sellers for not blocking, where bingo caller Sherman Lewis is brought in as a consultant (a move that undermines the head coach), and where the defensive coordinator no longer wants to talk to the media, how could it be anything else but another demoralizing performance? To paraphrase Denny Greene, the Redskins are who I thought they were: a mediocre team constructed by a dysfunctional organization, overseen by an egomanical, clueless owner flushed with cash but devoid of anything remotely resembling football knowledge.

Baring All

Levi Johnston, the estranged 19-year-old father of Sarah Palin’s granddaughter, is apparently determined to exploit his proverbial 15-minutes of fame, despite being expelled from the former vice presidential candidate’s inner circle. Johnston has jousted publicly with Sarah Palin about what did and did not happen during his relationship with the erstwhile Alaska governor. Now Johnston reportedly plans to literally bare all for Playgirl magazine. In preparation for the endeavor, Johnston has undertaken a physical regimen of training 3 hours daily, 6 days a week. This makeover is similar but more strenuous than what he underwent to make him presentable to voters during the presidential campaign.

The Second Amendment Advocate

Meleanie Hain garnered national headlines as the soccer mom who attended her daughter's soccer match carrying a loaded gun. Wednesday police found Hain and her husband dead of gunshot wounds in an apparent murder-suicide. The Hains were experiencing marital difficulties.

Disingenuous Favre

Brett Favre insists that tonight's contest with his former team the Green Bay Packers is just another game and that he isn't bent on revenge against an organization that no longer desired his services, having grown tired, and understandably so, of his indecisiveness about retiring. If Favre's numerous off again - on again pronouncements about retirement are any indication, it suggests that he is either incapable of telling the truth or profoundly uncertain about life beyond football. In either case, Favre has seriously damaged his reputation and legacy regardless of the outcome of tonight's game.

Oh, Oh Sheila

Sheila Johnson, co-founder of BET Television, demonstrates that she is equally as tasteless and ridiculous as former husband Bob Johnson when it comes to endorsing political candidates. Bob Johnson, who was a fervent supporter of Hillary Clinton, launched a particularly personal attack against Barack Obama during the Democratic presidential primaries. When the public outcry turned up the heat, Johnson later backed away from his comments. Now Sheila Johnson, who supports Republican Bob McDonnell in the Virginia gubernatorial contest, openly mocks Democratic candidate Creigh Deeds for being a stutterer. It would not be at all surprising to see Sheila attempt to distance herself from those remarks and issue a lame apology. Such is how these things are usually played out.

Organized Mayhem

The conclusion that there is a greater incidence of memory related diseases among former NFL players relative to the general population hardly comes as a surprise. With players bigger, stronger, and faster it couldn't be anything else. Football, as George F. Will noted, is organized mayhem, inherently violent and not susceptible to changes without interfering with the basic nature of the game.

A study commissioned by the National Football League reports that Alzheimer’s disease or similar memory-related diseases appear to have been diagnosed in the league’s former players vastly more often than in the national population — including a rate of 19 times the normal rate for men ages 30 through 49.

Coming Up Short

It appears that the vaunted Obama Magic (with earth mother Oprah thrown in for good measure) met its match in the International Olympic Committee as that imperial body awarded the 2016 Olympic Games to Rio de Janeiro, despite the illustrious triumvirate's best efforts on behalf of Chicago, Illinois.

The Colonel Speaks

Perhaps Colonel Quaddafi felt compelled to hog the limelight by speaking an hour and half - six times longer then the allotted time - at the United Nations this week; after all, it was his first occasion to be in this august body despite being in power 40 years. One thing is certain, brevity isn't a quality he values.

Floyd Mayweather

Let's be real: Floyd Mayweather soundly beating a smaller, lighter, and slower Juan Manuel Marquez is hardly a big deal. There is an axiom is boxing that says, with rare exception, all things being equal a good big man will always defeat a good small man. And this undoubtedly played out in the Mayweather-Marquez bout. I firmly believe that Mayweather took this fight because the rewards were high (I heard he took home about $10 million) while the risks were relatively low. If Floyd is really serious about proving himself as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, he will accept Sugar Shane Moseley's challenge. I won't hold my breath.

Agent Zero

Gilbert Arenas faults the Washington Wizards for allowing him to come back too early from his injury thereby jeopardizing his career. This is a remarkable statement even for as well-established flake as Arenas. Despite missing 149 games and suffering a serious injury, the Wizards rewarded him with a $100 million contract. And on top of that, despite the best efforts of the organization, he insisted on rehabbing on his own. A decision that in hindsight did not go very well.

Obama Overload

President Barack Obama appeared on five Sunday talk shows pushing one of the signature issues of his campaign - health care reform. The White House's position is that the president is the most effective weapon it has and therefore it is good politics to put him out on the hustings. However, polls seem to indicate that the nation is roughly split down the middle, meaning few minds are changed through Obama's many appearances. I am afraid that the administration is running the risk of overexposing Obama. Of course, the best thing to come out of Obama's multiple appearances is that Fox was left out of the loop. All I can say is good riddance.

Kanye and Ta-ta

If any public figure can be said to raise acting a fool to an art form, it is unquestionably rapper Kanye West who generated almost universal public condemnation for disrupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech in receiving an award for best video at last Sunday's MTV Video Awards.

Walkin'

Unlike his heckling colleague Joe Wilson, Rep. John Shimkus (R-Illinois) chose to demonstrate his displeasure by walking out during President Obama's speech on health care reform.

Twist and Shout

This is Republican congressman Joe Wilson, the asshole from South Carolina, - excuse me, Van Jones - who interrupted President Obama's address before a joint session of Congress on health care with shouts "You lie."

Alien Ideas

If an alien visitor from outer space had alighted in these United States, he could not be faulted for believing that either Russian president Dimitry Medvedev or Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, through some weird circumstance, had been invited to speak to America's unsuspecting children on what is traditionally the first day of school and that a significant amount of the populace was feverishly upset about the threat of indoctrination and adoption of socialist ideas. The visitor would be astounded to learn that the speaker was none other than the duly elected president of the Republic - Barack Hussein Obama.

Jefferson's Honor

A letter to the editor D.C. Examiner regarding the defense of Thomas Jefferson's honor:

Re: Defending the honor of Thomas Jefferson, September 1st.

Barbara Hollingsworth writes, “And while [William Hyland, Jr.’s] book doesn’t change the brutal fact that white plantation owners like [Thomas] Jefferson often took sexual advantage of their female slaves, forcing them to bear unacknowledged offspring, it does remind us that even dead white males deserved to considered innocent until proven guilty.” This is nonsense. Strictly speaking, the presumption of innocence, an ancient tenet of criminal law, has no application in answering the historical question whether Thomas Jefferson fathered any of Sally Heming’s children. If any presumption applies it is this: the slaveholding Jefferson, with absolute dominion and control over Heming, whose status was that of a piece of property available for anything including satisfying the master’s sexual appetite, is presumed to have acted consistently with the slaveholders’ prevailing mores and practices of the day.

Never Can Say Goodbye

Michael Joseph Jackson, aka the King of Pop, will finally - and mercifully - be laid to rest today in a celebrity studded mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale, California.

Traficant Freed

Former Ohio Democratic congressman and sartorially challenged Jim Traficant leaves a Minnesota prison after serving seven years for bribery and racketeering.

Obama's War of Necessity

On the domestic front, President Obama's biggest challenge this summer has been health care reform but, with Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. commander for Afghanistan, set to pay a visit and, in all likelihood, request additional troops in what Obama calls a war of necessity, the administration's biggest foreign policy issue is about to take center stage. Public support for the war in Afghanistan has declined while American casualties continue to mount. Conservative columnist George F. Will argues that Washington needs to keep faith with those men and women in harm's way "by rapidly reversing the trajectory of American involvement in Afghanistan."

Keeping (White) Hope Alive

Reprentative Lynn Jenkins (R-Kansas) speaking before a crowd about the challenges facing the Grand Old Party as it stumbles in the political wilderness: "Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope. I suggest to any of you who are concerned about that, who are Republican, there are some great young Republican minds in Washington."

Edward M. Kennedy 1932 - 2009

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who died yesterday of brain cancer, was the last surviving brother in the Kennedy Dynasty, the third longest person to serve in the United States Senate, and an unrelenting advocate for health care reform, civil rights, and social justice. He was unapologetically liberal even in an era when that term became a perjorative.

Prez's Centennial

Will Friedwald's tribute to tenor saxophonist Lester Young occasioned by the musician's centennial - Young was born August 27, 1909 - is recommended reading. Friedwald looks at Young's 1943 solo on Sometimes I'm Happy. Friedwald writes that Young's solo "is a prime example of the President (usually shortened to 'Prez') - as Billie Holiday called Young - touched on every emotion known to man in a single, short solo. He's obviously inspired by Irving Caesar's title and lyric as much as he is by Vincent Youmans' melody. Most popular songs present the states of 'happy' and 'sad' as monolithic poles of feeling, but Young seems to be jazzed by the way that Caesar and Youmans mix both together. His interpretation of the tune is both at the same time, a constant state of melancholic euphoria."

Honorary Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan

This asshole richly deserves the title for saying of Barack Obama: "This president, I think, has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture. I don't know what it is."

"I'm not saying he doesn't like white people. I'm saying he has a problem. He has a -- this guy is, I believe, a racist."

Whining

A response to a Washington Examiner columnist on supporters of Sonia Sotomayor:

Gregory Kane castigates what he terms the whining Left's complaints about Sen. Tom Coburn's use of Desi Arnaz's catch phrase "you have some 'splaining to do" in an exchange with then Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor over the Second Amendment. On the basis of an indeterminate number of phone calls received while he appeared on a Baltimore college radio station, Kane wildly extrapolates that left wingers en masse are apoplectic over Coburn's dated allusion. This is nonsense. A few phone calls cannot logically be said to represent the mindset of an entire group. It would seem that Kane has "some 'splaining to do."

Rashied Ali 1935-2009

Drummer Rashied Ali, who died of a heart attack, was an important figure in free jazz, a member of John Coltrane's last bands and an invaluable contributor to Coltrane's albums Meditations and Interstellar Space.

The Jeffersons

Don't know whether its nature or nurture but the Jefferson clan seems inclined to find themselves on the wrong end of the criminal justice system. Last week it was younger brother William convicted by federal jury for corruption and money laundering, now it is older brother Mose's turn, as he stands trial for bribing a scool board president.

Dollar Bill Convicted

An Alexandria, Va. jury found former Rep. William Jefferson guilty on 11 of 16 counts for accepting bribes and engaging in money laundering while a member of Congress. Jefferson, the first black congressman from Louisiana since Reconstruction, became the butt of comedians' jokes after an FBI raid on his Virginia home found $90,000 stuffed in his freezer. His explanation for the unconventional storage was that he was attempting to keep it away from his housekeeper or an intruder. It appears that the jurors did not put much stock in Jefferson's explanation. Jefferson not only faces a possible maximum of 20 years in prison when he is sentenced October 30th, he has the dubious distinction of changing the connotations of such well-worn expressions "cold hard cash" and "frozen assets."

Lil' Kim and Bubba

The little fellow on the right needed the visit of a high profile American to shore up his standing as the Supreme Ruler of one of the most bizarre nations on the planet. The other fellow, the gray haired dude on the left, was willing to oblige because of late, especially since his wife came up short in the Democratic presidential sweepstakes, he had pretty much been pushed to the sidelines. But as fate would have it, he was remarkably suited for the task: Bubba has always been good at picking up women.

Women Scorned

William Congreve famously wrote: "Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like woman scorned." A married Wisconsin man knows this all too well. Thinking he was meeting a woman in a motel for an afternoon tryst, he found himself bound, blindfolded, and assaulted by four women including his wife. Among the indignities he suffered was having his penis glued to his stomach with Krazy Glue. The gentleman eventually managed to free himself. The four women were arrested and charged with false imprisonment. The woman who used the glue for purposes not contemplated by the manufacturer was also charged with sexual assault.

The Beer Summit

The much hyped Obama beer summit, where the principals in the Gates affair - Henry Louis Gates and Sgt. James Crowley - were invited to the White House to discuss their little misunderstanding over beer was much ado about nothing. If the intent was to use the incident as what Obama termed "a teachable moment" in the thorny issue of race in America then it came up pitifully short.

The Solomonic Roger Goodell

Roger Goodell's conditional reinstatement of Michael Vick is basically piling on or, in the parlance of the game, unnecessary roughness. After serving 23 months in prison, facing financial bankruptcy, and his reputation pretty much destroyed, Vick has paid his debt to society and the NFL and should be allowed a chance to play football again. In a league where at least one player actually killed a person in an automobile accident and where a significant percentage of players have been guilty of abusing women, Goodell's handling of Vick smacks of hypocrisy.

Strange Journalistic Practice

It is curiously surprising that ESPN, the self-described Worldwide Leader in Sports, saw fit to issue a "do not report" memo to its staffers after learning about the civil lawsuit brought against Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for sexual assault. Even more surprising is the lack of coverage in the general media concerning ESPN's questionable journalistic practices. Some defend the action by citing the need to protect a celebrity athlete's reputation over what they consider an attempt to extort money from Roethlisberger. But this argument is unpersuasive because it places ESPN in the position of managing rather than reporting the news.

George Russell 1923 - 2009

Largely unknown and unheralded except to the most inveterate jazz listeners, George Russell, who died of complications from Alzheimer's disease, was a composer, arranger, bandleader, and theorist whose ideas had a huge impact on the evolution of post-World War II jazz.

Out of Sessions

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, announces that he will vote against Judge Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation as associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. This development hardly comes as a surprise. Sessions's opposition was nearly as predictable as Sotomayor's confirmation in the Senate, where Democrats hold a 60-40 majority. What is curious about Sessions' decision is its peculiar logic in arriving at the decision. On the one hand, he warns that liberals might have nothing more than a Pyrrhic victory because Sotomayor retreated from previous positions. But on the other hand, he turned around and said that, in the final analysis, she would be unable to resist the urge for judicial activism that liberals cherish.

Deja Vu Again

Wasn't going to join the feeding frenzy about the renown Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., getting arrested in his own house by the Cambridge police for disorderly conduct because, quite frankly, there is nothing unusual about a black man in America finding himself on the wrong end of police conduct. What distinguishes this situation from others that happen all over America is that Gates is the most preeminent African American intellectual of his generation and, as such, should have been impugn from the indignities suffered by his less fortunate brethren. But with President Obama going off script and weighing in ("the police behaved stupidly") and then moonwalking away from his statement (he calls it recalibration) and inviting the principals - Gates and Sgt. Crowley - for a couple of beers, the scenario is becoming increasingly familiar. First, there is an incident that reminds us of America's sordid past in race relations - the Bush administration's bungling of Katrina damaged New Orleans, the idiotic Don Imus' nappy-headed hos comment, O.J. Simpson's trial-of-the-century, the L.A. police's beating of Rodney King, the brutal dragging death of James Byrd, black and Hispanic kids being uncereminously disinvited from a private Philadelphia swimming pool, etc. Then the wiser heads among us reflexively come forth and call for a conversation and/or dialogue about race (Obama deems it a "teachable moment"). For a few days or perhaps a week or two, there is a lot of back and forth that presumably passes for dialogue or conversation, and then the whole thing recedes and it is back to business as usual. Excuse my cynicism but I find myself suffering from a severe case of fatigue.

Walter Cronkite 1916-2009

CBS newsman Walter Cronkite, the most trusted man in America, is dead. It is fair to say that his retirement signaled a shift in television news as a disseminator of the hard news to just another venue of entertainment.

The Courageous Justice Thomas

A letter to the editor The Washington Examiner:

Re: Michael Barone's "The Courage of his Convictions" July 12th.

Reading Michael Barone's fawning profile of Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, I am struck that where one stands on the ideological spectrum determines when a judge is admirably adhering to Constitutional principles. Specifically, Barone looks at the recent Supreme Court's 8-1 decision in the Voting Rights case and hails it as a manifestation of Thomas's "willingness to write lonely opinions and to be guided by history has sometimes helped to change the law." To the contrary, I would argue that the Voting Rights case, as well as the case involving the strip search of a teenage girl where Thomas again was the lone dissent, indicates a judge who is anything but mainstream. Indeed, Thomas is representative of a radical judicial activism from the right.

Morgan Freeman's Nuptials

Reportedly, Morgan Freeman, 72, will wed his step-granddaughter aged 27. Don't know what to make of this proposed union except to say that, of all the women in the world who would be attracted to a movie star, why in the hell would you settle on your step-granddaughter? Damn.

Sarah, Sarah, Sarah

Admittedly, I never understood the whole Sarah Palin phenomenon. From the moment John McCain announced that he had selected this obscure one-term governor from Alaska as his running mate, I thought it was a joke. A very bad joke that would doing nothing to help him defeat Barack Obama in the presidential election. And after hearing her stump speeches and seeing her in various interviews, especially with Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson, I was convinced that this woman was an intellectual lightweight who made even the famously intellectually incurious George W. Bush appear to have substance. Granted, she said all the things that would energize the base of the Republican Party, such as it is. But she offered absolutely nothing that would appeal to independents and Democrats. And she offered nothing in the way of assurance that she was up to the challenge of being a heartbeat away from the presidency. So her latest weird press conference where she announced that she was resigning as governor came as no great surprise. Her statement was vintage Palin: rambling, confused, disjointed. Like I said at the outset, I don't get it.

Steve McNair 1973-2009

For some, especially casual football fans, Steve McNair will probably always be indelibly linked to the salacious details surrounding his untimely death. And that is terribly unfortunate and unfair because what defines McNair is how he carried himself as a professional in the National Football League, both on and off the field. In a league with no shortage of machismo and toughness, McNair was the consummate tough guy who played a position not necessarily associated with toughness. As one of his former teammates observed, he was quarterback, halfback, and fullback all rolled into one. Off the field, he was generous with his time and money,contributing to various charities, most recently to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Happy Anniversary Jack Johnson

There is an interesting New York Times editorial on the occasion of the 4th of July also being the 99th anniversary of Jack Johnson's stunning knockout of the "Great White Hope" Jim Jeffries in Reno, Nevada in 1908. The editorial notes:

This landmark moment in the struggle up from slavery still has not been set right in history. Jack Johnson fearlessly personified a kind of uncivil disobedience — an outspoken contumely toward the nation’s racist taboos. He had a gift for taunting hypocrites from outside the ring and inside, where shouted racist slurs only galvanized his boxing arts. His was an amazing form of resistance when Jim Crow lynchings and pro-white sports reporting were standard Americana.

Johnson paid the price three years later when vindictive authorities twisted the Mann Act’s strictures against prostitution to convict him before an all-white jury for having dared to travel with a white woman across state lines. He did a year in prison.

Interestingly enough, Senator John McCain, who could not find it within himself to support the Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday, is one of the chief sponsors of legislation to pardon Johnson for his misdeeds. Don't want to appear ungrateful but there is a helluva difference between supporting legislation in recognition of MLK and pardoning a former heavyweight champion that the average American never heard of.

The Stalker

Washington D.C. Councilman Marion Barry reportedly was arrested by Park Police for stalking a woman. At this stage of the game, it is safe to say the infamous Mayor-for-Life was operating more on habit and instinct as opposed to potentiality, given his age and assorted health problems.

Clash of the Titans

Entertainment Tonight ET, which in the wake of Michael Jackson's death has refashioned itself into in an organ of investigative journalism, reports that funeral preparations entail the momentous clash of two outsized egos - Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton - over who will be anointed to deliver the eulogy for the King of Pop.

Tiger Woods, Jim Brown and Social Activism

Washington Post sports columnist Michael Wilbon defends Tiger Woods from criticism leveled by former NFL football great Jim Brown that Woods has not done enough in addressing societal ills:

Tiger Woods may not want to be defended on this issue; he certainly didn't ask to be defended. But he's going to be, in this space anyway, because Jim Brown's recent comments to HBO that Tiger's social contributions are inadequate are way off base, even inaccurate. Just because Brown perhaps isn't aware of the depth and range of Tiger's contributions, or that they differ from his own social agenda doesn't mean Tiger is lacking a social conscience -- because he isn't.

Don't get me wrong, I've admired Brown's activism my entire adult life. One of the unforgettable experiences of my life came during the 1992 riots in Los Angeles, when Brown, through his determination, concern and sheer force of personality, persuaded gang members from the rival Crips and Bloods to call a truce to the violence and talk out their differences at Brown's Hollywood home.

But the battles must be fought on different grounds; surely Jim Brown knows this. Tiger has committed millions of dollars, some of the money raised and some of it donated out of his own pocket, to enriching the lives of kids who couldn't possibly find the help elsewhere.

I agree with Wilbon's assessment. Although I admire and respect Brown for his social activism, I believe his criticism of Woods is unfair because it fails to take into account that activism can take various forms. Woods, through his foundation, is making valuable contributions to the community and should be applauded for his efforts.

The Jesse and Al Show

An unfortunate byproduct of Michael Jackson's death is the reemergence of two of the greatest hustlers and ambulance chasers without law degrees of all-time, the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton. The former rushed to L.A. reportedly at the behest of the Jackson family to express their concerns about the circumstances surrounding the death. As is usual with Jesse, many of the points he raises are valid but what is problematic is the messenger - his ego and his motives. The latter, not to be outdone, arrived later in L.A. to pitch his grand idea of a worldwide celebration of the life of the King of Pop. Jackson and Sharpton are not solely to blame for inserting themselves in the middle of matters deemed racial or having racial overtones. For their enablers are the news media who reflexively contact this willing duo who never shy away from microphones and cameras.

Michael Jackson 1958-2009

Two things are undeniably true of the self-anointed King of Pop Michael Jackson, who died suddenly of cardiac arrest Thursday in Los Angeles. One, he was an extraordinarily talented and gifted entertainer, singer, and dancer; indeed, of all his contemporaries, he is most deserving of the appellation musical genius. And two, he was an inscrutably tortured soul whose eccentricities grew increasingly more bizarre and stranger as time wore on. That behavior resulted in child molestation scandals and a seemingly never ending string of lawsuits that tarnished his reputation. Whether the latter similarly tarnishes his legacy now that he is gone can only be answered over time.

Sanford and Sin

Last week it was Republican Sen. John Ensign who came clean about his extra-marital affair despite his holier than thou condemnation of Bill Clinton's involvement with Monica Lewinsky and fellow GOP senator and hypocrite Larry Craig for playing footsie in a Minneapolis airport. Now it is the principled South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who was hailed as a potential presidential candidate in 2012 and the refuser of stimulus funds from the Obama administration because it would compromise deeply held conservative principles, has bitten the dust. But this numbnut took the mea culpa to another level by giving a rambling, disjointed press conference, where he waxed nostalgically about his experiences on the Appalachian Trail, God's divine guidance, and sundry other topics before announcing to the world that he cheated on his wife. If he had a shred of integrity, he would resign his governorship not only for political hypocrisy but for abandoning his state and lying to his staff about his whereabouts.

WPFW's Turmoil

The recent firing of Ron Pinchback as general manager of Pacifica's WPFW 89.3 FM in Washington, D.C. was badly timed and ill-considered, not because of Pinchback's ability - truth is, he was a mediocrity who reached the apogee of his meager skills years ago when he was responsible for public service announcements and calendar of events - but because his termination coincides with the departure of Bobby Hill as program director. These actions render an already shaky, floundering organization even more unstable. The station prides itself on 30 years of community service but the truth is, it has failed miserably to inject its programming with the imagination and energy sorely needed to compete in a dynamic, ever-changing environment created in large part with the emergence of the internet and other technologies.

Blind, Irrational Hatred

This white racist, anti-Semitic octogenarian mofo who killed the security guard at the Holocaust Museum last week did not get his just desserts, at least not in the short term. If only the guard who brought him down had been a better shot, he would be dead by now. But remember the adage that hate can consume you and lead to your eventual destruction? Well, James W. von Brunn's example puts that to rest because this sick mofo's 88 years on the planet apparently was fueled by nothing more blind, irrational hatred. Like I said, if only the guard had been a better shot.