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.