Hot, fat and sticky. - weather and men, making me crazy

If your initial thought was "she's going to write about food this week", you're wrong.

It has been hot here in NY. So hot that I had to actually turn on the air conditioner - which in turn, gave me a cold. The kind of cold where you're hot and yet your skin is cold and clammy. With all the other health stuff I've dealt with this summer, this was the last thing I need. Then again in the grand scheme of things, this is no big deal.

The last time I wrote it was about things that made me go "Grrrr". I thought I was done, no such luck. I'm hoping you can help me understand the following:

Men playing sports, getting paid a lot of money and then throwing it away. WHY?

I was asked if I thought Michael Vick being reinstated by the NFL Commissioner was fair especially since Pete Rose is still fighting to be instated into the Hall of Fame. Since I like sports I figured I would try to tackle this.

Let's begin with Michael Vick. He did a stupid, vile, unimaginable thing. Ok, I said it to get that out of the way. However, he went to prison and served his legal debt to society, and I think he should be allowed to try to put back together his life. Our prison systems have always said that they were creating a place where prisoners could be rehabilitated no matter what their crime. Not all can be, but at least they are given the opportunity to be. If we don't allow people who have served their time back into society, they'll just remain predators. Do I have a very decided line on hardened criminals (sexual predictors, murders) yes! Do I think Michael Vick falls into that category, no. He was just stupid - and acting stupidly is his crime.

What the commissioner has done by having him reinstated, represents the league (all of them). Now, if no team wanted to sign him because of the issues that will come with him, that's one thing. However this is purely a business decision - you know dollars/cents. The Philadelphia Eagles see him as an asset. He came cheap, and yes he has the skill to bring them a much needed/wanted title. It's just like having a 'normal' job - as long as you produce, make the boss look good, prove your worth, you're wanted. The moment you no longer can produce to benefit their profit margin - "see ya, wouldn't want to be ya."

Michael Vick, Plaxo both have to realize that they are not finding a cure for cancer, they are playing a sport. To be able to do what they do is a privilege not a right. Maybe they won't be as cocky. Maybe they will appreciate the talent they were given. Maybe they won't think the but for them goes the team. Vick the world is watching, and Plaxo...you'll get your turn in a few years. Do your time, learn your lesson and please don't do it again. If either of you do - they you absolutely deserve what you get.

Pete Rose, this is a totally different ball in play. It may sound crazy but, baseball has a "morality code" written in the bylaws for consideration that 'a player's personal conduct should be considered not just his abilities as a player'. To the best of my knowledge, football doesn't have such a clause - it's just about how you play and how many games we can win. Rose committed the ultimate sin in sports. He bet on his own game. Even people who don't follow sports understand that the integrity of the game was marred when he did that. If players and managers are betting on their sport, their own team (either for/against) then you can't be sure they aren't fixing things to win those bets.

We as a society want to hold celebrities and sports personalities up to a standard of almost demi-god. When they fall from grace, then we treat them a lot like gum on our shoe. We are as fickle as we are loyal to our team. Like people in Europe, you are 'born into' a team and heaven forbid you decide you don't like them anymore.

People, we are the ones that are paying crazy money for tickets to see players/these games and we should no must, hold players, managers, teams and the league accountable. There can't be any doubt in the integrity of the team or its players. These are the people that young boys (and girls) hold up as heroes. Maybe their parents should be the real hero, but that's another story. I'm all for giving opportunities and having people being proven guilty vs. innocent, but come on! If you were 170 at the end of the season and after 4 months off, you are now 260 - either you need to push back from the table or those "vitamins" that you are being injected with are not what they seem.

Barry Bonds, Clemens, McGuire, Sosa, A-Rod - all of these guys 'allegedly' use steroids in one form or another. I tell you, I want to reach through the tv and smack them when they say "he just gave me a shot - I thought it was a vitamin". HOW DUMB ARE YOU?? They were good ball players to begin with and just threw it all away. You just didn't think you would get caught. You thought your 'name' made you 'untouchable'. Hmmmm talk about ego!

I once has a boss who said ALL THE TIME "There are no tears in baseball". I'm not sure what she meant by it, but I do know that Plaxo, Vic and Rose (and a lot more players before it's done), will be shedding tears. I don't think so much for loss of their 'star' status as much as their 'star paycheck'.

Race, Relations, and things that make me go Grrrrrrrrrr

I've been a bit busy - trying to do things that are necessary in my life. I'm hoping that at least some of them, if not all, will be fruitful and bring into my life what I wish. What those things are - I'll blog about in the future.

Today I've finally had a few moments to write some thoughts on what has had me scratching my head, made me angry, and just throwing up my hands.

President Obama, Sgt. Crowley, Prof. Louis Gates.
The topic of race was too quiet...like the elephant in the room. Sadly, it's come out like a lion roaring and I don't know if it has divided the nation anymore than it has, when we should be more focused on health care, getting jobs and the return of the economy.

However, for some people, it's apparently getting increasingly hard to effectively conceal their racism, especially when it comes to dealing with the media. In a story two weeks ago emerged amongst the unavoidable Gates/Crowley fiasco, Cambridge police officer Justin Barrett has somehow managed to put himself in some deep... excrement. (this just says that while Sgt. Crowley may not be a 'racist' there are people in the Cambridge Police dept., the same one that he belongs to that are!)

He was put on paid administrative leave after he mass-mailed a racist, bigoted email to the Boston Globe and members of his National Guard unit, in which he continuously referred to professor Henry Louis Gates Jr as a "jungle monkey." Actually here are some of Barrett's original statement's:

"If I was the officer he verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle-monkey, I would have sprayed him in the face with OC deserving of his belligerent non-compliance." He went on further to say "I am not a racist but I am prejudice towards people who are stupid and pretend to stand up and preach for something they say is freedom but it is merely attention because you do not get enough of it in your little fear-dwelling circle of on-the-bandwagon followers."

What saddens me is that the people who demonstrate this type of behavior are more remorseful for getting caught and how they "worded" their statements more so than recognizing the social implications of their actions. In other words 'Open mouth, insert your entire leg!' This is someone who had HE been the one to respond that day, we may have had a VERY different outcome.

Now before you say I'm not responding to Pres. Obamas comments, I can only say that he is a man who may/or not have been a victim of racism himself, I don't know. Should he have used the words " acted stupidly", I don't know. In the end, there are no words that would have been good enough. Any words would have been taken out of context.

For people to presume that just because the U.S. has a black president in the white house is going to make things better; to think racism disappeared the moment he won is beyond sadly mistaken. How do you fix it? I'm not sure. I think that we should go back to our childhood when we all played with each other - with total disregard to skin color. Racism is taught; it's a learned behavior. I know people who have grown up with racist parents (this included color, religion and everything else) and they choose, to allow people into their lives based on who they are "not the color of their skin". Maybe that's too simplistic - maybe I want to believe that most people are good, sadly I know they are not.


Do I think the "Beer at the Rose garden" was as 'sweet' as it smelled, absolutely not. I believe that it was a photo-op. Let's face it...being called to the Oval office is akin to being called to the principals office.

Relations with other countries and each other.
I know Lisa Ling. She is an amazing woman, journalist and someone whose intellect I admire. I am beyond thrilled that her sister Laura Ling and editor Euna Lee are freed from captivity. What I want to know and may never know is why and how they were captured. Let me say upfront, I am not criticizing them, this was not their fault, they were 'just on the job'. I have been on the border of two countries and immediately knew where the country line was drawn...there were armed guards that told me.

I'm wondering if the area they were filming, contained no signs of warning, or police and if not...if they were just steps into N.Korea, then how and where did the military come from to arrest them? It just seems to me that they were (intentionally or not) further into N.Korea than we honestly know. Does this mean they should have been put in jail and sentenced to 12yrs of hard time - absolutely not. There are other journalists, political prisoners and perhaps many others that we will never know because of their 'non-status', who are arrested and in prisons with no chance of getting out.

Ah...former President Clinton to the rescue. I am a fan - yes I said it. I voted for him, worked on his campaign as a volunteer and think he did a good job. I am sad that I don't remember any interaction with Pres. Clinton and Kim Jong-il - the cynic in me wants to say that Kim Jong wanted Pres. Clinton to 'eat a bit of crow' for something in the past, but I have no evidence to back that up. What I do appreciate is that he passed no official messages and made no promises during his mission. N. Korea is still a country that needs to re-think it's policies.

To wrap this up, I hope that we can now get back to what's important: the economy, jobs, health care. For those critics of Pres Obama, look the man has only been in office for 8 months! If he hasn't made a real change by the end of the year, the I just might join you on the "Where is the Change?" bandwagon.