As usual, NBC's coverage of the Olympics really sucks.

O.K., I am going to start out by giving NBC a few props here at the beginning.  They do have some extensive, live coverage available on line.  That's really nice.  Plus, during the day (when most people are at work, of course), they have three or four channels going of live sports, including ones we don't see a lot (e.g., archery, team handball, water polo) and they don't exclusively focus on Americans.  So, hats off to NBC for those developments.  Those are good things.  Thanks.

But your prime time coverage is still that same crap that you always do.  You want to watch the Olympics?  Then you are going to do it on our terms.  It's like they think they are showing the Outer Limits.  "We control the horizontal.  We control the vertical.  We control all that you see and hear...."  They seem to believe that they Olympics must be presented as a reality show.  It's just all a bunch of raw material that they can slice, dice, omit, re-order, etc., however they feel like it.  They are going to show you all Americans, all the time, except for some events which they obviously can't do that, like diving.  But even then, they have already decided which countries they are going to show and not show.  They never, ever show all the competitors in diving.  They recently received a bunch of criticism for not showing a very dramatic moment involving Russian gymnasts.  They wanted to keep the audience in suspense about whether or not viewers would keep watching, which would keep them watching.

I see the same criticisms, over and over, every single Olympics that NBC broadcasts.  Yet then never change.  Hey, NBC!  Pay attention, dammit!  The Olympics are not some reality show that is open to your own interpretation.  It contains its own dynamics and drama without you trying to insert your own manufactured drama.  You should not be screwing around with the content just because you think you can "maximize eyeballs" on TV sets.  And I have news for you.  A lot of people I know have to go to be before 11 p.m. (that would be 10 p.m. for me) as they have to go to work in the morning.  Would you PLEASE get over yourself!  You are not the show here!  They Olympics are!

Jeez!

The Olympics certainly aren't what they used to be.

My opening statement is not a criticism.  I like them much better now than when I was a kid.  I was trying to explain to my 16 year old daughter how the Olympics were viewed when I was a kid, which was always, always through the lens of the Cold War.  Us vs. Them.  How many medals did the U.S. and its allies win vs. the Soviet Bloc?  That's what I remember the most about the Olympics when I was a kid.

There was always outrage when our gymnasts were given really low scores by the Russian or East German judges.  I remember how the men's basketball team was literally robbed of a gold medal by the officials by giving them not one "do over" at the very end of a game with a half court heave, but TWO "do overs."  I remember the U.S. boycotting the Moscow Olympics because of their involvement in Afghanistan (and boy, in retrospect, do we look stupid now) and the Soviet Union and their allies boycotting the games in LA.  I remember every once in while that we actually rooted for one of "their" athletes because they were so good, such as Nadia.  And I most certainly remember the U.S. hockey team's "Miracle On Ice" at Lake Placid.  I even have a hockey puck somewhere around here with a sticker of the U.S. hockey team on it when I saw them doing their warm ups by playing all the teams in the Central Hockey League way back when.

I am not sure my daughter could really get what I was saying.  After all, she has no direct experience with anything like that.  The Cold War is just something that happened back in the depths of time that she reads about in her history book.

I am certainly not saying there aren't political tensions in the world.  But it is certainly nice that, for the most part, they don't manifest themselves in the Olympics anymore.  The Olympic Games are not seen as some "proxy war" for who has the best ideology.  And that's really a very positive development.  I actually enjoy rooting for the Russians now and then.

Sorry for yet another college football thread: Missouri going to seek membership in the SEC.

See here for the very latest, which will no doubt be totally out of date in the next 15 minutes.

Ok, but here's one thing that I haven't seen anyone mention before. If Missouri goes to the SEC, do you realize that will give that league THREE TEAMS named Tigers? LSU, Auburn and now Missouri. And two other teams are named Bulldogs; Georgia and Miss. State. Yes, the SEC plays great football. They should apply to the NFL, they are so good. But seriously, you are looking very, very unimaginative with the names.

2011 NCAA Tournament: Big East kind of sucking canal water once again.

As my alma mater, the University of Washington, experienced yet another end-of-game meltdown of a game against perennial power North Carolina and lost in heartbreaking fashion, I find I can take comfort in the fact that the Bestest, Most Wonderfulest Basketball Conference That Has Ever Existed has already lost 9 of their record 11 teams this 2011 NCAA Championship.

Let me see here….

• Villanova (9 seed) lost to George Mason, who got destroyed by Ohio State.
• West Virginia ((5 seed) lost to Kentucky.
• Syracuse (3 seed) lost to fellow Big East conference member Marquette.
• Cincinnati (6 seed) also lost to a fellow Big East conference member UConn.
• Louisville (4 seed) lost to 13 seed Morehead State on a last second 3 pointer.
• Georgetown (6 seed) got destroyed by VCU, who had to play in the “first four” games on Wednesday.
• Notre Dame (2 seed) got absolutely humbled by a 10 seed in Florida State.
• Pittsburg (1 seed) lost in the stupidest ending to a college basketball game ever, to Butler.
• St. John’s (Toast of New York and 6 seed) lost to Mid-Major power Gonzaga.

Ah, so that’s not doing so well, is it, for a conference and all their media promoters at ESPN and CBS? I have heard several analysts say something like, “Well, two Big East teams had to lose, as those two games had Big East teams playing each other.” Personally, I like the flip side of the coin. Two Big East teams had to WIN those games. Who’s to say that, if those games were against teams from other conferences, the Big East teams wouldn’t have come out as the losers? It might be that the Big East should feel fortunate to have two teams in the Sweet Sixteen.

And it seems to me that this sort of happened to the Big East in LAST YEAR’S tournament as well. Eight teams were made it into the field in 2010 and all of them but West Virginia were gone by the Sweet Sixteen. The biggest bombs back then were Georgetown getting beat by 13 by Ohio University, Xavier over Pitt and my Washington Huskies over Marquette in the opening round.

A number of basketball aficionados were rather upset this year, when the field was expanded from 65 teams to 68 that it seemed that the entire reason for expanding the already large field was just so MORE BIG EAST teams could be invited! Do the math.... Going from 65 teams to 68 teams results in a net gain of 3. How many additional Big East teams were invited in 2001 from 2010? That was 8 in 2010 and 11 in 2011 which results in.... 3! How about that? It looks like to me that expansion was done just so we could invite more Big East teams, only for them to lose!

11 teams from a single conference? That’s more teams in the NCAA tournament than most conferences have conference members. In my mind, that's insulting to everyone else.

Maybe next year, they can expand the field again so we can invite the entire goddamn Big East conference, including TCU which is coming in as the 17th member next year. That’s what everyone wants anyway, right? Would that satisfy everyone’s little basketball ego? The rest of us would then be able to get our jollies off to have almost every single game in the opening rounds feature a loss by the Too Damn Big East.

"Hip" phrases used by football announcers that I wish would go away.

"Pick Six" - When anyone intercepts a pass and runs it back for a touchdown, or even has the opportunity to but doesn't, it must be referred to as "pick six." It cannot be said that it was an interception for a touchdown. It is absolutely mandatory to call it "pick six." That was maybe cute for a while, but it is wearing thin. It's not even true alliteration.

"In Space" - This phrase apparently refers to the 97% of the football field that isn't inhabited by most of the players. When I first heard one of the announcers refer to a defensive player as someone "who can make great tackles in space," I was thinking, "Wow. That guy must be REALLY good. But how to you practice tackling somone in space?" I'm a very literal guy...

"Guys...?" - This is for the female sideline analysts and announcers back in the studio. When they want to turn it back to the announcers doing the game, they say "Guys...?" in the interrogative. Like, "Guys, will you now come in a rescue me from that really stupid observation that I just made that almost anyone watching the game could have concluded by themselves and makes it questionable as to why I am getting paid to do this?" Watch for this one. Once you notice it, it's almost impossible to not hear it every single time.




"Dial up" - Defensive coaches "dial up" their calls, like blitzes and different coverages. They can't just "call plays." No, they must "dial up" a blitz. Jeez, not only does the use of a "hip" term sound silly after continual usage, that is just SOOO 1990's. Dial up web access is an anachronism, a thing of the past. I don't even have dial up access anymore. Maybe they should say that the defensive coordinator has a App for that. Need a blitz? He has an App for that.

I suppose the thing I detest about sports announcers in general, and this really applies to the pre-game "analysts", is that they either feel they must, or have been directed to by their superiors, act like 22 to 25 year olds out at a bar after three rounds of drinks. Loud, rather obnoxious, constantly interrupting each other, every single thing that comes out of their mouths is said with absolute certainty at a very loud volume... This is particularly unattractive behavior when all the men in question are in the late 40's and beyond. I suppose they are trying to connect with their intended audience, which is mostly 22 to 25 year old males full of testosterone and brimming with self-confidence. But it sure wears thin. I don't bother watching anything on television that isn't the game itself, and those are becoming limited.

Unorganized, completely random non-political thoughts on a dreary, overcast Sunday morning.

- I think that all the television networks should just go ahead and get where they obviously want to go, which is to take over the lower third of the television screen and broadcast commercials 100% of the time, even while the main programming is ongoing. They are almost there anyway. They might as well go ahead and go that last mile right now and get it over with. Hey, they could even run commercials DURING commercials! Just think of the additional revenue!

- Why does the Sci-Fi Channel (excuse me, SyFy) show professional wrestling? Does anyone actually watch those Ghost Hunter shows where all I can see happening on the previews is a bunch of people filmed with night vision equipment whispering to each other and yelling “What was that?!?” Why does the Arts and Entertainment Channel show absolutely nothing related to the arts, or even entertainment? Why doesn’t the History Channel show any history? Why is there a goddam reality show on every single specialty channel on television?

- Airlines are now charging 40 bucks if you would like “UP TO six more inches of legroom”, a chance to get in line early and if you want to pay more money to earn more frequent flyer miles so you can subject yourself to more of the same torture you are currently going through sometime in the near future.

- My computer keeps asking me if I want to download a new version of this or that, such as iTunes or my e-mail, without telling me what the new version is going to do for me or any existing problems that I might currently have that this new software will fix. Why would I want to install something that I don’t even know what it does for me and the current version works fine? Is our society now so spring loaded to accept anything new related to electronics or software that we don’t even ask WHY first?

- Do the voice actors and actresses that do English dubbing of Japanese anime feel stupid or foolish when they are making those really stupid, squeaky voices? The overbearing, highly authoritative and/or menacing voices sound pretty silly, too.

- Speaking of feeling silly, did Jimmy Johnson of NFL and NASCAR fame feel ridiculous when he was filming those commercials for Extendz, those “penis-enhancing” pills with that young, really nice looking female “reporter?” Because if I were to try something like that, I believe I would have died of embarrassment right there, on the spot.

- Except for people who own stock in the huge corporations that own movie studios, why does anyone care how much money a movie earned on any given weekend? Is this any indication, at all, about how good a movie this might be? Whatever happened to critical reviews as an indicator of the worth of any particular film. Money? That’s all it’s about, even for the audiences? “Ooohh! Iron Man 2 earned eighty trillion dollars this week! I have to go see that one!”

- Players fighting during a baseball game garners the participants a fine and a suspension. Players fighting during a hockey game earns them five minutes in the “penalty box.” Football players will do almost anything rather than admit they are hurt. They will continue to play through all sorts of pain and blood. Soccer players (the OTHER football players) will scream, collapse on the field (sorry, pitch) and writhe around for minutes, sometimes requiring people to come out and carry them off with a stretcher, all because they got bumped or clipped by a player on the opposing team. Universities pay millions of dollars for coaches’ salaries and for upgrades to stadiums, which mostly include luxury boxes for those wealthy corporate interests. Those same universities get millions of dollars from television contracts, wealthy donors and requiring “donations” for those sports minded individuals who would like season tickets. Yet, the players get absolutely nothing other than a chance at a mostly free education. Cities, communities and states build huge, lavish sports arenas and stadiums with all or mostly all public funds, all to benefit obscenely rich team owners. I have no real observation here, other than to say, not only are Americans way too into sporting events, we aren’t even consistent. But then, we apparently don’t care. Go team! Rah!

- eBay really sucks. I refuse to use Paypal, but they now require it. Why? Because they can make more money, as they just happen to own Paypal. What a surprise. Is there anything in this country anymore that isn’t driven by the desire to extort the maximum amount of money from the general public as humanly possible?

- And finally, a bit about the Hardy Boys. You know, those brilliant kids who solved every sort of mystery that came their way and apparently stayed in high school for about 45 years? Those books were one thing that really got me through childhood and also taught me that reading was enjoyable. I know that the target audience of those books were, shall we say, less than critical. But really... Frank and Joe were not all that brilliant. They were extremely lucky. “Clues”, as they called them, just fell into their laps. They happened to be walking along and hear a conversation that just happened to relate to the case their famous dad was working on. They just happened to find a notebook with everything that the criminal they were chasing had every written down or thought of. Everything that happened to them was related. And their parents! What terrible parents! Sure, let them go out at all hours of the night and end up getting tied up or shot at by desperate criminals. Sure, go explore some abandoned mines in the hope you might find some gold that has been missing for 40 years. Just be careful, don’t get caught in any mine collapses and be sure to be home for dinner. Sheesh.

Random thought for Saturday morning.

The U.S. government seems to be really good at indicting famous people, such as Martha Stewart and most recently Roger Clemens. But it seems to really kind of suck at actually going after big time lawbreakers in the government. Torture became standard operating procedure when it broke all sort of treaties the U.S. had signed onto. Politicizing the Dept. of Justice under the Bush administration? No big deal. Illegal wiretaps? Yep, that's O.K. too.

Yeah, there have been a few elected officials that eventually serve time for their misdeeds. Randy "Duke" Cunningham is still in the clink, I believe.

I agree that lying to Congress isn't really a wise thing to do. But really, doesn't the government have anything better to do than go after Roger Clemens?

Wow. U.S.A. 1 - Algeria 0

The U.S. is through to the final round in the World Cup. What a tense game, and I am not even that huge of a soccer fan. I was all ready to be very upset, as the U.S. got jobbed AGAIN by the refs with another disallowed goal that replays show was good.

That was tense.

OMG, this is the end of the world as we know it!! But first, a bit about the ongoing NCAA realignment.

As I write this, the University of Colorado has jumped the Big-12 rapidly sinking ship and has joined the Pac-10/11 and counting. The University of Nebraska seems to be about to accept a bid to join the Big 10/11 and counting. All of this could change within the next few days, heck within the hour, so I wanted to give readers a context in which I am writing this.

Well, my take on all of this is that this is a bit like airlines charging exorbitant fees for checking your luggage. 1) To make outrageous sums of money. 2) Just because they can. 3) To keep up with everyone else who is doing it or will be doing it in the very near future. In each case, the welfare and well being of the main players in not the first or even the fifth priority. The airlines do not care one whit about sucking every penny they can from their customers. The conferences are intent on making as much cash as they can. The welfare of their “student athletes” is not really part of the equation here.

In the case of the conference realignment process, there do seem to be some very real and valid concerns here that are driving all this. With money tight all over (except for Wall Street CEO’s and hedge fund managers), it is pretty unreasonable for the universities of this country to expect taxpayers to fund their athletics programs. Even historically successful programs are hemorrhaging cash, and something must be done.

I won’t go further into the reasons behind all this. You can find that elsewhere. I just wanted to put down some of my thoughts and impressions here. I have two college degrees, one from a SEC school and one from a PAC-10 school. I had season tickets to the University of Washington men’s basketball for a number of years, before they started treating their season ticket holders and athletic dept. donors as major sources of revenue that must be milked dry each and every year. But I still watch them on television quite a lot.

Football is driving all of this, of course. Basketball is an afterthought, if even that. Just ask the Kansas and Kansas State, which may be left out in the cold. Having read some of their local papers, they are not at all pleased with this prospect of joining the Mountain West conference. The most hope they seem to hold out is that not all of the potential invitees from the slowly imploding Big 12 conference (Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State) will accept the invitation from the Pac-10/11 and they get picked up as replacements. Having read most everything that is being written on the subject on the west coast, I haven’t ever seen this one proposed as even a long shot possibility. I feel very badly for those schools that will be left out in the cold, just because they aren’t super-desirable. Not terrible, but the circumstances just weren’t “right” for the current situation. That sort of resembles my situation during high school, so I do have some empathy there.

Now, to the Pac-10 or whatever it will be called and whatever teams might end up joining. I can’t see it staying at 11. That just screws up a lot of things, primarily basketball scheduling. Utah seems to be most often mentioned as “Plan B” if “Plan A” involving the Texas and Oklahoma schools falls through. I’m not sure how Utah would feel about all this, being invited into a conference when they know they were Plan B. But hey, pride takes the back seat when it comes to increased money and prestige, no matter how badly you feel you have been treated.

And while I am on that note, I read a lot yesterday about how it was a “slap in the face” of the University of Texas for the Pac-10 to have invited and accepted Colorado FIRST, before Texas. As Steve Martin used to say, “Well, EEEXXXCUSE MEEEE!!!!” Jeez. Is this how this is going to go all the time? They got their collective panties in a bunch because the situation for Colorado was just right and Texas and its little brothers are waiting to see what Nebraska does first? I am really concerned that the Pac-10/11 will be bringing in a LOT of baggage with the addition of the Texas schools, baggage that ultimately led to the likely demise of the Big 12. Will this be an ongoing and continual soap opera? Will Texas actually accept a role where they are not the only “big dog” on the block? Hey, USC (even with the NCAA penalties imposed) is still a heavyweight. Even though, as a UW Husky fan, I don’t like to admit this, the University of Oregon with Phil Knight’s money is a wheeler-dealer. UCLA is one of the biggest names in college basketball. Washington, although down for many years in football, is still a major player, as is Stanford, California, Arizona and Arizona State. Will Texas accept being just “one among many?” I don’t know, but it doesn’t seem really likely, no matter how much money is involved.

I am also wondering about the potential for cultural differences. LA is pretty laid back about most everything, where football may be equal to religion, in terms of the importance it plays in people’s lives, in the state of Texas. How will people from Texas and Oklahoma deal with being in the same conference as those liberal bastions, Seattle and California’s Bay Area? What will they think of the trip to Pullman, Washington (home of WSU)? Pullman is very nice, for a small town with not a lot to do. It is home to Keith Jackson, football announcer extraordinaire, Edward R. Murrow, and the Giant Palouse Earthworm. But it is certainly not a travel destination in any sense of the word. How many people will make the trek from Lubbock, Texas, to Pullman, Washington, to see a football game?

Yeah, if this happens as many people expect, I will probably pay some extra money to see Pac-Whatever sports on the new Pac-Whatever television network. I will probably still go to some games. But I can’t help but wonder what will happen to these soon-to-be mega-conferences that have truly terrible travel arrangements within the conference if the economy really tanks and real hardship continues and increases within the country. Sports, including college sports, in a commodity and, as such, is subject to discretionary spending by its consumers. Will these conferences be able to survive in their bloated states when the customers are no longer beating down the doors because they are too concerned about their own survival?

I have lots of mixed feelings about this. At least my teams will not be on the short end up the stick after this coming nuclear war. My schools will still be part of a major conference, which is a lot more than can be said of many schools that are now part of the Big-12, ACC and Big East. It might be exciting to see Oklahoma and Texas coming to play in Seattle on a regular basis. But something fundamentally is changing here, and that never really feels good unless your current situation is truly terrible. And, truth be told, our current situation regarding college athletics is not terrible. At least for the consumers of the product, it isn’t terrible.

I can’t help but think we are all making a huge mistake, one that we might end up regretting in the long run. The influence of huge money is ruining many aspects of our society. College athletics is no longer pretending to be about anything but making as much money as possible. That doesn’t feel very good. "Student athlete?" Phht. Don't make me laugh. As someone else somewhere on the web said yesterday, we might just as well call these professional football teams that are stationed near colleges.

UPDATE: Yes, well, I rather suspected that things would not turn out as predicted. Texas and the rest have decided to stay with this Big "12". Texas got lured by the promise of a bigger pot of money. They will have their own television network, which I understand would not have been allowed if they joined the Pac-10. There were a lot of other factors, mostly about money. And it appears that someone fabricated a reason to blame the Pac-10 for the deal falling apart, claiming that the Pac-10 all of a sudden wanted to include Kansas instead of Oklahoma State. The Pac-10 commish says this is not true, and I believe that. If they wanted Kansas, that would have been their going in position. They didn't really want Baylor and had no problem about aiming at Colorado instead.

Anyway, the Pac-12 now includes Colorado and Utah. Not necessarily a blockbuster, certainly not a "Super Conference." I would really rather have stayed at 10. But you know, if the Pac-10 was really intent on expanding, I am not at all unhappy with this deal. We have two schools that really wanted to be part of the Pac-10, and I think they will fit within the culture of the Pac-10 very well. They most certainly won't demand that everyone else cave into their demands, which is what I believe probably would have eventually happened with Texas. I read some columns out of the newspapers in SLC, and they seemed overjoyed to now be part of a BCS conference. Welcome, Colorado and Utah.

Now, is this nonsense about done with? Can we stop now?

Comcast blocks CTV's coverage of the Winter Olympics.

That's just great. NBC gives us really crappy coverage, but Comcast is going to make sure those of us near the Canadian border don't get to watch the Olympics on the Canadian network, which provides far superior coverage. Hell, on the west coast, NBC even refuses to show the Olympics in real time. Everything is delayed. So, even though Seattle is 100 miles or so from Vancouver and is obviously in the same time zone, we can hardly watch anything in real time. NBC must be allowed to package up the Olympics so that they appeal to NBC's ideal viewer. Lots of human interest, mostly all American, put all the high profile sports in prime time, even if that means delaying them for hours or even a day. It was not unusual for me to know exactly who won an event and probably even watched it on CBC before NBC ever got around to showing it.

THIS IS WHY THE COMCAST/NBC MERGER WOULD BE A HUGE MISTAKE! Media outlet providers, such as cable television or high speed internet providers, should NOT be allowed to own the content providers. This is such an obvious example of what will happen if the merger is allowed to proceed. NBC and its sister networks (MSNBC, CNBC, a few others) will be favored over the other networks and those other networks may find themselves blocked.

You don't think that would happen? I do. The avarice of U.S. corporations knows no bounds. They will do anything they can get away with in the chase for as much money as they can possible extract from the system.

I have just one question for Comcast and NBC. If NBC's coverage is so superior, so wonderful, as we are told every two years, then why are they both so threatened by the possibility of viewers going elsewhere? If NBC's coverage were that great, wouldn't we all watch the Olympics on NBC? We wouldn't need to go elsewhere.

UPDATE: Boy, am I pissed of at NBC. I knew the results of last night's short track speed skating at about 7:30, thanks to the "crawlers" on ESPN during a basketball game. But NBC didn't get around to showing it until almost 11:00 p.m. Does NBC really think that no one knows the results? Seattle is about 160 miles from Vancouver, and is in the same time zone, but can we watch the event live? No, of course not. And NBC obviously think we are hanging on every work out of Bob Costas and his guests in their sit down studio. Talk some, show some commercials, talk some more, show some more commercials, show Apolo Ono tying up his skates, show some more commercials, THEN show the race. God, NBC sucks. I hope they lose 100 million dollars.

UPDATE 2: I was in error here. The Canadian broadcast is on CTV, not CBC. And my cable doesn't carry CTV. So, I don't know exactly what was the newspaper story I saw where Comcast was blocking the Canadian broadcasts. But I still haven't changed my opinion of NBC's coverage. It sucks. NBC would rather show Bob Costas TALKING about sports rather than actually showing sports. Cripes. I will say that I do like the fact that the announcers for the ice skating events have toned it down. They aren't talking ALL THE DAMN TIME like the usual do. NBC would provide commentary to a symphony orchestra if they could.

UPDATE 3: I do like to watch curling. That's a pretty cool sport. Sort of chess and bowling on ice. And I think I am in love with the Japanese curling team....

You know what's really weird? The Lingerie Football League. That's what's really weird.

Check out this story and video at the Seattle PI. Extremely bizarre.

Maybe they can work NASCAR in there as well. And country music....

Update: I added pictures, just because the weirdness doesn't get translated properly just with a couple of lines of text. Maybe I will get a few more hits from these pictures. And no, I don't find these photos especially tittilating. Just weird.

Chicago does not get 2016 Olympics. Incredibly petty, small-minded, mean-spirited people are delirious.

There aren’t too many links I have seen today about the ridiculousness the some conservatives let loose when they discovered that “Obama lost the Olympics.” Here’s one from Balloon Juice, where the offices of the Weekly Standard “erupted in cheering” when the news was announced. Rachel Maddow put together a video segment of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh crowed that it “the worst day in Obama’s presidency!” Beck was just positively giddy. Here’s a You Tube Link put up by The Young Turks of the same thing. If you want to see it, prepare to be nauseated.

These people are so lame. They hate President Obama so much they will cheer any setback, even if it means a rather large setback for the country as a whole as well. One can legitimately argue the merits of hosting an Olympic Games. There are some very valid concerns, such as cost overruns, recouping your investment, dealing with huge construction projects and traffic nightmares, security, and on and on. But one cannot argue that hosting an Olympics would have created lots of jobs in the Chicago area, and very quickly. It would have brought prestige to the city and the country. Yet, these nutjobs think this is the most wonderful thing that has happened in recent years.

I cannot begin to describe how incredibly stupid and mean-spirited these people look. They resemble nothing more than a bunch of junior high schoolers taking great joy in seeing a better looking, more popular rival fail. "Juvenile" is a word that comes to mind.

However, what these people seem to miss is the fact that President Obama isn’t somehow shamed. This is not a cause for embarrassment. Rio made a great proposal, and they won. South America hasn’t ever hosted an Olympics, and it is probably high time they did. The United States has hosted several in the last 30 years. And there’s this. Madrid didn’t get the Olympics either. Yet, the King of Spain made the trip on behalf of his country. Is he now somehow embarrassed, such that the King should slink away and go hide in a hole? No. The same reasoning applies to Spain and it does to the U.S.

I do think that many conservatives realize how stupid they look, and are maybe trying to dial back some. David Brooks had an interesting column in the NYT the other day. Lindsey Graham came out and said that Beck and Limbaugh are not good for the Republican Party, which I wholeheartedly agree with. But for now, we have this… spectacle of lunatics with national platforms going apeshit because they feel that President Obama has been embarrassed. They truly are scraping at the bottom of the barrel if they get that much unbridled joy out of this. I got rather sick to my stomach watching these cretins. How do they live with themselves?

We do know one thing about Glenn Back now that we didn't before. The next time we see him crying over something that has "upset" him, you know that Vicks Vap-O-Rub is involved.

Well, I'm going to spend my day indoctrinating the impressionable youth of this country.

I'm going to spend the day officiating some high school volleyball. Officiating high school sports is something I do to get out of the house in the fall and winter and to be "someone else" than that person who always goes to work and sits at that desk. But, of course, I am going to CONTINUE to use the opportunity to indoctrinate our impressionable youth with evil, liberalistic secularism, such as playing by the rules ("No. See, when the ball lands OUTSIDE the lines, it is called "out" and the other team then gets the ball."), respecting one's teammates, coaches, officials and opponents, being able to accomplish something (such as playing varsity sports in high school) only after many long and hard hours of practice and putting your priority list into place that supports your desires. You know, all that evil stuff that Republicans apparently hate.

If I discover that if anyone on the court has parents that are Republicans, I am, of course, going to give them a Red Card. Because that is what us liberals do.

The End Times are Near!!

Ancient civilizations looked upon comets as harbingers of some future catastrophe. Our science and technology has advance considerably since those benighted times, so that comets (unless they are on a course to slam into the Earth and send us humans the way of the dinosaurs) are now just an interesting astronomical phenomenon. The upshot of this is that we must look elsewhere for our prophecies of doom. So, if the Arizona Cardinals in the Super Bowl was a statistical long shot, what do you think the odds were of having the Cardinals reach the Super Bowl immediately after the Tampa Bay Rays were in the World Series?

I am very, very fearful for our civilization.

Schadenfreuden, NBA style.

Well, I guess I can only get wring a dab of pleasure from seeing the news that the Seattle Supersonics, er, make that Oklahoma City “Thunder” (what a stupid name, sounds like something you would see in the Arena Football League, not the NBA) is something like 1-12 and have just fired their head coach. Aw, geez Loiuse. You wanted a GOOD team, then, one that might actually win some games? You should have gone out and raided some other city, like the LA Clippers. LA has two teams, and the Clippers seem to win a game now and then.

Clay Bennett is a major league asshole. Rich, but an asshole nontheless.

For a change, here's a post about sports.

Specifically, I was pondering the meaning of the presence of so many ex-Seattle Mariners on all the post season teams, and the fact that the Mariners finished with the second to worst record in the majors and one of the worst in club history. Letsee. There's Mike Cameron for the Brewers. There's Jamie Moyer for Philadelphia. Ken Griffey of the White Sox. Jason Veritek of Boston. Derek Lowe for the Dodgers who was an "up and comer" on the Mariners before being traded with Veritek in one of the all time WORST trades in history to Boston for a washed up closer. Even our best ever manager, Lou Pinella is guiding the Cubs. Tampa has Joey Cora as a bench coach. (Tell me, if Tampa Bay wins the World Series, will that be a sign of the coming Apocolypse?)

I don't know what it is about sports in Seattle. We have occasion flashes (such as the Seahawks in the Super Bowl, losing to the Steelers), but for the most part, the sports scene here is pretty grim. This year, it's beyond terrible. To recap:

- The Seattle Supersonics, the first major team to bring a national title to Seattle, got spirited away to Oklahoma, of all places, by a bunch of lying crooks. Rich, but crooks all the same. The Oklahoma City Thunder. Cripes. So, after being a major part of the NBA for decades, Seattle no longer has a team.

- The Mariners, as mentioned earlier, went through one of their worst seasons in history, losing more than 100 games for only the third time, I think. This in a season when people thought they actually had a chance to challenge the Angels.

- Washington Husky football is as lame as it has ever been. The defense has given up more points than most anyone in the country, and our star player, along with many of the best of the rest, are injured and out for quite some time. If they win a single game, it might be a major miracle. About the only consolation is that the Washington State Cougars look to be equally bad in the race to the bottom of the Pac 10.

- The Seahawks look to be very ordinary this year, which is pretty usual for the NFL. Still, after winning their division for a number of a years in a row, playing in the Super Bowl a few years back, coupled with the fact that this is Mike Holgren's last year as coach, sort of led us all to believe the team was better than it is turning out to be.

- Even the Seattle Storm of the WNBA was a major disappointment this year. After loading up on ex-all stars and MVP's, the Storm looked like a shoo-in to the finals. Then one of our star players, Lauren Jackson, went off to play for Australia in the Olympics. She decided to have ankle surgery right after the Olypmics were over and never came back to the team. Last year's MVP and the leading scorer on the team is not easily replaced. The team gave it a valiant effort, but once again got put out in the first round of the playoffs.


When you get down to it, investing a lot of emotional energy in sports is a losing proposition. It's just a meaningless diversion which becomes a lot more meaningless when there isn't any satisfaction to be had anywhere. Bread and circuses, without the circus.

UPDATE: O.K., getting waxed 44-6 by the Giants qualifies the Seahawks as something less than "average". That's more in the realm of "pretty dang poor", even if (just like the Huskies) they have had multiple injuries. That's just a reason. It doesn't change the result.

Olympics Opening Ceremonies: Spectactular doesn't to them justice.

I, frankly, have never seen anything quite like that. That was truly amazing. If you saw them, you know what I am talking about. If you didn't, then words are not going to convey how spectacular those images really were.

I would also like to take this opportunity to, once again, complain as loudly as I can, about how NBC treats both the opening and closing ceremonies to the Olympics. The announcers feel that they need to give running commentary the entire time! I hate that! I cannot express how much I hate that. Most of it was inane, to boot. It added absolutly nothing, other than plaster noise all over the main attraction. They were just grasping for something to say, just to fill the "empty space". I actually just turned off the sound on the TV and watched the pictures without sound. I imagine that NBC feels they would need to provide running commentary if they were to broadcast a symphony or an opera.

Just STFU and let the audience watch and enjoy!! Yeah, you paid billions of dollars to broadcast these things, but that doesn't mean you have to insert stupidity into what was an awe-inspiring performance. YOU are not the focus. The Olympics are.

Jeez.

Photo from here.

Newsflash! The inevitable happens! Oklahoma City successfully absconds with the Seattle NBA team!

Not that this came as any great shock to me. It was going to happen sooner or later. It just so happened to be “sooner”.

There are many stories in Seattle papers about this. Any kind of search will find you a lot of stuff to read on this sordid affair. But, here is Art Thiel’s take:

Now we know the price of possession.

Now we learn the cost of neglect.

The "man possessed," Clay Bennett, showed that he will do just about anything to gratify himself and his fellow Oklahomans by offering another silly payment for NBA ball, yet one the Seattle political leadership lacked the guts to refuse.

Obliterated for cash is 41 years of sports and civic history. So much for the city's passionate courtroom argument that the pro basketball team was of irreplaceable value.

New York, if you fancy the Space Needle, bring your checkbook and a really big hacksaw. We'll deal. As with the Sonics, it's privately owned and not used by a majority of voters, and its structure is a World Fair relic that maybe could use an upgrade.

To paraphrase a famous punch line by Winston Churchill, we know what we are. We're just quibbling over price.

Like I said before, I doubt I will miss the Sonics that much. I never watched them on television, and I can’t remember the last time I went to a game. About the closest I got to them over the last 10 years was when I officiated a high school basketball game at Key Arena. We weren’t allowed on the floor until the Boston Celtics finished their warm-ups for that evening’s game. I must admit, that was kind of cool. And I may, sometimes, even be glad when their games don’t contribute to horrible autumn and winter commutes through the city.

But I am really burned over the fact that, once again, rich white guys are willing to do whatever they feel is necessary, however unscrupulous (including Clay Bennett perjuring himself while under oath in a Seattle courtroom, but no one can really ever definitely “prove” it and won’t bother anyway) to achieve their goals, and they get away with it. And politicians put on this happy face, like this is the best possible outcome. Mayor Nichols really should be ashamed of his performance on television yesterday. When I first heard him talking, it sounded like this was actually a great deal for the city of Seattle. I was pretty disgusted when I found out that the NBA promised nothing and the only thing that Seattle got out of the deal was money to pay off unfinished loans that the city occurred the LAST time Key Arena was refurbished.

I try not to be a vindictive person, but I acknowledge that this tendency in me does exist. Personally, I hope NBA basketball fails miserably in Oklahoma City, now the NBA’s smallest market. But, it probably won’t. Every single person who acted in their own selfish interest will come out ahead in this deal. Left out in the cold are the Seattle fans, the vendors, the local restaurants, all the people who, in one way or another, really had a tangible stake in the Seattle Supersonics.

I must admit that was a nice gesture on everyone’s part to leave us the Sonics name and records. I suppose that is some condolence, albeit very small. I won’t have to see the score of the OKC Sonics crawling across the bottom of my television screen.

The move of the Seattle Supersonics to Oklahoma City takes a bit of a detour through the local courthouse.

I have written a few times about this story before. See here, here, here, and here. I find the subject very riveting for several reasons, even though (as I have stated before) I really do hate NBA basketball. The latest disclosures in the Tim Donaghy officiating scandal has done little more than harden my resolve that there is much to dislike about NBA basketball.

That said, there are several reasons I am following this story. The first is about what this whole clusterf**k says about the mentality of Very Rich People. They want what they want, and they plan on getting it anyway they can. Lying, cheating and acting otherwise very unethically are S.O.P. I also find it very amusing when these jerks get caught with their hands in the cookie jar. “Contrition” and “remorse” are about as outdated as the Geneva Convention these days. The other reason I am following this is that it does affect my (adopted) hometown. I used to go to the Sonics when I first moved here in the 80’s, and they played in the giant concrete mushroom sometimes known as the Kingdome. Even though I dislike the game as it is played by the NBA, I am going to be very sorry when the Sonics finally pack up and move to Oklahoma City. The city will be a little less vibrant, somewhat diminished. And to Oklahoma City, of all places. I am sure there are nice people who live there, but this is the place that has a huge billboard of Toby Keith between the airport and getting into hotel row.

Anyway, I was going to talk about some of the latest developments from the court hearings. These are the “The Sonics v. The City of Seattle”. The one about Howard Shultz’s case against Clay Bennett for essentially lying to him, “Lack of Good Faith” I believe is how it goes, is later.

Neither side is particularly distinguishing itself here. The city’s case took a hit when one of their “expert witnesses” was shown that he was reusing his own writings for something he did about the city of Long Beach, California, I think it was. That’s great. Someone really ought to vet these “expert witnesses”. Anyone who has ever watched “Law And Order” knows how badly those doofuses can screw up a case.

But here is one point I wanted to bring up. I think Clay Bennett perjured himself the other day. It would be hard to prove it, but boy, the circumstantial evidence is rather compelling. Here is what the Seattle Times had to say about it.

When Sonics chairman Clay Bennett wrote "I am a man possessed" in an e-mail, he says he meant "I am a man possessed to keep the team in Seattle."

Any other inference is inaccurate, he said Friday after the NBA Board of Governors voted 28-2 to approve the team's bid to move to Oklahoma City next season, pending the outcome of a June lawsuit from the city of Seattle.

In filings last week, the city revealed e-mails between the Oklahoma City-based ownership in which they spoke about moving the team to their hometown. The e-mails seemingly contradict Bennett's claims that he gave a "good-faith best effort" attempt to keep the team in Seattle after buying it July 2006, which was part of the sales agreement with former owner Howard Schultz.

On April 17, 2007, Sonics co-owner Tom Ward wrote co-owner Aubrey McClendon and Bennett: "Is there any way to move here for next season or are we doomed to have another lame duck season in Seattle?"

Bennett replied: "I am a man possessed! Will do everything we can. Thanks for hanging with me boys, the game is getting started!"

Ward replied: "That's the spirit!! I am willing to help any way I can to watch ball here next year."

On Friday, Bennett denied claims he acted in bad faith.

"I feel very bad about the misrepresentation of that particular e-mail; the fact that it's been misconstrued and been utilized in such a fashion, because I clearly recall that e-mail exchange," he said. "That e-mail exchange took place when I first learned that our bill had died in committee in Olympia, and that there would be no public funding forthcoming relative to our proposition.

"And my absolute feeling and emotion in that e-mail is I am a man possessed; I am only beginning; I will do everything I can to get this done in Seattle. And there's been an enormous misunderstanding of that, misrepresentation of that, misconstrued, I'm not sure which, but I was speaking about my commitment to a process in Seattle."

O.K., just LOOK at the context of that discussion. The discussion among members of the ownership group is CLEARLY about moving the team to OKC. The question to Bennett is: "Is there any way to move here for next season or are we doomed to have another lame duck season in Seattle?" And Bennett’s response is “I am a man possessed! Will do everything we can.” You tell me how that can be interpreted in any other way than he is possessed to move to OKC/not have another “lame duck season” in Seattle. There is simply no way that I can read this to come up with “I am a man possessed to keep this team in Seattle!” No flippin’ way. So, if you are under oath and you tell a whopper, doesn’t that constitute perjury?

The other thing I wanted to dwell on is the attitudes of these people. Very Rich People always seem to expect others to bend over backwards so they can become Even Richer People. Here is a snippet from Art Thiel of the Seattle P-I (one of the hands-down BEST sports columnists I have ever read):

Within days of the arena plan's death upon the Legislature's adjournment, e-mails disclosed in court Tuesday revealed that Bennett was on his way out of town. He wrote Joel Litvin, the NBA's No. 2 man, about how he can get out of Seattle, wrote to an Oklahoma City bureaucrat about reserving NBA dates at the Ford Center, and flew to Seattle to meet the local attorney, Brad Keller, whom he would hire to try to extricate him from the KeyArena lease.

That was four months before he filed papers against the city, and six months before the expiration of his agreement to use "good faith best efforts" to find an arena solution.

While it's hard to blame a guy for fleeing in self-interest, he knew the job was going to be dangerous when he bought a team with four years left on the lease. In addition, he was told by the natives how to fix the problem.

When Jim Kneeland, a longtime political operative and PR man hired by Bennett, said he needed to put up some of his own money, Bennett ordered him by e-mail to "stay way away" from saying anything about offering a private commitment.

Later, an e-mail from Kneeland to Bennett quoted Gov. Chris Gregoire on her position: "I appreciate the challenge faced by Bennett and partners, but they cannot expect taxpayers of Washington to solve their problem by constructing an arena with no direct participation on their part."

In exasperation late in the session, Bennett wrote to his lobbyist, Jenny Durkan: "I am confounded by the focus on our contribution. At end of the day, it will be negligible and has nothing do with the deal or the reality of the imminent need for the facility in the marketplace."

Absolutely amazing. This ownership group from Not Seattle Or Even Somewhere In Washington or Oregon decided they were going to come in, buy the local sports team and then DEMAND the local governments (state, city, county, it didn’t matter) build them a new $500 million arena. And they were not willing to put up ANY of their own money. Not for partial funding, not toward guaranteeing any cost overruns. None. And Bennett “didn’t understand” the fixation that many of the locals had with the lack of any offer to participate in the costs of building a hugely expensive facility that has, as its expressed purpose, to make Bennett and his partners money.

I cannot find the story I read this in, but one of the complaints by the Bennett and his owners group is that Key Arena (the facility where the Sonics currently play and was just given a major upgrade about 12 years ago, done with public financing) “does not have restaurants.” Yeah? There are several things about this. If public money WERE used to build a new facility for the Sonics, including “restaurants”, why does Bennett expect that he and his group would get the proceeds? He wants the city or state to build him a restaurant so he can run it and retain all the profits? Crap, I would like that kind of sweetheart deal as well. I would love it if someone were to come in and build me some guaranteed money making establishment and I didn’t have to contribute anything, yet I would get to run it and keep all the money. Just think how many people unhappy with their currently jobs or just flat out unemployed would just jump at a chance like that. Sounds like the New Deal, brought up to date with a vengeance. WPA for multi-millionaires!

It just is an amazing thing to watch the ruling class of this country (i.e., White Guys with Big Money) make absolute idiots of themselves. They don't even come off as halfway intelligent! How did they become the privileged class anyway?

UPDATE: More from Art Thiel here.

This is one of the best sports-related stories I have seen in quite some time.

I don't normally post stuff like this, as I happened to be a terrible cynic and distinctly un-sentimental about most everything not related to puppies or young children. However, after months of months of just terribly depressing news stories, one after another, this one was just too good to ignore. And it has nothing to do with winning or losing. Or maybe it does, but shows that there are other, more important considerations than “winning”, such as sportsmanship, respecting one’s opponents and being a compassionate human being.

This is from the Seattle Times.

Something remarkable happened in a college softball game Saturday in Ellensburg. At least, I am conditioned to think it was remarkable, since it involved an act of sportsmanship, with two players helping an injured opponent complete the home run she had just slugged.

Why this generous act should seem so unusual probably stems from the normal range of bulked-up baseball players, police-blotter football players, diving soccer and hockey players and other high-profile professionals.

The moment of grace came after Sara Tucholsky, a diminutive senior for Western Oregon, hit what looked like a three-run homer against Central Washington. Never in her 21 years had Tucholsky propelled a ball over a fence, so she did not have her home run trot in order, gazing in awe, missing first base. When she turned back to touch the bag, her right knee buckled, and she went down, crying and crawling back to first base.

Pam Knox, the Western Oregon coach, made sure no teammates touched Tucholsky, which would have automatically made her unable to advance. The umpires ruled that if Tucholsky could not make it around the bases, two runs would score but she would be credited with only a single. ("She'll kill me if I take it away from her," Knox thought.)

Then Mallory Holtman, the powerful first baseman for Central Washington, said words that brought a chill to everybody who heard them:

"Excuse me, would it be OK if we carried her around and she touched each bag?"

The umpires huddled and said it would be legal, so Holtman and the Central Washington shortstop, Liz Wallace, lifted Tucholsky, hands crossed under her, and carried her to second base, and gently lowered her so she could touch the base. Then Holtman and Wallace started to giggle, and so did Tucholsky, through her tears, and the three of them continued this odd procession to third base and home to a standing ovation.

"Everybody was crying," Knox recalled Tuesday. "It was an away game, and our four fans were crying. We couldn't hit after that."

Not sure I can say much after that.

UPDATE: I had originally thought this was a local story. That is one reason I posted it. However, I was wrong. This has become a national story, with the same information showing up on Yahoo News and the CBS Morning Show. Well, that's great for all the ladies involved and both teams. I guess a lot of people were just as taken by this story as I was. But, it is a bit sobering to think one reason this hit such a nerve with people is that this kind of story is so damn rare these days. Sportsmanship and respect is, along with many other concepts that used to be part of the fabric of this country, some quaint and obsolete notion that just has no place in our society these days. See? My cyncial side returns...