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Over the past few weeks, I’ve taken advantage of the season’s full docket of high school tournament action to see some exciting, spirited basketball, and last night, hockey. While so much of the professional world of sports leaves me frustrated and increasingly cynical, the purity, passion and perspective that amateur sports provides can be a welcome respite from the daily parade of corruption and obfuscation rolling downhill from the highest places.
On Friday, the sports editor at one of the biggest weekly newspapers in my area contacted me, asking about my interest in covering two high school hockey playoff games on Saturday night. As a freelancer, one of my rules of survival is, never turn down a paying gig, particularly an event or activity that you enjoy attending. Having written for this editor once before, I appreciated his professionalism and welcomed another opportunity to cover sports.
While there are some in the journalistic profession who look down their noses at sportswriters, I personally think some of the finest writing taking place, is coming from those who cover various athletic events. The rollercoaster ride that sports affords participants, the nightly opportunity for redemption; all of these provide a writer with ample opportunities to display their abilities at painting pictures with words.
One of the participating teams was the high school where my son played four years of varsity hockey at. This was the day’s second contest and some of the current seniors had been freshman during my son’s senior year.
For me, covering the team, seeing his former coach, a man who I have the utmost respect for, remembering my son pouring his heart out night after night during his four years of lacing up the skates—well, it was an emotional evening for me. And the game? For the forth year in the past five, the two rivals played a contest that was decided in the last seconds of regulation, with my son’s alma mater winning this night, in overtime!
To witness the young man who scored the winning goal come off the ice and immediately interviewing this 17 year old, who was so excited, he forgot to take his mouthpiece out and was having trouble processing it all—this was a priceless moment. Seeing the fans chanting the name of this principled coach, in his 11th year at this school, putting the game and sportsmanship first at all times, was rewarding in and of itself. It also proves that coaches can emphasize what’s important and still be successful when the gauge is wins and losses. Not to mention that interviewing my son’s former coach was probably the most literate interview I’ll ever conduct with a coach at any level. This intelligent, intellectual, English teacher, who also loves hockey (as well as soccer and cricket, I might add), is not your everyday run-of-the-mill coach of a sports team. While many coaches resort to clichés and canned responses, there isn’t much that the two of us couldn’t have talked about. It was a test of my concentration to focus just on the immediate events at hand. Even his responses to these queries rang with a sense of the bigger picture that many in his profession miss.
The last few weeks have made me realize that while I enjoy writing about politics and culture, there are ample opportunities for me to use my writing abilities in the athletic realm, also. Good writing can take place in any form and subject area. Sometimes I forget this to my own detriment.
Sunday, March 06, 2005
Friday, March 04, 2005
The Racist Right
[The genesis for this post comes courtesy of belatedly reading Kurt Nimmo's post from yesterday, over at Another Day in the Empire. Thanks, Kurt!]
Here is what's coming from the right-wing, some of it old, and some of it fashionably current. We've just seen the right-wing fog machine go into apoplexy about a quote made by Ward Churchill nearly three years ago. Just last week, some Limbaugh-wannabe, filling in for that uber-patriot, El Rushbo, supposedly in Afghanistan to give his listeners a report on the U.S. work in that country (I bet he was being kept in the most secure bunker the U.S. establishment owns in this devastated country), spent a couple of days rehashing the Churchill debacle and calling for a purge of all professors not able to pass the conservative litmus test.
Daniel Pipes, whose been extremely vocal as the head of Middle East Forum and their project Campus Watch, is doing all within his power to smear Ward Churchill and other scholars who don't subscribe to their zionist phobia of Islam and ideology of hate.
Pipes has been quoted as saying, concerning the immigration of Muslims to western European countries, "Western European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene ... All immigrants bring exotic customs attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most."
Then there's U.S. Representative Sam Johnson (R-Texas), who wants the the military to launch a nuclear strike against Syria. Can you just imagine? A member of Congress advocating nuclear war! It defies analysis. I can only imagine the fallout if Senator Kennedy, or some other prominent Democrat had issued a similar pronouncement. So far, no condemnation coming from the President, his press secretary, or any other member of the administration. No calls from Johnson's Republican colleagues for his resignation, either. Such a surprise?
There's Ann Coulter, who gives new meaning to "ideology of hate", with her now infamous quote, concerning Muslim countries, "We should invade their (Muslim) countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” Yes, Ann; so biblical--very Old Testament-ish. Not finished yet, Coulter than pilloried Helen Thomas, one of the most senior reporters of the White House press corps, when she said, "Press passes can’t be hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president.”
I mean, I could go on for the rest of the afternoon here, but I'll end with Rich Lowry, that non-ideological, non-partisan senior editor at the National Review. Lowry talked about the benefits of nuking Mecca, the Muslim holy city.
The right-wing choir of hate has got some 'splainin' to do about the bad, ugly and hateful things they say about Arab and Muslim peoples. I hate to throw the "racist" label into the ring, but on just these few (I never bothered to get to Stephen Plaut and his moonbat theories, Michelle Malkin and her historical revisionism concerning Japanese internment during WWII, or Jonah Goldberg [he also of the National Review!], I think I could make a pretty strong case.
There seems to be an awful lot of scapegoating being practiced by the right concerning Arabs and Muslims. I know this racist view of the world works well for those holding to an imperialistic view concerning America and her foreign policy decisions, but for those of us who don't, it's just fucking ugly!
Here is what's coming from the right-wing, some of it old, and some of it fashionably current. We've just seen the right-wing fog machine go into apoplexy about a quote made by Ward Churchill nearly three years ago. Just last week, some Limbaugh-wannabe, filling in for that uber-patriot, El Rushbo, supposedly in Afghanistan to give his listeners a report on the U.S. work in that country (I bet he was being kept in the most secure bunker the U.S. establishment owns in this devastated country), spent a couple of days rehashing the Churchill debacle and calling for a purge of all professors not able to pass the conservative litmus test.
Daniel Pipes, whose been extremely vocal as the head of Middle East Forum and their project Campus Watch, is doing all within his power to smear Ward Churchill and other scholars who don't subscribe to their zionist phobia of Islam and ideology of hate.
Pipes has been quoted as saying, concerning the immigration of Muslims to western European countries, "Western European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene ... All immigrants bring exotic customs attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most."
Then there's U.S. Representative Sam Johnson (R-Texas), who wants the the military to launch a nuclear strike against Syria. Can you just imagine? A member of Congress advocating nuclear war! It defies analysis. I can only imagine the fallout if Senator Kennedy, or some other prominent Democrat had issued a similar pronouncement. So far, no condemnation coming from the President, his press secretary, or any other member of the administration. No calls from Johnson's Republican colleagues for his resignation, either. Such a surprise?
There's Ann Coulter, who gives new meaning to "ideology of hate", with her now infamous quote, concerning Muslim countries, "We should invade their (Muslim) countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” Yes, Ann; so biblical--very Old Testament-ish. Not finished yet, Coulter than pilloried Helen Thomas, one of the most senior reporters of the White House press corps, when she said, "Press passes can’t be hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president.”
I mean, I could go on for the rest of the afternoon here, but I'll end with Rich Lowry, that non-ideological, non-partisan senior editor at the National Review. Lowry talked about the benefits of nuking Mecca, the Muslim holy city.
The right-wing choir of hate has got some 'splainin' to do about the bad, ugly and hateful things they say about Arab and Muslim peoples. I hate to throw the "racist" label into the ring, but on just these few (I never bothered to get to Stephen Plaut and his moonbat theories, Michelle Malkin and her historical revisionism concerning Japanese internment during WWII, or Jonah Goldberg [he also of the National Review!], I think I could make a pretty strong case.
There seems to be an awful lot of scapegoating being practiced by the right concerning Arabs and Muslims. I know this racist view of the world works well for those holding to an imperialistic view concerning America and her foreign policy decisions, but for those of us who don't, it's just fucking ugly!
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Herbs versus pharmaceuticals
Every year, like clockwork, right around the same time (Feb/March), I'm afflicted by a case of bronchitis, or as I like to call it, "the walkin' pneumonia and the boogie-woogie blues". I'm not sure why this happen; possibly, it's the dryness, or some other quality of the late winter air, but I'd be more inclined to say it has to do with my immune system being weakened, as it seems more viral than anything.
What used to happen, when this malady would arrive, was a trip to the doctor and being loaded up with various pharmaceuticals and other prescriptions, including a cough syrup with codiene, to prevent me from hacking up a lung.
Several years ago, I became interested in herbal medicine and naturopathy and came across a book that opened my eyes up to alternatives to my aforementioned belief that corporate medicine and pharmaceuticals held the key to curing every illness and disease.
James Duke's, The Green Pharmacy, brought me into a new world of herbal remedies for many common illnesses and diseases. Duke, a botanist, is an authority on the properties and interactions of herbs on the body and in treating various conditions.
What I've learned firsthand from following the directions in the book, regarding the use of herbs in treating my bronchitis, is that herbal remedies, consisting of teas containing various herbs, as well as plenty of garlic (nice side-effect is that I'm now vampire-safe) are as effective as a 10-day regimen of antibiotics and cough syrup.
I'm no different than anyone else in that I want a magic cure to end my hacking cough and the general malaise that accompanies the walking variety of this malady. However, as Duke mentions in his book, pharmaceuticals, despite the claims of the various companies that manufacture them, are not necessarily superiour to herbs and other remedies occuring naturally.
There is no doubt that pharmaceuticals are stronger--often too strong, with nasty side effects. Sadly, many Americans assume that the drug companies know better, merely because they spend billions on advertising, making their dubious claims of superiority.
I'll follow my herbal prescriptions for teas of ginger, eucalyptus, and other herbs (including my wife's thyme tincture) for the next week, and I'll increase my garlic intake (you may want to give me a wider birth than usual) and before I know it, I'll be back on the beam of good health.
I'd be curious to know about others and their experiences with herbs, versus following the corporately-controlled pharmaceutical route. Maybe you have found something that's worked for you regarding bronchitis, or quieting a cough. I'm open to any suggestions, as I hate the first few days and the lousy way I'm feeling right now.
What used to happen, when this malady would arrive, was a trip to the doctor and being loaded up with various pharmaceuticals and other prescriptions, including a cough syrup with codiene, to prevent me from hacking up a lung.
Several years ago, I became interested in herbal medicine and naturopathy and came across a book that opened my eyes up to alternatives to my aforementioned belief that corporate medicine and pharmaceuticals held the key to curing every illness and disease.
James Duke's, The Green Pharmacy, brought me into a new world of herbal remedies for many common illnesses and diseases. Duke, a botanist, is an authority on the properties and interactions of herbs on the body and in treating various conditions.
What I've learned firsthand from following the directions in the book, regarding the use of herbs in treating my bronchitis, is that herbal remedies, consisting of teas containing various herbs, as well as plenty of garlic (nice side-effect is that I'm now vampire-safe) are as effective as a 10-day regimen of antibiotics and cough syrup.
I'm no different than anyone else in that I want a magic cure to end my hacking cough and the general malaise that accompanies the walking variety of this malady. However, as Duke mentions in his book, pharmaceuticals, despite the claims of the various companies that manufacture them, are not necessarily superiour to herbs and other remedies occuring naturally.
There is no doubt that pharmaceuticals are stronger--often too strong, with nasty side effects. Sadly, many Americans assume that the drug companies know better, merely because they spend billions on advertising, making their dubious claims of superiority.
I'll follow my herbal prescriptions for teas of ginger, eucalyptus, and other herbs (including my wife's thyme tincture) for the next week, and I'll increase my garlic intake (you may want to give me a wider birth than usual) and before I know it, I'll be back on the beam of good health.
I'd be curious to know about others and their experiences with herbs, versus following the corporately-controlled pharmaceutical route. Maybe you have found something that's worked for you regarding bronchitis, or quieting a cough. I'm open to any suggestions, as I hate the first few days and the lousy way I'm feeling right now.
Losing your identity
This was forwarded to me and originally appeared on a fellow Mainer's blog, Magazine Husband. I put up a linked story about Choicepoint and their loss of personal information and the possibility of identity theft. Well, there's more to the story:
Has Your Identity Been Stolen?
What to do if it happens to you.
By Daniel Engber
(from Slate Magazine)
Posted Friday, Feb. 18, 2005, at 3:10 PM PT
Choice Point, a clearinghouse for consumer information, has admitted it was tricked by a ring of identity thieves into revealing the profiles of as many as 145,000 people last fall. What do you do if you find out your identity might have been stolen?
Paperwork—lots of paperwork. ChoicePoint plans to send notification letters to everyone whose information was leaked. If you get a letter, you should call in to one of the three major credit bureaus that keep track of your credit rating—Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion. Any of the three will allow you to place a fraud alert on all of your credit reports.
The fraud alert, which lasts for 90 days, instructs (but doesn't compel) creditors to contact you at a specified phone number before processing any credit request. Setting up a fraud alert can be done through an automated phone system, so an identity thief who already has your name, address, and Social Security number could put a fraud alert on your credit report before you do—and give his or her own phone number for confirmation. This would likely draw unwanted scrutiny to the thief, though.
Once your alert is in place, each of the three bureaus will send you a letter offering a free copy of your credit report (in accordance with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003). If someone is using your identity to obtain credit, you would see it on these reports, either in the form of credit cards that don't belong to you, or credit inquiries from businesses you don't recognize.
If you are indeed a victim, you'll need to go to a local police station with your evidence and obtain a police report. (Depending on local rules, you may need to go to a police station located near the scene of the crime, which could be anywhere.) Then you can send a copy of this police report to each of the three major credit bureaus, along with a written request to extend your fraud alert for 7 years. In some states you can freeze your credit information, so no one can look at it or extend credit in your name. For a fee, you can temporarily lift the freeze, and legitimate requests will go through.
Then, you'll still have to erase the thief's footprints from your record. This involves sending multiple letters to each of the credit bureaus, as well as to each of the creditors involved. You won't be liable for anything the thief buys in your name, but your credit rating will reflect unpaid bills for cards that don't belong to you.
Maybe you're not yet a victim: There's no reason for an identity thief to use your information immediately, or even within the 90-day span of a fraud alert. You can renew the 90-day period indefinitely, or you can opt to obtain free copies of your credit report from each bureau every year. (For now, these free reports are only available in certain states, but by next year everyone will be eligible.) Identity theft experts suggest staggering your requests to the three bureaus so that you receive a free credit report every 4 months. If you need to pay for a report, it should cost at most $9.50.
Once your personal information has been stolen, there's no good way to get it back. You just hope the thief will move on to easier targets who haven't done the same paperwork you have. Changing your Social Security number is possible, but very difficult and probably not too helpful. The Social Security Administration "cannot guarantee that a new number will solve your problem." Indeed, you might lose access to your own records, or run into problems for having no credit history at all.
Note: It seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to, particularly since ChoicePoint lost your information. My question is, what type of shit are they going to be forced to go through, because of their incompetence? Answer--probably not a bit--all part of the "business-friendly" agenda brought to you by your friends in the Bush administration.
Has Your Identity Been Stolen?
What to do if it happens to you.
By Daniel Engber
(from Slate Magazine)
Posted Friday, Feb. 18, 2005, at 3:10 PM PT
Choice Point, a clearinghouse for consumer information, has admitted it was tricked by a ring of identity thieves into revealing the profiles of as many as 145,000 people last fall. What do you do if you find out your identity might have been stolen?
Paperwork—lots of paperwork. ChoicePoint plans to send notification letters to everyone whose information was leaked. If you get a letter, you should call in to one of the three major credit bureaus that keep track of your credit rating—Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion. Any of the three will allow you to place a fraud alert on all of your credit reports.
The fraud alert, which lasts for 90 days, instructs (but doesn't compel) creditors to contact you at a specified phone number before processing any credit request. Setting up a fraud alert can be done through an automated phone system, so an identity thief who already has your name, address, and Social Security number could put a fraud alert on your credit report before you do—and give his or her own phone number for confirmation. This would likely draw unwanted scrutiny to the thief, though.
Once your alert is in place, each of the three bureaus will send you a letter offering a free copy of your credit report (in accordance with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003). If someone is using your identity to obtain credit, you would see it on these reports, either in the form of credit cards that don't belong to you, or credit inquiries from businesses you don't recognize.
If you are indeed a victim, you'll need to go to a local police station with your evidence and obtain a police report. (Depending on local rules, you may need to go to a police station located near the scene of the crime, which could be anywhere.) Then you can send a copy of this police report to each of the three major credit bureaus, along with a written request to extend your fraud alert for 7 years. In some states you can freeze your credit information, so no one can look at it or extend credit in your name. For a fee, you can temporarily lift the freeze, and legitimate requests will go through.
Then, you'll still have to erase the thief's footprints from your record. This involves sending multiple letters to each of the credit bureaus, as well as to each of the creditors involved. You won't be liable for anything the thief buys in your name, but your credit rating will reflect unpaid bills for cards that don't belong to you.
Maybe you're not yet a victim: There's no reason for an identity thief to use your information immediately, or even within the 90-day span of a fraud alert. You can renew the 90-day period indefinitely, or you can opt to obtain free copies of your credit report from each bureau every year. (For now, these free reports are only available in certain states, but by next year everyone will be eligible.) Identity theft experts suggest staggering your requests to the three bureaus so that you receive a free credit report every 4 months. If you need to pay for a report, it should cost at most $9.50.
Once your personal information has been stolen, there's no good way to get it back. You just hope the thief will move on to easier targets who haven't done the same paperwork you have. Changing your Social Security number is possible, but very difficult and probably not too helpful. The Social Security Administration "cannot guarantee that a new number will solve your problem." Indeed, you might lose access to your own records, or run into problems for having no credit history at all.
Note: It seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to, particularly since ChoicePoint lost your information. My question is, what type of shit are they going to be forced to go through, because of their incompetence? Answer--probably not a bit--all part of the "business-friendly" agenda brought to you by your friends in the Bush administration.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
American dreamin'
Conservatives have an unflagging faith and belief in the free market. Believing in the survival of the fittest among us, they have little room for anyone but themselves and their social darwinistic fantasies. The market is their god, despite their protestations to the contrary and their recitation of family values mantras.
Despite the reality of crushing poverty, dwindling levels of healthcare and tens of thousands of children going to bed every night without adequate food in their stomachs, its all about those bootstraps baby, as in, just pull yourself up by them. Oh, and be careful they don’t snap back at ‘ya!
Repeating the mantra of privatization brought to them by those wealthy plutocrats who never met a silver spoon they didn’t snort cocaine from, red state regiments of the religious right want to keep things lily white and free from the marauders.
I’m in the process of reading the latest investigative work by Eric Schlosser, the irrepressible investigative reporter from Atlantic Monthly, who changed the way we all viewed our drive-thru experiences under the golden arches, with his best-selling Fast Food Nation.
Schlosser is back, this time, pulling back the corner on the box labeled “underground economy”. In his latest work, Reefer Madness, Schlosser states that the underground economy comprises as much as 10 percent of America’s overall economy. Some estimate it’s even larger than that. Regardless of the size, Schlosser looks at the mainstays of the “shadow economy”—pot, porn and migrant labor and U.S. immigration policy.
Like any good investigative journalist, Schlosser connects the dots and paints the picture showing the intertwining of ingenuity, greed, idealism and the overriding hypocrisy that is the American experience.
With my brain on nostalgia-overload coming from of six to eight months of research from a Maine that existed 35-40 years ago, but is no more, juxtaposed against the small amount of news and current events I’m letting trickle into my self-imposed seclusion (in order to get some of this damn book written) with a healthy dosage of Schlosser before bedtime and you can understand the strangely surreal turn life has taken the past week or so. Topping it all off is my annual winter bout with walkin' pneumonia (and the boogie-woogie blues) and you can understand the strange vortex that I’m swimming in this week.
I haven’t had a lot of time to blog, but I’ve been struck by the irony of life, as filtered through my own rose-colored prism of seeing the world.
One particularly interesting section of Schlosser’s book, the tail end of the section on the illegals who come across the border from Mexico, to pick the strawberries in Orange County, California, the prototypical red meat, red state Republican subdivision of Bush’s America:
Driving back to my hotel that night, I thought about the people of Orange County, one of the richest counties in the nation—big on family values, yet bankrupt from financial speculation, unwilling to raise taxes to pay for their own children’s education, unwilling to pay off their debts, whining about the injustice of it, and blaming all their problems on illegal immigrants……
We have been told for years to bow down before “the market.” We have placed our faith in the laws of supply and demand. What has been forgotten, or ignored, is that the market rewards only efficiency. Every other human value gets in its way. The market will drive wages down like water, until they reach the lowest possible level. Today, that level is not being set in Washington or New York or Sacramento but in the fields of Baja California and the mountain villages of Oaxaca (Mexico). That level is about five dollars a day. No deity that men have ever worshipped is more ruthless and more hollow than the free market unchecked. All those who now consider themselves devotees of the market should take a good look at what’s happening in California. Left to its own devices, the free market always seeks a work force that is hungry, desperate, and cheap—a work force that is anything but free.
--from Reefer Madness, by Eric Schlosser (Houghton MifflinCompany, 2003)
Despite the reality of crushing poverty, dwindling levels of healthcare and tens of thousands of children going to bed every night without adequate food in their stomachs, its all about those bootstraps baby, as in, just pull yourself up by them. Oh, and be careful they don’t snap back at ‘ya!
Repeating the mantra of privatization brought to them by those wealthy plutocrats who never met a silver spoon they didn’t snort cocaine from, red state regiments of the religious right want to keep things lily white and free from the marauders.
I’m in the process of reading the latest investigative work by Eric Schlosser, the irrepressible investigative reporter from Atlantic Monthly, who changed the way we all viewed our drive-thru experiences under the golden arches, with his best-selling Fast Food Nation.
Schlosser is back, this time, pulling back the corner on the box labeled “underground economy”. In his latest work, Reefer Madness, Schlosser states that the underground economy comprises as much as 10 percent of America’s overall economy. Some estimate it’s even larger than that. Regardless of the size, Schlosser looks at the mainstays of the “shadow economy”—pot, porn and migrant labor and U.S. immigration policy.
Like any good investigative journalist, Schlosser connects the dots and paints the picture showing the intertwining of ingenuity, greed, idealism and the overriding hypocrisy that is the American experience.
With my brain on nostalgia-overload coming from of six to eight months of research from a Maine that existed 35-40 years ago, but is no more, juxtaposed against the small amount of news and current events I’m letting trickle into my self-imposed seclusion (in order to get some of this damn book written) with a healthy dosage of Schlosser before bedtime and you can understand the strangely surreal turn life has taken the past week or so. Topping it all off is my annual winter bout with walkin' pneumonia (and the boogie-woogie blues) and you can understand the strange vortex that I’m swimming in this week.
I haven’t had a lot of time to blog, but I’ve been struck by the irony of life, as filtered through my own rose-colored prism of seeing the world.
One particularly interesting section of Schlosser’s book, the tail end of the section on the illegals who come across the border from Mexico, to pick the strawberries in Orange County, California, the prototypical red meat, red state Republican subdivision of Bush’s America:
Driving back to my hotel that night, I thought about the people of Orange County, one of the richest counties in the nation—big on family values, yet bankrupt from financial speculation, unwilling to raise taxes to pay for their own children’s education, unwilling to pay off their debts, whining about the injustice of it, and blaming all their problems on illegal immigrants……
We have been told for years to bow down before “the market.” We have placed our faith in the laws of supply and demand. What has been forgotten, or ignored, is that the market rewards only efficiency. Every other human value gets in its way. The market will drive wages down like water, until they reach the lowest possible level. Today, that level is not being set in Washington or New York or Sacramento but in the fields of Baja California and the mountain villages of Oaxaca (Mexico). That level is about five dollars a day. No deity that men have ever worshipped is more ruthless and more hollow than the free market unchecked. All those who now consider themselves devotees of the market should take a good look at what’s happening in California. Left to its own devices, the free market always seeks a work force that is hungry, desperate, and cheap—a work force that is anything but free.
--from Reefer Madness, by Eric Schlosser (Houghton MifflinCompany, 2003)
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