Good bye to Papa Joe

Houston, TX - Joe Paterno, the 46 year veteran coach from Penn State, left this world last Sunday. It was a shock to those outside the family. People knew the coach was ill, but his demise was not expected this soon.

Papa Joe was assaulted in the media by righteous bastards with high sounding words about "moral duties." People felt Paterno owed more to the alleged juvenile victims of a sexual assault. Those very same people did not give so much as a nod to the fact that Paterno followed policy to the letter. Apparently the rules don't matter to them.

The cowardly trustees of Penn State University, hiding behind secret meetings and looking for scapegoats to throw under the bus fired the beloved coach. Just in case further proof was needed that none of these people have any measurable back bone what so ever, they fired him with a phone call. Not one of these trustees are worthy of the title.

Joe was sick at the end of his career. Fighting a lethal disease like cancer requires a strong will to live. You cannot help but wonder how much of Paterno's will was sapped by the unwarranted personal attacks on him. Having the remainder of what was to be his last season snatched away from him in the name of lining up sacrificial lambs almost certainly did not help that will.

Rest well Papa, you more then earned it.

-30-

Losing a game is heartbreaking. Losing your sense of excellence or worth is a tragedy.
- Joe Paterno

Ground Hog Day

Notre Dame, South Bend, IN - In the coming New Year, 2012, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address will occur on the same day. This is an ironic juxtaposition of events. One involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to an insignificant creature of little intelligence for prognostication.

The other involves a groundhog.

-30-

The groundhog is like most other prophets; it delivers its prediction and then disappears.
- Bill Vaughan

An open letter to the powers that be at Penn State

Dear mindless idiots in charge of Penn State,

Joe Paterno is quite possibly the most straight up, by the book coach in college football today. Over the years he repeatedly demonstrated this fact on an off the field. No one, until now, has ever had the slightest reason to question Paterno's integrity or character.

When it came to the allegations of Jerry Sandusky's pedophilia, Paterno did exactly what Penn State's rules and state law required him to do. He reported it. Everyone agrees the coach did what he was supposed to do.

Paterno isn't legally implicated in the Sandusky case; a grand jury report detailed how he followed protocol in going to Curley with a graduate assistant's account of an instance of abuse in a shower at Penn State's Lasch Football Building in March 2002. But there was never a report to law or child protection authorities — the basis for charges against Curley and Schultz — and Paterno has been condemned for not following up on such a serious issue.
- USA Today

The people doing the condemning have never been in a situation where there is a clear chain of command. Nor have they been in an environment as political as a major college sports program. Imagine going over the heads of your bosses under circumstances like that and finding out you were wrong.

Paterno played by all the rules, both written and unwritten. Now, because people at the university failed to adequately follow up on those allegations one of the most decent human beings on the planet is being put up as a sacrificial goat.

Oh one more thing. Those annual checks the college gets from grateful alumni supporting your fund raisers? You can forget about most of those. Those checks came from people who remember a more honorable time at your university.

-30-

Unintelligent people always look for a scapegoat.
- Ernest Bevin

Ten Years Ago This Morning

Tifton, GA - Ten years ago this morning I shot this sunrise picture through the smoke and dust still rising off the remains of the World Trade Center. It occurred to me then this was one birthday I would not forget. Turns out I was right.

-30-

"America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people."
- George W. Bush

A follow up on circumcision

Wichita Falls, TX - Back in June of 2008 I found this guy on the side of the road in Tallahassee, FL. Under the heading of "there's something you don't see everyday" the need to stop, take a picture and hear what he had to say was overwhelming.

I wrote about it in this blog post: Circumcision causes brain damage! That post is in the top three for most comment counts. Go figure.

This morning's USA today is running a story about a ballot proposal in San Francisco that would ban circumcisions.

City elections officials confirmed Wednesday that an initiative that would ban the circumcision of males younger than 18 in San Francisco has received enough signatures to appear on the ballot. The practice would become a misdemeanor.
USA Today - Circumcision ban to appear on San Francisco ballot

Only in San Francisco…

Based on President Obama's insistence that we have to find ways to save money in healthcare a valid argument could be made for the other side of this proposal. Numerous studies from around the world show significantly lower rates of sexually transmitted diseases in circumcised males. So perhaps the government would have a vested interest making male circumcision mandatory.

Clearly the government has no place in this decision one way or the other. The thing that bothers me about this is that San Francisco is the only place in the United States where a ballot initiative like this has more then a snowball's chance in Hell of passing.

-30-

As they say around the Texas Legislature, if you can't drink their whiskey, screw their women, take their money, and vote against 'em anyway, you don't belong in office.
- Molly Ivins

May 21st - Judgment Day!

Breaux Bridge, LA - It has come to my attention that a small group of Christians are suggesting that Judgment Day, also known as the Rapture, will occur this Saturday, May 21, 2011.

As I will not be among those being carried away to eternal bliss at the Lord's right hand (Way too many acts of television to be forgiven at this point) I would like to make this offer. I will be happy to take your real estate, appliances, collectables, valuables, etc and dispose of them for you. Feel free to reply here so the necessary paper work can be completed before Saturday.

Oh, yeah, no driving on Saturday. Can't have that car suddenly driverless while speeding down the highway.

-30-

Louis Armstrong playing trumpet on the Judgment Day.
- Al Stewart

An open letter to US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood

Dear Secretary LaHood,

As driver of a commercial vehicle as specified by the regulations set forth by your Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, it is estimated by various experts in the field I hold anywhere from a half dozen to three dozen lives in my hand when I drive down the road.

An air traffic controller holds somewhere between a hundred and a thousand times that number in his hands depending on the time and place of his or her duty.

I carry my bed in the truck with me or stop at hotels. When I am done with my shift I can be in bed and asleep in fifteen minutes. When I get back on the road, the truck is right there waiting for me. After 15 minutes worth of paper work, I'm on the road.

An air traffic controller has to go home, get in bed, get up and go back to work. Some how it strikes me that in most cases that before and after sleep process is going to take longer then 15 minutes on each end.

So why is it the agencies under your command think I need to spend ten consecutive hours off duty before I can drive again, but an air traffic controller only needs nine hours off duty between shifts?

Anyone want to bet on whether or not I get an answer on this one?

-30-

Bureaucracy gives birth to itself and then expects maternity benefits.
- Dale Dauten