Jena Six Update - More Stardom

Remember sixteen years ago when the MTV Music Awards invited Officer Koons and Officer Powell, who were about to be tried for beating Rodney King to present an award as representatives of law and order? Neither do I because it didn't happen. On Thursday night, however, Carwin Jones and Bryant Purvis accepted an invitation from Black Entertainment Television to present the Video of the Year Award for the Hip Hop Awards broadcast. The story is here: http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071019/NEWS01/710190316/1002
"By no means are we condoning a six-on-one beat-down," Katt Williams, the award show host said during his introduction of the teens, one of whom is still facing attempted murder charges in connection with the attack on white student Justin Barker. "... But the injustice perpetrated on these young men is straight criminal." It is criminal to prosecute six young men for beating a fellow student.
What are these African-American kids learning? Fame, accolades, martyrdom status, and a stage from which they may revel in their imagined victimhood awaits if they only beat up a white male student and stomp on him after he has passed out unconscious. I guess Michael Vick and O. J. Simpson weren't available.

Rockies in the Series - How?

Everyone now knows that the Rockies have amassed an amazing winning streak to make it to the World Series for the first time in their history. There are two reasons they managed it, and because of them baseball needs to re-think interleague play. The National League East Division, West Division, and Wild Card races came down to a very close contest among six teams. The Braves faded near the end of the season, but the Mets, Phillies, Rockies, Diamondbacks and Padres all contended until the final days of the season. An epic collapse by the Mets, accompanied by a sudden meteoric winning streak by the Rockies enabled the Phillies to get into the post-season and the Rockies tied the Padres and won the one-game playoff.
Here is the bone of contention: without interleague play, the Rockies would not have been close enough to tie the Padres. In regular-season play against American League teams, the Rockies went 10-8, whereas the Padres went 6-9, Diamondbacks 8-7, Mets 8-7, Phillies 8-7 and Braves 4-11. Significantly, the Rockies had BY FAR the easiest set of interleague opponents. The combined records of the Braves' opponents totaled 455-355, making their schedule the hardest. The Braves even had to play the Red Sox twice and the Indians. In difficulty, the Mets played teams that totaled 431-379, making their schedule second-hardest. Guess who got to play both the Royals and the Devil Rays and the Orioles en route to the easiest interleague schedule among contending teams? That's right: the Rockies played AL teams with a combined losing record of 477-495 and took full advantage of this ease. Without the two-tiered playoff system, the Rockies' regular-season record would not have put them in the playoffs, nor would they be in the World Series without interleague play.
Interleague games should not count toward teams' records because they are not even remotely fair in their apportionment. Yet, as we see now, an easy interleague schedule can make all of the difference between a team going home early and putting on championship rings.

Baseball 101: Bye bye, Yankees

Joe Torre is one of those managers who seldom shows a temper and never seems to get himself into trouble off the field. His teams have won three World Series rings, so it is hard to understand Steinbrenner's pre-emptive announcement that failure to win the ALDS would lead to Torre's dismissal. It is a grim fact of life that winning is the only way a manager can keep his job and Torre has done that, never winning fewer than 94 games in a season. For a Yankees' manager, however, the manager is required to deliver a World Series ring every five years or face termination. What makes this situation unfare is that Joe Torre is not the problem.
The problem the Yankees have is the same one that has kept the Braves from reaching a World Series since 1999: lack of good starting pitching. The Braves picked up Mark Texeira this year and increased their run production by one run per game, but their pitchers managed to give up more runs than they could score. Hence, the Braves went home early. For the Yankees, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, David Wells et al. aged, moved on, got traded, etc., and the team needed new life in the starting rotation. Instead, they sank huge sums into Jason Giambi, who will make $21 million next year. Still needing good pitching, they tied their hopes to Alex Rodriguez and, as though he were not enough star power, they also got Johnny Damon. These players make the Yankees' bats the deadliest in baseball, if all you pay attention to is the names. Unfortunately, when the names Jeter, A-Rod and Matsui all bat under .200, they are worth as little as kids making a tenth their salary. Moreover, the huge investments in bats left little money for helping the porous pitching staff of the Bronx Bombers.
The Yankees are in a shambles and it is Brian Cashman's fault, the general manager who decided to blow more cash recovering the aging talents of Pettite, Clemens and Mussina rather than focussing on young pitching talent that could last for more than one season. Torre did his best with what he had. There is only so much a manager can do when his pitching is suspect, and baseball's oldest law still holds true: good pitching will beat good hitting every time. I hate the Yankees, so I hope they keep up this strategy of signing batters to inflated contracts and ignoring their pitching problem, but it is sad to see Joe Torre lose his job.

Movie Review: Half Nelson *

Do not let Ryan Gosling's Oscar nomination fool you: this is a retro movie to the 1960s-1970s, when they made psychological drug-related movies like "Apocalypse Now" and "2001: A Space Oddyssey." In "Half Nelson," Gosling is a history teacher in an urban school with students who are all minorities, mostly black, and he is a drug addict. One student finds him in the bathroom in some a drug-induced state and the two of them become friends. The history curriculum consists of stories about the Civil Rights Movement and some later events involving minorities suffering persecution. The lessons appear about as exciting as watching paint dry - this is definitely not one of those "the best teacher I ever had" movies. This teacher is defeated, frustrated, drugged up and in trouble. He knows he is in trouble, but has no clue how to free himself and does not seek help. He loses his job, but the movie shows no resolution of what his life will be afterwards. The interesting moments reveal a look into the worldview of many Hollywood actors today: the news media has a strong conservative bias, reporting anti-war protests to be smaller than they are. The teacher has a hard time dealing with the fact that many people support President Bush, but he is throwing his life away with drugs. Which crisis is worse?
This is one of those movies that has no plot as it is generally understood. The actors say the final lines and the credits begin running, but there was no climax in the story, resolution or redemption. Ultimately, the teacher cares about the kids but realizes that he is part of the problem. He wants them to avoid drugs and to escape the crimes of society, but he supports drug dealers with his business and he as a teacher is part of the "establishment" and his identity as a white man increases his guilt. All he has is the hopelessness of life on drugs in today's flawed world. Like "Crash," "Half Nelson" shows problems that exist today, but provides no suggestions for solutions and not one of the characters has any hope. This is life without God. "*" is the rating: I want those two hours of my life back.

Bowden and Jena

We see news headlines and pictures from Jena, Louisiana, which is now experiencing racial strife over a violent attack on December 4. Six black high school students beat a white classmate, Justin Barker, until he was unconscious and then stomped on him as he lay on the ground. One of the stompers, Mychal Bell, has now had his conspiracy and aggravated battery convictions overturned on appeal because he should not have been tried as an adult. The various cases will continue in juvenile court. Bell was a Division I football prospect, but committed another violent attack two years ago to begin derailing his aspirations. Have African-American leaders taken this opportunity to condemn violence? No, instead they have started flashing Black Power salutes and taught their kids that the youths were justified in beating Justin Barker because OTHER white students had hung nooses in a tree three months before the attack. The white students who hung the nooses faced penalties from the school, appropriately, including alternative school, suspension, and detention. The Chicago Sun-Times reports here: http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/583297,CST-NWS-gramb02.article about kindergarten teachers putting a noose around a little girl's neck to teach their kids about lynching. The kids will learn that violence against random white people is good if other white people have handled nooses. Stomping on an unconscious white student innocent of any deed involving nooses has today made the Jena 6 into heroes. Pity the black kids who learn from their parents, teachers and "pastors" that they can become heroes by beating white kids.
In other news involving promising football talent, two FSU players had a fight/confrontation with police last week, as documented on my last post, and Bobby Bowden played one of them, Geno Hayes, on Saturday against Alabama. They charged Hayes with three misdemeanors, so Bowden saw no need to sacrifice a distinguished talent. He did not start Hayes, but he used him before the first half had ended. He will do community service, but he needs a wake-up call before he turns into another Michael Vick. The other player is facing felony charges. Thank the NCAA for having rules barring athletes from playing when facing felonies, or Bowden would be playing him too. It is official: thanks to Bobby Bowden, FSU's team has consolidated its position as the official representative of criminals in college football.
The recent process in Jena will spawn ten more cases like it. Ten more Justin Barkers. Do you notice that no one uses the victim's name? Justin Barker doesn't exist in media coverage because this is a story of racism and because he is white he cannot be a victim. As long as teachers and parents and "pastors" like Sharpton and Jackson tell their kids that beating classmates is OK if they are white, this problem will get worse. As long as coaches like Bobby Bowden empower these thugs by teaching them that they will face no consequences as long as they are not actually behind bars, they will create more felons like Michael Vick. Come to think of it, now that Bell is not a convicted felon anymore, see if Bowden recruits him.