So let’s try something new. A blog. Why not? I’ve written on note
pads, legal pads, my pants leg, a Tandy 1000, an Apple, a blackberry,
and the back of my hand, Why not cyberspace?
Periodically, my blog
– which I wanted to call “blah-blah-blog” - will appear in the
newspaper, in this space, and simultaneously on the web. The web
version will then get modified at all hours and eventually even handle
feedback, enabling me to have one foot in print and the other in, well,
wherever the web is. It will also give me chance to update my views on
things, such as the Lions Packers game, which I no longer predict the
Lions will win by two touchdowns.
Why try it? Why not? Young readers like it. And besides, some thoughts
come to me in the middle of the night, like: “Ohmigod, the Tigers are
in the playoffs.”
So let’s begin.
OHMIGOD,
THE TIGERS ARE IN THE PLAYOFFS! Before we go one step further, before
we do the slightest bit of figuring out who or where they would play,
can we simply give a nod to this baseball team? When they started
winning, we thought it was a mirage. When they kept wining, we thought
it wouldn’t last. When they started losing, we thought it would get
worse. And now that they’ve won enough to assure a post-season, they
deserve credit and congratulations. One of these days, even Jim Leyland
is going to admit it.
BAYOU HYPE – I’m
glad the Saints are playing a home game, but since when did the NFL
become the cavalry? It wasn’t just New Orleans ruined by Katrina, and
all won’t be fixed this morning. You’d think, by the buildup to
Monday’s game, that Reggie Bush was rebuilding the levees himself.
IRISH
EYES ARE BULGING: Before their faithful get too jazzed up over Notre
Dame squeaking past Michigan State Saturday night, let’s remember, the
Spartans weren’t even ranked in the top 25, and the Irish have now
surrendered 84 points in two weeks. That’s not exactly a fast track to
the national championship.
MSU EYES ARE CRYING: Having said that, the Spartans should have won.
BONDS
AND LEAKS. In this fearful era we live in, what’s happening with the
two reporters who wrote the book “Game of Shadows” should disturb you.
Last week a judge agreed that the two men should go to jail for 18
months unless they reveal who leaked them grand jury info about Barry
Bonds and steroids. Eighteen months? For writing about drug use? Drug
DEALERS do less time.
Anyhow, if people went to jail every time there was a leak, you
couldn’t slide another person behind bars, much less a nail file.
Why not just give up the source, you say? Because if reporters started
coughing up confidential sources every time someone pressured them,
nobody would talk to anybody And if you think the world would be a
better place that way, then welcome to a world where Enron is still
bilking people and the Nixon administration is breaking and entering.
Whistle blowers would disappear. And the effectiveness of the media –
which is at its best when unearthing harmful things those in power are
trying to hide – would melt away.
STEROIDS
II: Anyhow, didn’t President Bush tell the nation that steroids were a
big problem and pro sports must crack down on them? “Game of Shadows”
did more to make that happen than baseball ever did.
Besides – and
here’s the big besides –almost everyone believes Bonds used steroids.
If so, he may have lied to the grand jury. Yet, to date, Bonds is yet
to even miss a single game by suspension. Meanwhile, the reporters
should go to jail for 18 months?
I’ve said this before: When how you got the truth ends up more punished than the truth itself, it’s a sad day.
But there I go, blah-blah- blogging…
