Roger's View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo!
Seize the Day! Put no trust in the morrow! — Horace
“I believe in the Code Pink cause. The Marines don’t belong here, they shouldn’t have come here, and they should leave,” said Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates ….
Roger Freberg
PS. it’s hard to remember they’re Americans… sort of
Okay, it’s time to sound a little political again.
Vanessa Redgrave may sound to some like a Joan of the leftist Arc … to me she just doesn’t make any sense at all.
In history, there had to be those who opened the gates of Cartage in the name of peace to the Roman armies, others tries to negotiate with Genghis Khan and still others tried to appease the likes of Adolf Hitler and Persian tyrants… all with predictably disastrous results!
So why am I surprised that Vanessa Redgrave after a life of supporting the bad guys is now reaching out her peaceful hand to Al Qaeda terrorists?
Having watched Vanessa for years, I really can’t figure out whether she is a naive idealist… or just hates everybody in the world but ‘the bad guys?’
Roger Freberg
I am constantly amazed by people who are shocked to learn that ‘steroids’ or any performance enhancing substances can be found in athletics. Where have they been? Do they really understand the history? Probably not.
Athletes have endeavored to enhance their performance since ancient times. In the days of ancient Greece, athletes would chew on animal testicles to extract testosterone. Yes, it worked. Later, athletes found that small doses of certain poisons acted as stimulants and finally in the 1930’s, Adolf Windaus received the Nobel Prize for discovering steroids ( to his credit, he also discovered Vitamin D). Steroids have been chronicled as a part of virtually every Olympic Game since their discovery.
So, we might wonder, who would want to use or benefit from steroids?
Every athlete in every sport — not just baseball players — could benefit in ways large and small…. even whimpy soccer players. It doesn’t seem to matter if the sport has money or fame… athletes appear to be looking for any edge. However, the significant — if somewhat anecdotal — heavy physical long term side effects of many performance enhancing drugs are daunting. However, the long term issues have little play with young athletes; after all, they are ‘immortal’ in their own eyes.
So, what can be done?
Outside of draconian penalties and public embarrassment… the motivation for the little edge is almost overwhelming to many athletes who will accept almost any risk as part of the game.
However, as a coach, it is important to teach athletes to look for long term success beyond athletics…. because most of us won’t make it to the ‘big leagues’… and very few make it where they can make any money. So, keeping an eye on the long term prize will make them happier and ultimately more successful in life.
One still wants to be around and in ‘the game’ when they are 60.
Roger Freberg
Okay, our friend Ted I-wanna-own-the-world Turner just locked up 2,000,000 acres. Now, I don’t know about you… but I suspected he always wanted to own his own little country… and now he has it. For the easy conversion, his holdings translate into approximately 3125 square miles ( or a block roughly 55 miles by 55 miles)!
Ted-istan is about 60% the size of Puerto Rico or about 2.5 times the size of Rhode Island.
There are a whole bunch of countries that could fit into his living room.
Lets make a list: the Italian land locked country of San Marino is a mere 24 sq. miles, Andorra (between Spain and France) is 180 sq. miles with 180,000 people, and Liechtenstein is a paltry 62 sq. miles (but they produce beautiful stamps). The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is less than half the size of Ted-istan … The list goes on and on .
I wasn’t going to mention it… but what does he REALLY want with all that land and should we be concerned?
Roger Freberg
Like many Americans, I do admire someone who can build so much from so little… but most Americans do worry about so much power in any one person’s hands.
It goes without saying that some people learn from their mistakes… then others never learn… while other people know what’s right but do wrong anyway.
Cal Poly’s administration has a real problem. Sometimes one has to hit the mule in the forehead with a two by four just to get it’s attention. Maybe this is again one of those times.
Historically, Cal Poly has had trouble with freedom of speech issues and although this is not news to anyone following the academic community in America… it just seems to be happening all the time at Cal Poly.
Today, FIRE ( the organization supporting Academic Freedom in America) came out with a huge commentary on Cal Poly San Luis Obispo…. and it wasn’t good. Here’s a small excerpt:
“Unfortunately, Cal Poly is at it again. This time, the victims are the students in the improvisational comedy troupe Smile and Nod, who posted a constitutionally protected image on flyers advertising their upcoming comedy show….According an October 25 article Mustang Daily, theatre department officials began removing the flyers because the flyers could be “construed as racist.” Smile and Nod was required to remove remaining flyers, “send a formal apology to all students via the Mustang Daily, and participate in a sensitivity meeting with faculty and staff from the theatre department and the ethnic studies department.””
We’ve all been here before… this sounds like exactly the same sort of thing that landed them in Federal Court the last time… and Cal Poly lost and was savaged in the National Press.
It is inappropriate for our universities to abridge the rights we have in this country simply because they do not agree with what is being said. No one has a right to not be offended. The best action is to counter free speech that you disagree… with free speech of your own.
Roger Freberg