To Bomb or Not to Bomb, That is the Question

" 'Loose' War Talk Only Helps Iran, President Says"

It has the awful feel of deja vu as we seem headed into an inevitable 'weapons of mass destruction' argument. The Republican hawks line up to lambast the President and denounce his abandonment of Israel. Yet the reality is that there is no concrete evidence that the Iranian program "has decided to pursue a nuclear weapon", and certainly nothing to suggest that one is capable of imminent completion.

We are a nation tired of war and we should be one that learns from past errors in judgment. President Obama is right to demand that we exhaust all other options and that we only proceed when there is no other recourse and a verified imminent threat. To do otherwise would commit ourselves to a course of action that is both uncalled for and imprudent.


Iran, much like Iraq, seems willing to play a massively dangerous game of chicken. If the past decade, and its enormous toll has taught us anything, it is that there are no winners in such a game.  Let us keep our heads and  hold our bombs, and demonstrate not only our resolve but our intelligence.

Small Minds

"Before Games, Religious Questions" demonstrates, with shocking clarity, the level of distrust and contempt that is the worst part of what religion has to offer. Not only was the forced accommodation of the team from Beren Academy a stark reminder of the prejudice that permeates, but the revelation concerning the exclusion of the Iman Academy from the league, was a look deep into the minds of those who would teach to our worst instincts.

The questions posed on the application for admission, as set forth in your article, are appalling. What could this association have been thinking when they make inquiries sound like accusations and when they would suggest, almost explicitly, that these young men and women asking to join in and be part of a community of athletes were secretly plotting its overthrow and the death and destruction of all who they would meet in competition?

In addition, the survey to the member schools of their reaction to the possible acceptance of the Islamic school, created a reprehensible suggestion that it might be an appropriate response to threaten to leave any association that would include this school. Those who refused to answer the survey, by their silence, spoke to the sheer lunacy of it all.

It is a sad day in sport, and for our country, when prejudice and bigotry rear their ugly head on the playing field. It is particularly discouraging when these are the lessons we are imparting to our children.

This is a Warning

" Obama Says Iran Strike is an Option, But Warns Israel"
 
Your online headline is jarring. I am interested to see if the print version utilizes the word "warns." I wonder how much thought was given as to whether a more neutral term might have sufficed.

There is tension enough in this 3 way showdown with Iran and the proper course of action to take without using inflammatory language  regarding the nature of the relationship between the US and Israel. The only "warnings" should be directed at our enemy and not our ally.

On the eve of critical meetings, the New York Times should have exercised greater care in its use of a potentially inflammatory and condescending term. How would the paper respond to being "warned" not to print a particular story?

I would suggest that the newspaper should have used "caution" both literally and figuratively in its choice of terminology.

PS THIS WAS WRITTEN AND SUBMITTED (IN A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT VERSION) TO THE PUBLIC EDITOR OF THE NY TIMES AT ABOUT 2 AM-  A LATER ONLINE HEADLINE OF THE  TIMES ARTICLE WAS CHANGED TO READ "OBAMA SAYS MILITARY OPTION OF IRAN NOT A 'BLUFF' ".

The Republican Primary - The Musical- Act One

Act One Scene One

The cast is all on stage, when suddenly  Rick Santorum begins to sing, " Maybe I'm Wrong but At Least I'm Far Right".  One by one, the candidates join in, each one taking a position further and further to the right side of the stage. Finally, they each move so far right that they disappear from sight, leaving only Santorum looking around triumphant.

Act One Scene Two
With a background of ever shifting sites of Michigan, Massachusetts, California. Utah and New Hampshire, Mitt Romney breaks out into the beautiful ballad , "It's Great to Be Home Again"  with the classic refrain, "You can have many houses but only one place you call home". Unfortunately, Romney realizes too late that he doesn't actually own a home in Michigan, and so has to take reference to this state out of the song.  At the end, a clearly emotional Romney leaves the stage in a car with a dog tied to the roof.

Act One Scene Three
Herman Cain sits outside an accountant's office munching on a slice of pizza.  In a powerful baritone , he delivers the stirring, "Nine is Just a Number".  It takes the classic children's joke with the punch line "Seven Ate Nine" as the centerpiece  for an accidental theory of economic importance. At the conclusion of his song, Cain enters the accountant's office, pizza in hand, humming his anthem.

Act One Scene Four

Newt Gingrich holds a wig in his hand that is blonde and inflexible. He caresses it sweetly and sings a tender love song to it called "Three times a lady".  He laments over the wrong choices he has made from the attack on Clinton and Monica to the 2 former wives he has left behind.  He praises God and Callista and promises to be faithful to both.  The song ends with Gingrich on his knees in prayer and giving a gentle kiss to the wig.

Act One Scene Five
We see the  Alamo before us as Rick Perry enters  in cowboy boots and an oversized cowboy hat, singing "If at first you don't secede".  It is a country song and its refrain is about the 3 reasons the country should be divided, only 2 if which he can now recall. A discouraged Perry finishes his tune realizing his hat is falling off his head.

Act One Scene Six
 Donald Trump sits behind a huge desk.  A microphone descends from above. Trump grabs it, gets up on the desk and begins to belt out " Not Born in the USA".  It is a scathing indictment of Obama in which Trump says that facts must not get in the way of the truth. He finishes his tune, sits back down behind the desk and very calmly says "Mr. President , you're fired."

Act One Scene Seven
Michele Bachmann  stands center stage and from the wings several questions are posed. Each answer ends with " and I will make him a one termer". She then sings " One Termer" a tale of  in which every question she has ever been asked elliciits the same response. As the lights dim on Ms. Bachmann, she asks. "Any more questions?"

Act One Scene Eight
There is an old man doing one armed push ups on the stage. Suddenly Ron Paul stands up and begins to sing "No government is the best government of all". It is a vision of a country that is free from oversight, and concludes with the line "If I am elected, you will be left on your own".  Suddenly, the lights on the stage brighten to show all the candidates now back where they began.

Act One Scene Nine
The ensemble sings "I'm proud to be a Republican", a stirring anthem to everything good and powerful in a party that is catering to the rich and powerful. It ends with all the candidates holding out their hands chanting the refrain, "super PACs are good".

  

OMG

When I was in 7th grade, I thought I was a pretty good basketballer. When our all star team played the 8th graders and lost 68 to 9, I knew I was mistaken.

The enormously loud sound I heard last night was people jumping off the Jeremy Lin bandwagon. He looked as over-hyped and overrated as TT. He looked as overwhelmed as  David without a slingshot against Goliath He looked as over-matched as I did that day against the 8th graders.  He looked  as uncertain as Bambi in headlights. He looked like the other teams who had let him go or passed him over might have been right after all.

And now comes the All Star break and a chance to worry. And wonder if Mr. Lin  must stay out of the kitchen, because  it appears that he can't stand the Heat.

Reporting Day for Pitchers and Catchers

February 20, 2012-

First day for pitchers and catchers and I am woefully out of shape.  My sciatica is a pain in the ass and I can't throw 'over the top' without a tingling all the way into my fingertips.

My last start was a disaster. 4 runs scored off me in the first inning, with a succession of bloops and seeing eye base hits.

I did throw a one hitter early in the season. And the scoring decision on that so called hit was definitely questionable.

But there is only one small problem. I haven't won a game in 47 years.

At a time in my life when I have difficulty remembering what I ate for breakfast (a banana, because I couldn't take my painkiller on an empty stomach), and can't recall the name of movies immediately upon exiting (I know I saw a film I enjoyed last Friday, but beyond that is a blank), I can tell you the first hit I got in our little league team's first practice 50 years ago (a double to right center), the pitcher (Bobby Chaderchian), and that my father (an assistant coach) later told me that Mr. Malzone (our manager) was very impressed. I can describe, with clarity, that before my first start as a 10 year old, I had to leave the field and go to my aunt and uncle's house to deal with a very nervous belly.

And I recall  Moose, Richardson, Boyer, Kubek, Lopez, Mantle, Maris, Berra, Howard, Ford, Arroyo, Tresh, Terry and almost the entire roster from the 1961 Yankee team as if they took the field this morning.

It is hard to fathom that  more than half a century has passed since I began my worship of the Mick. It is even harder to conceive that at this stage of existence, when I should know much better, I don't. I truly care what happens, and while I don't get up at 6:30 every morning and rush to find the results from the game the night before, that is only because I now check at 4:30 or 5AM when I find myself awake.

While I have had dalliances with the Giants (20 years a season ticket holder) and the Knicks (my wife still able to recall, with "Diner" like clarity, most of the 1976-77 roster that she would recite before our marriage), my devotion to Abner Doubleday's game has never wavered.

So today,  my commitment to everything baseball is renewed. My vows are silently spoken and I promise to love, honor and cherish until death do us part. Or at least until the first long losing streak, or the next Yankee-Red Sox game that lasts an interminable 4 hours plus. You see, even my devotion has its limits.

The "Problem" with Sports

Mr. Brooks writes of a  modern day scenario of the dilemma faced by Joe Hardy in "Damn Yankees". Devotion to sports success ("The Jeremy Lin Problem") is equated with selling one's soul to the devil. By this treatise, one either lives in a moral universe where self is sublimated, or an immoral one where the search for greatness is to be demonized. To cast sport itself as Satan's playground is just nonsensical fantasy.

Sport does not only teach us to "put (ourselves) on display". Certainly there is ego involved in achievement, whether it be on the playing field, in the classroom or in the business world. Yet, in the context of athletic endeavor, I was instructed from my first days that the team is greater than the individual. and that highest level of success comes as a consequence of dedication to something larger than self.

It is the portrayal of athletics in such black and white terms that makes "The Jeremy Lin Problem" such a problem for me to swallow. It has the feel of right wing dogma where there is no nuance or subtlety, and everything is entirely right or wrong. Yes, there is a tension between individual glory and selflessness. But this does not make these 2 concepts mutually exclusive.

In sports, being humbled and humiliated is one of the lessons that is learned over and over. When the opportunity comes to escape the defeats, to get off the bench and somehow, almost miraculously lead the team to victory, this is not a failing but an achievement. And if you ask either Mr. Tebow or Mr. Lin, I am sure they will tell you that proving the critics wrong and showing them all that you are and can be is not evil incarnate, but rather a vivid reminder that there may be hidden value in each of us. And isn't looking for the best in our fellow man a moral lesson we should all learn? Sports, like life, is complex, and the insights to be gained from taking part in this endeavor are boundless. It does all of us a grave disservice is trying to make sport a villain in a morality play.

The Void (No One's Child)

 It is difficult to write about my Mom now. I am uncomfortable with the words of endless lament. Watching the deterioration and being so powerless is very painful. I never feel like I have done enough,  but I have come to understand the reality of my position. I am mere witness.

I talk often now of lowering the bar of expectations. That it is enough for me that my mom is less restless. I don't have the right to be frustrated that her sleep patterns are so erratic that it makes it difficult for me to plan visits. I must not find it so jarring when yet another layer of her being seems to slip away. I have to quiet my demands for her to fit into my vision of the world.

It is easy to wish that her long odyssey end, that all those who live their final days grasping and holding on, should be spared the torture and the torment. And in so many ways I do believe that when the living is done and all that remains is being alive, there is a cruelty and harshness that none should have to bear. Peace is something that my mom deserves.

Yesterday, I attended a funeral. Later that evening, as we convened to pay our respects, I was surrounded by similar stories of children who watched failing parents. I was most struck by one woman who recently lost her mom and now found herself 'an orphan'. And it crystallized for me why, even in the midst of my own sadness, I am reluctant to let my mom go.

I can't imagine the void I will feel when she is not part of my present. For so many years I have only been able to deal with the concept of my father. To speak of a parent only as a memory, to write only in terms of what was, not to have the access to touch, to comfort, to share, is still painful for me over 3 decades later.

As we paid our respects last night, there were words of solace for the family. The relentless suffering of their mom was no more. And I know that in a very real sense there was profound relief.

Yet, there were moments of contemplation for 2 children who now found themselves no one's child. An immutable truth throughout their existence was no more. I could sense the depth of emotion as they struggled to find answers to what this meant. And I know one day people will be looking at my sister and me as we grapple with this same reality.  And I realize how much I dread that.

On a Lin Streak

How do we know if Jeremy Lin is a shooting star, primed for a quick flame-out, or the true center (point guard) of the universe? Will Melo be mellow enough to cede the stage, and allow the bright lights of Broadway to continue to shine on the new leading man? Can Amare pick and roll with all that has happened in his absence?

This is Walter Mitty time. It has been a fascinating ascent for one player and for a franchise that has long been in a downward spiral. Here's hoping that Mr. Lin does not suffer a spectacular fall to earth when the big names return to the lineup. It is a moment of  burning intensity for this young man, and if fortune is kind, one that is not soon extinguished.

Word of the Year

Austerity was named the word of the year in 2010 by the Merriam-Webster dictionary. For those in Greece who have given living definition to this term, there is nothing positive in this association. "Greece Passes Austerity Plan As Riots Rage" is about the natural and inevitable response to this misbegotten theory being superimposed on a people who cannot survive under its rigors. Is there nothing more telling than the tale of the woman who has worked without pay since last September and is now in jeopardy of  'losing her job entirely'? The dignity of these people is being daily degraded to the point of near extinction. And who then can, or more aptly should be surprised at what is happening in the streets? Austerity in Greece is a failure of monumental proportion.