More crooked cops, more indifference to hockey and a TV trend I can use less of

- As a Chicago Cubs fan, you become immune and numb to nearly every possible type of disaster that could befall a baseball time because to cheer for the Cubs is to embrace a life of disappointment. Still, no five words strike sheer terror into my heart like hearing, “Wood to test arm Monday.” Wood would be Kerry Wood, the pitcher who burst onto the scene with a scintillating 20-strikeout game in 1998 and hasn’t been able to stay consistently healthy since. Now Wood is attempting to come back from his 488th stint on the disabled list and Monday will be the time he tests his arm for that, er, blows out another muscle, joint or ligament and heads back to the DL. Seriously, this dude would be the most fragile, injury-prone hurler ever….if not for the fact that his porcelain-bodied teammate Mark Prior already holds that title. Thankfully, Wood is operating on a one-year contract with the Cubs, so once he blows out his arm again and goes back on the DL for the remainder of the season, the Cubs can finally cut ties with him once and for all after this year ends. And if by chance Wood’s throwing session Monday doesn’t end in disaster, Cubs fans need not be too excited, because with this guy, every day and every activity is another chance for an injury. This is, after all, a guy whose last stint on the DL came after a fall getting out of his home’s hot tub.

- Great to see Jimmy Carter taking a break from his humanitarian work to engage in another worthwhile activity: excoriating our inept leader, W. Carter labeled the W. administration as “the worst in history” in international relations, which is surprising not because it’s untrue but rather because Carter is not the type to throw around that kind of criticism lightly. He also took a run at W. for his environmental policies and faith-based initiative funding, but I think the focus belongs squarely on the “worst in history” blast. This may shock you, but I have to contend with Carter over his analysis. I don’t think you should be calling the W. administration the worst in history in international relations because, let’s face it, this administration is just simply the worst in history, without any qualifiers attached to that label. You can't just focus on the ineptitude in international relations, nor on the shady environmental policies or initiative funding. There are plenty of other points to quibble on, things like warmongering, repeatedly lying to the American public, the scandal with Alberto Gonzales, etc. Let’s not ignore all the other low-quality work this administration has put together and limit criticisms to one specific area. Give them the (dis)credit they’re earned across the whole spectrum or don’t bother criticizing them at all.

- Because so many of my favorite TV shows have been cancelled the past couple of years, I’ve been able to pick up on a disturbing and absolutely retarded development in the world of television: the straddle-the-fence season/series finale combo platter. This is a practice that has become all too common as networks near the end of a season with a particular show and can't make a decision as to whether that show will be back the following season. Thus, the show’s producers and writer’s are forced to craft a finale that could ostensibly be just a capper to the season and set up the next one and could serve as the end of the series, period. The problem with this is that these are two mutually exclusive concepts and the way you end a season is drastically different than the way you end a series. Take, for example, Gilmore Girls, which just concluded a seven-year run and got the season/series finale treatment. Because the show’s two stars, Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham, kept stringing out contract negotiations, the network wasn’t able to say that the last show of this season was also the series finale at the time it was filmed. Thus, the show’s execs had to straddle the fence and create a show that attempted to function on two levels. When it was decided that the series was to end this season, the finale ended up with a rushed, hollow, schmaltzy, unresolved feel that wasn’t at all what you would want for the final show ever in a wonderful, wonderful series. The same thing is about to happen to Veronica Mars, which will meet its premature end tomorrow night on the same CW network. I’m not sure what the solution is, maybe a drop-dead date for deciding if a series will continue, a date well in advance of shooting for the finale so things can be wrapped up properly……..all I know is that these rushed, hackneyed, half-baked farewells for great shows need to stop.

- I ignore hockey, most of America ignores hockey, and now NBC is following suit. The network made the decision on Saturday to preempt Game 5 of the NHL Eastern Conference finals as the game went to overtime so they could……………show horsies warming up for a race. Yes, NBC felt its commitment to pre-race coverage for the Preakness Stakes was more important than showing a hockey game in which one team (not sure which one, nor do I give a crap) could win the series and advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. I’m on record as saying that horse racing isn't even a sport because the central participants aren't even human and the only humans involved are midgets beating the horsies with a whip, so I find it absolutely laughable that NBC would cut away from what is, at least in the hockey world, an incredibly important game to show not the actual Preakness Stakes, but more than one hour of pre-race crap, basically horses walking around and in their stalls. Yeah, but you’re still relevant and valued, hockey fans and advocates. Your sport is in no way a punch line, a forgotten relic or an inconsequential frivolity on the fringes of the sports landscape. You all had just better hope that when the Stanley Cup Finals roll around that NBC doesn’t have one of those dog long jumping contests to show, because then you’ll really be screwed.

- Some men and women get into law enforcement to make a difference and to make our cities and neighborhoods safer, while some get into it to scam off the very criminals they’re putting behind bars. Count New York City police officers Hector Alvarez and Miguel Castillo into the latter group. These two integrity-deficient individuals were jailed over the weekend in New Jersey on accusations of attempting to steal drugs and money from a suspected drug dealer. The pair of bungling, dishonest cops has been charged with attempted kidnapping, armed robbery and armed burglary, which I’m guessing they knew were wrong, seeing as they are police officers themselves. The motto, I believe, it “Protect and serve,” not “Profit and self-serve.” Get it right next time, officers………..