- Of all the ways to get the message through to the government of Myanmar that their current reign of terror and oppression isn't acceptable, attacking the regime financially is the best option at this point. Nations like the United States, Britain, Canada and Japan can’t go declaring war on Myanmar and dropping bombs (no, W., you really can’t, I know you’re itching to start unnecessary, bloody wars wherever you can, but you can't do that here), so imposing severe financial sanctions and doing what Japan has announced it will do, withholding aid, are the right choice. Japan is the largest aid donor for Myanmar, but the Japanese have canceled a multimillion-dollar grant in protest of Gen. Than Shwe’s brutal, bloody crusade against pro-democracy forces within his country. The announcement came in support of a U.N. envoy led by Ibrahim Gambari as it pressures neighboring countries to stand up against Gen. Shwe and his regime. The Chinese, viewed as a key factor in the battle because of its history as Myanmar’s biggest ally and a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, offered only lip service Wednesday, saying it supports Gambari’s mission but declining to actually take any action. What, you can’t contribute some toys covered in lead paint or toothpaste laced with a lethal chemical normally found in antifreeze, China? The citizens of Myanmar need every major country to continue tightening that financial noose around the neck of their fascist government, because unless someone takes a stand to help them, their hopes for freedom from this repressive reign are slim.
- Nice move by the Cleveland Indians, having Danielle Peck, the ex-girlfriend of Boston Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett, sing the national anthem and “God Bless America” at last night’s ALCS Game 5 when Beckett was the starting pitcher for the Sox. The Indians maintain that it’s a mere coincidence, that Peck is an Ohio resident and Indians fan and that’s why she sang at the game. Both of those things may be true, that she’s an Ohioan and Indians fan, but don’t expect me to believe that it was a total coincidence that in the biggest game of the season to this point, you just happened to have the ex-girlfriend of your opponent’s ace on hand to sing the national anthem. I don’t have a problem with it, even if the Indians did it intentionally, because it’s a savvy bit of gamesmanship and it’s not breaking any rules. I just don’t need to be lied to about it, although to be fair, it’s not like this is something you could ever admit to if you’re the Indians or any other
team. I just wonder if the Tribe already has a call out to the ex-girlfriends of Colorado Rockies pitcher Josh Fogg to see if any of them would like to come and sing the anthem before one of Fogg’s starts should the
Indians make the World Series, where Colorado awaits.
- If I had been in your shoes, I would have gladly made the same trade, Linda Darby. Darby, a fugitive who escaped from an Indiana prison back in 1972, was finally captured after a 35-year search, taken in by police in Pulaski, Tenn. She was convicted of murdering her husband in the early ‘70s but escaped from jail, fled the state and created a new life for herself. She had remarried and raised a family under the name Linda Joe McElroy. As I said, if I’d been in her shoes once she was sentenced to prison, I would have gladly traded spending the latter years of her life in prison with no chance for parole in order to have 35 more years of freedom in the prime of her life. If you can make that trade, you do it in a heartbeat. Maybe I would have had the good sense to go ahead and change my entire name and my appearance, but other than that I don’t know that I would have done it any differently. She got to experience a nearly normal existence despite having been convicted of murder. While you can’t admire or give respect to someone like that, you can certainly understand her actions. That being said, hope you enjoyed the heck out of your life in Tennessee as a “normal” member of society, Linda, because that’s the last dose of freedom you’ll ever see on this earth. Plus, I think it’s going to be much more difficult to escape now that you’re a senior citizen and the guards will be keeping a much closer eye on you, given your history.
- Talk about being under the gun in a big, big way…..Green Bay Packers wide receiver Koren Robinson, a multiple-time offender of the NFL’s substance abuse policy, has been reinstated to the league after serving a one-year suspension following his most recent violation, a drunk driving charge that led to a minor police chase. Robinson is back in the NFL, but he’s on the ultimate short leash. If he has one more violation of the substance-abuse policy, he’ll be banned from the league for life. I don’t feel sorry for him because he put himself in this position with repeated bad choices, but it has to be an intense feeling for him, knowing that he can’t make even one minor mistake in this area or his NFL career is over, no questions asked. “I know this is my last chance,” Robinson said. “If I do anything to jeopardize that, I didn’t deserve it in the first place.”
Agreed, Koren, and I hope you do keep your life going in the right direction, although it’s more so because of the rest of your life after football than it is because I want you to stay in the NFL. If you don’t get your alcohol addiction under control, losing your chance to play professional football will be among the least of
your worries. Keep it between the lines, my man, don’t blow this opportunity.
- It was a night of flip flops on Smallville, one that featured former Superman Dean Cain as an unsavory neurosurgeon with an “eternal” secret. Cain guest starred as Dr. Curtis Warren, who posed as a doctor helping meteor-infected people be “cured” of their abilities while also removing all their memories from the past few years. That last twist was to protect Lex Luthor, who hired the good doctor to treat his 33.1 patients and allow them to return to normal lives. Dr. Warren had other ideas; he picked out meteor-infected people with high concentrations of the green stuff in particular organs, killed them and harvested their supercharged organs to transplant into the body of the woman he loved. Why, you ask? As it turns out, Dr. Curtis Warren is immortal and has been alive for centuries, meaning he can’t be killed but is forced to constantly watch the people he loves die when their mortality catches up with them. His attempt to create his own synthetically-engineered, Frankenstein-like bride also brings him in touch with Chloe, who wants to be rid of her meteor powers. Another flip flop in this episode is the fact that unlike most every other Smallville episode, this one was Chloe-centric, not built around the Man of Steel. Chloe goes in for a procedure to cure her of her abilities after running into a cured Sasha, the girl from Season One who controlled bees with her meteor power. Clark learns of Chloe’s plans and tries to talk her out of it but fails. However, when Lana reveals that her own research has turned up disturbing details about Dr. Warren, Clark starts digging and gets help from an unlikely source: Lex. After saving Lex from an attack by Dr. Warren, Clark talks to Lana, finds out about Warren and goes to Jimmy Olsen to find out where Chloe is. After realizing that she’s gone to have the operation, Clark searches for her with help from Lex and that’s when he learns about Warren’s immortality. Having Clark working with Lex and trusting him for help is a definite flip flop from last season, when it was Lana looking to Lex and Clark looking to take him down. Needless to say, Clark saves Chloe just as she’s about to be killed, leaving Warren in tears. He then falls into the hands of the Martian Manhunter, who gets rid of him in mysterious fashion that he won't even share with Clark. Warren isn't the only one to disappear courtesy of the Manhunter; after two confrontations that reveal a hostile history back on Krypton, Kara appeals to Clark to believe her version of things over the Martian Manhunter’s, and when he doesn’t, she becomes very angry and flies away. The allegation that on Krypton, her father tried to murder his brother, Clark’s father Jor-El, is disconcerting, as is the Manhunter’s warning that if Clark doesn’t find Kara’s crystal before she does, he could be in great danger. The search for the crystal also leads Kara to Jimmy in the hopes that he can analyze the video Lois shot of Kara’s spaceship in the warehouse. After finding that the Flintrock Corporation is involved and they’re a government contractor, which means the government is Kara’s next target to find her crystal, Chloe finds Kara and Jimmy eating Chinese food and hanging out while watching the video. She isn't happy and when she’s unable to share her secret of being a “meteor freak” with Jimmy at night’s end, the pair breaks up. Meanwhile, Lana ends her night at a mysterious office/loft where she has a bank of video monitors showing footage from surveillance cameras hidden throughout the Luthor mansion. She’s spying on Lex, looking in on his activities and finding out about projects he’s working on, presumably because she wants to help the former 33.1 patients using the $10 million she embezzled from Lex. When Clark asks about the money, she lies and says it was part of the divorce settlement, showing the “other” Lana that show creator Al Gough has been hinting about since the season began. Next week, we’re apparently in store for a feature film being shot in Smallville, so that should be interesting, to say the least. It’s been a season of twists and role reversals on Smallville, where once again nothing is as it seems. I can’t wait to see where this is going, it’s a great ride.
- If the New York Yankees didn’t want Joe Torre back as their manager, they should have just said so.
Instead, the team’s front office offered Torre a hollow, insulting one-year contract that shouldn’t be viewed as anything other than a PR ploy to try and save face. A one-year deal, especially for a manager of Torre’s credentials, is a joke. This is a man who won four world titles for the franchise, the second-winningest manager in Yankee history and a man who is immensely respected by his players. A one-year contract essentially puts him on a tryout basis next season at a reduced salary, forcing him to deal with all of the same scrutiny and speculation he faced this year when he was in the last year of his contract. Not only that, the team took its sweet time holding organizational meetings and left Torre to twist in the wind as they debated. He had the media camping out in his front yard, making his life miserable. Had he accepted this sham of a contract proposal, he wouldn’t even been guaranteed to still be around in 2009, when the Yankees move into their brand new stadium. This was an offer they know Torre would reject, so making it is an incredibly meaningless, classless gesture. Randy Levine, the team’s president, wanted Torre gone, and this offer was the best way to do it without having to actually have the balls to stand up and say that you don’t want Joe Torre to be your manager anymore. I already hated the Yankees more than any team in any sport, but this debacle multiples my despisal of that franchise tenfold.
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