- The general concept is there for New York Governor David Paterson, but I think his plan is a bit off. I refer to Paterson’s call this week for what is being labeled a “obesity tax” on New Yorkers. Last week, the governor proposed a state budget that included a tax on sugared beverages like soda, along with other goods and services like iTunes downloads, all to raise money for the state’s coffers. I vehemently oppose the iTunes idea, mostly because it’s idiotic to tax people for buying a song and downloading it using nothing that you provide in any part of the process, but that’s not the focus of this rant. No, I’m zoning in on the so-called obesity tax. Paterson argues that soft-drink consumption is a key cause of childhood obesity. and that for every12-ounce soft drink in a day increases the risk of a child becoming obese by 60 percent, with a similar rate for adults. So Paterson is looking to slap soft drinks and other sugared beverages with an 18 percent tax that he estimate will reduce consumption by five percent. The specifics for the tax are that it would apply only to sugared drinks -- including fruit drinks that are less than 70 percent juice -- that are nondiet. I like the idea of an obesity tax; I just don’t feel this is the right approach. I agree that fat, flabby citizens are a bad thing for any state. However, if we’re enacting an obesity tax, let’s make it for actual obesity and not for products that may contribute to it. In other words, hit people with a tax based on how overweight they are. We could enact liberal guidelines in every state so as not to penalize people who are just a little pudgy, or who gained weight because they just had a surgery that kept them from moving around. But for those who are grossly obese and disgusting to look at because of the rolls and rolls of fat hanging on their bodies, there could be an annual tax. You know, for the dude who is 5’10 and goes 290, the tax might be for every pound over the 190 or 200 that he should reasonably weigh. No one likes seeing morbidly obese people and maybe being taxed for their girth would be just the right diet plan for these people to inspire them. Heck, taxing them would give these people less to spend on food, that’s for sure. It would also help offset the added burden they place on the health care system, so it’s a win-win. I wouldn’t have to walk through the mall and see people who weight twice what I weigh despite being two inches shorter than me and be depressed at how much they have let themselves go. So let’s enact an obesity tax, a real one, and see if it doesn’t make America a better, much more attractive place to live…..
- College coaches, especially in prime programs like football and men’s basketball, are one of the most recognizable faces at any college or university. As such, them (allegedly) punching cab drivers in their faces while (allegedly) spewing racial slurs at the same time doesn’t reflect very well on their school. One man who does not appear to have a firm grasp on this concept is University of Mississippi men’s basketball coach Andy Kennedy, who was arrested for allegedly punching cab driver Jiddou Mohammed Ould in the face while shouting racial slurs earlier this week in downtown Cincinnati. For his part, Kennedy denies all of the charges against him and maintains that he expects to be fully exonerated….which I’m not buying. Incidents like this can definitely be overblown, but they also tend to have at least some factual basis. Cab drivers take a lot of crap from a lot of people and don’t file police reports most of the time, so for Ould to take that step tells me that Kennedy likely did have some sort of confrontation with him, likely physical. At this point, Kennedy will continue coaching the Rebels as the case progresses, with that decision announced after he met with athletic director Pete Boone this morning in a downtown Cincinnati hotel. He coached last night's game against No. 9 Louisville, so clearly the university is standing behind him….for now. I’m guessing that will change if a) he really is a cabbie-puncher, and b) the 7-4 record his team currently sports morphs into, say, 7-13 over the next few weeks. Quite a triumphal return to his former home for Kennedy, who was the interim head coach of Cincinnati after Bob Huggins was fired prior to the 2005-06 season and was an assistant with the Bearcats for the previous five seasons. Just for precautionary reasons, maybe you want to ride the team bus and only the team bus from here on out, A. Kennedy…….
- Would you have guessed that one of the year’s best movies would be about the world of pro wrestling? The small percentage of you who would have believed that fact would shrink even more if I asked you if you believed that not only would a movie about pro wrestling be Oscar-worthy, but also that this movie would star Mickey Rourke. Yet there’s Rourke, making one of the biggest comebacks in modern movie history. Already, there is a ton of buzz about Rourke snagging a Best Actor Oscar for his role as a struggling, past-his prime grappler in “The Wrestler.” Director Darren Aronofsky steers the gritty, realistic drama, which took won a crap load of awards on the autumn festival circuit and has just opened in the U.S. So who better than Rourke - whose bad-ass lifestyle has made him a controversial and oft-arrested figure for two-plus decades - to play the part of fallen 1980s ring legend Randy “The Ram” Robinson. Not that anyone with the most remote familiarity with pro wrestling doesn’t know how big a role drugs - specifically painkillers and steroids - play in the business, but seeing Rourke pounding pills in an attempt to sustain his flagging career is jarring. As Randy Robinson, he realizes his scarred state, saying at one point: “I’m an old broken-down piece of meat.” Aronofsky treats the wrestling business with a real, documentary-like approach, showing plenty of gore, with staple guns, barbed wire and self-cutting (known as blading in wrestling) to tell the story. And yes, real-life wrestlers have wrestled matches in rings ringed by barbed wire and used barbed wire-covered baseball bats as weapons, men like the legendary Mick Foley. Oh, and for all you My Cousin Vinny fans who idolized Marissa Tomei in the 1980s, she plays stripper Cassidy in this film. There is also the storyline of Robinson trying to reconcile with his estranged student daughter (Evan Rachel Wood). However, his toughest fight is against a wrestling business moving on to younger, stronger, better-looking guys. With his retro bleach-yellow scrag of hair and the backdrop of ‘80s hair metal, you travel back in time with “The Ram.” Stepping inside
trailer homes and locker rooms, supermarkets and strip clubs with some great photography, Aronofsky paints a vivid picture of a man desperately addicted to fame even as it becomes increasingly difficult for him to hold onto it. Throughout it all, Rourke is raw and real, which you could say makes sense because he can draw on his own life experiences (as a former professional boxer, he lived a similar lifestyle for a few years. Regardless of where the performance comes from, it’s a fantastic resurrection of a career and a very good movie on a very unexpected subject matter…..
- I have mad respect for anyone who has the kahones to climb a mountain - any mountain. It’s a tough feat and one that a lot of people are just too scared or lazy to attempt. But my respect increases a hundredfold when that individual looking to scale a mountain is a paraplegic and he’s looking to climb Africa’s tallest peak, Mt. Kilimanjaro. The man in question would be Chris Waddell, a Utah resident who will attempt to become the first paraplegic to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro unassisted. This is a project Waddell has been working on for some time, making training trips to Tanzania to ready himself. Those trips were extremely helpful in planning his climb, as Waddell found that his 83 pound hand-cycle was too heavy and that without major adjustments, 19-thousand foot mountain would get the best of him. "I don't know how we're going to. I don't know. I don't know if I am going to be able to climb this mountain,” Waddell said early on. Climbing mountains is both ironc and incredibly symbolic for Waddell, who broke his back skiing on a different mountain 20 years ago. His response to that tragedy told you all you needed to know about his character, as Waddell went on to become one of the greatest Paralympians ever. On top of that, dude has been named one of People magazine's 50 most beautiful people and also plans to donate some wheelchairs to needy people in Tanzania after being touched by his experiences with them. In speaking about his odyssey to climb Kilimanjaro, he says, “It really is the journey. And this journey, who knows where it’s going to go? And that's the cool part of being open to whatever happens." He will be returning to Kilimanjaro in February for the final ascent, and armed with a new, lighter machine. If he can succeed in reaching the summit, it will be an inspiring story and another milestone for a man who has accomplished more in a chair than most of us have able-bodied……
- Funny, most NFL players are annoyed and irritated about being selected for the Pro Bowl. None of them will say that publicly, but you can tell by the fact that from the time teams are selected in mid-December to the game in February, usually at least half of the selected players pull out, citing mysterious injuries or other personal matters. The teams end up being a hodgepodge of guys who were good but not the best in a given season and were willing to take a free trip to Hawaii to play in a meaningless football game. Washington Redskins middle linebacker London Fletcher clearly doesn’t look at the Pro Bowl that way, at least not being selected to the game. Fletcher, a well-spoken guy but not one with a reputation for complaining and seeking the spotlight, stepped out of character this week after being snubbed for the Pro Bowl once again, calling himself "the Susan Lucci of the NFL" and deeming his career "Hall of Fame worthy." "I don't know if it was because I wasn't a first-round draft pick, I don't do some kind of dance when I make a 10-yard tackle, I don't go out and get arrested," Fletcher said. "I believe in playing the game the way it's supposed to be played. You line up each and every week, each and every play, and you go out and get the job done. You look at my body of work and I've done that for 11 years, but because I'm not going out causing a lot of controversy, holding a private meeting with the coordinator saying this, this and this, causing a lot of strife on my team, I don't garner a lot of attention." If you’ve seen Fletcher play, you know he’s not exaggerating. He’s a great player and one who has made a living at a position for 6’3, 245-pound dudes despite standing only 5’9. He played college football at tiny John Carroll, a Division III school in northern Ohio. Yet he has carved out a great NFL career with the Buffalo Bills and now the Redskins, becoming the leading tackler in the NFL this decade and having never missed a game in his 11-year career. He plays hard, he plays hurt and he plays very, very well. In spite of that and in spite of a great year as the undisputed MVP of the Redskins’ defense, he was passed over for the Pro Bowl in favor of San Francisco's Patrick Willis and Carolina's Jon Beason. "I understand they can take only two middle linebackers, but to have it happen year after year after year after year after year. I'm an eight-time alternate. I'm the Susan Lucci of the NFL," said Fletcher. Lucci, of course, was nominated for an Emmy 18 times before winning. I’m wondering, though, if Fletcher is pissed about not being in the Pro Bowl or not being picked for the game. If it’s playing in the game he’s concerned about, just sit tight because it’s a virtual lock that either Willis or Beason will suffer a well-timed, fake, er, legitimate hamstring or quad injury and not be able to play in the game. Fletcher could well make it as an alternate if he remains patient. But maybe he just wants the same honor as other great players, namely being picked for the Pro Bowl and being the one to fake, er, sustain a last-minute injury and pull out of the game. Either way, I agree with you, L., you deserved to be picked for the Pro Bowl this time around….
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