- Let’s go, time to bomb the sh*t out of China! Who’s with me? The Chinese have clearly provoked us by….wait, what’s that? The Chinese submarine that hit an underwater sonar array being towed by the destroyer USS John McCain on Thursday did so accidentally? So the damage to the array was unintentional and not provocation to touch off a major international war? Dang. Are we sure about this, like 105 percent sure? Apparently so, because U.S. Navy officials are accepting that this incident, which ccurred near Subic Bay off the coast of the Philippines, was an accident. The incident hasn’t officially been made public yet, but an unidentified Navy official confirmed the incident. A sonar array is a device towed behind a ship that listens and locates underwater sounds, but it’s not clear whether the device alerted the U.S. ship that the submarine was that close to it. One reason the Navy does not believe this was intentional harassment by the Chinese is that it would have been extremely dangerous had the array gotten caught in the submarine's propellers. However, there is a definite precedent for Chinese vessels, often fishing boats, to purposely attempt to get in the way of the U.S. Navy while it conducted activities in international waters near China. The best-known incident was in March, when five Chinese vessels “accidentally wandered” close enough to the USNS Impeccable to warrant the use of a fire hose by the unarmed American vessel to avoid a collision. Video of that incident was released by the Navy, but I wouldn’t expect the same for this one since it was an “accident” and all. So sadly, it doesn’t appear that the U.S. is going to use this as an excuse to start dropping bombs on China………
- I give. I don’t know the answer to the question of how a jail inmate in New York is able to throw a blowout bar mitzvah for his son inside a detention facility, complete with live music and catered kosher food. Tuvia Stern is serving at least 2 1/2 years for a first-degree grand larceny conviction, yet he was able to swing a full-on bar mitzvah for his 13-year-old son in the visiting room of the Manhattan Detention Complex, a facility known locally as "The Tombs.” On this day, it was party central and no one seems to be quite sure how that happened. Throwing a party inside prison takes a lot of doing, what with dozens of visitors being allowed in, all of the decorations and music, preparing and serving the food, etc. It would require the help and cooperation of a lot of people, which is probably why five correction employees, including a rabbi, an assistant commissioner, a warden and two assistant chiefs, are being disciplined as a result of the incident. Why so many people were willing to break scores of rules to help a convicted criminal throw a bar mitzvah for his son is the question that New York officials want answered. After all, I’m guessing that more than a few tax dollars were used for the event and that’s not exactly what the government has in mind when it issues funding for prisons. Some 60 people attended the event and worse still, they were allowed to use cell phones -- which are normally prohibited at the jail. So not only were these people in the prison when they shouldn’t have been, they were breaking even more rules once inside. All of this happened and not a single red flag was raised anywhere along the chain of command. It’s not clear how city officials found out about the party, but I think we all know that if you have an event that big with more than 60 people involved, someone is bound to bump their gums and talk about it to the wrong person. Thankfully that happened here so that the idiots who facilitated this debacle can be punished for their stupidity…….
- Going in, the Greek season finale seemed like it would be all about the Cappie-Casey-Max love triangle….and mostly, it was. The non-triangle parts of the show were actually pretty interesting, so let’s begin there. In the wake of the prank to ruin the IKI-Omega Chi float at the homecoming game, the Pan-Hellenic council met to decide what to do to the accused float-pranksters. That meant calling the Kappa Tau’s and Zeta Beta Zeta’s onto the carpet. The KT’s almost completely skated because the fraternity side of the council acted like typical college guys, loving the prank and deciding that since they had to issue a punishment, they would force the KT’s to empty their social calendar - for all of two weeks. With that light sentence, the KT’s planned one last party before their two-week hiatus, the aptly-named “End of the World” bash. As for the ZBZ’s, they weren’t so fortunate. The sorority side of the council decided to hold Ashleigh personally responsible for her sorority’s role in the float prank and after debating, to report her to the school’s administration for discipline. Left with few choices, Ashleigh, BFF Casey and ZBZ sister Rebecca Logan try everything they can to get some leverage on IKI president Frannie, who is leading the Pan-Hellenic charge against them. They try bribing one of the more ditzy IKI sisters with a muffin and getting her to spill secrets, which she actually does. She reveals that Joan, the landlady who owns the IKI house and lives on the top floor, grows marijuana plants in her room. Armed with that information, Ashleigh and Casey prepare for the next Pan-Hellenic hearing. However, Casey becomes too caught up in her own personal drama and forgets the meeting. Ashleigh goes it alone and actually saves her won hide not by using the dirt on Joan’s pot farm, but rather by standing up the Frannie and confronting her with the reality of what a joke the IKI house really is. Frannie takes the words to heart and actually withdraws her complaint against the ZBZ’s just as the council is about to hand down Ashleigh’s punishment, which could be as severe as expulsion from Cyprus Rhodes. Instead, Frannie pulls the complaint and later in the day informs Casey that she’s disbanding IKI, finishing up her classes and graduating. Frannie is leaving CRU, so she may actually be gone when the new season premieres. Sadly still around will be Dale, Rusty’s roommate who is still dating Sheila, the manager of he and Rusty’s apartment complex. When Sheila continues to tempt him and try to get him to sleep with her and break his purity pledge, Dale turns to an unlikely source: Rusty’s pal and the show’s resident gay guy, Calvin. Because Calvin is dealing with his own temptation in the form of new Omega Chi roommate Grant, he and Dale make an uncomfortable truce and agreement to help each other out. Dale claims to be Calvin’s boyfriend to ward off Grant, while Calvin hangs out with Sheila and Dale at the apartment to keep things from going too far. In the end, both of them end up at the KT party and Dale and Sheila wind up off to the side, making out. Grant spots it and points it out to Calvin, who admits that Dale isn’t really his boyfriend and then kisses Grant. As for Rusty, he’s thrown for a loop when he receives a D on an organic chemistry test. His advisor, Dr. Hastings, doesn’t like him that much and when Rusty goes to him for help, Hastings asks how the bad grade happened. Rusty, who has been juggling his KT obligations, new girlfriend Jordan and his classes, blames it on all the time he spent recently for a project in his art history class. Blaming a liberal arts class endears him to Hastings, a hardcore science guy with no use for “those damn hippies” in the liberal arts. Hastings offers to help Rusty get his O-chem grade up and tells him that their work will begin with an all-night lab session the same night as the KT party. Rusty shows up and put in a few hours, but ultimately the lure of the party pulls him from the lab to be with his friends and girlfriend and he decides that his academic career can wait until tomorrow. Rusty may have had a happy ending to the season, but not his big sister. When Max returns a day early from studying abroad and finds her at Dobler’s, Casey is happy to see him but also emotionally confused. After admitting to Ashleigh last episode that she’s still not over Cappie, Casey begins waffling on who she wants to be with. She even makes a pro/con list to help figure things out and realizes that she’s been in one love triangle after another since breaking up with Cappie. The common denominator in every one of them has been Cappie, whom she realizes is the guy she wants. When she tracks Cappie down at the KT party and pulls him into a closet to tell him her decision, something surprising happens. After being kissed by Casey and hearing that she wants to be with him, Cappie turns her down. He reminds her that she broke up with him for a reason - because he’s a slacker, unreliable, unambitious frat guy - and that she shouldn’t throw away what she has with Max on an emotional rush. When Casey insists that this is what she wants, she’s heartbroken to learn that Cappie doesn’t even want to give it a shot. Coming out of the closet, Max spots them and is immediately suspicious. Cappie falls on the grenade by lying and saying that he’s been hitting on Casey with Max gone because he’s not over her. Max buys the lie, but when he and Casey find an empty room to talk, the story changes quickly. Casey defends Cappie when Max rages on and on about him, leading Max to wonder why. Casey finally admits that although nothing is going to happen between her and Cappie (without explaining why), her relationship with Max isn’t going anywhere either. “You’re the perfect guy, you’re just not perfect for me,” she explains. Not what a guy who gave up a graduate assistantship in California for a girl wants to hear, for sure. Now broken up with the girl he loves, Max gets wasted and ends up sitting on a bench outside the KT house, talking to Rusty. Never pick the girl over a big life opportunity, he warns his pal. Of course, Rusty has done just that, albeit on a smaller scale. Casey finds Ashleigh, tells her what happened and then leaves for home for some alone time. Ashleigh then breaks free from boyfriend Fisher for a moment to find Cappie, sitting on the roof of the house, and tell him that Casey will keep coming back to him because they’re meant for each other. As the third season of Greek ends, she asks him what he’s going to do. And so the season comes to a close, a really fun season and every bit as good as the first two. The show is set for an August return, so tune in for that…….
- Umpires catch a lot of crap from fans at baseball games, whether it’s a Little League contest or a Major League Baseball game. Most of the time, the ump doesn’t react to the fans no matter what they say and how foul their language is. It’s what umpires are trained to do because the instant they respond to even one fan who baits them, they’ve opened a can of worms and things can spiral out of control quickly. So when you hear a story of an umpire finally having enough of a crowd’s unruly behavior and responding to it, it’s surprising. Hearing that this umpire ejected not one, not two, not even a small group of fans but rather the entire crowd - that’s just bizarre. Umpire Don Briggs was umpiring a game on Thursday Winfield-Mount Union and West Burlington in West Burlington, Iowa. The more than 100 fans were being typical fans, yelling, cheering and being annoying. However, Briggs felt they were out of hand and when they became too unruly and began arguing with one another and screaming things he felt were inappropriate, he stopped the game and ejected every single fan. The game halted for 40 minutes after Briggs called police and they came to help clear the stands out. Once there were no fans left, the game resumed and West Burlington won 12-11. What’s curious is that Briggs seems to be the only one who had an issue with the behavior of the fans during the game. West Burlington Superintendent James Sleister said he didn't see any unusual behavior and said he thought the umpire overreacted and Burlington police officer Al Waterman says he saw no unruliness himself. No one was arrested or cited, so perhaps Briggs was a bit too thin-skinned and needs to stick to Little League or coach pitch games where the players are just happy to get a juice box on the bench and ice cream after the games. The fans and parents at those games should be a little easier for him to handle and maybe he’ll only have to eject a handful of them………
- Gov. Sarah Palin may no longer be an under-qualified candidate for the second most powerful elected office in the United States, but returning to be the under-qualified governor of our nation’s least inhabitable state doesn’t mean she’s dropped out of the public eye here in the lower 48. She and her husband, Todd, are currently engaged in a battle of words with CBS late-night host David Letterman after he took a series of verbal pot shots at their family. For my money, Letterman’s brand of humor has never been all that funny and he’s much more arrogant than his talent level would dictate, so I’m not inclined to take up for him here, no matter how much I dislike Palin. Of all Letterman’s gimmicks on “The Late Show,” his “Top 10” lists are his best-known. They’re somewhat funny from time to time, but the "Top 10" list Letterman presented Tuesday night was a) not funny and b) pretty classless. The list focused on Palin's recent trip to New York, a trip in which Palin took in a Yankees game and made the rounds in Manhattan. Among the entries on the list of things Palin fictitiously did for purposes of the list, she: "Bought makeup from Bloomingdale's to update her 'slutty flight attendant' look," Letterman said. Hmmmm…..not funny, not exactly tasteful….but not that bad. Had that been the worst thing Letterman said, there wouldn’t be a controversy here. No, that came when he referenced Palin’s trip to the Yankees game with 14-year-old daughter Willow. "One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game, during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez,” Letterman quipped. Umm….not okay. No sarcasm here; any jokes about sexual activity involving 14-year-olds is over the line. Besides, I don’t see the link there between A-Rod and Willow Palin. After all, A-Rod tends to pursue women on the other end of the age scale. He’s a cougar chaser, as per his relationship with skanky pop singer Madonna. Or, he makes out with the reflection of himself in the mirror for a magazine photo shoot. Either way, he’s never been accused of any sort of sexual crime or dated a woman significantly younger than himself. So the joke misfires on every possible level and as such, I can see where the Palin family would be upset. Even after Letterman invited the Palins to come on his show for an in-person apology, they shot him down. “The Palins have no intention of providing a ratings boost for David Letterman by appearing on his show. Plus, it would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman," PalinPAC spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton said. The couple also posted a statement on Facebook denouncing Letterman’s comments, adding that “acceptance of inappropriate sexual comments about an underage girl, who could be anyone's daughter, contributes to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others.'” A bit wordy…..but generally on the mark. Step your game up, David Letterman; just because Jay Leno has stepped down as host of the tonight show and your main competition is a man who is nearly as un-funny as you, Conan O’Brian, doesn’t mean you can just start saying anything you want and not even try to put on a decent show…….
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