- Dear God: If every other rumor about 2016’s presidential
election turns out to be false, if every other would-be candidate worth talking
about fizzles out, please let this one too-good-to-be-true tidbit of
gubernatorial gossip be accurate. Sure, there is no chance whatsoever that real
estate mogul, professional blowhard and man trapped inside a hair tornado
Donald Trump actually runs for president, but oh that he would. Trump, speaking
at a winter dinner event for The Economic Club of Washington, D.C., dangled a juicy carrot in
front of the assembled crowd of rich old people in attendance when he and his
$10,000 suit sat down for an on-stage interview with club president David
Rubenstein. In between brown-nosing with the host and talking about how amazing
he is, Trump fielded a question about rumors that he is once again interested
in running for president. “It’s rumored that you’re thinking of going to Iowa
soon,” Rubenstein said, alluding to Trump’s presidential aspirations. Trump
played along and suggested that anyone who doubted his sincerity about such an
endeavor was sorely mistaken. “A lot of people think I’m having fun with it or
playing games,” Trump said. “I love what I do. I would rather do what I’m doing
than run for president. Unless I see someone outstanding, I’d be very inclined
to do it.” In other words, I don’t want to do it, but dammit, there is such a
dearth of quality candidates out there, I might have to do it anyhow. With
millions of followers on Twitter and Facebook, mobilizing an army of lazy,
nose-in-phone followers should be too difficult………
- While the NFL pretends to be all about overhauling its
domestic violence policy and making sure players stop smacking around their
ladies, a college football program is proactively taking steps to such an
endgame. The University of Texas
hasn’t had the sort of glaring, egregious incidents of abuse that the NFL has
endured this year, but with domestic and sexual violence grabbing headlines in
sports throughout the United States, UT has launched a program to aid character
development in young athletes and help them be positive role models. The Center
for Sports Leadership and Innovation sounds like some government-funded sham
established solely for public relations purposes, but it will work with high
school coaches on a training program to help detect and intervene at signs of
troubling behavior. There will be another component to help athletes and other
college student make sound financial decisions, all in keeping with UT coach
Charlie Strong’s forceful stand on good behavior and responsible citizenry in
his program. Strong has been vocal about the core values he has stated for his
team: honesty, treating women with respect, no stealing, no guns and no drugs.
He was on pace to kick nearly half of his players off the roster for off-field
incidents at one point in the seasons, including two Longhorns players who were
arrested on sexual assault charges. His tough stance led to a meeting with NFL commissioner
Roger Goodell in September to discuss those core values. University president
Bill Powers applauded the launch of the sports leadership center. "These
are things that ought to start on the playground in the third grade. (But) we
can't use that a reason to say there's nothing we can do. There's a lot we can
do to help our student athletes, all our students," Powers said. There’s a
lot every university can do, but the rest have taken a pass so far………
- Soccer: It’s a criminal offense and you need to keep your
distance from it. That message has been emphatically delivered to a Saudi
Arabian woman arrested while attending a soccer game in the kingdom. The woman
feigned ignorance, claiming she did not know women were prohibited from going
to the male-only stadia. Be it for overly strict cultural reasons or simply to
shield women from the menace that is soccer, Saudi Arabia enforces a strict segregation
of the sexes and has no designated areas for women at soccer stadiums. That
could change with the recent announcement of plans for "family" areas
from where women can watch matches, but native ladies are banned at present.
Occasional exceptions have been made for foreign women and back in October, an
Australian female supporter of Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club was
permitted to attend a match at Riyadh's main stadium. Ditto for a group of
American women traveling with members of U.S. Congress who watched a local
soccer club match, also in Riyadh, back in January. So far, the arrested woman
has not been publicly identified, but she told police he bought a ticket online
without any problems and attended Friday night's game in the Red Sea city of
Jiddah's new al-Jawhara stadium. However, she seemed to know she might be
breaking the rules, as police spokesman Atti al-Qurashi
said security spotted her at the stadium "deliberately disguised" in
male attire to avoid detection. She was questioned for
"impersonating" a man by wearing pants, a long-sleeve top, a hat and
sunglasses and according to police, she has been in police custody since Friday
and is being held at a center for girls in the western province of Mecca. So
far, no charges have been filed, but don’t count on any mercy here. Ultraconservative
Saudi clerics shun female access to exercise and women's teams are not part of
the kingdom's federation for sports, so the right to watch soccer isn't something
the Saudi ladies can expect……..
- There have been all sorts of repercussions from the hack
that leaked scores of emails from Sony executives, from celebrity bashing to
inappropriate remarks about Barack Obama and most everything in between. Yet
the damage to reputations is one thing and the possible ruination of a female-led Ghostbusters film is something else
entirely. The email detailing the potential project came from director Paul
Feig, who explains that the film will actually be a reboot where humans haven’t
met ghosts yet and therefore have no reason to be afraid of them. As the
director tells it in his message, humans are terrified of convicted murderers
who pose a direct threat to them, specifically one in the form of Peter
Dinklage, who then becomes a ghost. Dinklage will then summon various other
ghostly villains, perhaps even famous faces from throughout human history. In
his email, Feig noted that the Ghostbusters squad will be four women who will,
“figure out in funny, scary and action-packed ways how to save New York City
and the world." This is just a guess, but given that this is Hollywood and
ugly people need not apply, one might guess that all four leading ladies will
be extremely attractive, perhaps even unreasonable so. In the script as
envisioned by Feig, the Lady Ghostbusters will work for the U.S. government,
but the relationship will be strained with various officials overseeing the
squad, including Cecily Strong, who will play a suit of some sort. Of course,
all of this could be in jeopardy now that the idea has leaked, so the race is
on to save a movie that sounds like it has a legit chance to be an utter,
unmitigated disaster……….
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