Ohio Lawmakers Still Can't Get It Right

I'm not sure if I've gone off about the lack of good physical education in today's schools as much as I have other topics, but I'm going to do it now. First, the article (since it may disappear from the Dispatch after a week):

Ohio Core bill lets athletes skip gym

Senator hates idea, hopes to change provision next year

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Dan Weist

OHIO NEWS NETWORK

Gov. Bob Taft has yet to sign the Ohio Core high-school curriculum overhaul, but the legislation’s primary sponsor already is planning to seek the reversal of one provision.

Sen. Randall Gardner, a Republican from Bowling Green, said the provision, added late in the lame-duck session, would dramatically weaken physical education in Ohio’s high schools by changing gym-class requirements.

Gardner said the amendment offered by Rep. John Schlichter, allows school districts to excuse from gym class any students involved in sports, cheerleading or the marching band.

Gardner said that although the provision didn’t get much attention during last week’s floor debates, it prompted an intraparty dispute that slowed passage of the Ohio Core legislative package.

The curriculum plan, which Taft proposed in January in his final State of the State address, has been touted as a way to prepare young Ohioans for success in college. The legislation mandates tougher high school course work, including an additional year of math instruction and at least three lab-based science classes.

Students may opt out of the plan under certain conditions, at least initially, but doing so will make them ineligible to attend most of Ohio’s four-year public universities without first taking additional college-level courses.

"I didn’t want to hold up the bill for just this," Gardner said of the physical-education amendment. "But I do plan to try and change it in the next session."

Schlichter, of Washington Court House, defends the idea of letting student-athletes bypass traditional gym classes.

"To me, it’s just the right thing to do, to be able to allow kids to expand their course work when they have already done physical activity," said Schlichter.

Now, high-school students in Ohio must earn a half-credit in physical education to graduate.

Because of Schlichter’s amendment, the Ohio Core legislation on Taft’s desk gives school districts the option of maintaining that requirement or allowing students to receive the half-credit through participation, for a minimum of two seasons, in a designated extracurricular activity.

The change is likely to appeal to student-athletes, who will be able to graduate without taking a gym class.

"I think that since band is a period and a half long, we should have that count as a credit for gym," said Katie Lewis, a member of the color guard at Pickerington Central High School.

One of the school’s band teachers, Dan Joy, also likes the idea. Not having to take a gym class might enable students to concentrate on other subjects and perhaps take more math and science courses, he said.

"I think that is an excellent option for students," he said.

Not everyone at Pickerington Central, however, supports the change. Principal Chuck Kemper, a former coach and physical-education teacher, said he worries about the long-term ramifications for today’s young people.

"If we allow children to be excluded from physical education and these activities, later in life what are they going to do to be active? " Kemper asked.

I have to agree with Kemper. Gym class should be a daily class with an emphasis on lifetime sports and personal fitness. I'm partially in favor of exempting student-athletes from it, and heck, I'll even throw in the cheerleaders for programs that do lots of tumbling/pyramid/dance stuff. That sort of exercise is great for all-over fitness and flexibility, and despite the cheesiness of their performances and their instistence that cheerleading is a sport, it's hard work and they are definitely have the tools for keeping in shape.

On the other hand, many of these student-athletes could use instruction on health and fitness outside of their sport. Hence my reluctance to completely agree with this move.

However, the concept of exempting band members is the wrong path. At the risk of sounding elitist and steretyping band members, I think band members who are not athletes should not be exempt because they need the health and fitness instruction as much as anyone else in the school who is not an athlete.

It used to be that fitness and health were considered just as important in education as knowledge. Schools in the renaissance and even earlier are well-documented as finding such activities as fencing, wrestling, etc. just as important for developing a complete individual as their academic studies.

And with today's culture of video games, television and touchy-feely school administrators who don't wish to hurt anyone's feelings in school, kids aren't learning the benefits of being in shape and how to get that way. Obviously, I could go into how the pharmaceutical market loves this situation as they can market more drugs to people who don't know how to be healthy, but that's a topic for another time. Suffice to say that our legislators have an opportunity here to make a statement about the state of health in this State, but instead they're exempting kids from Phys Ed so they can make time for other pursuits. And my response: if these kids aren't healthy when they get out of school, what good are they going to be to anyone?

Casino Royale From A Bond Fan's Point Of View

Over the weekend, I was able to see a movie that I've wanted to see for some time: the newest entry in the James Bond series of films, Casino Royale.

It absolutely ruled.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!

Daniel Craig has indeed deserved all the apologies I've seen from long-time Bond fans, critics, and pretty much everyone else, as his Bond is the closest to the gritty, egotistical, cold-eyed agent about whom Ian Fleming originally wrote. As I said to my wife when trying to describe the movie to her: it's like all the other Bond movies - lots of great stunts, action, intrigue, etc., and then you add in ACTING.

This is not to say that the other Bonds were bad actors (well, almost all of them), but I often got the feeling that they were simply foils to advance the plot of the movie and show off lots of stunts, etc. Craig, on the other hand, is an actor's actor. He's dissected the role of 007 and made it his own by making it Fleming's. The cheesy lines, when they were included (and that wasn't often), were delivered in a way that you know the character enjoyed saying it, instead of just saying them because it fit the pattern of a Bond movie. The ego was readily apparent, as was the loss of the ego when he found himself

The supporting cast was also excellent. I'll start with Judi Dench as M. It would be very easy for Dench to have simply gone into autopilot and put out a performance that was similar to the other movies - referring to Bond as a misogynisitc dinosaur, criticizing the playboy appeal, etc. But the good Dame did not do that at all. This was a different Bond, and she played to that new Bond extraordinarily well. She had whole new sets of problems with him, new sorts of respect for him, and a different relationship with him. He wasn't the golden boy of MI6, he was the newly promoted guy who was basically under probation. And he was sort of a pain in the ass to deal with. Dench pulled this off magnificently.

Eva Green was the perfect femme fatale for this new Bond. She was a strong personality, and it was clear that she didn't like Bond nor the mission because she didn't really understand either it or him. And she was clearly horrified by what he did for a living after the fight in the stairwell, but was also clearly attracted to him by his ability to realize that not everyone could deal with his work and lifestyle (as evidenced by the rather tender shower scene).

Mads Mikkelsen was perhaps the most believable Bond villain we've ever had (though Sean Bean's Alec Trevelyan in GoldenEye is a close second if not equal). For almost the first time, the villain wasn't just some rich guy with a weird tic of some kind. We actually understood where he was coming from, as the terrorist's banker who lost his clients' money with an "investment" gone wrong. And he was under serious pressure to get the money back before his clients found out about the situation. If he hadn't been such a schmuck, you could almost feel bad for him.

The action scenes made sense, instead of being done just to be visually stimulating. The fight scenes showed the real desperation of men locked in combat instead of being a cheesy way to show Bond's superiority over a bunch of guys foolish enough to try to attack him. And the editing was great too - they truly showed the awful-ness of two men fighting to the death - no silling karate chops a la Roger Moore or the famous two handed Captain Kirk punches. Daniel Craig has obviously been working hard on his fighting skills to make this look so realistic, and it paid off.

And another thing about the action scenes that was pointed out to me on my newest favorite podcast, Being James Bond: they weren't just a music video. The music, if any, was very incidental and let the action happen. In the past it's seemed like McG was the director for all the action sequences, and this one was the most realistic-seeming that I could imagine.

Now, as a Bond fan, I've read all the Bond work that Fleming has put out. Casino Royale was the first Bond novel written and therefore the first one I ever read (as I like to read all my works by an author in order). And it was the perfect book to start over with for that reason. But I wasn't prepared for just how much the movie was going to adhere to the plot. You can't say it was dead on, because it wasn't. The original was based during the Cold War and therefore was very much a NATO vs. USSR conflict, with Le Chiffre being the SMERSH banker. In this, he's more or less a private contractor who bankrolls terror organizations. But that's where the differences end, for all intents and purposes.

As anyone who's ever gone with me to a movie adapted from a book I like knows, I'm a stickler for being faithful. Now that's not to say that the stories have to follow the work exactly and to the letter, but they have to capture the spirit of the book and follow the same basic plot. The Batman movies frustrated me to no end, until the release of Batman Begins. That was an absolute masterpiece. And this was the same: I walked out thinking "Oh my stars and garters - they finally got it right." I was completely satisfied with the movie with one exception - it wasn't long enough and it's too long to wait for the next one. I got home that night and was disappointed that Amazon.com didn't have a link to pre-order the DVD yet.

I can sort of understand why Bond movie fans might have been disappointed with parts of this movie. Craig does not play the same cheesy super-agent guy that Moore and Brosnan played. In fact, his portrayal of Bond is closest to that of Timothy Dalton, in regards to the seriousness with which the actors play the role. And they didn't make use of Q, the gadgets, boat chases, spaceships, Jaws, and ladies who couldn't help but undress Bond with their eyes every time they saw him. And in all honesty, I sat there expecting it and was surprised by those scenes not being there. An example of this was when Bond first walks into the Ocean Club and talks to the lady at the desk. That was exactly the spot in a Moore movie when the undersexed hotel worker would check him out from top to bottom and suggestively respond to his request, followed by a smirk and polite rejoinder by Moore. We didn't get that in Casino Royale.

As I just mentioned, Craig's Bond is most like Timothy Dalton's Bond, IMHO. But the Dalton movies suffered from not trying to be realistic enough with the rest of the movie. Casino Royale never has that problem. They have re-started this series on the right foot, in my opinion, and I can't wait for more.

Conflict of Interest? ESPN Doesn't Care

In its latest mess-up among many, ESPN has decided that just reporting slanted sports news and broadcasting events isn't enough for them. Now they've actually become a part owner of the Arena Football League. Get ready to see all sorts of this crap sport on ESPN now, taking away from good sports like soccer.

As usual, ESPN's ethics are in the toilet. Unbiased journalism be damned.

They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To

I was at Subway today, wearing a windbreaker that I got from one of the charities I support. It was the first time wearing it. I went to pull it off, and just about pulled the hood right off the thing.

That hole you see in the hood in the picture? Well, that's not supposed to be there.

Perhaps It's Time For Jamie To Shut Up At Crew Games

Auto-Centrism

This morning I had to take a different route to work because I was dropping off a rental car at the Budget place. So I put the bike and my work stuff in the back, dropped it off, and rode to work. And I discovered something that I already knew, but illustrated in a way that I hadn't considered before.

My bike is not heavy enough to set off those pressure plates under the road that control the traffic lights. I sat through two iterations of the light at the corner of Lane and Fyffe/Fred Taylor on tOSU's campus before this occurred to me. I was trying to turn left and no one else was, so I finally had to wait for an open spot and fly through. My attempts to be a considerate cyclist and follow the rules of the road were waylayed by the auto-centric roads.

Most of the time that hasn't been an issue, as there have been plenty of cars to trigger the lights via their gas-guzzling weight, but not today. And that strikes me as pathetic and anti-pedestrian/cycling.

Bicycle Lunch Issues

Today I biked about a mile and a half away for lunch (to Chipotle. Those of you who know me personally know that this is not odd in any way). I really liked getting out of the office and getting some exercise over lunch, and getting over to Kingsdale Shopping Center wasn't really that big of a deal.

My only issue was with the guy who decided he needed to honk at me because he got stuck behind me when there was traffic in the lane next to ours.

I just take it as jealousy:

1. Because I was on a bike and he was in a car.
   
2. Because I didn't care that I was holding up traffic and he did.
   
3. Because I wasn't contributing to global warming and he was.
   

The impatience of people absolutely amazes me. I probably held him up for a whole ten seconds while I tried to shift lanes (naturally, the people in the lane next to us weren't exactly helpful).

But all this comes back to a problem in the city of Columbus of which Paul Dorn reminded me in his blog about San Francisco's traffic in the days before the 1906 earthquake: automobiles don't see their presence on the road as a privilege, but rather as a right. And that simply isn't the case. It's a privilege that you get because you fulfilled all the steps for getting a driver's license and you've not broken the traffic laws to the extent that you've had it taken away. Being a pedestrian or a cyclist is a right. There's no license necessary for a cyclist or a pedestrian.

Motorists need to get that through their heads.

Final Brady Quinn Commentary

The gentlemen at the Blue-Gray Sky blog have put together the most absolutely complete and concise look at the travesty that was the media's treatment of Brady Quinn this season.

My only comments: is Troy Smith a good player? Yes. Is Brady Quinn a better player? Yes. He did more against a tougher schedule (complain all you want about ND's playing the three service academies, one of whom went 9-3. ND's strength of schedule was 19th in the country versus tOSU's 40th) and with fewer quality supporting players.

ESPN and the rest should be absolutely ashamed of themselves for their anti-Notre Dame bias. If Katie Couric or Brian Williams showed this much enmity for Israel or France in the news, they'd be roundly lambasted and forced to make public apologies, if not openly fired. But in sports, it seems to be perfectly acceptable to hate on one team and focus the opinions of the sports world against them.

U.S. Soccer Legend Lamar Hunt Dies

Wow... talk about coming out of the blue. I heard about this today when I was reading my ESPN email newsletter and was totally taken aback. Lamar Hunt, for those of you who don't know, isn't just the founder of the AFL and the Super Bowl, he's also one of the biggest proponents of soccer in the US. He was an owner of a team in the old NASL, and of course he was the owner (at one time or another) of the Columbus Crew, the Dallas Burn, and the Kansas City Wizards of MLS.

He died of prostate cancer after a long fight. May he rest in peace.

A Different Christmas Poem

You may have seen this before, but I think it's important not to forget. No matter what you think about this war we're in, the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who are out there fighting it need our support.

---

A Different Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts...
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."

"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother...

Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

PLEASE, Would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our U.S servicemen and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. Let s try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.

LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq

A Great Idea

I'm sure that, like me, you see a lot of Hummers driving around. I have a great idea about how to get their drivers' goats for wasting our gas, clogging our roads and parking spaces, and basically just being selfish.

I've posted this cartoon before, but I suggest that everyone print this off, copy it a whole bunch of times, and put it on every Hummer you can see!

Urine-strumental in Efforts to Save Fuel

According to this news flash, Chinese Southern Airlines is requesting that its passengers relieve themselves before getting onto their flights in an attempt to save fuel. More at the link.

Frankly, I think this is great. China isn't nearly as hung up on such things as publicly discussing bodily functions as we are and such measures, while seeming a bit odd to us, can truly help.

But that doesn't stop me from posting this picture.

Lessons Of Vietnam

Keith Olbermann does it again, this time speaking candidly about the lessons that the Vietnam War should have impressed on our president. Instead Bush ignores them and continues to insist that "we only lose if we leave."



Also, here are some great comments on Olbermann from the Nation (reprinted by Alternet) that compare him to - who else? - Edward R. Murrow. Where have I heard that before?

Quinn Wins Award For Nation's Best Player

It's not the Heisman, but it rewards the same thing: best college football player in the country. It's the Maxwell Award, given by the Maxwell Football Club in honor of Robert W. (Tiny) Maxwell, legendary college player, official and sports columnist. And this year it went to top quarterback Brady Quinn, of Notre Dame.

Interestingly enough, last year the awards were split between Texas's Vince Young winning the Maxwell and USC player (of questionable status) Reggie Bush winning the Heisman. And this year, with OSU's Troy Smith (also of questionable status) being the front-runner for the Heisman, the awards may be split again.

Seems the Maxwell award has more scruples than the Heisman, given the fact that this year's probable winner of the latter and last year's winner both were/are under investigation for breaking NCAA rules for taking money.

Coldest. Ride. Ever.

Okay, today was tough. The issue with the balaclava not protecting the top of my head well was still an issue, and so were the cold hands. But I still persevered and rode in to work today.

A note that only you guys may get: boxers don't work too well for a bike ride. I'm gonna have to get more boxer briefs, I think. Enough said on that. It'll be warmer, too.

Some other stuff I'm going to need includes some wind/rain pants. Until I get going, the legs get a bit cold. And even when I am going (and I generally wear fleece-lined pants in the winter) it's not quite as toasty as I'd like.

But I still got to work feeling great, so it's not like I'm going to give up the bike any time soon.