Holbrook Being Harassed For Telling Truth

Poor Karen Holbrook. It seems that people aren't allowed to tell the truth any more if it's going to be seen as offensive to someone.

From WBNS-10TV's website:

Paper: Holbrook Bad-Mouthing Buckeyes
Aug 29 2007 6:51AM

NAPLES, Florida - Former Ohio State University President Karen Holbrook reportedly told trustees at a Florida university that some who lived in OSU's campus area had "a culture of rioting" and were looking for any excuse to have "drunken orgies."

The Naples (Fla.) Daily News reported the comments came during Holbrook's recent interview for the president's job at Florida Gulf Coast University. Holbrook later dropped out of the job search.

"I went to Ohio State and had no idea there was a culture of rioting," Holbrook told the trustees. "Any good excuse gets some of the people on the street and they think it's fun to flip cars and have absolute drunken orgies."

During Holbrook's first year as OSU president in 2002, a campus-area riot after the Buckeyes' football victory over Michigan brought national attention to the university. The alcohol-fueled melee, in which cars were overturned and set on fire, resulted in more than 50 arrests.

Holbrook, 64, retired June 30 after five years as Ohio State's president.

Watch 10TV News and refresh 10TV.com for the latest developments on this story.

Hey, OSU? It's true. It's been happening ever since I moved here in 1996. Get over it, do something to fix the problem, and move on.

Cheney - Not Willing To Take His Own Advice

Words can't even describe how angry this makes me...

Former ND Kicker Harry Oliver Passes Away

There are certain moments when you remember exactly where you were at that moment. 9/11 and the Challenger explosion are the two biggies for my generation: I was sitting in my living room, late for work, when I heard about 9/11, and I was in our high school library after lunch when the Challenger exploded.

Another one I remember vividly is when Notre Dame beat Michigan in 1980. ND was down to Michigan 27-26 with something like two seconds on the clock. I was sitting in our car in the Kroger parking lot in Alma, MI because my folks had gone in to Kroger shopping and I wanted to listen to the Mutual Radio broadcast of the game.

Yeah, I know... even when I was only 11. Ask my friends, I was annoying back then, too.

Anyway, the Irish were going for a 51-yard field goal against the wind, and this little kicker named Harry Oliver was taking the kick. Miraculously, the wind stopped just as the kick was taken... it was up and it was good. I jumped out of the car and was running around it in the parking lot... my dad was so excited when he got back in the car and I told him... finally, something to stick in the faces of all the U of M fans in his office.

Anyway, Harry Oliver passed away yesterday in Cincinnati, where he was living and had spent the last two years battling cancer. Harry, thank you so much for a little slice of happiness and decades of nostalgia.

Here's the kick as described by Tony Roberts of the Notre Dame Football Radio Network:



And just for fun (well, my fun) here's U of M's Bob Ufer with the same call (he's so distraught he can't even get the score right until the third try):

Daily Show Captures "Horror" of Nantucket Wind Farm Project

No commentary necessary. Just watch.

RIP: Tommy Makem

As much as many of them cringe to hear it, the music of most children's memory is that stuff their parents listened to during their early years. For me, that consists of lots of Neil Diamond, Burt Bacharach... and Tommy Makem. My dad is a bit tone-deaf due to a bad ear infection he had as a kid, and he always gravitates to lyrical music over instrumental because of that. And one band he loved dearly was the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem.

So I grew up listening to them - and when I was old enough I actually bought a couple of their albums myself. Tommy Makem is the consummate musician - passionate, respectful of those who've come before him and appreciative of those who've come after him, and humble about his skill and fame. He has a golden voice (golden as a dram of Irish Whiskey) and a wonderful presence about him, that makes you feel as if you're having a conversation with him as he sings or talks about his music.

Tommy died yesterday, but he'll never be missed. This weekend's Dublin Irish Festival will be a bit sadder for the loss of one so great, but in typical Irish fashion I'd imagine that this is going to be one heck of an Irish wake!

Elcock Back to Crew?

Okay, not really, but now that Chicago's lineup features Mexican forward Cuahtemoc Blanco, I think the Crew should look into re-signing Elcock just to give him the heebie-jeebies.

Pathetic Suburbanites

On my biking blog, I recently addressed a Dispatch interview with Mark McCullers, the general manager of the Crew. He was talking about Crew Stadium and the need for improvements around it. I discussed the need for bike racks and a better cycling infrastructure, as it is a biking blog.

One of the comments I received was from a fellow who calls himself "Adrock", but left no contact information. And frankly, it pissed me off. Here's his first comment:

They would also have to relocate the stadium somewhere that is acceptable for most people to take their families to, especially if by bike.

I don't go to Crew games for the same reason I don't go to Clippers games or go shopping at City Center.

Once the new baseball stadium opens though, I'll probably be cruising down there on my bike all the time. I'd definitely go to soccer games too if the stadium weren't in such an awful location. I can't imagine what our international visitors must think of Columbus when they see it.

Huh? My answer:

What's wrong with the location of Crew Stadium? It's centrally located and easily accessible from both the expressway and surface streets. Plenty of families come to Crew games all the time - in fact, crowds seem to be made up mostly of families.

And he responded just now with this:

well, for me personally, it's not a place i'd choose to go unless i had to. i grew up in hilliard and live in grandview and have friends & family that live all around other suburbs. i can tell you that a good number of us suburban folk don't find the state fairgrounds or anywhere else in the majority of the city of columbus an appealing place to go visit.

sure, call me sheltered or ignorant or anything else, but that's the way it goes.

Okay. You're sheltered and ignorant - and a bit stuck up. First of all, most of the Crew's audience is suburban families. So you really can't say that "They would also have to relocate the stadium somewhere that is acceptable for most people to take their families to" - as it's obviously perfectly acceptable for most people to take their families to. I take my family there for almost every game. My friends all do the same. Just because YOUR little enclave won't go doesn't mean MOST people won't.

Second, your need to cling to the suburbs is cultural elitism of the very worst. You don't wish to see how anyone outside your little pre-fab environment lives, so you hide and partition yourself from the real world.

Third, you're a sprawlist of the worst sort - instead of visiting something, you insist that it be brought to you instead. So you're spoiled, on top of sheltered, ignorant, and stuck up.

Not taking advantage of the things your city has to offer because of the location is just sad. And it's people like this who are responsible for much of the environmental degradation we see today via the magic of sprawl.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Reasons to be very scared... from an AP report:

Bush to Have Colonoscopy at Camp David
By DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush will have a routine colonoscopy Saturday and temporarily hand presidential powers to Vice President Dick Cheney, the White House said.

That's it, we're done.

I'm Not An Addict, Baby. That's a Lie

68%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Mingle² - Online Dating

I Wish They All Could Be.... Vermont Senators?

Senator Patrick Leahy hits the nail right on the head. Time to start impeachment procedings against the Cheney/Bush government.

Must Have Been a Slow Night...

The Lies That Led To War

CBC's documentary show The Fifth Estate produced a program on the lies that led to the War in Iraq. It should be required viewing for all Americans, though it's pretty obvious that many won't watch it because it's not produced in the US.

This is 44 minutes long, but please watch it.

In the Garden of Eden

I love the Simpsons...

Apologize to World for Bush's Actions

President George Bush has made the USA the only country in the G8 nations that did NOT agree to a goal of preventing the rise of the average temperature of the world by 2 degrees Centigrade, stating that it was against our policies.

"The treatment of climate change runs counter to our overall position and crosses multiple 'red lines' in terms of what we simply cannot agree to... We have tried to 'tread lightly' but there is only so far we can go given our fundamental opposition to the German position."
- White House document; 5/14/2007

The president obviously doesn't speak for the majority of Americans, who in poll after poll say they want the government to address climate change as the hard science that it is, and do something to reduce it.

Friends of the Earth is sending a petition that basically states just that:

On behalf of the United States of America, I apologize for the actions of our president, George W. Bush. His rejection of global warming measures to be endorsed at the upcoming G8 meeting is shameful, and does not represent my views or those of the American people.

Please visit the link and sign this petition!

Bush Administration Wants To Let Beef Kill You

According to the International Herald Tribune, the Bush Administration is fighting to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for Mad Cow Disease, which has killed 150 people worldwide (3 in the US thus far).

Read the article, but apparently Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, a Kansas company, wants to test all their cows regularly for the disease, a move that larger companies say will force them to do the same. So the Bush Administration appealed a federal court decision that denied the larger companies attempts to stop Creekstone from carrying out its new policy.

So let's sort this out: Creekstone wants to do the right thing and ensure that its product is fit to eat and won't kill the consumers. Larger companies want to stop Creekstone from doing this because they don't want to have to do it themselves. And the Bush Administration is helping the big companies get their way.

So, in essence, the Bush Administration wants to let the bigger companies kill their customers.

Nice, eh?