Barack Obama with family. Today is the President's 51st birthday.

North Korea State.

I think "Making Life Better" is North Korea's official motto too. I'm not sure.  I said I think.  I could be wrong. 

North Korea State.

Continuing our coverage of isolated, corrupt, secretive regimes that deserve the death penalty and the games they play, the North Korean Olympic women's soccer team beat Colombia 2-0 yesterday in Glasgow, Scotland. Congratulations to Song Hui Kim and teammates. Cool flag. 

Penn State.

Look at what Penn State's official motto is:


Pennsylvania State University

en.wikipedia.org

The Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. Wikipedia

Motto: Making Life Better Address: University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802 Enrollment: 96,519 (2011) Mascot: Nittany Lion Football team: Penn State Nittany Lions football Colors: White, Blue

Bob Costas' Nightmare.

I don't see how playing football and especially televising it this year is in Penn State's interests.  There will be 100,000 or so fans in that stadium on September 1.  And the pretty cheerleaders will perform and sparkly smile. And the students will act like excited students.  And the crowd will cheer touchdowns. And there will be chants of "We Are...Penn State."  And the band will play on.

This is going to be awful.

Bob Costas' Nightmare.

"Touchdown Penn State!"

Bob Costas' Nightmare.

Bob Costas' Nightmare.

"Another capacity crowd of 108,000 on hand..."

Bob Costas' Nightmare.

"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to another season of college football on ESPN.  I'm Joe Tessitore and along with super-analyst Rod Gilmore we are here in Happy Valley..."


Cut.

Bob Costas' Nightmare.

If you are ESPN’s announcers, how do you call that game?

Bob Costas' Nightmare.

Saturday, September 1

12:00 PM ET

Ohio at Penn State

Tickets

Colorado mass murder.

Oh, that's better.

NCAA to Penn State: Game on!

Two of the six entities investigating Pennsylvania State University announced their sanctions today. The National Collegiate Athletic Association allowed the university to continue playing football uninterrupted by suspension. It put the team on five years probation;  fined the university one year's profit from the football team (payable over the five years); prohibited the team from playing in honorary and lucrative post-season "bowl" games for four years; reduced the number of future football players that the university could give free tuition to; permitted current players to transfer to other schools without penalty; and post facto vacated the team's football victories since 1998, when the school first learned of former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky's pedophilia. Yesterday evening, David Jones, the sportswriter for the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania newspaper referred to here in a previous post, wrote that if Penn State football could escape without a ban on its games being televised it would be a "victory." There was no TV ban.

Penn State plays its games in a group, or "conference," of universities called the Big Ten (which has 12 members). Conference members share the profits from the post-season games in which members play.  The Big Ten also sanctioned Penn State today, announcing that it will take Penn State's share of this profit for the next four years and donate the sum to child protection agencies (For post-season profit purposes the next four years the Big Ten thus becomes...the Big Nine, or Eleven...B1G.)

So there you have it from the college sports entities. "In progress" as they say on TV are the investigations by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office, the United States Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, in addition to the civil suits by Penn State's victims.


Image: Penn State players carry Joe Paterno off the field in celebration of victory.

Seeking the Soul: Moshe Silman, Rest in Peace.

Moshe Silman, an Israeli, set himself on fire on July 14 in Tel Aviv to protest government policies that had left him on the brink of homelessness.  He died Friday. Some other Israelis have self-immolated since.

Pain.  Imagine the pain of burning to death. And the psychic pain to decide to burn oneself to death. Today there is pain in the great, good soul of Israel, founded as a home for homeless Jews worldwide. Imagine the pain of Israel today that Moshe Silman, whose parents escaped Hitler's ovens, died in his own, in the heart of the country founded as refuge for Jews who might be burned to death by others.

Creepy looking guy, huh?

Police...Colorado shooter's apartment... Read it.

U.S. Air Force sergeant...20 years...rape...  Nah.

Clashes grow in Syria...Maybe later.

Tony Robbins event ends in 'wails of pain' as attendees walk on hot coals.  ?

"Carmen, have you ever heard of Tony Robbins?"

"Timothy Robbins. No, not Tony Robbins. Why?"

"It says he's a motivational speaker and some followers walked on hot coals and got burned...There was some rally or something...Who is this guy?"

"Do you have a picture?...Oh, I know him."

"Is he a televangelist?...Sued...franchises...What kind of franchises do you have if you're a motivational speaker?"

"Why did he have people walk on hot coals?"

"I don't know, it says 'The Power Within'...I guess he gave them the power to walk over hot coals....21 people burned.  I guess they didn't get the power..."

Creepy looking guy, huh?  The man with the devil's horns hair and devil's smile is James Holmes who has been arrested in the Colorado movie theater shooting. This is not Holmes' mugshot. This is a photograph from the University of Colorado. I would have arrested him on that look alone. That look is probable cause.

Below are Holmes and Jared Loughner (Loughner was in custody) side-by-side. Loughner was the shooter of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in 2011.

The jury may now retire to consider its verdict.

Speaking of...Manhattan's loss of Jeremy Lin is not only Houston's gain, it's Brooklyn's too. Brooklyn has its own basketball team, the coolest logo in the game, a brand new arena to play in and an owner who has spent something like $300 million on salaries for better players. Brooklyn is so cool right now it's chic.

Isn't that great?  It's from this awesome site brooklyntheory.com, sent our way by that awesome guy Dr. Weimin Mo. Dr. Mo was painting in front of the library on Fifth Avenue when a photographer asked if he could take some pictures of him. The photographer was from brooklyntheory. Hope they publish them on their site. Check out brooklyntheory, you'll like. Dr. Mo never steers us wrong.

Well, that didn't last long.

When last we saw Jeremy Lin he was lighting up Broadway and enchanting the world for the New York "Knickerbockers."  Lin had the right at the end of the season to "test the waters" to see if he could earn more money playing for another team and New York had the right to match that offer and keep Lin. He did, they didn't, and now Lin is playing for Houston. There are hard feelings all around.

Ramadan.

Thank you, and a touch of blessing to you.

Shooting at movie theater in Colorado.

At midnight local time James Holmes, 24 years old, walked into a movie theater in Aurora Colorado. The theater was crowded for the premier of a popular movie. Holmes was heavily armed and wore a chest protector. He first set off a type of smoke bomb and then opened fire. At this writing 12 people have beenmurdered and that toll will likely rise. Dozens were wounded. Holmes was captured and made no statements to police. There is no motive at this time.

They Did It!

Vitaly Churkin left, Russian ambassador to the United Nations and Li Baodong right of China. On behalf of their despicable regimes, both permanent members of the Security Council, Churkin and Li vetoed a British resolution calling for economic sanctions--not military, economic--against Bashar al-Assad's despicable regime. As American ambassador Susan Rice said, the Security Council had "failed utterly." Due to those two. 

Where's Bashar?

Bashar al-Assad, who runs an optical concern in the Middle East, has been away from the store since competitors blew up the store yesterday, killing three assistant managers. Anyone with information can call Bashar's guardians Vitaly Churkin or Li Baodong at the United Nations. 

Are you kidding me?

"Penn State alum and school employee Kim Ranck touches the Joe Paterno statue Wednesday."
                                                                                                                  -USA TODAY.

Som Sabadell ("We are Sabadell" (Are you kidding me?))

Please watch this (you will like):

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=GBaHPND2QJg&feature=youtu.be


Thanks to Dr. Weimin Mo for sending it along. 

Rebels Bomb Damascus, 3 Regime Leaders Killed.

Syrian rebels detonated one or more massive car bombs in Damascus earlier today, targeting military leaders attending a crisis meeting. Dozens of civilians have been killed in addition to Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha, Deputy Defense Minister General Assef Shawkat and former Defense Minister Hassan Turkmani. Reports are unclear on whether this was a suicide attack. Some reports have it that the rebels had assistance from an inner-circle bodyguard.  Syria has been in civil war.  The rebellion started 17 months ago. Ophthalmologist in Chief Bashar al-Assad may want to commune with the ghost of Muammar al-Gadaffi on the path from here.

"At this point I still think the odds of the school being shut down or crippled by the DOE is more likely."

That (the quote) is from John Infante who is the Assistant Director of Compliance at Loyola Marymount University.* "DOE" is the federal Department of Education, which is conducting its own investigation into Penn State. The legal vehicle for the action Mr. Infante refers to is the "Clery Act" which Mr. Infante contrasts with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the governing body of college sports.

The Clery Act requires all American colleges and universities that receive federal student aid to report on-campus crime which Penn State, as Judge Freeh wrote in his report, manifestly did not in the Sandusky rapes. Clery Act violations are punishable by a "civil penalty" of $27,500 per violation which manifestly would not bankrupt Penn State even when multiplied by the number of Sandusky failures-to-report. The Department of Education has ultimate power, according to Infante, to withhold all federal student aid.  In 2009 that amounted to $476 million at Penn State. That might bankrupt the university.

Yesterday Mark** Emmert, president of the NCAA, said in an interview with the Public Broadcasting Service that he would not rule out suspension of the Penn State football program and the Chicago Tribune editorialized in favor of suspension. For Penn State people that is the worst imaginable scenario.  The problem for Penn State is that that is the worst imaginable scenario for Penn State people. Penn State is now being investigated by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office, the United States Department of Justice, the United States Department of Education, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (accreditation).  And the NCAA.  

In a related development the artist removed the halo from over Joe Paterno's head on the campus mural he painted.

*The quote can be found here: http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2012/07/title-ix-could-lead-to-penn-state-death-penalty/

**Corrected from "Max," July 23.

Image: "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain," Wizard of Oz (1939)

Penn State.

Mi amigos and mi enemigos, there is mucho pain in America over this. I read an article today by a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania newspaper sports writer who wrote of the pain he feels over having loved covering Penn State’s beloved football team in the past and how he hates it now and how he did both because of money, that was what paid his salary.  He feels an enabler. $50,000,000, that was Penn State football’s “profit” last year. One year. That will pay the salaries of a lot of people. I’ve read other sports writers and the guilt they feel for going along with the contradiction between a university’s mission and big-time college sports.  They feel like enablers.

They were enablers. All of us were.  All of us who supported college sports by buying tickets, just by sitting on the couch watching college sports on TV (and increasing the Nielsen ratings) were enablers. I haven’t done it this millennium but I’ve admitted it here, I did it the last millennium so this is not to absolve me or to dilute blame by spreading it around. Penn State football’s $50,000,000 didn’t come from one Sheldon Adelson, it came from the students who went to Penn State because of the reputation Paterno had given the school. It came from the Penn State alumni, what is the figure, 500,000?  800,000?

I’ve read in a couple of articles that this could have happened at many universities.  I disagree and have written here also that I think the breadth and depth of this scandal happened at this university because of factors unique to Penn State. The larger point of these writers however is demonstrably true: college football particularly has led to scandals over money and power, all traceable back to sports fans, at many other places.

And I’ve read opinions on “what should be done.”  Should the statue of Joe Paterno be taken down?  Should the football program be suspended temporarily?*  This last I’ve read is highly unlikely given the power structure in college athletics so I hadn’t given it much consideration until I read a nationally prominent sportscaster say something like, “Can you imagine if September rolls around and there are 100,000 people in Penn State’s stadium cheering on the team?” (I gasped.)  But others have written that the football team and the university are inseparable given the unique circumstances here and I agree with that too. Suspending the football team for a year or two doesn’t get to this identity.  I’ve read (and I’ve written) that Penn State should be prosecuted civilly and criminally under racketeering (“RICO”) laws. That’s what I think should happen.

Prosecuting Penn State under RICO laws gets to the identity of the university and the football program. Prosecuting Penn State under RICO may destroy Penn State. That’s what I think should happen. Leave the statue stand and let the grass and weeds grow around it next to the rusting stadium. Show them, and the rest of the campus, to others as an example and lesson to all of us. Give guided tours, and charge for admission.

*This option is known universally to sports fans as the “death penalty,” which one writer pointed out is the best example there can be of how out of whack priorities have gotten.

These are excerpts from three articles, the first from the New York Times on New Gingrich's former money man Sheldon Adelson, the second from the Times on Romney contributors Laura R. Schwartz and Rody Mehdizadeh, the third from the Daily Kos on the same Hamptons fundraiser that Schwartz and Mehdizadeh attended:

“The question of what motivates Mr. Adelson’s singular generosity toward the former House speaker has emerged front and center in the campaign. People who know him say his affinity for Mr. Gingrich stems from a devotion to Israel as well as loyalty to a friend. A fervent Zionist who opposes any territorial compromise to make way for a Palestinian state, Mr. Adelson has long been enamored of Mr. Gingrich’s full-throated defense of Israel.

…

“…Mr. Adelson experienced something of an awakening after his first visit to Israel in 1988, when he was in his mid-50s.

“‘He fell in love with the country,’ said Ted Cutler, an early business partner.

“This coincided with his divorce from his first wife, Sandra. Not long after his trip, he encountered a friend, Sara Aronson, at a Boston restaurant. Mr. Adelson talked excitedly of Israel and mentioned that he was interested in meeting Israeli women, Ms. Aronson recalled.

…

“After the couple [Adelson’s second wife] married in 1991, Mr. Adelson’s visits to Israel became so frequent that he told friends he was contemplating settling there.

"He also became one of the biggest donors to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel lobby, and joined its executive committee.”

_______________

"A woman in a blue chiffon dress poked her head out of a black Range Rover here on Sunday afternoon and yelled to an aide to Mitt Romney. 'Is there a V.I.P. entrance? We are V.I.P.' 

...

"Laura R. Schwartz, the woman inside the Range Rover and a fund-raiser, complained that Mr. Obama had not visited Israel as president, a slight to the country, in her eyes. 'I don’t think he is good for Israel,' she said. Mr. Romney, she said, 'is a fresh face.'

"Her companion, Rody Mehdizadeh, who said he manufactures laundry detergent, praised Mr. Romney’s business acumen, calling him 'somebody who can lead the country in a more enterprise-driven way.'”

_______________

"A New York City donor a few cars back, who also would not give her name, said Romney needed to do a better job connecting. 'I don't think the common person is getting it,' she said from the passenger seat of a Range Rover stamped with East Hampton beach permits. 'Nobody understands why Obama is hurting them.

"'We've got the message,' she added. 'But my college kid, the baby sitters, the nails ladies -- everybody who's got the right to vote -- they don't understand what's going on. I just think if you're lower income -- one, you're not as educated, two, they don't understand how it works, they don't understand how the systems work, they don't understand the impact.'"

_________________

This is Republican greed, elitism, selfishness and arrogance.  In the case of Adelson, Schwartz, and Mehdizadeh, it is also American Jewish greed, elitism, selfishness, and arrogance. I resent both. I particularly resent the primacy of the interests of a foreign country, Israel, in the political decisions of Adelson and Schwartz in a presidential election in America. It is not right and it is not fair to America. But then, these are not fair people. 

Image: The first Google image with search keyword "Rody Mehdizadeh."