Playing CatchupFrank Deford's commentary on Michelle Wie. Every Wednesday NPR features a sports commentary by
Frank Deford. Owing to my work schedule I'm rarely in the car to hear it, but I was lucky enough to hear it this past week. I've always been a fan of his commentary - he seems to be a voice for sport that is more about human achievement rather than stardom. His commentary this past week centered on
Michelle Wie, the 15 year old female golfer who has been attempting to make the cut in male professional golf tournaments. Deford's opinion was that in doing so Wie is detracting a great amount of attention from female sports, which receive little enough attention as it is. I am of a mixed opinion on this.
On the one hand, I agree with Deford that Wie could certainly elevate and bring a great deal of attention to women's golf. From what I understand of her talents she has the potential to be a
Michael Jordan or
Wayne Gretzky in the arena of women's golf - someone that by the sheer mastery of her game brings the sport to a new level and whose name could be recognized outside the fans of the sport. On the other hand, I think that if Wie were to win a Men's major, it could possibly elevate the concept of women athletes far beyond what they are thought of today. I hope that however her career ends up panning out, that Wie remains a gracious and thoughtful competitor.
New Hampshire education and no child left behind. There was apparently some flap this previous week about New Hampshire missing out on some No Child Left Behind funding, or perhaps New Hampshire's educational performance relative to other states in the Union. Regardless, I am certain the news is bad. There is no state in the country so lacking in leadership than New Hampshire, where politicians of every stripe cower in fear of the slightest possibility of raising taxes. This abject fear, this lack of courage to do the right thing, this inability to articulate to the citizens of New Hampshire their utter stupidity in their no-tax attitude, has resulted in a complete mire of education funding. When I moved to this state in 2000 there was an ongoing battle over how to properly fund education in New Hampshire; five years later I don't believe we are any closer to a solution.
Paul Anka's cover album. Paul Anka has taken a page from performers such as Pat Boone and done
an album of rock songs in his own crooner style. While I have to admit it is borderline ridiculous to hear him giving the Vegas treatment to "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarten, I have to applaud him at least for a statement he made in an interview on NPR. He said that the songs he was covering were the standards of today - songs that were as recognizable to a generation as "Night and Day" was to previous ones. I appreciate his vision and his thoughtfulness on the subject.
Supreme court nomination. The Bush team decided to go with the stealth candidate,
John Roberts. I am also interested with the choice of moderate Republican Fred Thompson, of whom I've always been a fan, to shepherd the nominee through the vetting process. My concerns regarding this candidate are that the choice was made to pick a candidate about whom the members of the judicial commitee and the activists who would line up against him know little about - but in some back-room discussions, Roberts was sussed out as a judge who would clearly vote anti-abortion, anti-liberty, and pro-faith. It is my fervent hope that for once Bush went with what was good for the country rather than extending the Republican hegemony.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' Hot Coffee mod. In the incredibly violent and antisocial Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (commonly referred to as GTA:SA), in between rounds of killing rival gang members and stealing all sorts of wheeled and winged vehicles, you engage in the social behavior of dating. If you are successful enough on your dates, your girlfriend will invite you back to her house for "coffee." What follows is a picture of the house shaking, moaning, and the comment "Remember - nice guys finish last."
Apparently the developers of the game had actually come up with animation for these encounters, but they were cut out of the console and PC releases. However, the coding remained, and a modification called
"Hot Coffee" appeared for the PC version which actually depicted these scenes in all the low-fi animation the GTA series is known for. The voices of morality in society instantly sprang into action, accusing Rockstar Games, the publisher of GTA:SA of deceiving the video-game rating agency, the ESRB, and demanded that the game's rating be changed from "M" (under 17 not allowed to puchase) to "AO" (under 18 not allowed to purchase). The supreme idiocy lies in the fact that all the violent and criminal gameplay did not raise the moral indignation of these protectors of our youth, but rather blocky animated sex. Consider the summary of the activities you engage in GTA:SA from a poster on
Slashdot:
- Pull people out of their cars and drive away in them
- Steal military weapons
- Destroy property
- Injure and kill completely innocent bystanders
- Develop a criminal enterprise
- Carry out the orders of corrupt police officers
- Pick up prostitutes
- Pimp out prostitutes
- Burn down a pot farm
- Kill police officers, soldiers, and emergency personnel
Apparently it is perfectly OK to run the risk of exposing 17 year olds to this sort of behavior, but not adults engaging in consentual sex. The interesting thing about the Hot Coffee mod as well is the fact that you only engage in consentual sex after going out on multiple dates. Hilary Clinton's
jumping into this fray has resulted in my determination to not vote for her should she run for president, much in the same way I decided I would not vote for Al Gore based on his wife Tipper's participation in the
PMRC.
Psycho neighbor getting kicked out. After flooding out his apartment for the second time in six months, our psychotic upstairs neighbor's luck ran out with our landlords and he will have to pack his bags and go in 30 days. Oh, what will I do without the shouting and banging at all hours of the day and night?
