Uncategorized – Page 33 – A Good Beer Blog

Fix The Record

So what do you do with cheats? Fix the record says Curt Schilling:

Schilling also had some choice things to say about Jose Canseco, the former Major League All-Star who has freely admitted to using steroids, and who detailed his usage in a 2005 book. “Jose Canseco admitted he cheated his entire career,” said Schilling. “Everything he ever did should be wiped clean. I think his MVP should go back and should go to the runnerup.” Former Red Sox outfielder Mike Greenwell, who finished second in the 1988 American League MVP race, has stated numerous times that he thinks the trophy should be taken away from Canseco and given to him.

This is entirely reasonable. Sports rely on integrity as much as tradition and performance to attract our attention and gain our devotion. So there is no reason not to fix the wrong of these records any more than there is no reason to consider Ben Johnson a champion.

But can the principle be extended? Sports is something of a last bastion of the appearance of integrity it seems. We have celebrity crooks like Conrad Black, Martha Stewart and Lindsay Lohan – not to mention political criminals like Scooter Libby and maybe even our own Senator Eric Berntson. Why do they, too, not meet with the universal castigation they deserve so richly? We have fallen into a trap as a culture of fretting about the institutions by which we judge our wrong-doers. To what end? Who gains? It operates in a very similar way to how professional sports leagues and international sports bodies circle wagons to insulate themselves from taint. It is a reaction, of course. The same sort of reaction that you hear these days from people who actually suggest that if you do not understand dog fighting you do not understand the US South. Others are blamed. The wrong is diminished.

We fail to address wrongs at our own peril as sooner or later we stop being able to tell right from wrong…and then stop even being able to trust that there is right and wrong. A moral vacuum is created. So ask why those empowered to determine things are undermined by cranks and naysayers when you see it happen. Ask why, too, when the person so empowered does not act.

The Cheats Around All Us

For a blogger of some heritage relative to the medium – yes, I am now part of Canada’s blogging heritage being well into my fifth year of it – I hope I have no sense of my own importance. Sure, I did once…but that was 2004 when bloggers were going to rule the planet, leading through words alone, thrilling with my intellectual purity and strident adherence to the one or two ideas I had, striding over cities and past agricultural valleys like the uber-man I clearly had created myself to be…through blogging. No, it became far less rapidly apparent than it should have that the clickity-click of the pajamamen was only what it appeared to be. So I settled into that, relaxed and accepted it for what it was. After, say, 2005 or so.

Which makes me think of that poor schlep of an NBA ref whose name popped up during a FBI wiretap of some mobsters talking about gambling. And even if it did not happen that way, I like to think that it did because it paints the problem so clearly. As with the vanity of bloggers, the root of the cheating ref is that sin of self-importance. Why does some git who gets to blow a whistle for traveling or makes that call between whether the ball was falling or still on the ascent when it was blocked think he deserves more, think he should be as wealthy as the players around him? I have seen this first hand. I have known an inordinate number of lawyers who ended up in the big house or worse through the inability to understand that the client’s money is in that pile and yours is in that smaller stack over there. Heck my “financial adviser” at a small town Ontario bank branch in the mid-90s ended up face down in the river one Saturday morning after it was discovered Friday night that there was an extra 3 million in the wrong bank account.

People like to think they are more than they are. Which is weird. If I have come to any conclusions now that the majority of my years on earth are past me it is that most people deeply misconstrue what this whole experience means. Not in an evil bad way but a far simpler way. Which is not far off what the Book of Job was telling us all along: we cannot even see the strings around us let along know who or what is pulling them. The fool thinks otherwise and walks around with reversed mirrored glasses, convinced and sometimes even finding a career in writing newspaper columns or as talk-show host.

But that ref thought he could pull strings and never stand out. Rewrite rules for gain. So now an entire sport – and not one that I particularly loved – is thrown in the grey zone with professional wrestling and figure skating. It gets you thinking about what else is around you that can be monkeyed by one or two people as easily as you can shift figures between a lawyer’s trust fund and general ledger or by making up mortgages for people who do not exist. You have to have a situation where there is plenty of rule calling. The NBA ref blows the whistle more than once a minute. Who else so closely controls the situation? A ref in soccer called 53 fouls is the Argie-Chile game the other day. Someone else calculates your pay packet deductions, your mortgage payment, your electricity bill. Does the specter of the cheat infuse it all? That is why games ought to be so good – that marble is either out of the circle or it is not, the blowing pin is standing or it is not. We turn to games we play or watch for certainty as much as honing or enjoying skill. There should be more with less chance for cheats – whether of the whistle blowing or blabby false prophet varieties. So bowl. Bowl your hearts out and know there is good in the world. That is all I can tell you in these troubled time. Bowl.

…And Mom Told Me To Come Home For The Weekend

Law suits can be fun and none moreso that over claims that someone who has become wealthy based on an idea or a widget or some such thing stole that thing. The Facebook claims, however, take it to a new level of corporate intrigue:

In September 2004, the ConnectU trio filed a claim that Zuckerberg stole their idea and dragged out their site’s launch so he could complete Facebook first. He was not paid, they said, but was a full member of their team and would have reaped any future rewards. Facebook countersued, charging ConnectU with defamation. Zuckerberg has said ConnectU asked him to do about six hours of work, and any delays were because he got bogged down by his studies.

I wonder if the counterclaim also mentions that Zuckerman, the Facebook wiz kid, was also bogged down with teen angst over being the geek who never gets the chicks and that that kept him from being of any use at the time. Should be easy enough to prove one way or another, however, as even if there is no theft in an idea, there is if the copyrighted code of another was lifted without colour of right. But can “a team” hold that copoyright?

Group Project: What Are you Doing With your Summer?

These group projects don’t always have to be so stodgy. Why can’t we lighten up and just tell each other what is going on this summer. This seems to be what we are up to:

Canoeing. I think I am terrified of lakes now. All I want to do is hug the shoreline. There are animals in lakes you know. Hidden ones.
Camping. We are planning to take the kids camping in a couple of weeks for the first time. Nothing rustic. There are animals in the woods.
Backyard. Having one for the first summer since 2002, we are BBQing plenty and have had a whack of visitors over the last few weeks. We have seven kids under eight right now. Help. Plus there are fewer animals in the backyard but they are still about. Gotta be careful.

Remember – Labour Day is only six weeks off. What are you doing to pack fun into those few days?

The Season Has Really Begun

The good news is that Boston is up by seven and a half and won their games over the weekend against the White Sox supported by 29 runs. The bad news is that the Yankees woke up against the lowly Tampa Bay hitting 21 in yesterday’s games. The Sox face Cleveland, Tampa Bay and Baltimore as well as Seattle, the Angels and the White Sox before they meet the Yankees again at the end of August. At least three strong teams and the rest weak. In the next month, the Yankees meet KC twice and also the Jays but two series against the Tigers and one with the Angels. All in all, probably similar schedules but a lot can happen in a week or two. This should be a dandy stretch.

Chitchattery Fridayesque

Another week is gone. It was a good one except for the Red Sox starting their August collapse a little early. In other sporting news, apparently there was a move to press gang the Chilean U20 soccer team for the Hudson Bay fleet last evening. And I play vintage base ball this weekend in another country. Who knew? Sunday sees me and the other member of the Kingston St. Lawrence Base Ball team taking on Sackets Harbor, NY in a game that will use rules somewhere between 1860 and 1875. Gary may even be seen tomorrow but we are still uncertain as to what the day will bring. I may, too, be in a canoe. What a wonderful week. Here is the linkfest:

Constitutional Update: Where is the balance of powers when one branch asserts autonomy?

Update: The Flea guides us to the new enemy – New Victorians.

I caught a good story from Reuters about a journalist embedded with Canadian Forces in Afghanistan.
I haven’t read any Harry Potter and boycott the movies due to the lack of claymation so I see not reason to give a hoot about spoilers and the release of a page or two early. Doesn’t there seems to be an over-enlistment of the authorities in the propping up of a franchise?
Are we entirely over 9/11? It appears that travel has hit a high but are we forgetful or confident. Americans are staying home we assume due to the dollar…but is that it? Why does no one come to Canada?

Americans are coming to Canada much less than they used to…”Canada needs to add more fun and adventure to its image,” the report, released by Deloitte and the tourism association, said. “We need the right product — the right active tours and adventure experiences. And most importantly, we need to promote them.”

Soon lighters will return.
It has been announced that a father and son team of metal detecting nerds hit the motherload with a Viking treasure trove being announced in England this week. Did you know that metal detection is really cool? That you can get a Bill Wyman model metal detector? I wish I metal detected.
Acquitted conduct. I was listening to CBC Ottawa last evening on the drive home and there was a “sentencing consultant” from the US being interviewed who said that Conrad Black faces the prospect of facts relating to the charges he was acquitted upon being still included in the sentencing on the charges he was found guilty. That makes no sense and I am sure, ten years past any criminal work, that it is entirely unknown in Canada. Wow. I actually feel a little bad for Connie this morning.

That is all for now. I wish I were in England where I could spend some time watching for ocean-going rubber floaty toys. I bet I’d meet up with Bill Wyman if I only spent more time doing things like that.

Group Project: Federal Poll Breakthrough!!!

Just kidding.

Please provide your ideas for any party to make a change, capture the national imagination, bust out of these doldrums. Maybe the Greens should come right out and promote attacking Yemen. Maybe the Tories should promote a useless infrastructure project in a dumb place like the Arctic…oh, they did that already. Or is national vision even needed? Maybe the NuGovernment has invented UnPolicy as the NuVzn?

Shake the tree.

Yankees As Yankees

All my big talk about the Sox is just a front. I know that. You know that. Sooner or later the giant awakes and begins the march to October. Did it happen last night?

There was an urgency to last night’s game, the Yankees said, because of the opportunity it presented. They were facing Roy Halladay, who is probably tougher on them than any other starter. A loss would have been understandable, but a victory could make a statement. After losing this month to Dan Haren, Johan Santana and Scott Kazmir, the Yankees still needed to prove they could outlast a team with an elite starter. Andy Pettitte matched Halladay for seven strong innings, and the Yankees won the kind of tight game they have lost far too often.

Conversely, attentive readers will recall that last year, the Sox sucked in September losing to Tampa Bay and Kansas City. To be fair to that season, August saw seven of none starters on the DL but losing to Kansas City is a huge warning sign even though many good people and much good music and good BBQ come from there. Last night, the Red Sox lost badly to Kansas City.

A Bat In The Basement

Dozing off at the end of the evening, I dreamed that there was something flitting in the blue glow of the TV light. Then I realized there was no dream as I wasn’t sleeping. We had a bat trapped in the house and it was down here in the basement. So here are my bat removal tips gleaned from seven minutes of experience:

Turn on the lights where you do not want the bat to go. They will flit in those rooms but will exit again.
Bats are quite cheery when there is just one of them and one of you.
A table cloth held up as a screen works as a good corralling device.
Keep it moving.
At least one bat in the world has a hard time seeing the wall above a door and will whap into it over and over.
Bats tire after ten minutes of swooping and wall whapping.
Once tired, bats are happy to land and be gathered up in a table cloth and taken outside.
Our cat is not a bat attacker.

One more thing. Human reactions can range from terror to fascination in these moments.

Group Project: The “Ridiculous Position” Question

There is a funny thing about the word ridiculous. Anyone that uses it in serious discussion makes me think of Don Rickles. Nothing in a serious discussion is “ridiculous”…yet…

Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended his government’s decision to pursue free-trade talks with Colombia despite persistent human-rights problems Monday, saying it’s “ridiculous” to stop economic talks until conditions are ideal. “We are not going to say, ‘Fix all your social, political and human-rights problems and only then will we engage in trade relations with you,'” Mr. Harper said at a joint news conference with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. “That’s a ridiculous position.”

Of course we do that. It is called an embargo and it is a useful tool from time to time. The US uses it against Cuba. Canada’s conservatives advocated its use quite handily against South Africa to great effect. Harper in the general sense, then, is being ridiculous in his general proposition. And there is a little something of Don in Steve when you think about it, something about the inability to smile without sending a second message.

But what about the specific? There are certainly situations where trade is a better tool than embargo. Customers and clients are better to have than criminal drug lords. Yet the US Congress has determined in this particular case that is not the case and has stopped their free trade relationship discussions from moving forward. Is it that Harper has picked a country in need of good news to get some of his own? Is he the patron of dumb causes like Arctic paratroopers? Is he leaving out other more sensible choices like Brazil and Argentina which could make a real difference in the movement of goods because they are, you know, “pinkos”? Or is he the vangard of free stable democratic government and picking a hard case for a good cause, indirectly trying to work to halt the murders of trade union leaders and other forms of repression that country is plagued with?

And if there was free trade with Columbia – what would you buy?