Is U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner crying wolf? Screwing the pooch? Kicking the dog?
Whatever the Republican leader is doing it doesn’t appear to resemble governing. Once again The Boner is going to the well for a debt ceiling tangle, insisting that ceiling cannot be raised again without “spending cuts and reforms that exceed the amount of the debt limit increase.” This means, of course, that Bone wants to hold the U.S. government hostage until the Republicans get their way. Funny thing they are doing this now, only a month or two before the national political conventions which will do nothing of note except name Mitt Romney’s GOP running mate.
Hey, we get the Republican party wants a government that does nothing. But we’ve got a totally dysfunctional Congress that will not allow the government to even DO NOTHING! It’s ridiculous.
The president started off his term in office reaching out to the opposing party. The other side didn’t want it mainly because their backers don’t want a black president. That’s pretty much the bottom line. Obama isn’t Socialist. He wouldn’t make a pimple on Karl Marx’s ass! The problem is a bunch of rich, racist people are pissed a black person — even one who is halfway white — would dare take the office of president. That’s the real rub.
Yeah, you can say all this culture war and religious war bulls**t. But it doesn’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that swing. And you know what that swing is all you Obama haters? It’s swinging on the end of a rope on a tree like the lynchings of old, the only solution for uppity Niggers, right? Sorry about the “N” word but I had to use it to make a point.
Instead of just electing or re-electing a president, how about electing a president and Congress all of the same party and in overwhelming numbers. That way, maybe something can get done despite the stupidity of those who see government as evil. Actually, with some luck maybe the electorate will do so. Obama and a full Democratic House would be one hell of a birthday present, my birthday being in late October. We’ve got to do something. Our country is in bad need of a government that governs.
There is a university in the town where I reside. I didn’t go there. One of my brothers did. A bunch of people from my high school went there. But I didn’t. The biggest connection to Lamar University that I have is that it’s located down M.L.K. Boulevard a couple of miles. It was practically in the neighborhood when I lived in Beaumont the first time, some 33 years ago. Back before my South Park neighborhood was transformed into a poorer and blacker shell of itself by White Flight. That sounds racist. It isn’t meant to be. It is just one of those urban phenomenons which always seems to be tinged by race that happens these days. It’s akin to the NBA having evolved from the days its star players were medium-sized Jewish guys to the present with gigantic fellows of all ethnicities, albeit mostly Black Americans.
Your geography/sports history lesson out of the way, I don’t go to Lamar athletic games. I should, especially since the school has fielded a football team for the last couple of years after abandoning the sport in the late 1980s. That team is coached by someone I know, or at least had a decent conversation with one time.
I sat and talked with the now-Lamar football coach, Ray Woodard, one time a bit more than 20 years ago. He came to where I edited a small-town weekly newspaper to see my secretary — yes I had a secretary once; three different ones actually– with whom he went to school. So I was glad when Woodard was hired to resurrect the Cardinals football team.
But I wanted to say a few words about the Lamar basketball team. The Cardinals are in the NCAA tournament for the first time in more than 12 years and have been guided to the “Dance” in the Bobby Knight tradition. That’s because Lamar is coached by Pat Knight, his son.
Lamar Cardinals Head Coach Pat Knight, far right, as an assistant for his father, Bob Knight at Texas Tech. The younger Knight had a losing record after replacing his father as Red Raiders head coach. Now Pat Knight leads the Cardinals to the NCAA tournament. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Photo by Steven Wilke
Pat Knight isn’t Bobby Knight, but he is his father’s son. He also learned from the master as a player under Knight Sr. at Indiana and later as an assistant coach under the elder Knight at Indiana and Texas Tech. Pat Knight took the reins from his Dad at Lubbock. It wasn’t the best of times. He was fired at Tech with a 62-69 record after three seasons as head coach.
Knight inherited a group of talented underachievers at Lamar. The mostly junior-senior group will play Vermont in the first round of the NCAA tournament Wednesday in Dayton. The Cardinals should win this game and go on to face No. 1 seed North Carolina. “Should” is the operative word. Pat Knight garnered quite a bit of media attention when he ripped his team during a news conference after losing in the Southland Conference tournament to my alma mater Stephen F. Austin. Said the younger Knight:
“We’ve got the worst group of seniors right now that I’ve ever been associated with,” Pat Knight said. “Their mentality is awful. Their attitude is awful. It’s been their (custom) for the last three years.
“We’ve had problems with these guys off the court, on the court, classroom, drugs …. If you act this way in the real world, you’re going to be homeless, without a job.
Here is a great story by David Whitely in Sporting News that puts the “rant” — which turned out to be the motivation the Lamar bunch needed — in context. The blast and others Knight made this season toward an often listless Cardinal team were controversial but also applauded by many. I didn’t care for a lot of the temper tantrums shown by Bob Knight during his coaching years, but I still admire that the man expected more out of the young players than just bouncing a ball. It just so happens that he is a big fan of — surprise — education. Imagine that at a college! Some 80 percent of Bob Knight’s Indiana players graduated while the NCAA average was 40 percent. The younger Knight also seems follow his father’s sense of priorities.
Can the “Son of Knight’s” Cardinals get past the first round? On paper they should. They appear to be favored to beat the Catamounts. What the hell is a catamount anyway? Well, according to Western Carolina University’s site — their moniker also is the Catamounts — it a wildcat found in the Appalachians which is kind of like a cougar or puma or maybe a lynx or some other “souped-up wildcat.”Getting back to the game, the Cards past performances and the rants which followed, show that nothing is a given for this bunch that was recruited B.K. (Before Knight.)
Knight also had his Lamar team square off with top contenders during the regular season which resulted in 20-point-land losses but apparently with a decent effort against then-No. 3 Kentucky and then-No. 2 Ohio. So if this Cardinal team plays a good game against North Carolina after having to first dispose of the Catamounts, it will not be surprising.
If Lamar beat a North Carolina or replayed Kentucky to a win, I will be shocked. If they were somehow to come from out of nowhere and make and win the Fab Four or Terrible Two or the Awesome One or whatever the last of the big NCAA tournament hype is called, I would be flabbergasted. I would have a lot of company, like most of the remaining world which first and foremost would probably include that underachieving team from Beaumont, Texas.
Those of you who know me probably know that I try to write here every weekday. Sometimes it is difficult. Other times it is impossible, for one reason or the other. I would say that is the way it is for every dedicated writer, or dare I say, every person who toils for one reason or the next. Today is one of those days it is difficult.
The computer situation at work — shall we leave it thus as it is too damned complicated to explain — first exasperated me.
Then there was the business I need to visit to make a payment that apparently has never heard of regular hours.
And then, well, let’s just call her S.C.
S.C. was once one of my closest friends. I saw her today at the supermarket. I haven’t spoken to her in maybe three years although we both live and work within several blocks of each other.
I am not totally sure what happened to end our friendship. Make that, I am not sure why she ended our friendship. It was more like a break-up of a romantic relationship, something of which I have had too much experience. That’s too many break-ups, not too many romantic relationships. Ours wasn’t a romantic relationship although I think if someone didn’t know us they might think we were a couple. We certainly argued a lot. She never really said for sure why she ended our friendship. I like to, jokingly, think it was because I allegedly broke her toilet tank one night when I was sleeping on her couch. I know she had issues with me though. The toilet incident might have been the straw that broke that relationship’s back.
Those issues she harbored against me, she never shared, but I know what they were about. I won’t say how I know. But I was once a reporter and have ways of finding things out. These were issues that, had she just said something to me about it, I could’ve corrected my behavior. That didn’t happen though because. S.C. would go out of her way to avoid confrontation.
I think the last time I had a conversation with her was on the phone one night. I didn’t know that she had sent me a letter and for lack of a long explanation, I didn’t get it until much later. One of the things which she said upset her was something that occurred when we had run into each other at another store in another town at another time. We coincidentally both happened to be working that day. I said: “Hey S.C.,” quietly, upon passing her. She apparently didn’t hear me so she thought I had snubbed her. Today, she was in the line for the courtesy booth at the store as I was walking out. I said hello, again quietly, upon walking out. All she did was crinkle up the ends of her mouth for a nanosecond, it seemed like more of a smirk or that she had just stepped on a piece of dog shit.
So I am also kind of mad about that. But I will get over it. Looking on the bright side, at least I was able to draw more than 500 words out of my crappy day.
Down on the left of my computer desk top is a copy of my W-2 form from my part-time job. For various reasons, this past tax year didn’t see a lot of income from my other job as a freelancer. That needs to change. That is another story. I will use a computer application I have used for the past four years to file. It’s pretty simple. I am all for simple.
I could rant here about the need for simplifying the tax code. It needs simplifying. Or I could rail on how the top 1 percent need to pay more taxes. A New York Times interactive feature the other day showed what percentage in which I happen to reside. I am in the bottom 30 percent.
All I know is the quicker I get my return done, the quicker my fate will be revealed. Will I pay or will I be refunded? Probably I will receive a small refund. To some fat cats, that means I am one of those who doesn’t pay taxes so I should just shut up. The hell you say.
Well, I just know I will file pretty soon. It won’t be a big deal. If it is, don’t call me to do your taxes ’cause you’d just end up playing tennis in one of those places where the Feds keep you for 20 months or so while you work on your backhand. But here is a good person to call for those complicated returns, Jake Barnett. He’s the 13-year-old math prodigy featured Sunday on “60 Minutes.”
Jake’s is an amazing story, first brought to light in this article by the Indianapolis Star’s Dan McFeely.The child faced a rocky road because of autism. It wasn’t long before he was taking college classes and will graduate in a couple of years. If he doesn’t end up doing something which wins a Nobel Prize or two, he can at least earn a great living preparing taxes. Hey Jake’s parents: I doubt he needs any motivation, but if he does …
It’s a long weekend coming and I’m ready as can be. Two NFL divisional games tomorrow, two Sunday including the Texans-Ravens. My second-fave team, the Saints play San Fran tomorrow. I saw an episode last night of Anthony Bourdain’s “The Layover” in which he was featuring San Francisco dining and bars. One bar lady said the two things tourists should not call San Francisco are “San Fran” and “Frisco.” Well, Frisco this. Sorry, my Bay Area friends, just jivin.’
One activity I will not partake of very much during the weekend is computer use. That’s because my work computer is about to drive me totally insane. If you knew the circumstances you would understand. I don’t mean to be cryptic. I will say this: “Dial up.” Slow as a snail’s butt in a molasses spill. I continue to be told relief will be coming soon in the form of a Blackberry. Somehow, I am not comforted.
Well, it’s time to read a few blogs and head on into the weekend. Listening to sports talk radio this week, it seemed as if the “spundits”, my name for sports pundits, can’t agree how badly Baltimore will beat Houston. That doesn’t bother me. I don’t expect the Texans to win but there is always — in the cliché-ridden world of sport — the chance that comes with “any given Sunday.” So we shall see, bees knees.
