The Global Game: Wisconsin

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Sunday, March 13, 2011

Vol. 1, Issue 7 (Special Fault Lines Edition)

IN THIS ISSUE:

-- DISASTER IN JAPAN

-- POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE IN WISCONSIN --

"AMERICA IS NOT BROKE"

-- REVOLT IN LIBYA --

WHOSE SIDE ARE WE ON?

(FEATURING MORE VIDEO WISDOM FROM GRASSHOPPER AND MASTER PO)

-- NPR HEAD OUSTED --

"WHO YOU CALLING A RACIST?"

-- NFL ON LOCKOUT --

"WHO YOU CALLING GREEDY?"

-- A TIGER WOODS COMEBACK? --

"WHO YOU CALLING THROUGH?"

FEATURING A TGG READER

POINT/COUNTERPOINT

DISASTER IN JAPAN

The week ended with a fearsome demonstration of Nature's power.

All we can say is,

"God Bless the People of Japan."

POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE IN WISCONSIN -

"AMERICA IS NOT BROKE"

Meanwhile, back in the United States, the epicenter of the political earthquake remained in Wisconsin, where the Republicans in the State Senate used a parliamentary maneuver to pass their controversial bill stripping state public workers of their collective bargaining rights.

The bill's proponents, led by Governor Scott Walker, insisted that it was necessary because the state was "broke." The same arguments were being made in statehouses across the country.

But filmmaker and social critic Michael Moore, in a fiery speech to the workers in Wisconsin entitled "America Is Not Broke," challenged the very premise behind the new round of assaults on government spending and public workers:

He Had Something Important To Say

"America is not broke.
Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.
Today just 400 Americans have the same wealth as half of all Americans combined...

One of The 400

...Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have as much loot, stock and property as the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can't bring yourself to call that a financial coup d'état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true..."

The entire text and a video of the spech is here (thanks to reader "Stephen Q."
for good looking out).

Some people call Michael Moore "radical."

Is he? Or has what passes for political debate in this country been taken to a place where his facts and arguments

become deemed "radical"?

REVOLT IN LIBYA ---

WHOSE SIDE ARE WE ON?

In international affairs, the story of the week was in Libya, where the world stood by as Muamar Khadafy attacked his own people with jets and tanks. As this cartoon from a Mideast journal makes clear, the Obama Administration --- starting with the President himself --- was apparently of two minds as to whether to provide desperately needed military assistance (starting with a "no-fly zone") to the Libyan rebels:

On The One Hand, On The Other Hand....

One prominent columnist, the New York Times' Nick Kristof, weighed in on the question in a piece rather straightforwardly titled "The Case For A No-Fly Zone." Kristof (no warmonger --- he had been opposed to the war in Iraq), quoted former Air Force Chief of Staff General Merrill McPeak, who made some obvious statements and asked a few obvious questions:

“I can’t imagine an easier military problem,” he said. “If we can’t impose a no-fly zone over a not even third-rate military power like Libya, then we ought to take a hell of a lot of our military budget and spend it on something usable.”

He continued: “Just flying a few jets across the top of the friendlies would probably be enough to ground the Libyan Air Force, which is the objective.”

General McPeak added that there would be no need to maintain 24/7 coverage over Libya. As long as the Libyan Air Force knew that there was some risk of interception, its pilots would be much less motivated to drop bombs and more inclined to defect.

“If we can’t do this, what can we do?” he asked, adding: “I think it would have a real impact. It might change their calculation of who might come out on top. Just the mere announcement of this might have an impact.”

Some (OK, "we") had compared our young President to Kwai Chang Caine, "Grasshopper" of Kung Fu fame. Was the crisis in Libya another instance where Grasshopper needed to summon up some of the wisdom imparted to him by the Shaolin monks? Or, As Master Po might have said, "Is A Man's Universe Only Himself?"

NPR HEAD OUSTED ---

"WHO YOU CALLING A RACIST?"

In other news, NPR Chief Executive Vivian Schiller was forced to resign this week after one of the public radio network's fundraising executives was secretly taped calling
Tea Party supporters "seriously racist" and criticizing what he described as

"an anti-intellectual move[ment] in a significant part of the Republican Party."

"Ummmm........and?"

NFL ON LOCKOUT --

"WHO YOU CALLING GREEDY?"

Unfortunately, for Americans who were hoping that the sports world might offer some break from the madness, the NFL's billionaire owners and millionaire players, as expected, deadlocked over
how to divide

$9 Billion Big Ones in Annual Revenue:

San Francisco Chronicle Sports Editor Al Saracevic, in a provocative piece written on the eve of this year's Super Bowl, wondered if this year's NFL season would not represent the league's all-time high point, and if from here on out, because of both greed and brutality, there was nowhere for America's favorite sport to go but down:

"I believe two major issues will knock the NFL

from the summit.

In the near term, greed threatens to weaken the league. If the expiration of the NFL's collective bargaining agreement in March leads to a work stoppage, loyal fans will become bitter. Baseball and hockey paid dearly for their interruptions, and the NFL will, too. In a hardscrabble economy, bickering over billions will leave millions angry.

But greed and labor unrest are light fare compared to the long-term problem facing football. The game simply takes too great a toll on mind and body.

As players grow bigger, faster and stronger, spinal injuries and concussions have become as much a part of the game as post patterns and handoffs. Scientists are only beginning to understand the impact of repetitive head trauma, but already there is an established link between concussions and dementia, or even death."

A TIGER WOODS COMEBACK? --

"WHO YOU CALLING THROUGH?'

Meanwhile, with the golf season about to get back into full swing, sports fans wondered about Tiger Woods, who has not won in his last 19 tournaments. It seemed fair to ask --- was it all over for Tiger --- would he ever return to greatness?

A Thing of The Past?

In our very first Point/Counterpoint, two Global Game regulars weighed in on the question in our first Point/Counterpoint. "Fresno Joe," a scratch golfer himself, is convinced that the Cablinaisian will get his mojo back:

"STAND DOWN, HATERS --
LIKE GENERAL MACARTHUR,
TIGER SHALL RETURN"

"You can mark this down: Tiger will be back. Ballers everywhere know there are at least two reasons why:

Tiger has created his own practice facility on Jupiter Island, FL (see link for info and pictures for the Haters) http://web.tigerwoods.com/design/jupiter_island.html . "It's phenomenal," he wrote. "Working with my team, I designed the short-game facility and oversaw its construction. It features four greens, six bunkers with different depths and kinds of sand, a video center and a putting studio. If no wind is blowing, the longest club I can hit is a 7-iron." "It's also set up so I can hit shots out of my second-story studio,". The practice facility also has multiple grass types, allowing Woods to practice his short game from 150 yards and in on any conceivable PGA Tour surface.
The facility is near his new crib which includes 6,400 sq.ft living space, gym/media room/bar, an elevator, a reflecting pond and a lap pool. (again, see link for info and pictures for the Haters) http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/blog/devil_ball_golf/post/Tiger-Woods-moving-into-swank-new-home-practice?urn=golf-330963

"Haters Beware"

On the human side, he's spending more time with his kids, and has gotten back to his Buddhist roots. which will put him at peace mentally. I haven't seen or heard of him in any post-divorce relationships (I'm sure the Global Game "research" team could investigate this and provide something to the TGG readership), but that lack of serious romance will also help him focus and keep him "hungry".

On the golf swing side, he's got a new golf coach (Sean Foley) that should make him technically better. He's working his azz off and will not continue to embarrass himself with bad shots on the course like he has in his recent events (although we'll see this weekend at the WGC event in Doral - he's paired with Philly Mac on Thursday and Friday - great golf drama). Admittingly, what's hurting him now is "confidence" in his new swing and applying it and becoming comfortable with it in varying
golf course conditions (and under pressure).
Once he gets that back and under control - he'll be back.

On the Old School side, my fellow Buckeye Alum and golfing great Jack Nicklaus has commented that Tiger will regain his top form and best his golf major total of 18 wins (that's a combination of Masters, US Open, British Open and PGA Championship wins for the golfing uninformed) - a phenomenal feat. As all golf admirers know, Tiger has 14 majors (note to haters - at 35, Tiger has 2 more majors than Jack at that age)....this places him second on the all-time list....the next golfing great following Tiger is Walter Hagen who has 11 and has been dead since 1969! (note, the next living golfing great on the golf majors all-time win list is Gary Player at 9). For the left-handed TGG readers, Phil Mickleson, at 40 has 4 golf Majors. One thing I know for sure,Tiger will be better at 40 than Phil is now - whose form is fading a bit from last year (without the negative scrutiny and end of world media hype afforded Tiger, I might add).

Like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods is blessed with God-given talent and is a killer competitor
(and unfortunately, some of the moral, life trappings that come with that "gift") -

he will not allow himself to fail
and settle for mediocrity - he'd quit first.

So will Tiger be as dominant as he once was, probably not...he's 35 with a different focus in life than he had earlier, but he'll regain his form (and be #1 again, that's right #1) and be back on top and break

Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 golf Majors."

The opposing point of view comes from "J.B. in D.C.," no stranger to the links himself, who says that Tiger is basically like the old lady of '80s ad fame ---

"[he's] fallen and he can't get up."

Is J.B., in the words of "Joe from Fresno," just another "Hater"? Check out his reasoning and decide for yourself....

"LET'S GET REAL --
YOU CAN STICK A FORK IN HIM,
'CAUSE TIGER'S DONE"

"Tiger's troubles run deeper than practice facilities and concentration. Golf is a mental game and a game of inches. He can't make it up...

His Time Is Up

My basic premise is that in professional golf, the difference between great and really, really, really good players in miniscule. One errant shot per round,
a couple missed putts, etc.

If Tiger has an 'addiciton' problem, the first step in ANY addiction program is to admit you do not have control. Tiger, if anything his entire life, has been about control. Having to admit that, and work on it the rest of his life, will create permanent doubt about his invincibilty and invulnerability (even when he was cheating, he thought he was invincible). Inside the ropes, that will be enough to cause doubt over putts, chip shots, drives under pressure. It doesn't take much. He will still win, be competitive etc. on his incredible talent alone. But he will never get back to the top.

It's too bad for golf."

Not to be a Hater, but TGG tends to agree with "J.B. In D.C." More than most, golf is a supremely mental game. Back In The Day, Tiger had complete mental dominance. He was perceived, and thought of himself as, virtually infallible. Recent events have changed that perception forever. Once lost, an edge like that cannot be recovered. The Tiger we once knew is gone --- and he's not coming back.

Stay tuned next Weekend for Volume 1, Issue 8 of TGG,

and be on the lookout for periodic updates

"as events warrant"

Monday, February 21, 2011

Vol. 1, Issue 4 (Special All Star Weekend Edition)

IN THIS ISSUE:

-- MIDEAST TURMOIL CONTINUES

-- BATTLE LINES DRAWN IN WISCONSIN

--TGG OLD SCHOOL JAM OF THE WEEK

-- HOW THE RICH KEEP GETTING RICHER

-- GRAMMY FOLLIES:
WHY OLD SCHOOL IS BETTER THAN NEW SCHOOL

-- HOLLYWOOD "WHITEOUT"

-- GQ'S LIST OF
"THE 25 COOLEST ATHLETES OF ALL TIME"

-- TGG'S LIST OF
"THE REAL 25 COOLEST ATHLETES OF ALL TIME"

As the week ended, revolutionary winds continued to blow throughout the Middle East. Egyptians had a "Day of Victory," once again flooding Tahrir Square --- this time to celebrate the week's anniversary of the departure of Hosni Mubarak and to continue to press the Army to move forward with

the democratic process.

The Day of Victory

Meanwhile, protests broke out in Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, and Bahrain. The most dangerous situation appeared to be in Bahrain, where the monachy initially resorted to violence and where the Western powers feared that the home of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet which watches over the strategic

Straits of Hormuz (through which 20 percent of the world's oil passes and which lies between the Scylla and Charybdis of Iran and Saudi Arabia)

might be in jeopardy...

A Vital Chokepoint

Not to be outdone, at home an equally titantic struggle was unfolding, as Republican governors across the nation took dead aim at public sector employees. Ground Zero was Wisconsin, where new Governor Scott Walker put forth a budget plan that called upon state workers to contribute 5.8% of their pay to pensions and pay at least 12.6% of health-care premiums. Most ominously, Walker's budget bill would outlaw collective bargaining for most public sector employees. Similar plans were on the table or expected from Republicans in Ohio, New York, and California, among other states.

President Obama called it right when he said the Wisconsin bill "seems like more of an assault on unions."

In perhaps the quote of the week, Gov. Walker retorted --- to the President of the United States of America --- "when your budget is fixed, you can stick your nose in ours."

"It's Not Like Any Union Members Voted For Me, Anyway"

With so much at stake, the rhetoric (and the cartoons) on both sides boiled over quickly...

Unfortunately, Obama was limited in his response, in light of the fact that one of his first acts after losing the midterm elections had been to throw federal government employees under the bus by announcing a looks-good-means-nothing-in-the-big-deficit-picure freeze on their pay.

Knowledgeable political observers could not believe that this was happening in Wisconsin, of all places --- Wisconsin, historical home of the Progressive movement and for as long as most could remember, one of the most forward-looking states in the Union. Wisconsin workers were fighting back, however, and the lines for the showdown were drawn.

The Global Game, for one, believes that such a confrontation is long overdue. In the words of TGG's Old School Jam of The Week, it was time for someone, somewhere, to....

The assault on union rights in Wisconsin seemed to be just one more piece in a growing puzzle of evidence that even in a time of growing income inequality, the institutions of the United States of America, from Washington to Wall Street, were dedicated to seeing the rich get richer....

In a provocative piece in Rolling Stone, crack investigative journalist Matt Taibbi asks
"Why Isn't Wall Street In Jail?"

"Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth — and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other
rich and famous people."

Even as the New York Stock Exchange, that fabled icon of U.S. capitalism, was up for sale to the Germans, some were beginning to question whether some of the basic underpinnings of capitalism even worked anymore. Felix Salmon, a well-known financial blogger, argued that it was irrelevant because the capital markets no longer functioned except for the favored few:

"What the market is not doing so well is its core public function: allocating capital efficiently. Apple, for instance, is hugely profitable and sits on an enormous pile of cash; it is thus very unlikely to use its highly rated stock to pay for any acquisitions. It hasn’t used the stock market to raise money since 1981, and there’s a good bet it never will again.

Meanwhile, the companies in which people most want to invest, technology stars like Facebook and Twitter, are managing to avoid the public markets entirely by raising hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars privately. You and I can’t buy into these companies; only very select institutions and well-connected individuals can. And companies prefer it that way."

Somehow, none of this was made better by reports that the Kardashian family made
$65 million last year...

Only In America

While many felt that the rise of the Kardashians called into question the very meaning of American culture, others preferred not to ponder such deep questions and simply sat back and enjoyed the
53rd Annual Grammy Awards

Even the Grammys, however, resurrected one of The Global Game's ongoing themes:

"Why Old School Is Better Than New School"

Why Old School Is Better
Than New School,

Chapter 2:

MAKING AN ENTRANCE
TO THE GRAMMYS ---

NEW SCHOOL

Lady Gaga Arrives at the 2011 Grammys

MAKING AN ENTRANCE
TO THE GRAMMYS ---
OLD SCHOOL

J. Lo Arrives for the 1995 Grammys

Why Old School Is Better

Than New School --

Chapter 3:

NEW SCHOOL POP IDOL

Ushering In A New Era

OLD SCHOOL POP IDOLS

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go

TGG supposes there is no accounting for musical tastes. However, as the New York Times pointed out in a blistering critique of diversity in Hollywood, entitled
"Hollywood's Whiteout," somebody should be held accountable for the fact that American filmmakers seem to be able to make movies about everything and everyone except people who happen to be
black, brown, yellow or red:

"Crammed into this year’s field of 10 best picture Oscar nominees are British aristocrats, Volvo-driving Los Angeles lesbians, a flock of swans, a gaggle of Harvard computer geeks, clans of Massachusetts fighters and Missouri meth dealers, as well as 19th-century bounty hunters, dream detectives and animated toys. It’s a fairly diverse selection in terms of genre, topic, sensibility, style and ambition. But it’s also more racially homogenous — more white — than the 10 films that were up for best picture in 1940, when Hattie McDaniel became the first black American to win an Oscar for her role as Mammy in “Gone With the Wind.”
In view of recent history the whiteness of
the 2011 Academy Awards
is a little blinding."

"A Little"?

Meanwhile, in that sporting calendar pause known as "The Time Between the Super Bowl and the NCAA Final Four," GQ Magazine came out with its list of
"The 25 Coolest Athletes of All Time."

The publishing of the list raised several questions. Primary among these was,

"WTF does GQ know about being cool or being an athlete?"

Nevertheless, in the interest of public service, TGG presents the GQ list below:

First, however, also as a public service, we note for all of our readers who happen to be front-running, fair-weather, spoiled, whining, get-all-the-calls-in-the-playoffs-because-David Stern-wants-our-team-in-The Finals
Lakers fans, that one name is most decidedly

not on the list:

How Cool Is That?

GQ's "25 Coolest Athletes of All Time"
(GQ Did Not Rank Its List,
But Tom Brady Was On The Cover)

Joe Namath

Mario Andretti

Allen Iverson

Bjorn Borg

Arthur Ashe

Pele

Walt Frazier

Evel Knievel

Jean-Claude Killy

Pete Maravich

Tom Brady

Muhammad Ali

Julius Erving

Bob Gibson

Bo Jackson

Arnold Palmer

George Best

Derek Sanderson

Tim Linceum

Kenny Stabler

Michael Jordan

Gary Player

Ted Turner

Jim Brown

Kelly Slater

Michael Jordan

Are those truly the
25 Coolest Athletes of All Time?
In the words of TGG's
Senior Vice President for Editorial Standards,
Chad Ochocinco (nee' Johnson),

"Child, Please!"

Global Game readers know better than that! So we were determined to bring you
our very own
"The Real 25 Coolest Athletes of All Time" List. And the coolest thing is --- we're going to let you nominate #25
(or your own entire list if you want) yourselves!

But first, we had just a few rules:

No golfers, surfers, Boston Celtics or Frenchmen (unless they had scored the winning goal in a World Cup).

With that, The Global Game's list of

"The Real 25 Coolest Athletes of All Time":

25. TBD Global Game Readers

Submit your nominations in "Comments" box

at the bottom of this post.....

24. JAMES "FLY" WILLIAMS

Baller

Averaged 29.4 ppg as a freshman at Austin Peay University in 1973, leading The Governors to their first
NCAA Tourney bid in memory.

Because His Nickname Is "Fly" and Yours Isn't

23. BILL WALTON

Truthteller

NBA games are not the same without him.

21 for 22 performance in 1973 NCAA title game against Memphis State one of all-time best

performances in any sport. Ever.

"I'm Smarter Than You --- And We Both Know It"

Always Did It His Way

22. PEGGY FLEMING

Olympic Champion

Still Sets The Standard for The Winter Games

Grace Under Pressure

21. BILLY MARTIN

Animal Trainer, The Bronx Zoo

When asked by the New York press why they should believe him instead of George Steinbrenner or Reggie Jackson concerning the turmoil in the Yankee clubhouse, famously responded "because one's a born liar (Jackson), and the other's convicted (Steinbrenner, who was found guilty of making illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon)."

Instigator of the original nightclub brawl at the Copacabana in 1957, where he and his Yankee teammates celebrated his 29th birthday, Martin would be unceremoniously
traded to Kansas City
soon thereafter, as Yankee management felt
he was a "bad influence" on Mickey Mantle.

A bad influence on Mickey Mantle?

"This One's A Born Liar..."

"And This One's Convicted."

20. GUILLERMO VILAS

Racketman

Rocked the Fila Old School Style

19. THOMAS "HOLLYWOOD" HENDERSON

Cowboys Linebacker and Grammar Coach

Notoriously claimed before Super Bowl XII that Steelers QB Terry Bradshaw "was so dumb he couldn't spell "cat" if you spotted him the "c" and the "t" "

-- And Don't Even Ask Me If He Can Spell "Dog"

18. DARRYL DAWKINS

Planetary Explorer

First NBA player to come from another planet -- Lovetron. First NBA player to name his dunks, and still holds title for best dunk name of all time: "The Chocolate-Thunder-Flying, Robinzine-Crying, Teeth-Shaking, Glass-Breaking, Rump Roasting, Bun-Toasting, Wham-Bam-I-Am Jam")

"Sometimes I Feel Like I'm Walking On Broken Glass"

This One He Named The "Dunk You Very Much"

The Pride of Lovetron

17. CAPTAIN IVAN DRAGO

Cold Warrior

They Come In Peace

"I Must Break You"

16. PAT RILEY

Choreographer of Showtime
and
Foil to Phil Jackson

Indeed.

15. CRISTIANO RONALDO
Striker

The Baddest Boy
In The Biggest Game

In The NFL This Is Knows As "Excessive Celebration"

A Scoring Machine

O Jogo Bonito

14. RACER X
Cartoon Nemesis

Speed Kills

13. HOWIE LONG
Hitman

First and Only Rock Star Defensive Lineman

Straight man to Terry Bradshaw on
"Fox NFL Sunday"

They Call This "The Howie"

"I Miss J.B., too."

12. VIDA BLUE
Fireballer

When offered $100,000 by promotions-mad
Oakland A's owner Charles O. Finley
to legally change his name to "True Blue,"
replied "Sure, if you change yours to
"True O. Finley"

Bringing The Heat

11. USN Lt. Thomas Kazansky aka "Iceman"
Beach Volleyball Player

"Silly Little Tom Cruise Thought He
Was The Star of Top Gun"

Ice, Ice, Baby....

10. ALBERTO JUANTORENA
Track and Field Phenomenon

The USA and USSR had no answer

Catch Me If You Can

9. GEORGE BEST
Footballer

Pop-star looks caused him to be dubbed
"The Football Beatle." Regarded as one of the best football ball-handling magicians ever (see video clip below). Found sprawled in his Monaco hotel room with $100,000 cash in casino winnings, two magnums of Dom Perignon, and two Miss Worlds (the current and the former), was asked by the room-service waiter "George, where did it all go wrong?"