Today in 1964, the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” hit number one and stayed there for 14 weeks:
Today in 1973, George Harrison got a visit from the taxman, who told him he owed £1 million in taxes on his 1973 Bangladesh album and concert:
As a Brewer fan, I’m certainly not happy that outfielder Ryan Braun has been suspended for the rest of the season (and postseason, as if) by Major League Baseball for (eventually) confessed use of performance-enhancing drugs.
I am not, however, obsessing about it, and neither should Brewer fans. The chances of the Brewers’ being a playoff contender were minimal anyway in what’s turning out to be a bad season.
Since the news came out Monday afternoon, I’ve seen the words “cheater,” “liar,” “betrayal,” and synonyms thereof in various places. Some have suggested Braun be traded, as if the Brewers could possibly replace the offense he provides.
Awful Announcing observes:
The reaction to Braun’s suspension has wavered back and forth between disinterest, apathy, and steroid fatigue on one end of the spectrum to ANGRY MOB OF RIGHTEOUS OUTRAGE on the other. To tell the truth, I’m getting the sense that the media anger about PED use has fed the sense of apathy and fatigue for many fans. We’re simply tired of the vicious cycle of PED use, columns, lies, columns, suspensions, columns, columns, and more columns.
There’s been so much grandstanding, so much anger, so much righteous outrage, so much discussion, debate, and speculation about steroids that we have collectively tapped out. I think most of us would sensibly agree steroids need stamped out, cheating is wrong, drugs are bad and all that, but we’d also like to enjoy sports again without all of this dragging us down to the bottom.
If anything, Braun is discovering that the cover up is always worse than the crime. It’s his lies, victim mentality, press conferences, and lack of accountability that are the undoing of his public persona moreso than his PED use. You don’t see anyone frothing at the mouth ready to tear apart Melky Cabrera now, do you?
No group quite does righteous outrage when they feel wronged like sportswriters and because they’ve been lied to, it’s become personal with Ryan Braun. In the wake of Braun’s suspension, writers from Yahoo to Slate to Fox and many others have taken out the claws and ripped Braun from limb to limb. Even Dick Vitale, yes, Dick Vitale of all people, has penned a column saying Braun should be banned for life. They have called this a great day for baseball and participated in a brash and unapologetic victory lap.
Braun cheated in that he violated baseball’s rules. (You’d think Richard Nixon would have taught everyone that the crime isn’t as bad as the cover-up.) So did Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire and numerous other players when they used steroids in the 1990s to pump up their careers. Nearly no one complained, because people wanted to become baseball fans again after the 1994 lockout gave us a season without a World Series. For that matter, every player who corked a bat and every pitcher (including a few from the Brewers, at least allegedly) who doctored a baseball through liquid substances or physical defacing of the baseball cheated too.
Braun lied in the same way that anyone who changes his or her plea in a criminal case from “not guilty” to “guilty” lies. It is nitpicking to claim that there’s a difference between actual guilt and legal guilt based on a legislative creation of a crime, isn’t it?
Remember that libertarians believe that laws that are unjust are laws that should not be followed, even with consequences. (Without civil disobedience, would Jim Crow laws have been eliminated?) An adult conversation about Braun’s suspension (as well as the rumored longer ban for Alex Rodriguez) should include the question of whether or not baseball should ban PEDs. Given what we now know about the steroid-fueled 1998 home run race, how would you have felt about proven steroid revelations while Sosa and McGwire were chasing the single-season home run record to fans’ delight?
Moreover, consider this from the athlete’s perspective. Take a pro athlete who comes from bad circumstances. Here is his chance to make money he has no other way of making. Play for a decade, and if you don’t waste money along the way, you — someone who never knew his father, didn’t go to academically good schools, went to college only for his athletic skills — will be set for life. Would trading 10 years of your life for increasing your chances at a pro sports career be worth it? It’s easy for you to say no if that’s not a description of your life.
At this point someone writing about baseball’s PED scandal is supposed to inveigle about the money in pro sports, and how our priorities are warped because teachers and soldiers aren’t paid as much as pro athletes, etc., etc., etc. Pro sports is a business. Braun is paid what he’s paid because his play generates money for the Brewers, in the same way that Aaron Rodgers is paid what he’s paid because his play generates money for the Packers. If the Brewers didn’t want to pay him, some other team would.
The preceding paragraphs may well seem cynical to you. My goal is that the rest of this blog won’t be.
We make a mistake by lionizing celebrities generally and athletes specifically. I watch no “reality” TV. For that matter, I’m not really a fan of the social media concept of “buzz.” What is popular today more often than not is passé tomorrow, or at least by the end of the week. “Buzz” is now, which by definition means temporary, not traditional, and not long-lasting.
I watch sports because I like sports. However, one Packer win is followed by another game, in the same way that one Packer loss is followed by another game, unless it’s a season-ending loss. (And I should theoretically have more Packer interest as a Packer shareholder.) Athletes learn things that non-athletes need to learn in other ways — to get better at something you have to perfectly practice, but you will fail at many things in your life (particularly trying to hit a baseball), but you have to keep going whether things are going well or not.
We make a bigger mistake when we worship politicians. The Cult of Obama is absolutely disgusting to those with morals. (If I am ever in the same room with someone who squeals like a teenage girl about how coooooool! Barack Obama is, I will not be responsible for what will happen next.) I was, and am, similarly disgusted with the Cult of Clinton. (It makes you wonder what progress women have achieved in our society given that the cults of Obama and Clinton appear to have a majority population of women.) Ronald Reagan would have disclaimed a Cult of Reagan, since (apparently unlike the current president) Reagan definitely believed in a higher power than himself.
I voted twice for Scott Walker as governor. I support him when he agrees with my positions on issues; I don’t support him when he doesn’t. Period. (Unlike many, many conservative bloggers in this state.)
Having been in the news media more than half of my life, I’ve met or seen a lot of people in the public eye, including one president (when he was a presidential candidate), one other presidential candidate, six Wisconsin governors, founders and CEOs some of the biggest companies in this state, several members of the management of the Green Bay Packers, and a few Packers.
From that group, I admire the business people the most, I suppose, for what they’ve accomplished in their lives in taking the personal and financial risk to go into business for themselves, leading to jobs being created, money being spent by employees, customers being served and communities getting the benefit of donations and various involvements. That doesn’t mean I would want to work for them, or that I’ll ever be a customer of theirs in some cases, or that they are necessarily paragons of business virtue in every instance.
I’ve been a fan of various athletes over the years. The only way athletes or celebrities or politicians should be role models is for qualities they have independent of their celebrity. Bart Starr comes to mind. So does Charlton Heston. So does … no politician that comes to mind.
Picking role models is a tricky business because humans are flawed. Every institution on this planet is flawed because humans run them. To be shocked — shocked! — to find out that Ryan Braun was less than truthful about his use of something that he believed would make him a better baseball player and thus able to make more money suggests you might be a bit naïve.
People do need role models. I originally was going to write that children need role models, but adults could use them too. My wife and I were blessed to have quality parents. Many people aren’t that blessed. In our society today with half of marriages ending in divorce, newly married people need to see older married people and how they interact. Men who grew up without fathers need to see older fathers and how to interact with their children in ways they didn’t get to learn as children.
Earlier this month, I spent an entire day going to the Wisconsin National Guard 229th Engineering Company’s welcome-home at Volk Field in Camp Douglas. All 147 who left came back, but even though this was an engineer company and not a combat company, those who serve in the military know what police officers know — that your next day at work could be your last day of life. As far as I know, no elected officials from where I live — and where a detachment of the 229th is based — could be bothered to attend their welcome-home ceremony. (Walker did attend, as did this area’s state representative.) Does that demonstrate personal values, or lack thereof? Absolutely.
Want role models? Look around you. But look in the right places. Your TV is probably not one of them.
Today in 1965, Bob Dylan released “Like a Rolling Stone,” which is not like the Rolling Stones:
Birthdays start with Heinz Burt, bassist for the one-hit-wonder Tornados …
… born one year before Jim McCarty of the Yardbirds …
This is not about how the Obama administration is reflexively, pathologically anti-business.
Well, it is in a way — Frank Burke shows how the Obama administration is run is opposite how a good business is run:
In business, no corporate asset is more valued than the brand. At its heart, the brand is a promise; it represents customers’ collective expectations of the firm’s products and services. It is built over years and can be destroyed in an instant. …
- In the corporate world, the president is responsible for setting the corporate direction, thereby increasing value to stockholders, perpetuating and augmenting the corporate culture, and acting as the public face of the company.The Obama administration has been characterized by a decided lack of leadership at the top, as evidenced by Mr. Obama’s abdicative management style, personal arrogance, and seeming disconnect from his responsibilities to the needs of his constituents and from critical national and international events. Of course, it is doubtful that Obama would ever have been hired as a chief executive or in any senior position, given his refusal to divulge pertinent data about his background, transcripts, and other relevant information.At a time when businesses pride themselves on lean management and manufacturing, the present government has bloated itself with contrived positions, vastly increased manpower, and extravagant expense structures.From the top down, it has assembled a cast of manifestly unqualified individuals, including tax cheats, a self-professed Communist, and radical leftist ideologues, to deal with the most pressing and serious issues of our time.
- The number and extent of scandals that have emerged and continue to unfold would, in the business community, result in a wholesale housecleaning. Such behavior is not only unethical, but illegal; it would subject those employers and employees involved to prosecution. The White House has not taken the initiative in any meaningful investigations and prosecutions.
- When it comes to competition, the business world can be a fierce place, replete with references to armed conflict and quotes from military leaders. Despite this, few executives would publicly and openly demonize even their most serious competitors as the Obama administration routinely does with those who oppose its policies.
- No competent executive would impair his company’s access to the raw materials necessary to its processes — yet, as domestic energy prices rise and the economy declines, we see the Obama administration withholding permits for energy exploration and drilling, delaying the Keystone pipeline, and openly declaring a war on coal, while investing billions in Brazilian offshore oil explorations, stating, “We want to be your best customer.”
- What business executive would undertake an international tour of both friends and competitors and demean his or her company, as Obama consistently does with his endless rounds of apology? By continually denigrating our values, traditions, and accomplishments, he is repeatedly demonstrating ignorance of history and a refusal to deal with facts.
- Like countries, businesses have alliances with other entities. Deals must be carefully honored, or the entire network stands to be weakened from mistrust. From denying previously committed defense systems to Eastern Europe to weakening our longstanding relationship with Israel, to conducting negotiations with the Taliban in the face of those allies fighting with us in Afghanistan, the administration has destroyed the value of American commitments. By supporting an Islamist-infiltrated regime in Egypt, refusing to back legitimate rebellion in Iran, and retreating from its own previously drawn red line in Syria, the administration has not only alienated friends, but emboldened enemies.
- In business, no group is more important than the end customers. Every effort is made to deliver a product or service that will satisfy a target segment and build a loyalty to the brand. It is ironic, therefore, that the Obama regime, which has been exposed in a drive to undertake the largest illegal gathering of private information in history, nonetheless persists in attempting to force such clearly unwanted products as ObamaCare, gun control, expanded entitlement programs, and amnesty on a customer base that has been both strident and vocal in its opposition. …
Why would such an administration, deaf to the voices of economic experience, persist in policies destructive to potential and existing jobs and future opportunities? Why so often side with and defend sects that seek a violent theocracy that would undermine our legal system in favor of one derived from other source
It is only reasonable to inquire what penalties accrue to those whose actions inflict such damage on a brand. Publicly owned corporations are typically closely watched by financial analysts, and their verdict can result in consequences extending from an inability to raise capital to lower stock prices to demands for corporate reorganization or even dissolution.
If a deeply troubled business entity is to be saved, it requires a radical change of executive personnel as the first step in restoring goodwill. Those who come after must prove themselves, by prior experience, to be capable of undertaking the Herculean task of recreating faith and confidence. Even with the best talent, it is almost always a long road back.
Where this is not possible and where matters have slipped too far, there are only two alternatives — either the companygoes out of existence, or what is left is acquired by another, stronger entity.
The corporate analogy, if not perfect, is extremely telling, and it is worthwhile to remember that despite comments to the contrary, like businesses, no country is too big to fail.
Today in 1965, the Beatles asked for …
Birthdays start with Cleveland Dunkin of the Penguins:
Dino Danelli played the drums for the Young Rascals:
Read and decide for yourself if Steve Moore‘s observations seem familiar:
The burning heart of liberal activism and indignation this summer can be found, of all places, in the charming capital city of the Tar Heel State. On Monday, for the 11th week in a row, thousands of protesters descended on the copper-domed Capitol denouncing the policies of a Republican Party that for the first time since Reconstruction controls North Carolina’s governorship and legislature. Some 800 agitators have been arrested for disrupting the legislature. By all accounts, these “Moral Monday” rallies, though peaceful, are growing in size and volume.
The rallies have caught the eye of the national media, with some referring to Raleigh as the “Madison of the South.” Madison, of course, is the famously liberal capital of Wisconsin that turned into a political frying pan in February 2011 when the state’s Republican lawmakers reformed union collective-bargaining rules.
Thom Goolsby, an outspoken GOP state senator, has jokingly dismissed the protests in Raleigh as “Moron Mondays” and predicted that they would fade in the weeks ahead. Perhaps, but the stated goal of the organizers is that these rallies evolve into the same kind of political tour de force on the left that the tea party has become on the right. Moral Mondays may be coming soon to a state capital near you.
But not Madison. It’s already been there.
So what are liberals of all stripes so angry about in North Carolina? I put that question to the organizer of the Moral Monday movement, Rev. William Barber II, a loquacious, likable and politically shrewd preacher and leader of the North Carolina NAACP. (Think Jesse Jackson, but with charm and genuine conviction.) He preaches “civil disobedience” and trains peaceful demonstrators on how to get arrested. He is also a master at political theater.
After a near-five minute sermon about how Republicans have made the state a “crucible of extremism and injustice,” it became clear the answer to my question is he and his followers are mad as hell about, well . . . everything. The list of grievances is long but includes unemployment-insurance cuts that took some 70,000 recipients in the state off the rolls, state lawmakers’ refusal to sign up for ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion, a proposed voter-ID law, and of course “tax cuts for the rich.”
This past Monday marchers were waving signs that read “Justice for Trayvon Martin,” “Stop Fracking in North Carolina,” and “Vouchers Destroy Public Schools.” In recent weeks, demonstrators were out in force demanding abortion rights. …
One common complaint is that the state is passing up free money by rejecting Medicaid expansion. But many financially pinched states—including Georgia, Alabama, Utah and Texas—are doing so, not because they’re coldhearted but because while the feds pick up the full tab in the first several years, eventually the states will have to pay even more money into a broken system that is already sapping state budgets. …
Rev. Barber and the other “religious progressives” say their goal is a new “southern fusion” that unites every ethnic, religious and interest group promoting modern liberalism to repel the tide of conservative policies on the march, not just in North Carolina, but all across the South. His warning to national liberals is, “If Republicans get away with this in North Carolina, with our moderate and centrist heritage, they can do it anywhere.” He’s planning a national Moral Monday rally in Washington, D.C., in August. …
But as longtime Republican strategist Marc Rotterman told me last week, there is a potentially fatal flaw to the whole “Moral Monday” strategy: “The core problem is the protesters are denouncing policies like tax cuts and welfare reforms that may be unpopular with the New York Times, but are very popular with mainstream North Carolinians.” That is the big bet the state’s Republicans are making—and come November 2014, we’ll see if it pays off.
Something else about this should seem familiar to Wisconsinites. One of the parrot points of the Wisconsin left is the evil of any policy idea that came from outside our state lines — specifically from the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization that offers model legislation on such pernicious concepts as sound government finances. Unable to argue (or maybe uninterested in arguing) the merits of policy proposals, the lefties shriek in horror at proposals Not Invented Here. Note as well the political trope of claiming that you are the moderate, sensible side, as opposed to those extremist radicals on the other side.
In contrast, the Tar Heel variation of Protestarama is perfectly happy to spread their discontent at being in the political minority like kudzu across the South. They’re right, because how successful would giving blacks the right to vote or ending Jim Crow laws have been had they stopped at one state line?
Ideas should be judged on their merits, not on their source, or what odious (in your opinion) political figure or personality supports or opposes them. And blaming your discontent with the political winners or losers on the process is the Lament of the Loser.
While normal people were asleep, the Madison City Council Wednesday voted against what should be its official motto, “77 square miles surrounded by reality.”
Actually, a vote on making “77” the official motto never took place. A resolution to make “77” the city’s official “punchline” failed 10–9.
The Wisconsin State Journal opines with a misleading headline (but don’t bother clicking on the link, since you won’t be able to read it unless you’re a subscriber):
We all loved the 1,000 pink flamingos that campus pranksters placed on Bascom Hill decades ago. And the iconic image of the Statue of Liberty’s torch rising above an icy Lake Mendota still sells plenty of post cards at the shops on State Street.
We love UW–Madison, with its brainy and zany students who keep us young. Their madcap marching band added a fifth quarter to college football.
Our great city boasts beautiful lakes, colorful neighborhoods and an irrepressible quirkiness. There’s nothing wrong with creating some distance from reality at times for fun (though Madison sometimes drinks too much and takes its progressive politics too seriously). …
Indeed, Madison is second to none for fun.
But “surrounded by reality” hardly expresses the city’s goals or ideals. Worse, it ignores the city’s bad habit of resting on past success and ignoring how the outside world views us. The reviews aren’t always positive.
Madison needs to build a reputation for getting things done, for encouraging innovation, for thinking big and for always looking ahead.
Last line first: Madison has never had a “reputation for getting things done, for encouraging innovation [that wasn’t generated by UW] and for always looking ahead.” Madison’s reputation is quite the opposite of “getting things done,” in fact. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Monona Terrace Convention Center opened only 40 years after it was first proposed, which suggests (1) it takes too long to get things done in Madison, or (2) it shouldn’t have been built in the first place. (Only can Madison get a $200 million gift for a civic center and lose money on it.)
On the other hand, the State Journal is correct that Madison ignores “how the outside world views us.” Official Madison (and many of its residents) views the rest of the state as uneducated and uncouth hicks who worry about such trivialities as having more income than expenses. As for “second to none for fun,” parts of the country that have nice weather all year instead of a small part of the year would beg to differ. Madison is also a nest of hypocrisy. The same mayor who as a UW student helped create the Mifflin Street Block Party is now working to kill it. All the environmentalists in Madison can’t be bothered to notice how Madison’s urban sprawl is eating up former Dane County farmland like Pac Man. And that “irrepressible quirkiness” is in fact the reason that the “77” phrase should be Madison’s official motto.
The thing the State Journal editorial willfully ignores is that Madison’s quality of life is going in the wrong direction. “Irrepressible quirkiness” doesn’t get children educated, and Madison’s minority children are not getting educated. The city’s “goals and ideals” appear to not include reducing the city’s crime rate, and particularly its violent crime rate, both of which have grown faster than the city’s population. (I’d blame Madison police for spending too much time being social workers and not enough time arresting the bad guys, but lenient judges and an apathetic City Council share the blame).
Last weekend was La Follette High School’s Fifty Fest, celebrating its 50th anniversary. As you know, I didn’t go. One person who went to La Follette called it as “formerly great school.” In, I would add, a no-longer-great place to grow up in or live. That is reality.
Birthdays start with the indescribable George Clinton of Parliament Funkadelic:
Rick Davies played keyboards for Supertramp:
It figures after yesterday’s encyclopedia of music knowledge that there are no interesting moments in rock history today and only three birthdays of note: Larry Tolbert, drummer of Raydio …
… Taco Ocheriski, an ’80s one-hit wonder …
… and Yusaf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens:
Today in 1968, Iron Butterfly’s “In-a-Gadda-da-Vita” reached the charts. It is said to be the first heavy metal song to chart. It charted at number 117.
At the other end of the charts was South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela:
Quite a selection of birthdays today, starting with T.G. Sheppard:
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 