Jimmy Valvano, thanks for the words of inspiration
On Wednesday, while I was driving to work, ESPNRadio, along with the rest of the ESPN family had the Jimmy V day, a day marked to stomp out cancer. While I wanted to hear some sports updates, the cause is a great one. The Too Old family has had a few family members and friends who had had a variety of cancers, so finding a cure is right behind world peace on my list of things to hope and wish for. Unlike World Peace, I actually donated 10 dollars to the cause.
Look at Jimmy V running to try to hug someone…
Because of the donation, they continue to hit me up for money. I really don’t mind, since I can tell them NO, or not answer the phone. I should have expected this since the motto that Jimmy Valvano made famous is “Don’t give up, Don’t ever give up…”
This motto is one that we can apply to life as well. When you are in a streak of striking out, that should be a sign that you need to re-double your efforts and work your way out of the slump. Some of our crew need to remember this extremly valuable lesson.
It happens to all of us...just get back on the horse.
When I was in college, there was this chick named Sarah that I met at the Country Bar in town. (long story short, I wanted to have drinks with some buddies and the bar was close to the hotel…) Once we starting hooking up, she would beg me to come by late nights and spend the night. The desparation routine wore thin, and I stopped coming over as much. The begging and desparation made her less attractive to me, even though she was very attrractive.
We are starting to see the same thing in Lamar Odom. On WCLBasketball, I wrote an open letter to Lamar Odom telling him he should fire his agent. It seems as though he is listening to my advice.
I have learned that Lamar Odom had a phone conversation with Lakers owner Jerry Buss on Thursday. I am told the purpose of the call was to rebuild any bridges that Odom’s agent, Jeff Schwartz may have burned by not responding to the Lakers offer of 3-years $30 million, and 4-years for $36 million. CBS
Sometimes, attempting to play hard to get is the last thing that people want to hear and see. Sometimes, the go-getters actually go and get what they are wanting. With Sarah, it made me freeze her out. Later, I understood what I was loosing and made a power play move to get back in. I did, but it wasn’t the same. Before, it was on lock. After, I was the one having to do some begging. It looks like Lamar is doing the same thing…
Just think TLC, ain't to proud to beg....
Agents are working for you, just like a good wingman. Most of the time, the agent or wingman has great advice for you. You should follow the advice, since you should be on the same page, trying to get and keeping your eyes on the prize. For Lamar, it should be about 1) Winning 2)Family 3)Getting Paid. You have made a grip of loot, you are paid in full.
The issue is when you start really feeling yourself and you begin to believe all the press clippings. Or, you get all introspective and moody and emo, thinking about nobody loves you or respects you or your game. I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE I KNOW GET LIKE THIS. Snap OUT of it, I would tell them.
Don't get all EMO on me... Jason is enough...
So, Lamar, we respect you. You have unlimited game. You were a key cog in the championship last year. Just get the freaking deal signed!
So, instead of being all emo and silent, get out there and BEG! or at least throw your game so the other person knows you are interested. Lamar, good job in taking the first step. Now, if you just fire your agent, you can keep his 4 percent!
Good ole One Ball Tries Again To Piss Off French
July 5, 2009
I thought we were done with Lance Armstrong. Thought he retired. But No wait…He’s gotta try again for a Tour de France win. I knew it was coming b/c I saw this stupid commercial on the tube. Now only does he once again exploit Cancer for his own fame but he uses the song “Auto Rock” from the band Mogwai, one of my favorites. Now every time I want to listen to this song I gotta think of this cheating assh-le. Thanx Lance for screwing up something else I love. Interesting you care about cancer patients at the same time you begin to ride in the Tour again.
Lance is just a Cheat. Just like everyone else during that era. Why doesn’t he just admit it. Instead he lies and tried to “graymail” everyone that knew the truth. Including his close friends, teammates and of course the true greatest American cyclist ever Greg LeMond. This dude just doesn’t get it. You cheated. We all know. So just hurry up and go away already.
No one that I know or even heard of that enjoys cycling likes this guy. Even this dude I know named Jason. Jason was even gonna try to challenge you if he ever got his bike fixed.
Tour de Jason
But Jason got sidetracked, like most things he starts. BTW, bike for sale, missing one wheel $20. I hear that’s what Jason paid. It looks like a piece of junk but Jason claims it’s got an expensive frame circa 1980 Tour de France.
Anyway we here at Too Old will be following the Tour and Lance. But without the Juice Lance aint gonna even finish. I’ll put Lance’s left nut on it. Oops that one is gone….so we think…
Did the weight of all the accusations lead to Michael “The King of Pop” Jackson’s death?
June 29, 2009
This is the type of humor that could have contributed to the King of Pops death
People make fun of me when I defend Mike Tyson about his rape charge or when I defended MJ about the various molestation charges. I also was one who made jokes about it. “Who would be so stupid to send their kids to spend the night with MJ?” I would ask. Or, I would kid and say that for one night in the house of horrors, you can become a millionaire if you stay the whole time. While this sounds like it was written recently, it was written in the context of the MJ molestation trial that cost him in excess of 20 million dollars.
As the dust settles on one of the nation’s worst episodes of media excess, one thing is clear: The American public has never heard a defense of Michael Jackson. Until now.
It is, of course, impossible to prove a negative — that is, prove that something didn’t happen. But it is possible to take an in-depth look at the people who made the allegations against Jackson and thus gain insight into their character and motives. What emerges from such an examination, based on court documents, business records and scores of interviews, is a persuasive argument that Jackson molested no one and that he himself may have been the victim of a well-conceived plan to extract money from him.
This was one who took the joke too far and actually cashed in. This is not like R Kelly and his trials. There was not video that showed the act. But, because this nigga can sing and is making songs for the current generation, we just give him a pass. Plus, because it was a man and a younger girl, we are not offended. Our sensibilities are offended when we think that it’s a homosexual relationship.
He only saw the dollar signs when hanging out with MJ
Counterpunch.org, in a story written by Ishmael Reed lays out the devious plan that everyone was in on, EXCEPT MJ!
Fisher claimed that the first case arose from the ambitions of the thirteen-year-old accuser’s stepfather, Evan Chandler, who exploited Jackson’s friendship with his son. At one point, he asked Jackson to build him a house. Fisher said that the child denied being abused by Jackson until he was administered the drug sodium amytal, which is known to induce false memory. Chandler refused to be interviewed for the article and refused to appear on the Today Show, where Fisher repeated her charges before a nationwide audience. She said that the whole scheme was concocted by the child’s stepfather to destroy the superstar.
Mary Fisher wrote the 1994 GQ article (that is being referenced above) about the molestation case that should have illuminated our view of Michael. But, we are as a society, seduced by the salacious details of the crime to only look for guilt, not innocence.
Jackson’s personal eccentricities — from his attempts to remake his face through plastic surgery to his preference for the company of children — have been widely reported. And while it may be unusual for a 35-year-old man to have sleepovers with a 13-year-old child, the boy’s mother and others close to Jackson never thought it odd. Jackson’s behavior is better understood once it’s put in the context of his own childhood.
“Contrary to what you might think, Michael’s life hasn’t been a walk in the park,” one of his attorneys says. Jackson’s childhood essentially stopped — and his unorthodox life began — when he was 5 years old and living in Gary, Indiana. Michael spent his youth in rehearsal studios, on stages performing before millions of strangers and sleeping in an endless string of hotel rooms. Except for his eight brothers and sisters, Jackson was surrounded by adults who pushed him relentlessly, particularly his father, Joe Jackson — a strict, unaffectionate man who reportedly beat his children.
Now, I joke about this, but Evan Chandler seemingly went though with the plan. The pieces are laid out in the earlier GQ article
Does this Not Sound Like an Extortion Plot By Chandler’s Father and his Lawyer?
Everything’s going according to a certain plan that isn’t just mine. Once I make that phone call, this guy [his attorney, Barry K. Rothman, presumably] is going to destroy everybody in sight in any devious, nasty, cruel way that he can do it. And I’ve given him full authority to do that.”
…”And if I go through with this, I win big-time. There’s no way I lose. I’ve checked that inside out. I will get everything I want, and they will be destroyed forever. June will lose [custody of the son]…and Michael’s career will be over.”
Now, more light is shed on the various molestation charges.
A lot of this is from the self inflicted abuse post the molestation charges
Now what about the second molestation case? You know, the one where the jury found him NOT GUILTY? People love to gloss over that little fact. Again, we have to blame MJ somewhat. He could have avoided a lot of the scrutiny with not doing the TV show following the trial. But, look at his childhood. That explains some of his behavior.
Jackson’s early experiences translated into a kind of arrested development, many say, and he became a child in a man’s body. “He never had a childhood,” says Bert Fields, a former attorney of Jackson’s. “He is having one now. His buddies are 12-year-old kids. They have pillow fights and food fights.” Jackson’s interest in children also translated into humanitarian efforts. Over the years, he has given millions to causes benefiting children, including his own Heal The World Foundation.
But there is another context — the one having to do with the times in which we live — in which most observers would evaluate Jackson’s behavior. “Given the current confusion and hysteria over child sexual abuse,” says Dr. Phillip Resnick, a noted Cleveland psychiatrist, “any physical or nurturing contact with a child may be seen as suspicious, and the adult could well be accused of sexual misconduct.”
Reed gives more information. Instead of people joking about the crime that never happened, what about these pieces of information about the mother who lead the charge?
Jackson’s Attorney, Tom Mesereau Jr. got the teenage boy to admit that he lied under oath during the J. C. Penny case. USA Today reported on March 1, 2005, that the mother used the boy as a prop to get money from Mike Tyson, Adam Sandler, Jim Carrey, Jay Leno and others, “even though insurance was paying his bills. ” Linda Deutsch, one of the last of hard-nosed shoe leather journalists, reporting for the Associated Press on March of 2005. said that Mesereau got the 15 year old to admit that he’d told Jeffrey Alpert, a school official that “nothing happened “ between Jackson and him.
Did you really forget that the second trial, the mother had to admit that she was bilking all these other actors? MJ, because of his generosity and his ignorance, got caught up in the trap…
Connie Keenan, editor of Mid Valley News, wrote of a hoax that the boy’s mother perpetrated on that newspaper. She made a pitch that her son needed medical care and that she had no financial means to provide it. During the first week of the newspaper’s appeal, the mother received $965 in donations. It turned out that the boy was being treated at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles with no cost to the family. Connie Keenan concluded that “ My gut level, she’s a shark. She was after money. My readers were used. My staff was used. It’s sickening. ”
But, people still get away with calling MJ a child molester. The proof of the negative is impossible, but we have just let that charge stick to MJ without a shred of credible evidence… Now, we can say that the high tech media lynching of MJ worked. Enough people pimped the horse until it collapsed under the mounting weight of pressure. The guy was only 50, yet, he was 112 pounds and 5 foot 10. The Sun reveals how bad it got before his demise.
THE horrifying state of pop superstar Michael Jackson in his final days can be revealed by The Sun today.
Harrowing leaked autopsy details show the singer was a virtual skeleton — barely eating and with only pills in his stomach at the time he died.
His hips, thighs and shoulders were riddled with needle wounds — believed to be the result of injections of narcotic painkillers, given three times a day for years.
The examination showed the 5ft 10in star — once famed for his on-stage athleticism — had:
PLUNGED to a “severely emaciated” 8st 1oz. It is understood anorexic Jackson had been eating just one meagre meal a day.
Pathologists found his stomach empty aside from partially-dissolved pills he took before the painkiller injection which stopped his heart. Samples were sent for toxicology tests.
The Daily Mail begins to explain where MJ started to unravel. The first case with Jordan (the son) and Evan (the Dad) Chandler threw MJ into a pit of despair. It was so bad, that recently, MJ thought he was going to die and predicted his demise!
To understand why a singer of Jackson’s fragility would even think about traveling to London, we need to go back to June 13, 2005, when my involvement in his story began.
As a breaking news alert flashed on CNN announcing that the jury had reached a verdict in Jackson’s trial for allegedly molesting 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch in California, I knew that history had been made but that Michael Jackson had been broken – irrevocably so, as it proved.
Nor was it the first time that Michael had been accused of impropriety with young boys. Little more than a decade earlier, another 13-year-old, Jordan Chandler, made similar accusations in a case that was eventually settled before trial – but not before the damage had been done to Jackson’s reputation.
This goes back to your word and your bond. Once you have lost it, no amount of money really can restore the harm done. Now, the first case, Evan Chandler has allegedly (since this is not reported in the mainstream yet) has apologized and claimed that it was a plot of his father. Even without that (since you can’t really verify something like that, the facts stack up to show that there is reason to doubt the story or at least reasons to not prosecute MJ in the public eye…Ian Halperin in the Daily Mail continues to lay out the case for MJ’s innocence
I had started my investigation convinced that Jackson was guilty. By the end, I no longer believed that.
I could not find a single shred of evidence suggesting that Jackson had molested a child. But I found significant evidence demonstrating that most, if not all, of his accusers lacked credibility and were motivated primarily by money.
Jackson also deserved much of the blame, of course. Continuing to share a bed with children even after the suspicions surfaced bordered on criminal stupidity.
While stupidity should be a crime, it isn’t. MJ made horrible choices and surrounded himself with the wrong people. That is life..it shouldn’t come with the scarlet letter of child molester.
He was also playing a truly dangerous game. It is clear to me that Michael was homosexual and that his taste was for young men, albeit not as young as Jordan Chandler or Gavin Arvizo.
In the course of my investigations, I spoke to two of his gay lovers, one a Hollywood waiter, the other an aspiring actor. The waiter had remained friends, perhaps more, with the singer until his death last week. He had served Jackson at a restaurant, Jackson made his interest plain and the two slept together the following night. According to the waiter, Jackson fell in love.
The actor, who has been given solid but uninspiring film parts, saw Jackson in the middle of 2007. He told me they had spent nearly every night together during their affair – an easy claim to make, you might think. But this lover produced corroboration in the form of photographs of the two of them together, and a witness.
Other witnesses speak of strings of young men visiting his house at all hours, even in the period of his decline. Some stayed overnight.
When Jackson lived in Las Vegas, one of his closest aides told how he would sneak off to a ‘grungy, rat-infested’ motel – often dressed as a woman to disguise his identity – to meet a male construction worker he had fallen in love with.
Jackson was acquitted in the Arvizo case, dramatically so, but the effect on his mental state was ruinous. Sources close to him suggest he was close to complete nervous breakdown.
The face that they found in the initial autopsy that all that was in MJ’s stomach was some undissolved pills shows the depths of the charges. They couldn’t let the golden goose die. They pumped him with pills to get him ready for the shows at the O2 Arena
‘Collapse might be overstating it,’ said the aide. ‘He needed medical attention and couldn’t go on. I’m not sure what caused it.’
Meanwhile, everybody around him noticed that Jackson had lost an astonishing amount of weight in recent months. His medical team even believed he was anorexic.
‘He goes days at a time hardly eating a thing and at one point his doctor was asking people if he had been throwing up after meals,’ one staff member told me in May.
‘He suspected bulimia but when we said he hardly eats any meals, the doc thought it was probably anorexia. He seemed alarmed and at one point said, ‘People die from that all the time. You’ve got to get him to eat.’’
Indeed, one known consequence of anorexia is cardiac arrest.
That, plus Demerol makes a helluva death cocktail…
What could of been without the charges...This is what MJ would look like without surgery
There has been a lot of death recently. I am constantly brought back to a friend first and a feared competitor second, who was felled by cancer. Hearing about the health of Farrah Fawcett brings me back my friend Becky Galentine. (1971-1999) I am stunned to think that it has been a decade since she left. It shows how time passes, but it also shows how she touched a lot of people. One the debate listserv, people were honoring the decade since she left and the different things that still exist because of her efforts, like the Woman’s Debate Institute and the Galentine Award
CEDA Awards – The Galentine Award
Submitted by stables on Sat, 2009-01-24 19:13.
Who is eligible? The annual award named in honor of Rebecca Galentine is designed to recognize an outstanding female debate coach in CEDA.What are the criteria? The ideal candidate can demonstrate service to programs and the organization, community building and competitive success.
How can I nominate someone? Candidates should be nominated by having a sponsor submit a cover letter recommending the candidate. Additional letters of support (including those from colleagues and students) can also be submitted. All materials must be submitted by February 20, 2009
The only sad thing is that I can’t win that award and its one of the few that I would really treasure. But, I love the rationale for the award, since it embraces a lot of what she was about. (Although I will not really forgive Tony Hunter for basically throwing a round against her and another friend she was debating with, Yuri. Tony choked, went for their arguments, which she was killing him on. He could have easily won on a dropped T argument on case…lol)
Death is all around us like a shroud. It is one of the many reasons I embrace that “Happy go lucky” tag that my 5th grade teacher derisively assigned to me. I re-appropriated that term to be a way to embrace life, since is short and not promised tomorrow. I haven’t even wanted to take a stab (wrong word choice) look at the issues in Iran that they are facing in their attempts for freedom and Neda and the protests in her honor. (VIDEO IS GRAPHIC AND IS NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN)
So, while driving into work, I heard about Farrah Fawcett and her declining, now failed health and that brought me back to my childhood and adolescence.
This was one of the shows in the late 70’s that made TV worth watching. Remember, this is a pre cable existance, so there really wasn’t shit to watch.
Charlie’s Angels is a television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men. The series was broadcast in the USA on the ABC Television Network from 1976 to 1981 and was one of the most successful series of the 1970s. Charlie’s Angels was created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts and produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg. In pre-production, the original proposed title was The Alley Cats.[1]
Ally Cats sucks as a name and I am glad someone with some sense won out on the title.
Three women, the Angels (originally Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett-Majors, and Jaclyn Smith), graduated from the Los Angeles police academy only to be assigned such duties as handling switch boards and traffic. They quit and were hired to work for the Charles Townsend Agency as private investigators. Their boss, Charlie (voiced by John Forsythe), is never seen full face — in some episodes the viewer gets to see the back of his head and his arms, talking through a phone while surrounded by beautiful women — assigning cases to the Angels and his liaison, Bosley (played by David Doyle), via a speaker phone.
Charlie’s Angels is episodic in nature, as opposed to serial, thus each episode shows the Angels finding themselves in new situations in which they would go undercover to investigate. The undercover aspect of the show creates much of the plot interest and tension. In the early seasons of the show, the Angels, under their assumed identities, use a combination of sexual wiles and knowledge learned for the situation in which they are being placed, but by the third and fourth seasons, the writing has a tendency to stray from the sex appeal and focus more on the case at hand.
You have a boy (me), who during the shows run becomes a teenager. What is there not to like about this show?!?!?! This era of TV watching was perfect. It was beautiful women, finding creative ways to get what they want AND bring down bad guys. What a dynamic duo of fun!
And during this time, she was married to my other favorite TV show actor at the time, Lee Majors, the Six Million Dollar Man and The Fall Guy, stuntman to the stars...
ABC News tells the sad tale of the passing of a young boys fantasy girl…
Farrah Fawcett, the 1970s “It Girl” who was known for her cascading golden hair and bombshell body, died in a Santa Monica hospital today, ABC News has learned. She was 62-years-old.
//
“After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away,” Fawcett’s longtime romantic partner Ryan O’Neal said in a statement released by Fawcett’s publicist, Paul Bloch. “Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world.”
Fawcett became a symbol of the will to survive through her years-long battle with cancer, which was chronicled in the recent TV documentary “Farrah’s Story.” Her death comes on the heels of O’Neal’s declaration that she agreed to marry him.
“I’ve asked her to marry me, again, and she’s agreed,” O’Neal, 68, told Barbara Walters who sat down with O’Neal and others close to Fawcett in the final days of the actress’ life.
Fawcett and O’Neal began dating in 1980 and lived together with son Redmond. The two never officially tied the knot, but not for O’Neal’s lack of trying.
“I used to ask her to marry me all the time,” he said. “But … it just got to be a joke, you know. We just joked about it.”
Its ironic that I worte about marriage the other day and then today find out that I had a kindered spirit in Farrah. This relationship lasted almost 30 years without any fallout. They have a normal son ( at least we are not hearing about him and his escapades in the media) and they had a loving relationship.
Farrah and Becky, thanks for the memories…and the advice from your movie career. I learned that if you mistreat your partner, you could be killed in bed. That won you the Oscar and won me years on my life.
Not that I am going to watch, because I never do, but I am definitely interested on what they are going to talk about.
Oprah: So, Elizabeth, how is it living with that cheating, lying bastard? Didn’t he give you cancer?
Elizabeth: Well, we are working on it one day at a time, since , well you know, I have cancer and no day is really promised.
O: So fans, look under your seat right now, and I have something for each studio audience…. (pause for studio audience to reach under their seat and grab the goodie bag) FREE RADIATION TREATMENTS!
You won't even need a doctor to operate!
What I have to ask John Edwards was… Was it worth it?
This is what they call Magic Box...
Was the box so good that it was worth most importantly potentially destroying your marriage and causing untold amounts of embarrassment and snickering? What about your political career? Even if you were never going to be President ( and you had a chance) you had a good life set up as a public servant. Now you are going to fade into a jeopardy question or trivial pursuit question for a wedge…
Elizabeth Edwards interview with Oprah: ‘No idea’ if John Edwards fathered Rielle Hunter’s baby
Updated Tuesday, May 5th 2009, 6:13 PM
Quinn/Bloomberg
Elizabeth Edwards in 2007, a week after she announced her breast cancer had recurred in an incurable form. She told Oprah Winfrey this week that she has ‘no idea’ who fathered Rielle Hunter’s child.
National Enquirer
Rielle Hunter, the onetime mistress of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, with her one-year-old baby.
Braganti for News
John Edwards has repeatedly denied that the baby is his.
Despite John Edwards‘ denials that he fathered a baby with his onetime mistress, his betrayed wife Elizabeth said she has “no idea” whether the former presidential candidate is a new dad.
In an exclusive interview set to air Thursday, Oprah Winfrey asks Elizabeth Edwards about rampant speculation that he is the father of campaign videographer Rielle Hunter’s one-year-old daughter.
“I’ve seen a picture of the baby. I have no idea. It doesn’t look like my children but I don’t have any idea,” Edwards told Winfrey.
Edwards talked about the state of her marriage, her husband’s infidelity and her ongoing battle with terminal cancer. Last week, the Daily News published an exclusive report about Elizabeth Edwards’ new memoir “Resilience” in which recounts how she publicly stood by her cheating husband’s side in his failed presidential campaign.
Winfrey asked Edwards directly whether she’s still in love with her husband.
“You know, that’s a complicated question,” she said.
The couple is still living together in their 28,000-square-foot home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Asked if their relationship is day to day, Edwards replied, “Neither one of us is out the door so I guess it’s day by day, but maybe it’s month by month.”
In a portion of the interview that will be chronicled in the June issue of O magazine, Edwards offered an explanation for why her husband might have been attracted to Hunter.
“This person is very different from me, and really very different from him,” she said. “We’re basically old-fashioned people. So, this was a pretty big leap for him. Maybe it’s being so different is what was attractive.”
As she revealed in her memoir, Elizabeth Edwards told Winfrey she specifically requested fidelity from her husband when they married.
“I wanted him to be faithful to me – it was enormously important to me,” she said.
Edwards told Winfrey how Hunter used a tawdry pick-up line to lure her husband.
“What John said is that this woman spotted him in the hotel in which he was staying. He was meeting someone in the restaurant bar area and she verified with someone who he worked with that it was John,” she said.
“John went to dinner at a nearby restaurant and when he walked back to the hotel she was standing in front of the hotel. She said to him, ‘You are so hot.’”
Edwards, who has dealt with tragedy before when the couple’s 16-year-old son, Wade, died in an auto accident, said she is not scared of dying.
“It’s not as frightening,” she said. “If there’s an ever after – please, please, please – I would be leaving part of my family, but I can do and join another party, and wait for that day when we’re all together again. In some ways it’s something you yearn for.”
John Edwards did not publicly admit the affair with Hunter until last August – seven months after he quit the presidential race, and the National Enquirer had reported he was the father of Hunter’s daughter.
At the time, Edwards adamantly denied paternity. Elizabeth Edwards did not mention the baby in her new book.
The part where she said that she didn’t think that the child looked like her other ones is laughable, if it wasn’t so sad. Of course it will not look like your others, since the baby mom’s is NOT YOU!
To get back to the subject at hand, what the hell was John Edwards doing? was he following the Gary Hart playbook to win the presidency?
Keep it in your pants....at least until you actually win something...
I mean, settle down big boy. Here is the BEST picture I could find of his jump-off.
Maureen Dowd at the Times tackles the question about should he (at least once he knew the fire was hot) suspend the campaign?
Elizabeth Edwards would have made a wonderful candidate herself. But she poured everything into John. And then John betrayed her. And then John betrayed his staffers, going ahead with the 2008 campaign, letting his disciples work around the clock because they believed in him and what he was running on, even though the Edwardses knew it could implode at any minute because of John’s entanglement with Rielle Hunter.
So, to highlight a certain point, Elizabeth Edwards KNEW in 2006 that John was having an affair, yet she stood by him during the campaign trail. She was jut enabling her bad behavior. It is the same for Hillary Clinton. I know (not really, just on the the blogosphere) people who defend Hillary for her toughness, but why couldn’t she control Bill? Or better yet, why didn’t she just leave his ass, since we all ( and this I do believe) that she is a strong woman? was it the attention or the love of politics? we will really never know, but she enabled Bill to do those things, since he didn’t have a fear of reprisal. A couple of alligator tears and a promise not to do it again, led to forgiveness.
I would rather ask for forgiveness than ask for permission
Like Monica and Gennifer before her, Rielle was not a discreet choice. She inspired the literary character of Alison Poole, “an ostensibly jaded, sexually voracious” New York party girl who had the lead in Jay McInerney’s novel “Story of My Life” and in a short story in his new book, “How It Ended,” as well as a couple of walk-ons in novels by Bret Easton Ellis.
John told her a little about Rielle a few days after he announced in 2006, and she told him to drop out to “protect our family from this woman, from his act,” she writes.
She said she cried, screamed and threw up when she found out. But she ended up going along, helping sell the voters on her husband’s character as a truth teller and charm as a loving husband and father. She had put so many quarters in the shiny slot machine of their mutual ambition. It was hard to walk away.
Just as it’s hard to walk away from her desire to prosecute her husband and his former girlfriend now in public, while still taking the marriage “month by month.”
I think that Maureen Dowd has a good point. What is this woman’s angle? Why is she writing a book about the experience? I know that it could have a uplifting and freeing experience, but so would writing in a journal. You are exposing yourself and your dirt for all to read, for a few sheckles.
But it’s just a gratuitous peek into their lives, and one that exposes her kids, by peddling more dregs about their personal family life in a book, and exposes the ex-girlfriend who’s now trying to raise the baby girl, a dead ringer for John Edwards, in South Orange, N.J.
Elizabeth said when they married, the only gift she asked John for was to be faithful.
“It didn’t occur to me that at a fancy hotel in New York, where he sat with a potential donor to his antipoverty work,” Elizabeth writes in her book, “he would be targeted by a woman who would confirm that the man at the table was John Edwards and then would wait for him outside the hotel hours later when he returned from a dinner, wait with the come-on line ‘You are so hot’ and an idea that she should travel with him and make videos. And if you had asked me to wager that house we were building on whether my husband of then 28 years would have responded to a come-on line like that, I would have said no.”
She may be smart, but she doesn’t seem to know much about men.
Do you think? A lot of men are dog, but a lot are not. If you find fleas, then you probably have a dog. You might meet a great boyfriend at the club, but you are not going to find your dream man there. I found a lot of great girls at the club, some that would have even made great baby’s mamas, but not one to marry and have a life with.
Like Hillary with Monica, the feminist struck out at the girlfriend, implying that Rielle was a wacky stalker.
“We’re basically old-fashioned people,” Elizabeth told O magazine. “So this was a pretty big leap for him. Maybe it’s being so different is what was attractive.”
No, Elizabeth, what’s attractive is attractiveness.
Plus, he traded in for the younger model, that wasn’t called back for having a terminal failure (re: cancer)
But, she can get paid at least…
The Mourning of the Raider Nation… Gene Upshaw #63 blocking and protecting souls in purgatory…
August 24, 2008
Life can be cruel…in fact life, for the most part cruel, with total pockets of enjoyment spaced too far apart. This weekend, the Raider Nation is in mourning for the passing of Gene Upshaw. Regardless of what you think about the current Al Davis regime, he hit the nail on the head when speaking about Gene Upshaw and his impact when he said, “The Raider Organization, the National Football League, and the world have lost a great man. Gene Upshaw’s career successes as a professional football player and a union leader are unparalleled. He is as prominent a sportsman as the world has known. He was and will remain a part of the fabric of our lives and of the Raider mystique and legacy. We loved him and he loved us. We will miss him. Our hearts go out to Terri and the boys.
Younger cats may only recognize him for his work after football with being the head of the players union. Even the younger cats in the game do not understand what he brought to them. Put against this backdrop, the fact that the most insignificant, replaceable player on the field attempted to hold a coup to oust Upshaw as the head of the NLFPA seem even more ridiculous…
Raider Nation, here is a picture of a true hater in the Bucknasty role.
If you thought that this was a young John Stockton, you would be wrong. As an aside, I love dudes who shoot like this, because when I reject the shot like a check with insufficient funds, it has the potential to go right back and hit them in the dome. It usually makes them more gun shy to shoot the following shot. This is persona non grata in the Raider House. This is Matt Stover. Most of you might be thinking, really, who is this clown? He is the kicker for the Baltimore Ravens, most known for being the ringleader of the coup attempt on Gene Upshaw. Just like I tell my kids, those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. This is where that adage is really stone cold, old country wisdom. See Matt, I remember the strike of 1987. It didn’t last all that long, but it should have been a historical lesson to you about the fragility of the life of a football player. You should know this better than anyone since you are a kicker. Remember the NFL’s most accurate kicker in history, Mike Vanderjagt? Played for the Indianapolis Colts? Well, after a much publicized run in with Peyton Manning, he found himself not just off the Colts, but out the league. I turned on a CFL game by accident on ESPN8 and saw him kicking in some god forsaken stadium with 5 people watching. (Okay, maybe it was about 14,000, but still a really small crowd) The point is that you as a kicker and the rest of the players who actually sacrifice the body every Sunday are replaceable. I know it, you know it and the owners certainly haven’t forgotten that fact. The Arizona Republic reminds those who didn’t live through those time periods. The players looked at their counterparts in other sports and shot for a bigger piece of the pie. When I was younger and this happened, I thought that it was fine, since some of my favorite players at the time walked and crossed the picket line. In reality, they were sweeping Gene Upshaw at the knees, sapping his negotiating strength.
I had this card as a kid, but when I went to college, my grandmother got rid of all my cards…
A bigger slice wasn’t forthcoming. In fact, it might get just a touch smaller. Somebody needs to remind today’s players of what happened in 1987 when a 24-day strike caved mostly because 89 players crossed the union picket line.
The NFL staged replacement games, and although attendance in some cities was non-existent and some were hammered with derisive nicknames (such as the San Francisco Phoney Niners), other teams (such as the replacement Redskins) drew big crowds, the networks were willing to televise it, and the owners, no matter how unseemly the games were, were quite content fielding teams and breaking the union.
NFL owners proved in 1987 beyond a shadow of a doubt that professional football players, with the exception of quarterbacks and a handful of others, are anonymous and that Americans don’t care who’s in the jerseys anyway as long as somebody is wearing them on Sundays.
The NFL players waved bye-bye to their leverage that fall when 15 percent of them crossed picket lines. Famous players, influential players caved, including Hall of Famers Lawrence Taylor, Steve Largent, Tony Dorsett and Randy White. Cowboys quarterback Danny White even crossed the picket line.
Today’s players probably don’t know that. But you think the owners have forgotten what kind of leverage they have and how easily the players’ resolve melted? Upshaw never forgot. It was a small but meaningful group of players, 21 years ago, who sold out Upshaw. And although he never complained publicly about it, Upshaw went about every future negotiation knowing the owners would put their foot on the players’ neck. He knew he could never make the demands Don Fehr could make for baseball players or Billy Hunter could make for basketball players.
It is an easy comparison to make with Curt Flood (who too many people forget about his contribution to baseball) since the one thing that worked out about the strike is that he won the right to have free agency and allow players to test their value on the open market. The New York Times talks about the issues that the new head of the union will have to face. The negotiations are expected to be difficult. In May, team owners opted out of the current collective bargaining agreement, forcing negotiations to avoid playing the 2010 season without a salary cap and having a work stoppage in 2011. This is good if you a fan of a team like Al Davis and the Raiders, or of Jerry Jones and the Cowboys. These are two owners that will spend to win. If a new deal is not put in place, then the league will have a work stoppage without any end in sight. The 2009-10 seasons will also mean that players next year will be signed to a lot of one year contracts, since the market will be open and the sky will be the limit for the amount of talent you can amass. The salary cap for fans meant that the talent had to be dispersed among many teams, instead of just one. If gave and gives hope to all teams at the beginning of the season, not just the top 20 television markets with additional streams of revenue. If you are a fan of a small market team, things might get rough. Owners like Jones and Davis are going to push for reduced shares of revenue sharing and more individual TV deals and licensing fees. This will mean more money for the owners of big teams, with new stadiums and popularity, but small market teams will be forced to make regional TV deals and not be able to generate new fans in different markets. It’s all a trickledown effect that leads to your team sucking…Gene Upshaw and his crew held it down and generated 60 percent share of the pie that will get smaller under new leadership in 2010.
That New York Times article continues to mention the impact of the legacy of Gene Upshaw and why players should be on their hands and knees thanking Gene. One more quick point to add before the article… We here at Too Old watched the Raider Game last night against the Arizona Cardinals (don’t ask, we looked good at times and absolutely horrible at others…) and the interview with Nmandi Asomugha was telling for me. When he was talking about the game he was fine, but when he was talking about the impact that Gene Upshaw had on him and football, he got broken up. His voice started to waver and you can see the true respect and reverence that he had for the man and made me love the Raiders even more. (It didn’t hurt that he was a CAL Bear as well)
In 1987, the players struck, which led to games with replacement players. By 1993, Upshaw and the former N.F.L. commissioner Paul Tagliabue had negotiated a deal that gave players the right to free agency in exchange for a salary cap.
It was a landmark decision for the N.F.L., assuring a measure of competitive balance, starting a period of sustained labor peace and helping to send revenues and player salaries soaring. The salary cap is $116 million per team this season and, according to owners’ figures, players will be paid a total of $4.5 billion this season. Upshaw recently said that if the league ever played a year without the cap, he would not sell it to the players again.
But his greatest achievement as a labor boss was the establishment of free agency, which granted football players the same freedom of movement that players in other sports already had. For years, Upshaw had been accused of being too close to Tagliabue, although Upshaw’s history as a player increased his currency with active players when he explained details of new deals. But before the last contract extension was approved in March 2006, Tagliabue had to ask Upshaw for a postponement to the start of that season’s free agency period to buy more time after negotiations broke down. Upshaw gave the owners 72 hours. Just after the clock expired, owners approved a deal that gave players 60 percent of revenues. Owners found the deal so favorable to players that it became untenable for them just two years later. “If that’s what happens when you’re too close, I recommend everybody be too close,” said Robert K. Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots. “If anybody got an edge in that deal, he got it. It’s the reason we had to opt out of the arrangement. It just goes to show you people can be nice and cooperative, but that doesn’t mean you’re co-opted.”
Getting back to Bucknasty, I am waiting to see you do any better…
One last salute for Cool Hand Luke
August 9, 2008
When you don’t have a job, you have a lot of time to watch TV or movies. Erik should know this better than anyone, except he is currently working for less than minimum wage down on the farm like a slave. (He is at the farm, aka, Stanford University, a place probably built on slave style labor, or at least the workers more than likely got swindled…)
One of the movies that recently came on that I watched again was Cool hand Luke. I show a scene from this classic in my Communication Class. The scene that I show is one of the most famous parts of the movie, where the Warden talks about how there is a failure to communicate… When I think of the News, there is sometimes a clear failure to communicate news to people. In this case, the news is not good and there is a information blackout on Paul Newman. I hope the news is better than what is being reported, although I think that it is true.
Paul Newman has been a great actor, and while this seems callous, I loved his lemonade, pink lemonade, iced tea and limeade. The drink is perfectly tart, with some lemon bits that lead it to being a very quenching drink.
Paul Newman has finished chemotherapy treatment for cancer and has told his family he wants to die at home.
The Oscar-winning star was pictured being pushed from a New York cancer hospital in a wheelchair looking thin and frail.
It was reported in America that Newman, 83, had only weeks to live and had returned home to his wife Joanne Woodward.
Frail: Paul Newman is wheeled out of hospital
‘Paul didn’t want to die in the hospital,’ a source said. ‘Joanne and his daughters are beside themselves with grief.’
The source, described as a ‘close family friend’ said that the star – who co-owns a motor racing team and has his own salad dressing brand – had spent the past few weeks getting his affairs in order.
It was claimed that some of Newman’s actions had caused tension among of his children.
‘He gave a prized car – a Ferrari with his racing number 82 on it – to a long-time pal,’ the friend said. ‘The sudden move angered his children. It’s especially hard for them to come to grips with what’s going on.
‘The word they’ve been given is that he has only a few weeks to live.’
Newman married Miss Woodward in 1958 and the couple have three daughters.
It was reported last month that he had been readying their oldest child, Nell, to take over his Newman’s Own salad dressings company, the profits of which are given to a charitable foundation.
He also has two daughters from his first marriage to Jackie Witte.
Newman has so far declined to comment on his condition, apart from saying he is ‘doing nicely’.
Rumours about his health surfaced in January. Three months ago, he withdrew from directing a production of Of Mice and Men in his home town of Westport, Connecticut.
He was pictured leaving the Weill Cornell Medical Centre in New York, which specialises in cancer treatment, in a wheelchair on July 31.
He retired from acting in 2006 after a 50-year career that included Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Sting (1971), The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963) and Cool Hand Luke (1967).
Newman was nominated for ten Oscars, winning best actor for his role in The Color of Money in 1986.
The lists of movies are movies that should always be brought up in discussions of any lists of top 100 movies. Paul, do well, or at least keep Hustling…
