UPDATED: Football Scene Obscene (Getting Stranger)

Celebrity, Crime, Criminal Injustice, Law, Sex, Sport, The Zeitgeist

How did the noun “coach” ever come to be paired with the adjective “legendary”? To an outsider, the American football scene is obscene, starting with its incestuous fraternities, the rock-star status surrounding handlers and players, their pompom-waving, knickers-baring groupies, and the tantrum-prone fans who experience bare-fanged fury when their heroes let them down.

The problem with this freak show is that the participants have become pathologically invested in it.

Meanwhile, from NBC News’ vault comes this creepy footage of alleged pederast Jerry Sandusky:

“I must be a frustrated playground director. … I enjoy being around children. I enjoy their enthusiasm I just have a good time with them. Everybody needs people to care for them. Sometimes they don’t want it. Sometimes they don’t understand what you’re trying to do, but they want to be disciplined. Kids are growing up awfully fast today.”

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UPDATE (Nov. 15): As I said in an earlier post, I abhor the media-encouraged hysteria and hype over the Pen-State affair. “Let the man have his day in a court of law,” and all that stuff. But is this man helping his legal case?

In an “interview with Bob Costas, broadcast Wednesday night on NBC’s Rock Center,” the accused Jerry Sandusky manages to incriminate himself. I understand that Sandusky is here trying his best not to lie. Instead, he unintentionally injects a great deal of sensuality into talking about boys and what they mean to him.

MORE.

War-Party Prattle

Elections, Iran, Israel, Middle East, Republicans, War

Other highlights (or lowlights, rather) from the CBS/National Journal GOP Debate, which may elicit rhetorical reprisals from my readers:

IRAN: Newt Gingrich exercised his wit in suggesting that Obama had exhausted all the ways to be dumb about Iran. I disagree, but then I am not a neoconservative, and I do not experience a vicarious delight when my country’s military and government bombs, boycotts, and generally bullies barely developed countries. As a prelude to war, Newt was willing to entertain covert operations, co-operation with Israel, but war to break the Iranian regime would be best.

Ron Paul reminded all that war powers were vested in the congressional cockroaches, and warned against Iraq-like war propaganda against mad A-Jad. Still a peculiar idea, if to judge by the facilitator’s facial expression.

Rick Perry, who had taken his meds for the occasion, wanted to shut down the Iranian economy (all the better to starve its people). Good going for a goon.

The Other Rick advocated funding the pro-democracy movement. (With what? Monopoly money?) Santorum also believes that foreign aid creates jobs (although not in Iran). (By logical extension, RS, can you perhaps explain why Republicans assert that the assorted stimulus initiatives have failed to create jobs? How does their source of funding differ from that of foreign aid? Oops; you’re talking to the hand, Ilana Mercer. Not that his inquisitors would ever ask, but RS is incapable of explaining away that “minor” lapse in logic.) RS liked the idea of covert activity targeting Iranian scientists, and advocated the only thing with which I agree: the unleashing of computer viruses on nuclear programming. (See “Cyber-Warfare: Is It Libertarian?”)

Water-boarding babe Michele Bachmann warned of a nuclear conflagration involving Israel. As much as libertarians prefer to pretend otherwise, this is a reality the tiny country should entertain, as no one else is willing to face it, and many even delight in it.

MORE to come.

UPDATED: And the Anti-War Winner Is …

China, Elections, Foreign Policy, Middle East, Military, Republicans, War

Jon Huntsman. In the CBS/National Journal GOP Debate, the former Utah governor articulated the best foreign-policy vision. “I say this nation’s future is not Afghanistan. This nation’s future is not Iraq. This nation’s future is how prepared we are to meet the 21st century competitive challenges, that’s economic and that’s education and that’s going to play out over the Asia Pacific region, and we’re either prepared for that reality or we’re not. I don’t want to be nation building in Afghanistan when this nation so desperately needs to be built,” Huntsman added.

Huntsman is nothing if not consistent on the foreign-policy front. As I pointed out following the FoxNews/Google debate, Huntsman has “managed to distill a foreign-policy vision better than the rest.” Earlier in September, commenting on the foreign-policy pose Huntsman struck in Florida, I gave the governor points for the libertarian momentum he was gathering by “brilliantly commandeer Ron Paul’s argument for divesting from Afghanistan.”

Huntsman stood out from the crowd in his stark common sense on China too, both because Ron Paul’s positions were not solicited, and because, had they been solicited, Paul would have rambled. Naturally, Huntsman, a former ambassador to China, is not Sinophobic, as all the other candidates are, and grasps that a trade war with China will hurt consumers in the US. No one mentioned the delicate issue of continuously dissing our largest creditor.

National Journal’s correspondents—they provided coverage like the real pros they are—write: Huntsman’s foreign policy experience has largely been overshadowed during the campaign, but he has made his mark for urging the country’s complete withdrawal from the Middle East. It’s a position that’s to the left even of President Obama.

More to follow.

UPDATE: Regarding the Facebook thread. Spare me. Did I say JH was the answer? Ridiculous. I said he articulates very well the American exhaustion with war and intervention abroad. You can’t just expect that, b/c you and I know Paul is better on the issues, everyone else knows the same. Ron Paul has to be able to explain why he is better. Has he done so?

I am not sure why individuals take commentary on a political performance as undying support for a candidate. Sigh. It isn’t; it’s a commentary about a performance.

The Mind of a Pederast

Crime, Criminal Injustice, Justice, Law, Sex, Sport, Uncategorized

On the one hand, Gerald A. Sandusky, the alleged perpetrator in the Penn State football sexual abuse scandal, did a lot of good. He founded The Second Mile program, which was designed to help boys from troubled backgrounds. The charity’s chapters have now sprung up across the commonwealth. Sandusky was “the primary fund raiser” for Second Mile. He raised millions for this good cause—but he also likely sexually abused at least 8 recipients of his charity, if not many more.

Yes, the Grand Jury’s Findings of Fact are quite damning, as there is ample corroborating evidence provided by witnesses other than Sandusky’s victims, as well as phone records chronicling Sandusky’s obsessive preoccupation with this or the other victim. (Sixty phone calls to a teenage boy?) There were expensive gifts as well. When the mother of victim #six complained to University Police after her boy was returned home hair wet from showering with Sandusky, the investigation was abruptly terminated.

In a conversation with that mom (recorded by police), Sandusky said he wished he were dead. A very twisted and tormented man is this. A married man, no less. A little less hysteria and a lot more factual reporting in the media, and you’d learn that Sandusky is indeed married and has adopted children. My, my, what an intricate web he wove and what a generous helping hand he got from the authorities.

The worst testimony comes from a 28-year-old “graduate assistant” who witnessed Sandusky in the locker room’s showers having sex with a boy aged ten! This incident was never reported to the police, university and other. The victim was not identified.

Nevertheless, as bad as the evidence appears to be, let the man have his day in a court of law.