Quote of the Day
The man who has confidence in himself gains the confidence of others.
Hasidic Saying
Joe Paterno, Former Penn State Football Coach: RIP
The 85-year-old coach died from complications of lung cancer. The man was an icon, with a handful of unbeaten, untied seasons and 2 national championships; he won more games than any other Division 1 coach. But unfortunately all that people will remember is that he got caught up in a controversy involving a former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky. After the story went national last fall, the university president and a frail Joe Paterno were terminated, in Joe's case, despite 6 decades of service to the university, without even the face-saving measure of simply retiring at the end of the season, only a few games remaining (including bowl game). I think it's tragic that the university board threw him under the bus to live out the remaining weeks of his life in disgrace.
Let me make myself clear: as far as I'm concerned, a grown man (Jerry Sandusky) had no business showering with any minor. There were 2 cases (1998 and 2002) where Sandusky is alleged to have hugged a minor and another which has described in terms of everything between sexual activity to fondling to horsing around in the lockerroom respectively. McQueary, the assistant coach who reportedly accidentally observed the second instance when he came in to put stuff into his locker, expecting nobody else to be around. A number of reporters claimed that McQueary reported seeing sexual activity, i.e., statutory rape, but McQueary recently testified that he never alleged that. Paterno said McQueary reported to him something of the nature of Sandusky fondling the youth. Highers up claimed to have investigated and said it seemed to be a judgment call, merely horseplay in the shower, snapping towels, etc.
I personally don't like people nearly a decade after the fact being quizzed about what exactly was said to whom at what time, what they did about it when. Most college students forget a significant portion of what they crammed before an exam just a few weeks afterwards. Paterno did report something of an inappropriate nature was observed to his boss, the athletic director. We know the athletic director at least did a follow-up with Sandusky. Now given the nature of Chinese whispers, why were we being unduly critical of Coach Paterno? I've even read criticisms that he waited over a weekend to report the incident. Are we really that petty? We are not describing a kidnapping; McQueary claims that he had put a stop to whatever happened.
I would have probably handled it differently than Paterno did: I don't think a former coach, particularly one with a questionable 1998 incident behind him on the Penn State campus, would have had unsupervised access to Penn State facilities. If McQueary had come to me, I would have told him to report the incident immediately to campus security; as a first-hand witness, it is important he report the incident while details are fresh in his mind. If I reported something like that to my boss, and he didn't seem to be taking the matter seriously, I would have escalated it higher in the organization, and/or if I didn't think McQueary was going to the police, I would have reported it. To me, it's a matter of due diligence. However, I'm convinced that Paterno was not trying to sweep the incident under the rug.
Even if Joe Paterno made mistakes in judgment, let's hope people will remember his positive contributions to Penn State and development hundreds or thousands of talented young men and outstanding citizens over the decades.
A First For This Blog: Ann Coulter is SPOT ON!
Ann is notably exasperated (see embedded video, available at the time of the post) with those voters in South Carolina whom seemed to be keeping score, not by legitimate conservative views and electability, but how many zingers Gingrich can deliver at Obama, Romney, or the media. What true conservative would have described the FIRST, MODEST, SERIOUS take by Paul Ryan to reform Medicare as radical right-wing engineering? Some conservatives and libertarians might have argued Ryan didn't go far enough, that this program is a perversion of the free enterprise system by implementing fixed-cost reimbursements. Did we forget this is a guy whom not only got paid over a million dollars from Freddie Mac, a chronic federal problem child with known accounting issues before they went under during the economic tsunami? And a spot with Nancy Pelosi on environmental issues? Someone utterly lacking in leadership skills with few others serving under him endorsing him, has never served in a meaningful executive role (at least in the public sector), got outmaneuvered by Clinton during the budget crisis, was petty enough to gripe about his seat selection on Air Force One, and has a Biden-like propensity for erratic comments (have we forgotten that he all but declared victory around early December?)
Just another comment: nationalpolls.com has pointed that one pollster, Insider Advantage, already posting a lead of Gingrich over Romney (whom has been consistently scoring in the 40's vs. Gingrich's low-to-mid 20's) is consistently underreporting Romney's strength and overreporting Gingrich's numbers. Keep in mind results factor in early voting in Florida already favors Romney... Averaging 43 points before South Carolina,these folks would have you believe that Romney has dropped 17 points in a purple state because some irrational voters in a red state surged at the end of the week to a 12-point win? Give me a break; if you believe that, you'll believe Obama can "fix" the economy by the election (more likely get it fixed by neutering the job creators...)
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
The Doors, "Love Me Two Times"
