Category: Culture

Bears+ Vikings+ Frozen Field= Trouble

 

I’m very interested in watching the Bears-Vikings game tonight outside in Minneapolis. I’m a fan of the Vikes and there’s a rivalry involved but more interestingly, the field is frozen and reportedly concrete hard. This game is happening outdoors at the same time that the NFL is trumpeting its efforts to maintain player safety. What an odd contradiction.

 

The Vikings have lots of reasons for wanting this game to happen in Minnesota (Favre’s last home game, ticket sales, 50th anniversary events…) but this is another illustration of short term desires overriding common sense. I want to know what happens if someone gets badly hurt. How much will this game ultimately cost the league?

 

 

FDO

 

Unpierced

 

…the words here deployed are equivalent to blanks in a loaded gun: they make the same sound but do not pierce us in any way.

 

–Alyssa Pelish

 

 

I have begun feeling this way about my poetry. The only folks who seem pierced by my poems are the ones who hear them from my lips or, lacking proximity, in the voice their minds’ ears have labeled as mine. Either way, it’s about connection. Connection with me, not the words themselves. Knowing me and believing they understand the genesis of those poems allows the words to matter.

 

Maybe this just means my words are not the right ones. Perhaps it means that most of us only allow people to pierce us; we don’t allow ideas to do the same.

 

 

FDO

 

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell- A Turning Point?

 

It seems almost impossible in this political climate but yes, in just a couple hours, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, will no longer be official government policy. This historic acknowledgment of the right of gay men and women to serve openly in the American military feels like a dramatic shift leftward. That this policy change can happen at the same moment that the GOP has just made substantial gains in Congress and President Obama seems to have become convinced that he must govern in as centrist a manner as possible is particularly extraordinary.

 

Maybe it will be revealed later that DADT repeal is part of a broader quid pro quo. Perhaps it just means the Republican leadership in Congress has decided they don't need the social/religious conservatives as much as they have in the recent past. Otherwise, why would the GOP allow the final vote to happen so quickly? Forcing the DADT vote to happen on a Sunday, after the morning talk shows, seems the play to make if you want to rally the religious right. Simply ceding ground here is puzzling.

 

Unless, that is, the GOP has come to realize that most Americans have finally come around to legitimately accepting that all of us have certain fundamental rights. Even the military brass seems to generally recognize this and, as a friend at a service academy told me recently, "Even though it's [DADT repeal] uncomfortable for us to think about, we know they're [gays] people too". Yes, gays are people too.

 

Ultimately, I believe the broader implication is that we are continually moving toward a country that has full(er) social inclusion for gays and lesbians. I have argued previously that I believe half the states will have a marriage/civil union option within the next decade. This is another overdue step in that direction. 

 

Congratulations, Congress. Thanks for doing the right thing.

 

 

FDO

 

Faux News

 

This article confirming that Fox News specifically and deliberately mimics the talking points of the Republican Party is not at all surprising. Neither is this requirement that global warming be treated as some kind of subversive theory. Yet, I feel as though this additional clarity should force an end to the charade that still exists that Fox News intends to report news in an independent fashion.

 

Having an editorial perspective makes a great deal of sense and I have no trouble with that at all as long as it’s not publicly lied about.  There should be no remaining doubt that Fox News is virtually an organ of the GOP, not particularly different than the Republican National Committee at base. Continuing to give Fox News the credibility associated with mainstream journalistic institutions is unwarranted.

 

 

FDO

 

Update- Here's a study suggesting that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed. Raise your hand if you feel a sense of surprise!

 

Obama as a Bridge- Always.

 

It seems interesting and sad that President Obama has so few ardent supporters left. The reality of his eroding support does not seem congruent with his level of accomplishment in the White House. Things have been tough for him during the first couple years of his Presidency, but he has made some pretty remarkable things happen. I suggested six weeks ago that the principal problem may be that his administration fails to tell its story well. There are not enough efforts to get his message out. I also believe the country has developed a sense of collective amnesia as we have run away from remembering that George W. Bush was our President for 8 years. Even the Republican Party has thoroughly distanced itself from him. Obama suffers from the lack of comparison now, as he benefitted from the constant comparisons in 2007 and 2008.

 

One thing I’ve begun to recognize about the prospect of creating new kinds of messages about the President is that there is no single message to trumpet. This is Barack Obama does not exist on a fixed point. There’s nothing immutable about him. He moves as he needs to move. Always.

 

I’m sure a psychologist could have a field day with this interpretation. Just consider the rough outline of Obama’s story. Half White, half Black. Born in the part of America that feels least like the rest of America. Living as an outsider in virtually every moment of his childhood. Being broke while in the Ivy League. And now, being young, inexperienced and Black in the Oval Office. He moves as he needs to move because he has always needed to do so.

 

That strength may be part of the reason President Obama seems such a natural mediator. In most contexts, that’s a tremendously valuable skill! I believe that he always wants to manage situations so that everyone feels a sense of victory. Just consider who his Secretary of State is!

 

Unfortunately, all those compromises and efforts at conciliation make it hard for him to lead. And, personally, Obama’s approach makes it hard for me to understand what matters most to the President. I don’t remember the last time he resolved to do (or not do) something because he cared about it enough NOT to compromise about it. Even though I think he’s made some fantastic successes, I imagine there’s not much he has done in office to inspire continuing faith in many people. There’s nothing to be counted on just because it exists at his core. There doesn’t seem to be a core.

 

 

FDO

 

Bush’s Book Part 2

 

Where are the articles comparing Karl Rove’s book to George W. Bush’s book?

Since Rove seems to have fictionalized some of his account, does Bush correct the story? Are the trouble spots, uh, I mean, decision points, critical ones? Have we already decided that we just don’t care anymore? Never mind. I shouldn’t ask the question if I can’t accept the answer…

 

FDO

 

World AIDS Day- A Whimper, Not a Bang

 

The lack of attention generated in America by World AIDS Day this week was astonishing. It’s a great sign and a horrible indicator all at once. I suggested a couple months ago that Americans don’t have the same level of fear about acquiring HIV since it no longer feels like the death sentence it once was. That’s just fantastic but HIV rates in the US are still MUCH higher than they need to be. While America has done a phenomenal job of reducing mother-to-child transmissions, virtually every other infection route is still clearly common. What I haven’t figured out is why there’s so little effort being made on this front.

 

There is an estimate that around 20% of people in the US living with HIV don’t even know it yet! More than a million Americans are likely HIV+ and we just seem kinda fine with that. This is a preventable disease! Somehow though, there’s not much public space for outrage, worry or even conversation.

 

FDO

 

PS- I was forwarded this post about celebs attempting to raise money for World AIDS Day. The effort was a disaster.

Science Over Sight

 

Felix Hernandez won the American League Cy Young award yesterday in what is being touted as a harbinger of a new age of baseball. In this new age, statistical complexity trumps conventional wisdom, and in some ways, the ability to believe what we see. One of the many charms of baseball is the ability to create much of individual games through the standard box score. At bats, runs, hits, RBI. Many baseball fans can get 95% of a game’s flow correct from those four stats in a box score. Any game! We can also determine the success level of players based on those box scores. For some, box scores have been an obsession because they indicate so much about baseball. (Tim Kurkjian writes about this beautifully.)

 

What sabermetric statistical analysis has done is to de-value what we see in our box scores. Those cherished box scores are only a portion of what indicates a player’s success. Discovering that the baseball writers who vote on Cy Young and other awards are willing to look beyond the box scores and the conventional measures of success really does seem to be an indication of how thoroughly this sabermetric revolution has taken hold.

 

There are two near certain next steps. One, virtually all baseball television coverage will soon show stat lines that shift during an at-bat. We’ll still see Batting Average, Runs Batted In and Home Runs. Then the scroll will shift to include On-Base Percentage, Slugging Percentage and On-Base + Slugging Percentage. Then the scroll will shift again to include RC27 (Runs Created per 27 Innings), SECA (Secondary Average), ISOP (Isolated Power) and TB (Total Bases). By 2020, every kid discovering baseball will know those terms as naturally as I do ERA. And when that happens, the second next step will occur. Every computer will have ‘sabermetric’ in its spellcheck.

 

 

FDO

 

Falling Up

 

In the last decade or so, I’ve been consistently amazed that so many Americans seem to succeed… by failing.

 

It’s not always clear failure but, often at least, people get rewarded without rising to the level we would expect to be required. Sometimes it’s about taking advantage of personal relationships while other times, it’s about public perception. Consider that attending (and re-attending) rehab has been the spark plug for dozens of careers in the entertainment industry even though addiction is often a career killer for average people.

 

Rod Blagojevich was a virtual nobody until he was caught trying to sell a Senate seat. Now he’s cashed in tremendously and has the kind of name recognition that most governors only dream of obtaining. Amazingly, Blago is not only getting rich but he’s still famous, not infamous. Whatthehell?

 

Harriet Miers almost joined the Supreme Court solely because she was George W. Bush’s close friend and counsel. She was widely viewed as incompetent and it was only the uniformity of this view that kept her from rising to a lifetime appointment interpreting America’s laws. Scary stuff.

 

Conan O’Brien seems the best current example of this phenomenon. Maybe he’s actually the ultimate late night talk show host and I just haven’t noticed… This week he’s been at the top of the media world having been rewarded with a brand new TBS show, overwhelming public affection and a second giant contract. All this, even though he was booted from his dream job to make way for Jay Leno’s return. NBC would never have made that move if Conan’s audience were as big as Jay’s so in the most direct sense, Conan’s show failed. What is it that could possibly have built so much buzz that Conan is now bigger than he’s ever been?

 

It seems as though we not only accept failure, we often reward it. Now, if I can only convince someone with clout that my career as a poet has been a disaster…

 

FDO