Camelot? You Can't Be Serious

I've heard it until I want to pout cotton in my ears. "Camelot." It foolishly portrayed the Kennedy clan in a glorious fashion that was as calculating as the family that bore this insane overview of a family of greed and things too numerous to print. The passing of Teddy Kennedy to a brain tumor has brought the focus again to "Camelot." The most liberal -- by far -- of the Kennedy boys left Teddy not knowing if his beloved health care became fact. Many now say this will speed the certainty of a health care overhaul. I hope not. It's as bad an idea now as it was before his death. And now I fully anticipate more outrage by the libs because of this post who blindly looked past the sordid side of Teddy and his brothers. I've gone through this before, but facts and the umbrella of a false cover of "Camelot" doesn't change the overview of this family to me, even when death visits and the media goes overboard. "Camelot?" That's too much and you know it.

Doctors Get Slammed, So Change The Debate

One of the things that bugs me the most about the health care debate is something that isn't even on the table. And it's shameful.
The debate about health care reform in this country better wake up, because the liability question that doctors have to deal with could be a major point for discussion, but, alas, it is not part of the debate. I'm talking about liability targeting doctors. Right now doctors have to pay, collectively, for liability insurance and it is a staggering amount. It's why doctors operate out of fear and the cost in savings if this fear abates is also staggering. It seems to me to be clear that doctors need this issue to be a part of the debate and until it is, well, the discussion is meaningless. Doctors by the thousands are now operating in fear, fear that is damaging to say the least. I'd like to hear from you on this part of the debate which, unbelievably, isn't on the table. How can this be? It's unhealthy.

Moans And Growns...And Who Is Lying?

Most of us seem to be all in a dither about the NCAA's handling of Derrick Rose being ineligible while playing basketball at the University of Memphis.
I've covered numerous NCAA investigations during my journalistic career and this one is really not hard to explain: Somebody's lying, maybe several, depending on the gullibility factor. For example: It borders on being stupid to believe that all of the denials have a stink attached to them.
But, consider this: What if the Tigers had WON the national championship against Kansas, instead of losing a game they should have won, blowing a big lead down the stretch? Talk about explosions! Would the penalty have been more tougher? Undoubtedly so. Now for what you already know: I don't know how people can say the ruling of losing all 38 games last season because Rose played in every one of them, including two regular-season games and that last game against Kansas, is all wet. It is entirely appropriate, as I see it.
Now, there was other news yesterday: The Tiger golf team also suffered in the NCAA findings, but that pales beside the basketball wallop. The basketball team will also have to return a bunch of money to the NCAA and former coach John Calipari could -- COULD -- have to return some $300,000-plus in bonuses for advancing to the championship game. We'll know more after the NCAA considers the university's appeal. But let us return to the central core of this embarrassing mess: Who is lying? Do you believe Calipari that he knew nothing about it. What about using the plausible deniability defense? That's a phrase used by many Presidents of the United States in knowing, but not knowning. What about Rose, who is now beyond the reach of the NCAA; he's playing for the Chicago Bulls and making millions. Let us return, though, my dear, gullible, friends reading this. Who lied? Will we ever know? The Tiger defense surely is going to be based on the NCAA clearinghouse giving the go-ahead for Rose to compete. He certainly qualified for a lot of doubt by failing the test three times before "passing " it. Fail it three times and then, voila, success. Not likely. And the site of that final test? We've got to consider this: It happened in Detroit, we're told. Detroit? DETROIT? What's up with that? Maybe Rose felt more at ease instead of in his own backyard. So many questions, so few answers. OK, until we find out whose lying, you have to look for something tangible: I submit to you that the problem with grades and transcripts and the need to recruit less-than-eligible young guys who came out of the womb bouncing a basketball, we will have these moments of shaking our collective heads. I will close at this time with something I've asked for, oh, maybe a million times: Clean up this mess and if poor students in that ill-placed belief that they are student-athletes, forget it. Hogwash. They are athletes. Period. Forget the student deal. Now, we've gotten this far and there is still no conclusion: Who was lying?

Tigers To Appeal NCAA Ruling

The University of Memphis basketball record of last season -- 38 wins and a close loss to Kansas for the national championship -- has been invalidated by the NCAA Committee on Infractions.
The university has said it will appeal, but in my experience in covering NCAA infractions is that appeals rarely work. In fact, the NCAA can add on penalties if a university chooses to appeal and that's because the NCAA is judge, jury and executioner. In today's press release, the Tiger basketball program was found guilty of major violations. The most serious violation centered around former Tiger point guard Derrick Rose had some one take his SAT for him. Rose vehemently denied the charge. The university's president, university counsel and athletic director appeared in a press conference shortly after the NCAA announced the penalties and each looked stunned at the ruling. Rose, from Chicago, is now with the Chicago Bulls in the NBA. He was never going to play more than one season with the Tigers, opting as many outstanding players now do, to go "one-and-done." He was one of the most coveted players in the country before settling on the Tigers, a recruiting coup for former Tiger coach John Calipari. Calipari, now the head coach at the University of Kentucky, was cleared of any wrongdoing by the NCAA investigation. Calipari now has been at two universities where the NCAA has been the head coach where an entire season has been taken away. His UMass team in 1996 when it was found that the team's star, Marcus Camby, had taken money from an agent.

The Pressure Is On

News comes to the Memphis City Schools that it is a finalist of a grant of $100 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. If the Memphis school system wins, it would use the money to improve U.S. teacher quality. Goodness knows it is needed in a system that has way too many incompetent teachers. MCS Supt. Kriner Cash called it "extraordinarily good news." Cash said this "only means that we are moving forward" in the process. Other school systems in the running are Atlanta, Hillsborough, Fla., Prince George's County, Md., West Palm Beach, Fla., Omaha, Neb., Denver, Los Angeles Charter School Management Corp., and Pittsburgh. The pressure is on Memphis' troubled system and it would be a hard pill to swallow. Saying we made the final cut isn't good enough, is it? It would be devastating on a national scale.

Great Line!

One of the best lines I've seen recently was this newspaper line saying Brett Farve is returning to the NFL: "The Ego Has Landed." Favre has this habit of saying he's coming back, then not. Back and forth. It's a little ridiculous. Anyway, Favre will apparently suit up soon with the Minnesota Vikings. The Ego line is a take-off of that bigger line, in my opinion, of the words of a U.S. astronaut saying "The Eagle Has Landed"on the moon.

What's Left To Say?

Please say it isn't so. But, sadly, it is. "King" Willie Herenton is on the prowl again and he's testing what little understanding to hit the sidelines. Game over. But here he goes again, changing his mind, doing things that leave us to say, collectively, we're all nuts. I have come to the point to say he's definitely nuts. I think most people have come to this conclusion. He's pulled a petition to run for his old job, Mayor of the City of Memphis. He resigned that position recently and there was fanfare all all of that stuff about his 18 years in office. There were some good things in those 18 years, but, overwhelming, it was a downhill slide. I have said it before and I'll say it again: Historians will be a harsh judge of His Majesty. Extremely harsh. And let me say it with force: Memphians will spend years recovering from his tenure. The position he has put on the city is spending $1 million dollars for a special election, to find, of all things, a successor to Herenton......and he might end up holding the position once again. What's left to say? He's driven all of us nuts.