Old Titletown vs. New Titletown

The Green Bay Packers are football’s original Titletown, U.S.A. They have won more titles than any other franchise. The Pittsburgh Steelers are the new Titletown, U.S.A. They have won more Super Bowls than any other team. Which is the real Titletown? This Super Bowl may very well help to determine which one can make that claim to fame. Of course, in this microwave, nanosecond world, nothing is once and for all. The best that can be hoped for is for a decade or two.
If the Packers win, there can be no doubt of their pedigree as Titletown with thirteen championships, many more than any other team, including the Steelers. However, if Pittsburgh wins yet another Super Bowl, they can lay claim to that moniker. Seven Super Bowls put up against four as the max won by any other team spells Titletown. Of course, Pittsburgh got started late. They never threatened anyone for a title before the early Seventies.
Unfortunately for me, I never watched the teams of Curly Lambeau, but they were without a doubt dominant. It was this legendary coach that finally stood up to the Big, Bad Bears. George Halas is the father of modern football, but he was second banana to Coach Lambeau. To date, he is the only man to coach a three-peat in professional football. Granted, that was in ’29, ’30, and ’31. So, in the ensuing eighty years, the Packers have “only” won nine more championships.
The Steelers never had a storied tradition or any other tradition except for regular losing seasons. They didn’t get their first legendary coach until Chuck Noll showed up. Up until then their main legacy was cutting Hall of Fame quarterbacks: first, Johnny Unitas, then, Len Dawson. All those guys did was go on and win championships and Super Bowls before the Steelers ever got to a championship game. On the other hand, since 1969 the Steelers have only had three coaches and, more importantly, each of them has won at least one Super Bowl.
The Packers have great players in their history. So do the Steelers. However, the Packer players are all spread out throughout their history. They also have two Hall of Fame coaches with one of whom is the namesake for the Super Bowl trophy. Chuck Noll is a Hall of Famer and Bill Cowher will likely get there one day. But, except for their strong and obviously dominant stretch through the mid-seventies, the Steelers don’t have a history of great personnel. The Packers have great players starting in the thirties and going through the sixties, seventies, nineties, and the current batch of players. The Packers have icons; the Steelers have stars.
The Steelers have the players of the Steel Curtain; the greatness of Polamalu; maybe James Harrison if he keeps out of trouble. The Packers have Don Hutson, who invented pass patterns; Bart Starr, the original game manager; then, basically the Packers of the Sixties and Brett Favre. In the end, the Packers have the second most players in the Hall (second to the Bears) with 21, followed closely by the Steelers with 19.
This Super Bowl will settle this dispute for the near future. It is likely that Pittsburgh will be back to the big game before the Packers. However, with thirteen titles and four Super Bowls (if the Packers win it), the Pack will be undisputed Titletown for at least another decade unless the Steelers make another Seventies-type run. The way football is played (or rather, managed) nowadays makes the dominance of the Steelers from 1973 through 1979 an unlikely occurrence. Look at the New England Patriots; they’ve had the most consistent team of the last ten or twelve years and they still have only three Super Bowl wins in that time period. That is not to say that three championships is not noteworthy, but the Steelers won four in six years. To call the Patriots a “dynasty” in comparison to that is ludicrous.
Despite all this obnoxious history of winning, you have to root for these two teams because they are “working class” champions. The Steelers have a devoted and passionate following that reflects the blue-collar style of play the Steelers have always been about. Yes, I know they featured Bradshaw, Swann, and Stallworth, but they won because Franco Harris kept the defenses honest and the defense allowed them to take ridiculous chances without the personnel.
The citizens of Green Bay own the Packers. How much more democratic can you get? If you doubt the working class pedigree of the Green Bay Packers consider where the team nickname comes from: meat packers. Neither team is hated in the sense that the Cowboys or the Raiders are. Neither evokes the kind of visceral response that the Jets or the Patriots do. Sure, Browns and Ravens fans hate the Steelers and Bears and Vikings fans despise their division rival, but that’s animosity by birthright.
Here’s the irony of this: both the Packers and the Steelers have frustrated the Dallas Cowboys in any manner of ways (although the Cowboys got some revenge when Neil O’Donnell had a brain fart). Now, they are playing for the right to be called Titletown in Dallas, Texas. It’s unfortunate that this game has turned into a corporate board meeting instead of a fan friendly game. I’d like to see for whom the Dallas fans would root if they had their choice.
Well, the game is coming up and it will crown the latest pretender to the throne. The current holder of the moniker: Titletown, U.S.A. It’s great to be able to watch a game and realize that the history still remains. That we can watch a game and not be overly invested in the result except in what it means to the NFL. Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews will, relatively speaking, soon be forgotten. Roethlisberger and Hines Ward will fade by the wayside. But in the current zeitgeist, the winner is the home of Titletown for a while. For how long, we don’t know. Will we ever root for them again? Who knows? But it will be fun to watch.

Open Letter to a Failed President

Mr. President:

Cowboy up! If you're going to sulk in the White House and bemoan the events of the last few weeks, you are not the man I voted for. If you were, you wouldn't take the abuse and bullying that is being directed at you. You would stand up and say, "Stop!" So, now I am telling you, "Stop!" Stop being a punching bag; stop moping about people being mean to you; in short, stop giving the republicans everything they want.

I do not want a compromising weenie in the White House. I want a man of conviction and vision. You had a vision and you were following it. Either you folded like a cheap suit when Rahm Emmanuel left the White House or he left because he couldn't bear to watch you disintegrate right in front of him. Either way, enough is enough.

There is no shortage of people and pundits telling you what you should do. Listen to the ones that are telling you to dial up the rhetoric. Use your bully pulpit to reveal these right-wing weasels for what they are: obstructionists. They walk into the House and the Senate with no plan for helping this country be great except to make sure that you are a one term president. If you proceed down this mealy-mouthed plan, I will soon have to agree with them.

Read the polls. People don't want the health care reform law repealed, your enemies do. The people don't want to blow up the deficit, your enemies do. The people don't want to let Wall Street off the hook, your enemies do. And make no mistake, the republicans in Congress are your enemies. They don't want to treat you with respect and civility; the want to tear you down. Get tough and get the fighters in this country back in your corner.

The Morning After

Shame on you, America. That slick, smooth-talking stranger comes through town spouting promises of love and off you go. The Republicans got you drunk then took you home for a quickie. Here it is morning and you're all alone feeling used, hungover, and completely screwed. Every time it's the same thing: you think you're going to do the right thing, but you usually end up with your underwear in your purse and your shoes in your hands.

Two years ago I thought you finally wised up and realized how badly you were getting treated and you wouldn't fall for the same old story, same old song and dance. I was wrong. After spending so much of my energies extolling your virtues and how you always do the right thing I am now left with the utter realization that you're nothing but a slut. Turns out that two years ago you didn't do the right thing, you did the only thing you could do. It wasn't virtuous, it was expeditious.

Well, today you're waking up in a world of your making. When you need your government to help you, which is government's sole responsibility, you will be left out in the cold. No services, no support, no security. That handsome stranger won't remember your name. Promise after promise will be left by the wayside as he moves on to line his pockets and live the only American dream he cares about: The Conservative Agenda.

Just so you know, The Conservative Agenda doesn't encompass you. You are a mere conduit for the few to enjoy the fruits of the many's labors. You toil and sweat in hopes that one day you will live the dream of wealth and prosperity. All you'll end up doing is living out your miserable life so the few can continue to profit from your sacrifice. These few spend tens of millions of dollars of their own money for the privilege of serving you. Really? Does that sound right? Somebody spending exorbitant amounts of money for the joy of answering to an electorate? Or is it for the opportunity to use their position to help themselves and those precious few like them? Sound more like the stranger from last night? You, gullible voter, will never be part of the club.

Regardless, you still go to the bar where they congregate and pretend to be one of them. You continue to accept their drinks and their slick snake oil line hoping they notice you and give you some attention. So, here you are staring at the ceiling and thinking that this time it will be different; the stranger will call; he'll come back to carry through his whispers of love and commitment. Alas, he will not. You will be left alone to deal with the rest of your life. However, if he does come back, make sure you have your wallet under the pillow because that's all he forgot to take.

Review of "But Inside I'm Screaming" by Elizabeth Flock

I haven't written book reviews for a while. It's not that I haven't been reading. I have. I have read many, many books. Some were very good, some not so much. I believe that I write reviews because a book surprises me in some way. Mostly, I like to write positive reviews unless the book really offends me. This book by Elizabeth Flock surprised me; both because it was very good and because it isn't a book I would normally read.

This story starts quickly and proceeds just like you would expect it to. That is not a bad thing. This type of novel requires a bit of the expected so that you can grasp the subtleties of the story. Most of the story takes place in a mental institution. You may think it cliche and wonder what Ms. Flock would add to this tired genre. I have to admit, I did not think any other art form could present this place-setting better than the television show "House, M.D." in the opening show from last season as House goes through drug rehab. "Screaming" surprised me. Not only did I read it rather quickly, I was enthralled with this character that went through so much without taking time to see the road she was on.

I have to make a confession: I would never have read this book but for two reasons: Liz Flock is a Facebook friend of mine and Kindle's "sample" feature that lets you read the beginning of books to see if you'd like it. I read the sample and knew I had to read it. I had read other books written by Facebook friends and was very disappointed; I hadn't had the chance to sample the books before buying and I would never have done so if I had. I finished both those books because, after all, I feel I owed it to the Facebook friendship. However, neither were very good and I didn't write a review because I didn't feel the need to be mean. On the plus side, I don't have to have such worries here. I very much liked this book.

However, there is one thing that got to me about this book. Because the author is a Facebook friend (certainly not the same as just a friend), the story disturbed me some as it went deeper and deeper into Isabel Murphy's (the protagonist) mental dysfunctions and her self-discovery. Because of the realism of the writing and the descriptions of the issues Isabel deals with, I was struck by the concern that I was peeking, at least somewhat, into the life of the author. After all, we are told to write what we know and this author seemed to know this topic very well. Nevertheless, she conveyed it so well that I stopped worrying about that and started rooting for the character; which is, after all, what we're supposed to do.

Ms. Flock has three other novels and, from her status updates on Facebook, appears to be working on a fourth. I am sure that I will read her other works in hopes that I get to explore more literary territories with which I am unfamiliar and have been heretofore unwilling to delve into. I highly recommend this novel; it will, surprisingly enough, put a smile on your face.

TV Commercial

White haired Republican in suit on camera. Let's call him Senator Wasp.

WASP O.C.
WE REPUBLICAN BELIEVE IN FAMILY VALUES.
WHICH IS WHY WE ARE TRYING TO ELIMINATE SOCIAL SECURITY

(Tears up Social Security card)

AND MEDICARE BENEFITS.

(Tosses pill bottles over his shoulder.)

Cut to moving van pulling up to a house. A young couple stand in the doorway as their elderly parents
totter slowly and grumpily to house.

WASP. V.O.

WITHOUT SOCIAL SECURITY YOUR PARENTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO MOVE IN WITH YOU.

Cut to couple watching TV from bed in cramped living room.

AND THAT MAKES FOR MORE FAMILY CLOSENESS.

Cut to children changing a drip bag next to granny's bed.

WITHOUT MEDICARE BENEFITS, YOUR CHILDREN WILL HAVE MORE QUALITY TIME WITH THEIR GRANDPARENTS.

Cut to wife carrying bed pan from room.

AND YOU WON'T HAVE TO DEAL WITH THE INTRUSION OF NURSES AND OTHER CAREGIVERS.
WASP O.C. IN 2010 A VOTE FOR REPUBLICANS....

Young husband adding tennis balls to a walker.

IS A VOTE FOR FAMILY VALUES.

Government is Not a Business

Any politician that says to you that he is qualified to be an executive officer of your city, state, or country is trying to sell you a bill of goods. You cannot run a government like a business; they are two different and distinct entities. Government is there to help its people. It is not there to turn a profit. Once you start using business school criteria to justify government spending, you end up with no services, except maybe defense. And despite the constant hammering by government officials whose only constituency is made up of defense contractors, we are in little danger of being invaded. Terrorism isn't going to be fought or won with more and more nuclear missiles or higher grade battleships or more high-tech tanks. Terrorism is fought and won on the street with specialized weapons that take out one person with a bomb strapped to his or her chest. No F-16 is going to help you there.

Why is it that people are too afraid or too stupid to realize that they have a greater likelihood of needing governmental services like unemployment compensation or food stamps than of becoming part of the 1% of the people that control half the wealth. The problem with the American dream is that everyone believes they can achieve it. They can't; it's that simple; look around. If you search the world around you, or more precisely, the country around you, you will see the vast majority of people that have no shot at becoming uber-wealthy. You can see them all around and objectively say, no, no, no, no. Everybody in a public servant's uniform is automatically eliminated. They will never, short of winning the lotto, become super-rich. Guys wearing cheap ties and polyester shirts (yes, you can tell, if you can't, you're never going to be in that 1%) are not getting there. Same goes for guys that wear black shoes with blue suits. Safe, maybe; appropriate, no.Then there's the woman in the long sleeve t-shirt worn over a tank-top and sweat pants. Unless she looks like she can run the 100 meter dash in under 11 seconds or is tall enough to change the channel at a sports bar without using a stool, she isn't getting there. This is all to say that with an unbiased eye, you can find people who will always be middle-class.

Now, the paradox: you're that person in others' eyes. They see you and realize you'll never control real wealth. Nobody can ever admit that they will never be that elite group of people that either had incredible preparation, opportunity, and good fortune to become the best at what they do or inherited millions. The latter is certainly a more prevalent group. And believe me, that group is the group most protective of the group. They don't want you with them. They recognize the reality of a zero-sum game. Money is finite, except in Brazil where they print it as they need it. If you obtain wealth, you cut into their take. Ergo, they're not giving you the password or the location of the secret clubhouse.

So that begs the question: why do you continue to vote in elections to help them protect the limited pot? Every vote for conservatism is a vote to help those that have keep the have nots right where they are. Oh, they play into your dreams and aspirations and they tease you with the possibilities of what could be, but you ain't getting in. Never, never, never. They'll tell you that with hard work you too can get the American dream. All you have to do is pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and not look to government to help you. You know why? If you don't look to government to help you, it can help the rich. Big government contracts that you'll never see; government bailouts that will never reach you; government subsidies for agricultural conglomerates that serve only to keep American produce at higher levels and hit you in your daily grocery shopping. And don't forget those great government defense contracts that benefit so many of you; NOT!

How do they convince you? Defense!!!! We must protect ourselves from [fill in the blank]. We don't need tens of thousands of fighter planes to protect this country. We don't need hundreds of thousands of tanks to keep our enemies at bay. And frankly just how many intercontinental ballistic missiles do we really need? Defense today involves a guy looking a shepherd in a suspected terrorist encampment or village knifing a major operative. It involves detecting nuclear dirty bombs before they are detonated in a major American city. Today's defense needs a multitude of vaccines for the potential chemical warfare that one individual with a glass vial can wage. The gargantuan military industrial complex of the past is no longer viable or necessary; it is obsolete...unless, of course, you are one of the multitude of "family values" republicans that is feeding at the trough of its PACs. As always, the guerilla capitalists are squeezing every last dime out of it before they have some young, ambitious genius figure out how to re-direct their businesses and then that is where the money will flow. And that genius? He or she gets a vice-presidency with a nice salary and he or she will think he or she hit the big time. The genius will be held up as an example of the good, old American spirit that made this country great. And you'll buy this line hook, line, and sinker just like you buy all the products that you have been force-fed over the years. Don't believe me? "L'Oreal because I'm worth it." Really? Seriously? Do you really think that one hair dye is better than any other? If you do, you are officially sucked in and cannot be saved.

The so-called American drive and spirit is a myth. People work hard and prepare for life in this capitalist society believing that continuing on this path will lead to success and untold riches. It won't and it never has. But nevertheless you hear these living-in-the-fifites, Leave-It-To-Beaver right wingnuts extol the benefits of getting "off people's backs" so they can then "pull themselves up by their own bootstraps." If I here someone say "bootstraps" one more time I will explode. No one has bootstraps; no one can afford them. Almost half this country is living in poverty or close to that edge and the tragedy is that many of these misguided souls believe they are "middle class" Americans. They have been sold that bill of goods by the exploitive republicans using their gullibility to stoke the fires of their irrepressible human crunching machine. If republicans and Democrats would honestly articulate their respective views of government (and for the republicans, this would require the use of a truth serum of some kind), no American would ever vote for a republican candidate again. People have to start seeing through this smokescreen; they have to stop day-dreaming about their future as millionaires while they are washing the dishes of well-fed fat cats sitting in the high-end Georgetown restaurant; in short, they have to find the man who is behind the curtain. It isn't any benevolent buffoon pressed into service as a kindly wizard; it is evil incarnate and it must be stopped.

Gimme a Break

Anybody that knows me knows that I am not, repeat not, a LeBron James fan. I'm glad he's with the Heat, but mostly to keep him off other teams. But the criticism of him from everyone outside of Miami that he cheated his city, he isn't a competitor, doesn't want the spotlight, etc., is simply sour grapes from the losers of the Lebron James Sweepstakes.

First, Dan Gilbert. Seriously?!?!? You actually wrote that letter. It wasn't written by the Saturday Night Live staff? You are so unhappy with this guy that you wouldn't say or do anything that would upset him so you could sign him, but once he signs somewhere else, he's the worst human being that ever lived (Tiger Woods thanks you, LeBron, by the way). Why would you want such a horrible player in your organization? Why did you do everything short of wearing a short skirt and heavy make-up to whore yourself to get him? Stop it. If you don't you'll supplant that other big baby billionaire, Mark Cuban, as the biggest embarrassment in sports.

Which brings me to, you got it, Mark Cuban. Mark Cuban claims that players shouldn't speak to each other about where they would like to play. In other words, Cuban thinks that the league whose rules he flouts should create rules to stop these players from deciding their own individual or collective futures. I'm sure that if the Mavericks had been the destination of choice for the WJB train Cuban would have been just as outraged, right? The individual players who have from the beginning of sports had very little say in where they played are now taking the initiative and using the one club in their bag to get what they want. Cuban, go sit in a corner somewhere.

And for those that claim that James is less of a player because Michael Jordan or Larry Bird or Magic Johnson or Charles Barkley or [fill in the blank] didn't go where it was rosier, check your history. In those days, the players didn't have this kind of power. Mostly because in the history of the NBA there had never been a draft like the one in 2003. These guys bonded and struck up a friendship that endured. Jordan couldn't get a glass of water from an opposing NBA player for much of his early career. Perhaps you all forget that Isaiah Thomas and his NBA East All-Stars played keep the ball away from Jordan in his first All-Star game. If you think LeBron James's ego is large, go read some of the stories about Jordan in his first few years. Additionally, Jordan, Johnson, Bird, etc., didn't do it by themselves. Unless you can call playing with fellow Hall of Famers like Abdul-Jabbar, Worthy, McHale, Parrish, Pippen, Rodman doing it by themselves. When Barkely says he wouldn't have done what James, Wade, and Bosh did, he's flat out lying. If there had been an opportunity to join Jordan in Chicago or to convince Jordan to go to Philly, does anyone really think that Sir Charles would have said, "No, thanks. I want to win a title on my own." Yeah, sell that to Taco Bell, Chuck.

I love New York. New Yorkers, not so much. Actually, it's more the New Yorkers that make up their media. Particularly since this signing matches up so perfectly for the vehemence they already have for Pat Riley. Jilted by LeBron James and Pat Riley!!! How could they? Don't they know that New York is the only city in the universe? They must be too afraid of failing on the biggest stage. I hear that LeBron James didn't go to New York because he was afraid of the bright lights and big city. Wow! Does anyone out there not think that by making this move Wade, Bosh, and James shone the brightest spotlight of supernovas on themselves? Dwyane said it best when he said that he knew there was a target on their collective backs and they're ready for the challenge. As for Riley leaving New York, that is, as Colin Cowherd would say, a you problem. The Knicks refused to give Pat Riley complete control of basketball operations because Ernie Grunfeld was their man. Ernie Freaking Grunfeld!!! New Yorkers are now deflecting calling Riley and James every name in the book because they know that if they had ceded the power Riley wanted when he wanted it the Knicks would be the ones on top of the basketball world today.

LeBron James is going to have to adjust to being the villain. He's the bad guy in wrestling. He's the "good" guy that turned to the dark side. The NBA is, as I write this, devising ways to derail the Riley Express. There will be new rules that apply only to the Heat. They will be unwritten, of course, but they'll be there. They will be like the NBA's version of the Jordan rules but only in reverse. Jordan couldn't get the ball in crunch time without getting fouled or a free lane to the basket lest someone breath on him and commit a foul. Nowadays, Bosh, Wade, and James will have to be bleeding out of both ears to get to the foul line.

Lebron, Chris, and Dwyane are villains now, but they are our villains. And you wish they were your villains.