Your Other Face

The anointed one in DC condemns those who bring anger and division into the political debate. He yearns for a civil discourse. Yesterday, he told an interviewer (soft ball lobber Matt Lauer of NBC) that he was looking to find someone whose ass he could kick, over the Gulf oil spill. Ah, more civil discourse from the great uniter. (Matt Lauer recently made news when an adulterous affair was revealed. Of course, he blithely cavorts as if it's of no consequence in revealing his character.)

Today's news brings notice that the USC football program has been suspended from post season Bowl appearances for two years and has had twenty athletic scholarships eliminated. (They'll only be able to offer 5980 next season.) This is due to some players getting financial support from Alumni Boosters back in 2004-05. Of course, the head coach at the time and, until the end of last season,Pete Carroll has left the school and assumed the head coaching job with the Seattle NFL team. No doubt a reward for his duplicity. "We run an honest program."

And the sad news recently that the great college basketball coach, John Wooden, passed away. He won a record 10 NCAA championships at UCLA. During that time many of his players received financial and other material considerations from a sports booster named Papa Sam Gilbert. UCLA was never disciplined. The great coach made like the famous monkeys and had plausible deniability.

We are all sinners and given to prevarication on occasion, yet wouldn't it be sweet to address the hypocrisy in our nation's news makers? We should have a national ombudsman in charge of conducting public floggings of public personalities who betray public trust.

Shakespeare had it right when he said of man, "God has given you one face and you make yourself another."