This, That and PSU!

FUNNY! The US Olympic Team unveiled its new uniforms this week to mixed reviews.  It seems some were offended by the “berets” that topped off the new threads…a little too “French” for some.

The critics were quickly silenced when it was pointed out that the US has fielded a number of teams sporting berets…Green Berets to be specific…that have comported themselves quite well.

BRAIN DEAD!  The US Olympic Uniforms made center stage once again when it was learned that the Ralph Lauren designed outfits were made in…wait for it…CHINA!  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was livid.  He wants the US Olympic Committee to “gather the uniforms up, put them in a pile and burn them.  Start over!  Even if it means wearing a unitard with USA scrawled on the front by hand.”  Reid rightly noted that the committee was wrong not to consider all the out of work US textile workers in making their decision.

YOU’RE TAX DOLLARS AT WORK!  It costs taxpayers $24 million dollars per week to run the House of Representatives.  It is estimated that the Republican led House spent 80 hours debating/voting 33 different times to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act.  That’s $48 million dollars of tax payer money wasted on an exercise of futility.  That’s crazy!  What is even crazier is that this story was reported by…FOX NEWS!

IT FIGURES!  “The Atlantic” is reporting that female congressional staffers make waaaaaayyyy less on average than their male counterparts.

House Republican female staffers make on average of $10,093.09 less than their male Republican counterparts.

House Democrat female staffers make on average $1,473.65 less than their male Democrat counterparts.

Senate Republican female staffers make on average $9,805.85 less than their male Republican counterparts.

Senate Democrat female staffers make on average $4,916.46 less than their male Democrat counterparts.

MONEY, POWER, CELEBRITY!  The Penn State story is a tragic example of a great flaw in our society.  It demonstrates in the most horrific manner how money, power and celebrity allow some to work above the law while fawning others allow them a pass.  Naturally there are those who will blame this tragedy on football and the prominence it plays in our universities.  Many are already calling for the Penn State football program to be shut down for a year or two; to show the world that the sport does not run the institution.  But if you buy into that myopic viewpoint then you are missing the big picture.  If you follow this course of action you  cannot stop at the football program…you have to shut down the entire university.  Because while this horrible scandal may have started in the locker room it spread all the way to the office of the university president.

Certainly Joe Paterno was trying to protect his legacy and the program he built over five decades. But Athletic Director Tim Curley was trying to protect his athletic department which depended so heavily on the funds generated by the football program.  And Financial Vice President Gary Schultz and President Graham Spanier were trying to protect the legacy of the Penn State institution; a monolith that had become the very essence of too big to fail.  Four powerful men trying to protect their own turf; each blinded by the size and scope of the money, power and legacy that they held within their hands…so blinded that they failed to protect the victims.  And therein lies the tragedy…that none of them were willing to put the welfare of the victims ahead of the money, power and celebrity.

Sandusky, Schultz, Graham and Spanier should be punished to the full extent of the law.  Paterno’s legacy, for all his athletic achievements will now bear the scar of a man who for over a decade looked the other way while a pedophile preyed within his oligarchy.  The university itself will rightly suffer the loss of its reputation and the financial consequences of damages brought against it by the victims.  None of these remedies will ever make the victims whole.

This is not a tragic story about a football program gone awry.  This is a tragic story about our society.  It is a story about the importance we place on money, power and celebrity and the lengths that we will go to hang on to them...even at the expense of our children.