MARCH MADNESS

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This is the first of (perhaps) multiple posts on the tournament of all tournaments. The grandaddy of them all. (Even if that is supposed to refer to the Rose Bowl).

This week, I am writing about something that everyone in this nation can relate to, can understand, can have some sort of knowledge of, even if they have no idea how many points a three-pointer is worth: The NCAA Basketball Tournament.

As I write this post, I am interrupted by meetings with multiple people rushing brackets to me to enter my March Madness pool. (Want in? You have until noon!) Sports fanatics, casual fans, guys just trying to reassure their man-cards, girls looking for shopping sprees, and girls implored by their boyfriends to join the madness are all brought together by the event that makes everyone into a psychic. And, by the way, the girlfriends beat the boyfriends just as often as it goes the other way, this isn’t my first pool.

Aside from the largest ignorant breaking of gambling law this nation has ever seen, the NCAA tournament is a beautiful collection of many elements that takes something as simple as a basketball game and transcends it into something more; it is storied, it is poetic, it is comedic, and it is tragic; it gives us heroes, and burns names of enemies into our hearts; it breaks the hearts of 67 teams, and lifts one into eternal glory.

Perhaps the most beautiful part of the tournament is the cinderella story. The tiny school from the Missouri Valley conference knocks of the Goliath of the Big Brawny Big East. A school by the name of Lehigh knocks of college basketball’s elite in Duke. The #8 seed Butler Bulldogs come within a bounce off the rim from going all the way to cut down the nets, and Shaka Smart and his VCU Rams are forced to play their way into the tournament in the first four then find themselves on the biggest stage in the final four.

Perhaps the greatest story of tournament history was commemorated by the most recent ESPN 30 for 30 film “Survive and Advance.” It told the story of the NC State Wolfpack, and their miracle run in 1983, led by the icon Jim Valvano, recently learning of the cancer that grew inside his body. If you have not seen the film, I highly recommend it, I cried.

And if you haven’t seen his speech in 1993 at the ESPYs please watch. It is about cancer and can teach us all how to live our lives.

And if you want to see a quick cinderella story watch this. It’s how a name like Ali Faroukmanesh becomes a household name.

Not Who’s on First, Who’s on Fire?

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One of the things that I think a lot of people, especially those with limited sporting knowledge, would like to know about sports is what teams are good and what teams are bad. If you want to talk about sports, there is no easier conversation started than “How about them dawgs?” (Or any other team name, I’m just using a common saying about the University of Georgia.)

This week I want to talk about a few teams that are the buzz of the sports world, the “good” teams, they guys who are on fire.

Yes, I am talking about you Chicago Blackhawks and Miami Heat.

First we visit the NHL. There is no team in the NHL right now that can compare to the start of the Chicago Blackhawks. In hockey, standings are maintained by points, a team gets two points for a win, none for a loss, and one for a loss in overtime (a tie in regulation.) The Chicago Blackhawks began their season by earning at least one point in their first 24 games. No losses in regulation for 24 games. In that stretch, they amassed a record of 21-0-3, and have almost already clinched a playoff spot halfway through the season. Only the Philadelphia Flyers of past have ever had a streak longer, reaching 35 straight games with a point earned. The Hawks are on fire.

Second, to the NBA. The Miami Heat are on fire. (See what I did there?) They have won 19 straight, and barring a miracle tonight at the 76ers, they should reach 20 straight wins. (I bet I just jinxed them.) 20 straight victories. Many franchises have never had such a stretch of games. Over this stretch of wins, that includes overtime victories and blowout wins, the Heat have proven they are the most dominant team in basketball, and maybe in sports. They HAVE already clinched a playoff spot, needing only 40 games to do so. Ridiculous. That’s an NBA record. Also during this stretch, LeBron James has been absurd, proving he is the best basketball player on the planet. Give him the MVP now. For all the LeBron and Miami haters, I am sorry, because this team will win it all this year. Again.

So, if you don’t watch SportsCenter, I just told you everything you need to know from the past month. The NFL draft doesn’t matter.

Next week, MARCH MADNESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

Persuasion Idea

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For the persuasion essay, I am going to write about how lawsuit is the bane of this country, which I really believe it is.

I understand that sometimes it may be a bad idea to write a persuasive essay on a topic you feel very strongly about because your emotions can get the best of you, but this is a fight that I want to fight.

I believe that lawsuits are one of the most fundamental issues with our country. You can look at this from multiple perspectives; ranging from the ridiculous lack of personal responsibility in our country that allows people to sue for stupid things such as my coffee was too hot, to the effect of lawsuit on rising healthcare costs. A viewpoint of this issue that I really want to talk about comes from a Facebook page I follow called “Faces of Lawsuit Abuse.” It shows the most ridiculous lawsuits in our country each month, and each year, shining light in the incredible greed and lack of responsibility in our nation.

One example from the page is about a Judge who sued an Asian family who own a few Dry cleaners in DC. The cleaners temporarily lost a pair of the Judge’s pants. So, naturally, he sued them for $67 million dollars. You read that right. Look it up. They have gone to court after court, because he continues to appeal time and again to higher courts. The legal fees have put the family almost entirely out of business, something they worked their entire lives to build. They cannot even afford to pay the legal fees to sue him for their losses because of this crazy suit. Not to mention, at one point they even offered to pay him $12,000 and return the pants. He declined, he wants millions.

This is but one example. And I can prove that malpractice is the main driver of healthcare costs, not Insurance Providers or even Care Providers like everyone thinks.

WIP Deliberation Essay

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There is a reason the name of my blog post is not Deliberation Essay Rough Draft. I don’t have a rough draft. I just finished writing a research paper for the past ten hours, I don’t have it in me tonight. So, here are my ideas loosely brought together here.

Moderation philosophy:

In my experience as a moderator, I wanted to take the discussion to a deeper level when we talked about sustainability and education, but I also didn’t want to break up good discussion. Everyone was contributing and listening well, talking about their experiences in high school and how it can relate to sustainability. This is really good.

What I wanted to push towards was the actual sustainability of the education in this country. The sustainability of our current education with its current funding levels to keep American students competitive with the rest of the world, or the sustainability of our current University system, as costs continue to rise and the promise of a job coming out of that degree falls apart.

My moderation philosophy is that we can learn as much or more from watching where the discussion takes us rather than it following the course of one person in charge. So I sit back.

Deliberative Process:

I was a little disappointed by our deliberation. The conversation was great in that it was civil, people listened, it stayed on topic, it was supported with facts, and everyone learned from it.

What I didn’t like was that it seemed that most of our conversation was people simply listening to one person’s opinion or experiences, and then responding by telling everyone their opinion or experiences. There were very few questions asked whenever someone made a point, and almost no challenging of viewpoints by another group member. One of the most important parts of good deliberation is the back and forth of people challenging each other to defend themselves, and bring the advantages of their vision to the forefront.

I think this is representative of deliberation as a whole in this country. There is a lot of hesitation when it comes to challenging another person when deliberating in person, or even online when you try to remain civil. Recently, there was a facebook group made for the purpose of 138 deliberation, a great idea, except lest a few people who were asking good questions and challenging each other, the comment list is simply a lot of people stating their opinions on a matter.

On the other extreme, a lot of online deliberation is behind the protection of a screen and keyboard, so people violently yell at each other for no reason, pointing fingers, calling names, making generalizations, and forgetting the purpose of deliberation. In my personal online experience, I was called a heart-beating liberal, told I was in Bob Casey’s pocket, and called ignorant because I believe that the gender wage gap is a real thing. I like to think that I am not ignorant, but I am positive that I am not a polarizing liberal.

Just 500 words of starting ideas.

WIP Sustainability

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This week we have to define sustainability.

Sustainability is the ability to sustain.

But seriously, I define it as the ability of our world, including those living in it, to perpetuate itself. For example, millions of years of deposition led to the deposits of fossil fuels that we enjoy today, yet we are tearing through them in a matter of centuries. That is not sustainable.

Sustainability is the ability of our world to recycle carbon, water, nitrogen, and other elements in a manner that does not threaten the future of our world.

Sustainability is the peaceful coexisting of the human race and its surroundings, for now and generations to come.

Sustainability is the ability of our Earth to last.

 

Civic Issues: State of the Union

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While I had the unfortunate luck of being the only one in our group to have to post the week of THON, I was fortunate enough to have the week of the annual Presidential idealist stump speech: The State of the Union.

Like every SOTU, the President began with a history lecture, then said the same words, repeated every year since JFK, “the state of our union is strong.”

But how strong is it, really? I mean, our country is torn into a contentious dichotomy over immigration, gun control, women’s rights, gay marriage, abortion, Medicare, defense spending, the national deficit, foreign policy, weapons policy, assisting the needy, and international trade. It seems like party contention and debate is at an all time high, even spurring the inception of new political movements (read: The Tea Party).

As for the content of the speech, I will speak briefly on a few subjects.

The first is the most important, our economy. The “fiscal cliff” aversion caused a serious reduction in our 4 trillion dollar deficit, but we are still well over a trillion dollars in the hole for this year, provided that Congress will stand by cutting all they pledged to (they won’t). The president said that the continued reduction of this deficit must come from balanced cuts across the board in spending, coupled with rewriting the tax law, and increasing revenue. Now, closing up loopholes in taxes will save the Government 100 billion annually, sadly this action is almost negligible. When he said that the Government would need to increase revenue, he said it would need to be balanced by all Americans. I may be wrong, but it sounds like the President just hinted at increasing everyone’s taxes.

The problem, now, is that he went on to describe advances the United States needs to make in many areas: energy independence, alternative fuels, biomedical advances, education, the environment, helping citizens refinance, etc. All of these require increases in funding. But we have to cut funding.

And then the President goes on to say how our economic policy must have the sole purpose of creating jobs in mind. Unfortunately, for the Government to create jobs (increase GDP) with fiscal policy, it has to increase spending (GDP = Gov. spending + consumption + private investment + net exports). This is the exact opposite of reducing the deficit.

Look, I totally agree with him that all these things have to happen, but my logic says that they cannot. So, as president, he has to decide which route the country needs to take.

Another topic he spoke on was immigration reform. A measure that received ovations from both sides of the chamber, he proposed strengthening border security as well as influencing immigrants to learn English. Jaanki recently posted about bringing the best and the brightest to the United States, so I will play devil’s advocate here.

The problem with immigrants coming to the United States is that they drive population increases faster than the economy can create jobs. In a word, some people would say that they are taking American’s jobs. A couple of times President Obama referenced the creation of a million American jobs, except with influxes of immigrants, and policies of affirmative action, along with basic microeconomics, those jobs will go to immigrants before they go to established struggling families.

Finally, he touched on some foreign policy. First, everyone should be reminded that John Kerry is our new Secretary of State, and we should send our best wishes to HC, she was a great Secretary. Now, Obama mentioned “making sure Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon.” I sometimes (often) have misgivings about the United States being the police of the world. Iran is an independent, sovereign nation, who are we to impose sanctions other than a member of the UN council? Is it feasible that the country that is struggling to sustain a nuclear program will launch a missile knowing that the response would be 100 back into their face?

In addition, he discussed supporting democracy and human rights in the middle east. I agree with the human rights portion, and I love my country, but at the same time, I don’t think that our democracy will work everywhere. I think that we should fight for the basic human rights of people through Diplomacy, and allow them to form their own power structure. The Constitution is ours and ours only, let these other nations have that same beauty.

To finish, he said simply that the gun control measures proposed recently “deserve a vote.” Though we may disagree on what the results of that vote should be, I totally agree with him, it’s time for a referendum on the debate gripping the country right now.

So there’s my entirely disjointed, uncensored, opinionated, probably a little misinformed take on the SOTU.

PS I didn’t watch the Republican Response, or the Tea Party Response. The latter would be a complete waste of time.

The PED Problem

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Sports are a save haven for competition. A place where people can perform to their best of their ability to measure themselves against others in their same genre. However, in order to compete, there must be fairness.

This is why sports have rules, referees, and Governing Bodies. There are checks and balances in place to maintain the integrity of the competition. However, more and more these days, that integrity is being challenged by modern advances in medicine and technology. Golf equipment is better, athletes can train harder and longer with the help of Science, and incredible statistics breakdown helps teams predict the future. However, nothing is contributing more to ruining sport than Performance Enhancing Drugs.

Performance Enhancing Drugs, or PEDs, are a variety of substances that enhance the human body to increase its ability to train and to perform. They expand the capacity of the natural human body. There are two sports that PEDs have become a serious issue: Baseball and Cycling.

Alex Rodriguez made headlines again this week for his second positive test for the use of PEDs. He first tested positive a few years ago, and served a suspension, but now he could be facing an exit from Major League Baseball. A-Rod is not alone. Many of baseball’s greats face either accusation of, or indictment of the use of PEDs. The all-time home run leader Barry Bonds, sluggers Mark MacGuire and Sammy Sosa, and Ace Roger Clemens all face tainted reputations, as displayed by their failure to make it into the baseball hall of fame. PEDs take away from the integrity of the game, and cripple the legacies of some of our most beloved players.

The other tainted sport is cycling. PED use in cycling, often referred to as “doping” because of the methods of blood doping used to achieve results, is rampant. In the sport’s pinnacle, Le Tour de France, there have only been seven legitimate victories since 1996. It seems that everyone dopes, as cyclists are tossed from races all the time. Doping violations have scarred the legacy of my favorite athlete, Lance Armstrong. Now, Lance of France has been stripped of his seven consecutive titles, and ridiculed despite beating cancer, returning to the top of his sport, then starting one of the world’s largest movements for the fight against cancer. It is not known how much of this was his doing, and how much PEDs aided him, but it pains me to think one of my heros wasn’t everything he appeared to be.

My questions for you guys are do you like these posts that go deep into an issue in sports, or would you rather see stories of the success of sport? Also, I’m thinking of doing some posts just about parts of sports in general, such as what makes a great coach, and who are the greatest? Thoughts? Concerns?

WIP: Online Deliberation Week 2

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So this week, I have continued my online deliberation with the use of my local newspaper, PennLive. I have not received any responses yet, so I have nothing to post. I responded to an article about Gov. Corbett wanting to raise gas taxes to fund an increase in the state transportation budget. Obviously people were disgruntled over pain at the pump, but I tried to play devil’s advocate and explain to them that if they don’t make sacrifices, nobody will, and our roads will (continue to) fail.

Passion Week 1: The Southern Dynasty

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There is no doubt who the best college football program is in the country. With back to back championships, Alabama has solidified itself at the pinnacle of the NCAA’s most lucrative sport. However, this Alabama program under head coach Nick Saban is not just good, they are a dynasty. One for the ages. First let’s look at the stats over the past few years.

Alabama has one back to back BCS National Championships, and three out of the last four titles. No team owns three crystal footballs other than the Crimson Tide, and they have done it in a time span equal to the eligibility of a player: four years. There are members of this years Alabama squad that will exit their career having NOT won the National Championship ONLY ONCE. As far as raw wins go, their 61-7 record over this time span is incredible.

Now, wins and rings are always a way to make a good case, but this Crimson Tide team doesn’t just win football games, they dismantle teams. Notorious for beginning each season with a high-octane game, they have consistently blown out top-5 teams at the beginning of each season. This year they made Michigan look like girls, and ended Denard Robinson’s season before it even began. But what may be even more intriguing is how they dismantle teams at the end of seasons. They beat undefeated and #1 LSU 20-0, never letting the Tigers past midfield. This year, they beat undefeated and #1 Notre Dame 42-14, ending the game at halftime, up 28-0.

Alabama beat Notre Dame so badly, ND coach Brian Kelly hoped they wouldn’t come out for the second half. Seriously, he said it:

All this proves that Alabama is good. Really good. Like dynasty good. This football dynasty has put themselves into their own category in the past five years, which might be the scariest thing about this program. Alabama hired head coach Nick Saban just 5 seasons ago. He took a middle-of-the-road team in the SEC and made them into perpetual title winners.

Only time will tell how long the words “Crimson Tide” and “dominance” will be one and the same.

 

Online Deliberation Work In Progress

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So this evening, I began my online deliberation with the use of PennLive.com, the website of my local newspaper. I chose an article about Senator Bob Casey’s proposal of legislation that would require equal pay for men and women for the same job.

Here are my screenshots from the conversation I had:

Screen Shot 2013-01-30 at 10.44.19 PM Screen Shot 2013-01-30 at 10.44.41 PM Screen Shot 2013-01-30 at 10.45.18 PM

 

At first, I refuted an argument based on absolutely nothing, simply name calling of the senator and calling men’s work “harder” because it involves more physical work. I was then refuted by someone calling my sources biased, and challenging me to explain the actions of people who are only slightly involved in this debate. While I cannot explain other’s actions, I attempted to reason with the person logically. They sensed a liberal mindset in my words, and then generalized me to have one heartbeat with Bob Casey, dismissing me as a reason for the failed economy. However, I think level heads prevailed here.