Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

February 20, 2004

Shigeki Maruyama

Filed under: Golf — Bunker @ 7:00 pm

He’s one of those guys who seems to be having fun no matter what his score. Yeah, he’s a competitor, but he enjoys being on the tour, and won’t let a bad score get him down. He has led the Nissan Open for two rounds. Damn. I just wrote about “heritage.” Does that mean he’s a shoe-in for a win?

Mike Wier pulled into a tie with him. John Daly is lurking two strokes back. Tiger gained some ground today, but not much. He’s tied for 33rd.

Maruyama is like Daly–a pleasure to watch and always exciting with a stick in his hand. Mike Wier plays a solid game. If the cameras follow those three this weekend, it would suit me fine. But there is quite a field of interesting players to watch right with them. Scott McCarron, Briny Baird, and even old men Loren Roberts and Fred Couples.

I’d love to see another year like 2003 where a bunch of new folks win Majors and some of the older guys show they can still compete. It’s beginning to look that way. This is good for golf.

Cleopatra

Filed under: Society-Culture — Bunker @ 6:46 pm

I am watching a show on the History Channel about Cleopatra. As the experts discuss what she may have looked like, one professor at Howard University talked about how her students kept asking, “Was she black?”

The assumption I’ve heard many times is that someone from Africa must be black, or negroid. I’ve heard this said about Moses, Jesus, and now Cleopatra. I’m no expert, but I’ve read several times in historical texts that negroid people in Africa were often called “Ethiopians” so as to distinguish them from “Mediterranean” cultures.

My issue with this is “so what?” The proper response is “Because it is our heritage, and heritage is important.”

Alex Haley wrote an excellent book on his family’s history. I enjoyed the television mini-series. Roots was a great story. But it was also a story of people trying to improve themselves, and leave the past behind except as a memory.

What my father or grandfather did and experienced has nothing to do with how I conduct myself. Their experiences affect me only in how there is a direct link. There is something to the logic that if my father beat me, I might be prone to beat my kids. But that would be my decision, not his. I might be just as likely to not hit them in memory of the beatings I endured. And things my great grandfather did have no effect on me. In fact, his mother was Apache, and I have no urge to wander the desert naked.

During Black History Month, this kind of speculation is common. I can’t understand its relevance. Is it the sense of “Look how great blacks have been in the past”? If so, isn’t that self-defeating? It is the same as saying “Look how far we’ve fallen.” Swahili is the language of southeastern Africa, not the western areas where Africans were taken as slaves. How does that fit “heritage” except that people of the same skin color spoke it?

Skin color means nothing. I wrote about this on Dr. King’s birthday. I still believe what he had to say:

“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Will blacks in this country ever believe that whites have adopted King’s view?

Journalists

Filed under: Society-Culture — Bunker @ 5:02 pm

Tim Blair has a post on the ethics of journalism in war, and how some step over the line. It got me thinking about a series I used in teaching Honor and Ethics at USAFA, Ethics in America. In particular, there are two episodes called “Under Orders, Under Fire” which address issues facing the military in war. On the panel (this is 1987) are Peter Jennings, Gen. Westmoreland, Newt Gingrich, Donald Rumsfeld, Mike Wallace, Brent Scowcroft, and Congressman Louis Stokes. These videos are available for viewing, requiring a simple registration. This is one registration I recommend heartily.

The topics are varied, and sometimes put Wallace and Jennings on the spot in a “What would you do?” situation. One sticks in my mind, and is the one that sent me on a search for these videos. It directly relates to something in Tim’s post:

A flim crew captures an American soldier shooting a prisoner. There are all kinds of caveats and circumstances involved, including the death of soldiers at the hands of this captive. Jennings says he definitely films it and forwards it home. Wallace says he puts it on the air, but only after days of discussion. After all, he says, we aren’t in the war, we’re just journalists.

Col George Connell, a Marine, speaks up. “Two days later, they’re both walking off my hill top. As they reach the bottom, 200 yards away, they are ambushed, and are lying wounded calling for us to come help them. They’re just journalists. What chaps my ass is that I will go help them, and put myself and my men at risk to do it.”

The credits list “Senator John Kerry” as being one of the panelists, but I didn’t see him in it at all. He certainly would have been an interesting part of this show.

There are other quality discussions in this series, and all are worth a look.

February 19, 2004

Reporting

Filed under: General Rants — Bunker @ 7:03 pm

I’ve often written about how lazy I believe the media to be. This extends to all areas of coverage, whether it be politics or golf. They attach themselves to one thing, and proceed to beat it to death.

What’s ironic is that they are all looking for a new twist to whatever it is they’re covering. I wonder why they continue reporting on it. In engineering, people like this quickly wear out their welcome. And we have them. They have a pet solution, something that (they think) fits all. And they want to use it over and over and over, regardless of efficiency. Because they’re familiar with all its traits. Commonality definitely has its place, but there is a time to move on.

Political reporters do the same. “The Dean Scream” was played ad nauseum, and I never thought it was anything more than someone preaching to the choir. Our entertainment reporters lock onto Michael Jackson or Martha Stewart, and we are constantly fed the same story over and over and over. Sometimes, in a three minute segment, there may be a single new piece of information. The remaining time is eaten up telling us what we’ve been told dozens of times…just in case we missed it before.

Gee, these are the same people who have always complained that there wasn’t enough time to do a full story. I think if they gave us just 10 seconds on each continuing story, they’d have plenty of time for more exhaustive coverage of at least one major topic each day. Of course, that would limit face time for the talent, and minimal opportunity to flash factoids at the bottom of the screen. And that talent might actually have to get new information where there is none.

Golf does the same thing. I was eager to see coverage today of the Nissan Open at Riviera. Tiger is in the field. How would USA Network cover him? As expected:

“Here is Tiger on the first hole.” on tape. Then, continuing on tape, “Here he is at the second,” and, “Here’s Tiger at the third.” Had it been live, I wouldn’t have minded nearly as much.

But David Toms is back in the field after surgery. John Daly is hoping to continue his rebound. And dozens of other fine golfers are trying to get their first win of the year. Mike Wier, Masters winner and Nissan defending champion, is back in the hunt and playing well.

Tiger did not have his typical stellar year in 2003. Yes, he received the Player of the Year Award., but I think his limited playing schedule actually helped him. It won’t happen that way two years in a row. Fewer and fewer people are watching golf just because of him. But sponsors like to see him in the field, and television sponsors want to see him shown.

Sports announcers are more knowlegeable about what they cover than most, but even here the familiar is important.

C’mon, guys. Show the field. Take some risk and show someone who isn’t expected to win. Maybe, just maybe, it will be the story of your life. Or, you can remain in the comfort zone and follow Tiger, regardless of his play. After all, that’s where the money is.

Grins for all

Filed under: Golf — Bunker @ 3:25 pm

No, Ms Grok, but now I can’t say that!

One-liners from the sports media that got quite a different message across than the one they wanted to convey!

February 18, 2004

Riviera and Tiger

Filed under: Golf — Bunker @ 8:17 pm

I sat down to write this, and noticed the message from Don. Now I don’t know if I have the heart to say what I wanted to on a topic as frivolous as golf after re-reading his editorial. I’ll try.

Sunday after his round, Tiger Woods spoke with Peter Kostis about his disappointing play. “I need to get the ball in the fairway. You know, I play pretty well from the fairway.”

That struck me as odd. Tiger doesn’t really play any better from the fairway than any of the other top pros. What makes him special is his ability to make a shot out of nothing. I remember his fantastic shots out of deep rough at Pebble Beach and St Andrews, and his ability to bend a ball around trees to get out of woods that would cost other players at least one stroke.

In the past, he has worked hard on making those impossible shots, probably spending more practice time on that than any other phase of the game. Now, though, his swing is ailing and he finds himself having to work on it, trying to put the ball in the fairway. His trouble game has suffered, and so have his scores.

It will be interesting to see if he can either keep the ball in play this week, or if he has recaptured the skill to salvage the bad shots he’s had recently.

Don Bendell

Filed under: Military — Bunker @ 8:07 pm

I sat down to write something and found a comment from Don Bendell regarding his essay I posted several days ago. He sent me the full post, along with the link to his web site. Following is his full editorial:

GUEST OPINION

My wife had rotator cuff surgery earlier this year, and the recovery is terribly painful. Then, she developed a staph-epi infection, and they had to cut the same scar open and operate on her again. Just thinking about the pain and anxiety of facing that painful surgery a second time in the same wound, makes me cringe. That experience, however pales in comparison to what I am going through right now, in my heart.

The old hurts are surfacing and the feelings of betrayal by fellow citizens, and their leader stirring them up, are breaking my heart again. I am being cut in the same scar. How did we who served in Vietnam suddenly become cold-blooded killers, torturers, and rapists, of the ilk of the Nazi SS or the Taliban? Most of us were American soldiers who grew up idolizing John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and all the other heroes. That was why I volunteered. But for political expediency, John Kerry has rewritten history, again. After spending only four months in the country of Vietnam, John Kerry testified before Congress in 1971 with these exact words about incidents he supposedly witnessed or heard about from other vets: ?They personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam.”

I was a green beret officer who volunteered for duty in Vietnam and fought in the thick of it in 1968 and 1969 on a Special Forces A-team on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, just for starters. We were the elite. We saw the most action. Everybody in the world knows that. But we did not just kill people, we built a church, a school, treated illnesses, passed out soap, food, and clothing, and had fun and loving interaction with the indigenous people of Vietnam, just like our boys did in Normandy, Baghdad, Saigon, and everywhere American soldiers ever served. We all gave away our candy bars and rations to kids. Our hearts to oppressed people all over the globe.

My children and grandchildren could read your words, and think those horrendous things about me, Mr. Kerry. You are a bold-faced, unprincipled liar, and a disgrace, and you have dishonored me and all my fellow Vietnam veterans. Sure, there were a couple bad-apples, but I saw none, and I saw it all, and if I did, as an army officer, it was my obligation to stop it, or at the very least report it. Why is there not a single record anywhere of you ever reporting any incidents like this or having the perpetrators arrested? The answer is simple. You are a liar. Your medals and mine are not a free pass for lifetime, Senator Kerry, to bypass character, integrity, and morality. I earn my green beret over and over daily in all aspects of my life.

Eight National Guard green berets, and other National Guard soldiers, have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and you totally dishonored their widows and families by lumping National Guard service in with being a draft-dodger, conscientious objector, and deserter, just so you can try to sabotage the patriotism of our President who proudly served as an Air National Guard jet pilot. I have a son earning his green beret at Fort Bragg right now, and his wife serves honorably in the Air National Guard, just like President Bush did, and I am as proud of her as I am my son. I volunteered for Vietnam and have no problem whatsoever with President Bush being our Commander-In-Chief. In fact, I am proud of him as our leader.

John Kerry, you personally derailed the Vietnam Human Rights Bill, HR2883, in 2001, after it had passed the House by a 411 to 1 vote, and thousands of pro-American Montagnard tribespeople in Vietnam died since then who could have been saved, by you. Earlier, as Chair of the Senate Select Committee on MIA/POW Affairs, you personally quashed the efforts of any and all veterans to report sightings of living POW?s, when you held those reins in Congress. You have fought tooth and nail to push for the US to normalize relations with Vietnam for years. Why, Mr. Kerry? Simple, your first cousin C. Stewart Forbes, CEO, of Colliers International, recently signed a contract with Hanoi, worth BILLIONS of dollars for Collier?s International to become the exclusive real estate representative for the country of Vietnam.

?Hanoi John,? now that it works for you, you beat your chest about your Vietnam service, but to me, you are a phony, opportunistic, hypocrite. You are one of those politicians that is like a fertilizer machine: all that comes out of you is horse manure, and you are spreading it everywhere.
Medals do not make a man. Morals do.

Don Bendell
Canon City, Colorado

Don Bendell served as an officer in four Special Forces Groups, is a best-selling author with over 1,500,000 books in print, a 1995 inductee into the International Karate Hall of Fame, and owns karate schools in southern Colorado.

God bless you, Don and Shirley Bendell.

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress