Dribbling, Shooting, and Waiting to Die

(So I spend $78 dollars for the Boy and me to go see the Harlem Globetrotters last Friday at the relatively new Phil Knight built basketball palace, and as I'm pressing the "buy" key I'm thinking back to circa late 50's when another boy saw "the clown princes of basketball" at MacArthur Court.  I can't remember if it was my seldom sober Dad or mostly asthmatic Mother who dragged me to this thing, but I do remember the wonderful time I had laughing at the antics of such stars as Meadowlark Lemon and who remembers anyone else?  I couldn't keep my eyes off their magic mannerisms and their tricky basket shots and the wonder of their kneeling turning twisting dribbles.  And the thing I remembered the most from that show waaay back in time was this shtick where they made you think there was water in a bucket, and when we all just knew we were going to get absolutely soaked when they tossed it on us, the water turned out to be just shredded bits of paper.  It was hilarious.  Oh, and incidentally, since there were only about 3 black people living in Eugene, Oregon at the time, and after watching this wonderful show I just assumed that all black people were (1) very tall, (2) very athletic, especially when it came to basketball, and (3) very funny to watch.  It was only much later that I found out that my assumption wasn't entirely accurate.

But, at any rate, the Boy and I found ourselves sitting in really great seats, Section 105, Row A, inside the massive Matthew Knight Arena last Friday, hot dog, popcorn, medium Sprite in hand, listening to the haunting strains of "Sweet Georgia Brown."  (Let's don't over-analyze the racist overtones of the "Harlem" anythings having a theme song with both "Georgia," and "Brown" in its title at this point, okay?) They started introducing the current version of the team (there are several Globetrotter teams traveling around the country at the same time) and we met Hacksaw Hall, Hi-Lite Bruton, several other similarly nick-named performers, and they even have a female Globetrotter now.  Cool.  The show began and it was pretty much the same thing I'd seen 50 years ago, just with different people.  They even did the bucket of "water" thing.  The Boy laughed with delight through it all, just like I had done.  I personally had more fun watching him than watching them.  At the end, it totaled up to this:  Tickets for two, $78; Official Globetrotter Basketball, $25; Official Globetrotter Wrist Sweatbands, $10; Official Globetrotter Program, $10;  being there with my son, Priceless.   But I digress ... )

• Former Nazi Youth and current head of the Catholic Church Pope Benedict the-something-or-other has apparently realized his shortcomings and has retired from the Poperacy before the entire thing goes down in litigious bankruptcy, or they all get arrested, or both.  We wish him luck, although I doubt he'll need it.  Apparently the only thing he'll be giving up is his little red shoes.  Mark Morford has more on this story:  "The Pope Stole My Maker's Mark."
• Let's give a quick check in with our favorite right-wing Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia, who has been attempting to uphold his reputation as a slightly unhinged old guy straight out of a Eastwood movie.  Referring to the U.S. Voting Rights Act as a "perpetuation of racial entitlement," Scolia seems to argue that it has been an assault on reasonable thinking to assume blacks have a moral right to vote.  In this article written by Robert Parry, Parry says "... almost as troubling was the remark from Justice Anthony Kennedy who insisted that the Voting Rights Act, which was first enacted by Congress in 1965 and was renewed overwhelmingly in 2006, was an intrusion on Alabama as an 'independent sovereign,' states’ rights language reminiscent of the Old Confederacy. Indeed, the five Republican justices – also including John Roberts, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito – seem to have absorbed a Neo-Confederate interpretation of the Constitution that is at odds with what the Framers intended." Remember, if you will, that these people are In Charge of the rules for The Game.  Sleep well tonight.
• Legendary journalist Bob Woodword is apparently losing his mind.  Long a darling of our beloved Liberal progressives, Woodword suddenly has turned on President Obama and has imagined threats and awful things coming from the administration, which he (Woodward) has even referred to as "Nixonian."  This, in spite of the fact that as far as we know President Obama hasn't ordered multiple break-ins, paid hush-money to a group of "plumbers," suggested the firebombing of a think-tank’s office, or exhibited an obscene paranoia concerning Jews and blacks.  Check out "From Legend to Laughingstock ..."
• We here at Bad Hat have never been great fans of drug testing in the first place, but the idea that rubs us really raw is the one many a well intentioned red neck rightie thinks makes sense: All welfare recipients should be forced to submit to regular drug testing to receive social help.  We could argue the point all day long, but in the end the idea will still be cost preventative, rude, mean, ineffective, and STILL unconstitutional as ruled by the Federal Appeals Court.  I rest my face.
• The body of the first openly gay man to be a viable candidate for public office in Mississippi has been found on a Mississippi River levee, the victim of an apparent homicide.  The only other interesting thing about this news story is that the 34-year-old was running for mayor of Clarksdale, a Blues hub where actor and Mississippi native Morgan Freeman co-owns a music club, and reportedly the town is known as "crossroads," the place where bluesman Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil.  The whole thing is almost too weird for me.  Read it and enjoy. 
• Sorry we've been gone for so long.  It's good to be back, and we'll try to do better.