SamSaid!

WHERE IS THE MONEY?

     From time to time I have opined that there is a huge difference between tax dollars and cash money. Cash dollars are in an individual's pocket for individual use, while tax dollars belong to nobody and are in a big reservoir awaiting expenditure by our civil servants for good purposes and some not so good.  No better example can be cited than a recent occurrence at that West Coast Educational Citadel  –  The University of California.

    An independent audit recently (and harshly) found that in addition to $9.3 BILLION dollars paid in salaries, there was an additional $334 MILLION paid in ” additional compensation”  –  including pensions. The examples cited in the audit report are disgusting since they come from the highest levels in our Educational system. Maybe $334 Million won't break the bank, but it isn't chicken feed either. This is not a case of a teen age druggie ripping off a 711 for a handy six and a carton of cigarettes; rather, these ripoffs were initiated and authorized by very highly ranked and paid officials of U CAL.   Somehow it doesn't seem quite right to refer to these items of gross overpayment as poor practices, errors in judgment or decisions that are contrary to compensation policies of the University. Consider, in the year audited, there were 4071 members of the department of Education paid in excess of $168,000 and many of them still benefitted from “additional compensation”  –  which was initiated and approved internally.   

     Cal is budgeted just like any other organization, but obviously, the University brass figure that tax dollars are different and there is nothing wrong in blowing away $344 MILLION dollars improperly and then kissing it off by changing a few policies here and there. I have watched the newspapers for the past month, but I haven't seen any reporting that heads have rolled, indictments have been sought, or any repayment has been demanded. After all, This is almighty CAL  –  not Enron, Tyco, Adelphia or any of the other Corporate miscreants. Should we use the standards of Cal to judge the accused at Enron?  Or is Education fraud and theft exempt from trivialities like the law. Don't expect too much from the Chancellor at Cal, since his pension  was doubled to $395,00 per year  –  nearly twice the pre-existing figure. Think we devote enough tax dollars for education??

     But, what the hell  — it's only tax dollars, so why should we care?

BONDS

     Baseball player Barry Bonds has hit his 715th career homerun, thus eclipsing the achievent of the legendary Babe Ruth. It is a stupendous baseball accomplishment and his ardent fans are delirious over the success of their hero. But there are storm clouds that may throw cold water on what might have been a great day. Now, Bonds is a surly, moody, contrary, ungrateful soul whose personal life is a mess (kind evaluation). Among baseball fans and the general public he will never win the Mr. Congenialty contest. On top of that, he is right up to his chin in a major controversy over his use of performance enhancing drugs during his most productive home run years. The Commissioner of baseball is right on the spot  –  What to do with a baseball giant whose is a druggie?

     One suggestion is to attach an asterisk alongside his record numbers, saying, “achieved while using performance enhancing drugs”. Bonds fears that more than anything else. He would become a druggie with phony records. He fears this more than anything else.

     There is also the baseball Hall of Fame. Based on numbers alone, he would be a shoo-in. But years ago, baseball drew the line on gambling, and in the process banned from baseball FOR LIFE, the best player in the game, Shoeless Joe Jackson. Right now, a truly superb player, Pete Rose, is denied entry to the Hall because he got caught gambing on baseball games. If Rose is the pariah denied entry to the hall, how about Bonds?   Gambling vs cheating on fellow players and the general public? If Bonds enters, Rose says “What about me”"

     If baseball wants to clean up its act and get serious about steroids and comparable perrformance enhancing substances, now is the time. As for me, when someone mentions 715, I figure it is a quarter after seven and time for news and weather. One little asterisk, but sports all over America will notice.

     Nobody forced you to do it, Barry. Nobody made you swallow the pills, and nobody forced you to take the injections. My record books will be better without the sorry chapter you wrote!

BONDS

     Baseball player Barry Bonds has hit his 715th career home run, thus passing the long standing achiement of legendary Babe Ruth. No question about it, Bonds is a great power hitter. He also is a moody, surly, impolite egotist who is more interested in his own individuaal records that any other achievemnts. Bonds will never win the Mr Congenialty award. He is not highly regarded as a person  — aside from baseball statistics. True, he has a cadre of hometown fans, but they have a habit of being fickle when things go bad.

     Bonds wants 2 things. First, that his name will appear at the top of the list of all-time home run hitters, and second, that he be elected to the baseball Hall of Fame. Relying solely on baseball statistcs. he would appear to be a shoo-in on both ambitions. But there are storm clouds hovering about which could have an enormous effect on Mr Bonds. The one thing Bonds fears more than anything else is a small symbol called an asterisk (***) —  which could be placed on his home run numbers, saying “achieved while using performance enhancing drugs”. He would be labelled forever as a druggie and cheater. What a comedown.

     Also there is the Hall of Fame matter. Baseball has an iron rule about gambling, and it dates back more than 80 years. The baseball Commissioner banned gambling and also banned one of the very best players in all of baseball for gambling on the world series. Shoeless Joe Jackson was banned for LIFE.

No Hall of Fame for Joe.

AT LAST

     Zarqawi is gone. Long gone. For good. And the world is a better place today that it was yesterday. Maybe some regard him a a hero, but the plain fact is that he was a fanatical religious zealot and a blood thirsty murderous animal. Nothing more or less. True, someone may try to take his place, but he will be tough to clone, and any replacement with begin with his (her) days numbered.

    Republicans have credited the President for the success of the mission to rid him from the earth. Left wingers (Dems), however, are more inclind to give the story  the ho-hum treatment and observe that there will be a replacement, and the war goes on. Bin Laden and Zawahiri might shrug off the abrupt departure of their henchman Zarqawi as just another casualty of warfare –   Al Queda style. But something tells me that they just may be looking over their shoulders a little bit more carefully, like anyone else on a published hit list.

     In the meantime, I hope that we have a few appropriate medals for the crews of the 2 F-16s who delivered the 500 pounders.