When it comes to running some bull...

Where is Papa Hemingway when you need him! Well one thing’s for certain, he wasn’t at Virginia Motor Sports Park when it christened the first of its kind running with the bulls event last Saturday. Heralded as The Great Bull Run, the event is sure to drag in its share of thrill seekers, oglers, and morons. Did I say morons? Well, with that kind of an event it’s sure to be successful.

While Dinwiddie is not exactly Pamplona, Spain, the original site of bull running, sitting squarely in Central Virginia it’s close enough to garner most of the bull that’s been running around the state for years. Too bad we can’t name the people we would like to see taking part in the event. Since we obviously missed this inaugural running of the bulls, perhaps it’s not too late to make suggestions for the next running of the bull. Here are a few candidates I would like to see:

Governor McDonnell and family—Sorry, but when it comes to Virginia First, there’s no one better at running some bull than our own top dog, Governor McDonnell. Along with the rest of his family, McDonnell would have us believe that several thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise his family received from Star Scientific and CEO Jonnie R. Williams Sr. were gifts, and not bribes. Despite his close relationship with the owner of Star Blah, McDonnell opted not to report the gifts stating at first that they were outside the need to report. Now ain’t that some bull?

Virginia Department of Education—For raising the pass/fail score on SOL tests and wondering why some schools failed to meet the mark the DOE stands alone as perhaps the craziest bureaucracy to even grace the halls. The tests, which were supposed to mark minimum standards for specific academic areas, were toughened to “raise the bar” for the students, who apparently must have been performing too well. The DOE apparently thought they could increase the intellect of the students by merely making the test tougher. But instead, they lowered the overall passing rates of many of the schools, and those schools which already were having a hard time meeting the old standard were basically left behind—perhaps for good. Wouldn’t it have made just a little bit more sense to increase the standards when all schools had met the pass-fail criteria? Since I don’t have a PhD, I guess those kinds of answers will continue to elude me.

Penn State University—The powers that were at Penn State still seem to think that they do not harbor some guilt when it comes to the Jerry Sandusky child molestation nightmare. Recently hauled before a grand jury, exPresident Graham Spanier, ex-vice president Gary Schultz, and ex-athletic director Tim Curley were all told that they would be back in court to face charges of perjury, endangering the welfare of children, obstructing justice, conspiracy and failure to report suspected child abuse. The three deny the allegations, despite the prosecution already holding email evidence that seems to support them knowing about the issue, but also deciding to move ahead with the cover-up. The group actually was going to do the right thing, but as reported by ESPN that ain’t exactly what happened:

“In an e-mail to Spanier and Schultz, Curley said he had given the decision to report Sandusky "more thought" and in "talking it over with Joe (Paterno), I am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps."

Instead of reporting Sandusky, Curley now suggested that he should talk with Sandusky, suggest to him that "there is a problem" and that Sandusky" needs professional help." Both Spanier and Schultz agreed to Curley's suggestion, setting up 10 more years of Sandusky's abuse of children.”

Had they acted properly 10 years of continued child abuse would have been stopped. What they did may not have been illegal, or at least we have yet to see, but it is certainly immoral. College officials are supposed to know about morality. Failing to protect these innocent victims merits jail time.

Back to Dinwiddie, apparently they packed the stands with 23,000 odd spectators, and a number of people who paid to run in the event. It looks like no person was injured; nor were any bulls harmed in the event. At next year’s Running of the Bulls II in Dinwiddie, I hope some of my candidates will choose to attend. I also hope the bulls are a little meaner, like the ones in Pamplona.

What's good for the goose is rejected by the gander

By this time in the battle for and against the Affordable Care Act, to wit ObamaCare, most people are resolved to the fact that we are going to have to take our medicine no matter how we feel about it.

Certainly, there has been much ado about this law starting with Nancy Pelosi’s admonition that we had to “approve it to find out what is in it.” That is the same sort of rationale that goes into the thought processes of buying a pig in a poke. To me, it reeks of Caveat Emptor, buyer beware.

Now, as we are getting down to the nitty and the gritty as it relates to the health care law, which by the way I don’t really understand, we have those pulling the cart who are expressing concern and a lack of desire to change their own insurance elections.

Take for instance, Danny Werfel (wasn’t he a really bad quarterback in the NFL?), the acting IRS Chief who, while speaking in front of the House Ways and Means Committee had the nerve to utter this: "I would prefer to stay with the current policy that I'm pleased with rather than go through a change if I don't need to go through that change."

Despite the GOPers who immediately jumped on the statement, it doesn’t necessarily mean that Werfel doesn’t want ObamaCare, it could just mean he doesn’t want to go through the change required to get there. He may just hate change. Who wants that change, really? I mean, other than those who do not currently have health care.

So things change as the result of actions taken and not taken by congress. Recently, one of my doctors told me that he has already seen a change in his practice as a result of changes being made in the work place. Some companies, he said, are cutting worker hours to a point below that which would require them to provide health care (30 hours). What that meant to him was that patients he had been seeing on a regular basis for years now did not have the insurance coverage to continue seeing him.

Businesses change how they go about business all the time, right? So this has nothing to do with the changes being made to the health care system. I am reasonably sure that these businesses are just reacting to market pressures to make more profit. The biggest cost for business is employees and employee benefits. Get rid of one and you get rid of the other, right?

But in this case, get rid of most of one and you get rid of the other. If an employee works 30 hours or more per week, the employer must pay benefits through the Affordable Care Act.

Not true? Tell it to NBC News reporters Lisa Myers and Carroll Ann Mears. They recently reported that employers around the country—from fast-food franchises to colleges—have told (them) they will be cutting workers’ hours to below 30 a week because they can’t afford to offer the health insurance mandated by the Affordable Care Act.

“To tell somebody that you’ve got to decrease their hours because of a law passed in Washington is very frustrating to me,” said Loren Goodridge, who owns 21 Subway franchises, including a restaurant in Kennebunk. “I know the impact I’m having on some of my employees.”

Goodridge said he’s cutting hours for 50 workers to no more than 29 a week so he won’t trigger the new health care law provision requiring employers to offer coverage to employees who work 30 hours or more per week.

And yet, here we have those who are the very pinnacle of government who are not willing to make that change. That other smaller businesses, like Goodridge’s, won’t follow suit by cutting hours seems hard to believe. Small businesses run on thin margins; margins that often cannot withstand the kind of tampering anticipated by the enacting of the Affordable Care Act in September. How many of these businesses will take that approach is very hard to say, but if it’s the difference between keeping the doors open or closing the business it’s not a hard choice. What kind of an effect that will ultimately have on the populace and the economy no one can really say right now, I guess we just have to see what’s in it.

Arm them all; let God sort out the innocent

At this time in our country it’s almost impossible to track the sheer number of gun-related shooting atrocities that seem to define Life in These United States. Try to count them, I dare you. It’s inevitable that at least one or two obvious shooting sprees will escape your memory, especially the early ones like Columbine.

But now it seems as if every day the media pounds us with shooting, after shooting, after shooting. Nary a day goes by when someone, or group, grabs their 15-minutes with reports of a shootout and standoff. The headlines scream for gun control, and yet they continue to scream about more and more shootings. It really can make a reader dizzy just trying to keep up with the crime counts.

And the media, and certain political elements as well, point their fingers at the US’s supposedly lax gun laws. They argue that fewer guns will result in fewer of such atrocities, like Sandy Hook. But that argument really doesn’t hold a lot of water.

Criminals, and especially those with an inclination toward mass murder, will never have a problem finding weapons to use. If you don’t have a gun, an old pressure cooker will do. And you can find those at yard sales all over the country. In fact, you don’t even need a police record check to buy one.

Now, it may be that some remnant cabbage may get caught up in the man-made bomb you are making, but the ease and facility with which this type of IED can be constructed could make it the weapon of choice for future killers.

So it’s just a bit surprising when we look at the microcosm that is Virginia that there seems to be a relationship between gun sales and gun-related violence. No, it’s not what you might think. While gun sales have skyrocketed in the state, there has been a decided drop in gun-related violent crimes.

According to a story by Mark Bowes, which appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, gun-related crimes in Virginia have dropped for the fourth straight year. Gun crimes in the state have dropped five percent over the past four years from 4,618 offenses in 2011 to 4,378 last year, according to Virginia State Police data, Bowes wrote.

On the other hand, gun sales in the state have increased by 16 percent in 2012. Virginians purchased 490,119 guns in 2012 compared to a measly 444,844 in 2011.

Coincidence? I hardly think so.

It’s hard for me to believe that nearly a million weapons have been purchased in the state over the past two years because more people are interested in culling the state’s deer population. With more than 900,000 legal guns in the hands of the populace, it seems to me that gun-toting criminals are taking notice. It seems every day there’s a new story about a good Samaritan whipping out his pistol and gunning down a would be armed robber.

Deterrent? Not much better than the potential loss of life.

In reality, I’m not sure that we can bridge increased gun sales and lower gun-crime statistics. But it makes good fodder for the newspapers, and adds to the on-going debate about gun registration and gun control. The one thing about which I am certain is that anyone interested in using a gun in a crime doesn’t need to go out and buy one from a place that will do a criminal records check. Guns are available almost anywhere, and those who turn to that option will always be able to find the necessary means.

Piling on at Penn State - It's About Time

Now that the courts have ruled that three Penn State officials will have to face trial over the Sandusky child molestation case we may be able to set this sad state of affairs behind us.

Last week Pennsylvania state prosecutors called ex-President Graham Spanier, former vice president Gary Schultz, and ex-athletic director Tim Curley to a hearing to see if there was sufficient evidence to bring all three to trial. It might have been four, had Joe Paterno not passed away months after the allegations against Jerry Sandusky led to his firing as Penn State’s vaunted football coach.

What Sandusky did notwithstanding, those three officials certainly allowed him to continue grooming children through his non-profit charity, The Second Mile. How Sandusky went about his business was to pinpoint potential victims and then lavish gifts and visits to Penn State’s football team. He would groom them, and at some point cross the line and molest them. All of that is in the record and Jerry is serving 30 to 60 years; essentially a life sentence for a man in his 60s.

But he wasn’t the only problem.

At some level, Penn State, through its officials, knew about the Sandusky problem. They chose simply to try to cover it up.

When Mike McQueary notified Joe Paterno about what he saw Sandusky doing with a boy in the showers, it should have started the whole investigation. Paterno should have notified the three stooges – Spanier, Schultz, and Curley – and then contacted the state police. No ifs ands or buts about it.

There was reason to be suspicious even before McQueary reported the incident in 2001 that led to Sandusky’s trial and conviction. During the ‘90s, suspicions were raised about Sandusky and a kid that he brought to a bowl game in Texas. That incident never resulted in charges and everyone sort of forgot about it and went about their business.

But someone should have been suspicious about Sandusky. Even under the guise of the great humanitarian, and what better disguise is there for a pederast other than being a priest, his actions should have sent off a hundred red flags. Maybe I’m just a skeptic, but when a grown man is actively involved with so many young boys it just seems weird to me.

So why wasn’t Sandusky brought up on charges way back when? Well, if you ask the prosecution, it was to shelter the school and preserve the football team’s image. And in truth, that seems about right.

But their decision not to throw Sandusky under the bus was a bad one. There is little question that all three, and Paterno, were in on the final decision to suggest to Sandusky that he not bring any boys around campus anymore. They pinned their hopes on Sandusky stopping his bad behavior, but anyone who has a brain knows that sex offenders rarely stop being sex offenders just because you ask them politely.

Needless to say, Sandusky continued to do his thing and that left the school negligent. The question that the court has to decide against these three is whether or not they interfered with the investigation and whether or not they acted together to cover up the crimes.

They, of course, have pleaded not guilty. What else are you going to plead under those circumstances? Proving they acted in concert can be pretty difficult, except that there is the proverbial “smoking gun” or in this case a smoking email.

During the email exchanges between these men over this problem, it became apparent that they were leaning toward giving Sandusky a warning and telling him to stop bringing kids on campus. They felt that would be sufficient to handle the matter, and in the email basically stated that the only way it could come back on them was if Sandusky failed to follow through on his part. Needless to say, Sandusky continued business as usual and the fall out lands squarely in the three stooges’ laps. They all deserve jail time. What they did was allow a suspected predator to continue molesting children for a decade. How many of those boys could they have saved? No one’s counting, but there is little question that they need to be brought up on charges and held accountable for their inactions.

Best show in town: CH Optimist BIB Tournament

For Colonial Heights youth baseball players there is no single event in the city that captures their imaginations more than playing in the Colonial Heights Optimist Club’s Boys Invitational Baseball tournament. Winning the thing is another matter.

“The BIB tournament is probably one of the biggest events the city has each year. It takes a lot of people from the community to put this tournament on, not only all the Optimist Members but also the C.H. recreation dept. with support from Craig Skalak and Matt Spruill and there staff. The Colonial Heights Police Department and Fire and EMS crews also come out each night,” Tournament Director David Wells said.

Certainly, the city has other big events, Fort Clifton comes to mind. But running for 10 straight days, there is very little that compares with the amount of effort people from the community put into the tournament.

“We have grown over the years with sponsorships in the BIB program from local business. Places like Martin's and Vincenzo’s also give us gift cards for door prizes that we hand out during the games,” Wells said.

Fifty-six years ago, the Optimist Club started what has evolved to become one of the toughest summer baseball tournaments for 12-year-olds. The honor is just getting to play in the tournament, and many people in the Tri-Cities can remember having played in the tournament over the years.

It is one thing that the entire community gets involved in, one way or another, and is a source of pride. As an invitational tournament, local teams from the surrounding area are always represented. The Optimist hosts teams from Chesterfield, Colonial Heights, Dinwiddie, Hopewell, Matoaca, Petersburg, and Prince George every year. In addition, outside of the area teams from Williamsburg, Newport News, Sussex, and Stanton are regular visitors along with other teams.

As a single-elimination tournament, it can be very difficult to win. One misstep, one costly error and a team can be headed home. In fact, two teams from tonight’s tournament openers won’t be playing in the BIB when the night is finished. To win the tournament, the teams have to be good and to some extent lucky.

Most of the coaches and teams understand how difficult the tournament can be. Several years ago, one of the coaches said he knew it was a hard tournament to win, but they were aware of the demands before they signed on to play in it.

Perhaps no team is more aware of how hard it is to win the tournament than the host team is. Over its 55-years, the home team has only hoisted the winning trophy twice. It took 11 years for them to get their first win, in 1969. The next championship took an additional 31 years, winning again in 2000.

None of the teams scheduled to play can say that the tournament is slanted in favor of the hosts. The statistics just don’t support the claim; Colonial Heights has won the tournament at a mind boggling 3.6 percent of the time.

But it doesn’t keep the teams from trying. Over the past several years, the Optimist team has had a few chances to win. They have finished second several times, losing in the finals.

But in the end, it’s not really about winning and losing. It’s about the chance for these kids to play in an event that has some history to it. In many cases, the kids are playing in a tournament their father’s played in. And really, how much better a thing can it be than that?

“The citizens of Colonial Heights have supported this tournament for 56 years now and my goal is to keep it going and trying to make it a little better each year. With the support of the citizens of Colonial Heights and surrounding cities and counties, I believe this tournament has a great future ahead of it,” Wells said.