While Ms. 7DB watches some show designed to make women between 25-45 whimper silently into their Chardonnay (if it is a Private Practice, why is it on national TV???), it seemed like a good time to catch up on the rest of yesterday's topic matter...
It brings no small amount of pleasure to the 7DB household to watch the misery of the Green Bay Packers fan base as their Hall of Fame-bound quarterback plays for their rivals and kicks the snot out of them. It does not change, however, how much the Minnesota Vikings fans should dislike having Brett Favreverevevrvre as their quarterback.
Without boring those of you who read my columns and do not follow sports so much, having Brett Favre at the helm of the Vikings is similar to Tom and Jerry teaming up to get Spike to stop hitting Tom with a trash can lid.
For those of you born after 1980, the Favre/Vikings parallel may be better described as having P. Diddy produce Tupac's album after Notorius B.I.G. was shot and killed.
For those of you with very little in the way of pop culture references, the Favre/Vikings situation compares well to Nancy Pelosi becoming a spokesperson for Fox News.
For those born in my grandfather's generation, it is the same as having Winston Churchill invite Joe Stalin to run for British Prime Minister after the Marshall Plan took effect.
For those who are sick of analogies, I will stop now.
For those of you who aren't, more will be posted in the comment section of this blog.
It pains any true Viking fan to cheer on someone who has caused so much turmoil for this team over his 18 years in the NFL. This Benedict Arnold leaves 7DB feeling...well, British. (those of you born after 1980 should Wiki this reference) It is just too difficult for the Viking fans of lore to cheer on a turncoat rival.
All of the Packer fans who read this column can take heart in the fact that Favre usually starts showing up on the injured list right around this part of the year. At that point, vengeance will be theirs, but the Packers next play the Vikings sometime deep into the fall of 2010. So, Packers fans can stick it. :)
For those of you born after 1990, the Favre/Vikings equivalent would be LC deciding that Brody would be cool to date if Blake Lively ever gives up on him. Or something equally inane.
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Robert Enke is a name that most of the readers of this column will not recognize. He played soccer for a living, making him even less likely to appear on the radar of the average American. Don't feel guilt for this, as many are still not sure soccer is a sport.
Enke (Soccer stars, known as 'footballers' around the planet except for America, often pick their first or last name as their common moniker. The reason this doesn't work in the U.S.? There would be forty-seven 'Joe's and 'Smith's. It does work for the NBA, as many players in that game have unique names...but I digress.) was a top-tier goalkeeper for Hannover 96 in the major circuit known as Bundesliga in Europe, as well as the leading contender to be the keeper for the German National team in the prestigious World Cup coming up. Professionally, it appeared that Enke had it all coming together.
On Tuesday, two days after helping his team to a 2-2 draw against Hamburg, the thrity-two year old Enke walked off of a train platform in front of a regional express train. His wife disclosed after this horrific event that Enke had been battling depression for at least six years. His first daughter, Lara, was born in 2004, meaning that his wife was pregnant in 2003...six years ago. Lara was not long for this world, as a congenital heart defect tragically stole her from her family at the age of two. The couple adopted baby Leila in May of this year.
(Pause for dramatic effect.)
I am angry. At everyone involved. Enke's wife knew he was depressed for six years? How did a man with access to the best of health care in all of Europe not have an opportunity to seek help for this? 7DB refuses to pin this to the weakness of socialized health care, but...what the heck? Even worse, how did Robert (not ENKE, the athlete...but Robert, the father) check out on his new baby daughter Leila?
While readily acknowledging limited understanding of mental illness existing outside of these two ears, 7DB has little patience for those who take responsibility for those who need help, then quit on those responsibilities. Enke was ill and needed help...but wtf?! Someone failed Robert...either his wife for not forcing him into a situation of help, his various teams for not doing a psych profile on an athlete who plays a position that demands solitude, or the system that allowed him and his wife to adopt a child without a psychiatric evaluation. There are too many places along the way that a 32-year old man can find the support he needs when things are bad. 7DB will probably be the only American who wonders why no one will answer these questions.
Then again, he played soccer, so maybe there was something else deeper that was wrong with him...
(What? Too soon?)
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The two Bear Stearns executives, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, recently put on trial for conspiracy and fraud (and a de facto trial of the financial system) were acquitted in a Brooklyn, NY courtroom this past Tuesday. The acquittal upset many folks reading or hearing about it, and even more of those reporting on it. And those people are very wrong to be mad.
If the worldwide financial meltdown hadn't happened, this case never would have been pressed. If the feds didn't also have the folks at Countrywide and AIG in their sights, this case would have been handled in a much quieter fashion. The federal court system is currently holding show trials on behalf of an angry America. The public needs to know that someone is responsible for their pensions and benefits being slashed, their friends and loved ones being unemployed, the economy's struggles...that somewhere the blame rests on something that can be pinpointed.
And that is just silly, isn't it?
The case was built around accusations that these two execs planned to defraud thousands of investors out of millions of bucks. The truth is probably closer to the idea that they felt like they either a) screwed up and people were losing their money, or b) that things out of their control were driving the market, and that they had to tell their investors to hold on until they could figure out how to fix it before they took their money to another investment house. Simple case of C.Y.A. gone bad.
Dumb? Yes. Criminal? Possibly. Malicious? No. Instead of trying the charges they knew they could hit, the Feds tried to hit them on all the counts they could muster. It backfired, and now they have an issue about what they can and can't try to do against future defendants. Stupid for federal prosecutors, but grooves right in to the show trial concept.
As time goes by, the economy will recover and eventually outpace where things were when it all went bad. As it does, people will want to move ahead with their lives. Bernie Madoff will be a slightly humorous footnote, AIG will go back to running commercials and having the general public wonder 'What the heck they do anyways?' about them and things will move forward. To get us there, we need blood. Even if it's from the wrong place.
Anyone who has had money in the market or a 401(k) in the last ten years has likely benefitted from the credit default swaps and mortgage-backed securities that history will point to as the source of our misery in 2008 and 2009. There were few complaints about the highly complicated way these profits were made, but lotsa griping when that same money was lost. Guilt like that is a complicated thing.
The easy solution is the show trials of a few of the 'greedy' people that still made money when everyone else was losing. (Don't mix Madoff in with these folks, as he was a pure thief. He didn't even pretend to try to invest moeny. He stole from Peter to pay Paul. And himself.) Trials of this nature went on with regularity before the financial crisis without so much as a peep out of the mainstream media.
Total bloodlust. Don't buy the hype. The economy will be ok in less than two years...just hang tight.
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There is a feature about Cat Ladies on 20/20 tonight. Ms. 7DB had two when we met, three now, plus two lovely puppies. Some of the women in this feature have over 100 cats in a two-bedroom house. If Ms. 7DB were awake right now, instead of asleep on the couch with a book on her lap, the 7DB Universe wonders what would be said of this segment.
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