I grew up a mile away from the United States. If you turned on the television, you found the obligatory Canadian TV stations. You also found the inundation of U.S. television stations - ABC, NBC, and CBS - from locales in New York or Michigan.
Every four years, we bear witness to the Summer Olympics. And every four years, we're subjected to what seems like an exceedingly nationalistic and biased view of the Olympics. Of late, it's been NBC's perogative to show us any sports in which the U.S. might be dominant.
Every four years, as a born-and-raised Canuck, I have an ongoing debate about the seeming lack of medals attained by my homeland - as compared to the treasure trove of medals attained by the Unites States.
So before we go any further, let's put the raw data out there:
That's the question I am asking myself since Sen. McCain selected Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.
Forget about the fact that it took the Republican party 24 years after Democrat Geraldine Ferraro - just a few extra years of learning curve in there to acknowledge the potential of gender in the election mix.
So is McCain's choice intriguing? Or disturbing?
First, the former. It may have been a stroke of political genius to select a woman. There are a lot of Hillary supporters just waiting to jump ship on the Democrats and vote for any ticket that has a woman that will symbolically break the glass ceiling. She's young and tenacious. She's a former Miss Alaska runner-up. She's a fresh voice in Washington. Those are all positive elements. She has some understanding of oil and natural resources from her time as Governor of Alaska. She's married to a steelworker and commercial fisherman - so it would certainly sound like she just might be in touch with the heartland of America.
Week one is upon us - week one of the college football season. It's one of my favorite times of the year, second only to March Madness for, yes, college basketball. Yes, it's fair to say that I like collegiate sports!
This weekend, it didn't pay to be the home team. Well, at least for quite a few Division I schools. Michigan, Clemson, Texas A&M, Virginia, Pittsburgh ... all home teams that lost game one this weekend. Let's put in a quick "welcome" to the first year coaches - Rich Rodriguez at Michigan and Mike Sherman at Texas A&M. Have fun in the Big 10 and Big 12. Add Virginia Tech to that last, albeit on a road trip to East Carolina. All quite unpredictable and surprising losses. Welcome to week one of college football!
Ahhh the beauty of the RSS feed reader!
It's tough to wade through a bunch of websites that you like to read. Sure, you can keep them in your "Favorites" or your "Bookmarks", but it's a lot of web cruising to read them all. I recently discovered the RSS feed reader - which allows you to save all your favorite feeds in one place, and then be able to read all the headlines without the web surfing. It allows you to read so many more cool things in a lot less time.
Today Chris Brogan posted on Blog Day 2008 - which just so happens to be today, August 31. That being the case, let's spread the word on blogs - being one of those bloggers out there that's trying to write material worthy of human consumption!
The goal is to find 5 new blogs and introduce them to the world. Hell, how about introducing 5 blogs that I find entertaining, educational, and intriguing?
So here goes ...
Forget the politics - because this was a moment in history for us to remember.
August 28, 2008. Sure, it was the day that Barack Obama became the official Democratic nominee for President of the United States of America. Sure, it was a groundbreaking day in U.S. history, the first time that an African-American (or whatever the politically correct terminology is these days) had been nominated by any party to do so. Yes, those things made August 28, 2008 important from a historical perspective.
But I don't think that was what was truly important about that 50 minutes of oratory.
For the first time in perhaps decades, and for one of the few times in my generation, a man stood before 84,000 people (also a momentous occassion in U.S. politics!) and spoke of what is truly important about the American dream.
"I did this while running for president ... oh and I did this ... and this ... and I got all of these people involved ... and I did this while running for president ...
... oh and by the way, vote for Obama (said with a rather insincere look away from the camera)...
... but make sure that you realize that I did this ... and this ... and rallied women ... and did this ... and remember what we did when Bill was president ... and did more of this while I ran for president over the past 18 months ..."
That's about how Hillary Clinton's speech at the Democratic National Convention sounded moments ago.
Yes, I would call it a fiasco.
And a nuisance.
And a strange twist of professional football history.
Brett Favre - the quarterback who had forged himself into the Green Bay Packers' history books. A man that could have retired as one of the legendary Packers, perhaps the greatest football team in the modern era. A quarterback that could have bowed-out gracefully after his 17th professional season.
But no, the ego won out.
There is a difference between "can he play" and "is it time for him not to play". Does he have more great seasons in him behind the New York Jets' offensive line, throwing to receivers that he doesn't have much playing time with? Will he still be a first ballot Hall of Famer? Will history still look back fondly? Or will he be remembered for his leaving the Packers, instead of what he accomplished with them?
Allan Besselink, PT, DPT, Ph.D., Dip.MDT has a unique voice in the world of sports, education, and health care. Read more about Allan here.