​We love junk foods. We know they aren't good for us - but we can't resist our hankerings, nor resist their textures and tastes. Here is THE amazingly easy, most effective, totally BEST way to wean ourselves off these processed, high calorie snacks.
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Next time you get a cold - with its accompanying side effect inabilities to have you smell or taste foods - get through that cold, after its obligatory week or two, knowing the cold itself weaned you off all foods (other than chicken soup) basically, for four to five few days. We know nobody eats anything when suffering.

Result? Success! You've already begun the purge of poor "foods" with no effort, thanks to that nagging cold.

Then, when your senses of smell and taste return, get your sweet-sugar fix from fruits like strawberries, raspberries, or pineapple, and get your wide-ranging texture desires from foods like raw almonds or avocados - and get your taste buds satiated from foods that don't include words like: artificial flavor.

And begin your buoyant, healthy life - free from junk food.
​

Do academic programs have to steer into stupidity as has the Women's & Gender Studies Program at Bradley University? This "higher learning" private institution out of Peoria Illinois via their "The Body Project" declares that heavy people are essentially helpless. They pan the fact that many feel fat individuals could lose weight if they tried.

And it must be terribly disconcerting to the interdisciplinary luminaries at Bradley to know, or at least suspect, that many fat people also think they could lose fat if they exercised more and chose healthier foods.

Anyway, the academics involved in the program could lose some weight of their own. In their five primary objectives, they could lose some words, use simpler words, resulting in clearer writing. Get a load of point two:

2. to understand that gender is foundational to the functioning of social, cultural, economic, and aesthetic systems;

The above objective takes 16 words. Try this on for size:

2. To understand that gender is basic to society's cultural, economic, and aesthetic essences;

The reworded objective takes 13 words, reducing the sentence's weight by some 18%. (It also capitalizes the letter t at the beginning.)

Almost as importantly, does anyone, other than the intelligentsia at Bradley, know what an aesthetic system is?

It's perhaps not shocking that these folks involved with gender should loom large with language. Look at point one, their raison d'être - for in it they wantonly declare they want to spread everywhere:

1. to integrate knowledge about women and gender into the scholarship of various disciplines and professions across the university by promoting student engagement with feminist discourses and practices;

Hopefully this treatise hasn't lost you, getting bogged down on Bradley U's shortcomings. Let's look at the fat-heavy-obesity assumptions that this Studies discipline makes, to see if some make any semblance of sense. Essentially, the program worries that the fat are stereotyped as "...lazy, undisciplined, unhealthy and gluttonous."

Much as we, who verge on scaling the heights of Mount Political Correctness, hate  to admit it, we know stereotypes don't come out of thin air. They're backed by actual or anecdotal observations and research. Many fat people don't walk enough in their spare time, preferring to chow down in front of the boob tube, a pity, because as opposed to watching - walking - however brief in time, or short in distance, is a great way to exercise, a fine way to lose pounds.

To their credit, however, a couple of points in The Body Project - The Skinny on Fat - are pretty well bang on. They warn of chronic dieting and how it can lead, unfortunately in the short term, to weight gain - and can lead - eventually in the long term, for weight reduction to be a physical impossibility. Yo-yo dieters can verify to these happenings as problematically true...

But Bradley University goes too far. To their detriment they itemize a few studies, without linking to same, supporting their suppositions. But where's the balance, where are the contrary findings of other studies, or their links?

Reading The Body Project, one gets the feeling that the authors mean well. They care about the corpulent - yet their overriding bullet points and biases trend toward homeostasis. They prefer that the grossly overweight accept their condition, not only for reasons such as the blunting of fat shaming, but for the ultimate uber-kooky rationale that this may be the healthiest, both mentally and physically, route to go. 

Alas, Bradley University is not alone in exalting a "don't worry, be happy" approach to health.

Heard of HAES?

It stands for: Health At Every Size. It essentially, boldly and baldly, states that "body diversity" is cool.

Then it dips its big fat toe into the waters of skepticism, saying scientific assumptions must be challenged. As regards the skepticism about science - and confronting dogmas or politicized papers or positions not truly peer reviewed - for fear of offending the cultural "accepted" positions of the moment - good for HAES.

Science has become politicized, if Global Cooling - NO! Global Warming - NO! Climate Change! are any indications, but while Bradley's best are busy confronting a myriad of scientific and personal essays and entreaties on obesity, have they bothered to observe the subjects being studied? How many over-weight individuals, for example, are limited by their conditions - precluding mountain climbing, horseback riding, marathon clomping, or one-seat fare airplane flying? How many of the adipose, other than Santa Claus, seem to be jolly? Unlike, race or gender (which are now situationally in flux every 15 minutes) being fat - has always been - a non permanent condition.

​One can change one's shape. Or not. Or fail or succeed in the trying(s).  Bradley and HAES are so wrong in the: what feels right...

What doesn't feel right, if our sensitivity and inclusivity antennas are monitoring for perceived or egregious offenses, are, as of August 25th, 2017, this program's website scrolling pictures. Horrors upon horrors, there is one picture of six white women with no women of color anywhere to be found!

That's not allowed.

Fortunately that faux pas was corrected when another photo shows six black women, with no other races present - but as for clothing - five are being non-inclusive in display, only showing off the color purple, while one has a top of a muddy aqua-blue lilac hue. What the heck gives? Where's the rainbow, if not of  people of all colors, of at least clothes in a colorful spectrum?

Phew. For me and you things come to a full holistic circle with a group shot of the black and white women, with another body that so much looks like a guy. And in another shot, they show a smattering of serious, studious, Bradley brainiacs at a smorgasbord, with plates of comely comestibles offered - yet - ironically, or intentionally - not a one of the diners shows a heaping plate of food on their place setting.

No photo shows sushi seaweed lodged between teeth or part of a chicken super-sized wing stuck in one ear. Hmm, oh dear.

What gives?

Hypocrisy, it's clear - writ large!

Usain Bolt thinks athletics will die if drug doping isn't effectively dealt with. The all-time best Jamaican sprinter is correct to identify doper-cheaters as a bane for sports - but is wrong to think that sports will die. Those casual observers that tune in every four years to the Winter or Summer Olympics will, mainly, not be up to date on the degree to which non-allowed drug taking has corrupted various events and disciplines. And, on the other hand, those keen sports fans will have by now grudgingly accepted that their favorite sports have doping - because they know the cheaters are seemingly always one step ahead of the testers - so what are they going to do, stop watching? Despite invidious drug cheating only the sports fan purist will turn away, and there aren't too many purists around... 

In fact for the sprints, many fans believe cheating is rife - and they aren't disgusted. They figure those cheaters are going to have better times, yes, which ironically will lead to more thrills and chills, but they accept the perniciousness because they know the runner still has to run the distance. Drugs are not a magic carpet ride: the steps have to be put in from start to finish.

While fair-minded folks wish doping in sports did not exist, or was a thing of the past, or was lessening - they are realists. They know that cheats will always be with us, in sports and in life. And while it may bug their ass that this is so, they will not quit watching or participating in their sport of choice.

True, the Tour de France has suffered in the wake of Lance Armstrong's sordid story - but this guy was a serial liar who blatantly lied so often that nobody, but nobody, will ever have the balls to BS right to your face like this unlikeable Texan did. He made the whole sport of elite cyclist road racing appear to be made up of 100% A1-jerks. For those cheating now, or in the future, their deeds to mislead will still be deplorable, but in a classier, more refined way - and their sport won't be impugned as being completely filled with dickweeds and deniers.

And let's face it - there are some of us who enjoy the spectacle of dopers in sports because we love to hear the reasons as to why they were found out. We can even put the dopey excuses into categories. From the boring, "Oh, I didn't know this wasn't allowed" to the buck passing "Geez, my medical team said all was ok" to the mind numbing "Really? I thought what I was taking was flax seed oil, not steroids!" to the romancing and heart rendering "I did it for love" to the, chew on this excuse for a bit, fanciful lie...based on feasting "Blame it on the Veal!"

We get the idea: the extent to which athletes, found out as short-circuiters, will prevaricate for their prevarications, is a laugh-riot. Worthy of water cooler talk. And don't we all know any publicity is good publicity?

Now watching sports on TV or via the PC is basically free (not including pay per view.) Perhaps what Bolt is worried about is that sports will lose the lucre, the loot, the dough from the paid consumer to either attend, fund, or sponsor people or events. And that could prove to be a problem, for sure. But has a sport disappeared because of this, to date?

Sports, even quite recently, have survived rotten and rampant institutionalized and mandated drug doping. Do you remember the Sochi Olympics? What a fiasco this fun-and-games show turned out to be. But haven't more than a few of us shrugged this Sochi off our shoulder, rationalizing that such over-the-top skirting of the rules is a hangover from the good old days of bad-old communism - and that things would have been worse if East Germany had run that show, and besides, that's just Vlad being mad - and oh, by the way, have you seen his ludicrous face job? Winter sports will survive Putin's putting one over on us...

In fact, down the road, if sport drug doping continues to increase, the authorities may have to throw up their hands in surrender and pass the baton - saying: do whatever you want competitors - and you the buyer - you the fan - beware.

And many of us will accept that drug doping in sports will be here to stay and some of us - the nerdish and scientific - will marvel at the ability of drug technicians and specialists from the dark side to find some new drugs, with names and ingredients no one can understand let alone pronounce - concocted to super-charge performance or at least stymie looming father time.

Usain Bolt is a great sportsman. One of the best. He could be right. Only the Lord knows how insightful he is about sprinting in particular, and sports in general, when he publicly warns us that drug doping equals the death of sports - but a mortal lad or lass has to think - and Usain - perhaps this is where you should focus on giving us teachable moments  - there is a worse form of cheating in sports that threatened to turn at least one of them into nothing more than an effete form of professional wrestling -
figure skating-in-sequins-wrestling let's call it - through its judges cheating, or its teams colluding, or both happening at the same time - f'ing fixing results. That kind of rule breaking IS beyond the pale.

Don’t know if Donald Trump is to blame for this, but the U.S. is the fattest place, anywhere. And don’t blame global warming, with its oceans rising and our lands sinking for this, either - because these submerging grounds are due to 711 million of us...being obese.

We, the fat, crevice continents by the very act of standing up.

Ok, the massive mortal, mashing our earth into water, is hyperbole - but the 711 million figure and the asserted USA-being-the-fattest fact, are real. The Washington Examiner calls it a life threatening problem, this obesity onslaught, with The States leading the way. The Examiner refers to a study done by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Actually, if we want to blame a US President for obesity - at least as it exists in Mexico, blame President Clinton. Under his rule the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was passed - as legislation, not as a laxative - and since then, some experts contend, Mexicans have been gulping down sodas, and other soft drinks, from their northern neighbor, like there's no tomorrow and now today, Mexico is a heavyweight so far as ranking countries for "globesity" goes.

So what? Should we care if the obese leave us prematurely? Sure, the fat will die first, there will be less of the porkers present, but look at the bright side: the shapelier will be alive – and Charles Darwin can have another long, cool one, knowing his evolutionary theory - AKA “The Survival of the Fittest” - will continue to survive and thrive...

(But let’s not look too hard into the fact that fat people seem to be winning the evolutionary battle because A) it defeats the paragraph above - and B) there is still more fun to be had here...)

Speaking of survive, perhaps peace will reign what with east meeting west in this pickle of the porcine. The above-mentioned study says China and America are the most rotund so far as adults go. Commonality there. A chance for a sharing of ideas...

But, to underscore how much this problem of obesity worldwide is a serious subject, with serious criteria, serious characteristics, and even more serious conclusions, it was befitting the NEJM had its pointy heads reveal:

“We used spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression to estimate the mean prevalence of obesity and overweight.”

Got that? Me neither. But we realize that, yes, obesity is a weighty matter, needing our long-term concern. But on a short term basis, shouldn't we care much more that the intellectuals who wrote the above quoted didn't get: A) It can make no sense to anyone who isn't an academic, rendering it gobbledygook, thus creating B) It, the public, will not be galvanized to support this cause? 

Because if that public literally can't understand the underlying rationale that explains the "facts" - the Poindexters' attempt to scare the wits out of everybody will fall flat. If the masses can't understand the underlying foundation, they won't rise up and shake a real or metaphorical leg... What were these supposedly smart researchers and prognosticators thinking? So, definitely, shouldn't we care more, in the short term, that our intellectuals are unfathomably dumb - to come out with such non-soul-stirring language?

Anyway, for decades now, worry warts on the issue of gargantuans on our globe have been hectoring. They've warned us of facts, trends, and reasons behind us growing so huge. And how we, the BIG, have failed their - and governmental expectations. And for decades now people – if our sight of these sights is bang on, have - pun intended - largely - ignored the treatises of  plights and pleas - - - - - - - widely. 

Basically the corpulent haven’t cared a hoot, munching on fast foods and ordering those foods into bigger portions than ever. 

So if we the ordinary folks don’t care, where’s the problem?

Perhaps we don’t mind if we are flabby. And perhaps the main reason we buy those fat loss and fitness books is because, well, it's the least we can do. We can virtue signal to fitter friends and family  that we are on the case, and that we mean business. We can also vicariously signal to same that we, HOPE these purchases will buy us some silence from our disapprovers and denigrators...

Getting back to the blame game vis a vis politics and our too-big people, perhaps, in reflection, Barack and Michelle Obama are blaming themselves for failing to get their citizenry to shape up. Remember Michelle's "Let's Move" project? Among other things it wanted stricter regulations on what kids could eat at lunch.

The kids voted with their taste buds, and their feet - tossing the mandated healthy meals into the trash before they, at best, scrammed out of the school caf to find some fast food, or, at worst - went to alleviate noon-time hunger by smoking outside.

Lots of federal funds and White House fiats went down the drain. Furthermore, according to another study, the kids who got - and ate - their meals from schools, adhering to Michelle's best ordered-intentions, grew fatter. 

So let's remember, too, that Trump has only been running and ruining the world for some 8-9 months now. The fatsos have been hulking about for a long time....

Therefore, let's say the choice to be a whole hog is a personal, not a political-partisan one. And perhaps health experts should stop shaming us tubbies – for it does no good. Undoubtedly carrying excess poundage is not good, physically for the person, but if that person doesn't intrinsically care, why should we? 

So, what is the key to losing fat? Walking, Water, Weight training, Watching what you eat, and Writing of your progress; the FIVE W's! 
​
As for what to eat, whether you are a vegan, vegetarian, or an unreformed carnivore - it still comes down to the amount of food you eat, not the type of food. There are far too many value judgements about what is right or wrong to eat. Eat what you will, where you wish, when you want. If you find yourself loathing the fact that your mirror ain't wide enough to handle the load, you'll figure it out, you'll do something. Leave the protestations about what you are eating, aside. Enjoy your food. Remember to chew it though, and not swallow it down the hole, whole.  Perhaps you might ponder about eating just a bit less of whatever you're chowing down on, for if you can't see the plate upon which your comestibles temporarily rest - it might explain your weight... 

Success, fame, a winning personality, and a sense of humor can’t insulate one from family tragedy as David Feherty found out. His eldest son, Shey, died of a drug overdose. Befitting David’s popularity as a golfing reporter and TV Host for the Golf Channel, golfing icons such as Gary Player, Ernie Els and others tweeted their condolences.

Twitter, though handy and immediate, seems a poor, somewhat insensitive method to convey feelings of sympathy with the buzzwords “thoughts and prayers” all too commonly used - but times change...and David did tweet the horrible news - so perhaps friends and followers thought tweets back would be acceptable.

What hasn’t changed, however, is the scourge of drugs and the terrible effects their misuse can cause to the taker and their loved ones. Shey was just 29. Apparently he died on his 29th birthday. The Golf Channel tweeted that “Family means everything to David...” and even if true, certainly something wrong happened along the way for his eldest boy to OD at such an early age. The young man had been fighting drug addiction and mental illness for quite some time. Did he feel pressure to live up to Dad’s aura? Or did he, the oldest boy of David’s from his first marriage to Caroline DeWitt, see some rationale for his experimentation with drugs, given that Dad had waged his own battles with depression, a bi-polar disorder - and insomnia - fueled in parts with Whiskey, Weed, Cocaine, and Vicodin? Maybe the young man had a sense of invulnerability. His Dad not only survived, he later thrived, and beat back his craziness and recklessness with drugs and alcohol, so maybe the son figured a little experimentation on his own part, might not only not be a bad idea, but a fun one.

And perhaps things from there spiraled out of control...

At any rate, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has graphs swinging upwards for deaths due to overdoses. (From 2002 to 2015, for example, the heroin graph shows a drastically steep climb of fatalities...)

For his bugaboos, David got help, aside from his wife, from none other than Tom Watson. He had solid companions, in part due to his public persona and in part due to his likability. David’s been sober for 12 years. It’s a shame that whatever help might have been offered and might have been accepted by Shey wasn’t enough to get him clean, on the right track.

Shey wasn’t a loser. He wasn’t a total outsider from society. He was, in fact, entrepreneurial and had his own consulting company named the Sheyco Group. It dealt with data and statistics and would summarize same to make sense for clients. Earlier, he and Christopher Crawford of the Marine Corps had formed an outfit called Sports Concie that specialized in “corporate solutions.” And prior to that he had worked for a Trucking company.

So where will David Feherty go from here? Will Feherty become a victim? Although he has immediately and thoughtfully asked that donations be made to the Center for Addiction and Recovery Studies in Dallas, Texas, he will have, now that the funeral is over, the aftermath and, no pun intended, downtime. It would be expected and understandable for him to step back from the limelight, perhaps to draw nearer to his 4 surviving kids. No doubt, unwittingly or otherwise, some harsh self-judgment and guilt will inflict themselves upon the eminently affable Feherty.

This would be a shame because, despite his tender age, Shey was an adult and was responsible for his own actions. Parents, no matter how well meaning and caring, and well off, can only do so much...It’s also sad that Shey couldn’t have learned more from his father’s willingness to take certain drugs to stem his mental afflictions. At one point Feherty admits he was taking 14 pills per day to help ward off his demons. (He also says that the act of playing golf, because it takes up so much time (especially for us average players) - is a great aid in solving the problem of too much spare time on one’s hands – time to get into trouble with intoxicants.

One never knows with life. It’s too short, with opportunities missed and advantages wasted – and these are but a few sad characteristics prevalent that are far too prevalent for many of us – who don’t suffer from addictions. We - all of us - are usually our own worst enemy. Most of our faults can be laid at our own doorstep. We’re so ashamed, or so proud, we don’t seek help. And again

- many of us -
​
need to “grow up” despite our having crossed the threshold of the 30’s decades ago. More than a few of us keep repeating the same old, same old, mistakes over and over - and over - again...to what end? Then, to add drugs or alcohol into this? Geez, No wonder so many of us, like Shey Feherty, depart far too early.

Van Jones wants athletes to go political. Has Van lost his mind? Doesn’t he know the Colin Kaepernick story and how that turned out for Colin, the NFL, and lots of that league’s fans? And now he wants more politicizing from sports stars?

When people watch sports, they are seeking a fantasy, an escape, a break from life’s woes and worries. To have their hometown or favorite a-list athletes expound on Republicans, Democrats, Independents, or Tree Huggers isn’t as becoming as watching their faves ply their sporting trade to their utmost.

Van, for those who sensibly avoid TV America’s political shows with their non-titillating talking heads, and who properly don’t have a clue as to who he is - is a hardcore lefty. He’s a regular on CNN, the fake or factual news station – you decide...and he went off the channel of rational thought and went straight to backlash, when he blamed The Donald’s big victory, Trump’s presidential win, on something he called “Whitelash.”

Yet almost unbelievably, in his recommendation that the revered sports genre mix more with the rancid world of politics, he comes across as a balanced guy. He’s NOT hoping athletes spew a Democratic Party screed to the exclusion of all other dogmas: he’s wishing sports stars, if they lean to the middle or the moderate-to-hard right, share their beliefs and desires too. He, however, then teeters off balance declaring that athletes should risk their paycheck for political punditry.  

So the fan of sports will be besieged by political stances from A to Z. Gee. Won’t that be the be all and end all? 

Thing is, this having celebrated folks and figures in a particular industry moonlight as political pundits has bored and bothered the daylights out of the average Joe and Jane. Hollywood is reviled - and lampooned - and ridiculed (except for when Jon Voight and Angelina Jolie appear to be on the dark side of the moon vis-a-vis the other, when it comes to American politics) because so many of its inhabitants spew off on politics instead of sticking to the script.  Just because someone can sing, dance, act, or read from a teleprompter shouldn’t give them a platform to raise political issues. They should be like the everyday normal person who, when trying to convince family or friends of their stances on political subjects, is at least behaving acceptably. Friends and family are fair game for persuasion because they know the person explaining their views, they know the strengths and weaknesses, and they aren’t blinded by a biased fawning mass-media publicity campaign.

The well-known should go no further than that of John Q public. They shouldn’t rely on mainstream media exposure. Access to the latter, for any famous person, should not be used to put out fatuous or farsighted political viewpoints...

Hollywood has been in the political recipe for some time now, and Mr. Jones wants sports superstars to add to this political pot stew? Eew. Van opined on the Rich Eisen show that stars of sport should use their platforms of popularity to propound in matters of politics. But Van has gotta know that major sports in America are already waist deep in problems with, for example, MLB featuring games far too long, the NHL with only the Nashville Predators and the Toronto Maple Leafs blowing people’s minds a bit, with the aforementioned NFL and Kaepernick mired in grievance, with the NBA coming off from a boring post-season playoff run  - and now he wants to further sink these sports with politics?

Mr. Jones pointedly (and sadly) believes that speaking out on political matters would “make the world better.” He made mention of Muhammad Ali. But Ali was a special case. He was at the top of boxing, with a 29-0 record when he decided to risk his career because he didn’t want to fight the Viet Cong. Ali was articulate and admirable, and wise - and a wonder - in the ring. Contrast Ali with Kaepernick. Colin, though he threw for 300 + yards in Super Bowl XLVII, in a losing role, is, no Ali.

And no one in the present, or on the horizon, in Van's home of the United States, can be Jesse Owens either. Owens was, despite facing a systemic national racial color barrier at home, great in the high jump, broad jump, 100 yard, and 220. Then he went abroad and beat the pants off the best that Hitler’s Nazi Germany Aryan Race competitors had to offer. He won gold in the (meter) 100, 200, 4 x 100 and in the long jump. No sports star in the USA has such a perfect storm of all odds being against him or her to prove political points of race, ethnicity, religion, or gender.

Hey, Van, look at the new maelstrom of gender politics affecting sport. Look at sports, women’s sports, where women used to compete against women, before men declared they were women and mopped up against real women. We now have the ridiculous rigmarole of women competing against men in events for women. The results for transgendered man-to-woman individuals, where the man hasn’t undergone a sex change surgery or a hormonal transplant (step off that podium, Andraya Yearwood)  - - - has been catastrophic for the gals, and threatens to make a mockery of the idea that sports should be fair at the outset recognizing and accounting for differences between men and women when it comes to testosterone, stamina, muscle mass, and power.
​
Van converses well and is a popular go-to guy for CNN, and perhaps he means well with his postulation on sports stars engaging followers to their political positions – but you and I, please, let's not go down his road and pave the way through embracing athletes who articulate via mass media, sensible or stupid political viewpoints.  Let's instead embrace athletes for being what they've been for the most part: athletes.

​Do 60 to 70% of pro athletes go broke? Charles Barkley says so. He also thinks family and friends are the biggest financial drains on sports stars going.

And that money can vanish faster than a politician’s iron-clad pledge, whether it is through athletes giving gifts, cash outlays, or through athletes going into the seemingly, apparently, "less risky" ventures of co-signing or guaranteeing a loan without fully recognizing the liabilities and risks involved.
​
There are other reasons for sports stars sinking to nothing while swinging at everything when it comes to dollars: bad money managers; awful agents; terrible luck; rancid macro-economic conditions; pitiful timing; plentiful floozies; gambling on a John Daly or even a Charles Barkley level; lousy decision making...leading some into businesses like bars or restaurants - where the Adonis thinks their name and shape alone will make the venture profitable; bad ideas conjured at 4 in the morning fueled by intoxicants; intoxicants, and their abuse, leading to legal and financial penalties; rehab costs - thanks to those intoxicants; divorce; child support – with the latter ably demonstrated by Big Poppas like Evander Holyfield who, it is believed, helps try to fund 11 kids via 8 women; spending the same kind of bucks after the career is over to the same tune when the career was on; having supposedly hellish parents of the Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario variety...

Or bath tubs. Mike Tyson reportedly spent 2 million on a pure gold tub for wife number 1 and reported his state of bankruptcy in 2003.

Back to Barkley. Besides being pretty much a tub himself, Charles is great copy. He will say anything on almost anything. He’s blunt. He offends not only those with thick skins like us normal souls, he offends airy-fairy-snow-flake groups - most recently exhibited by folks who were pissed that the Pope said communion wafers aren’t, or may not be, gluten-free - - - so when Barkley blathered that some blacks were unintelligent because they favored lingo of the street over language of the educated, some folks went bat crazy. Point being: for barbs such as that...people either like him or loathe him.

But he does have a point when he avers that sports stars don’t owe family or friends anything - porous and/or poor profit-plans notwithstanding? (Ok, maybe these A-One participants owe parents a tithe for the efforts, time, and monies they put forth in getting the kid to practices, games, and tournaments - and buying equipment - and purchasing extra off-season training for the discipline(s) of their choice – and sacrificing their own wants and wishes in the doings - - - and perhaps the friends and family who supported the star - - - before the star became a star - - - deserve financial rewards - but that’s about it.)

Obviously an athlete, with a few million or more, would be cold hearted and emotionally dead to ignore seriously serious and sincerely sincere plights of poverty and problems – but clearly helping those less fortunate can make everyone, even star athletes - eventually, into beggars. Charles, in his inimitable manner and means, says he had to spend a lot of money getting rid of hanger-ons - and that the dough was well spent in the doing.

Perhaps Antoine Walker, who earned over 100 million in his career, and lost it all, now shares Charles’s sentiments. And Walker can partially blame himself and the approximately 30 family-friends for his bankrupt state. And perhaps now, and in the future, we can analyze why boxing, which wielded warriors like Tyson and Holyfield, is particularly prone to its A-listers going bereft, bust, and broke.

Of course, as one wise old owl told me, and probably as smart an old fogey told you...

just because those in your life, who count themselves as friends or family, doesn’t mean they can’t be total jerks.

So, if you want to clean up your life and muck out your stall from the clutter and crap which is your half-assed friends and full-bore family boobs...by all means lend them a few hun or a couple of thou. For sure, weasels that they are, they’ll amscray out of your life PDQ, and though you’ll be down some dollars, you’ll be up in harmony and happiness.

As for whether Charles is correct asserting that 60 to 70% of pro athletes go broke, who knows? Whether Barkley is bang on, or a bit off, it is astounding that so many high profile professional athletes have gone belly up, given the huge amounts of monies they squired up to squander later. Charles Barkley has certainly put the spotlight on the fact that sports stars ARE HUMAN - and can mess up just like the rest of us. They are not infallible. They do stupid things. They should not be role models. They should be treated and analyzed, as the individual they are, with their whole gamut of pluses and minuses factored in.
​
And as for you and me? Let’s not go ostentatiously overboard like so many a sport hero has done.

Ok? That way Charles Barley, and his bark, won’t have a handy reason to bite his bankroll opinions of

US.

​Is the University of Nevada gambling, offering 9-year old Havon Finney Jr., a football scholarship? Isn’t that institution of higher learning worried the kid is past his prime? Seriously, what the heck is going on here?

Perhaps the Nevada Wolf Pack has been blown away by the kid’s highlight reel. He’s amazingly coordinated and has great catching skills. He wears receiver gloves and sports some mighty fine ripped abs. He’s fast – he’s still in the skinny-as-a-toothpick stage, and has a cool haircut with a Mohawk tuft running front to back. Who wouldn’t want to sign the kid up? He’s just finished grade 4. For sure he’s got other-worldly talents and he has the good graces to be grateful. Havon, AKA HollywoodHav, has told his 19.8k Instagram followers: “...I love God.”

Before you wonder of the legalities, if kids, blessed or otherwise, can sign contracts, knowing there are laws stipulating a minimum age for this sort of thing, rest assured these scholarships are non-binding until the recipient signs something called a letter of intent – and for that they’ve got to be a senior in high school. But give the kid some immediate feedback. Make the offering of a scholarship like it is for the Doodle4Google artwork contest, where youngsters from elementary to high schools, if their wares are good enough, can get a $5,000 scholarship. Don’t need lawyers, parents, guardians, or God-parents for that...

Let’s leave the frightful legal mumbo-jumbo aside. Let’s turn to more horrifying facets. Even though many kids skateboard without padding, it seems scarier having little ones so young playing full-gear tackle football. Their bones are still forming...And what of the risk of concussions? Their brains are still forming...And even if Havon and his buddies are fortunate enough to avoid being concussed, if Chief of neuroradiology at Wake Forest School of Medicine, Christopher Whitlow and his team are correct, brain imaging they’ve conducted throughout a football season shows kids brains have been detrimentally altered in the playing. An estimated 3.5 million boys are playing football in America. How many might suffer traumatic brain injury?

But in the here and now, when all is peaches and cream with stardom and an injury-free career in front of him, it is clear the little guy can catch long bombs like nobody’s business. He’s got the football sense and savvy to come back to the ball, come back to the quarterback, break his pattern, when the QB is scrambling. He can catch over his shoulder and snare a pass in, one-handed. (But what is just as jaw-dropping is watching the kid quarterback(s) tossing those long bombs while sprinting out of the pocket...)
If he signs the scholarship, or someone old enough for him does (do kids know how to write their names at 9, or do they still print them?) he could save a bundle on Out-of-State tuition fees. This year they are at $21,775. Lord knows what they’ll be in about 8 years when the gaffer finished high school.

And this finishing high school thing is a small part of why this trend to offering near-babies scholarships is becoming the way of things. They want the recipient to fly right, work hard and study both on and off the field. The rest of the reasons are, not surprisingly, not so altruistic; if a kid is a phenom who looks like he might have staying power, why not get him signed on the dotted line? But (and we’re assuming, just this last once, these scholarship offers do have some serious legal bite) do these scholarship offers have an escape clause which doesn’t involve a buy out? What if Havon decides he wants to be a racing car mechanic, or driver, and thus decides university is not the best way to reach his dreams?

Or say Havon survives football through high school unscathed. He goes to the University of Nevada and blows out a knee in his first game. And doctors can’t put Humpty Dumpty together again to meet football’s exacting standards. What happens to the scholarship then? Does it go the way of the Dodo bird? Or what if Havon goes a bit Aaron Hernandez at the school and gets busted and convicted? Bye-bye scholarship. Even if he stays within society’s legal lines - what if his GPA stinks, doesn’t meet a prescribed minimum? See you, scholarship...

Suppose Head Coach, Jay Norvell, and his 21 assistant coaches (for sure a scholarship should be given to each footballer that makes the team - who can remember all the coaches’ names - and Havon should personally thank the 1 assistant that saw a few of his highlight tapes and recommended a scholarship be offered) remain there until Havon comes to the rescue. But before Havon’s second season is to start the University fires Norvell et al. The new football boss has different philosophies and cuts Havon. Say sayonara scholarship...

But for now Havon’s saying all the right things and is dutifully training his keester off, exampled by his trainer, Mike Evans, having him pushing a huge tire that’s gotta outweigh Havon by 5 times. And Mr. Evans seems to be a foreseer. He describes Havon and another kid: “Genetically they have the size of pro athletes.”
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And major-league university and NFL football dreams are formed from such pint-sized kids...

​A wet dream of orgasmic proportions is how one announcer described a Cristiano Ronaldo goal.

But what of the dry nightmare tax-evasion accusation the fantabulous Portuguese footballer faces?

Words cannot express Rocket Ronaldo’s greatness but soccer commentators have jobs to do and their truly difficult trick is to NOT use superlatives already in play to describe this guy, this forward, who, in his own words, grew up poor. Thus we hear tributes like:

“Confidence personified. The magic remains. Stunning, absolutely stunning. One of the best goals he’s ever scored. Absolutely sensational. Brilliant. We are witnessing an exhibition tonight. Not many players can do that. An absolute stunner. Oh my word. Top drawer. Can you believe the genius of this man? Unstoppable. Fine individual strike. An invaluable talent. This man can’t stop scoring. Did he really just do that? As outrageous a goal as you are going to see in any league. Not too far out for him.”

But is Cristiano’s being accused of shortchanging Spain some €14.7m (£12.95m) between 2011 and 2014 far out? Or is this just sort of a “misunderstanding? But, if not - if he is guilty – well, why would he ever do such a thing? The superstar had more than enough money during the period in question. Would it be due to greediness, or might it be some deep, dark thoughts of retribution and revenge he harbors towards authorities in that country he’s played in - in trying to “take it to the man” via tax fraud?

He’s to appear in the Pozuelo de Alarcon court this July 31st   to determine if he is charge-worthy.
For sure, if he is eventually found guilty and has to pay a fine, he can shake his Nike piggy bank which pays him, in a lifetime-contract, a cool 1 billion bucks. Or he could dip into his salaried funds of 50 million dollars annually. Or, failing these options, he could hold a raffle: pay my fine – betcha at least 1 fan of his 275 million social media followers would cough up the needed dough.
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275 million athletic supporters can’t be wrong, because, besides being one of the best soccer players of all time, he seems to be on the right side, on his Twitter account at least, of apparently supporting causes like donating blood (there’s a picture of him with a sign that says donate blood) or apparently feeling angst over global refugees and feeling anxious over not enough Saving-the-Children going on to suit him.
And surely he can’t be nearly as corrupt as your basic, wedded-to-entitlement-and-lucre, money grabbing and grubbing FIFA kleptocrat is, can he?  

Perhaps we should cut him some slack – until we know the complete story. Perhaps Spain’s Agencia Tributaria is charging The Sultan of the Stepover out of bitterness, knowing his net worth, estimated at 375 million as of 2016, is a healthy economic barometer, when compared to the Great Recession that has wrecked Spain and its economic barometers since 2008. Perhaps the state legal service, which is the stick of that country’s tax doings, is shelling tax flack at him because he’s better than all their players. Perhaps one of their tax bureaucrats hates soccer and especially detests how the slightest mishap has a player writhing as though he’s been trampled over by the 3rd Panzer Division. Or maybe the bureaucrat simply goofed in his or her mathematical assumptions and computations.

Or, much likelier still, given Spain’s being ranked (the lower the number the higher the perceived level of corruption) as 58th out of 175 countries being measured – has a tax authority simply looking for a bribe to make this whole unseemly affair go away...

No matter what Spain’s role is, Ronaldo, AKA the little bee “abelhinha”, should look at replacing, or getting, a financial advisor familiar with overt tax laws in Spain which consist of tax regulations (including – and this is a partial list: economic activities tax; personal income tax; and wealth tax), tax agency regulations (including Acts, Royal Decrees, Ministerial Orders, Resolutions, and Instructions) other regulations of interest, international taxation regulations, regulations pending or

Geez, starting to feel woozy here, starting to feel Ronaldo’s pain. CR7 you’d best get a financial fixer and finagler who can deal with Spain’s covert skullduggery and behind the scenes tom-foolery.
That would have saved him from his presently being thought as somewhat of a cad to, if he’s found culpable, of being ultimately found as a criminal.

Should the latter be the case he can compare tax fraud felonies with rival Lionel Messi, who had HIS tax-fraud conviction upheld by Spain’s Supreme Court. Should the former be the situation Cristiano Ronaldo can share boo hoo stories with José Mourinho, who Spanish authorities think burned them for €3.3m (£2.9m) while he was managing Real Madrid, or Ronnie can sip some weak tea and do a whole sob sister oh-so-sad-story thingy with Colombia’s Radamel Falcao, who Spain think hosed them for £4.8m or hey, Cris can share a few stiff drinks and shout a few stronger protestations over the horror of it all with Argentina’s Javier Mascherano, who the tax office in...Spain...of all places - thinks tried to pull the wool over their eyes to the tune of £1.3m or Ronaldo, if you haven’t yet fainted from the tax-impositional indignity enveloping you, could shoot the s—t with Spaniard Xabi Alonso who, Spanish tax authorities believe hasn’t been kosher in minding his Ps and Qs when it comes to remitting to them their considered fair due in duties.
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Two things are for sure. 1) The Spanish Tax Authorities are taxed to the max in ferreting Euros out of bedroom bureaus and 2) Ronaldo won’t get a decent night’s sleep, or a randy night wet dream orgasmic evening, until this tax fraud caper-case is put to bed.

​Rahsaan Yearwood needs his head read. He’s the father of a once-son who expresses himself as a daughter. The son’s name is now Andraya. He’s got a bit of a mustache, is well built, admits he often wins in track while identifying as a male, and now thinks he’s a female. So he/she is now the best girl track star at Cromwell High School. It’s in Connecticut and its second place finisher in the 100, Kate Hall, who won this event last year, has learned 2 things in her short tenure on earth. 1) Boys can race as girls without undergoing hormonal transplants and/or surgeries and 2) Speak softly to mask your true feelings at such a crazy thing being allowed to happen: “It’s frustrating, but that’s just the way it is now.”

Back to dad. He says (paraphrasing) we are born into a body, we are born into a situation...but we grow into a person we’re going to be (hardly profound thoughts for a math teacher) and when people ask me why is your daughter running with the girls – I answer - because she’s my daughter. As for fairness? He says he doesn’t think of it. How dandy for dad.

Brian Calhoun, the track coach at Cromwell, plays small ball, gushing: “I have a spectacular female athlete, there’s nothing more to say.” Really? Don’t you have a guy who identifies as a girl – but is a guy in physique, running with the girls? He then contradicts himself and goes on to say more. Basically he doesn’t want anyone to take issue with his stance that this situation is perfectly just. He doesn’t want this situation approached in any other way – for that could create an issue or a conversation...and he avers there really is no issue, nor conversation to be had – other than getting Andraya to improve her running times and finishes.

So he wants to preclude large-picture eyes-wide-open contrary views as he myopically and proudly proclaims “we have a great athlete...”

Where does mom, Ngozi Nnaji, fit into all of this? Well, she wants to lash out at comments she doesn’t like...and she says the love she has for her child is unconditional. The latter seems noble but overlooks the travesty of having a girl in a boy’s biological body winning races against girls with girl bodies. It’s not fair. Anybody with half a brain can see that. Ngozi adds: there’s no judgment. Too bad for mom, for what Andraya is foisting is a farce.

Yes, mom casting no judgment is crazy. Tolerance for the intolerable is not tolerance, it is submission, surrender. Instead of parenting she’s a passenger, a passerby, a patron, a potted palm, not willing to instill values of what is right or wrong but is, instead, willing to let the chips fall where they may and is willing to let the train crash without doing anything to stop it. “She can be whoever she wants to be...” (One wonders if mom would accept Andraya if he/she goes all genderfluidy and decides she’s a guy again?)

For Kate Hall, who may have aspired to a college or university scholarship – if she is now overlooked – would this not be a travesty? And how does she feel Cromwell’s motto:
“Placing Students First”
corresponds with her situation? She’s not first. She was beaten by Andraya, a transgender athlete – where transgender means in his/her case...what? If one feels like a square peg trying to fit in a round hole, in matters of sexual orientation and gender identity – but hasn’t yet taken concrete steps to change one’s sex to the gender they identify with, isn’t that just so much posing?

Andraya says she’s used to winning. So victories started when she was a he. So why not really go for the gusto? Announce you’re a girl – and race against boys? Show the world that girls (albeit still in boys’ bodies) can beat boys in the sprints. Wouldn’t that be something? Wouldn’t that be a lot more impressive and courageous than running against girls with a boy’s physical attributes?

In fairness, Andraya, like many young women, is soft spoken, wear her hair long, and is inclusive – hoping her story inspires others. But boy oh boy, her shoulders are ripped – and will remain that way until she begins hormonal treatments.

Apparently a revelation occurred back in grade 1 or grade 2 (she’s not sure which) when the then tyke wore a Cinderella dress on Halloween – to Andraya that was the start of her realizing that she might be entombed in the wrong gender. But could it not have been just another example of a boy being a boy and doing a silly thing to attract attention, shock friends and freak out the folks? Another sign that something was amiss for Andraya was when, in grade 5, she wore pink and purple colored furry boots to school.

Dad, mom, and the track coach are all conveniently overlooking the elephant in the room. Andraya has a huge advantage in track events like the 100 and 200 because she’s got a boy’s musculature and power with a testosterone kick. As a freshman, (“freshman” will definitely have to be carted out to the woodshed and horsewhipped into a more pc word), Andraya may be a good girl, but she isn’t, or wasn’t, the best girl. In the Connecticut outdoor All-State Championship she came 3rd in a time of 12.41 seconds in the 100 meter dash. (Shanea Calhoun has the best State time of 11.82 set back in 2004.)

So dad and mom exude insouciance about the guy who thinks he’s a gal while the track coach exudes ebullience. Many of us exude penitence, realizing our vexations about this story have us, seemingly, sadly, and astoundingly, hopelessly wrong - based on the new "rules" and "mores" of what’s allowed in gender definitions this day and age.
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Definitely we who disagree, need our heads read.