More Than Words

Earlier today Brian Kelly was introduced as the next head coach of the Notre Dame football program, and his first press conference is going to haunt him the way Charlie Weis’ first comments haunted him in his final season. Brian Kelly opened with such bravado it’s surprising that he didn’t guarantee a National Championship next year, saying “It’s not a five year plan, it’s a five minute plan.” and “You do not come to the University of Notre Dame because you want to be average. You want to be the best of the best. That’s why I’m here.” and the amazing “There are football coaches, and then there’s the football coach at Notre Dame because nobody does it like Notre Dame.” Notre Dame’s fan base is amped about the Kelly’s hiring, 74,026 people watched the news conference online, but they were just as giddy about the hiring of Charlie Weis five year ago, and ultimately Kelly is unlikely to last as long as Weis did, if Notre Dame’s expectation remain so high. Ohio State, Florida and Southern California were all top flight programs that stumbled, found a new coach and rebounded quickly, all winning National Championships this decade. However, all of those programs only suffered through two or three disappointing seasons, Notre Dame has been down for sixteen years. In those sixteen seasons Notre Dame has only two ten win seasons, were blown out in all three BCS Bowl appearances, and won only one bowl game. By comparison over that same span Ohio State has eleven ten win seasons, eight BCS Bowl appearances, and a BCS National Title. Dozens of other schools have more impressive resumes over that period, which is why Notre Dame has gone through four coaches since they won the Cotton Bowl in 1993. Many people blame the academic standards for limiting Notre Dame’s ability to recruit, but thats completely false. Recruiting improved under Weis, finishing with a top ten recruiting class three times, and there are fifty members of the Irish currently playing in the NFL, eleven more than the Buckeyes. The best quarterback (Jimmy Clausen) and wide receiver (Golden Tate) prospects in the upcoming NFL Draft are both from Notre Dame. So, there isn’t much chance that Brian Kelly will be able to recruit better talent than Weis was able to bring in. Notre Dame doesn’t have the worst schedule, but they don’t play the service academies as often as they used to, and Brian Kelly’s Cincinnati Bearcats play in the weakest of all the BCS conferences, so he’s actually going to be playing tougher competition. Furthermore, in his three ten win seasons his only marquee win is an overtime victory at West Virginia, and the Bearcats got roughed up pretty bad by a four loss Virginia Tech team in last years Orange Bowl. This year it took a botched extra point, and some extremely dubious Big East officiating to keep Cincinnati undefeated, if they had lost those games, and were headed to the Meineke Car Care Bowl, Brian Kelly wouldn’t have been preaching to the Irish faithful this afternoon. Kelly’s decision to leave his squad before the Sugar Bowl is understandable, the prospect of getting spanked by an SEC team like Florida isn’t particularly appealing, and would certainly dampen Notre Dame’s excitement over his hiring. Kelly is an offensive coach just like Weis, and Notre Dame will probably continue to score points next season if with an unexperienced quarterback, but with a young offensive line they won’t be as good as the ninth ranked offense they had this past season. The Irish ranked eighty-seventh in total defense, and that is what killed them last season, especially at the end of games. Cincinnati was ranked forty-eighth in total defense, and defense has never been Kelly’s strong suit. However, Notre Dame really didn’t have many other options, Bob Stoops and Urban Meyer may have been at the top of the wish list, but neither of them were ready to jump from their already successful programs to a second tier program, even if it has the prestige of Notre Dame. As a whole it can’t be a particularly appealing job, other than the pay, because it has destroyed the past three coaches. Bob Davie hasn’t coached since he was fired in 2001, instead sticking to broadcasting. Tyrone Willingham, who won a Pac-10 title at Stanford, returned to the Pac-10 to coach at Washington after being fired in 2004, only winning 11 games in four seasons, including a winless season to end his tenure last year. Then there’s Weis, who opened with as much bravado as Kelly, but by the middle of the season looked like a broken man, a shadow of his former self. Weis probably won’t coach in college again, and there is already interest from NFL teams for him to resume his career as an offensive coordinator, coaching the struggling Brady Quinn in Cleveland seems like poetic justice, but he’ll have to snap out of his Notre Dame hangover if he’s going to be successful again. The expectations are so high, the pressure so great it just eats coaches up, and unlike other top tier programs Notre Dame demands a great deal from their head coaches outside of the football program, it’s just not run as smoothly as the other big football factories. There are more reasons not to take this job than to take it, and the fact that they ended up with Kelly is a clear indication of how other coaches look at this job. The fact that Notre Dame chose to use a search firm to find their head coach is an indication of poorly run the athletic department is, especially when it appears they didn’t even consider anyone else other than rumors of Randy Edsall. Gary Patterson (TCU), Chris Peterson (Boise State) and Bronco Mendenhall (BYU) would have all been superior choices, and have much better track records than Brian Kelly. Kelly is a good coach, but so were Willingham and Davie, and they weren’t good enough for Notre Dame. It’s clear that Kelly hasn’t really come to grips with the situation he’s in, otherwise he wouldn’t have started out so over the top, but once it sinks in, he’s going to realize that just finishing with a winning record next year should be considered a success. However, no one else at Notre Dame will think so, Notre Dame’s athletic department needs to come to grips with the situation their in, and take some of the responsibility instead of sacking their coaches every few years, moving into a conference would probably help a lot. Charlie Weis promised more than he could deliver, and Brian Kelly has done the exact same thing, a BCS game in the next three years would be a realistic goal, if the job doesn’t crush him before he gets there. In the end he’s going to need wins more than words.

Riches To Rags

Dubai is smaller than the state of Delaware, but had a GDP of more than $82 billion in 2008. Dubai is part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a federation of seven small states, of which Dubai is the second largest. The UAE has the sixth largest proven oil reserves in the world, but the largest emirate, Abu Dhabi, has about 90% of those reserves. Therefore, Dubai has led the way in diversifying their economy away from oil and gas, in fact, the UAE as a whole is one of the most diversified economies in the middle east, with only 25% of its GDP from oil and gas, compared to 45% for Saudi Arabia. Dubai has been ruled by the Al Maktoum family since 1833, and is currently ruled through a constitutional monarchy by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also Prime Minister and Vice-President of the UAE. Dubai used it’s oil wealth to buy up businesses around the world to displace their dwindling oil revenue, as well as building a very large service and construction sector domestically. Most of this economic activity was conducted through government owned companies, but was largely financed through borrowing, about $80 billion was borrowed from foreign investors. That is equal to the entire economic output of Dubai for an entire year, and that GDP number is largely inflated by all the money being poured into Dubai. At the end of November Dubai World, one of largest government owned corporations, announced that it would need a six month freeze in order to repay $26 billion in loans. Dubai World’s total debt is almost $60 billion, largely from it’s construction branch, Nakheel. However, the emirate as a whole owes more than that, and the government is trying to distance itself from these state owned companies, saying the debts are not guaranteed by the government. Dubai has asked their neighbor, Abu Dhabi, for assistance, and they have received $10 billion of a pledged $20 billion. However, Abu Dhabi is being very selective about how much support they are willing to give, and more importantly what they want in return, possibly a stake in the very successful Emirates Airline. Furthermore, Abu Dhabi has been copying Dubai’s model, as it to has been diversifying away from oil, and therefore has seen the same decline in property values, as well as being stung by investing in foreign companies that has been struggling in the global recession. Dubai’s stock market is in free fall, and this crisis has rippled through markets around the globe, although the full effect probably hasn’t been felt yet, as Dubai World’s restructuring has only just begun, and there are still other state run corporations with debts. European banks have led the way in lending to the emirate, but their exposure shouldn’t cause panic as long as Dubai finds away to pay back their debts in the long term. Regardless of how well Dubai gets out of this economic turmoil, the glory days of Dubai are probably gone. The domestic economic model for Dubai was essentially Las Vegas as a nation. Dubai created a destination to which people from all around the region, especially India, flocked to. These people needed someplace to live, so they built massive housing projects, which required more labor, which required more housing, and so on and so on. As of earlier this year Dubai had the fastest growing population in the world, an impressive 3.69%, which was fueled by immigration, which Dubai also led. All those new people fueled incredible growth in service and retail sectors, especially since, like Vegas, an awful lot of the migrants moved to Dubai because they had money to spend. Naturally, a bubble like this attracted speculators that drove housing prices to absurd levels, and when the world economy slowed at the end of last year, the bubble burst, and housing prices have continued to slide, some by as much as 50%. Just like in the United States, people got so giddy that they were convinced that housing prices would go up forever, which is totally absurd, especially when the property market was so obviously over valued already. One fourth of residential housing and office space lies empty. After a series of bad and very expensive investments, Dubai is in an unenviable position, they don’t have enough oil wealth to sustain themselves for very long, perhaps only for another decade. Therefore, one of the very things that made Dubai so prosperous will have to change, Dubai doesn’t have any taxes, and thats why people and corporation were so eager to flock to Dubai. But the ramifications of this would be huge, there has already been an exodus of foreigners, partially because defaulting on a debt is an imprisonable offense, leading to abandoned vehicles at the airport as expatriates flee the country, but many more will move on to the other tax free UAE states. Abu Dhabi, which has been jealous of Dubai successes, will likely be the biggest benefactor of Dubai’s woes, even if it ends up bankrolling most of Dubai’s losses. The other part of the equation is that Dubai has to modernize it’s economy with some sort of oversight, but in a country where the state essentially runs everything, there really isn’t anyone to do the overseeing, who has the power to regulate the king’s businesses. The complete lack of regulation was one of the driving forces behind Dubai’s rapid expansion, just like it did for the US stock market before the great depression, and the same for what derivatives did to world economy today, but the net effect is always the same, a crash. Dubai’s economy is run entire through only a handful of corporations, almost all of which are majority owned by Sheik Mohammed, who essentially runs everything. Business deals are like state secrets, there isn’t very much if any public information on how any of the companies are run, and in this vacuum speculation and rumor drive many business decisions. The individuals that run these corporations are friends and relations of the Sheik, all the power is consolidated among an unqualified few, who are all indebted to the absolute power of Sheik Mohammed. Which is why democracies have been so successful, as tedious as giant bureaucracies can be, it keeps the power out of one person’s hands. A Monarch is great as long as he is a benevolent dictator, who always makes the right decisions, but it’s neither pragmatic or realistic. Dubai will certainly survive, Abu Dhabi has been reluctant to help, but as stock markets across the middle east continue to get hammered, their hand will be forced. However, Dubai will probably have to give up some of their more valued assets, and possibly some of the autonomy they have from the UAE as a whole. Either way Dubai will not be the same, but more importantly, now that Dubai World is defaulting on it’s debts, will Sheik Mohammed have to go to jail?

The One State Solution

Earlier today European Union foreign ministers agreed that Jerusalem should be the capital of both Israel and the future Palestinian State. The ministers decided to drop the idea of East Jerusalem being the exculsive capital of a Palestinian State, as proposed by the Swedish EU presidency. Furthermore, the EU ministers’ statement said that the EU would not recognize any changes to Israel’s pre-1967 borders. The statement was welcomed by the Palestinian leadership, but was rebuked by the Israeli government. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been pushing for more EU involvement, since the United States has largely been disengaged from the middle east peace process over the last few years, and even when the US has participated is has seldom pressured Israel on key issues. A recent meeting between Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama yielded no results, despite both Obama and Secretary of State Clinton’s attempt to stop illegal settlements. About two weeks ago Abbas petitioned the EU to recognize a Palestinian State at the UN, similar to what the EU did recently for Kosovo, because he felt his negotiations with Israel had reached an impasse. It was a risky move because Israel has threatened to nullify past accords if the Palestinian Authority made a unilateral move toward independence. The EU declined to recognize a Palestinian State, but apparently it has pushed them to take a more proactive role in the peace process. Unfortunately the statement in and of itself will do little to change Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians. The mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Bakat, wrote a letter to the EU foreign policy chief, saying that Jerusalem should not divided between Palestinians and Israelis, and he’s right. The EU statement does not exclusively says that Jerusalem should be divided, and it shouldn’t, but it doesn’t belong in any way more to the Israelis or the Palestinians. There’s no reason why they can’t share the city as their capital, and beyond that, there isn’t any good reason why Jews and Palestinians need to have separate states. The two state solution is decades old, and hasn’t progressed beyond the preliminary stages. During that time Israel has settled more and more of the land that is supposed to part of a contiguous future state of the Palestinians. Furthermore, the concept of “separate but equal” is an absurd notion, it has never worked before, and certainly wouldn’t settle the antagonism toward Israel in the Arab world. If Israel really wanted a two state solution, they could have made it happen, they are literarily holding all the keys and guarding all the doors, there is no will to create a viable Palestinian State. In some sense they must feel that the policy of occupying the West Bank is essential for their security, but an economically viable and politically stable Palestinian State would do far more to ensure Israel’s security. However, to create such a state would need concessions of territory from Israel, and a great deal of financial investment by the Israelis into creating a environment where stable society could develop, things which Israel seems unlikely to do. Meanwhile, they spend millions not only on their defense forces that occupy the West Bank, but also fill the coffers of politicians around the world, especially in the US and UK. The amount of Israeli settlement in the West Bank makes it impossible to envision a two state solution, which means that there inevitably will be a single state. Israel decided that Gaza wasn’t worth the hassle, forcibly removed Jewish settlers, and sealed it off in something that it reminiscent of Manhattan in John Carpenter’s Escape From New York. The West Bank will be slowly incorporated into Israel top form a single state, which will slowly turn into a South African Apartheid, which the occupied territory already eerily resembles. Israel does not have a constitution, and does not have a separation of church and state. The Israelis don’t want to bring in the Palestinians as citizens because it would drastically change Israel’s demographics, Israel already has Arab citizens, but only have minor impact on the Israeli political process. Ultimately, this is why Israel’s decision to drag its feet on a Palestinian State will back fire, Israel’s Jewish population is declining, while it’s Arab population is growing, in Israel’s political sphere it’s known as the “demographic threat”. The best case scenario for everyone involved would be the end of the Jewish State, and the formation of a new country, with a constitution, a bill of rights and a separation of church and state. It’s the only way to guarantee a free and fair society for the entire population, and shield Jews from the retribution that may be inflicted upon them by an Arab Muslim majority. However, it is much more likely that Israel will follow the path of colonial powers in South Africa, Algeria or Rhodesia, slowly descending into more extreme behavior as the inevitability of the situation weighs ever heavier upon them. The Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem existed in one form or another for almost one hundred years, and just like Israel, it’s short history was full of a great deal of violence, and the demographics were against them as well, Jerusalem inevitably fell back into Muslim hands when it was sacked by Saladin. The two state solution is dead, and if a one state solution that is acceptable for all can not be reached, the violence will continue, and in all likelihood will escalate. Israel has existed for sixty-one difficult years, and unless they radically reassess their policies, the future of Israel will be just as dim as the future of a Christian state in the holy land.

Israel and the Islamic Republic

The Islamic Republic of Iran continues to enrich uranium for the purpose of generating energy for domestic consumption. The Iranian nuclear program dates back to the era of the Shah, when it was supported by the United States, but after the Islamic Revolution the program has been closely scrutinized by the international community. The legitimacy of Iran’s claim that their nuclear program is for entirely peaceful purposes is dubious, while it appears that the Iranians are not currently attempting to produce any nuclear weapons, they have in the past had designs on developing a nuclear bomb. Iran’s first atomic power plant, in Bushehr, has been completed, and is undergoing final testing before going online sometimes early next year. The Bushehr plant was originally part of the Shah’s nuclear program in the 1970s, and was to be built by the German companies, Siemens and Telefunken, but construction was stopped after the overthrow of the Shah. In 1995 Iran contracted Atomstroyexport, a state owned Russian company, to complete the plant with only a single nuclear reactor. This plant will undoubtably only be used for civilian purposes, and since Iran has uranium deposits, their desire for nuclear energy is not unnatural. The nuclear program has been around for decades, and the opening of this plant will be seen as a great national achievement. However, there are a variety of other sites in Iran that are tied to their nuclear program that are substantially more clandestine. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regulates nuclear power programs to ensure safe and secure use of atomic power for peaceful purposes, and they have had trouble verifying that Iran is in compliance. The United States through United Nations sanctions has tried to leverage Iran into complying with the IAEA, but have had little success. Iran is following the model of North Korea, and is trying to string out negotiations as long as possible, which is one of the reasons why there is so much concern over the potentiality of Iran developing nuclear weapons just like North Korea has. Furthermore, the Iranian Republican Guard has taken control of many elements of the nuclear program, as well as many other key institutions, in the wake of the popular dissidence in reaction to the fraudulent Presidential election earlier this year. Every totalitarian regime wants the bomb, as a foreign policy tool it is invaluable, as a weapon of last defense. The Iranian leadership has reason to be worried about existential threats, President George W. Bush threatened to uses nuclear weapons against them, and under his administration invaded two of Iran’s neighbors. However, an attack from the United States is extremely unlikely, especially when the US is bogged down in two other wars already. While there has been something of proxy war between the United States and Iran inside of Iraq, there hasn’t been any sign of escalation, but Iran has been engaged in a proxy war with Israel for years. Israel is a very tangible threat to Iran, and vice versa, one of the biggest reasons for Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons is Israel’s unconfirmed nuclear arsenal. Beyond the endless anti-Israeli rhetoric that comes out of Iran, there is an active campaign to fund terrorist and non-terrorist groups that actively combat not only the Israeli occupation of Palestine, but also ultimately want to eliminate Israel entirely. In the summer of 2006 this proxy war flared up, Hezbollah, one of the terrorist groups that Iran backs, launched a campaign of unguided rocket attacks in an attempt to goad Israel into attacking Lebanon, which Israel ultimately did. The Israeli Security Forces decimated Lebanon with a fierce bombing campaign that destroyed most of Lebanon’s infrastructure, but did not eliminate Hezbollah or its leadership. The war ended in somewhat of a stalemate, and it appears that the two sides were mostly just testing each other, although Hassan Nasrallah claimed a hollow victory for Hezbollah. Israel has publicly stated that it will not allow Iran to develop a Nuclear Weapon, and there is nothing cryptic about what they are willing to do. In 1981 Israel bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor in Osirak, which they did without any approval from either the United States or United Nations, but incidentally was done with cooperation of Iranian intelligence. Israel has conducted military drills that have been designed to imply they are prepared to make such a strike in Iran, and in response Iran has performed repeated missile tests probably simulating the Iranian response to such an Israeli attack. In 1981 Iraq was embroiled in a war with Iran, and lacked an substantial ability to strike back at Israel, but did lead Saddam Hussien to develop retaliatory measures against further Israeli aggression. Iran has the ability to defend itself, although most of technology is late cold-war era, they have a substantial air force and limited missile capabilities. Further complicating this is the 169,235 sq miles of air space over Iraq that lies between the two countries, and is currently controlled by the United States. While the international community dithers about, trying to use the carrot approach to lure Iran to negotiating table, the tension between these two countries continues to simmer. Iran seems convinced that Israel’s stance is mostly bravado, but with Netanyahu back as Prime Minister in Israel, Iran should not underestimate Israeli resolve, and should not ignore the great length they have been willing to go to in order to eliminate existential threats. Russia has been Iran’s strongest ally, and their business partner for their nuclear ambitions, not only was the reactor completed by Russians, Rusatom, another state owned company, supplies the fuel for the reactor. The United States has tried to push Russia to use that leverage to force Iran into compliance with the IAEA, but Russia refused unless the United States scraped the European Missile Defense Shield, which they knew the Bush administration would never do. However, the Obama administration has already scraped that program, but it is dubious that Obama has curried enough favor with President Medvedev in order for him to strain his strategic partnership with Iran. If Russia can not be convinced to pressure Iran, then the United States and the European Union should walk away from the negotiating table and continue with sanctions because the Iranian economy can not hold out for long with the high expenditures made by the current regime. Any attack or threat of armed intervention will spike energy costs, which ultimately, short of developing a bomb, is the only leverage the Iranian Government has over the west. Even if Iran reaches a deal, and complies with the IAEA, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the Israeli’s will be satisfied with a regulated nuclear program. In 1981, while there were doubts about Hussien’s intentions, the Iraqi reactor was French designed, not capable of producing uranium for a bomb, and was monitored by the IAEA. If Israel stays steadfast on a policy of a non-nuclear Iran, Jews and Persians could end up waring against each other with the Arab world caught in the middle, and considering the fragile state of many of these countries, the importance of oil to the world economy and the monstrous US presence in the region, that simply can not be allowed.

Top 100 Albums of the 2000s

Volume 10 : 01-10

	01 / The Avalanches / Since I Left You / 2000 I got this record when it was released ten years ago, and it’s been my favorite ever since, sample based music that will blow your mind. Best Track – Live At Dominoes
	02 / Broken Social Scene / You Forgot It In People / 2002 The most epic alternative rock record I’ve ever listened to, even more amazing live, essential listening from start to finish, there’s nothing else like this. Best Track – Shampoo Suicide
	03 / Interpol / Turn On The Bright Lights / 2002 Post Punk never sounded this good, Paul Banks has the monotone delivery down, and the songs are perfectly constructed. Best Track – Stella Was A Diver And She Was Always Down
	04 / …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead / Source Tags And Codes / 2002 Perhaps the only people to listen to more Sonic Youth than me, they expand that sound into guitar driven anthems, perfectly produced unlike their later material. Best Track – How Near, How Far
	05 / Cannibal Ox / The Cold Vein / 2002 No other hip-hop record sounds like this, elaborately concieved and meticulously executed, a producer and his mc’s working in perfect harmony. Best hip-hop ever. Best Track – Ridiculoid
	06 / The Strokes / Is This It? / 2000 Set the table for a series of over hyped bands, the Strokes were never able to catch lightning in a bottle again, but they deliver the goods on every track here. Best Track – Hard To Explain
	07 / RJD2 / Deadringer / 2002 DJ Shadow eat your heart out, the place to start for sample based instrumental hip-hop. Absolutely undeniable great. Best Track – Ghostwriter
	08 / The White Stripes / White Blood Cells / 2001 Having paid their debt to theri influences on previous records, the White Stripes expand their sound to create an amazing blue rock record, their very best material. Best Track – Hotel Yorba
	09 / Clinic / Internal Wrangler / 2000 Maybe no band was weirder in this decade, Clinic sounds like a psychedelic Velvet Underground, with completely incoherent vocals. Best Track – The Return Of Evil Bill
	10 / J Dilla / Donuts / 2006 Jay Dee produced in several different styles over two decades, but his final release was a post-humous masterpeice of instrumental hip-hop. Best Track – Two Can Win

The Day Superman Died

Its 2:25 a.m. the day after thanksgiving, most everyone in the country is stuffed with turkey, and probably fast asleep, but not the world’s most prominent athlete. Most people won’t find out until later that day, but in the middle of night Tiger Woods drove his Escalade over a fire hydrant and into a tree, and is subsequently taken to a local hospital for minor injuries. Woods made a statement, he was not intoxicated, his wife acted “courageously” and asserted “I’m human, and I’m not perfect.” A car accident in and of itself is not much of a news story, but one involving an international celebrity will cause the collective media to descend like a plague of locusts, and they will tug at every loose end of the story until the whole thing unravels. This one apparently minor incident, a tiny chink in the armor of a mighty man would change him, at least in the eyes of the public, forever. Tiger Woods has won 14 majors, is a 9 time golfer of the year, 9 time money list leader, 4 time AP Male Athlete of the Year, and the only person to named Sport Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year more than once.  By every metric he is the best golfer on the planet, and many consider him to be the best ever to pick up a club.  His Nike marketing has made him a bigger brand than Michael Jordan, no small feat, and has developed him into an international icon.  On the PGA Tour he is the only draw, crowds of hundred follow him from tee to tee, while other golfers, sometimes even the leaders, play in relative obscurity.  Television ratings take a nosedive when Tiger is either not playing, or not in contention, no other single athlete means as much to his sport as Tiger does to golf.  His focus and steely resolve has made him one of the most intimidating figure in sports, most golfers simply wilt in his shadow.  In his Sunday red shirt he was in affect a golfing superman, he was working on a different level than anyone else.  And beyond that, without him there wouldn’t be corporate sponsorships and television coverage, he was a deity and the PGA Tour was a creation of mere mortals.  For many people that all seemed like a reality, but superman is a myth, and so is Tiger Woods.  However, the one person who should have always known that it was all fallacious, was Tiger, and he clearly believed that he was superman.  Woods has never believed that rules applied to him, and the PGA Tour certainly has indulged him, in August he criticized an official for timing him and his partner Padraig Harrington when they were taking to much time, which normally would have incurred a fine, Tiger was not fined.  His on course demeanor reflects a petulant child reminiscent of an aging child star, he may lead in wins and prize money, but he also leads the Tour in thrown clubs, tantrums directed at his huge fan base that follows him hole to hole (he’s had his caddy smash people’s cameras), and he can’t be miked for television because he drops an f-bomb after every shot that doesn’t quite go the way he intended.  This behavior would draw a sharp rebuke from the Tour if it was any player other than Woods, and the repetitive nature of his behavior sets a horrible example for all the kids he’s supposed to be inspiring to pick up golf.  His attitude toward the media has always been bipolar, if he wins he answers questions with arrogant swagger, annihilating his competition with his so called “b game”, and when he losses he begrudgingly admits that someone played well, but he clearly has little to no respect for his fellow golfers, often taking back-handed swipes at them and their game.   All this from a man who claims to be Buddhist.  Now several days after a curious, but seemingly innocuous traffic accident it appears that his arrogant and destructive behavior is not limited to the course.  Multiple reports of infidelity have come out, and in Tiger’s second statement released today, he tacitly acknowledges these “sins” and “transgressions” without going into a specifics about what he is referring to.  His injuries were not sustained in the accident, and he was struck in the head with something, most likely by his wife.  He went from untouchable to a late night talk show punch line, he instantaneously became a figure of ridicule.  His unparalleled reputation won’t ever be able to recover entirely, especially because now everything he does will be scrutinized on a level he couldn’t imagine, he may not be able to get away with all the things he has in the past.  He can try to contain the story be staying silent, but tabloid reporters are digging for anything and everything they can find, and he has peering down on the media from his towering pedestal for so long that there are plenty of people looking to knock him off it, and surely more details will come out in the following weeks and months.  The one thing he can do to ingratiate himself with the public is to win golf tournaments, which he has always been able to do in the past, last season he was still the best in the world, but over the last two years his invincibility has begun to fade.  Relative no names have dueled with him, Rocko Mediate played Tiger wire to wire in an eighteen hole playoff at the US Open in 08, Yang Yong-eun came from behind in the same pairing to beat him in the year’s PGA Championship, and Tiger missed the cut at The Open Championship, and almost missed the cut the following week.  Woods is going to skip his upcoming charity tournament, meaning he won’t play again until late January, but the media will be waiting, and with his callous attitude towards them, it will interesting to see how he deals with the questions, especially if his play is not were he would like it to be.  Either way, things won’t be the same, it can’t be the same. You should never put on the cape unless your prepared for it to become your shroud.

Top 100 Albums of the 2000s

Volume 9 : Albums 11-20

	11 / Arcade Fire / Funeral / 2004 A record so good it will likely overshadow anything else they ever release. Also the record that launched the blog evolution of music media. Best Track – Wake Up
	12 / Fugazi / The Argument / 2001 The last gasp of one of the best bands of all time happens to be the best Fugazi record ever. The dynamics of soft and loud, slow and fast have never been used better. Best Track – Epic Problem
	13 / The Unicorns / Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone? / 2003 Canadian pop music equally inspired by the elephant six collective and the post hardcore of the late 80s. Freewheeling to the point of being slap stick. Best Track – Les Os
	14 / Love Is All / Nine Times That Same Song / 2005 Swedes doing post-punk acompanied by saxophone. Naturally they have an irresistible pop flair, and this album has an energy thats impossible to replicate. Best Track – Busy Doing Nothing
	15 / At The Drive-In / Relationship Of Command / 2000 The type of straight ahead rock that doesn’t come around very often, because rock music is seldom this clever or original. Best Track – Pattern Against User
	16 / Broadcast / Tender Buttons / 2005 Paring their sound down from epic morricone style pop to barebones synths, guitars and beats to create a haunting backdrop for Trish Keenan’s amazing voice. Best Track – Subject To The Ladder
	17 / Madvillain / Madvillainy / 2004 Beats by Madlib, MCed by Doom, two of the best artist in hip-hop. 22 short tracks of marjuana enduced mythology. Best Track – Raid
	18 / The Rapture / Echoes / 2003 Echoes is the result of the union of the perfect band with the perfect producer (DFA), together they recorded the seminal dance punk album. Best Track – House Of Jealous Lovers
	19 / Dungen / Ta Det Lungt / 2004 Absolutley authentic sounding psychedelic rock, the brainchild of muti-instrumental savante swede Gustav Ejstes, better than any psychedelic band of the 70s. Best Track – Ta Det Lungt
	20 / Spoon / Gimme Fiction / 2005 The best record from the best band. It has a deliberately timeless quality, staying away from the over-produced sound that characterized some of their other work. Best Track – Sister Jack

To Late Today

Today there is little debate that climate change is occurring, all over the world there are tell tale signs that the Earth is getting warmer. In a matter of years all of the mountain glaciers will be gone, and there will be no polar ice during the summer in the Arctic. Populations of humans and animals alike are being displaced due to drought, and in some cases simply because the land is being consumed by the sea. As of right now most of these effects are only being felt in the most desolate and poverty ridden parts of the world. Naturally people who live on the brink of subsistence will feel the effects first and most severely, but it’s only a matter of time before climate change will drastically effect us all. There is no doubt that humans will adapt, and our existence is probably not in peril, but what the future will hold for humanity is being decided today not tomorrow. The first global meeting on climate change was in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, a meeting that President H.W. Bush threatened to boycott, which was prompted by the 1990 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stating that human behavior was effecting the climate. In fact, in 1898 Swedish scientist Svante Ahrrenius warned that carbon dioxide emissions could lead to global warming, and scientists had been gathering data to support that theory since the 1970’s. However, the Rio convention did not yield any commitments to combat climate change, with many developed and developing nations claiming that drastic changes in their behavior were not economically viable. Five years later in Kyoto, Japan a second climate change summit was held, in which actual emission reduction goals were set. Al Gore signed the Kyoto Protocol, agreeing to a 7% reduction of US emission levels in 1990 by 2010, but it was never sent to the Senate to be ratified. 187 other countries signed and ratified the treaty, but only the United Kingdom and Sweden will meet their targets by 2010, the other 36 EU countries may be able to reach their targets by 2012. During this period US emissions have increased by 20%, and emerging powers India and China have both increased their emissions by over 100%, overall world emissions have increased by 38%. In the last two years there have been successive climate change talks all over the world, and under the previous administration the biggest obstacle in any new binding agreement has been the US. The Bush administration and republicans have always pointed to the developing countries, saying that they needed to be included in emission reductions, but in Bali, Indonesia in 2007 the developing world agreed to participate, and the US were finally forced, clearly against their will, to join the agreement, and this was only a non-binding “roadmap” for a future agreement. The targets set by the Kyoto Protocol were modest at best, and further more drastic cuts need to be made in order to reverse the rapid warming trend. A worldwide reduction of carbon dioxide and other related greenhouse gases in the range of 80% by 2050 are needed in order to curb global warming, if these cuts are not made the results will be dire. Next monday in Copenhagen the world will once again come together to discuss climate change, the US, India and China have pledged to make significant commitments to help combat global warming, but such statements have been made before without any serious results. Even if a binding agreement is made, it will require huge changes from its signatories, and that will be much harder than putting a signature on a piece of paper, which Al Gore did more than a decade ago. Most scientist agree that if emissions continue to climb in the next ten years, many effects of global warming will be unavoidable, and the climate will changed drastically for years and years to come. There problem is so huge, many people can’t really wrap their minds around it, but the problem isn’t as hard to grasp as the solution, and that’s why little to nothing has been done. The most abundant fuel in the US is coal, half of all the electricity is generated by coal, here in Ohio almost all of our electricity is generated by AEP coal plants. AEP and other energy companies have been pushing “clean” coal which will sequester carbon dioxide underground, however, no tests of this technology have been done, and furthermore carbon dioxide is a deadly gas. Even if it can be found to work and work safely its cost will be absurdly high. Natural Gas burns much cleaner than coal, but there isn’t enough to replace the baseline energy load that coal provides. The same goes for nuclear power, which has no carbon emissions, there isn’t enough fissile material on the planet to support human consumption for more than a few years. Bio-fuels are essentially a joke, more energy goes into producing fuel out of grain and corn than comes out, sugar based fuels have had success in Brazil, but sugar for fuel is probably only practical for use in vehicles, and only at a severely reduced rate of consumption. Solar power is much more feasible than wind, but again it will be expensive, and the amount of energy you can generate would require drastic cuts in the amount of electricity we consume. The silver bullet may be hydrogen fuel cells, a technology that uses hydrogen and oxygen to produces electricity with water as the only byproduct, oxygen is in the air and easily available, but hydrogen despite being the universe’s most abundant element, is not readily available as an independent element on earth since it easily bonds with everything. However, energy companies, despite the huge advertising campaigns the contrary, are only spending a tiny fraction of their profits in alternative energy technology, while they are spending billions of dollars to find new oil and natural gas resources. Shell, Exxon and BP plan to burn every ounce of fossil fuels that exist on this planet, and invest in technologies that may be able to artificially create fossil fuels using algae and bacteria. Thus the only feasible way to reduce emissions is to reduce consumption of everything that creates greenhouse gas emissions. The catch is that essentially everything you do has direct impact on carbon emissions. Greenhouse gases are not only emitted from power plants, and cars, it will take more than energy efficient light bulbs and appliances, and more than hybrid cars and electric lawnmowers, it will take a change in our attitude toward plundering the planet. The process of making concrete and steel both create large amounts of carbon dioxide, and those are the basic components of construction, new ways of building must be developed. Wood which was the fuel of choice for thousands of years is also used in construction, but deforestation is a huge problem. Trees are nature’s carbon scrubbers, they inhale and store carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen, but when trees are cut down they release the carbon they have stored inside them. Trees need to be traded as a commodity just like oil and natural gas, only then will developing countries begin to protect the forests that developed countries have already demolished. Consumption of food will need to change as well, raising animals for slaughter is both energy and water intensive and animal farming creates greenhouse gases. Furthermore, any waste of resources ends up costing energy, using disposable products, bag, bottles, paper, etc, require energy to make more of a product that will simply end up in a landfill. Consumers must change their energy intensive style of consumption. The changes in the everyday life of an American and operation of American corporations are so drastic that they can not be implemented voluntarily, the stakes are to high for there to be non compliance, tax policies must be changed to foster change. Rationing of resources is going to be a part of the future of ever country in the world, not only energy, but also water and other commodities. The sooner that the United States begins a program of conservation the less severe the rationing will be, but there is substantial resistance to any such program. All the industries that will be affected have powerful lobbies that finance most if not all of our elected officials, and they are all getting incredibly rich off of the system as it is, the fact that people’s lives are as stake has never slowed the greedy machine of capitalism. There isn’t enough political will in Washington to overcome the will of the CEO’s, who in essence dictate the terms of policy in this country, and their interest is always their stockholders, not the public welfare. Today as the polar ice cap melts due to global warming, oil companies are lining up to drill for oil on the sea floor that they now have access to, profiting off of the destruction they have inflicted on the environment. Last year an energy bill, introduced by Joe Lieberman and John Warner, that featured cap and trade was stalled by Mitch McConnell, and died without a vote. If reasonable measures are not taken at the Copenhagen Conference, then we start to face dire responses to rising temperatures. As life dwindles in the ocean, we may be forced to dump huge amounts of algae in an attempt to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. The sky may need to been darkened by pumping particulates into the air in order to reflect sunlight to keep temperatures down. However, drastic steps like these would effect everyday life on this planet far more than the simple steps of conservation. The livelihood of some communities is being destroyed by climate change, and they are not the ones who are the cause, for them its already to late. The people who have the power to change the world’s consumption will be the last to be effected, and so we can’t wait for them to react because by then it will be to late for all of us.

Top 100 Albums of the 2000s

Volume 8 : 21-30

	21 / The Exploding Hearts / Guitar Romantic / 2003 Perhaps the last gasp of punk rock, at least in the traditional sense. Sounds like a classic from the first listen to the last. Best Track – Sleeping Aides And Razorblades
	22 / Mclusky / Mclusky Do Dallas / 2001 Smashing At The Drive-In, Nirvana and the Pixies into one giant hedonistic rock and roll romp, and full of personal vendettas. You won’t stop listening to this. Best Track – Day Of Deadringers
	23 / Liars / They Threw Us All In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top / 2002 Maybe only Interpol had a larger influence on the New York scence that was the trend maker of the decade. Attidue and agression that is irresistible. Best Track – We Live NW Of Compton
	24 / Swan Lake / Beast Moans / 2006 Krug, Bejar and Mercer come together to release another incredible Candadian super group album. At least as good as anything they released individually. Best Track – All Fires
	25 / Working For Nuclear Free City / Businessmen And Ghosts / 2007 A complete discography of WFNFC material, an essential part of Manchester’s musical history, distilling something new out of all the bands that preceded them. Best Track – Rocket
	26 / Yeah Yeah Yeahs / Fever To Tell / 2003 Seldom can you find music with such confident swagger and uncompromising attitude. The launching point for Karen O. as one of the world’s quintessential rock stars. Best Track – Y Control
	27 / Andrew W.K. / I Get Wet / 2001 Big, Loud, Gaudy, Stupid, all statements that reflect this album, but also reflect pre 9/11 America. Essential listening. Best Track – I Get Wet
	28 / Deltron 3030 / Deltron 3030 / 2001 Automator, Kid Koala, Del and Friends collaborate on this sci-fi hip-hiop masterpiece. A definining moment in underground hip-hop. Best Track – Positive Contact
	29 / Les Savy Fav / Rome / 2000 Despite only being five songs, this is the best release from seminal rockers Les Savy Fav. Music thats almost to clever for its own good. Best Track – Hide Me From Next Feburary
	30 / Death From Above 1979 / You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine / 2004 Only drums and bass, these guys deliver some of the most entertaining rock music of the deacde. They may have a limited range, but their urgent energy makes up for it. Best Track – Blood On Our Hands