Not About Basketball - Proceed At Your Own Risk

In South Florida and around the country there's all sorts of debate about the decision of Ricky Williams to retire. In the interest of full disclosure, though I am adopting this Miami Heat team with Shaq due to the absence of any real Celtic hopes, I will never, ever, like the Dolphins. I've hated them since they went undefeated,embarrassing the Patriots and beating the Redskins in the Super Bowl. Having said that, I want to say that although Ricky's timing was poor, if he doesn't want to play, he shouldn't. Football is like boxing, or racing, in that if your heart is not in it, you put yourself in serious danger. Ricky was facing another season in which he would be tackled more than any other player, and he knew it. Here's hoping he finds happiness in Asia, and wherever else his travels take him.


It's kind of hard to believe that there is a living person who has served in the US Navy, as Governor of his state, as President of our country, brokered the only lasting peace in the Middle East, and then in his spare time built homes for the poor, monitored elections in uncertain democracies, and fought disease throughout the world, causing him to win the Nobel Peace Prize. It's not a rule of thumb to compare any of our Presidential candidates to the ideals and accomplishments of Jimmy Carter, but it's also not a bad place to start.

Barack Obama, barring scandal, is going to be the first minority President of the United States. I figure 2016, or 2020, when he will still only be 59, but coming from an important electoral state, with his speaking abilities, he's going to be hard to beat. Maybe a more earnest, urban, Bill Clinton, but its that kind of oratory talent that we're talking about here. Good luck to him, and to us. I hope he makes it.