A British soccer coach once complained to me that he found American football very boring, compared to soccer: "Typical American sport," he groused. "Most of the time is spent watching players standing around waiting for something to happen." A recent article in the Wall Street Journal provides the statistics to back him up.
During of the typical 3-hour football broadcast, it seems, about 67 minutes is devoted to players huddling or generally milling about, 60 minutes is spent on commercials, 17 minutes is devoted to replays, 12 minutes or so are devoted to showing referees or head coaches...and just 11 minutes --- or about 1/16 of the total air time devoted to the game --- is actually taken up playing football.
And we wonder why we're losing our edge in the world: even our top athletes spend more time loafing on the job than they do working.
JEFFREY CAMINSKY, a veteran public prosecutor in Detroit, Michigan, specializes in the appellate practice of criminal law and writes on a wide range of topics. His books include the science fiction adventure novel The Star Dancers, the exciting second volume in the Guardians of Peace-tm series, The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, and the acclaimed Referee’s Survival Guide, a book on soccer officiating. All are published by New Alexandria Press, and are available on Amazon, as well as directly from the publisher.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Obama Worship, and the Perils of Political Correctness
A recent article in the Weekley Standard caught my attention, about the relationship between Obama the Candidate and Obama the President. In this view, much of the recent disappointment in Obama's performance as president is traced to the perception among some of his supporters as the Grand Messiah of the "Religion of Humanity"---a world-view which elevates the god of science to prominence in a modern world often caught between those too primitive to understand it, and those too unenlightened to recognize it. To these adherents, it is proposed, Obama reflects the hope that the world can be saved, if only the "right thinkers" of the politically correct crowd manage to persevere. I thought the article was very interesting, though there is always a danger in pressing interesting thoughts and theories a bit too far.
I've long thought that there was a quasi-religious bent to a quite a lot of the "politically-correct left", both in terms of their fixation on dogma to the exclusion of facts (as with the Global Warming crowd), and their demonization of "non-believers" (as in branding as racists, sexists, or warmongers anyone who disagrees with them). Some organized religions have similar tendencies: though usually the sharper edges are mitigated by a sense of humility, some exhibit the same "holier-than-thou" attitude that seems to be all the range among the "right thinkers" in the PC crowd.
All the same, I think it's a mistake to take this thought too far: I suspect most of what the writer identifies is subliminal, rather than deliberate. In many respects, I think it reflects the longing for an ideal leader or a way toward a less-imperfect world, rather than a conscious effort to establish a specific set of new institutions. But this doesn't really change the possible dangers inherent in our modern version of orthodox "political correctness." It is still as stifling, as destructive of liberty and a free human spirit as if it were deliberate.
Perhaps I'm hopelessly naive, but I think it's more productive to view it as misguided and amenable to reason than the result of a conspiracy of "correct thinkers." I usually follow the advice of Napoleon...who said, more or less, that it's usually a mistake to ascribe to malice that which can be explained by stupidity or incompetence. Besides...at least if I'm any guide...calling someone an idiot for believing what they believe rarely changes any minds; showing them that they're mistaken may. At least, as long as they're not actually idiots...but then, you can't always reason someone out of an idea they never reasoned themselves into in the first place
JEFFREY CAMINSKY, a veteran public prosecutor in Detroit, Michigan, specializes in the appellate practice of criminal law and writes on a wide range of topics. His books include the science fiction adventure novel The Star Dancers, the exciting second volume in the Guardians of Peace-tm series, The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, and the acclaimed Referee’s Survival Guide, a book on soccer officiating. All are published by New Alexandria Press, and are available on Amazon, as well as directly from the publisher.
I've long thought that there was a quasi-religious bent to a quite a lot of the "politically-correct left", both in terms of their fixation on dogma to the exclusion of facts (as with the Global Warming crowd), and their demonization of "non-believers" (as in branding as racists, sexists, or warmongers anyone who disagrees with them). Some organized religions have similar tendencies: though usually the sharper edges are mitigated by a sense of humility, some exhibit the same "holier-than-thou" attitude that seems to be all the range among the "right thinkers" in the PC crowd.
All the same, I think it's a mistake to take this thought too far: I suspect most of what the writer identifies is subliminal, rather than deliberate. In many respects, I think it reflects the longing for an ideal leader or a way toward a less-imperfect world, rather than a conscious effort to establish a specific set of new institutions. But this doesn't really change the possible dangers inherent in our modern version of orthodox "political correctness." It is still as stifling, as destructive of liberty and a free human spirit as if it were deliberate.
Perhaps I'm hopelessly naive, but I think it's more productive to view it as misguided and amenable to reason than the result of a conspiracy of "correct thinkers." I usually follow the advice of Napoleon...who said, more or less, that it's usually a mistake to ascribe to malice that which can be explained by stupidity or incompetence. Besides...at least if I'm any guide...calling someone an idiot for believing what they believe rarely changes any minds; showing them that they're mistaken may. At least, as long as they're not actually idiots...but then, you can't always reason someone out of an idea they never reasoned themselves into in the first place
JEFFREY CAMINSKY, a veteran public prosecutor in Detroit, Michigan, specializes in the appellate practice of criminal law and writes on a wide range of topics. His books include the science fiction adventure novel The Star Dancers, the exciting second volume in the Guardians of Peace-tm series, The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, and the acclaimed Referee’s Survival Guide, a book on soccer officiating. All are published by New Alexandria Press, and are available on Amazon, as well as directly from the publisher.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Crony Capitalism
Just in case anyone needs help getting depressed over what's happening these days, we can always learn about how big business makes things worse for us --- and better for themselves --- by making small investments in our elected representatives.
I watched one of John Stossel's shows on the Fox Business Channel last night...and was even more appalled that usual at the spectacle of our government selling itself. At firesale prices, no less!
I think it's obvious that our Federal Government is too big, and careening out of control. Many of the regulations we see --- like the ones on kid's toys, which do nothing to make anything safer, but do one heckuva job at crushing small toymakers, and are putting thrift stores out of the used toy business --- serve no real purpose except to allow big business to avoid the messiness of competition.
I suppose in a democracy, it's always possible for us to take our country back from the special interests. But I suspect there may well be a point of no return for us. And the bigger and more powerful our government becomes, the closer that "point of no return" may come.
JEFFREY CAMINSKY, a veteran public prosecutor in Detroit, Michigan, specializes in the appellate practice of criminal law and writes on a wide range of topics. His books include the science fiction adventure novel The Star Dancers, the exciting second volume in the Guardians of Peace-tm series, The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, and the acclaimed Referee’s Survival Guide, a book on soccer officiating. All are published by New Alexandria Press, and are available on Amazon, as well as directly from the publisher.
I watched one of John Stossel's shows on the Fox Business Channel last night...and was even more appalled that usual at the spectacle of our government selling itself. At firesale prices, no less!
I think it's obvious that our Federal Government is too big, and careening out of control. Many of the regulations we see --- like the ones on kid's toys, which do nothing to make anything safer, but do one heckuva job at crushing small toymakers, and are putting thrift stores out of the used toy business --- serve no real purpose except to allow big business to avoid the messiness of competition.
I suppose in a democracy, it's always possible for us to take our country back from the special interests. But I suspect there may well be a point of no return for us. And the bigger and more powerful our government becomes, the closer that "point of no return" may come.
JEFFREY CAMINSKY, a veteran public prosecutor in Detroit, Michigan, specializes in the appellate practice of criminal law and writes on a wide range of topics. His books include the science fiction adventure novel The Star Dancers, the exciting second volume in the Guardians of Peace-tm series, The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, and the acclaimed Referee’s Survival Guide, a book on soccer officiating. All are published by New Alexandria Press, and are available on Amazon, as well as directly from the publisher.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Rustbelt Odyssey
We released Rustbelt Odyssey today, the autobiography of by parents' longtime friend, Norman Krandall.
It was a long time in coming: Norman contacted me nearly two years ago, when I was busy trying to get three books ready to release, and began work in earnest sometime in late 2008.
Aside from my Dad's book --- which was a surprise 85th birthday present --- this is the first book I've edited. (Well...I guess I could include my Shakespeare book, too. But he's been dead for quite a while, and wasn't likely to yell at me if I did something he didn't like. I have heard stories that the cemetary groudskeepers in Stratford-upon-Avon keep hearing the sounds of someone turning over in one of the graves, but I think they're mostly internet rumors). It was fun, but quite a challenge, trying to smooth out the writing without "taking over", and losing the author's own narrative voice.
I hope people like it. I enjoyed working on it...though I'm looking forward to having time to work on my own stuff now. Like the already-completed novel I need to release...and figuring out how to market the damn things!
But for now...it's nice to take a deep breath. And it's nice, helping to bring someone else's dream to print.
JEFFREY CAMINSKY, a veteran public prosecutor in Detroit, Michigan, specializes in the appellate practice of criminal law and writes on a wide range of topics. His books include the science fiction adventure novel The Star Dancers, the exciting second volume in the Guardians of Peace-tm series, The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, and the acclaimed Referee’s Survival Guide, a book on soccer officiating. All are published by New Alexandria Press, and are available on Amazon, as well as directly from the publisher.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Faith, Hope, and Monkeys
We leave a lot to chance, hoping that things will somehow work out for the best. And, often as not, the things we worry about most do not come to pass --- and we are, instead, laid low by something we never saw coming.
Investors, for instance, saw much of their wealth evaporate in the great Wall Street Meltdown of 2008. In the meantime, casinos and lotteries keep doing a booming business, as some some come to see random chance as a good substitute for courage, foresight, and planning for the future. In this view, bad luck is seen as evidence that self-denial is for suckers, and that the future will somehow take care of itself.
On the other hand, random chance does have its limitations as a philosophy of life, and we see evidence that planning usually helps keep us afloat. After all, the advent of the Internet has disproved the hypothesis that an infinite number of monkeys, typing at random, could reproduce the works of William Shakespeare. So, perhaps applying some foresight and intelligence has a place in the Universe, after all.
JEFFREY CAMINSKY, a veteran public prosecutor in Detroit, Michigan, specializes in the appellate practice of criminal law and writes on a wide range of topics. His books include the science fiction adventure novel The Star Dancers, the exciting second volume in the Guardians of Peace-tm series, The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, and the acclaimed Referee’s Survival Guide, a book on soccer officiating. All are published by New Alexandria Press, and are available on Amazon, as well as directly from the publisher.
Investors, for instance, saw much of their wealth evaporate in the great Wall Street Meltdown of 2008. In the meantime, casinos and lotteries keep doing a booming business, as some some come to see random chance as a good substitute for courage, foresight, and planning for the future. In this view, bad luck is seen as evidence that self-denial is for suckers, and that the future will somehow take care of itself.
On the other hand, random chance does have its limitations as a philosophy of life, and we see evidence that planning usually helps keep us afloat. After all, the advent of the Internet has disproved the hypothesis that an infinite number of monkeys, typing at random, could reproduce the works of William Shakespeare. So, perhaps applying some foresight and intelligence has a place in the Universe, after all.
JEFFREY CAMINSKY, a veteran public prosecutor in Detroit, Michigan, specializes in the appellate practice of criminal law and writes on a wide range of topics. His books include the science fiction adventure novel The Star Dancers, the exciting second volume in the Guardians of Peace-tm series, The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, and the acclaimed Referee’s Survival Guide, a book on soccer officiating. All are published by New Alexandria Press, and are available on Amazon, as well as directly from the publisher.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Getting a Grip
"What a piece of work is man," wrote William Shakespeare in Hamlet. "How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties..."
Unfortunately, Shakespeare was exaggerating. Either that, or the human race has gone markedly downhill since Elizabethan days in jolly old England. And as this article by Denis Duton in the New York Times demonstrates, we have a tendency to go off the deep end with alarming regularity. The end of the world, it seems, is always upon us.
Early predictions, based on the estimated size of Noah's ark, had the end of the world coming in 500 AD.
Sometimes, these events were heralded by obvious signs of looming disaster --- like Haley's Comet in 989 or 1910, or the year 1666 (which not only ended in the "Beast's number" of 666, but was also the year that London played host to both the Bubonic Plague and the Great Fire of London...kind of a disaster-scenario equivalent of the same city winning both the Super Bowl and World Series in the same year).
But lest we scoff at these visions of the world ending as superstitious musings by the deluded, we have our own modern versions of doomsday. The western world (except for the Italians, whose view on most issues appears to be que sera sera) was gripped by Y2K frenzy for much of the late 1990s...only to be disappointed when the computers of the many countries (mostly in Asia) who believed the "Y2K deniers" like Bill Gates carried on just as smoothly as those in countries (like Britain, Germany and the US) who had swallowed the disaster scenario hook, line, and sinker. And today, we're confronted with the specter of Climate Change destroying us.
One common thread in all these manias is that we're all doomed...unless we repent our wicked ways and follow the "correct" creed. Another is that time and reality tend to prove them false.
In hindsight, the Y2K panic seems silly and unnecessary.
But in hindsight, most fears seem overblown. And our tendency to overdo things tends to distract us from the things that we really need to fear: Hitler in the 1930s, for instance; or Islamic extremism today.
Shakespeare was right, though: we are "a piece of work." It would be nice if Man really were "noble in reason" and "infinite in faculties." I guess we're simply a work in progress.
JEFFREY CAMINSKY, a veteran public prosecutor in Detroit, Michigan, specializes in the appellate practice of criminal law and writes on a wide range of topics. His books include the science fiction adventure novel The Star Dancers, the exciting second volume in the Guardians of Peace-tm series, The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, and the acclaimed Referee’s Survival Guide, a book on soccer officiating. All are published by New Alexandria Press, and are available on Amazon, as well as directly from the publisher.
Unfortunately, Shakespeare was exaggerating. Either that, or the human race has gone markedly downhill since Elizabethan days in jolly old England. And as this article by Denis Duton in the New York Times demonstrates, we have a tendency to go off the deep end with alarming regularity. The end of the world, it seems, is always upon us.
Early predictions, based on the estimated size of Noah's ark, had the end of the world coming in 500 AD.
Sometimes, these events were heralded by obvious signs of looming disaster --- like Haley's Comet in 989 or 1910, or the year 1666 (which not only ended in the "Beast's number" of 666, but was also the year that London played host to both the Bubonic Plague and the Great Fire of London...kind of a disaster-scenario equivalent of the same city winning both the Super Bowl and World Series in the same year).
But lest we scoff at these visions of the world ending as superstitious musings by the deluded, we have our own modern versions of doomsday. The western world (except for the Italians, whose view on most issues appears to be que sera sera) was gripped by Y2K frenzy for much of the late 1990s...only to be disappointed when the computers of the many countries (mostly in Asia) who believed the "Y2K deniers" like Bill Gates carried on just as smoothly as those in countries (like Britain, Germany and the US) who had swallowed the disaster scenario hook, line, and sinker. And today, we're confronted with the specter of Climate Change destroying us.
One common thread in all these manias is that we're all doomed...unless we repent our wicked ways and follow the "correct" creed. Another is that time and reality tend to prove them false.
In hindsight, the Y2K panic seems silly and unnecessary.
But in hindsight, most fears seem overblown. And our tendency to overdo things tends to distract us from the things that we really need to fear: Hitler in the 1930s, for instance; or Islamic extremism today.
Shakespeare was right, though: we are "a piece of work." It would be nice if Man really were "noble in reason" and "infinite in faculties." I guess we're simply a work in progress.
JEFFREY CAMINSKY, a veteran public prosecutor in Detroit, Michigan, specializes in the appellate practice of criminal law and writes on a wide range of topics. His books include the science fiction adventure novel The Star Dancers, the exciting second volume in the Guardians of Peace-tm series, The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, and the acclaimed Referee’s Survival Guide, a book on soccer officiating. All are published by New Alexandria Press, and are available on Amazon, as well as directly from the publisher.
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