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"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

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Archives for March 2005

McGwire Tells Panel He Won’t Name Names

March 17, 2005 by Jack Steiner Leave a Comment

“WASHINGTON – Retired slugger Mark McGwire Thursday told a congressional panel investigating drugs in baseball that he would not “participate in naming names” of players who used steroids.

McGwire did not say in his opening statement to the House Government Reform Committee (news – web sites) whether he used steroids.

Two current players, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro, said they never used steroids. That duo and McGwire were accused of using performance-enhancing drugs by Jose Canseco in a best-selling book that helped prompt the hearing.”

I am somewhat torn by most of this. I am a fan of McGwire and unless they come out with some kind of incredible story about him will remain so. I don’t claim to be his biggest fan or the most knowledgeable about his career but there are some things that stick out.

Mainly that he tried to play with dignity. He ignored the temptation of extending his career as a designated hitter. He didn’t allow temptation of a contract offer in the tens of millions a year sway him from retiring. I don’t remember him badmouthing other players or teammates.

And most importantly I remember him making it clear that he would play for a team that allowed him to be close to and spend time with his son. Those are the qualities of a mensch. And unless I hear differently I have no reason to think otherwise of him.

I am still a bit ambivalent about steroids. Until recently they were not a banned substance so if he acquired them legally there is no gripe there. I don’t think that they helped him to hit the ball, at least not from a hand eye coordination perspective. He is around 6’5 270 pounds or so, which means that at his size he is easily big enough and strong enough to hit the ball out of the park. If he could hit the ball 440 feet without steroids and 500 with them it wouldn’t make a difference because at 440 it still would have been a homerun.

I am not against legislation banning recreational steroid use, but I really don’t expect this problem to disappear. There is so much money in it that there will always be labs and people working to beat the tests for the drugs.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Corporal Punishment in schools

March 17, 2005 by Jack Steiner Leave a Comment

To Paddle or not To Paddle

“When it comes to spanking, there’s no such thing as a consensus in America’s schools.

Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have outlawed corporal punishment in public schools, all in the past 40 years.

But as the number of students feeling the sting of the paddle declines, some parents and educators are digging in to defend it as an effective form of discipline.

It’s another symbol of the nation’s red-blue divide. Most states that still allow the practice are in the South and Midwest. But policies long favoring corporal punishment have come up for debate recently on Southern school boards – in Union County, N.C.; Memphis, Tenn.; and Dallas.

“It’s very uneven terrain out there,” says Ronald Rohner, who is not pro or con but has researched the issue as director of the University of Connecticut’s Center for the Study of Parental Acceptance and Rejection. “There’s a movement back to it on the part of some schools, but some are banning it for the first time…. We’ll be hearing more and more about this as time goes by.”

I am not in favor of corporal punishment in schools. I was threatened with it twice during my school career both times by gym teachers. And both times I promised to return the favor if it was tried.

It wasn’t really much of a question as it was illegal in California. But for me it comes down to this. When it comes to discipline, I believe that there is a definite line that schools should not be allowed to cross.

This has nothing to do with my opinion on whether a child should be spanked at home and everything to do with boundaries and what I think at the school level is an ineffective method of discipline.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

A First Love- The Newest Installment is Available

March 17, 2005 by Jack Steiner Leave a Comment

You can find it by clicking here.

As always if you have comments or questions please feel free to pass them along.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Money For Nothing- Just the Mortgage, School and More

March 17, 2005 by Jack Steiner Leave a Comment

I spent the Summer of 1985 feeling like a rich kid. For the first ten weeks I lived in Israel and had a ball. I wasn’t home for more than a week when the family left for Hawaii. My grandparents took us all there to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. They actually have two anniversaries. I wrote about them in an earlier post in which I alluded to their 71st anniversary which will hit this July. In June they will celebrate 70 years which means that it is going to be 20 years since I took that trip to Israel and to Hawaii.

I left Hawaii a couple of days earlier than the rest of my family because school was starting for me. It was pretty cool because I knew that I was going to have the house to myself, of course the fact that I didn’t have a driver’s license was inconvenient, but since I had been gone all Summer it hadn’t occurred to me that it would be a problem. Or maybe it did, who can remember.

A friend picked me up from the airport. I had taken a redeye so it was around 1:30 am or so. I got into his car and I heard Sting singing:

“I want my MTV” and then the rest of Money For Nothing followed. I can still hear Mark Knopfler singing:

“Money for nothin’ and your chicks for free
Money for nothin’ and chicks for free”

And to a certain extent it rang true to me. Most of the money for my trip to Israel came from my Bar Mitzvah and the small savings I had accumulated, but to a 16 year-old boy it felt true. I had been on my own in a foreign country, had some brief flings and just loved life.

But all good things come to an end and my return to reality reminded me that I really didn’t have endless amounts of cash. Although the truth was even in Israel it was very apparent to me that some of the other kids on the trip belonged to a different economic class than I did. It didn’t bother me all that much then and it still doesn’t bother me now, but I have to admit that every now and then I find it a little irksome.

I am still friendly with many of the people from that summer and travel in the same circle as many of the others. Some of them belong to the same shul as my family so I have the pleasure of dealing with them as parents. And in some cases it is quite alright, but in others I can see that even though they come from old money they never learned to appreciate it and are raising children who have the same lack of appreciation and understanding that they do.

The big difference between then and now is that now it is not unusual for me to confront them about the financial issue. There are many different programs and fundraisers at the preschool and some of them have trouble understanding that not every one is in the same financial situation and that they need to make allowances for that.

I got laid off two years ago and was unemployed for almost two months. We managed to make do because I had saved for a rainy day, but since I have the only income in the house it has been tough. The savings is almost gone and if there was a real problem life could get interesting, but I am a bit of a gambler and willing to live on the edge. The benefit of sales is that my income is flexible. Last year wasn’t great, but it takes time to build a base and to make it work for you. If things continue the way that they are going we’ll recover and life will get easier.

Those kids I mentioned earlier don’t have the same struggles because they have been taken care of financially but I have to believe that they don’t have the same satisfaction I do in what we have. We bought our home without any assistance and for more than four years I have been the sole source of income in Los Angeles. It may not be as expensive as SF or Manhattan, but it is not cheap.

But I would be lying if I said that I wouldn’t mind being in the same position as the aforementioned folks. It might be nice to have to struggle to find something to spend money on. And just in case you are wondering, it wouldn’t be half bad to live out the lyrics again.

“Money for nothin’ and your chicks for free
Money for nothin’ and chicks for free”

Not sure how I would explain it, am I old enough to blame it on a midlife crisis. 😉

Filed Under: Uncategorized

I Need This for My Next Party

March 16, 2005 by Jack Steiner Leave a Comment

Talking Heads

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Genocide

March 16, 2005 by Jack Steiner Leave a Comment

I have to make a couple of telephone calls that I expect will be unpleasant so I am taking some time to consider the best approach to them. I have to let someone know that they have made a very serious mistake without making them feel like a complete fool and I am not sure that there is a way around it. So here I am pumping out a new post just because it is a way to procrastinate.

Genocide is an emotionally charged term that is thrown around by many people for different reasons. Some times it is used as part of a propaganda effort to try and affect political change and sometimes it is used appropriately to describe some of the most horrific events in human history.

When I was in college I became friendly with an Armenian girl. We played around with the idea of dating because we both had a history that knew tragedy. It was a morbid joke that we occasionally shared.

I remember talking with her over coffee about the situation in Bosnia and Kosovo as it related to our own respective histories. I remember talking to her later about the situation in Rwanda and covering other historical events too.

And I remember thinking that it doesn’t look like we will ever outgrow our penchant for barbarism against each other. My mind hasn’t changed, I still don’t think that this will ever change. It will always be out there, there will always be people who are far too willing to hurt or murder others.

This is why it is important that we remember to stand up and be counted among those who oppose this brutality. The world will need reminders that we cannot sit back idly. And the world needs reminders as to what is real genocide and what is hype so that we do not succumb to “chicken little” politicking and impinge upon potential responses to cries for help.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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