Nole and Andy respond to the refugee crisis

September 29, 2015

We kid around on this blog about tennis players, their quirks and perks, but they are also men and women of conscience.

For every ace Andy Murray hits from now until the end of the season, he is donating 50 pounds (roughly $78) to UNICEF on behalf of the Syrian refugees. (Good man, Andy. Keep ’em coming.)

For Novak Djokovic, seen here visiting a designated play space for refugee children at the Hotel Bristol in his native Belgrade, this is clearly personal. He’s not only a UNICEF ambassador; he’s a man who was bombed as a child and who once said that war is the worst thing anyone can experience. ...

Welcome, Pope Francis

September 22, 2015

Time to take a break from the sports world to say a proper hello to Pope Francis, who arrived yesterday in Washington D.C. There the jovial pontiff was greeted by a smiling, laughing President Barack Obama – a graceful man meeting a man of grace.

It was immediately apparent that Pope Francis intends to keep it real during his American sojourn (black Fiat, black shoes, eyeglasses he bought himself in a Roman shop). ...

Warrior women

July 14, 2015

Stanford research scholar Adrienne Mayor – a National Book Award finalist for “The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy” – has a new book out, “The Amazons: Lives & Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World” (Princeton University Press, 519 pages, $29.95).

It blows the lid off the myth of the one-breasted she-males who kidnapped men for sex, abandoning any resulting male offspring, to paint a portrait of those Eurasian women who once and still live like men. ...

The Supreme Court and the executioner’s song

July 2, 2015

The Supreme Court has upheld a drug used in Oklahoma executions, dismissing the claim of three death-row inmates that it causes excruciating pain.

Basically, the majority of the Supremes said the inmates should’ve come up with an alternative drug – which Justice Sonia Sotomayor thought was nutty.

“Petitioners contend that Oklahoma’s current protocol is a barbarous method of punishment — the chemical equivalent of being burned alive,” Justice Sotomayor wrote. ...

Alexander (Hamilton) the Great

June 27, 2015

OK, I must take a moment away from the Supremes and their historic decisions this week to protest the idea of getting rid of Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill in favor of a woman.

Alexander Hamilton? The man who gave us shopping? It’s not surprising that there’s a hit Broadway musical about him. The guy was all about the cash. Say what you want about Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison, but Hamilton understood that “Power without revenue is a mere bauble.” Precisely. The reason we are the richest nation on earth is because of Hamilton. ...

Clarence Thomas and the mind as its own place

June 27, 2015

As the Supremes were busy upholding gay marriage barely (5-4, still a win is a win) the dissenters among them went into overdrive with talk of the Aztecs, hippies and California not being part of the American West.

But leave it to Justice Clarence “Uncle” Thomas – a man who once dismissed a racial discrimination suit by noting that most of the players in the NBA are black – to come up with a point that really misses the point. ...

The Supremes’ greatest hits – gay marriage, affordable health care

June 26, 2015

We live in interesting times. Yesterday the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act, 6-3. Chief John Roberts, you’re my new hero. This is actually the second time you’ve saved Obamacare, so I’m playing Britney Spears “Oops!...I Did It Again” just for you.

But then… you lose points for voting against gay marriage (5-4 in favor though, yeah!) and then there was that whole Aztec reference – a slippery slope, don’t you think? The Aztecs believed in ripping out the beating hearts of the conquered and the sacrificed and donning their eviscerated skins. I wouldn’t go there. ...