Office of the Independent Blogger

At night, the freaks come out on Fox, galvinizing the galvinized and the tame, as evidenced by normally respectable Greta Van Sustren’s asking former wrestler Chyna to speak about steroids and Chris Benoit on her show. Chyna took the opportunity to, first, make accusations about flagrant steroid use then deny ever using them herself. Now tell me, when you look at this woman, and take into consideration her confession in her autobiographies and interviews that she’s had plastic surgery — can you tell me with a straight face that you believe her when she says she’s never taken steroids? Then look into her history and see why she might be a little bitter with Vince McMahon: her boyfriend was fired for drug use and generally being a mutt, while her longtime boyfriend Triple H wound up marrying Vince McMahon’s daughter after dumping her. But hey: I guess she’s speaking out in the best interest of the wrestlers and their families.

Yesterday, Debra Marshall appeared on a talk show where she declared that Stone Cold Steve Austin (the Hulk Hogan of the 1990s, as well as her former husband) used to beat her (that’s why she left him, which is common knowledge) and take steroids. The second revelation is not a surprise, and while I generally admire Debra’s courage in speaking out about spousal abuse in wrestling, I question the way such information will be used in the media. “Wrestling creates wife-beating monsters!” will definitely be a charge when the truth is that it doesn’t. You’ll find spousal abusers in every field, but especially in athletics of all sorts. Let’s not blame World Wrestling Entertainment, however, as I don’t believe the federation encourages its workers to beat their wives. If evidence arises to the surface, I will personally slap Vince McMahon in the mouth.

I’d like to express my appreciation of semi-retired professional wrestler Chris Jericho for his comments on the talk show circuit, including his interview with Nancy Grace, whose ridiculousness I’ve already discussed in detail. While she’s still asking absurd questions and posting empty hypothesis’ (“there is evidence that Chris Benoit himself was murdered”), it’s nice of her to have featured Jericho, who has known Benoit for years and is closer to him than most. He’s also more articulate than Bret Hart (with no disrespect intended toward the Hitman) and so I’m glad he was given the opportunity to point out that mental illness and drug use seem more likely culprits than steroids.

Just a little bit more before we talk about the government and the Associated Press. Warrior’s appearance on Hannity and Colmes was pushed back to Monday because of the attempted-but-foiled-by-incompetent-terrorists-themselves terror plot in London. I wonder what nonsense he’ll find to say now that he has a few more days to prepare or more accurately, seethe.

This article is from the Associated Press and it declares that too many pro wrestlers are dying young, which is true. It’s definitely true, and it goes back to what was suggested by Keller that I linked to here. It’s probably true that the WWE’s Wellness Program needs to be stricter, like with most professional drug testing programs. It’s a fine piece to read because it’s about the tragedy that’s become of so many young wrestlers as opposed to being, say, a smearjob on the WWE. The one thing about the article that I have critical comment about is here,

Over the years, there are been numerous proposals to put wrestling under some sort of oversight, be it at the state or federal level. Those ideas usually have fallen on deaf ears, largely because the powers-that-be, be it the old-time regional promoters or WWE owner Vince McMahon, the guy who largely controls the sport today, don’t want the government telling them how to run their business. Jim Wilson, who parlayed pro football into a ring career, says he was blackballed when he began pushing for a wrestler’s union. Since then, he has written a book about his experiences and kept up the push to rein in those who govern the sport. Although Wilson’s battle often has been a lonely one, he says Benoit’s death might reinvigorate the cause.

A union could be a useful tool for cleaning up the sport. It might lead to a pension plan, improved benefits, more stringent health and safety guidelines and a revamped pay structure that would allow wrestlers to spend more time at home without risking a pay cut. Now, most top wrestlers get a guaranteed salary, but the bulk of their income is based on how often they compete. That leads some to feel they must get in the ring while injured, often with the aid of painkillers and other numbing chemicals. And much like rock stars, plenty of wrestlers have fallen victim to excessive partying, alcohol and drug dependency, and marital problems during grueling stints on the road.

“My longest run was 79 days in a row without a day off,” said Joe Laurinaitis, the wrestler known as Road Warrior Animal and father of Ohio State football star James Laurinaitis. “It’s not as bad now. They’ve got good guys running the WWE. Still, we need to take a look at it when things like this (the Benoit murder-suicide) are happening. Guys are still overworked.”

That’s why Wilson’s calling for Congress to hold hearings on the wrestling industry, much like it investigated doping in professional sports and just this past week heard from ex-NFL players who believe they’re being shortchanged on their pensions. “In those other sports, they aren’t dropping like flies like they are in the wrestling business,” Wilson said. “Now is the time to push for legislation nationally.” He’s already spoken with U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who instructed his staff to begin gathering information on the issue to determine if a hearing before the Health Committee might be warranted.

Isakson said his main concern is steroid abuse. “I’m not going to start speculating on federal regulation of wrestling,” he said. “The issue is anabolic steroids, which are a significant problem and are known to cause significant difficulties. It’s a health issue that’s appropriate for us to discuss, regardless of the profession.

First of all: I don’t believe a Wrestling Union would work because there are so many different independent promotions unless it were something like the Screen Actors Guild but I doubt that happens and question if it should. What I believe is that the Federal Government should mandate that full-time wrestling promotions like WWE and TNA set the limits that Keller has called for. That leaves a loophole that indie wrestlers will have to deal with but it’s impossible to solve all problems because wrestling is so layered and has a a million different legs. The Indies are hard to help, but they are just as at-risk as anyone else, and something needs to be done about their schedule and everyone else’s.

Unfortunately, I know that if Congress gets involved it will become a mess. Grandstanding morons will take the hearings over and everyone will be so busy harping on steroids that they’ll miss prescription drugs, injuries and the cost of health insurance, especially for independent wrestlers, focusing instead on the gruesome details of the Benoit murder-suicide and pictures of pecks instead of the fact that people are dying because of the workload.

If I were a Senator, I’d call Vince McMahon, tell him to get something legitimate done about wrestling schedules (even if it is a brave new step, as Keller’s is, and they’re frightened to do it: they must get it done) or else the federal government will step in with hearings and legislation. McMahon has a reputation as a ruthless businessman, which he is, but he is no monster. He is known to help long-departed wrestlers and their families to pay for their rehab, surgeries, bills and rent. He is known to give jobs to people who can’t wrestle anymore or simply have no business in the ring at such a stage in their life just so that they can find work. He’s given hundreds of men second and third chances and helped them fix their lives. He’s no angel, but I imagine that if the government took a good-faith approach, coupled with a tug of the arm here and there, he’d be willing to concede that the schedules need to be fixed.

Of course, the government doesn’t care about the wrestlers: they want the publicity, and to look good, so anything that could be called discreet is unacceptable, and so this tragedy will become a scandal will become a joke because the American government and the global media haven’t the slightest idea how to handle something that is serious without an agenda. Sometime ago, the “mainstream media” decided that professional wrestling was a world of idiots and trailer trash and said, “We should stomp them with every opportunity we get.” Now everyone will suffer, from the fans who have to watch their product trashed by the Ultimate Warrior and Nancy Grace to the wrestlers who will have to deal with the uncertainties of their profession in the coming months to the taxpayers who will watch as the government pays the world’s respect to matters it should handle on the down low to the to those of us who hope that something can be done to ease the pressure on these athletes and provide them with something of an offseason.

There are a lot of walls to be broken down before that can occur, and I’m not sure they’ll ever fall.

If you’ve ever thought George Bush a little too eager to invade countries, you’ve thought right!

A 1.5-mile barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border was designed to keep cars from illegally crossing into the United States. There’s just one problem: It was accidentally built on Mexican soil. Now embarrassed border officials say the mistake could cost the federal government more than $3 million to fix. The barrier was part of more than 15 miles of border fence built in 2000, stretching from the town of Columbus to an onion farm and cattle ranch. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said the vertical metal tubes were sunk into the ground and filled with cement along what officials firmly believed was the border. But a routine aerial survey in March revealed that the barrier protrudes into Mexico by 1 to 6 feet.

That’s another three million dollars that the man who protects your wallet protected you and your family from. Three million dollars that could’ve gone to soldiers in Iraq (he’s helping al-Qaeda by underfunding troops!), families in need of healthcare or toward energy independence but instead, it’s going to be spent on rebuilding a wall which was created foolishly to begin with.

I just wonder what political hack they’d hired to do the job in the first place. You think someone qualified could’ve saved us three million dollars?

The Ultimate Warrior will be featured on FOX News’ Hannity and Colmes tonight. I’ll tell you right now: Warrior is a maniac and everybody knows it. He might have something valuable to say about himself and steroids (he is, I’m sure, a former if not present steroid user) but whatever he says about the WWE or the wrestling industry should be taken with a grain of salt as he was exiled from the business for his cockamamie beliefs and erratic behavior.

You might take that with a grain of thought and say, “Greg Pratt has a problem with the Warrior and is just trying to smear him before he tells the truth!” but if you say that, you’re fooling yourself. He is a man who changed his legal name to Warrior (just Warrior) because he wanted to own, and be, his character; he’s been involved in numerous pay disputes with the WWE and has been dismissed several times from the organization; he’s written a comic book about himself; he recently said, about an autobiographical book he’s writing, “I’m not interested in detailing the seedy underbelly of an industry I have no desire to be associated with.” So why is he speaking about an industry that he’s been out of for so long?

Because he wants to smear the wrestling world. Why is FOX giving him air-time? Two reasons: they want to smear the wrestling world (obviously) and Warrior is a Conservative commentator in the same realm as Ann Coulter. He famously declared, “Queering doesn’t make the world work!” and that’s about the extent of his intellectual thought. If you go to his website, you’ll find endless, meaningless babble.

There’s nothing wrong with reporters speaking to wrestlers about steroids, but don’t mislead the world by presenting clowns like the Ultimate Warrior as credible sources.

There’s news on the Benoit-crime front: he was drinking, as several empty cans were found next to his dead body. That tells me that Benoit wasn’t right, as do all his drugs, and I eagerly await his toxicology report. Geraldo Rivera, upon hearing that Benoit had been drinking when he killed himself (if not when he killed his family), decided to kick a few back himself. How else can you explain the following, which is from his latest appearance on the O’Reilly Factor and is the most shameless, opportunistic bit of poor reporting that I’ve ever read. O’Reilly, Rivera and their producers should all lose their jobs for not doing any amount of fact-checking before letting him go on the air with this dribble.

Gerlado Rivera was a guest analyst on The O’Reilly Factor tonight and made a huge mistake in trying to create a conspiracy because he mistakenly believed that Sherri Martel and Nancy Benoit died on the same day, then loosely tied Sherri with Nancy’s ex-husband, Kevin Sullivan (whom he didn’t mention by name) and said she was his “booker,” whatever that means. He then managed to get wrong the dates of the text messages, saying they took place on Sunday night during the PPV.

Mid-discussion, Geraldo moved to the Wikipedia posting at midnight on Sunday. He said it could have been by chance, a hoax by someone making it up. [It was. If you haven’t heard, someone posted over the weekend before the cops knew that Benoit was dead. Turns out it was an unfortunate hoax.] He said another coincidence is that Chris kills his wife on Friday, June 15 or Saturday, June 16 and that Sherri Martel also died of unnatural causes related to drug use. He said she is another woman connected to these pro wrestlers. He said Sherri knew Nancy’s ex-husband.

He asked if the posting was made by a WWE official, “they were obviously in communication with Chris Benoit.” He said it was alleged that Benoit was text messaging his friends as he was watching a wrestling event he was supposed to be at in Texas. “The Feds have to subpoena every single electronic communication,” he said. “I think this is going to be gigantic.” He wondered if it was bigger than a murder-murder-suicide. O’Reilly said (completely off-topic), “If they can prove steroid abuse was ordered by the top guys in the wrestling federation, they’ll arrest them.” Geraldo asked, “What if you can prove everybody in town knows whatever everybody is doing and do nothing. Now it’s a little less clear as to their criminal liability, but I think you’ve definitely got a story here that will affect professional wrestling in a profound way.”

Earlier in the discussion, Geraldo said: “I think there is going to be increased scrutiny of WWE… in the steroid abuse of the people who are their actors in this entertainment venture. There is obviously great athleticism. They know about their heavy steroid use.” He brought up the raids on Chris Benoit’s doctor and internet pharmacy. He said WWE tried to downplay the steroid involvment and place the blame on Chris or Nancy arguing over the care of their child. “What a bunch of bunk that was,” he said. “They were trying intentionally to deflect the public’s attention from this steroid use.”

The last sentence is right and wrong. Of course the wrestling world doesn’t want to pour gasoline on the steroids did this! fire but the idea that there was a huge domestic dispute is not far-fetched in the least. Other than that, Rivera made an idiot out of himself and the people who watch Fox News now believe that the WWE is covering up its knowledge of the murder-suicides (and, perhaps, involvement) along with a bunch of crazy ideas that Geraldo made up about Benoit’s wife and ex-husband.

Journalism is as journalism has been for the last ten years.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is upset over the Supreme Court’s recent ruling against two school districts in their attempt to diversify their student bodies by way of racial selection. He says, “It is not often in the law that so few have so quickly changed so much,” and I agree, to a point, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The sixties were a time of great, sudden change, and so it is to be expected that Courts will overturn precedents and laws when they get the chance. It’s all the better, in my opinion, when they get the case right, as I think they did here.

I will add my own personal opinion that this proves that there is no such thing as “judicial activism.” There’s only “judges whose opinions you disagree with.” The Rehnquist and Roberts Courts are big-time scrappers, movers and shakers. Is that a bad thing? Debateable. But they’re just as “active” as anyone they’ve replaced.

I’ve got a small note on this to make.

At the Democratic debate at Howard University, time for answers was short and host Tavis Smiley had his own way of keeping the candidates’ answers short. When Senator Dodd ran over his allotted time, Smiley noted, “Senator Dodd, I was going to say, were you Paris Hilton you could have an hour, but you’re not, so…”

It’s not funny. At least, I don’t think it is. I think it’s a Freudian confession, and I think it shows how ridiculous the supposed-to-be serious political process has become.

Bret “The Hitman” Hart was a close friend of Chris Benoit, as many of the Canadian wrestlers were, but their friendship was deeper than country. Hart’s father, Stu, trained Chris Benoit to be a professional in the prestigious Dungeon and they remained close over the years, with Hart serving as a mentor in World Championship Wrestling where they worked together and they were quite familiar with one another’s family, which is why Bret Hart has hit the talk show circuit following the death of three close friends. Hart is, like Benoit was, a World Champion.

Yesterday, Bret Hart was on CNN for an interview with Nancy Grace. It was a fairly uneventful interview as Grace asked him the usual (grating) questions (”You’ve known him for decades: did you ever know that he could do something like this!?”) until she asked him a question that perfectly illustrated the media’s lack of knowledge, research and understanding of the situation that has rocked the wrestling world and overtaken Paris Hilton as the media’s taste de jour.

“Do you think Benoit became depressed after going from the elite Four Horseman to Raw?” (It is a slight paraphrase: specifically, she mentioned that he’d gone from “the Four Horsemen to Raw” and that that’s “a little bit of a demotion” so “how bad do you think he took it?”)

First, I’ll explain: the Four Horsemen were a wrestling “stable” (group) in old wrestling promotions and the now-defunct but formerly powerful World Championship Wrestling organization. Benoit was a member of WCW in the nineteen nineties until he decided to leave the federation along with three of his dearest friends for the World Wrestling Federation which was at the time the leading company in wrestling having just reclaimed that title from WCW after a long, exhausting ratings war that spanned much of the nineties. “Raw” is the name of WWE’s Monday night wrestling program, and so you see the question’s history and, I hope, flaw. The Four Horsemen were at that time a declining stable in a company that was crashing and burning and he was moving to an organization that he wanted to wrestle for, that pushed him to the top immediately and that eventually gave him a reign as World Heavyweight Champion that began at Wrestlemania XX (arguably the biggest event in wrestling history), so there was no “demotion.”

Bret Hart should’ve answered:

“Yes, Nancy. Chris Benoit murdered his wife and child then hung himself because he left the Four Horsemen by choice in 1999 and wound up at a better federation with better pay and an eventual run at the World Championship along with an immediate ‘push’ up the organization’s depth chart. He was also upset because the WWF was forced to change its initials to ‘WWE’ a few years ago because it meant that there’d be a little blur in all the DVDs of his old matches under the WWF banner.”

Instead he politely said, “I couldn’t say,” and went off to explain how much both of them loved wrestling, pure and simple, drawing a parellel between them because of the fact that they both used their real names on stage.

The interview was hard for me to listen to not just because Grace asked such graceless questions as that but because of some painful details that it brought to light. Grace mentioned the love and adoration that Benoit seemingly had for his child and the fact that it appeared mutual (next to his son’s bed was a statue of Benoit), but then said, “It leads me to believe that he was under the influence of steroids.” That may very well be true, but there were a ton of different prescription drugs in the home and I’d imagine them to have just as bad an affect as steroids, if not more. I don’t think that steroids would’ve created such a situation as “roid rages” are rages and they don’t last for days, as Vince McMahon and others have said, and the point raised by Bret Hart that it’s likelier to have been the result of a domestic dispute seems to carry more water.

One interesting thing that’s come out in the last few days, though, is that Benoit’s son suffered from a disease called Fragile X Syndrome which is similar to autism and the child took steroids for that, so at least we know that Benoit wasn’t a sick freak injecting his child with steroids for kicks, and it’s possible that he wasn’t on steroids, although I do doubt that. Who knows? We’ll see what happened but I firmly believe that steroids had little to do with this.

It isn’t just Bret Hart being interviewed and interviewed poorly, though. World Wrestling Entertainment chief Vince McMahon appeared on the Today Show today and was asked a variety of questions about his wrestlers and steroids. There were two things that really bothered me about it:

1. The continuing lack of knowledge: Guerrerro didn’t die of steroids, at least not per se. Guerrerro died because he was a heavy drug user and alcoholic years along who used to use steroids. As a result of that, his heart enlarged and he died, young, and as a result of that, WWE instituted a drug testing program that Bret Hart, among others, applauds. So let’s not try to turn Eddie Guerrerro’s ghost against Vince McMahon.

2. The continuing lack of shame. The host who interviewed McMahon asked him, “In any way does pro wrestling contribute to the creation of monsters?”

The correct answer, given by McMahon, is No. These are men who decided when they were children that they wanted to entertain the masses like the wrestlers who had entertained them, men who were dazzled as children by the graceful acrobatics and charismatic promos, by the bright lights and theme songs, fireworks and commentary, passion and sacrifice of professional wrestling and decided that that line of work would fulfill the evenings of children and their families, along with themselves. Wrestlers inspire millions every day, and I know many of them set out to do that at the beginning of their careers.

On the other hand, I don’t see how anybody can watch this media “firestorm” and listen to these interviews with half a handle on the situation and say, “I’d like to be a reporter one day!” In fact, I would point out that wrestling has never had a tragedy quite like this and yet the wrestlers are coming together and people are asking questions hoping to make sure that this never happens again, wondering how it happened and why. This shameful display by the media occurs every few days with all sorts of different topics, from political ones, to ridiculous ones to tragic ones, and yet the media allows itself to degenerate into a smorgasborg of stupidity with every disaster that comes its way.

I guess I’ve never truly realized how bad the media can be until I listened to Nancy Grace ask Bret Hart if Chris Benoit killed his family because he was “demoted” from the Four Horsemen.

What is it with the Republican Party and animal abuse? We have Doctor Frist Cat Killer, the Party Time Environment Wrecking Crew (led by the Western Senators who should know better), and now Romney Lampoon, criminal-at-large.

The reporter intended the anecdote that opened part four of the Boston Globe’s profile of Mitt Romney to illustrate, as the story said, “emotion-free crisis management”: Father deals with minor — but gross — incident during a 1983 family vacation, and saves the day. But the details of the event are more than unseemly — they may, in fact, be illegal. The incident: dog excrement found on the roof and windows of the Romney station wagon. How it got there: Romney strapped a dog carrier — with the family dog Seamus, an Irish Setter, in it — to the roof of the family station wagon for a twelve hour drive from Boston to Ontario, which the family apparently completed, despite Seamus’s rather visceral protest.

Massachusetts’s animal cruelty laws specifically prohibit anyone from carrying an animal “in or upon a vehicle, or otherwise, in an unnecessarily cruel or inhuman manner or in a way and manner which might endanger the animal carried thereon.” An officer for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals responded to a description of the situation saying “it’s definitely something I’d want to check out.” The officer, Nadia Branca, declined to give a definitive opinion on whether Romney broke the law but did note that it’s against state law to have a dog in an open bed of a pick-up truck, and “if the dog was being carried in a way that endangers it, that would be illegal.” And while it appears that the statute of limitations has probably passed, Stacey Wolf, attorney and legislative director for the ASPCA, said “even if it turns out to not be against the law at the time, in the district, we’d hope that people would use common sense…Any manner of transporting a dog that places the animal in serious danger is something that we’d think is inappropriate…I can’t speak to the accuracy of the case, but it raises concerns about the judgment used in this particular situation.”

What kind of man thinks it a good idea to strap a dog to the top of a truck? And what kind of wife would allow such a cheap move?

Yesterday, John Edwards’ wife was sent to defend her husband’s manhood from Ann Coulter. The consequence? Edwards now has to answer stupid Ann Coulter-questions, like Should people buy her books? “No.” Should political candidates have to answer such questions? No. Should political spouses confront people like Ann Coulter? No. Should they respond to perpetual losers and nobodies like Bob Shrum? No, but Elizabeth Edwards has done that, too, and she’s proven herself a liar.

Elizabeth Edwards stepped into the spin room Sunday night to answer questions about her husband’s debate performance. While most questions focused on his performance, she also responded to claims in veteran Democratic strategist Bob Shrum’s new book, No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner. The Post’s Howard Kurtz recently reported that Shrum’s book claims that at the start of Edwards’s 1998 Senate campaign he asked the candidate about gay rights. Shrum alleges that John Edwards said: “I’m not comfortable around those people,” and that Elizabeth Edwards said, “John, you know that’s wrong.”

Mrs. Edwards referenced her book, Saving Graces in disputing Shrum’s claims. “I have a very good memory of the incidents that Bob makes general reference to. But his factual recitation of that, are simply inaccurate,” Mrs. Edwards said. She specifically called Shrum out for his recollection of the meeting on gay rights. “I remember it in intimate detail. I can even tell you where people were sitting in the room. Without casting aspersions on anyone — about where they were sititng, and how close to the doughnuts they were sitting. I even remember that,” she added.

Right, I’m sure that John Edwards has never had anything offensive to say about homosexuals, and Bob Shrum is trying to smear them. Listen: I don’t hold what Edwards probably said against him, because I’m not gay and I understand that older people are generally going to have a bumpier relationship with gays than younger people, simply because that’s what their generation was like.

They should’ve ignored the story and left it at that, but Elizabeth Edwards is trying to Teresa Kerry their campaign.

More disturbing than any of these stories, though, is this, and it comes, of course, from the White House.

President Bush, moving toward a constitutional showdown with Congress, asserted executive privilege Thursday and rejected lawmakers’ demands for documents that could shed light on the firings of federal prosecutors. Bush’s attorney told Congress the White House would not turn over subpoenaed documents from former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor. Congressional panels want the documents for their investigations of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ stewardship of the Justice Department, including complaints of undue political influence.

The Democratic chairmen of the two committees seeking the documents accused Bush of stonewalling and disdain for the law, and said they would press forward with enforcing the subpoenas. “With respect, it is with much regret that we are forced down this unfortunate path which we sought to avoid by finding grounds for mutual accommodation,” White House counsel Fred Fielding said in a letter to the chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees. “We had hoped this matter could conclude with your committees receiving information in lieu of having to invoke executive privilege. Instead, we are at this conclusion.”

“Mutual accomodation” for this Administration means, “We tell them it’s a matter of security and they just go away.” They’ve got to understand, though, that to get a concession they have to concede themselves, but it’s too late for that. For them.

Remember what I talked about yesterday? You know, about opportunists in the media? It starts with this article, Chokehold May Have Killed Benoit’s Son.

Listen: Chris Benoit killed Chris Benoit’s son, and whether he suffocated him with a pillow, crushed his throat with his hands or asphixiated him with his biceps is irrelevant to wrestling unless you’re one of those people that still thinks wrestlers bleed with ketchup or some other makeshift device and want to blame a man on an industry. Anybody that tries to blame wrestling for this tragedy is shameless and those who believe it are fools who are falling for a false finish.

Like I said yesterday, there are questions to be answered about antidepressents, steroids, the atmosphere backstage and the schedule they work under. But let’s not pretend as the Atlanta Journal is or as CNN did that this has anything to do with wrestling. It doesn’t. That doesn’t mean I’m not putting any blame on the company, because I think it possible that they could’ve done more for Benoit (and for wrestlers in general) but the key distinction I’d like to make is that wrestling is not to blame, and I think my point and speculation are enhanced by this, which I read today.

If wrestlers had six weeks off twice a year, every year, year after year, it would dramatically, I believe, change the mental and physical health of wrestlers. It would change the tone of the locker room from an endless frat party/rock concert tour/pro athlete season to a more reasonable, humane, family-friendly, health-friendly environment. If every wrestler in the locker room had mandatory breaks of six weeks twice a year, they’d be “on” for nine months a year total, still have plenty of time to make a great living, perhaps have a long career, and along the way enjoy life more, be there for their kids and spouses, decompress, explore hobbies, and build well-rounded lives.

The decision to keep increases the intake of pills to get to sleep, and then take pills from a different bottle to get going in the morning might not be made. Instead, the light at the end of the tunnel would always be visible. Knowing that every four or five months an extended breather was coming up could change the attitude of wrestlers who take pills because there is no end in sight, so the only relief or high or reason to go on is pharmaceutical.

It’s something to think about as a wrestler’s schedule is brutal, and all the days of work certainly didn’t help Benoit’s psyche or his family, as it’s clear he was abusing prescription drugs, taking steroids and slowly losing himself, as some wrestlers have alluded to changes in his character over the last several months. The author brings up the level of respect Benoit had from his co-workers, wrestling writers and fans such as myself, which is what makes it all the more apparent that something has to be done for the wrestlers, and that WWE might bear some responsibility, but for very different reasons than Remember what I talked about yesterday? You know, about opportunists in the media? It starts with this article, Chokehold May Have Killed Benoit’s Son.

Listen: Chris Benoit killed Chris Benoit’s son, and whether he suffocated him with a pillow, crushed his throat with his hands or asphixiated him with his biceps is irrelevant to wrestling unless you’re one of those people that still thinks wrestlers bleed with ketchup or some other makeshift device and want to blame a man on an industry. Anybody that tries to blame wrestling for this tragedy is shameless and those who believe it are fools who are falling for a false finish.

Like I said yesterday, there are questions to be answered about antidepressents, steroids, the atmosphere backstage and the schedule they work under. But let’s not pretend as the Atlanta Journal is or as CNN did that this has anything to do with wrestling. It doesn’t. That doesn’t mean I’m not putting any blame on the company, because I think it possible that they could’ve done more for Benoit (and for wrestlers in general) but the key distinction I’d like to make is that wrestling is not to blame, and I think my point and speculation are enhanced by this, which I read today.

If wrestlers had six weeks off twice a year, every year, year after year, it would dramatically, I believe, change the mental and physical health of wrestlers. It would change the tone of the locker room from an endless frat party/rock concert tour/pro athlete season to a more reasonable, humane, family-friendly, health-friendly environment. If every wrestler in the locker room had mandatory breaks of six weeks twice a year, they’d be “on” for nine months a year total, still have plenty of time to make a great living, perhaps have a long career, and along the way enjoy life more, be there for their kids and spouses, decompress, explore hobbies, and build well-rounded lives.

The decision to keep increases the intake of pills to get to sleep, and then take pills from a different bottle to get going in the morning might not be made. Instead, the light at the end of the tunnel would always be visible. Knowing that every four or five months an extended breather was coming up could change the attitude of wrestlers who take pills because there is no end in sight, so the only relief or high or reason to go on is pharmaceutical.

It’s something to think about as a wrestler’s schedule is brutal, and all the days of work certainly didn’t help Benoit’s psyche or his family, as it’s clear he was abusing prescription drugs, taking steroids and slowly losing himself, as some wrestlers have alluded to changes in his character over the last several months. The author brings up the level of respect Benoit had from his co-workers, wrestling writers and fans such as myself, which is what makes it all the more apparent that something has to be done for the wrestlers, and that WWE might bear some responsibility, but for very different reasons than Joe Pressbox is selling us on.

Back to more political political news today.

Elizabeth Edwards called Ann Coulter on the air yesterday to request that she stop “the personal attacks.” My thoughts? It’s a nice gesture and all, but it’s a rookie political mistake, as nobody credible listens to Ann Coulter and you don’t legitimize the fringe during a political campaign. You don’t call out comedians for insulting you, and you don’t call out crazed hacks.

You turn them into straw boogeymen and never mention them outright. “Some people are saying,” and then you exaggerate what they’re saying, but since you never mentioned anyone, there’s nobody to crosscheck! That is how a good campaign would do it. This is how Edwards is doing it, and it’s silly, not just because it’s politically unorthodox but because it makes her and him seem petty. “Please stop calling my husband a girl, Ann! He doesn’t like it!”

Rudy Giuliani is doing the same, but it helps him a lot more. He went to Pat Robertson and said, “You are a great man, and I love you and your many accomplishments. Please allow me to deliver you to evil,” and so he called his congregationists and said, “Vote.”

I’m amazed that anybody takes this yahoo seriously. I’m disappointed that that yahoo takes Giuliani seriously. If any true Evangelical Republican votes, or supports, Giuliani for the nomination, they’re phonies for compromising their movement.

The late 1990s are considered to be a golden age in professional wrestling’s history, due in equal part to the fact that viewers returned to the industry after they’d left in droves following Vince McMahon’s steroid scandal. Reinvigorating the world of professional wrestling were the Monday Night Ratings Wars between World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation; the third-party shenanigans of Paul Heyman’s Extreme Championship Wrestling; the introduction of adult storylines; the infusion of hardcore wrestling; the arrival of Japanese and Mexican talent; and the rise of an anti-hero in Stone Cold Steve Austin and popular pretty boy The Rock, who were the first true superstars in wrestling since Hulk Hogan took over every child’s living room in the 1980s. The 1990s, popular with the mainstream, were not so with the critics, who claimed that the brands were becoming too violent, too edgy for children, but they were often rebutted not by the wrestlers or promotors but by the fans, and the merchandise sales, and the ratings, which combined served as a powerful silencer.

Unfortunately, the critics found an equally powerful silencer in a young girl’s abrupt silence and a villain they turned into an anti-hero in more dramatic, disturbing fashion than almost anything ever broadcast by the World Wrestling Federation. I am, of course, talking about Lionel Tate, who murdered Tiffany Eunick in Florida.

Tate, if you don’t remember, was a twelve year old, one hundred and sixty six pound boy whose mother was babysitting the six year old, sixty six pound Eunick when he killed her in a manner so brutal that the prosecutors at his trial cited doctors claims that the injuries were the equivelant of falling out of a third story building. Her skull was fractured, her brain swollen, her liver split in half. Her ribs were destroyed, as were countless other bones, and it was said that she screamed and suffered for hours, to which her babysitter’s response had been, “Be quiet or I’ll spank your butt!” (Tate’s mother didn’t even go look to see what was happening with Tiffany Eunick that she was in such pain. Tate’s mother belonged in prison as much as Tate did.)

At his trial, Tate claimed that he’d merely been wrestling with her as a friend and it had all been an unfortunate accident, which was a ploy by the Defense to turn the media on the World Wrestling Federation and transform Lionel Tate into an innocent boy possessed by Vince McMahon. The media, all too happy for a story, took the opportunity and soon much of the country was wondering why a television program so violent would be allowed to continue, or have been started in the first place. Conservative activitist L. Brent Bozell’s Parents Television Council declared war on professional wrestling and the media took the over-the-top atmosphere of a wrestling show into the press box and attempted to lead it into the courtroom. The Courts, however, found Lionel Tate guilty of all charges and sentenced him to life without parole, which he appealed, and he found himself out on the streets in due time, where he wound up stealing a car, undoubtedly taught him by wrestling.

Professional wrestler and New York Times best-selling author Mick Foley wrote in greater detail about Bozell’s antics, the media’s unfair treatment of professional wrestling and the Tate incident, but this all leads to the terrible news out of Atlanta this weekend that Chris Benoit (famed as a technical wrestler without much flash) killed his wife, seven-year-old son and self. I, for one, was shocked by the story when it broke that there’d been a murder in the Benoit household as Benoit’s always been known as a class act and nice guy, so it stunned me, and it saddened me because Benoit was a favorite of mine, then it shocked me and depressed me when I learned that it had been a double murder-suicide.

My thoughts at first turned to prayer, as I wished for the best for the Benoits and all those who knew them. I then wondered, Why did this happen? How could he do this? and so I turned on CNN at two o clock today, June 26th 2007, to hear what the policemen had to say about it. The lead-in to the Benoit Press Conference involved something about “A violent life of wrestling. A violent end,” or something to that effect, and I felt numbed by the painful reminder of what had occurred until I realized that it was more than a reminder, or a summation. It was a crack. It was a crack about the violence in wrestling and an implication that it has something to do with Nancy and Daniel Benoit’s terrible deaths.

I knew then that the media would Lionel Tate World Wrestling Entertainment using Chris Benoit’s tragic end, and I feel sick knowing it now. In the coming weeks, we will hear about steroid abuse in wrestling; the violent nature of matches; the grueling schedule; the disturbing effect a Randy Orton match can have on a child. All of it is cause for some level of concern amongst parents, academics and the wrestlers themselves, but none of them caused Chris Benoit to kill his family. People don’t become killers because of professional wrestling. Since the story broke, it’s taken more and more twists, from the disgusting revelation that Chris Benoit may have been giving his child human growth hormone to the release of Nancy Sullivan’s attempt to divorce Benoit for prior abuse to the details about the murder itself, but it should not be taken as an indictment of professional wrestling.

Vince McMahon and his company might deserve some blame for not noticing what had allegedly been a steady breakdown in Benoit’s psyche for the last several weeks. World Wrestling Entertainment’s steroid policies are a joke and they should be scrutinized and criticized. But let’s not pretend that this case of extreme violence has to do with the “violent nature” of professional wrestling, because you wouldn’t be close to the root of the problem, whatever it was, as the problem is in Benoit’s head, not the industry’s soul. The industry and its fans grieve as much as anyone. And rest assured, they are violent tears, not inspired by wrestling but by tragedy.

I, for one, can’t understand what Chris Benoit did or why. I can’t fathom what would drive a man to kill his family. I don’t know the man or his situation, and I don’t hate him for what he’s done. I hope he and his family can find closure in another life, on the other side, if there is another life or other side. I’ll leave it for God to sort out, because that’s all I can do but feel this sickness in my stomach. I hope that his remaining children can be okay. I pray for Nancy’s living family. I wish it hadn’t happened. It did, and it’s all terrible, for the children who enjoy wrestling to the adults who might as well be children to those who have never grown up and make no excuses for it. I hope this tragedy can end — for us — with the investigation into what happened, why and how, and what, if anything, the rest of us (wrestling fans and non alike) can learn from it for when someone we know is losing it.

I hope this situation isn’t exploited by the media to go after their old, favorite whipping boy in professional wrestling, because that isn’t appropriate to the situation, and the situation is too serious for scapegoats or to scrape up old wounds as the newest wound runs deep enough.

Here is an AP article declaring that few of our 2008 candidates have military experience and that the voters don’t seem to care about that since Clinton and Bush rose to power. That’s true enough, but it’s a huge shield for those who have been to War, if they have half a brain, by which I mean, What good does the military do you as a politician if you’re unwilling to talk it up? That’s the difference between John Kerry and John McCain, besides a couple of pounds and McCain’s insanity, which he covers up by saying, “Leave me alone. I was a POW.”

I agree that it’s not as important to be a War Hero as it used to be, but people like John McCain wouldn’t even be in the discussion if not for their wartime service.

Israel did a very good thing today, but it’s left me slightly confused.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday he will release 250 Fatah members from Israeli prisons in a goodwill gesture aimed at strengthening Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after Hamas’ victory in Gaza. Olmert announced the prisoner release at a summit with Abbas and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan that the Arabs and Palestinians are hoping can push forward the peace process and strengthen Abbas’ hand.

“As a gesture of good will towards the Palestinians, I will bring before the Israeli Cabinet a proposal to free 250 Fatah prisoners who do not have blood on their hands, after they sign a commitment not to return to violence,” Olmert told the gathering.

If they don’t have blood on their hands, why must they commit not to “return to violence”? Sounds like a face-saving way for the Israelis to release a bunch of war-criminals and call it something else. I’m in favor of the release of even some violent Palestinians if it means a better dialogue and more concessions from the Palestinians. I thikn Olmert’s done a good job.

Unfortunately, he’s had little American support or guidance throughout this whole thing. Though reflecting on it, I’ve got to wonder whether or not it’s a good thing that George W. Bush has kept his hands off that situation.

Poachers have killed one of only two remaining White Rhinos and shot the other, wounding it. That’s a shame.

There are two more stories that caught my eye today. The EPA is saying that our air is too dirty and we must clean it up. It’s nice of them to come around.

This, too, is interesting, especially in light of all the recent Department of Justice scandals.

Guadalupe Gonzalez is the chief counsel for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in El Paso, a lawyer with more than 20 years of experience in immigration law and a stellar record. In 2002, she made the next logical career move, applying to become an immigration judge. “I love El Paso. It is my home. I was born and raised here, and it’s important for me personally to contribute in a role that is both vitally important to our country and of particular importance to the El Paso community,” she said.

But the job went to a Anglo male candidate with no reported immigration experience. In 2004, when two other judgeships opened, they went to two other Anglo males, both of them Gonzalez’s subordinates with markedly less expertise in immigration law than Gonzalez. Gonzalez, 56, sued the U.S. attorney general for discrimination on the basis of gender and national origin, and the suit is pending in a court in Washington, D.C. In her filings, Gonzalez claimed that since 2001, only two Hispanics were appointed nationwide for 40 immigration judgeships. The four immigration judges in El Paso are all Anglo men.

It’s a very interesting case. What sets off alarms to me is the boldened portion, but I suppose that’s government, isn’t it? That’s definitely George W. Bush’s government.

As if the American Government hasn’t given us enough reason to doubt its competence and our safety in the last half a dozen years this happened.

The U.S. Department of Defense took an estimated 1,500 computers offline Wednesday after a security breach within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). “Elements of the OSD unclassified e-mail system were taken offline yesterday afternoon, due to a detected penetration,” Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said, according to the transcript of a Thursday press conference. “A variety of precautionary measures are being taken. We expect the system to be online again very soon.”

Department of Defense officials had little more to say about the attack, Thursday, and would not confirm the number of systems that had been taken offline. The Pentagon is exposed to “perhaps hundreds of attacks a day,” and the department has back up systems in place, Gates said. “There is no anticipated adverse impact on ongoing operations,” he added. “There will be some administrative disruptions and personal inconveniences”

However, it looks like the secretary himself will not be inconvenienced. “I don’t do e-mail,” he said in response to a question. “I’m a very low-tech person.”

Maybe they’ll move the DOD’s email to the Republican National Committee’s server and call it a day? (Whatever happened, or however often this happens, I hope all’s well. It really worries me, though, to think of what could go wrong with such a penetration.)

Further on Hacks!, there’s this,

President Bush this week vetoed legislation that would have lifted limits on federally funded research on embryonic stem cells. Angry congressional advocates immediately pledged to override the veto (although they acknowledge they are still shy of the two thirds majority needed) and took new steps to free up federal monies for such research, which holds the promise of new treatments for debilitating diseases from Parkinson’s to diabetes.

which is not good news. What bothers me more is the fact that there isn’t a 2/3rd majority to override his veto in the House. I guess the old adage — “I am not a member of an organized political party. I am a Democra!” — holds true here.

Finally, the US expects the IAEA and North Korea to shut down that country’s nuclear program in the next three weeks. At least, they’re shutting down a reactor. It’s worth monitoring — the reactor, and the shutdown.

I read this and ask, Are you kidding me?

The head of the world’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has warned that the organisation is so under-funded that it would have difficulty responding to a nuclear accident. In an unusual and angry appeal, Mohamed ElBaradei also claimed that the IAEA no longer had reliable equipment to detect covert nuclear activity, nor did it have consistent funding for its efforts to combat nuclear smuggling. Dr ElBaradei made his remarks to the IAEA’s board of governors, delegates from national governments, on June 15 but the comments were only made public yesterday. “If an accident were to happen tomorrow, we would be hard pressed to carry out core functions. This is a reality,” he said.

In the event of an accident like the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, the IAEA’s incident and emergency centre is supposed to step in immediately, sending technicians to help to limit the spread of radiation, advise on the treatment of casualties and coordinate the international response. Dr ElBaradei added that the IAEA’s “safeguards function is being eroded over time”, noting that the organisation was using an unreliable 28-year-old instrument to carry out environmental sampling. That sampling is carried out in and around countries such as Iran and North Korea, where covert nuclear programmes are suspected. The results often have a decisive influence on UN decisions to impose sanctions or other measures.

Because the agency did not have proper equipment of its own, Dr ElBaradei said, it would have to rely on external laboratories in other countries, which “puts into question the whole independence of the agency’s verification system.

Just remember, UN + International Community + United States, that it’s only a silent untragedy until it goes boom.

Some people look at this and respond by mocking Texas, but to me, its racial undertone is more worthy of comment.

An angry crowd beat a man to death after a vehicle he was riding in struck and injured a young girl, police said Wednesday. Police believe 2,000 to 3,000 people were in the area for a Juneteenth celebration when the attack occurred Tuesday night. The driver had stopped to check on the little girl at the entrance to an apartment complex when a group of men attacked him, authorities said. The passenger, David Rivas Morales, 40, got out to try to help the driver, but the crowd turned on him, said police Commander Harold Piatt.

The thing about this is, it was a crowd of black people, and the reason that’s worth a note is best phrased as a question: can you imagine what the oucry would be if, say, a black man had been killed by a mob of white men (or Hispanic men)? Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would be all over the news and white men would be apologizing on cable and we wouldn’t hear the end of it.

If it were up to me, everyone in the mob would go to prison for twenty years, but there are some serious racial issues in this country that go both ways. Take this article as another example.

In a new twist in American race relations, a federal court has ruled that a white teacher in a predominantly African-American school was subjected to a racially hostile workplace. The case concerned Elizabeth Kandrac, who was routinely verbally abused by black students at Brentwood Middle School in North Charleston. Their slurs make shock jock Don Imus look like a church deacon. Nevertheless, despite frequent complaints, school officials did nothing to intervene on Kandrac’s behalf, arguing that the racially charged profanity was simply part of the students’ culture. If Kandrac couldn’t handle cursing, school officials told her, she was in the wrong school.

[…]Let’s be clear: What these children called this teacher is beyond reprehensible and only could be construed as hostile and threatening. Here’s a sample: white b–, white m– f–, white c-, white a–, white ho. Other white teachers and students corroborated Kandrac’s account, including a male war veteran who testified he would rather return to Vietnam than to Brentwood. Kandrac’s attorney, Larry Kobrovsky, argued that the repeated use of “white” made these slurs racist in nature. But school officials insisted that because black students were equally abusive to other blacks, the language wasn’t inherently racist.

Here’s what we know without question: If majority white students had used similar language toward black students and teachers, the case would have been plastered on the front page of The New York Times until heads rolled.

The truth is that American Civil Rights — like Civil Rights anywhere — are a joke. Civil Right leaders don’t care about Civil Rights — they care about their Civil Rights and the rest can be damned. That’s why nobody ever apologized to the Duke Lacrosse Team (I’m looking at the Reverends) and that’s why nobody ever apologized to this teacher or the Hispanic man (I’m assuming) who was lynched by a crowd of black people. That’s why white people hate the thought of apologizing for slavery, or the Internment, or the 1960s, unless they’re apologizing for George McGovern.

Everyone’s too selfish to see beyond their own.

Ralph Nader doesn’t have a political clue but when he’s talking taxes, corporations and consumers, he’s one of the best in the world, and I’m proud to link to his articles when he’s talking about what he knows rather than jumping into a realm he doesn’t. Here, go!

I’d excerpt it but it’s not something you’ll get without reading it in its entirety.