The BS Report | Eastern North Carolina Now

     We’ve all had those moments. You know, when the boss says he’s looking out for your best interest, when your favorite sports star says his contract negotiations are “not about the money”, or when ANY politician moves his/her lips. These are what I call BS moments. These are the times when you look at the person closest to you and say, “now that’s a bunch of BS…”. Over the course of the last couple of weeks, there have been a couple of BS moments on public display that I would like to call to your attention.

     First, and foremost, can we please put aside the notion that bipartisanship has a shot in hell of making an appearance in national politics any time soon? The healthcare summit televised on C-Span this past Thursday was filled with the prototypical self-congratulatory statements by Democrats and Republicans alike about their desires to work together to come up with workable health care reform legislation. The notion of either party willing to put aside their differences for the American people is truly lost.

     Let me make this clear: the BS on this issue goes on both sides of the political ledger. Republicans have made it very clear they do not want health care reform passed for this current administration. Democratic leaders, including the President himself, have given only lip service to working with the not-so-loyal opposition. While conducting opposing marketing campaigns vis-à-vis health care reform, both political parties have successfully demonized the others position so that attaining compromise for the sake of actually moving this issue forward is impossible without political backlash this coming November from the base of each party. Once again: status quo -1, American people- 0. Health care reform has become a necessity to help move the country forward and the folks in Washington are playing a game of dodge ball with the entire issue. This, my friends, is total BS and not one of us is served well by it.

     The second BS moment comes to us courtesy of Tiger Woods. Let me be forthright and tell you that I drank the Tiger kool-aid before he became a professional golfer in 1996. He brought a larger than life personality to the game of golf. However, in a manner reminiscent to the flight of Icarus in Greek mythology, Tiger flew too close to the sun, believed his own sense of invincibility and came crashing down in a huge, resounding thud. To this point of the story, Tiger’s tale is substantively not really surprising. Being caught with his hand in the cookie jar, Tiger felt the need to come clean with his team of sycophants, his sponsors that made him the first billionaire athlete, and sports fans in general. What we saw on display on February 19th was not a “fall on my sword” type of heartfelt mea culpa. It was a carefully scripted attempt at spin control; contrived at the very core, each word and motion was premeditated for affect. It was an attempt to sew the wings back on to Icarus. Every second of the 13 ½ minute diatribe was complete and utter BS! Tiger needs to know the one great lesson about sports in America today. Winning makes amnesia and forgiveness possible. The only way he can repair his image is to get back on the golf course and win golf tournaments. That is what he does best.