Without Supervision

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank outgoing Loudoun County Supervisor Stevens Miller for the contributions he made to the Loudoun blogosphere this past year or so on his blog, "Without Supervision". Stevens ended the blog suddenly and without warning on Tuesday, and I, for one, will miss it.

 

His opinions have been a lightning rod the past few months, drawing both criticism and praise from both sides of the aisle. While I haven't always agreed with him 100%, I very much appreciated his sharing of his views, because he always strongly backed those opinions, and stood by them. And in the instance he was proved wrong, he stood up and admitted it.

 

Stevens and I were friendly acquaintances, mostly through our blogging and overlapping service on the LCDC, and on the rare times I have asked him for advice, I have very much valued it. I hold no grudge with him the way his tenure on the LCDC ended, and in fact, I really respect him for taking an unpopular stand. It takes guts for an elected official to do something like that.

 

So Stevens, best of luck wherever the future takes you. Thanks for your service to the county the past 4 years, and I hope to see you around sometime.

I Feel Betrayed

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

 

By now, I'm sure you've heard countless reports of the Penn State sex scandal involving former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. I won't repeat the gory details here, but I have to use this blog to vent.

 

I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia as a huge Penn State fan. I lived from 1971 to 1977 in Upper Darby, PA, which happened to be the hometown of the 1973 Heisman Trophy winner, John Cappelletti. He went to my grade school. He played in the same youth baseball program as I did. He went to the high school I would naturally attend had I stayed there. He was a local hero, and being such, I was drawn to Penn State football. So what I write here isn't coming from someone who is glad to see this turn of events.

 

What really is irking me is how Coach Joe Paterno handled the situation. I'm going to ask a lot of open-ended questions here, just to get it out there.

 

If Sandusky was being investigated about child sexual abuse as early as 1998, is it not fair to assume that the authorities doing the investigating would talk to Coach Paterno? And with Sandusky suddenly retiring after the 1999 season (one in which he was named NCAA Assistant Coach of the Year) because he wasn't going to get Paterno's job, one has to wonder if the reasoning was due to Paterno's knowledge of the nature of the investigation.

 

But if Paterno didn't know, why didn't Sandusky get any serious consideration for vacant NCAA head coaching positions? He was a well-respected assistant, one of Paterno's trusted aides; you would have to think that someone, anyone, with a football team in need of direction would have called Paterno asking if Sandusky was available. Could it be that Paterno was protecting another school from hiring someone he knew was a sexual deviant, much less a desipcable human being?

 

Then the incident in 2002, where graduate assistant Mike McQueary caught Sandusky in the shower in the Penn State locker room assaulting a young boy. Forget for a moment that McQueary looked both the victim and Sandusky in the face before running away. He later told Paterno about the incident. If, as I infer, Paterno knew about Sandusky from the investigation back in 1998, he should have acted immediately. Yes, maybe 4 years earlier he could have dismissed it as an isolated incident. Now it happens again, and he doesn't go to the police. That is sad. Or...if this was indeed the first time Paterno heard about it, do you not think Paterno would have asked McQueary for more details? You're reporting someone, who worked by his side for 30-some years, taking liberties with a child in a shower, and Paterno doesn't ask what exactly he saw? To ensure that everything was clear? Instead, he just reports it to the athletic director and wipes his hands? I did what I was supposed to do? He didn't call the police.

 

The result of Paterno "going up the chain of command"? They took Sandusky's keys to the locker room away. Took his keys away.

 

Joe Paterno was fired this week, and he contends that he was shocked to hear of the allegations against Sandusky.

 

Bullshit.

 

Paterno knows more. He has to. He's the highest profile figure, not only on the campus of the Pennsylvania State University, but in State College, PA, and probably one of the highest profile figures in the state. There cannot be an investigation of someone who stood by his side for over 30 years, and he doesn't either get questioned or informed about it. He protected Sandusky. He hid the heinous nature of the crimes Sandusky committed to preserve some sense of stature for himself and the school. And now it's come back to bite him.

 

For years, Joe Paterno and his program was the model of decency, in an NCAA rife with violations and criminal action. He did so much for the university; was so highly regarded; was admired, no, deified by everyone who followed college football. But because of his inaction, or turning a blind eye to disgusting activity by a friend of his, it's very possible that that inaction allowed Sandusky to prey on more victims.

 

I hope it comes out in the end that Paterno really was in the dark on this, but I fail to see how. It just doesn't add up. I feel betrayed by someone who I thought was the embodiment of good.

 

It turns out he's just like everyone else,

A Bittersweet Day

Waiting for election results after the polls close is always an exciting time for me. Since I've been involved in the political process behind-the-scenes to an extent, I have some personal relationships with some of the candidates, and it makes it that much more interesting. Last night, despite what happened, was no exception.

 

It was extremely disappointing to see the complete Republican whitewash that took place in Loudoun County yesterday. I didn't expect all of my favored candidates to win, but I didn't think it would be this bad. Some good people, with great ideas, lost by some wide margins. People like Valdis Ronis (candidate for Ashburn District Supervisor), Bob Ohneiser (candidate for At-Large School Board), and Al Nevarez (rcandidate for Sterling District Supervisor) all got trounced. Jennifer Wexton, who was running for Commonwealth's Attorney, put up a valiant effort, pulling in 48% of the vote in here first try for elective office. She'll be back.

 

I am at a loss to understand why the others got beaten so badly, though. I can kind of understand if they lost by close margins, but these races weren't even close, and that concerns me about what the people in those districts and the county as a whole are thinking. The county has gone solidly back to Red, and the thought of possibly slipping back to how it was 8 years ago in that county is worrisome.

 

My friend Mike Kondratick, as I write this, trails his challenger by 50 votes in the race for the 87th House of Delegates district. I am unsure as to the rule for recounts, but I would think that a vote this close would have to trigger an automatic recount. Here's wishing Mike the best - he's a great guy who would be a great asset to the House of Delegates. And the best legislator in Northern Virginia, Senator Mark Herring, easily won re-election for the second time.

 

Meanwhile, in my new home of Reston, Fairfax County, I can proudly say that every one of the candidates for whom I cast a vote yesterday won. I don't think that's ever happened for me in any off-year election like this.

 

So like I said, bittersweet. I salute Valdis, Bob O, Al, Jennifer, and Mike for running positive, issue-based campaigns. You have every reason to be proud. And hang in there, Loudoun - fight the good fight.

A Basic Primer For Mrs. Phillips

I saw this first today on the Too Conservative blog, and my friend Paradox13 expounded on it on Loudoun Progress, so I wanted to let Patricia Phillips know what a United States Navy sailor looks like:



That's me, in October 1984, at U.S. Navy Recruit Training Command, Orlando, Florida.

And no, you don't have my permission to use the photo.

Goodbye, Idiot Box

When we moved from Lansdowne to Reston over the summer, my wife and I decided to cut some costs by eliminating things we really didn't need or use. One of those things, we found, was cable television service.

 

The whole OpenBand controversy has been interesting to us, because as former Lansdowne residents, we were also former OpenBand customers. In almost 6 years of living there, we didn't have any major problems with their service. When we had issues, I would call the customer service line, and our problems were solved almost instantaneously. We also knew when we bought the house that they were the service provider, and we were locked into their service as part of the homeowners dues. And so we dealt with it.

 

But even with no problems with their service, what we noticed was that we really didn't watch TV all that much. So the $150+ per month we were paying to OpenBand through our HOA dues was just a waste, along with the portion that we paid for phone service. The only thing we really liked (and needed) was the internet service, which we found to be excellent.

 

Move forward to July, and our moving to Reston. We decided that instead of contracting for cable TV service, we would forgo regular TV and go with streaming internet TV, since we believe that will be the future of television anyway. I purchased an HD antenna (for abour $30) that we hooked up to our HD television, and we get all of the local stations, plus some extra digital channels provided by the locals (i.e., WRC gives us the normal Channel 4, plus an additional channel devoted to local programming, and also NBC Universal). We have a Netflix account, with which we can stream movies and any televsion series we're interested in watching (my wife recently watched a season's worth of Mad Men). Add to that a Roku internet TV gadget for $80, which basically allows you to stream free news, movies, current TV shows, PBS shows, video podcasts, and live NHL and Major League Baseball games (for which I need a subscription, usually about $120/year), and we're set.

 

The result is, we've successfully weaned our son away from gazing mindlessly at the television for hours on end. Occasionally, he'll ask to watch one of the kids shows we can stream for him on Netflix, but those are only sporadic requests. My wife and I are both reading more, as we can download books to our KIndle & iPad. Adn outside of that, we have more family time, since we're not slaves to the television anymore. Our internet service through Verizon costs about $60 per month, and service has been very good. The next result is we're saving about $720 this year on television. Maybe we'll take a family trip with the savings.

 

You should try it - it's very liberating.

Ashamed By My Ignorance

I read a story this morning that ThinkProgress linked to on their Twitter account, which stated that the fast-food restaurant chain Chick Fil-A donated almost $2 million to anti-gay groups in 2009.

This revelation has disturbed me, because I think of how many times I ate at Chick Fil-A in 2009, not knowing that profits from my purchases were going to fund causes that opposed LGBT issues.

I like their food; they offer some healthy alternatives to the usual fast-food dreck out there. But I'm still bothered by my ignorance about Chick Fil-A's political agenda. And it's not like they don't have an agenda - I mean they do close on Sundays; I guess I could have extrapolated something from that, but then I could be accused of religious bigotry.

So, from here on out, Chick Fil-A is on my "pass by" list when looking for a quick bite to eat. And I apologize to all my LGBT friends and supporters out there for my ignorance on this matter.

Couldn't Say It Any Better

From Twitter, October 31 - George Takei (aka, "Sulu" from the old "Star Trek" TV show) with a very cogent thought:


Well said, Sulu.