The Duke Thing

Hooray!!  I’ve finally posted something again.  I know, I’ve been delinquent.  The truth is I just haven’t felt much like writing lately.  No particular reason, though time has been a little tighter of recent.  

Just to get you up to speed with what’s going on:  I’m still at TNG on a consulting/temporary basis, no change there.  I continue to try to sell my franchise, though I’m not really holding my breath.  I’ve been watching Yankees games whenever possible.  Went to a church leadership last weekend (Friday night/Saturday morning), which was interesting, if not a bit confusing.  Still playing basketball once a week (on Tuesdays), and got some tennis in on Monday, getting my butt kicked 6-1, 6-1, 6-0.

Tonight, I managed to get the house picked up and dusted.  I also finished reading last week’s Newsweek (more on that later).  I’m watching the Yankees-Devil Rays game as I type this.

Speaking of Newsweek, the whole Duke lacrosse thing made the cover last week, so I figured I’d throw my two cents in.  Normally, I’d post this on my sports blog, but given the fact that the story has gotten national attention, I think it fits here just fine.

Even though I’ve said this before, I’m going to reiterate this fact:  I’m not a Duke fan.  I’m a UNC fan.  Even so, something doesn’t sit right here.  Now, I don’t know anything more than what I’ve read and heard, and I can’t speak to the status of race relations in Durham, but my gut tells me there won’t be any convictions.

Please notice that I didn’t say that some kind of assault (sexual or otherwise).  I wasn’t there.  But the bits of information that have leaked out (using pictures of only lacrosse players for the ID instead of a mix of suspects and non-suspects, negative DNA tests, time-stamped pictures from the event) don’t seem to stack up very strongly.

Where I have less doubt is in saying the Duke administration over-reacted by canceling the season.  They allowed a bunch of knee-jerk reactionaries (Sharpton & Jesse Jackson included) to dictate a punishment before the court system could even get started.  If you want to suspend, or even dismiss players charged, that’s completely understandable.  But this is just overkill.

So now I’ve got something new up.