This is simply my take on the news of importance, or lack thereof for the week. I digest as much as I can and offer you a few nibbles along with sarcasm. Take it for what it’s worth.

Global: Taliban Executes Aid Workers in Afghanistan: These were medical workers, a team consisting of one Briton, six Americans, one German and four Afghans who have been in Afghanistan for some time attempting to administer medical aid to Afghan people, some who were in extremely difficult regions to traverse. The group, which happened to be Christian-sponsored,  was accused of “proselytizing” and “spying”, acts punishable by death. One member of the team was Dr. Little who was an optometrist working in outlying regions of Afghanistan for 40years. Nice. Who says you can’t win hearts and minds in Afghanistan?

U.S.: House Minority Leader John Boehner says he wants to change the 14th Amendment of the Constitution to preclude automatic citizenship of babies born of illegal immigrants. It’s not easy changing the Constitution. It would require 2/3 vote of both houses of Congress and the approval of 3/4 of state legislatures. Here’s my take: Eliminate the tax on tanning booths. That way all of us can tan like Boehner, have dark skin and be stopped on the street at any given moment. Cancer comes in many forms.

Local: The Pittsburgh Pirates won a game last night. Whoa! As for football, it’s all Roethlisberger all the time. Can he or can’t he do it for the team this year? Will he or won’t he get a six-game suspension as opposed to four games? Poor guy just can’t get a break. Yep, that’s all they talk about here in Pittsburgh.

Entertainment: How many times can you say Lindsay Lohan Lady Gaga Lindsay Lohan Lady Gaga?

Comic section: I keep waiting for Glenn Beck to really show up at a rodeo and be the clown he claims to be. No news yet in that department.

My choice for person of the week: Fareed Zakaria. He was quoted  in The Huffington Post as follows: “Five years ago, the ADL honored me with its Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize,” Zakaria writes in next week’s Newsweek. “I was thrilled to get the award from an organization that I had long admired. But I cannot in good conscience keep it anymore. I have returned both the handsome plaque and the $10,000 honorarium that came with it. I urge the ADL to reverse its decision. Admitting an error is a small price to pay to regain a reputation.”

In the column, Zakaria argues in favor of building the Ground Zero mosque, writing:

“If there is going to be a reformist movement in Islam, it is going to emerge from places like the proposed institute. We should be encouraging groups like the one behind this project, not demonizing them.”

In all sincerity, I say that Fareed Zakaria is a man of honor and integrity.

—cher

Will someone who can tell the truth please stand up? Not you, John Edwards. Who were you again? Time just slips away and a new batch of heathens takes center stage. Let’s be clear on this. Dirty little secrets cross political lines and go straight to an off-sides and a bogie in the sports arena. Why, I am quite sure that there are dirty little secrets in most neighborhoods. We won’t speak of those ’cause I don’t want to get sued, and I don’t watch that TV program that fictionally takes place on Wisteria Lane. We have enough to contend with in the real world.

The first one that boils my blood is Democrat and until recently, a candidate for Chris Dodd‘s former Senate seat, Richard Blumenthal. This guy had the chutzpah to claim, or lead many to believe, that he had served in Vietnam. Well, he did no such thing. Actually, he did all he could to obtain deferments to avoid going to Vietnam. Finally, in 1970 when he had run out of favors and things weren’t looking so good for him, he joined a Washington Marine Reserve unit. While there he was involved in drills and exercise and fixed playgrounds. That was as close to action as he got.

In 2003, while addressing a rally of military families who were gathered to show support for our troops, Blumenthal told the crowd, ” When we returned, we saw nothing like this. Let’s do better by this generation of man and women.” Then at a 2008 ceremony in front of the Veterans War Memorial Building in Shelton he said, “I served in the Vietnam era. I remember the taunts, the insults, sometimes even physical abuse.” Now that the truth has been outed, Blumenthal says he misspoke. Nothing like a sin of omission,  I always say.  He did a bad, bad thing.

The second scoundrel of the day is none other than Republican Representative Mark Souder, a self-proclaimed (are ya ready?) Evangelical Christian, forced to resign because of an extramarital affair with a part-time staffer. Well, praise the Lord and pass the ammunition blanks! The old coot just could not maintain his own family values and traditional marriage. Souder, you did a bad, bad thing.

Now let’s leave the political exploits and look at a tag-team match consisting of Tiger Woods and Ben Roethlisberger. We all know (sort of) what they did. Since I am from Pittsburgh, my chagrin is doubled. For the most part traditional values are upheld in our city. We’re old-fashioned that way. I cannot speak to what goes on in the Wisteria Lanes here, but I do know we expect better behavior than Big Ben has demonstrated. For the last few years, anywhere you went you saw people, young and old, wearing Steeler jerseys with the number 7 on it in honor of Big Ben. According to Brian O’Neill in an article in today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, those sales have dwindled big time. According to O’Neill, the hottest selling T-shirts are the ones that read “Dumb and Dumber” and have images of Tiger Woods and Ben Roethlisberger on them. They both did bad, bad things.

So you see, those dirty little secrets have a way of creeping out and sooner or later you get caught. It’s time for truth and consequences. Let me sign off with this little video:

—cher

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Over the last several weeks it has been nearly impossible to pick up a newspaper or turn on the television news without hearing the name of Ben Roethlisberger.   Most of the reports have speculated on one aspect or another of  “Big Ben’s” latest sexual assault accusation.  Although the high-profile investigation of Ben’s behavior has been endlessly discussed, the inner workings of the investigation have only now been made public.  Based on the documents made available, it is no wonder that the case was closed by the Milledgeville authorities.

The case turned out to be so shaky  (i.e. no DNA, no video evidence, and no eyewitnesses), and the drunken recollections of the accused woman so vague that when investigators from the District Attorney’s Office tried to set up an interview, the woman and her family said they did not want to go forward with the case.  Like so many other cases of this nature, it all boiled down to “he said-she said”, combined with the alleged victim’s reluctance to re-live the entire incident on the witness stand in the presence of family, friends,  and two hundred million curious onlookers.

As an ardent Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I can tell you I am relieved that the case against Big Ben has been dropped.  There is no way that anybody but Ben, and maybe the accusing woman, will ever know the truth of the matter concerning whether a crime really occurred.   All we will ever really know is that Ben has been “sowing the wild oats” of his youth for quite some time now, and obviously enjoying it to the maximum.  After all, he’s young, single, famous and worth $100 million, or so.  This is not a crime.  However, there does come a time when the recklessness of youthful behavior  must be put aside, especially when it leads time and again to an attitude of entitlement, and a feeling of invulnerability to the laws that govern us all.   It is a good thing that the NFL and the Steeler management has taken Ben to the proverbial “woodshed”, and altogether proper that Ben receive a short suspension from playing football.  A clear warning shot has been fired across the bow of the SS Roethlisberger.

The Pittsburgh Steeler fans are lucky to have the services of  a highly talented quarterback such as Ben Roethlisberger.  He may have a certain air of arrogance about him, he may eschew interviews with the press, and he may be reluctant to sign autographs, but he sure can pass and run the football like very few others on the planet Earth.  No matter what he does off the field, the Pittsburgh Steeler fans should fully embrace him for what he does on the field.  Fortunately for Ben, peoples’ attention is easily diverted, and it won’t be long before another celebrity athlete is in the limelight.  When football season rolls around again, I will be cheering loudly for the newly minted 2010-/2011 team, and thanking the “football gods” that Big Ben still plays the game for us.

Rich

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Big Ben Roethlisberger has become our hometown hero as one of the best Quarterbacks in football. He helped the Steelers win games when it was so close, they may not have had that win in their column. We have held him up high as he himself raised the bar in football and raised the Lombardi Trophy over our city.  Pittsburgh loves its heroes and Ben has been one who helped a city which is re-inventing itself, to promote that positive image. We stand by our own, even when many others give up. Now, however, he has once again brought questions about his character and may have lowered the bar in his personal lifestyle.

In 2006 he nearly lost his life due to not wearing a helmet while riding and crashing his motorcycle. We chalked it up to his youth and rallied for his recovery. Then a hostess in Nevada accused Ben of sexually assaulting her. She had failed to file a police report and Ben denied the accusations. They settled out of court and many chalked this one up to a wanton woman wanting money from a Super (and rich) hero. The latest of Ben’s escapades, however,  has us shaking our heads, talking in coffee shops and wondering whether Big Ben has been off-sides in personal life, thereby casting aspersions not only on himself, but on football, the Rooneys and this city of Pittsburgh.

As a woman I ask myself why a woman would go to the police and file a report of sexual assault, when we know that in courts, many women are re-victimized as every aspect of their personal life is examined and dissected in the search for her as being complicit. It is a humiliating process for women, and one does not take this step lightly. The twenty year old college student who happened to be in the same bar in Milledgeville, Georgia last week as Ben Roethlisberger, has taken the steps of filing a complaint of sexual assault against him with the police, hiring an attorney and thereby subjecting herself to scrutiny which will be denigrating and up-heaving. Ben has hired one of the top attorneys in Atlanta. Another high-profile case has begun, and this time it is not Tiger Woods or one of the Washington politicians. It is Big Ben, hometown hero.

The investigation continues and Ben is innocent until proven guilty. That is the law. What the law does not cover is that this 28 year old man should have better judgment. Whether he likes it or not, with the victories come the spoils and that should not include rotten behavior which denotes lack of character.  Certainly he is no newcomer to fame. Whether on the field or off the field, he has a responsibility to conduct himself properly. He may be innocent. She may be seeking money. But this time, this time, Ben has us all wondering whether he deserves the status he has attained.

—cher