Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?

The SEVEN
July 18th, 2011

I. The NBA

I'm really surprised to have to put the NBA in the first spot in my special Smarter Than A Fifth Grader edition of The SEVEN...but if the size 15 shoe fits, wear it!

One reason why I'm surprised is that David Stern is the best commisioner in pro sports...so much so that when the NHL was looking for a commissioner they scooped up Gary Bettman from the NBA office, a man whose hockey background was limited but whose NBA background under Stern was extensive. Being the brilliant marketer of his league that he has been, Stern should have realized that there was nothing good that could come from a lockout. I mean, what does a lockout achieve...besides locking news about your sport out of the news, and locking in bad publicity and bad feelings from the public?

Now we know that, worst case scenario, the NBA will resolve its labor dispute in time to have a 50-game schedule, as in 1999. One result of that (that does not make too much sense, by the way) is that some people will want to place an asterisk next to the name of the 2012 champs...despite the fact that everybody still plays the same schedule and is subjected to more or less of the same travel, etc. The same happened after the 1999 season...but the Spurs squashed that talk by winning three more championships over the next few years. Bad move, NBA. Smarter Than A Fifth Grader: Don't think so!

II. The NFL

At least the NBA owners have the advantage - if you want to call it that - to be able to say that several teams (according to the books) are losing money. The NFL is like an ATM for most of its' owners...so why are they locking out their players? There is speculation that the two sides are closer now, but come on...in this economy...a group of individuals, largely millionaires (the players) squabbling over money with a group of multi-millionaires and billionaires (the owners)? Bad move, NFL. Smarter Than A Fifth Grader: Heck, No!

III. The New York Mets

"If you build it, they will come." Well, the Mets built and opened a brand new stadium which evoked memories of the Brooklyn Dodgers' Ebbets Field in 2009, and sold the place out in part due to the novelty factor. Now, two years later, the novelty is somewhat off - and so in the market with the robust New York Yankees, they need to put a strong product on the field. With that as a backdrop, the season-long talk has revolved around how long closer Frankie "K-Rod" Rodriguez, outfielder Carlos Beltran, and the mercurial shortstop Jose Reyes would remain before being traded.

Well, Reyes has played so well he has probably removed himself from the trading block for PR reasons alone; if they trade the player who has arguably been the best all-around player in the gane so far this year, the next sound you hear may be the mass exodus of fans from Citi Field. K-Rod has been traded...and my guess is that they hope to use the saved money to pay Reyes, a free-agent to be. As for Beltran, who has proven post-injury to be a solid player again, the trade jury remains out...despite the fact that he has demonstrated that he is more productive than others not on the trading block. And now that they have let things with Reyes go this far, there's no guarantee that he definitely re-signs after the season. Move - possibly very bad, Mets. Smarter Than A Fifth Grader: Time will tell...

IV. The Republicans

A very wise clergyman, the late Rev. Lenton Gunn, used to remind his parishoners that to whom much was given, much was required. As you can probably guess, Rev. Gunn was not preaching to the current crop of Republican politicians.

When you sign off on two wars lasting almost a decade that were not budgeted, which led us from a budget surplus to a budget deficit...well, let me not play the blame game here. But I will say that if we need increased revenues, the best way to attain this goal - as well as the fairest way to the citizenry as a whole - is to get it from those that can most afford it, as opposed to getting it from those that can least afford it. How the Republican party can fight so hard on behalf of the income of millionaires and billionaires is beyond me - unless you begin to connect the donor dots. They, of course, will say that they do not want to repeal the Bush era tax cuts to the upper echelon earners because they are the job creators...but how do they address the fact that many corporations are making record profits and creating jobs overseas? Bad move, Republicans. Smarter Than A Fifth Grader: Are you kidding?

V. The Republicans, Part II

On the other hand, the Republicans have done a masterful job at convincing working and middle class whites that they had their interests at heart - when in fact, their economic policies were not particularly friendly towards them at all. Perhaps race has been the unseen 800-pound gorilla in that room, so to speak, but whatever the reason or reasons, Republicans have met with success with that segment of the electorate that their platform should have kept them from doing. Pretty slick move, Republicans. Smarter Than A Fifth Grader: I think so!

VI. The Democrats

Let me be an equal opportunity trasher here, because the Democrats deserve their share of the blame. Not only is it right to raise the upper echelon tax rates back to the levels prior to the Bush tax cuts - at least - it is what the majority of the people would like to see happen. Believe it or not, most people are not making a million dollars. Between the Senate Democratic majority and the President's ability to veto anything that comes from the off-the-wall Republican-controlled House, there has got to be a way that they make that happen. So far, bad move, Democrats. Smarter Than A Fifth Grader: No way!

VII. The Wars

Let's get Iraq out of the way real quick...there were no WMDs there, we were duped into believing that it was where we should be...you know the deal. As for Afghanistan, where we believed that Osama Bin Laden was hiding, many people would have felt that eliminating a safe haven for Al Queda and capturing Bin Laden was worthwhile. Well, Bin Laden is dead, and yet some folks want to continue our military efforts in the region. Smarter Than A Fifth Grader: Not unless you're a supplier that profits from war!

Bin Laden is dead. It's time to bring our people home.