Good riddance to 2010

You know a year that saw the Tar Heels go 5 and 11 in the ACC and end up in the NIT, and saw John Boehner become Speaker of the House, really stunk.  Personally, it was a decent-to-good year for me, but outside of family stuff I thought the last year really, really stunk.

Way too much of my mood hinges on the Tar Heels. I don't want to rehash the problems of the 2010 season, but the worst thing was watching Carolina not look like Carolina.  Looking like Carolina - the Carolina way - matters.  And when the Carolina way is not done right, not only do fans like me suffer but so does the nation.  Or at least the karma suffers.

As I've said before, can it really be a coincidence that John Boehner passes Pelosi, and Krzyzewski passes Dean, in the same year? It's not: when Carolina does well, good triumphs over evil.  Simple as that.

Want more proof?  In 2010, Duke wins a national championship, and not a month later BP causes the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history.  

In 2009, Carolina wins a national championship and Congress passes a bill to protect more than 2 million acres of new public lands a wilderness and national parks in the same month. Again, not a coincidence.

The saddest part of Pelosi no longer being speaker, the worst thing to happen to the United States since Bush's reelection, is that when you look back at 2010 a lot actually got done.

• Passing financial reform legislation was huge.
• As was passing a health care bill that will start to reduce the cost of health care, allow children to stay on their parents health plans until 26 and prohibit turning down someone due to a preexisting condition.  It might not have been a national champion of bills, but it is final four worthy.  
• Covering the cost of health insurance for 9/11 first responders was almost as big.
• And repealing 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' was even more huge. 
• And in what other year would getting most U.S. troops, including all combat troops, out of Iraq become a small story, one barely mentioned?

Reciting this list of legislative accomplishments underscores two points.  One, it shows how all those accomplishments are window dressing in the face of high unemployment and general economic anxiety.  And two, how little people pay attention. I honestly think people don't know how much the last Congress did.  Then again, maybe they do but economic anxiety undercuts that knowledge.  Feel and emotion will always triumph over a laundry list.

Or people may simply be crazy and stupid, at least the ones who voted this year.

Anyway, good riddance to 2010, the year of Duke, oil spills, John Boehner, and a electorate driven to stupidity by a bad economy.

The good news is, the Heels will get better.  The bad news, don't expect another long list of accomplishments in the next year.  After all, Democrats still control the Senate and of course the Presidency, so don't expect legislative harmony or many big bills to pass this year.  And even if the House Republicans do scare enough Democrats in the Senate to overturn some of Obama's accomplishments you can guarantee the President will veto them.

A few more notes:

• I forgot the two words that best sum up 2010 for me: Rand Paul.  Duke and stupidity in one package!
• The bad karma extended to the Carolina football team, a team that was supposed to challenge for an ACC championship behind a stout and experienced defense.  Instead, we saw most of the stars from that unit get suspended for improper contact with agents.  Other players were involved in a still unresolved academic scandal.  More than a dozen players were suspended, yet the team still had a decent season thanks to stalwarts like T.J. Yates, Johnny White, Dante Paige-Moss and Quan Sturdivant. 
• Actually, the football Heels' problems had more to do with bad leadership and stewardship from Butch Davis, who embarrassed the university more than Matt Doherty ever did.  Time to get rid of him, time to Fire Butch Davis!
• It was a game against a 2-10 team, but I'm still heartened by the great shooting we saw from the Heels yesterday.  No matter the opponent, good shooting breeds confidence - and more good shooting.  Here's hoping the good shooting that has been on display the last month carries over into the ACC season.  

Coda

Not Ed Cota.  Rather, let's end this bad era.

The last 12 to 18 months were not that great.  Many of you have heard me lament how 18 months ago, in April 2009, I was in the White House to watch President Obama sign the Omnibus Wilderness Bill into law.  A few days later Tyler Hansbrough led the Heels to their fifth NCAA championship. 

Since then we've seen Duke win a national championship and the rise of ignorance/the Tea Party, otherwise known as Rand Paul.

But that era is now over.  

And the person to lead us out of the morass is . . .  No, not Barack Obama.  I'm talking about that proud son of Ames, Iowa - Harrison Barnes.

Yes, Carolina basketball begins anew tomorrow night. After a one year bad dream (I was going to say nightmare, but we all know the roots of that word are Doherty, Latin for night, and eightandtwenty, late Saxon for mare) the transition from the Hansbrough era to the Barnes one tips off Friday night versus Lipscomb.

Funny to think how at this time last year I was optimistic about Marcus Ginyard, Ed Davis and Deon Thompson's Heels, and full of promise about Larry Drew, John Henson, and Dexter Strickland.  Funny how ancient some of those names seems now, even though Deon Thompson IS the Carolina and Hellenic Blue blog since he plays professionally in Greece. 

The 2009 National Champs could not do anything wrong, but last year's team could not do anything right: shoot, rebound, make smart decisions, beat Duke in Cameron for a fifth year in a row, etc.

But Barnes is supposed to change everything.  He's even been voted a preseason first team All-American.  Not pre-season first-team ACC freshman team - first team NATIONAL All-American.

Despite the hype around Barnes - and fellow freshmen Reggie Bullock and Kendall Marshall - I'm more apprehensive this year than I was a year ago.  Just as I thought the election of Obama meant the U.S. had finally turned the corner politically into a mature, serious, problem-solving society only to see American politics tripped up by the Tea Party,  last year's season brought back all the anxieties and nervousness of the lost years of the post-Dean era.  I thought Roy had solved that malaise - he has won two national championships in six years!  But that's what losing can do, at least watching Carolina lose can do, to a person.

Things have got to get better.  Roy, like Obama, is too good to let a lost season/election cycle happen again.  Henson, Dexter Strickland, and Tyler Zeller - who if healthy could become a monster talent this season - will be a lot better.

But just like much of Obama's success will depend on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, ol' Roy will have to rely on Larry Drew II.  Drew's numbers were decent last year, but a point guard is not a numbers position.  You've got to lead, inspire, think on your feet, and deliver when needed - like Nancy Pelosi.  I think all the good people in the world are hoping that Drew - and Reid  - get their Pelosi on in the 2011 season.

GO HEELS!

One more Tar Heel topic: how about that thrilling win IN Tallahassee against the Seminoles?!  Their 37-35 win,  Carolina's first ever at Doak Campbell Stadium, helped wash the bad-election taste from my mouth.  The Heels fought the entire game, TJ Yates had another terrific game, and Carolina even got meaningful contributions from their fourth string running back, someone named Hunter Furr (do they wear that when they hunt? Really?).

Anyway, have to give some grudging props to Butch Davis.  He has held the team together despite suspensions, injuries and investigations.  I'm torn as to what to think about the guy.  

On second thought, give the props to the players.  The football program has clearly embarrassed the university, a sin for which there is almost no penance.  But the Tar Heels football team, the players who have kept their noses clean, are competing and making the university proud.

I assume Harrison Barnes will do the same, starting tomorrow night.

Drilling and the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy

In the the late-80s/early 90s, Michael Franti fronted a rap group called the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy.  One of their best songs was "Music and Politics."  In that vein, it's back to the internet!


DRILLING


Depressing news on the spill, as the top kill failed to cap the well this weekend.  Don’t expect anything to work until BP drills a relief well in August. This is the second major oil spill in the last 10 months. In both the Gulf of Mexico and the East Timor Sea last year, the companies that drilled the wells made things worse by NOT having a back up plan in place in case of a blow out.  And in both cases, neither company had a relief well handy; in both spills it seems to take 3 months to get a relief well in place.


There are many tragedies to this spill, and it will likely get worse as the oil keeps flowing towards Florida’s coast. Or worst of all, if a hurricane develops between now and August and brings oil on shore. If that occurs we could see a biblical catastrophe – an ON shore oil spill caused by OFF shore drilling. 


POLITICS


Since this is a Carolina-Hellenic blue blog, I’d like to point out that Rand Paul is a Dukie and J.D. Hayworth is an NC State grad.  Makes sense that two of the tea bag standard bearers are barbarians trying to destroy civilization nurtured and advanced in places like Chapel Hill and Greece.


In the wake of the spill plenty of tea bag types are whining about the Obama Administration. Of course, there’s no federal role for oil spill clean up.  If tea baggers want the government to clean up this corporate-created catastrophe they need to fund a new federal agency, or expand the authority and training of existing entities like the Coast Guard.


Expecting intellectual – or ideological – consistency from the tea baggers is a waste of time.  I’ve said before, will say again: you cannot be anti-government/anti-taxes and pro-military/pro-social security.


But I think there are bigger problems with tea baggers like Paul. His complaints about the Civil Rights Act forcing private businesses to serve customers they don’t like, for instance, makes me wonder if he actually understands democracy. 


Democracy doesn’t simply mean elections. Democracy, at least the way we envision it, is THE corner stone of a civilized society that values each citizens’ rights.  In fact, democracy is a human right as much as a system of government.


Unfortunately, Ron Paul and his fellow tea baggers don’t trust the public so they don’t trust democracy. They are right wing nuts first, small d democrats second.  Their distrust of the public, of their fellow citizens considered equal by a democratic society, is one reason why they don’t believe in choice (either reproductive or sexual or whatever), and why they love guns – they’re surrounded by potential killers! How can you build a real democracy – trusting the public with the right to vote – when you don’t trust them with your life, and need to carry a gun?  


Again, expecting them to be consistent is unrealistic, but you would think tea baggers and other wing nuts would at least believe in the concept as well as the practice of democracy.


MUSIC 


For the record, I picked Lee DeWyze as the next American Idol three months ago.  Though we were rooting for fellow diabetic Chrystal Bowersox it was fitting to see Lee win.  


For a little more than a year and a half - roughly coinciding with the election – there was (for me) a lot of great new music. I particularly enjoyed records from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, U2, TV on the Radio, Santogold, and singles from MGMT and others.  But then a drought (at least for me) set in.  


That new music drought has happily ended with new releases from Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, and especially LCD Soundsystem.  Like most really good records, it has taken a few listenings to really get into it, but I am weary the figurative grooves of the new disc “This is Happening.” 


Finally, I also downloaded “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys.  I like a little Jay-Z, though he’s way too boastful and apolitical for my tastes.  The funny part of downloading the song was my kids saying YOU like hip hop? I had to remind them that hip hop and I go way back, and that the genre wasn’t invented by Jay-Z.  So the download resulted in a good song on my iPod AND a teachable moment.

Of course, everyone knows once you stop thinking about music and politics you go to sports.  Look for that blog post soon.