As you all know Joe Paterno was dismissed as Penn. State’s coach today following the revelation that his former assistant coach was guilty of molesting and raping young boys. It has been the general public consensus that Paterno did not do enough about this situation after being made aware of it about 9 years ago. As you may expect many people have taken this opportunity to vilify Paterno for his “involvement” in this situation. I’ve had the opportunity to discuss this with many of my friends and no matter what I hear people say I just can’t bring myself to be mad at Paterno. I think it’s unfair he is being blamed for not doing enough and I think its absolute nonsense that he was fired. While I, just like any self-respecting person, wish he had call the cops nearly 10 years ago, I do understand why he did not and do not blame him for that.

So from what we know so far, a graduate student, who is now an assistant coach at PSU, witnessed Sandusky sodomizing a “roughly” ten year old boy in the PSU locker room. After leaving the locker room he returned home and called Paterno to schedule a face-to-face meeting. At this meeting he told Paterno his story, but by all accounts thus far, left out most of the sordid details and simply said that Sandusky was groping and doing something inappropriate with the boy (still a terrible crime). Paterno called his AD the next day and reported what he had heard. He was told that an investigation would occur. Fast forward a few months and Sandusky had his keys to the locker room taken away and he was banned from bringing kids on the premises. Fast forward 9 years and we stand here now knowing most of the truth.

Now I’m sure many people are already outraged that I said I’m not mad at Paterno, but give me a chance to explain. In my opinion, he was a third party witness to the crime. He was given an accusation about a fellow colleague and he did what you are supposed to do in the world of business/institution; he reported it to his boss. Most schools/organizations/companies have protocols for situations like this and in all likelihood he followed it. If I’m going to be mad at anyone it is at the graduate student who witnessed the crime first hand, knew all of the details, and still allowed 10 years to pass before telling the truth.  It’s easy to say Paterno should have done more or that he should have contacted an outside party, but that is not a fair assumption to make. As a large institution you have to, first, handle problems internally, and ensure their validity before reporting it to the proper authorities.  For one moment, imagine what would have happened had Paterno ignored protocol and simply went to the cops on his own. Knowing what we know now, that would have been the “right” thing to do, but what if it turned out not to be true. What if it was all a big lie, misunderstanding, etc. etc. Paterno would likely be dealing with a defamation lawsuit, would have been fired for tarnishing the schools name/violating protocol, he would have lost someone he considered a colleague/friend at the time, and he would have effectively destroyed that person’s life. Hindsight is 20/20 and it’d be awesome if we could act upon it, but we can’t, so we shouldn’t judge someone based upon it. To me the persons most at fault are the school administration (for either not performing a proper investigation or attempting to cover up the truth) and the graduate student who knew the truth of what he saw and did nothing about it.

“MORAL OBLIGATION.” If you read any of the articles about this situation you’ve likely seen these words about 100 times. People have been tossing these words around for the last few days, but I wonder how many of them actually realize what they mean. What exactly is a moral obligation? It certainly not a set of laws and as far I can tell all of us have a different set of them. I saw one comment on an article that I think summarizes the point quite nicely:

“Who gave you the power to set what “moral obligations” are? I think you have a moral obligation to report illegal aliens to the cops. I also think you have a moral responsibility to raise and care for a child you create rather than murdering it for your own expediency. But that does not mean people do it. Moral obligations are simply what YOU THINK, nothing more.”

So do we have the right to hold Joe accountable for a moral obligation? I don’t think so. Next time you see someone speeding on the highway, I implore you to ask yourself if you are morally obligated to call the police and report this person’s license plate number to them. Most of you are already thinking this is absurd, but what if this person ends up crashing, or worse ends up crashing into someone else, killing them. So before he killed someone it was ok that he was speeding but now that he has killed someone he is reckless driver with no regard for those around him. What does that make you? You’re the person who could have stopped him. I’m not saying the two crimes are comparable but it does get you thinking…

From everything I have read or heard about Joe Paterno, I’d like to believe he was a man of high character. He coached in a time of racial in equality, he taught his players to conduct themselves appropriately on and off the field, and he was the sole representation of honor in a league full of corruption. PSU would be nothing without him and its sad to see him go out this way. He didn’t deserve this end and I believe in a few more years, with a little more hindsight, we will all see this.

“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”

Obama’s main proposal was a combination of ONLY 17% from tax increases (especially given upcoming elections and party dissatisfaction, this is a bold move but he wants to get a deal done). Yet 97% of House Republicans have signed and are sticking to a no tax pledge, rejecting the proposal. Honestly, who’s more at fault here in blocking a deal? The risk of default is too for nothing to get done though, so I believe (maybe too optimistically, that something will be agreed upon by Aug. 2nd. I would of course consider this my birthday present.

(President Obama falls somewhere between Republican voters and House republicans.)

Source: http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/house-republicans-no-tax-stance-far-outside-political-mainstream/

Carmelo Anthony’s trade to the New York Knicks Monday night is the latest sign that the NBA is drifting in one distinct direction. It’s becoming a league where a handful of glamour-puss teams are attracting all the marquee players and where, if recent events are any indication, they may vacuum up championships for years to come. In fact, as more stars like Anthony defect to these few teams, the league may quickly come to resemble (gasp!) English soccer.

In England’s Premier League, which is widely considered the world’s deepest pro league, only four teams—Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester United—have managed to finish No. 3 or better in the final league standings over the past seven seasons. Not coincidentally, these teams have also been the prime destinations for mid-career superstars who’ve taken a change of scenery. (Manchester City, a team that has spent lavishly on superstars, has also prospered. It’s currently poised to take this season’s No. 3 spot).

The NBA hasn’t seen anything approaching that level of predictability…But the winds of change are clearly blowing. By switching teams to the big-market Knicks, Anthony (formerly of the Denver Nuggets) joins Amar’e Stoudemire (formerly of the Phoenix Suns), in making New York a prime player. LeBron James (Cleveland) and Chris Bosh (Toronto), have joined Dwyane Wade to make the Miami Heat a perennial power. This comes not long after the Los Angeles Lakers loaded up with Pau Gasol and Ron Artest and the Boston Celtics grabbed Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to play alongside Paul Pierce.

Just imagine if the Heat had won the title; this theory may have been solidified.

See here for the full article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703775704576160791914631796.html.

Looks kinda like Method Man or Bleek, no?

Christopher Francis Ocean, formerly known as Christopher “Lonny” Breaux, changed his name on a whim last year. “It was the most empowering sh*t I did in 2010,” he told Complex.com in an interview. Also on a whim in March of this year, Frank Ocean (his stage name) decided to release what was supposed to be his first studio album for free as a mixtape. ‘nostalgia, Ultra’ can be downloaded for free on the web; here is the DatPiff link http://www.datpiff.com/Frank-Ocean-Nostalgia-Ultra-mixtape.210282.html.

Why for free? Here is Ocean’s tweet that pretty much sums it up:

March 1, 2011: “i. did. this. not ISLAND DEF JAM. that’s why you see no label logo on the artwork that I DID. guess its my fault for trusting my dumba** lawyer and signing my career over to a failing company. Fu*k Def Jam & any company that goes the length of signing a kid with dreams & talent w/ no intention of following through. Fu*k em. now back to my day. i want some oatmeal and toast. brunch swag.”

On the title of the album, Ocean comments “It’s nostalgic. It’s a longing for the past. That’s what this record felt like. I named it five minutes before we finished mastering. Right before we had to write the labels on the CDs and get out of there. Ultra, because it’s also modern because of the sonics of it. It felt right. That’s how I am. I just go with it. The only big debate was whether I was going to use the slash or the comma, but the comma felt right, too. When I did the artwork after we mastered it, I was feeling the same thing. That’s my dream car. It’s been my dream car for a minute.” He is referring here to the orange 1980′s BMW on the album cover.

He’s been compared to Trey Songz, Kid Cudi, and even Drizzy Drake, who reached out to Ocean with props after hearing the track below.

A few other highlights of the album include remakes of Coldplay’s “Strawberry Swing” and the Eagles’ “Hotel California”. Original beats include “Novacane”, “Swim Good”, and of course “Songs for Women”. So far, my favorite song from n,U is “We All Try”, a song about faith and what Ocean believes and doesn’t believe in (probably the best vocals on the mixtape):

Frank Ocean is a 23-year-old New Orleans-born, Beverly Hills-based Cudi/Trey Songz fusion who is also member of the off-the-wall alternative hip-hop group Odd Future. I see a very bright future for this kid, although he does seem a bit troubled like Cudi, if you pay attention to the lyrics.

Enjoy!

The labor dispute between the NFL Players Association and the league is interesting; if this were any other labor market, this would have been resolved long ago. Employees have bargaining power only when their labor is specialized, and thus only when the demand for their services is relatively inelastic. This contrasts with auto workers and coal miners, where they can be replaced with relative ease.

In the case of the NFL, I don’t see how labor (players) have so much bargaining power; yes, these are the greatest players on Earth, but are they the only ones that can entertain us? Thousands of players can play football at a ‘very high’ level; it’s just that there are so few teams with a relatively low amount of players at each position, that only the top 30 QB’s in the world, for example, will get to play. What I’m proposing, is that the demand for NFL programming is inelastic, that we want it at whatever cost and at whatever quality. Think about it; we watch college football, despite the varying quality year after year.

A scenario; imagine if all of the current NFL players went on strike, and the league continued without them. You’d have the second tier of players (the lower-tiered players gain nothing by staying with the union, and will break the picket first), and teams will continue to draft the country’s top talent every year thereafter. These college players have ZERO opportunity cost; that is, they have no other alternatives that pay even close to playing in the NFL. They will gladly sign up for the draft.

Do I want to watch an NFL season without Manning, Peterson, Revis, and Mathews? Hell-to-the-fucking-no. But if we can set a precedent here that deters future labor unions from periodically threatening to cancel the season, I am on board. I love my football, and I love my Jets, with or without Revis.

Speaking of “march”, there is a hilarious assortment of Hitler rant parodies on the web that illustrate the creativity of geeks interested in several different subject matters. A few still exist, but a number of these parodies have been removed due to copyright laws. Below, we have Hitler, the poor investor who was enticed into the house-flipping trend that led to the housing bubble, and who eventually lost it all. Very creative, enjoy.

Speaking of investors who got burned…

Imagine you have a favorite musician, and that you can invest in that artist’s musical success. As a fan, this sounds pretty awesome.

David Bowie is a rock and pop star most notably from the 70s, but who garnered a large following for several decades of his working career. Bowie Bonds were developed in 1987 as a type of securitization, where the underlying asset was present and future revenues generated from Bowie’s first 25 albums. The upside is awesome—you get to invest in your favorite artist, and when his music is selling, your profits go up. But there is a big downside here too; unlike other types of securitization, there is no hard underlying asset for you to seize, and there is also a lack of insurance on the Bowie Bonds. The reason MBS’s were so attractive is that they were insured and backed by real assets (houses), and even those investors got burned. I know I’m probably simplifying a lot here, but in general the thought is appalling. Anyway, Bowie received $55 million from the bonds upfront, giving up royalties for 10 years. He used that $55M to buy back his own songs from a former manager. Meanwhile, his initially A3 rated bonds dropped to Baa3 (right above junk) due to a rapid decline in sales for not only his music, but the music industry in general. What amazing timing Bowie had; I wonder if his fans that invested in this are still fans.

Speaking of fans, I’m a huge fan of the NBA. I think that the hype of the league is coming back, as I’m noticing a lot more fans this year, at least where I live in Philly. I think a lot of it has to do with the rise in the East. Although half of the league is still dead (see Cleveland Cavaliers), there are at least 6 legitimate teams in the East, and it only seems to be improving since a few years ago. Stars like Amare, Melo, and D Will are moving to Eastern squads, and the shift away from the always dominant (of-late) Western conference is great for the league, and especially its East coast fan base. Btw, the Bulls are on fire right now.

Speaking of fire, what’s up with the Miami Heat? They’re like a 7-11, they can’t close! Honestly a lot of things have to change in South Beach, but for starters, if it comes down to the last second, please stop giving that last shot to Bron Bron. I’d rather have the rock in the safer hands of D Wade or Chalmers, especially in a half-court one-on-one scenario. Don’t worry though Miami Heat, you’ll get there!

Speaking of getting there Lupe Fiasco dropped “Lasers” today! Finally, jeez Atlantic. Anyway, the point of the album is to be inspirational, so unlike let’s say “The Cool”, which tells a story “Lasers” is just a collection of similarly toned songs that don’t really follow a plot, according to Lupe. It sucks that he had to go through this whole process with Atlantic Records, and he’s even said recently that at some points in the music development process, he was mildly suicidal, and willing to walk away from everything. As a fan, I must say that I’m glad he got through it to release “Lasers”, and hopefully he can move on from Atlantic very soon. A lot of the beats on the new album are more “pop” appealing, but in general his wit and dissent is still there on most verses. I am extremely pleased with the album, especially knowing what he was going for as well as what he was going through during the development process.

My Plain White Tee

I never used to wear one,
A plain white tee.
I never knew what it was for,
Or why some people had them,
And some others didn’t.

But then one day when I was 15,
I put it on, it felt different.
It made me feel warm;
Sometimes it made me feel safe,
And still others, claustrophobic.

I was often embarrassed,
So I wore it underneath;
I felt better concealing it.
Sometimes I would let some of it show,
A sleeve highlight or a v-neck on top.

It was my way of showing I had it on.
Then one day everything changed.
I was convinced to wear it bare,
To show the world my plain white tee.
Afraid to do so alone; but not with a helping hand.

Days passed, even weeks
I wore it proudly, but then it happened.
I looked down and saw a horrid sight
In an ocean of white, there was something off
A stain of disgrace.

I had kept my shirt shielded,
Afraid of getting it dirty,
Afraid that the world would treat it harshly,
Afraid that I was not ready.
But head strong, I threw it in the hamper to be worn another day.

Months passed, even years, I washed it many times.
I still wear my tee, often underneath.
Sometimes I am daring, and bring it out.
But now it’s been through quite a few mishaps.
The color is not as true as it once was.

That which started off as an ocean of white, is now polluted
With blacks and greys, and some distasteful browns.
I guess it gives my tee some character.
Recently, I’ve found myself not wearing it much
Because sometimes it feels better to wear nothing at all.

But blame me not, for my guarded nature.
It’s my tee; It’s who I am; and I will protect it.
My tee and I, we’ve been through a lot.
So when I wear it out for you, please treat it with respect.
And more importantly please prove me wrong.

-K

I’ve heard a lot of people complain about the Eagles game being postponed “due to weather”, including Governor Rendell. Really?

People are complaining the NFL made the move perhaps for money, or maybe because it’s too strict and boring nowadays. But I think that the right decision was made. You can call it the No Fun League, but being a Philly fan I’m happy about the postponement. Think about how many NFL injuries there have been this year—it’s getting pretty ridiculous, definitely the highest since expanding the league to 32 teams in ’02. We’ll see the final numbers once the season is officially over. Anyway, this isn’t 1950′s America, and I’m tired of people saying the NFL isn’t what it used to be. Of course it isn’t, we’re approaching 2011.

As a fan, you should be happy you’re getting a football game on a Tuesday night. As for Eagles fans that are irate about this and who claim that it’s a bad idea to play against the Cowboys on 4 days of rest, think about the alternative. This Vikings game would have been terrible for the Eagles. The entire Eagles squad (especially Vick and Jackson) is injury prone; even a few inches of snow would have dramatically increased their chances of getting hurt. You think Mike Vick would have like to scramble around for 30 yard runs in even a couple inches of snow Sunday? One bad slip and he’s gone for the year, and there goes our chances in the playoffs. The move to postpone the game was definitely good for the players, and it was also good for traveling fans and especially employees. Lincoln Financial Field and ARAMARK employ thousands of employees each game, who have to arrive hours before the start, and stay for hours after the finish of the game. My fraternity actually fundraises at these games, and we’re thrilled that we didn’t have to make that trip to and from the Linc Sunday.

Don’t get me wrong, I do think the League is a little hypocritical; Goodell is pushing for 18 game seasons, yet his concern is player safety. But that’s a whole different topic. I’m just ready to enjoy this rare Tuesday night football game!

Vikings fans, you’re particularly lucky that game was canceled. See below for what misery you luckily escaped.

For the rare individual, like myself, who is both an Economics major and a Seinfeld fan, this site is awesome. Here, the simplicity of Seinfeld is applied to several Economic concepts.

“Ultimately, students will start seeing economics everywhere – in other TV shows, in popular music, and most importantly, in their own lives.” –Linda Ghent, Econ Professor at Eastern Illinois and co-founder of the site

Does this make me a nerd?