Former Penn State Players Need to Stop Criticizing Freeh Report

Former Penn State players, Franco Harris,  Rudy Glocker and Christian Marrone are passing around a letter for other athletes to sign, criticizing the Freeh Report as being "highly flawed and factually insufficient."  They plan to publish the letter in The Wall Street Journal and other large publications.  But if they truly want to help Penn State, they need to throw that letter in the trash. 

Are There More Multiverses Than Angels who Can Dance on the Head of a Pin?

Multiple Universes Interpretation

In pressing my middle finger to the computer keyboard in order to type the first letter of this sentence, I have just brought into existence 6 sextillion universes.  Each of which rivals the size of the one we live in. According to scientists who adhere to the "many worlds theory," every sub-molecular possibility blossoms into a new universe.  Thus the movement in less than  a second of one human being's finger multiplied by the 50 billion fingers on this planet,  has just produced a number of new universes totalling 50 billion mulltiplied by 6 sextillion or 30^ 30). And remember that's in less than a second of time. Yes, the cosmos is strange indeed, but not that strange.   

Penn State's Nazi Moment

Penn State riot after Paterno Firing

Kristallnacht or the "Night of Broken Glass" refers to a tragic series of events, which occurred on November 9, 1938.  Mobs of young Nazis took to the streets of Berlin and other German cities, shouting "Heil Hitler."  They smashed the windows of Jewish-owned stores and synagogues, and as a lynching-hysteria took hold of the crowds, roving bands bludgeoned to death whatever Jews they could find.  I do not mean to belittle the horrors and tragedy of the subsequent Holocaust by comparing it with the dozen or so victims of Penn State molestation scandal, however repugnant.  But I do want to respond to the growing chorus of voices who insist that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) should not impose a "death penalty" on the Penn State football program.  Their reasoning is that "such drastic actions would unfairly harm those who had nothing to do with the scandal."  This is where Kristallnacht might offer useful insights into the nature of fanaticism, as it unfolded at Penn State.  What were the good  citizens of Germany doing that evening as Nazi  mobs smashed and killed?  Where in fact were they?  

Chris Hedges Explores America's Inner Landscape

Seldom if ever have I read an essay as powerful and real as Chris Hedges' "How to Think."  I have to thank friends Florence Tate and Malik Chaka for forwarding it, and thus making sure that this piece of wisdom arrived in my email box on a day when my soul scavenged for nourishment.  I am copying this essay in its entirety below.

Did Sandusky Cover-up Involve Murder?

Charges dropped against tanning addict

Questions surrounding the disappearance of Pennsylvania district attorney Ray Gricar, who refused to prosecute Jerry Sandusky for child molestation in 1998, have been  gaining traction. It may be for the same reason that a woman was arrested several weeks ago for bringing her five year old daughter into a tanning salon.   The real reason police picked up Patricia Krentcil on child endangerment charges was not because  law enforcement officers are in the habit of filing arrest warrants based on the playful chatter of a five year old.  It was rather because the child's 44 year old mother's leathery-browned skin gave her the appearance of someone over 80.  My point here, is that had the blond, blue-eyed woman not been a tanning addict with a shocking appearance, no one would have jumped to the unsavory (and apparently false) conclusions that she was shoving the fair-complexioned child into tanning booths.    


As for Gricar's March 2005 disappearance, had the public not been exposed this week to a level of moral depravity on the part of Penn State officials that leaves one gasping for air, questions would not be popping up all over the place as to whether the missing district attorney had been murdered.  The motive would have been to stop him from re-opening the Jerry Sandusky case. 

Gricar's jurisdiction had encompassed Penn State University.  He vanished shortly after learning that an eye-witness to Sandusky's rape of one child, had  come forth with evidence that might allow him to re-open the case.  Gricar's red mini coop was found parked at an area shopping mall.  Sometime later the county-issued laptop was fished out of the Susquehanna River, in the same vicinity as the missing car.  The computer hard drive turned up three months later in the same river, but water damage had made whatever data it contained irretrievable.

 Newly discovered emails reveal that football coach Joe Paterno may have initiated a cover-up that the University's President, Graham Spanier and vice-President Gary Schultz, carried out. These university administrators had lied to the grand jury about their  involvement in suppressing an investigation into Sandusky's behavior.  None of them showed any concern whatsoever for the fate of children that Sandusky would continue to molest.

Missing Pennsylvania district attorney

The cult-like fanaticism of Joe Paterno's supporters, who rioted upon learning that the University's Board of Trustees had fired their beloved "JoePa,"coupled with the $116 million that the University stood to lose were the sports program to be shut down , offered all the incentive any depraved person might need for murder. What the Penn State scandal needs just now is a special prosecutor, to sort things out and give us all closure.