NewsTrust - Sports - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

America's Best Bike City: Portland, OR

Sat, 26 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Bicycling - By Bill Donahue - May. 26 (Opinion) - Sit down, please, and take a deep belly breath now, for the truth is harsh: When a bicyclist pedals down toward the Willamette River, which divides Portland, Oregon, the waters do not part. The automobile traffic does not cease. Cars honk, and in a city obsessed with green transit, there are train rails—a gleaming cyclist’s nightmare—crisscrossing everywhere. And it rains. The sky is a brooding gray between October and May, and in winter the rain, falling as a fine, gentle mist, can be so cold that your gloves almost freeze on your handlebar. And as you near the river, you may find one of Portland’s five drawbridges raised high so a giant steel China-bound cargo ship can come churning through.

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Playing Ball With the Pentagon

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Tomdispatch.com - By Andrew Bacevich, - Jul. 30 (Comment) - In this theatrical production, the Red Sox provide the stage, and the Pentagon the props. In military parlance, it is a joint operation. In front of a gigantic American flag draped over the left-field wall, an Air Force contingent, clad in blue, stands at attention. To carry a smaller version of the Stars and Stripes onto the playing field, the Navy provides a color guard in crisp summer whites. The United States Marine Corps kicks in with a choral ensemble that leads the singing of the national anthem. As the anthem’s final notes sound, four U. S. Air Force F-15C Eagles scream overhead. The sellout crowd roars its approval.

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The day the drug war really started

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Jonathan Easley - Jun. 19 (Interview) - On June 19, 1986, 25 years ago Sunday, University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias died of cocaine intoxication. Many believed the 6-foot 7, 220-pound small forward possessed a level of talent equal to that of Michael Jordan, and only two days earlier he'd been selected as the No. 2 overall pick in the NBA draft by the reigning champion Boston Celtics.

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Fox Be Damned: Why a Packers Victory Is the People’s Victory

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Nation - By Dave Zirin - Feb. 08 (Opinion) - The 2011 Super Bowl was between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers—two squads whose monikers speak to their roots as factory teams in the industrial heartland. As these teams prepared to face off in the almighty spectacle that is the Super Bowl, the game’s pre-game show involved a salute to Ronald Reagan on his hundredth birthday. Considering how Reagan gutted the aforementioned industrial heartland, a more appropriate pre-game show would have been an intimate meeting at the fifty-yard line between a Reagan-disguised tackling dummy and fearsome Steeler James Harrison.

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Lebron James and the Perils of Walking the Fence

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Edgeofsports.com - By Dave Zirin - Oct. 04 (Opinion) - You can’t say Lebron James didn’t warn us. Three years ago, the then-22 year old James said he had two goals in his professional life: to be a “global icon like Muhammad Ali” and to become “the richest athlete in the world.” This seemed like one whopper of a contradiction. Agree or disagree with his stances against war and racism, the fact is that Muhammad Ali remains a global icon because of what he sacrificed – professionally, personally, financially – in the name of political principle. To take such action in the world of sports, as Ali learned, is to make powerful enemies and to make powerful enemies is not exactly the way to become Richie Rich.

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Terrorists Versus Soccer

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Adam Serwer - Jun. 18 (Opinion) - International soccer interferes with the extremist vision of a fundamentalist society free of secular influences in a number of ways -- most notably by cultivating a secular, national identity separate from the religious one. It showcases peaceful interaction not only between rival, even hostile nations, but between Muslims and non-Muslims, undermining the narrative of an inevitable clash of civilizations between Islam and the West. This isn't to say that soccer is necessarily a liberalizing force -- Mussolini's Italy did win the last World Cup before World War II. But the world's love for soccer offers a particularly difficult challenge for the pan-Islamist extremist ideology of groups like al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam.

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Spanish team the only spoiler to stop English domination of Champions League final.

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By Mark Starr - Apr. 27 (Opinion) - And so it has come down to this. Barcelona is our last, best hope. If Barcelona cannot best Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final that begins Tuesday, European soccer will have become nothing more than a stomping ground for the English. Last year witnessed the first-ever all-English final — Chelsea vs. Manchester United — in the more than half century of this competition. And this year could be déjà vu all over again, or however they say that in the English pubs.

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First in War, First in Peace, and Saddled With a Costly, Underperforming Taxpayer-Funded Stadium

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Reason Magazine - By Nick Gillespie - Apr. 14 (Opinion) - More to the point, the Nationals were brought to the District of Columbia amid overhyped claims that bringing baseball back to the nation's capital, especially in a fancy new stadium that would have to be paid for by taxpayers, would jazz up the local economy like Marion Barry on crack (give the former and future mayor his due: For a while, he was against taxpayers footing the bill for the stadium). Where would the more than $600 million come from? It didn't really matter, did it, because the thing would be a license to print money, right?

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Should Free-Wheeling be Free? One Oregon Lawmaker Says No.

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

triplepundit.com - Apr. 10 (Opinion) - Oregonians love their bikes—and for good reason. Portland and Eugene are among the most progressive cities in the nation when it comes to biking infrastructure (bike lanes, bike racks, etc.). But Oregon representative Wayne Krieger has introduced a bill that would mean this infrastructure would no longer be freely available to two-wheeling citizens. They'd have to pay to ride.

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Swedish tennis protest

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By Mark Starr - Mar. 11 (Opinion) - Terror in Lahore. Silence in Sweden. Athletes caught in the middle

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Olympic Ritual and Religion, Hosted by a Religion-less State

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Religion Dispatches - By Lou Ruprecht - Aug. 11 (Opinion) - One of the little remarked aspects of the Modern Olympic Games is its explicit status as a religious revival. The founder, or "renovateur," of the Modern Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin, could not have been clearer about the religious valence of his revival. Not long after he first proposed the renewal of the ancient Greek games in modern international guise, he began referring to them as the religio athletae, though he was never able to say in any simple way who the god worshiped at the altar of his revival was supposed to be.

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Beyond Beijing: China's Toughest Competition

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, Kate Merkel-Hess - Aug. 09 (Opinion) - The most important reason to look beyond Beijing is simple: the Chinese regime realized from the start that domestically, the games cannot achieve what it wants them to achieve if they are seen as a just the capital's affair.

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China: Interview with photo-journalist Tom Carter

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Play the Game for Open Journalism - By Michael Herborn - Jul. 29 (Interview) - American Tom Carter has spent the past two years on the road in China, visiting all 33 provinces and autonomous regions along the way, one of the few foreigners to have ever done so.

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Six Questions for Arvind Ganesan on the Beijing Olympics, the Media and Human Rights

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Harper's - By Ken Silverstein - Jul. 14 (Interview) - Arvind Ganesan has been at Human Rights Watch as the Director of the Business and Human Rights Program and is involved in research, advocacy, and policy development. His program has issued groundbreaking reports on Enron, Wal-Mart, corruption in Angola, where American oil companies have major investments, and Western companies censoring the Internet in China.

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Official's allegations tarnishing NBA's postseason

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Sparks Tribune - By Kayla Dubchansky - Jun. 10 (Opinion) - However, when you are a professional referee, in the National Basketball Association for instance, and get paid thousands of dollars to officiate a game and you screw up repeatedly, that's a big problem. I have a bigger problem when you bet on games that you officiate and are accused of altering games ... see Tim Donaghy.

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List of top ecotourism destinations for green adventures

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Tripadvenuture.org - By Enrico Forte - Apr. 18 (Opinion) - The story lists a series of "top 10" articles and resources from multiple sites on the theme "eco-tourism".

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Raining on the Wrong Parade

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment: Global Affairs - By Philip J. Cunningham - Apr. 10 (Opinion) - Holier-than-thou human rightists who clearly find it easier to pick on China rather than tend to more egregious violations in their own backyard contribute to the enmity. Unthinking nationalists, rag-tag hooligans and agit-prop activists who are looking to spoil China's shared moment of glory by disrupting the Olympics, whether it be in the name of asserting Western values, Darfur, Dharmasala or just for the hell of it, may find the wrath of the Chinese people, once riled up, unruly and liable to spiral out of control.

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GroundReport - United Kingdom (Great Britain) - What difference Jose Murinho would have made for Chelsea at Carling Cup?

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Groundreport.com - By Santhosh Joseph - Feb. 27 (Opinion) - Chelsea manager Avram Grant has been heavily criticized for the loss against Tottenham at the Carling cup final. Many of the fans compared him with Jose Murinho and were calling for Avrams cap. This article is my my views revolving around it.

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"Today's Decision Would Make George Orwell Proud"--FCC Commissioner Michael Copps on the FCC's Vote to Rewrite the Nation's Media Ownership Rules

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Michael Copps - Dec. 26 (Speech) - So now it's up to the rest of us. The situation isn't going to repair itself. Big media is not going to repair it. This Commission is apparently not going to repair it. But the people and their elected representatives and attentive courts can repair it. Last time the Commission went down this road, the majority heard and felt the outrage of millions of citizens and Congress and then the court. Today's decision is just as dismissive of good process as that earlier one, just as unconcerned with what people have said, just as heedless of the advice of our oversight committees and many other members of Congress, and just as stubborn

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Is 'Roid Rage Affecting the Sportswriters Who Vote Players into the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 01:53:53 -0800

Reason Magazine - By Nick Gillespie - Jan. 10 (Opinion) - So Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn made it into Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility. That's an exceptionally rare honor but it's one that both players deserve fully. Not so for Mark McGwire, the home-run-bashing, low-average slugger for the Oakland A's and St. Louis Cardinals who made a truly pathetic spectacle of himself a few years back during a ridiculous and illegitimate Congressional hearing on the dread menace of steroids in sports (as former Reasoner Matt Welch, now of the LA Times, put it eloquently, "Congress has no business examining baseball's urine"). I never liked McGwire or the teams he played for, and his blubbery performance (in every sense of the word) was embarrassing to say the least. Yet as Gene Lyons and others point out, McGwire, who used performance-enhancing substances during his career, has never been charged with, much less found guilty of, breaking baseball's rules at the time he was playing. (Things have changed since then.)

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2010, Tents and Armed Babes in Uniform

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 15:06:41 -0700

Matters of the Mind - By AK - Jul. 26 (Opinion) - We, as Africans should not under-estimate the pessimism, especially in Europe, that surrounds 2010 FIFA World Cup scheduled for South Africa. The other day, an acquaintance of mine from Germany asked me what I thought of South Africa. Having lived in South Africa and still do when not in Europe, my first adjectives were; beautiful, breathtaking, spacious. I only paused for a while to find out why he was asking me about South Africa.

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Enough Already

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 14:20:24 -0700

Tacitus - By M. Scott Eiland - Jul. 21 (Opinion) - To the surprise of many, the grand jury considering evidence that Barry Bonds may have perjured himself about the use of performance enhancing drugs--as well as possibly committing income tax evasion regarding income from sports memorabilia shows (the crime that sent Pete Rose away for some time in the federal pen a few years back)--expired today without indicting Bonds. At the same time, Greg Anderson--a childhood friend of Bonds who has already served three months in prison for his role in the BALCO scandal, and two and a half weeks in jail for civil contempt for refusing to testify in front of the Bonds grand jury--was released. The two men are not off the hook yet: Anderson's attorney Mark Geragos has announced that his client has been subpeonaed to appear in front of a new Bonds grand jury on the subject of Bonds' alleged steroid use--if he refused to testify again, he could find himself back in a cell for up to eighteen months.

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