Watching Baltimore suffer a heart-breaking 17-15 loss to the unbeaten Indianapolis Colts Sunday and drop to 5-5, an observer could draw a strong parallel between the primary needs of the Ravens and the Orioles, their hometown baseball “”cousins.’
  Like the Orioles, the Ravens are hoping to find players who will provide a significant upgrade at the corner positions.  Both teams will also be looking to secure a “deep’’ threat, be it a home-run hitter or a wide receiver who can outrun the secondary for a long reception.
  And both the Birds and Ravens are searching for a legitimate “closer.’’ In the Orioles’ case, Jim Johnson failed to prove he could do the job.  The same might be said for second-year quarterback Joe Flacco.  Despite the immense popularity he gained here as a rookie after the Ravens made a surprising late playoff run, this season Flacco has too often failed to produce a critical game-winning touchdown despite repeated opportunities in the red-zone (inside the 20).
  Although he played an error-free game for more than 57 minutes,  Raven fanatics and radio talk show hosts will spend the week leading up to a showdown with Pittsburgh second-guessing Flacco on his third-and-7 pass over the middle to diminutive running back Ray Rice that was intercepted by the Colts’ alert linebacker Gary Brackett.on the 13-yard line.
  With or without hindsight, it was a dumb call. There were several options that would have proven far less risky. If Flacco felt his best chance of achieving a first-down or securing a touchdown was passing the ball, then targeting Derrick Mason had to be his choice.  The wily, old wide receiver had repeatedly left young Colt defenders flatfooted with his precise routes, finishing with a game-high 9 receptions for 142 yards.
  Or, as a second option, there was Todd Heap, who could use his size and weight to out-maneuver the Indianapolis secondary which was playing without its usual starters.
  And then there was the “play-it-safe’’ option of running the ball and most likely giving new place-kicker Billy Cundiff an opportunity to kick a sixth field goal from inside the 35 to give the Ravens an 18-17 lead with just over two minutes left.
  Offensive coordinator Cam Cameron accepted the blame for the final blunder. “When you’re already in field goal-range, you have to make a better call,’’
  Cundiff, who was signed last week to replace shaky Steve Hauschka, had converted from 46 44, 38, 36 and 20 yards in his debut, but missed wide right on a 30-yard attempt in the third quarter that might have proved the difference.
  But the Ravens, perhaps fearful that even a successful Cundiff kick might leave Peyton Manning, the unquestioned master of the two-minute drill, too much time to put his team in position to win the game, elected to gamble on the pass play to Rice, who did his best to get Cameron off the hook.
  “I knew they would double me on that play,’’ said the all-purpose back who combined for 142 yards running and receiving. “I was trying to clear out for an underneath route to Todd (Heap. I took two guys with me. I’m not sure if Joe (Flacco) had pressure on him, but if I took two defenders with me, somebody’s got to be open. That’s the moral of the game.’’
  If Flacco and the Ravens had only failed this one time, it might have been forgivable.  But Baltimore had the ball four times inside the 20 and could not cross the goal line.
Surely, the most frustrating of these blown chances came early in the fourth quarter when a 12-yard reception by Mason made it first and goal from the 1-yard line.  A sneak by Flacco and two up the middle runs by Willis McGahee resulted in a loss of two yards, and Ravens coach Jim Harbaugh had to again call on Cundiff.
  Doing the game color, Dan Dierdorf said that Flacco had informed him earlier in the week that he would be given a chance to call his own plays rather than looking for direction from the sidelines. But in the post-mortems,  Cameron again took responsibility for the play-calling.
“We have to find a way to score touchdowns. When we don’t. that’s my fault,’’ he reiterated. ‘When we ran three straight plays after having a first down on the 1, we wanted to knock them off the ball. We didn’t get it done, so again, that’s my fault.’’
  But Rice again came to Cameron’s defense, “You have to score in that situation,’’ he said. Having three chances from that close, you can’t make excuses. The Colts probably played their worst game of the season, but we didn’t capitalize.’’
  Rice was on the money.  Manning, who had produced 21 points in the fourth quarter to stun New England a week earlier, had a sub-par performance despite completing 22-of-31 passes for 299 yards.
  Manning made the Ravens quickly regret their decision to play defense after winning the coin flip by marching the Colts 87 yards on 7 plays in his first possession, culminated by Dallas Clark’s three-yard reception. But two of his first half passes were picked off by safeties Dawan Landry and Ed Reed, nullifying excellent scoring chances. And a third quarter fumble on the Ravens’ 5-yard line by reserve tight end Tom Santi after being sandwiched by Ray Lewis and Reed, cost the Colts another golden opportunity..
  Manning, the Ravens’ chief tormentor who has whipped them seven straight times, looked all too human in producing only three points in the second half.  So, one must wonder aloud, if the Ravens, who are still feared far more for their defense than the inconsistent offense, should have been granted the chance to stop Manning from staging one of his patented comebacks.
  But the Ravens, who were minus top pass rusher Terrell Suggs, are being asked to do too much as usual.  Amazingly, for the sixth straight game, the offense failed to produce a first-half touchdown. Cameron insists he has to devise a better game plan to end this disturbing trend.
  The critics say the reasons for the slow starts are all too obvious. Flacco is relying heavily on Rice as a security blanket in the hope he’ll convert bail-out passes into significant yardage. If Rice is covered, Flacco will throw short tosses to Heap or Mason. Attempting a long pass is as rare as an Oriole pitching a complete game.
  But Harbaugh must share some of the blame with Cameron for losing another nail-biter. After Brackett’s interception, he wasted his team’s last two time-outs disputing an obvious first down.
This led to Reed’s desperate attempted lateral in the waning seconds. He could not be blamed for the gamble since so little time remained on the clock. And now the second-guessers are wondering aloud if a former “special teams coach’’ is overmatched as the chief honcho.
  But any two-bit fortune teller could have predicted what would unfold on Sunday.  You had to know that Matt Stover, the clutch place-kicker who got away, would return to Baltimore wearing the hated Colt uniform and boot the game-winning 25-yard field goal in the fourth quarter.
  And all the signs had to point to Cundiff making five 3-pointers, but missing one that could have provided the margin of victory.
  As Joe E. Brown in “Some Like It Hot’’ told Jack Lemmon, after discovering his prize catch was a man, not a woman, “Nobody’s perfect!’ 

I am declaring that from now on, political correctness is hereby forever kyboshed on the Organ. No more Mister Nice Guy and wussy writing in these weekly diatribes. After deep thought and with an intense look at myself, I’ve decided to come out and expose the ugly side of my persona. I’m going rogue.
Now this decision didn’t come easy. I came to this catharsis after watching two of my new political soul mates, Newt Gingrich and Ron Smith, expounding on the causes of the Fort Hood Massacre and claiming that political correctness caused the killings. Gingrich rendered his opinion on Fox News’ On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, and Smith took aim and hit the bull’s-eye with his weekly column last Friday in the Baltimore Sun.
The Army wasn’t at fault, according to these wise individuals. The superior officers of the gunman weren’t negligent or incompetent for failing to recognize this maniac. They were simply hamstrung from doing their jobs properly because of political correctness.
I always thought that guns didn’t kill people, people killed people and because of that truism gun control was frivolous and unnecessary. Now I’ve learned that political incorrectness actually kills people, and I for one will not have that on my conscience. From now on, I’m gonna tell it like it is.
Right this very moment three dumb bitches are taking up much too much time and are getting way too much attention and it really pisses me off. You may think these women are smart and have something good going for them, but I say otherwise and I will prove it to you right here and right now.
First, locally we can point the finger at Mayor Sheila Dixon. In office for a very short time as mayor of Charm City, she has managed to take up and dominate the front page headlines and consume all the attention of the media outlets in town. How selfish is that?  Besides, she isn’t even thankful for all this notoriety she’s been getting. She’s surly and mean to all those attention seekers in the media.  She shows no gratitude, and I am fed up with all this triviality about the charges against her.
After all, all she did was rip off a few dimes to make herself look hot and sexy to her boyfriends. This is no crime where I come from, and Sheila shouldn’t take the rap for this. I say she should come clean and admit that she got paid with these gift cards for sex. A romp between the sheets in exchange for an X-Box or some Toys ‘R Us bling—when did that become a felony?
She can cop to a simple prostitution count and by admitting this minor crime and socially acceptable practice she can avoid political corruption charges and keep her gig.  Her problems evaporate. Better still, as a bonus she can avoid the toll for those high-priced mouthpieces she’s employing.  See, I told you she wasn’t so smart.
The next loser on my hit list is another pol with local connections. Speaker of the House of Representatives and third in line of succession to the presidency, Baltimore-born and bred Nancy Pelosi has managed to actually get the Health Care Reform Bill or whatever it is called through the House. The bill has me, and more importantly, my Republican brethren really ticked off. How can she manage to pass this socialistic piece of trash, and at the same time integrate the destruction of the tenets of Roe v. Wade? As a committed right-to-lifer, I want to stop all abortions, and this bill interferes with the purity of my motives. No deals when it comes to my agenda.
The Stupak Amendment bans payment of abortions from being funded by the so-called public option. This is sacrilegious to my fundamentalist friends. This amendment should be the only piece of the legislation worth keeping. The rest of this bill is too costly, helps only the poor folks who can’t get insurance, and will take us down the path of socialism. This legislation will most definitely ruin the moral fiber of this great country.  If she was smarter, she’d drop this whole bill. Trash it, and we can go on fighting Roe v. Wade with our heads and hearts held high.
It’s better to be right and pure than get messed up with all those compromisers.  She can’t be trusted only to follow the Democratic Party’s principles any more, and if you can’t get partisan over her politics then what’s the point of trashing her? She’s all over the place. I say she’s toast.  Steny Hoyer should get her job.
Finally, my numero uno dumb bitch is Sarah Palin, who has come out with her biography. How dumb was that? She’s got presidential ambitions and is overloaded with presidential timber. Why is she going on Oprah and exposing her life and family like trailer park trash? She’s too good for that. She was right to go after Katie Couric. Screw the left-wing media. They’re just out to get her, and that trick question about what she likes to read was unfair. She’s way too busy being Governor of Alaska to read anything. Now that she resigned, she has even less time to read. She’s doing important work spreading the cult of her personality. Evita would be jealous of her powers.
As far as her gripes with the McCain camp, she got the royal hose job from them. They’re the true ingrates, not her. She brought out the masses during the campaign and made Joe the Plummer a household name.  McCain was no war hero to her. Hell, she was barely alive growing up in Alaska when he lived at the Hanoi Hilton. If she was running for president and McCain was second on her ticket, they would be serving Alaskan king crab in the White House today.
This woman has star power and wasting it on interviews with Oprah and the likes of her comrades is dumb. She’s perfect as is. Her book is a national bestseller. Need I say more?  I say she shouldn’t equivocate about her intentions, and that a run for occupying the Oval Office is a mortal lock.  She’s got the right wing eating out of the palm of her hand. Talking to the other side is stupid and she’s too smart for that. She can win without their approbation.  Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.
All three women possess political resumes that have gone South because of their ineptness and idiocy. Aren’t you glad I have made you aware of their failings and their lack of smarts? Stay tuned for more shout-outs in the future.

Back in the late Eighties, we enjoyed a trustful reporter-athlete relationship with the Washington Bullets Darrell Walker, a rugged defensive guard and effective playmaker.
He was always forthright and incisive in analyzing a game, attributes that would serve him well in future years when he became an NBA coach.
  But Walker was always one to openly dispute a referee’s call if he felt it was unjust. One referee, in particular, did not enjoy Walker questioning his decisions. During pre-game warm-ups, Walker would amble over to the press table and inquire, “Is Steve Javie working tonight?’ When the answer was affirmative, Walker would shake his head and say, “Then I’ll be gone by halftime.’’
  His prediction invariably proved true.  The first two times Walker opened his mouth or gave his tormentor a dirty look, Javie would hit him with a couple of quick technicals and the granting of an early shower.
    This bit of history came back in sharp focus last month when disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy, who served a 15-month prison term for conspiring with gamblers, successfully sold his jail-penned, “Blowing the Whistle: The Culture of Fraud in the NBA’’ to Triumph Books, a subsidiary of Random House.
  The Internet site Deadspin carried extensive excerpts of the book under the banner, “The Book the NBA Doesn’t Want You To Read.’’  Donaghy points the finger at such high-profile officials as Dick Bavetta, Tommy Nunez, Joey Crawford, Ronnie Nunn,  Bernie Fryer and the aforementioned Javie of patently influencing games with their calls or non-calls.
  He also accuses longtime Commissioner David Stern of strongly suggesting that Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Dwayne Wade should be protected against fouling out of the game since they were the superstars the fans paid big bucks to watch perform. The same applied to all but assuring tha the Lakers would advance to the championship round.
  It took only a matter of days for Stern and the NBA lawyers to threaten a libel suit against Random House, and the powerful publisher to cancel Donaghy’s alleged expose, although the NBA insists the FBI carefully investigated all of his latest claims and found they had no more merit than when Donaghy pleaded his case in 2008.
  “We take any question regarding the integrity of our game extremely seriously,’ said Elizabeth Ventura, the NBA’s senior vice president for communications. She said league investigator Lawrence Pedowitz, a former federal prosecutor, concluded Donaghy’s charges “were unfounded.’’
  The reaction of the media has been split. Longtime NBA reporter and author Mark Heisler, who covered the Philadelphia 76ers, prefers believing a sinner like Donaghy should not be considered credible.
  Wrote Heisler, “There are a lot of disaffected former NBA officials-they’re not all retained-but no one has backed up Donaghy on anything. That leaves only scattered anecdotes, presented as the tip of an iceberg, rather than some ice cubes floating around.’’
  But we weigh in on the side of native son Frank Deford, the highly-respected Sports Illustrated writer and public radio commentator who wrote, “I don’t believe you can read Donaghy’s book without harboring doubt about the integrity of the league officiating.’’ Deford said Canseco’s expose about steroid use in major league baseball was treated with the same cynicism by officialdom only to prove embarrassingly on the money.
Let’s first look at Donaghy’s claim that certain referees, Javie, in particular, would guarantee a few outspoken players like Darrell Walker or Allen Iverson an early exit or repeated whistles for alleged infractions.
  In Deadspin’s excerpts, Donaghy said he would always bet on the opposing team if Javie was working a game involving the high-scoring Iverson. “Javie hated Iverson and was loath to give him a favorable call.’
It reached the point where 76ers GM and later President Billy King would repeatedly gripe to the NBA office about Javie’s apparent feud with Iverson. After he was traded to Denver and played for the first time against his former team, Javie whistled him for two quick “T’s.
  Said Iverson, “I thought he was calling the game personal, and he threw me out. His fuse is real short anyway, and I should have known that I couldn’t say anything. It’s been something personal with me and him since I got in the league, and this was the perfect game for him to try and make me look bad.’
  Iverson was fined $25,000 for his remarks, but fellow referees felt he should have been suspended and supported Javie by also giving Iverson the business. On Jan. 6. 2007, Donaghy said he worked a Denver game with Fryer and Gary Zielinski in which they agreed to repeatedly call Iverson for palming. Before the tip-off Donaghy made a call to his partner in crime and told him to bet heavily against Denver. The refereeing trio kept to their agreement, so unnerving Iverson that he made only 5 of 19 shots and committed five turnovers.
  In frustration, Iverson walked over to Donaghy near the end of the game and asked, “How long am I going to be punished for Javie?’’
    The alleged conspiracy by Donaghy and his fellow crew members to decide who could avoid giving the ball boy assigned to the referee’s room a $20 post-game tip by calling the first technical or holding out the longest in blowing his whistle seems trivial compared to the claims that several playoff series were rigged.
  Donaghy reiterated his claim that game six of the 2002 Western Conference final between the Lakers and Sacramento was heavily weighted in favor of Los Angeles by virtue of the greater number of fouls assessed the Kings, who held a surprising 3-2 advantage.. Although he did not work the series, he wrote “it presents a game and series manipulation at its ugliest.’’
  According to Donaghy, Bavetta was the principal villain. “Studying under Bavetta for 13 years was like pursuing a graduate degree in advanced game manipulation. He knew how to marshal the tone and tempo of a game better than any referee in the league, by far. He also knew how to take subtle and not so subtle cues from the NBA office and extend a playoff series, or, worse yet, change the complexion of a series.’
  Bavetta, who was to work game six with Bob Delaney and Ted Bernhardt, allegedly received a pre-game call from NBA headquarters that the referees were missing calls that would benefit the Lakers. As Donaghy surmises, this was a clear message to Bavetta that the league wanted a seventh and deciding game to help give the large-market Lakers a chance at advancing to the finals.

  As things developed, the Lakers required repeated trips to the foul line in the final quarter to defeat the inspired Kings. But this was only one of several playoff series influenced by Bavettas’ presence if you believe Donaghy.
  In the winter of 2000, the Lakers found themselves trailing the Portland Trail Blazers by 13 at the start of the fourth quarter in the seventh and deciding game of the Western Conference finals. Profiting from repeated trips to the foul line, the Lakers outscored the Blazers 31-13 in the last 12 minutes to win the series.  The final tally showed Los Angeles attempted 37 free throws compared to16 by Portland. As Dr. Lee famously uttered in O.J. Simpson’s historic trial, “Something fishy!’’
    There are numerous other charges of how certain officials like Crawford allegedly used his liking of Iverson to favor the team for which he was currently playing. Likewise Derrick Stafford’s admiration of former Knicks’ coach Isiah Thomas, enough to convince Donaghy the game would be decided by the whistle-blowers and to place a well-timed wager.
    Even before Donaghy took the big fall in 2007, Rasheed Wallace, who was targeted by Javie and his confederates as the No. 1 troublemaker, had his suspicions. Wallace, who holds the dubious league record for drawing technical fouls, opined, “”Some of them cats are felonious, man.’’
  And old friend Darrell Walker, now an assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons, must be laughing to himself. 

In great contests, each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both sides may be, and one side must be wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time.
President Abraham Lincoln–late September 1862 after issuing the Emancipation Proclamation

What a week we’ve had since I last wrote. First the tragedy at Ft. Hood, where an Army psychiatrist grabbed his gun and opened fire on his fellow soldiers killing 13 innocent men and women. Details are beginning to emerge—he is a Muslim, he was days away from being deployed to Afghanistan and there seem to have been red flags aplenty that he was unbalanced. Among the many warnings that were either ignored or at least passed around the military command like a hot potato included that the shooter was emailing a radical Islamic imam in Yemen and was spending his time at military medical conferences presenting slide shows on the evils of U.S. intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The supreme irony here is that an Army psychiatrist, trained and educated by the Army to treat Army personnel, went on a homicidal rampage. As we continue to learn more—and it appears the doctor will survive so we’ll eventually hear his side of the story—the circumstances surrounding this senseless tragedy are only getting worse. Somehow, the combination of bureaucratic paralysis, ignorance, desperation and sheer incompetence allowed this man to keep his position, begging the horrible question whether or not this all could have been preventable or at least foreseeable. 

On Wall Street, Goldman Sachs is back in the news. After accepting somewhere in the neighborhood of $60 billion in government bailout money, Goldman went right back to the practices that led to last fall’s economic disaster and is now a financial holding company, even bigger than when they were “too big to fail.” The results were that Goldman posted their highest profits—ever—and are now doling out their biggest bonuses ever. Remember, this is all in the same week when the unemployment rate went to double digits.

Just to add insult to injury, Goldman was somehow able to acquire more swine flu vaccinations for its employees than most of the New York hospitals were able to secure for their patients. And if that wasn’t enough, in a very long—but fascinating—article in last Sunday’s New York Times Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein proudly proclaimed that he and his firm were doing “God’s work.” The immediate question was whether or not Blankfein and his bank get it. I think the more pertinent question is, “Do they care?”

The last news item that spoiled my weekend was the passing of the Health Care Reform Bill by the House of Representatives. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi proudly accepted accolades for getting the bill through, with many of her peers declaring this the crowning achievement of her career and a true testament to her leadership qualities. Then someone read one of the last-minute amendments to the bill—specifically, the Stupak amendment concerning abortion—and that’s when my head started spinning.

The Stupak amendment would—if it became law—supersede the Hyde amendment, which states that no federal funding will pay for abortions. The Hyde law has been an uneasy 33-year-old truce between pro-choice and pro-life factions in Congress. And if you’ve noticed, the abortion discussion has been quiescent for the last 18-24 months.

The new Health Care Reform bill passed by the House last weekend mandates a government funded insurance exchange for 80 percent of Americans—think of a virtual mall for insurance companies, services and customers. This is a good thing. What the Stupak amendment further mandates is that no provider in the exchange can provide abortion services/counseling, etc. Unlike the Hyde provision, who is paying for the policy and the services becomes irrelevant, since these medical services simply will not be offered.

Regardless of where you are on the pro-life/pro-choice issue I think we all can agree that in a Stupak amendment world the availability of abortion services would be drastically reduced. The president quickly responded by stating, “This is a health care issue, not an abortion issue.” Sorry sir, but I believe it’s too late. If you thought the Public Option discussion was ugly, then stay tuned. I’m not sure if the amendment was a stroke of genius by the anti-health care reformers or just blind luck, but if there is one issue guaranteed to grind legislation to standstill Stupak and his cronies have found it.

This path to disaster is what I found so confounding about Speaker Pelosi’s acquiescence to this 11th hour amendment, which to put it bluntly, is gasoline on a blazing bonfire. Discussion on this topic will only further divide an already angry and scared populace on an extraordinarily divisive issue in this country. Expecting the cast of wishy-washy characters in D.C. to act in this type of environment is a pipedream. Personally, I see the cable airwaves, talk radio, op-ed pages and the blogo-sphere becoming monopolized by the abortion issue as we approach the year’s end and the battle lines are drawn, with health care reform all but forgotten.

Overly pessimistic? I sincerely hope so, but I’m not holding my breath. Unfortunately, I think Pelosi’s finest moment will go down in history as a missed opportunity for her, the president, and the country.

  Watching the Ravens lose for the second time to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday was mindful of an 18th century British nursery rhyme:
  “Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye.
    Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie…..’
  Taking a few liberties, it was 38 Ravens who were baked, basted and battered by the Bengals.  In their first encounter three weeks ago the Ravens fully utilized their crying towels after committing three costly penalties to give Carson Palmer enough chances to find wide receiver Andre Caldwell open in the end zone for the winning touchdown.
  But this second encounter was devoid of any real drama. It was decided in the first 23 minutes when Cincinnati scored on its first three possessions to take a 17-0 lead. Baltimore played a futile game of catch-up the rest of the balmy afternoon, including a blown fourth-quarter 34-yard field goal attempt by Steve (“Wide Left’’) Hauschka that killed the Ravens’ momentum.
  At one point late in the tell-tale first half, the Ravens had almost as many penalty yards (73) as offensive production (85).  Clearly, Bengals’ boss Marvin Lewis, who played a major role in the Ravens’ Super Bowl victory in directing the unyielding, opportunistic defense, has now created a similar one in Cincinnati.
  Joe Flacco was under constant pressure from linebacker Brandon Johnson and safety Chinedum Ndukwe while cornerback Johnathan Joseph did an excellent job of limiting prime target Derrick Mason to three receptions.  And in the desperate closing minutes, the Bengals sacked Flacco three straight times. Praised in recent weeks for his ability to avoid the rush, he appeared as mobile against the fast-charging Bengals as Johnny Unites’ statue outside M&T Stadium.
  Offensively, in the words of sagacious Yogi Berra, it was déjà vu all over again.  Palmer and gifted Chad Ochochinco played their familiar game of catch in tormenting the Ravens’ undersized and under-achieving secondary, with the trash-talking Ochocinco, save for a late fumble, making a number of eye-popping receptions on the sidelines. Until the second half, a Ravens’ pass rush was conspicuously absent, only making it that much tougher for Fabian Washington and Domonique Foxworth to cover Ochohinco and sidekick Laveranues Coles, who had a team-high six receptions.
  And halfback Cedric Benson, who torched the Ravens in the first encounter, staged a repeat performance in gaining 117 yards on 34 carries.
  Again, mighty-mite Ray Rice did his best in trying to create something out of nothing for the Ravens, accounting for 135 total yards running and receiving, although a large hunk of this came on the meaningless final play of the game.
  But for three quarters, the Ravens exhibited no sense of urgency in what was considered a “must-win’ situation against the division-leading Bengals. Usually, we respect the wisdom of the Las Vegas odds-makers, who made the Ravens surprising 3-point favorites playing on the road.
  In retrospect, we believe they were misguided by Baltimore’s overpowering performance in thumping the previously-unbeaten Denver Broncos, 30-7, a week earlier.
But the bookies forgot that the Broncos’ Chris Orton, seemingly incapable of throwing the ball more than 10 yards, is no Carson Palmer.
    And so the.perplexing Ravens followed up their best performance of the season with clearly their worst. Their previous three losses to New England, Cincinnati and Minnesota were all winnable games. But this one was just plain embarrassing.
  Only the most optimistic, or near-sighted booster can now believe that the 4-4 Ravens have a legitimate chance of making the playoffs. Yes, there are three very winnable games left with Cleveland, Detroit and Oakland, and an upset on the road against Green Bay is not inconceivable.  Previously-winless Tampa Bay stunned the Packers, 38-28. The Bears, who visit here Dec. 20, are also vulnerable, crushed 41-21 by Arizona and Curt Warner.
    But an unlikely sweep of these rivals would only give the Ravens nine wins. It appears that the Ravens would need to at least gain a split with Pittsburgh or upset still-unbeaten Indianapolis to repeat last year’s successful playoff run. The Colts looked shaky in outlasting Houston, 20-17.
    Presently, there seems to be too many holes on both sides of the line to raise our hopes too high.  Perhaps the most significant Raven did not play a down on Sunday.  That’s massive defensive tackle Haloti Ngata who was nursing a sprained ankle. Ngata’s presence is needed to provide a pass rush or occupy enough territory to allow Terrell Suggs, Jarrett Johnson and/or Trevor Pryce access to the rival quarterback.
    It is also too late to shore up the secondary, although Lardarius Webb showed promise after replacing an injured Washington in the second half.
    The Ravens’ coaching staff also has to find a way to fast-start the offense.  All too often, Flacco has been asked to provide late comebacks.  He has been far from consistent in hooking up on deep patterns to Mark Clayton, Mason and Kelley Washington.  Too much of the offense depends on Rice and tight end Todd Heap turning short passes into first-down yardage.
  It may just be time to follow the late Charley Eckman’s familiar advice to “Call a cab.  No, call two cabs and back up the bus.’
  Or as Brooklyn Dodgers’ manager Charley Dressen uttered after watching Bobby Thompson’s homer give the Giants’ an improbable pennant, Wait ‘til next year!’

Not a great week in the old hometown, starting with the announcement of a merger that will see the corporate demise of the stalwart and much revered Black and Decker. The company, headquartered in the local environs, is going to be absorbed into its chief rival and competitor Stanley, and the loss of jobs and other ancillary benefits by harboring a Fortune 500 company will be terminated and long gone. Another hit for the Baltimore corporate climate.

Along with BG&E (or Constellation Energy, whatever they call themselves these days) going into oblivion by being taken over by foreign operatives, this added news is distressing. Capitalism is not thriving here, or in the good old U.S.A., for that matter.

For example, while I was watching the very disappointing and less than thrilling World Series, I noticed that Budweiser was a primary advertiser. Although they were still hyping that it was a “Great American Beer,” the company is now also owned by foreigners. What kind of truth in advertising is that? The company is Belgian, not American. At least Yuengling is still brewed in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, which is my birthplace. Buy that beer, and at least you don’t get bullshitted and the money spent on the product and the jobs stay home.

Since I’m on a jag, watching the Yankees win the Series requires me to opine and spout a couple of zingers. Notice all the empty high-roller blue leather seats that remained open in Yankee Stadium. For instance, nobody sat next to former Mayor Guiliani’s for any game, and you can bet that many of the VIP’s that sat up close and got their mugs shown on Fox didn’t pay the tab for those ducats.  Most people can’t afford such excess, and the mavens on Wall Street even showed some fiscal restraint by not covering the price tag. Even those corporate swine couldn’t justify that one.

The core of older Yankees—Jeter, Posada, Pettitte, and Rivera—and the role players that weren’t the big-ticket free agents are worthy of praise, and should be lauded for their work ethic and tremendous ability. The rest of them are hired guns and epitomize all the wrong things associated with the game.

Baseball is another example of capitalism gone amok.  Other than the hardcore Yankee addicts, the majority of the sports fandom all over the country were repulsed by watching this charade.

This past week’s elections didn’t mean diddlysquat, or prove anything definitive despite the current political analysis being tendered.  New Jersey had a very unpopular incumbent, Jon Corzine, formerly of Wall Street, and he was given a royal send-off. In the Old Dominion, the Republican won after two Democrats had served previously. Virginia is still considered a red state. There were no national trends in the two gubernatorial victories by Republicans.

Assigning failure or a stigma to the president because these losers did not overcome their adversaries and could not conceal their weaknesses is nonsense. If anything, their losses only confirm the president’s unique appeal to independent and younger voters, who were mesmerized by him. They were captured by him, and although the allegiance of many voters is very fickle, he certainly hasn’t gone past the point of losing his advantages. He has been in office one year. How can anybody see a trend already?

In New York’s 23rd Congressional District race, the GOP made another positive move toward isolating themselves and remaining a minority party nationally by greasing the skids for a rather mediocre Democrat to win a seat in Congress. This District had gone straight Republican since the 1850’s. Right on and keep up the good old work! And while you’re at it get those weak-kneed moderate Republicans out of here.  Let’s maintain the conservative movement’s purity and God on our side.

This scenario has happened before and was played out in Maryland’s 1st Congressional District. Frank Kratovil, a Blue Dog Democrat, last time around won what would have been considered a safe Republican seat. He will have a rematch against Andy Harris, who is out there on the lunatic fringe with all the fruit cakes lead by Limbaugh, Palin, Beck and the Club for Growth. Harris practices the slash and burn style of politics. I hope he gets his again and this time will disappear permanently from the scene.

Finally, if you missed it, Soupy Sales died a couple of weeks ago.  A true original showman and a man with a mission.  There should be a lot of consideration to his modus operandi, and merit to his egalitarian approach. Every cretin should get a pie in the face. I got a couple of candidates. Admit it. We all do.

  A carefree driver busy texting slams into the back of a car stopped at a light. A dwarf-like man steps out of the damaged car, examines the extensive damage to his bumper and says, “I’m not happy.’’
  And the instigator replies, “Then you must be “Sleepy’ or ‘Sneezy.’”
  Now, the Ravens’ Ray Rice is not a dwarf, but he is a midget by NFL standards.  Wikipedia lists him at 5-8, while the Ravens’ guide adds an extra inch to a compact 195-pound frame.  If you believe Rice is 5-9, than I’m Wilt Chamberlain.
  It’s mindful of how Baltimore Bullets’ Hall of Fame center Wes Unseld was forever listed in the NBA Guide as being 6-8, the same height from his All-American days at Louisville.  But, as Unseld would later reveal, he was barely 6-5 (minus his Afro), about the same size as Bullets’ power forward Gus Johnson.
  His true height made him eligible for a two-year service hitch, which was not what the Bullets had in mind when they made him the No. 1 draft pick in 1968. So Unseld hastily enrolled in the Kentucky National Guard and reported to training camp on time
  In any case, Rice, the most productive back in the NFL, is certainly a “Mighty Midget.’’ The former Rutgers’ star, who was a surprising second round draft choice by the Ravens in 2008, again showed his eye-popping versatility Sunday when the pent-up Ravens, in a ‘must-win’’ situation, buried the previously unbeaten Denver Broncos, 30-7.
  The statistics were fairly modest by Rice’s high standards. He rushed 24 times for 84 yards and Baltimore’s final TD on a seven-yard bolt up the middle.  He also caught 5 passes for 24 yards, with his 10-yard reception on an improvised flip from Joe Flacco, who was in the grips of a Bronco defender, leading to a Steve Hauschka field goal and a 6-0 halftime lead. It just seems that Rice, who has replaced Willie McGahee as the Ravens’ starting halfback, always produces a big play when it’s most needed.
  Teaming with Unflaccable Joe, Rice and Flacco form one of the most potent offensive duos in the league, perhaps not quite the equal yet of Minnesota’s Brett Favre and Adrian Peterson, but steadily closing the gap.
  Flacco’s game stats were also deceiving.  He completed 20-of-25 passes for as modest 175 yards, hardly in the heady atmosphere of a Peyton Manning,  Tom Brady or Drew Brees. But he was a perfect 14-for-14 in the second half and spread the ball around to six different receivers. His 20-yard bullet under intense pressure to Derrick Mason in the end zone early in the fourth quarter made it 24-7 and took all the starch out of the Broncos, who entered the game boasting the league’s stingiest defense.
  On offense, you could also be encouraged by the constant improvement of wideout Kelley Washington,  the free spirit who was Flacco’s biggest downfield threat with four catches for 58 yards.
And the Ravens’ special teams played a big role,  providing 15 points thanks to pint-sized Lardarius Webb’s spectacular 95-yard kickoff return to start the second half and three successful field goals (43, 35, 31) by Steve Hauschka, who had been villlified two weeks ago for missing his 43-yard attempt at a game-winner in the Minnesota dome.
  Of course, we’ve been avoiding the obvious.  This was a game dictated by a revitalized, prideful defense that had been burned the last three games by New England, Cincinnati and Minnesota.  They limited the Broncos’ offense to 200 total yards, including nearly 50 meaningless yards in garbage time. This marked Denver’s lowest offensive output since 2003.
  Once he fell behind, 23-7, Kyle Orton’s patented short-pass offense proved ineffectual.  Perhaps the most relevant statistic was his managing to make good on only 3 of 13 third down conversions while Flacco was a solid 11-18. And the Ravens’ who had been trampled in the past two weeks b the hard running of the Bengals’ Cedric Benson         and the Vikings’ Peterson, limited the Broncos’ top threat, Knowlshon Moreno, to 39 yards on 10 carries. His second-quarter fumble led to Hauschka’s second field goal..
  The Ravens’ pass rush that had been painfully absent in the team’s three straight losses was resurrected. Linebacker Jarrett Johnson, who might be the most unsung defender in the NFL, sent a clear message when he sacked Orton for an eight-yard loss on Denver’s first offensive play.
  Orton quickly realized he had to get rid of the ball in a hurry. Both Johnson and fellow linebacker Tyrell Suggs mishandled interception attempts, and, amazingly, the ever-present Ed Reed, saw his attempt for a blocked punt somehow sail right through his outstretched hands. But the persistent pressure on Orton clearly eased the burden on the unproven secondary.
  As Ravens’ coach John Harbaugh noted, “We had a chance to win our previous three games, but we didn’t finish the job.  Today, we played better, coached better and finished better.’’
  The job only gets tougher next week when the Ravens travel to Cincinnati.  Although they are surprising three-point favorites, controlling Carson Palmer, who carved up Baltimore in their first meeting with his long passes, will prove a lot tougher than Orton.
  In the meantime, mercurial Ray Rice, be he midget or dwarf, is definitely “”Happy.’’ Can you blame him?

We have just suffered through the deadliest month in Afghanistan since that war started eight years ago. Afghan President Karzai and at least one of his brothers have been accused of throwing the recent elections (at least 30 percent of the votes appear to be tainted), participating in the extremely lucrative Afghan poppy/heroin trade, and allegedly being on the CIA payroll. Can anyone say Diem?

President Obama is weighing the option of sending 40,000 more U.S. troops, i.e., a surge, per the request of General McChrystal. Just to add to the abundant white noise, the Penguin, a.k.a. former Vice-President Dick Cheney, has squawked that Obama is dithering and needs to act decisively.

Let’s start with Cheney. Blame may be too strong a word, but if any one man is responsible for the absolute mess we find ourselves in with respect to Afghanistan it is Dick Cheney. The U.S. military there has asked repeatedly over the last five years for more troops and resources. Without such support, they predicted the situation in-country would spiral out of control, which is exactly where we are today. The Bush/Cheney administration denied them such support because our country was too busy—and resource constrained—fighting the “other” war in Iraq.

Putting aside partisanship and without reciting the very long laundry list of examples we now all know, Cheney was consistently and profoundly wrong with every assumption, decision, and prognostication he made while in office—especially with respect to making war. The man has zero credibility and we need not listen to him. In fact, it may be worth considering doing the exact opposite of anything he recommends.

With all of this Afghan turmoil, the president has a clear opportunity to break from the dubious legacy he inherited from his predecessor. The immediate question is whether the addition of more U.S. troops will lead to more violence in Afghanistan or vice-versa. Will not sending troops lead to more violence? The answer is yes. It doesn’t take a military genius to connect the dots either way.

The bigger question is what is the U.S. goal in Afghanistan? Through the fog we can catch occasional glimpses of what that is—eradication of Al Qaeda. Which begs the question as to why we’re invading countries and fighting this “war on terror” geographically. Bin Hidin’ and his boys are a borderless group, they have no national allegiance. A cave or a desolate camp site is all they need to set up shop—doesn’t matter where—Afghanistan, Pakistan or Yemen. I’m not suggesting that the U.S. military is not necessary, but its use is a means, not an end.

This re-establishing of realistic goals in Afghanistan with a workable strategy is the opportunity President Obama has in front of him. We need to understand Afghanistan will never look like the 51st state of the union and that we will have to work with the Taliban—as unpalatable as that sounds. Lofty rhetoric about democracy and freedom, as well meaning as it may be, is simply unattainable in Afghanistan. This isn’t about giving up or tossing in the towel—it’s about focus and reality. Seventy percent of the Afghan population lives in 30,000 villages. On the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs, most Afghans are concerned with staying alive, not civil liberties. This is a population that has known nothing but war for decades. This is a country that is not militarily conquerable—just ask the British and the Russians. It’s time for a Plan B.

With the Nobel Peace Prize still fresh in our minds and that of the international community, the president can drastically change our direction in Afghanistan, the Islamic world, and The Middle East. Eradicating terrorism is in our best interest as well our allies’. Invading countries and staying there for years with the loss of American lives and treasure is not, especially when we’re propping up corrupt governments.

I’m not suggesting we abandon our mission in Afghanistan or Iraq or the Middle East, but we do need to redefine it, articulate it, and sell it worldwide. We can not remake the world in our image, but we can make it safer. If military incursions are needed then so be it, but these should be strikes, not open-ended invasions.

Whether or not to send more troops to Afghanistan is not the question simply because more troops are not the solution. It may be part of it, but without a new plan and a new set of goals trying to come up with a number that would make both sides of the political aisle happy would be in fact, dithering.