Busy news cycles lately. No sooner did Michael Jackson moonwalk off this mortal coil than Ted Kennedy succumbed to brain cancer, on Aug. 25, at age 77.
It was easy to roll one's eyes at the liberal love-fest and glossy record-polishing that was sure to follow, but nearly two weeks later, I've found the media portrayals to be pretty fair.
Chappaquidick was not glazed over; rightfully so. And for all the talk about Kennedy's accomplishments, it stayed fairly loose. This too is fair, considering liberals themselves have been critical of some of the higher-profile programs in which Kennedy played a significant role, including
No Child Left Behind, for which Kennedy was a key champion during George W. Bush's first year.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time waxing about Kennedy's record or legacy, as plenty of better writers than I have done so over at
RealClearPolitics.com; folks who know more about both than I.
While Ted departs,
Brett Favre returns. Again. This time for good. Unless his arm hurts too much.
About three weeks after telling the
Minnesota Vikings he was done, Favre publicly changed his mind one more time, kicking his legacy ever-closer to the curb of late-night comedic punchlinedom.
Favre looked rough in his first game with the Viqueens, though granted he'd only been in camp about three days. Incidentally, this apparently didn't play well with the guys who'd been busting their humps for the weeks leading up to that point - go figure - as reports surfaced that there was the infamous "
schism" infecting the locker room.
He's since looked better, though he obviously has yet to hit the wire-to-wire grind of the regular season.
He has his excuses all set; his supposed damaged biceps tendon and now allegedly cracked rib ready to serve as the fallguys should his age-eroded skills prove unworthy of an NFL starting role.
The Packers looked very strong in three of their four preseason games, hammering
Cleveland,
Buffalo and
Arizona before falling to
Tennessee. The starting unit for the new 3-4 defense forced a number of turnovers - turning some directly into points - and the offense scored on 10 of its first 11 drives. It's all preseason, where O's and D's show nothing but vanilla packages, so we can safely assume neither of the Packers' units will look as sharp in the regular season, but anything resembling that should help them compete for the NFC North championship.
They'd better look sharp, as they open the season on NBC's
'Sunday Night Football' against the
Decatur Staleys.
