As IF Times

link To be a great, McIlroy must stay true to himself – USATODAY.com.

 At the just concluded 2011  US Open , 22 year old Rory McIlroy’s prodigious talent  burst  him onto the world stage in dramatic fashion.  Readers can refer to other sports sites for details of his on course exploits, but my discussion is the more compelling story of the kid himself. 

Just 22 years of age and he already has been placed at the top of the sporting world as much for his character as for his athletic accomplishment.  He is much of what most celebrity athletes these days are not.  He is not brusque, arrogant or distant.  He does not wear strange clothing, have tattoos or earrings.  He does not  hide behind aviator sunglasses and surround himself with surly bodyguards.  He speaks humbly of his accomplishments, does so in complete sentences and is a filial son.  Unlike many top name athletes today, his ego has yet to overwhelm him.

It’s almost too good to be true.  He is like a Stepford wife.  With an impossibly beautiful swing bordering on golf pornography and a disarmingly modest demeanor, it’s hard not to be drawn to this kid.   In the golfing world at least, guys like Nicklaus and Palmer have always tended to their good guy image and may in large part explain their revered positions in golf.  This is in contrast to Ben Hogan and recently Tiger Woods, both of whom were more prickly personalities but were tolerated because of their talents.  A guy like Rory comes along and once again, people can pull for a hero without reservation.  He has the same quality as did a young Phil Mickelson.  Granted, he’s still young and much may happen, but the talent has been there since an early age and the grounding influence of his parents will keep him as a like-able person for years to come.  It appears that a strong value system was instilled from the outset.  Undoubtedly, his family and friends back in his hometown of Holywood, Ireland wouldn’t have rioted even if Rory had lost.

How many 22 year old kids go off to Haiti on their own volition without commercial intent to assess the conditions of the earthquake victims? How many young kids can take the crushing collapse that he experienced during this year’s Masters and brush it off with equanimity and without bitterness or recrimination?  The kid has a maturity well beyond his years and this gushing fan hopes that he will be the new standard of celebrity athletes in the future.  The world can use some genuinely nice guys.

link Photos: Riots, fire, destruction after Vancouver’s loss | Posted | National Post.

Protests against government oppression? Rioting to get adequate food or shelter? For human rights? For religious freedom? Iraq? Afghanistan? Libya?

ENHH!

It’s mild mannered,  latte sipping Vancouver after a hockey game!  This is a variant on the old joke that people went to a fight and then a hockey game broke out.  In fact, the criminal activity that followed in the aftermath of Vancouver’s loss to Boston in game seven of the Stanley Cup had nothing to do with hockey.  The convergence of so many people in one place allowed a few instigators to ignite and inflame mob mentality.  People in the aforementioned conflict regions of the world would be amused to see such violence and mass hooliganism over essentially nothing at all.  Sociologists will of course rush to explain the actions with the usual bleats about angry, disenfranchised youth, yada, yada, yada. 

That’s not going to wash, since there are few cities in North America with a more affluent population.  These weren’t street people with nothing to lose acting out of desperation over their circumstances;  these were affluent young men living in perhaps the most benign part of North America.  If anything, it was more of an entitlement mentality gone wild.  The chaos was exacerbated by a couple of things.  Firstly, the sheer numbers of people just standing around served to aid and abet the hooligans in their primal rampage by providing cover.  Secondly, the poor response tactics of the police which allowed the thugs to ‘burn’ themselves out instead of enforcing order only served to embolden the criminal activity.  The mayor expressed that the police had done a fine job of keeping the peace.  !!??  As long as you weren’t a car or shop owner in the vicinity or sitting in a port-a-potty, I suppose that’s true. 

In watching the live video, it wasn’t obvious that the police were effective at all in enforcing any kind of order.  The tactic seemed to be to wait the storm out rather than prevention of damage.  Probably just kids letting off steam.  That’s certainly a debatable strategy and represents the coddling mentality that exists in this part of the world.  The local media are chock full of experts who are tsk tsking the activity of the crowd and predictably expressing shock that this could  happen in Vancouver.   People can delude themselves and be complacent about human nature in this part of the world, but the stark reality is, in a mob scene, it may as well be Lord of The Flies.  The police can’t be afraid of acting like police.  They can’t act as if they were security guards waiting for the police to arrive.  They ARE the police! 

Apologists are quick to point out that these weren’t hockey fans and in no way reflected Vancouver as a whole, a sentiment which is plausible.  This is to be kept in mind the next time “passionate” protests break out against  a G8 summit, or global warming , or some other excuse for idiots to cause havoc. 

We can only hope that the miscreants are caught and get a strong scolding.  Crazy kids.  I’m sure it won’t happen again.