As IF Times

link Can John Kerry top Hillary Clinton as secretary of state? – The Week.

The notion that Hillary Clinton is deserved of praise and admiration for her term in office as Secretary of State is like a parent at their 10 year old’s music recital jumping to rapturous applause after a tortuous 3 note rendition of Amazing Grace.   At best, it’s tone deafness and at worst, it’s revisionism.   Other adoring parents will likely join in with the swooning admiration of the special and talented performance.  On the other hand,  passers by outside the school could easily mistake the sounds as cats being made into violin strings.

The state of journalism has devolved into the more commercially successful direction of being fans  and apologists for favored politicians and news-makers.   Like Joan Rivers at the Oscar red carpet parade, politicians are treated as celebrities known as much for their shoes, their hairstyles and their dates rather than for any genuine talent for their jobs.  “Hillary! Hillary! Was that an Armani pantsuit you were wearing while watching the Benghazi riots?”  Or, “How do you stay so slim after logging all those flight miles?”   Some may remember years ago a “celebrity” by the name of Rula Lenska, internationally known and acclaimed actress that no one had ever heard of.   She did a number of Alberto VO-5 commercials and was billed as famous….well,  for being famous.

Hillary inherited that mantle from Ms. Lenska.  Hillary became “internationally known and acclaimed diplomat”.  During her time as Secretary of State, there were constant photo ops of Hillary de-planing in some area of conflict in the world, or huddling at some microphone laden meeting tables with goofy looking politicians.   If nothing else, at least these goofy politicians took the time out from their life and death conflicts for these photo ops.  How often do you get to meet with a rock star? “Hey, Mohammed, turn on channel 5, I’m on TV with Hillary Clinton!”

But after the staged photo ops and earnest speeches, the fighting typically resumed and mayhem continued.   She used the same playbook as the ex UN secretary Kofi Annan who was famous for his standard line of “both sides must show tolerance” especially as it applied to one sided conflicts.   If absolutely nothing at all of significance was resolved because of Hillary’s term in office, that would be acceptable, since the bar set for political fixes is low anyway.  But the fiasco that was Benghazi, the subsequent fake narrative explaining the incident and the kabuki-like congressional questioning should give real journalists pause before they anoint her as a rock star politician.

It’s as if you took your car into a mechanic who then allows it to be vandalized and destroyed but then explains it away by talking about the features of the new Corvette.  Journalists today allow that kind of misdirection and obfuscation so politicians are not held accountable by their actions.  Just the other day, Hillary was interviewed jointly with the President on the hard hitting news show, CBS’s 60 minutes.  It may as well have been Ryan Seacrest doing an exit interview on an American Idol contestant.

Diplomacy can be a tough gig and as described by Will Rogers, it consists of saying “good dog” until you can find a rock.  It means offering all kinds of empty platitudes and obsequious praise to tyrants and nincompoops, so the ability to speak elliptically is a desired talent.  On the basis of that skill-set, Hillary is indeed the Mick Jagger of politics.

link Hyundai Tournament of Champions 2013: Sunday tee times delayed 4 hours due to high winds – SBNation.com.

People have always sneered that golf was not a real sport;  It was considered croquet with applause and the occasional water view.  As much as I’d push back and point out the physical accomplishments of hitting a small ball 300 yards, or the stamina required to regularly walk around for 4 to 5 hours, it was a hard sell to those who followed sports with ‘real’ athletic requirements.

Sadly, I think I’ve now moved into the camp of the naysayers.  Golf’s demise in my mind as anything other than watching lawn bowling with sticks came gradually, but was punctuated by the events at this year’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions.   The tournament had to be postponed numerous times by…high winds.  Can we imagine football being delayed because of high winds? Granted, the winds at the famous west side of Kapalua are legendary, but this is not new.  Over  the years all players have had to battle the winds as part of the charm of playing in Hawaii.  I don’t recall anyone characterizing the high winds at famous British Open courses such as Carnoustie or St. Andrews as anything other than challenging and part of the lore and experience of classic golf.  In Hawaii, it’s a show stopper.  It’s not as if they couldn’t play, it’s just that the scores would have been embarrassing to the elite PGA pros.  Nobody wanted to card an 89 or worse on their daily round.   I say too bad, that’s the rub of the green. Contrast this to the tournament in Palm Springs last week held under ideal manicured conditions and where the winning scores were minus 25 or so.  That was as exciting as watching re-runs of The Golden Girls in 3D.

Professional golf has made itself less and less of an interesting spectator sport and that’s borne out by the ratings.  With the exception of the four Majors, the average tournament is failing to attract viewers and therefore sponsors.  Compare the drama of an NFL quarterback scanning the defense for an opening while working against both a time clock and a half dozen large steroid stoked men imminently about to pound him into a grass stain versus the drama of a golfer having no time pressure agonizing over a 3 foot putt.  The worst thing is when the caddie and player both huddle and study the grass near the putt as if they were looking for spelling errors on the Magna Carta. Next thing you know, golf will be an feature on the Chess Channel.

The other main problem, which may may seem counter-intuitive, is that the players are all so good.  With the advances in technology, in teaching and in conditioning, very few players are able to stand out among the throngs of robotic look-alike players.  They all have the same swing and they all hit it 300 plus yards.   To make it worse, their attire is atrocious.  Unless you have someone sporting over the top eye-test outfits like John Daly or the getting tired soon monochrome of Ricky Fowler, most of the pros out there look as if they were dressed by their moms.  (Baby blue and beige?  Really?)  Unless you have Tiger or Phil back in the mix, all the players have the same dull demeanor. Beefeaters have more personality.  On the opposite side of the coin, when Tiger is in the field, the coverage excessively fawns over every and any aspect of his presence even if he was just eating a sandwich.   The obvious corporate man crush there is embarrassing.

The televised coverage has also deteriorated.  Since most players can put the golf ball straight down the middle, much of the broadcasts are essentially showing putting contests.  Watching someone agonizing over a 3 foot put like it was a math problem is not gripping TV no matter how Faldo spins it.   Combine that action with the somnolent drone of most broadcasters and you have a real recipe for dull.  We’d rather watch the guy 30 feet deep in the forest with one leg perched on a rock trying to hit his ball 45 degrees back onto the fairway like Bubba at the Masters.  Or Phil thread a ball through a grove of trees over water onto a green, also at the Masters.  And come on, do we really need absolute silence over every shot?   I suggest a new policy where people can not only cheer, but also jeer over shots so that there is some drama.  In fact, they should allow players to putt concurrently so the first one in gets to tack a stroke onto their opponent.  That’ll speed up the game.   And speaking of slow, there should be a time component attached to every turn at the ball just like the 25 second clock in football.  If you exceed it, a loud siren goes off.  Or you get a club removed from your set.  Let’s get some life back into the game.  People think it’s a geezer pursuit as it is.