Some time back Charley Steiner wrote a piece for HOFMAG.com entitled “Boxing Has Fallen And Can’t Get Up.” The reasons were many and varied and for the most part hard to argue with. The simple truth is there are no longer any star fighters. There are great fighters, guys with names like Manny Pacquiao, Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. However, only one star remains. On Saturday night Oscar De la Hoya takes to the ring for what might in fact be boxing’s last great night.

For one more night, we will remember the spectacle that was boxing.

The energy and excitement that was Dempsey vs Tunney, Louis vs Schmeling, Robinson vs Graziano, Ali-Frazier, and Hagler vs Leonard or Leonard Duran. Our popular culture is rich with books, plays and movies that pay tribute to boxing. HOFMAG.com even picked a boxer, Ali, as the Most Important Person in Sports History. But, while mixed martial arts competitions now reign as America’s most popular form of hand to hand combat, even UFC fans will be laying down their pay per view bucks one more time.

That one time is May 5th. Boxing’s last great star De la Hoya attempts to defend his WBC junior middleweight crown against undefeated welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

I had a chance to meet De la Hoya in January as he joined us to shoot an episode of George Lopez that will air Tuesday night at 8:30 eastern/pacific on ABC. I am happy to report that De la Hoya was everything you would hope. He was refreshingly polite, gracious and self effacing. He had come in as a favor to George, but he stayed on the set until the last autograph was signed and the final photograph snapped.

De la Hoya was on that day as he will be on Saturday, the Golden Boy, All-American warrior. It’s no act. If you’ve watched the terrific HBO documentary De la Hoya/Mayweather 24/7, you are aware of the contrast between the two fighters and know there is no love lost between them. Their dislike for each other is a real as the damage they can do with their fists.

Does Oscar have a chance on Saturday night? Most experts don’t think so. But don’t count out the former champ. And don’t count out boxing. At least for one more night.

The Pat Tillman case keeps getting uglier and uglier. Earlier this week Army Specialist Bryan O’Neal testified before a congressional committee that he was ordered by his superior officer to lie to anyone – including the Tillman family – who asked about the former Arizona Cardinal’s death by friendly fire. Tillman was mistakenly killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004, shot by other Army Rangers as they emerged from a battle in a nearby canyon. Under questioning from California Representative Henry Waxman, O’Neal said Lt. Col Jeff Bailey told him to keep his mouth zipped.

“He basically just said, sir, that uh, ‘Do not let Kevin (Tillman, who joined the Army with his brother) know, he’s probably in a bad place knowing that his brother’s dead,’” O’Neal testified. “He made it known that I would get in trouble, sir, if I spoke with Kevin.”

“You were ordered not to tell him,” queried Waxman. “Roger that, sir,” replied O’Neal.

Isn’t it bad enough that the Tillman family – mother, father, brother, wife – had to lose their loved one in a senseless war, then three years later find out they were continually lied to about Pat’s death? Bad? Absolutely. Unconscionable? Without a doubt.

The really sickening part of it was that the lies were perpetrated not to protect the Tillman family, but to protect the image of the war, of which Pat Tillman unwillingly found himself the poster boy. In fact, he did very few interviews, telling reporters that he just wanted to help defend his country. No, the leadership decided that by using a pro football star who gave up fame and riches to join the Army following 9-11 was nothing but a win-win situation. Well, a win situation for them. Tillman shunned the publicity. And how could they possibly explain to the country that their “star” was shot by his own teammates?

Actually, very easily. It should have gone much like this:
“We regret to announce that Army Ranger Pat Tillman was killed while on a mission in Afghanistan yesterday. He was accidentally shot by fellow Rangers in the aftermath of a battle with Al Quaeda forces. Pat Tillman gave his life in service of his country and will be honored accordingly. We wish our sincerest condolences to everyone who loved Pat Tillman.”

What was so difficult about that? Sincere. Truthful. Any controversy that might have been brewing would have been shut down immediately. And instead of being muzzled, his fellow soldiers could have talked about how these kinds of tragedies are an unfortunate part of battle, and that they were all so sorry that it happened. Instead, they couldn’t even publicly grieve because someone was afraid it would look bad for the war effort. Didn’t the Defense Department and the people running it realize that the truth would eventually come out and they would look like a bunch of conniving liars? Apparently not. Or maybe they did, and just didn’t give a damn…

Just when I thought that pandering and political correctness had hit its zenith when both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton kissed Al Sharpton’s ring last week at the National Action Network convention in New York, predictable news from jolly old England eclipses their disgrace.

British schools are now dropping the Holocaust and Crusades from the history curriculum to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a government-backed study recently concluded. According to the report, factual teaching of such topics would have “challenged what was taught in some local mosques.”

This is the same England whose primary schools change the name of the kids’ fable, “The Three Little Pigs” to the “Three Little Puppies” so as not pique the Muslim offense at pork.

The study, which was funded by the Department for Education and Skills (GCSE), probed the “emotive and controversial” history teaching in both primary and secondary schools.

What’s next? Will British schools cease to teach Newton’s laws because someone takes offense at apples?

The teaching of history requires nuance and point of view. The consequences of events always affect the winners and losers differently. What is one group’s triumph is another’s tragedy. The best history teachers convey the experiences of both in the curriculum.

“In particular settings, teachers of history are unwilling to challenge highly contentious or charged versions of history in which pupils are steeped at home, in their community or in a place of worship,” the government report continued.

To deny the existence of history by deliberate exclusion for any reason is silly. But to do so because of religious objection is dangerous and foolhardy, especially when pandering to a faith where in much of the world the state is the instrument of god – and one of those states – Iran – is about to perfect nuclear weapons.

Political correctness all too quickly morphs into practical suicide, no matter what the continent. Right here at home nothing underscores such deadly dopiness than Bill Clinton’s justice department during the years when Osama Bin Laden gained his murderous momentum. Clinton instituted a policy shift that prohibited US law enforcement and intelligence agencies from sharing information. The reasoning behind the change was pure political correctness. Exchanged computer checks on those stopped for traffic violations might also turn up immigration violations. And nothing was more sacred for the Clintons than protecting the cow of illegal immigration.

And such was the exact policy that allowed Muhammad Ata and three of the other 9/11 hijackers to slip through law enforcement’s hands long before September 11, 2001. Had Clinton not knelt at the altar of political correctness, Ata et al would have been apprehended far from Boston and history.

It’s only Wednesday, and the week has already given us an investigation into the military cover-up in the death of Pat Tillman, a declaration by Rush Limbaugh that the shooter in the Virginia Tech horror had to be a liberal, a ridiculous exchange between Sheryl Crow and Karl Rove, a call from hip hop impresario Russell Simmons to ban the use of the words, bitch, ho and nigger from rap music, an escalation in the war of words between Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger and way too much from Mel Kiper, Jr. on the upcoming NFL draft. Blah, Blah, blah, blah blah.The week also saw the tragic death of David Halberstam. With the death of Halberstam, we are reminded that words can actually be used for something other than spin, posturing or for the advancement of personal agendas. We are reminded that words can be used for educating and informing rather than for name calling and labeling. One of the reports on the extraordinary literary life of David Halberstam, mentioned a quote from Julius Erving that made a lasting impact on Halberstam. The quote read: “Being a professional is doing what you love to do on the days you don’t feel like doing them.” They were simple words that affected Halberstam positively. In that vein, and in tribute to Halberstam, I thought I’d share a sample collection of quotes I have saved over the years.

“Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.”
Will Rogers

“If you have your health, and you’re surrounded by people who love you, you have everything in life anyone is entitled to ask for.”
Don Rickles

“Great spirits always encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
Albert Einstein

“Ain’t no man can avoid being born average, but there ain’t no man that got to be common.”
Satchel Paige

“Put your genius into your life, but only your talent into your work.”
Oscar Wilde

“Suit up, show up, tell the truth.”
Art Stolnitz

“The harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain to cheap, we exteem to lightly. It’s dearness only that gives everything its value.”
Thomas Paine

“Never humiliate or embarrass an adversary..it’s sets the stage for payback.”
Arn Tellem

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breaths away.”
George Carlin

“Surround yourself with strong opinionated people.”
John Wooden

“Always go to other people’s funerals, or they won’t go to yours.”
Yogi Berra

Are there particular quotes that have made an impact on your life as Dr. J’s did on David Halberstam? If so, log on and share them. Every little bit helps these days.

Where’s the outrage? Where’s Barack Obama’s condemnation of Alec Baldwin’s “verbal violence” – if not legal assault – on his 11 year-old daughter Ireland? Where is the rising tide of moral indignation and the clarion call for the ousting of the portly star of NBC’s 30 Rock? The one-day story has vanished. Why?

Just to re-cap: Last week, a boiling Baldwin unleashed a volcanic explosion of threats and insults on his daughter’s voice-mail after the young girl apparently missed his weekly telephone call. Screaming that she was a “thoughtless little pig,” and menacing her with threats to fly out to California and “straighten your ass out,” the ambassador of the liberal left continued to bash ex-wife Kim Bassinger among the litany of high-decibel trash talk. Before he hung up, Baldwin admonished the child, “You better be ready Friday the 20th to meet with me.”

A family court judge listened to the revealing tape and had the good sense to prevent Baldwin from meeting with his young daughter – about whose age, by the way, Sir Alec was unsure. A hearing is set for May 4, at which Baldwin could lose all visitation rights.

But back to the central question: Why is there no national movement to dump Baldwin from the airwaves as unceremoniously as Don Imus was shown to the parking lot?

The answer has twin prongs. First, Alec Baldwin is one of the iconic mouths of the liberal left. He is useful. He is one of the liberals’ ridiculous darlings – at least when the cameras are off, or when he knows they’re on. Imagine if it were Mel Gibson who left such abuse on one of his children’s voice mails. The crucifixation of Gibson would already be done.

Secondly, and more importantly, Don Imus was the victim of an electronic lynching. We can stipulate that what he said about the Rutgers women’s basketball team was foolish and insulting – and for which he should have some appropriate sanction.

But the public outrage and subsequent pullout of advertisers was not a natural groundswell of protest, but rather a carefully choreographed raid by a group called Media Watch, one of George Soros’ pets.

Here’s how it works: Liberal groups like Media Watch carefully monitor and record radio talk shows looking for meat. Before the sun came up on Don Imus’ fateful day when he mumbled what would become his death knell, Media Watch knew it had something. A quick listen to the tape confirmed the mother lode. Within minutes the email and fax chain began. You know how those things work if you ever were in a parent-teacher group – you contact five people, and they contact five people.

So Media Watch got to work, and by morning drive-time, not only were assignment editors, producers, and friendly reporters emailed and faxed, but tapes and transcripts were flying all over the country. Template letters to Imus’ advertisers were not far behind, and the digital lynching of Don Imus was underway, carefully ginned up by a small, smart mob. The rest is history.

By the way, wasn’t Alec Baldwin supposed to spend the Bush years in Paris? Maybe that’s why his daughter didn’t answer the phone.

If I were Hillary Clinton I would remember that Al Gore lost the presidency to George W Bush, not because the Supreme Court stole it from him, but because aside from the fact that he failed to carry his own state, he also distanced himself from Bill Clinton.

Unfortunately, when Americans pull that curtain behind them, in the safety of their anonymity, I doubt they will vote for a person of color, such as Barack Obama and Bill Richardson or a woman, Hillary Clinton. That leaves John Edwards as probably the most electable Democratic candidate. The Dems, however, won’t pass up a chance to nominate Hillary or Obama regardless of their chances. They insist on doing what they think is politically correct, even if it couldn’t be less correct politically. On the Republican side, we’re presented with John McCain, who is unraveling as quickly as a pair of cheap socks. I have a Viet Nam vet friend of mine who said he could never vote for McCain knowing the isolation McCain spent during his five years in captivity. “No one comes out of that kind of torture in their right mind.” he says. “I would really question his stability under pressure”

Then we have Rudy Giuliani, about whom New Yorkers and a couple of ex-wives know the truth; there’s noted big game hunter Mitt Romney, who is already pandering to special interest groups; and Law & Order star Fred Thompson, the former Senator from Tennessee. Thompson hasn’t even declared yet, however concerns about his health history and political leanings have already conjured up visions of Dick Cheney redux.

The Bush years have been good to Bill Clinton. The Clinton years are now almost remembered with the same warmness as the “Happy Days” of Ike following the WW II.

We had a budget surplus, we were not hated around the world and you could even get a gallon of gas for under $2.00. Polls are showing that if Bill ran today, he would get 60 percent of the popular vote. Sure there was Monica, but JFK had Judith Campbell, Marilyn and countless others. Why does JFK get a pass? Bill Clinton would be the only candidate today with the experience, the political capitol and the legacy.

So, if I were Hillary, I’d accept the fact that the most qualified person to be President of the United States may in fact be her husband. She should hitch wagon to Bill one more time. A vote for Hillary is vote for Bill. That just might be her ticket.

Good thing for all of us that Arnold is Austrian.

Any time you need a good laugh, just check out the NCAA. Under the leadership of Myles Brand, who got the job pretty much because he fired Bobby Knight when he was the president of Indiana University, the NCAA is as consistently funny as Seinfeld.

About two weeks ago on Bob Costas’ HBO show, Brand declared that athletes are given no preferential treatment when it comes to gaining admission into college. You know that’s just not true. College coaches tell me that a prospective athlete application can receive up to a 150-point SAT boost at some schools. Brand then said that college athletes have as high – if not higher – graduation rates and GPAs as the general student body. There may be some truth to that considering that the NCAA factors all athletes into that equation – and almost across the board – the GPA of women athletes playing NCAA sports is above 3.0.

Also consider that in quoting those figures, Brand is including Division 2 and Division 3 schools, so the statistics are again skewed. There are more D-3 schools than D-1 schools, and D-3 schools include the likes of MIT, Cal Tech, Johns Hopkins and other prestigious small institutions.

This week, the NCAA outdid itself again. NCAA regulations currently forbid coaches from calling “prospective student athletes” prior to July 1 preceding their senior year. The rule is so strict that coaches are not even allowed to return phone calls left on the answering machine in their offices. The coaches are allowed, however to have a conversation with a prospective student athlete if the coach happens to answer the phone when the call is placed. After July 1, calls are limited to a specified number per month.

This rule has been in place forever. So long in fact that it predates both the internet and text messages. Therefore, nothing in NCAA rules prohibits text messaging or e-mails, which is how coaches today circumvent the regulations and allow them to recruit underclassmen. It spawned the age of kids committing early. The class of ‘07 hasn’t even graduated from high school yet, but many schools are already done recruiting their ‘08s. How can kids commit to a school’s offer of a scholarship in the 10th or 11th grades if coaches aren’t allowed to talk to them? Simple. They talk – and they talk plenty. Not only by numerous text messages a day, but by phone. Remember, coaches can answer the phone; they just can’t initiate the call. So imagine you are a ninth grader, and you get a text message that says, “Hi John, This is Coach K from Duke. If you happen to call my office tonight at 6 p.m. there is a good chance I’ll be around.” What would you do if you were John?

So, after reading other commentaries like this, the NCAA agreed to look into the end run around its legislation, and this week voted to recommend for a vote to prohibit text messaging effective Aug. 1, 2007. E-mail, however, would still be allowable.

“Hi John, This is Coach…” Oh, you get it. And so do the coaches and kids. I guess no one will reach underclassmen now.

While Al Gore was recently off jetting to Oslo to smarmily lobby on his own behalf for the Nobel Peace Prize – a kind of jury tampering, I might add – I was in Nashville. One afternoon while touring the posh Belle Meade neighborhood, my guide pointed out Tipper and Al’s 10,000 square foot mansion. That’s about the size of a three-story dormitory at one the fancy boarding schools Al attended before Harvard.

I asked my tour guide if he knew how much energy the Gores were using while Al preached conservation to everyone on the planet while consuming tens of thousands of gallons of jet fuel on the way to speaking engagements for his hefty fees. Apparently I was not the first to ponder the Gore hypocrisy. According to reports in the Nashville press, the couple shelled out about $30,000 in energy bills last year. That’s about 12 times more than the average home. Or put another way, the Gores use more energy in a single month in that one mansion than most of us use in a year. And we actually live in our houses.

The Gore PR machine spins a dizzying tale about how the mansion is something called “carbon neutral.” I hear the same PR firm sells bridges in Brooklyn and San Francisco. I think that means the Gores pay some illegal aliens – at arm’s length, of course – to plant tree seedlings in a national park. Or maybe tobacco farming qualifies as a carbon-reducing activity. With all Al Gore’s profligate energy consumption, he maintains that he makes a small “carbon footprint” in the tender planet.

In his own mind, and in the minds of Hollywood, Gore is a kind of messiah with a new gospel. In his propaganda film, An Inconvenient Truth, he claims that the debate about global warming is over. When did it ever begin? Earnestly and honestly?

During Gore’s speaking engagements at colleges and universities, the ground rules are clear: No one may challenge his premise. He will not take questions from scientists or experts who dare counter his data, methods or conclusions – regardless of credentials. Now the Oscar-winning (gasp) film is shown in schools as fact, as science, as indisputable. What can we expect in a culture that accepts Michael Moore as a historian? The backbone of science is constant scrutiny, constant peer review and criticism, constant evaluation. But Al Gore’s international road show is as controlled and scripted as a Clinton town meeting. And anyone who diverts from the playbook is deemed in the same class as Holocaust deniers.

But I have to thank Al Gore for one thing: If he didn’t invent the internet for us, this Blog could not exist.

In the glare of the headlines generated by the Duke lacrosse case, a sad story of sexual misconduct at the US Naval Academy seems to have flown under the national radar. Last Thursday, the Navy expelled former Quarterback Lamar Owens Jr. after a military jury acquitted Owens of rape charges.

The verdict followed a ten-day court martial and took only four hours of jury deliberation. The jury did, however, find Owens guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer for violating company rules regarding sexual contact on campus. Owens faced the prospect of life imprisonment had he been found guilty of the rape charges. Despite the military jury’s recommendation of no punishment for what Owens had called “consensual sex” with a female midshipman in her room, Vice Admiral Rodney Rempt, Superintendent of the Navel Academy, said after expelling Owens, “any allegation of sexual harassment, misconduct or assault is a sad event.”

Things got worse for Owens when US Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter called the behavior “unsatisfactory” and hit Owens with a bill for nearly $91,000 to reimburse the Navy for educational expenses incurred while Owens was at the Academy. The case is somewhat similar to the Black Sox scandal of the early 1920s, when a jury acquitted members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox for “throwing” the World Series only for Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis to later suspend them for life “in the best interests of the game.”

Owens led Navy to a 9-4 season in 2006, culminating in a narrow 25-24 loss to #23 ranked Boston College in the Poinsettia Bowl. Just two days prior to Owens’ expulsion, a military jury sentenced another former Navy football player, Kenny Ray Morrison, to a two-year prison term for assaulting a fellow student last year.

Sexual misconduct at the military academies is yet another thorn in the defense department’s side since allegations of pervasive problems first broke at the Air Force Academy in 2003.

A quick note on the passing this week of Sid Brooks. T.J. Simers of the LA Times called Brooks a gem of a man, stating he never knew a man who had more friends. Sid was a guy who couldn’t stay retired. He retired from the Air Force after 20-plus years only to work for the San Diego Chargers for 27 more. Then he retired again only to be coaxed to USC by Trojan athletic director Mike Garrett, where “Doc” stood on the sidelines for two National Championships. The “Doc” will be sorely missed.

Another week and Don Imus is still in the news. Even the senseless killings in Virginia can’t push Imus-talk off the airwaves. The sad shame of the affair is focusing the matter on Imus. We should more correctly rivet our attention on Al “Charlatan” Sharpton. Imagine, one of the most divisive race-baiters in modern history is now elevated as the arbiter of what is accepted speech. Could the country and culture ever descend into a darker Orwellian Animal Farm? I am afraid it can and will when Al Sharpton decides what gets the national imprimatur for decency.

A quick glance into Al Sharpton’s past puts perspective on Don Imus as but a foolish and aging radio has-been when compared to the horrific aftermath of Sharpton’s words during the so-called reverend’s career. Don Imus’ words were offensive to all people of common civility. Al Sharpton’s words of hatred have literally destroyed lives.

Last week, during Sharpton’s media orgy, I was puzzled why no reporter asked him about his role in the Tawana Brawley hoax of 1987, which ruined the reputations and lives of several innocent men. Or the Crown Heights deadly riots? Or the Freddy’s Fashion Mart slaughter?

Just to refresh our tired memory: Twana Brawley, a 15 year-old black girl from Wappingers Falls, New York, claimed she was kidnapped and repeatedly raped by a group of white men during the course of several days, one of whom she said had a badge. Even as her claim was falling apart (a grand jury later determined that the charges were completely fabricated) Sharpton continued to single out Steven Pagones, a young prosecutor, implicating him as one of the abductors. Sharpton went on the national TV and radio circuit, taunting Pagones. “If we’re lying, sue us, so we can . . . prove you did it.” Pagones did just that, and won a $345,000 judgment against Sharpton for slander and defamation. Sharpton has yet to pay a dollar or offer an apology to Pagones or his family.

Moving right along to 1991, we have Sharpton’s hand helping to incite the deadly Crown Heights riots in Brooklyn. During a funeral motorcade, a Hasidic Jewish driver accidentally hit and killed Gavin Cato, a 7-year-old black boy. Anti-Semitic riots quickly followed. At the boy’s funeral, Sharpton assailed the “diamond merchants” – barely disguised codespeak for Jews – who are responsible for “the blood of innocent babies.”

He helped organize hundreds of raging followers to storm through the Jewish neighborhood, chanting, “No justice, no peace.” During the march, Yankel Rosenbaum, an Australian rabbinical student, was surrounded by a mob shouting, “Kill the Jews!” and was then stabbed to death by one of Sharpton’s marchers.

And then there’s Sharpton’s role in the 1995 Freddy’s Fashion Mart fire and shooting, which left seven dead. After the United House of Prayer – a black-controlled landlord with considerable real estate in Harlen – raised the rent on Freddy’s Fashion Mart, Freddy’s Jewish proprietor subsequently hiked the rent on his subtenant, a black-owned music store, to help defray the higher costs.

When friction broke out between Freddy’s owner and the music store, Sharpton entered the fray with taunts of racial hatred. “We will not stand by,” he threatened, “and allow them to move this brother, so that some white interloper can expand his business.” Picket lines by Sharpton’s National Action Network taunted Freddy’s customers and became increasingly hostile. Those entering the store were cursed at, spat upon and called “Uncle Toms.” Some shouted, “Burn down the Jew store!” Sharpton’s colleague Morris Powell is quoted in several accounts saying, “We’re going to see that this cracker suffers.” Later, one of the protesters burst into the store, shot four employees, and set the building on fire. Seven perished in the blaze.

This is the Al Sharpton who sat before CBS network president Leslie Moonves last week and castigated Don Imus for 1.5 seconds of stupidity. This is the Al Sharpton who built a career on hate mongering and who now sits at the head table with the Democratic Party. The media court him. Politicians pander to him. And the bill collectors unsuccessfully chase him.

Al Sharpton is the Svengali of the new millennium in a $2000 suit.