Well, of course I watched it!  I live in Colorado so who could resist - - even the non-football fans among us - -tuning in to last weekend’s game between the Broncos and the Steelers.  And yes, when we watched Tebow lob that 80 yard pass to Thomas we all did believe that he would be walking on water any day.

And yet…even in Denver, Tebow has his detractors.  He just seems too good to be true. The grouches complain, and of course, all that kneeling…must he?

By now, Herman Cain’s epic rise and fall is old news but I always think that it’s useful to ask after one of these political pageants:  what have we learned?

As I keep lamenting in this space, I’m amazed that we’re still dealing with the subject of sexual harassment.  I wrote my first book on the subject in 1993:  Sexual Harassment:  A Reference Handbook and I sometimes feel as if I’ve personally trained the whole country on the subject.  Evidently Cain, however, missed that memo.

What can we glean from his travails?  Three things:

I have to confess that I’ve been glued to the screens and newspapers the last few days since the announcement about bin Laden. In all the hoopla, what fascinates me the most is the sketchy descriptions of the actual tactics of the Navy SEAL Team Six that performed the stunningly successful operation.

How did they do it? How did they train? Who are these guys anyway? Most likely, we’ll have to wait for the movie to come out to get the Hollywood version.

Well, we can dismiss Donald Trump as a wack job for riding the birther issue about President Obama’s real birthplace or we can ponder the implications. While I always enjoy a sideshow in politics, this one does drive me over the edge, since so many people–37% of identified Republicans in a recent poll–seem to take it seriously.

I do enjoy the craziness that always seems to follow Trump–tagged by his first ex Ivana as “The Donald.” (I also have to admire Ivana’s brio. As she mentioned in a recent fashion spread, “All my ex’s adore me!”)

If you missed Dr. Laura’s rant on her radio show, and the resulting fall out you’re lucky. For the uninitiated, she decided to use the N word a dozen times in response to an African-American listener’s question about how to get her white in-laws to stop using the word.

Dr. Laura used the popular argument that “Black guys use it all the time.” Citing black comics and HBO as apparent role models, she pointed out that they use the word and that somehow makes it okay for white people to indulge.

The airwaves and blogosphere have been buzzing the past week, of course, over the firing of Department of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod. Just in case you missed the debacle, her boss, Agriculture Secretary Tom Valsack, fired her (or ordered her to immediately type her resignation over her BlackBerry, depending on whom you believe) over a speech she made this year to the NAACP. In a two-minute clip that went viral on conservative blogs and Fox News, Sherrod, an African American whose father was murdered as part of a hate crime, implied that she wasn’t inclined to help white farmers who needed her help.

Why can’t we all grow up? That’s the thought that comes to me while watching the kvetching, screaming and tantrum throwing that’s surrounded the health care vote. For some time, both sides have been like four year-olds, squabbling over buckets and rakes in the sandbox. My disgust turned to horror this week when the brawl turned truly ugly by the degenerating into racial slurs and escalating into violence. Unfortunately, I see the same kind of escalation in the workplace.

You may not have the arm (now recovered from rotator cuff surgery) but you may have the same dilemma: to retire or not to retire?

And, like the famously waffling QB, you may change your mind.

For the second summer in a row, Brett Favre, the holder of every major NFL career passing record reversed his decision to suit up for his rival The Minnesota Vikings, hoping to help them capture their first Super Bowl. After spending 16 years with Green Bay, Favre will face them on the line. Most Minnesota fans cheered but a few hissed and booed and promptly produced black t-shirts reading “Brett Who” and “What the Favre.”

By now, most of the pundits have weighed on Henry Louis Gates Jr., who was arrested on the porch of his own home on July 16. Just in case you’ve been on vacation on a remote Atoll and have missed this debacle, while many facts are still in dispute, these are the facts that both sides agree upon:

Gates arrived home from a trip to China, had trouble getting the door of his house open and forced it. Someone called 911 to report breaking and entering. A police officer approached Gates’ home and asked him to step outside. Gates declined. The officer went into the home where Gates showed him an ID that proved he lived there. Gates asked the officer for his name and badge number and did not get them.

The blogosphere and pundits alike have had a field day over the last month with the specter of yet another supposedly straight-laced, upright, morality preaching politician brought down by infidelity. While he hasn’t resigned as of this post, he had a tough time at Monday’s press conference dodging questions about his affair with an Argentine beauty while he was trying to talk about state business.
While I could go on about how he–like other sanctimonious, bible thumping politicians- should have just “kept it in his pants” what I want to remind you about, dear reader, is the stupidity and dangers of email.
The State, a South Carolina newspaper, printed excerpts from the florid emails between the Gov. and the woman with whom he was having an affair, “Maria.” For example:
“Two, mutual feelings…You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that so fitting with your beauty. I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night’s light- but hey, that would be going into sexual details…
Sleep soundly knowing that despite the best efforts of my head my heart cries out for you, your voice, your body, the touch of your lips, the touch of your finger tips and an even deeper connection to your soul.”
What is it about email that makes supposedly smart people abandon all sense? Almost every investigation I conduct these days has the alleged harasser or discriminator leaving an incriminating email trail. These are all people who should know better: lawyers, investment bankers, IT professionals. Yet email they must, despite the fact that an email is a just a postcard on the server floor.
As I often tell my workshop participants, and as I wrote in my book Stop Pissing Me Off! What to do When the People You Work With Drive You Crazy, the e in email stands for evidence! And in the Sanford debacle, I would say that the e in email stands for embarrassing! Some examples of the stupidity I have seen: