human conflict, a human interest piece, the sports wrap, or just the usual absurdities. In this series, I carve out a space for my opinions, reminiscences, or comments.
Vladimir Putin - Putin, the President of Russia, has for his entire political career been a staunch opposer of the "west". Over the past several years he has been pursuing an aggressively antagonistic exercise of bizarre gamesmanship as a reaction to what he feels are increasing political and economic pressures from the United States and Europe. Aside from an extensive propaganda campaign, he has been using his military in Soviet-style expansionism warfare and ordering his air force to engage in provocative maneuvers flying in and around the airspace of other nations. On July 4 he had two Russian bombers fly within 12 miles of the California coast. This is an example of a person who single-handedly makes the world a much more unstable and darker place.
Colin Cowherd - I have been listening to sports radio for the past year or so. For the most part all of the hosts of the different shows sound exactly the same and are completely ubiquitous and interchangeable. When I came across Cowherd on ESPN radio, he was part Keith Olbermann, part Rush Limbaugh, and part Dan Patrick, but with his own style, his own compass, and his own flavor. He stood out from the rest of the completely vanilla crowd and I enjoyed listening to him. He was fired by ESPN on July 24 after he made what the network claimed were derogatory statements about Dominicans. I listened to the segment in question and it was definitely not an offense to crucify somebody over. I for one consider myself a fan and will miss listening to his program.
