The Nittany Turkey

Primarily about Penn State football, this is a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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Home 2012 Archives for January 2012

Archives for January 2012

Garban and Surma Step Down

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In today’s meeting of the Penn State Board of Trustees, chairman Steve Garban and vice chairman John Surma stepped down from their leadership posts, although both remain at-large members of the BOT. The board immediately selected Karen Peetz, current board member and vice chairman of BNY Mellon, as president.

“The first thing I want to say to the entire Penn State community is that we have been through a very difficult experience together. We have tried to do the right thing,” Peetz said. “All of us, including the board, with the wisdom of hindsight could have done things differently.”

Read more in ESPN.com.

Rapid Shots

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I continue to search in vain for a phrase that will improve upon “quick hits” for its inscrutability and allusion to drinking contest or quickie sexual affairs. This week, we’ll do Rapid Shots. Tequila?

Here, then, without further ado, are some Penn State football news items that are worthy of your perusal.

 

Wow, the New York Times did a whole story on how the Board of Trustees made the Joe Paterno firing decision! Read it and answer some of the nagging questions that were bouncing around your brain.

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The Board of Trustees will meet Friday amid growing criticism of their rush to judgment about Paterno. (Does anyone care about Spanier anymore? Ever?) The York Daily Record has the story. Among issues that are scheduled to be decided is whether Steve Garban will continue as chairman. This one could be loud and long!

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Do you know who all the members of the Board of Trustees are? The Centre Daily Times has a quick-hit list of them and their affiliations.

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As you undoubtedly know by now, a gaggle of pissed off alumni  are running for the BOT, among them former PSU player and current New Jersey freeholder Adam Taliaferro. By way of the Post Gazette, the Morning Call has the scoop.

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Former Penn State and Steelers Hall of Famer Franco Harris is one of the big instigators behind the alumni insurrection, as reported by the Morning Call.

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Franco will be holding another of his feedback meetings, called “Real Talk”, immediately following the BOT meeting on Friday, says the Daily Collegian.

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Damage control emails between president Rod Erickson and the BOT reveal how sensitive PSU is to potential compromising of funding sources. The Patriot-News reports on this.

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John Butler, a Philly guy, is the new defensive secondary coach under head coach Bill O’Brien. Bob Flounders of the Patriot-News blogs on Butler’s affinity for good Penn State defense.

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A Nittany Lions fan from Connecticut is concerned that Bill O’Brien might countermand the Penn State tradition of not running up the score on opponents in a letter to the Centre Daily Times.

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The Nittany Lions will be running out of the tunnel to a different tune next year. The Penn State Blue Band has decided to dump “Rock and Roll” because its British writer, Gary Glitter, is a convicted child sex offender. The Daily Collegian reports on this bit of political correctness. We have entered a new era of oversensitivity! ??? ???? ?? ????????

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Well, that’s it for this week’s Rapid Shots. What it will be next week or even if there will be one next week, this Turkey does not know at the moment. ??? ???? One thing I do know is that all eyes and ears will be on what promises to be a tempestuous Board of Trustees meeting on Friday.

Stop SOPA

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Software piracy has been going on for a long time. How many of us know someone who has an illegal copy of Photoshop or Microsoft Office? That was bad enough, but now the pirates are increasingly cutting into Hollywood’s revenues, so suddenly congress, which must have considered the computer industry a bunch of geeks, is taking notice. Their buddies in Hollywood helped elect them.

Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA.

We can unite our voices to apprise our legislators of our opposition to this travesty. Google has established an on-line petition that will serve to reflect our numbers. Please consider signing it NOW, as the Senate vote on PIPA commences on January 24, 2012. That’s next Tuesday!

The Nittany Turkey might cease to exist if this onerous legislation is signed into law. So might thousands of worthwhile blogs across the country. So might YouTube, for all practical purposes. The government will have the power to shut down web sites without due process.

The piracy problem is definitely out of control, inasmuch as every high school and middle school kid knows how to download movies and tv shows without paying for them. They are not discouraged by their parents, who should be the primary regulators. Of course, if the parents rationalize that it’s ok because it’s not hurting anyone, that’s much of the problem. People feel entitled to take whatever appears on their screen. It’s on THEIR computer, so it’s as good as theirs. However, morality cannot be legislated.

Tell a criminal that he can’t have a gun and he’ll get one anyway. Tell a kid that she can’t steal movies on-line and she’ll do it anyway. No amount of domestic regulation will fix either issue, as black markets will always exist, operating either offshore, or under the radar of the authorities.

While I disdain piracy, I just as strongly disdain stifling regulation. The Internet has been a bastion of creativity and sharing — legal sharing of knowledge —much of which will be curtailed with the passage of PIPA/SOPA. Don’t we have enough useless, costly, and counterproductive regulation already?

Once again, voting starts in the Senate on January 24, 2012 (next Tuesday). Please sign the Google petition and tell your senators and congressmen that you oppose PIPA and SOPA. We need all the help we can get in order to stop this nonsense.

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