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A Pinstriped Patriot Act

One fine day last August, Bradley Campeau-Laurion just wanted to leave his seat and use the bathroom at the old Yankee Stadium. The 30-year-old New York resident had no idea that nature's call would lead him down a road to perdition where he would be accused of challenging God, country, and the joys of compulsory patriotism at the ballpark.

Geno and Gender: Huskies and the Perils of Perfection

The University of Connecticut Huskies just won the NCAA women's basketball title, capping a season where they went 39-0. No men's team has finished a season undefeated since the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers. Led by Wooden Award-winner Maya Moore, Final Four Most Outstanding Player Tina Charles and senior guard Renee Montgomery, they trounced Louisville 76-54. But the actions of their Hall of Fame coacg, Geno Auriemma, threatened to overshadow their masterpiece of a season. It begs the question: Is Geno good for women's hoops?

The Meaning of Michigan State

Monday night, in front of 72,922 people at Detroit's Ford Field, the North Carolina Tar Heels fulfilled almost every preseason prognosis and became the NCAA men's basketball hoops champs. But shed no tears for their vanquished foes from Michigan State. The Spartans from East Lansing, ninety minutes from Detroit, may have lost to a better and more experienced North Carolina team. But this isn't the story anymore than the story of Jackie Robinson's first baseball game was that he went hitless but scored the winning run. The buzz about how much the ascension of the Spartans meant to their state has added a sobering note of class politics to the usual commercial trappings.

“Like We Were Dogs”: The Story of Ryan Moats

NFL bonafides didn’t protect Moats from one of the uglier cases of DWB (driving while black) that’s come across the wires. But a police dashboard video camera recorded the ugly interaction shedding light on a practice all too common in these United States.

Branded: Myles Brand and the Madness of March

NCAA President Brand cultivates a liberal facade by speaking out for minority hiring and publishing missives on the Huffington Post. But personal politics aside, he presides over the worst labor deal since Reconstruction and is doing nothing to reverse its course. Brand just gave his "State of the Association Address," and it is an exercise in chutzpah not seen since George W. Bush assured us the mission had been accomplished in Iraq.

Charles Barkley and the Fight for Immigrant Rights

If you tuned into CNN last weekend, you may have seen a press conference with NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley and a plump, hatchet-faced lawman who calls himself "the toughest sheriff in America," Joe Arpaio. You may have caught Sheriff Joe making clear with a feral smile that no, Barkley would not be required to "wear the pink underwear."

Barry Bonds in Context

While the world followed the Bonds saga, and many cheered his professional demise, the real damage to civil liberties was being done. Shamefully underreported throughout the last decade were the stories of hundreds of Arabs and Muslims imprisoned and harassed through the Patriot Act, or the persecution of Sami Al Arian, or the hundreds of Maryland activists, who were spied upon for being environmentalists or anti-death penalty. They were all caught in the same net.

The US v. Barry Bonds

This is a story about garbage. There's the actual garbage overzealous federal investigators examined in their efforts to prosecute a surly sports celebrity. There's the shredding of the Bill of Rights, crudely ignored by the government in the name of obsession and ambition. Finally, there's the thorough trashing of people's reputations, not to mention the game of baseball. Welcome to The US v. Barry Bonds; please disregard the stench.

Obama's Unfortunate Hoop Dreams

Obama's selection of former semi-pro hoopster Arne Duncan as education secretary is no slam dunk for our schools.

A-Rod and More Anabolic Agonistes

Should we pity Alex Rodriguez? The three-time MVP, owed $275 million over the next nine years, has been exposed as a steroid user, the latest in Major League Baseball's endless series of anabolic agonistes. The creative minds at the New York Post summed up the mood of the moment with one blaring headline: "A-Fraud." ESPN senior writer Jayson Stark was no less overwrought; his headline proclaimed, "A- Rod Has Destroyed Game's History."