Are bobblehead dolls becoming the new gold watches?

News of the arrival  of a bobblehead doll in the likeness (sort of, if you only consider the black suit and yellow tie) of retiring University of Akron president Luis Proenza  may foretell a new era in which these novelties will become the traditional gold watches once handed out for long years of service.

Not that the sparkling  watch will be missed by  Proenza, who will be leaving with a future  adequately  sustained by a golden parachute that could have  easily covered the school's enormous debt.  Bon voyage

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One of the highlights of the past week's cable shows was the appearance of neocon mogul William Kristol on  Bill Maher's Friday evening show. When Maher  asserted that much  of the opposition to President Obama was the result of his being a black man in the White House, we got a less genteel  version of the usually suave, smirking Kristol seething in a voice-over:  "That's bullshit.  That's bullshit!"

Well, now.  Is that any way for a pompous  pundit to talk?  Yet here he was, fuming as the  profound sage  who has erred so often in  facts and judgment that the New York Times was forced to rid itself  of his column.  Two egregious ones come readily to mind: a hawkish, Cheney-like  defense of America's  invasion of Iraq that he guaranteed would bring enormous glory to the U.S.; and his burdensome influence in recruiting Sarah Palin as John McCain's veep candidate.

But Kristol will continue to present himself with that self-satisfied smirk and his followers will bow  in appreciative  genuflection. In the gated realm of Kristol 's conservatism, errors of fact don't matter that much.

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The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a decision by Federal Judge John
Adams in the suit by then-Stow firefighter Anthony Rorrer  against the city of Stow.  Rorrer based his suit on a serious  eye injury suffered in an accident, blinding him in one eye.   Adams dismissed the suit.  However, the appellate court questioned Adams' handling of the case.  In a rare rebuke, the appellate court  "actually misconstrued its own discovery order"  with apparent bias toward Rorrer  and  remanded the case to the district court, calling  for another other judge to hear it.

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Who knew? Rush Limbaugh  came on in another  racial burst after  "12 years a Slave" won the Best Film Oscar.  Rush said the picture won only because slave is a "magic word".  Anybody remember  how Rush downgraded a black NFL quarterback by accusing sportswriters of promoting African American QBs. (As I recall, a black QB led Seattle to a Super Bowl championship a few months ago.) Isn't it time that we stop referring to this crowd as the "far right" and call it instead the "far wrong"?

Maher vs. Coulter: Box-office ideologies

HAVE YOU been following the reports on the series of staged debates between two otherwise cordial drinking buddies: Ann Coulter and  Bill Maher?   They are pitted in forensic combat as the gingham dog and calico cat  of the nation's ideological wars.  But anyone interested in such political nonsense was asked to pay pre-recession prices of $38 to $200 per ticket for the three left-right encounters this week in the Wang Theatre in New York.  (The series was pretentiously named "The Minds That Moved the World" although at this distance I feel terribly stationary by an artificially inseminated "news" event.  What they don't think of these days!

It was only natural for some of us to immediately invoke the historical gravity  of the seven Lincoln-Douglas senatorial campaign debates that expressed their profound and nation-wrenching differences on slavery.   Fortunately, neither Coulter nor Maher, comedians on different pages, has announced any interest in running for the U.S.  Senate.  We can only hope they never will.

This latest venture into rhetorical survival is, of course, box-office puffery.  By now, anybody with a wisp of interest in politics already knows where Coulter and Maher come down on the issues without an expensive  front-row theatre seat.  Besides, Maher has often said that he likes Coulter and that (Heavens!) they are good friends. I'm sure the feeling is mutual and the beer was especially refreshing after  the show.

But this is only the beginning of the little side shows  by the sponsors, aptly Madison Square Garden Entertainment.   Next up is James Carville vs. Karl Rove, May 27,  with Charlie Rose as the ringmaster.    Or Arianna Huffington vs. Tucker Carlson,  April  1.   

I think we're being hustled, folks,  and will say no more unless we find out that Maher proposed to Coulter over a glass of Guinness.   But I'm jaded.  I get my kicks from pro football  and will leave the media wrestlers to their own transparent show-biz schemes.  Maybe an Australian tag-team match with Limbaugh,  O'Reilly or Matthews  pawing in  the corners?   

Maher: There are steroids in all of us

THE STIR OVER superstar Alex Rodriquez's   bout with steroids has drawn the attention of Bill Maher, TV panel host, comedian and sideline medical expert.  Maher told Larry King that he wasn't all that concerned  about athletes who have built their biceps with hormones because all human beings are subjected to the same abuse.  "We're all on growth hormones," says Maher, who points out that domestic livestock, the stuff that shows up on our dinner plates, are loaded with them.   "If you've eaten chicken...you're on growth hormones."  Unfortunately, they still don't help most people to understand the infield fly rule. '