Greed

Throughout the Gulf of Mexico, there are no more blue waters, no free moving animals — just black. Only oil, spilling out more each day, damaging everything, almost as if it was an underwater fire. Animals and plants are at risk more than ever, and who knows, maybe we are next. Despite the efforts of BP, nothing is really helping to stop the oil for good. But, as people argue over whose fault the spill is, they could unite to end the spill. The government, BP officials and all other companies involved in the spill should set their perspectives straight and think of what is important now. Even though I may just be a rising 9th grader, it is obvious that we are only worried about money, since that's all that matters right?

In another example of state and local government's abuse of power, Baltimore County officials have taken it upon themselves to evict pilots from the Essex SkyPark, a site they have occupied for 60 years. All of the members of the Essex SkyPark Association are middle-class, hard-working people who have been responsible members of the Essex community. The real truth is that county officials are exercising their power for money. The county's intent is to use the 500 acres of the air park as a forest mitigation bank to charge county developers fees to offset their environmental responsibilities.

I am an avid sports fan. I love football and hockey and am a novice fan of other sports. As much as I love sports, I have very little patience for the overpaid, greedy, self centered pro athlete. With the impending 2011 NFL work stoppage on the horizon, one has to ask, when is too much money enough? We look at the pure greed in pro sports. The 1981 and 1994 Major League Baseball strikes, the 1992, 1994 and 2004 NHL lockouts, and the NBA lockouts are a testament to the greed in pro sports.

Subtlety isn't a strength of the new FOX show “Terra Nova.” With all the mystery and none of the finesse of “Lost,” and all the dinosaurs and none of the excitement of “Jurassic Park,” the show has all the makings of a glorious, wonderful disaster. The premise is simple - and ominous - enough. In the year 2149, the planet Earth has become a nearly uninhabitable dystopia of rancid air and Orwellian undertones, so the government has begun sending people back in time - 85 million years back in time, to be precise, to start a new life in fortressed cabanas in the midst of a dinosaur-inhabited jungle.

In another example of state and local government's abuse of power, Baltimore County officials have taken it upon themselves to evict pilots from the Essex SkyPark, a site they have occupied for 60 years. All of the members of the Essex SkyPark Association are middle-class, hard-working people who have been responsible members of the Essex community. The real truth is that county officials are exercising their power for money. The county's intent is to use the 500 acres of the air park as a forest mitigation bank to charge county developers fees to offset their environmental responsibilities.

HOW MANY of you want the state of Maryland to license the opening of a slot-machine palace in your neighborhood? We don't see too many hands. How about those of you who live on the Eastern Shore or love to go down to the ocean? You want a racino at Ocean City's harness track to complement all the sun and fun? How about all those in Baltimore? You want two -- a racino at Pimlico and a slots casino right by the Inner Harbor? That would be the likely outcome of the amended version of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich's slots bill -- a bill headed for a state Senate committee vote tomorrow and then for possible full Senate consideration.

DARN IT! THE SUPER Bowl is on me once again, before I had a chance to book my flight back to southern Sudan, where there's little chance I'd hear one word about the National Football League's annual orgy of self-indulgence.So the weekend is here now, which leaves me with a choice of watching the premier game of NFL honchos -- the poster boys for greed -- or simply ignoring it as I've done the last three years.There's a strong argument for ignoring this year's Stupor Bowl. There's even a name for the argument: PSINet Stadium.

In the next week or two the book "Rainmaker: Saga of Jeff Beck, Wall Street's Mad Dog," by Business Week's Tony Bianco, will be arriving in bookstores. It will undoubtedly be accompanied by a good deal of press attention as well as whispers on Wall Street.In the 1980s, Beck, an investment banker, became synonymous with some of the biggest takeovers ever. Wall Street Journal readers might remember him as the subject of last year's front-page story detailing his years of lies and deception, including his harrowing tales as a war hero in Vietnam, where he had never been.

If you think the NBA work stoppage makes no sense, ask yourself these questions: Is the league in good shape? Does it have any problems?The answer, of course, is no, the league isn't in such hot shape. Yes, it does have problems. Big problems.There are the ticket prices, now well beyond the reach of many average fans who might want to go to a game.There are the absurdly large contracts being routinely given to young, decent but over-hyped players such as Kevin Garnett and Juwan Howard.There is the public's antipathy for the league's new generation of stars -- and the fame and wealth those stars accumulate long before they accomplish anything, rendering winning a lot less important.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Former President Bill Clinton is one of a kind, but we knew that already. No president before him has managed to cash in from his time in office with such shameless abandon. A Washington Post story by John Solomon and Matthew Mosk is staggering in its revelations of Mr. Clinton's greed. In the six years since he left the presidency, Mr. Clinton has taken in nearly $40 million - between $9 million and $10 million of it last year. Mr. Clinton averaged "almost a speech a day" in 2006.

In a recent Sun op-ed piece ("What is killing jobs," Aug. 27) a writer parroted the propaganda spread by proponents of outsourcing - that jobs are sent overseas because Americans aren't well versed in math and science and can't compete in the high tech realm. Except most jobs lost to overseas markets are not high tech at all. Politicians can blather about creating biotech and high tech jobs and training all of America for them. The truth is that these jobs will barely make a dent on overall unemployment.

Throughout the Gulf of Mexico, there are no more blue waters, no free moving animals — just black. Only oil, spilling out more each day, damaging everything, almost as if it was an underwater fire. Animals and plants are at risk more than ever, and who knows, maybe we are next. Despite the efforts of BP, nothing is really helping to stop the oil for good. But, as people argue over whose fault the spill is, they could unite to end the spill. The government, BP officials and all other companies involved in the spill should set their perspectives straight and think of what is important now. Even though I may just be a rising 9th grader, it is obvious that we are only worried about money, since that's all that matters right?

I am an avid sports fan. I love football and hockey and am a novice fan of other sports. As much as I love sports, I have very little patience for the overpaid, greedy, self centered pro athlete. With the impending 2011 NFL work stoppage on the horizon, one has to ask, when is too much money enough? We look at the pure greed in pro sports. The 1981 and 1994 Major League Baseball strikes, the 1992, 1994 and 2004 NHL lockouts, and the NBA lockouts are a testament to the greed in pro sports.

What kind of message is the archdiocese sending the young men of Cardinal Gibbons? It seems that corporate greed has now permeated our own religious leaders, or is it the old saying, "Do as I say, not as I do"? The Gibbons community is truly a family. When one of us is hurting, we all feel the pain. It is not a large school, but it is a place with a huge heart. From the moment we took a tour of the school when my son was deciding where to attend high school, we knew Gibbons was where he had to go. It offered a warmth and camaraderie that we didn't feel at other schools we visited.

When we really look at what President Obama is saying and doing, it becomes apparent that he is truly a rare gift. He wants us to be safe, well educated, healthy and prosperous. He will continue to promote progress in these areas. He will not give up nor hold up progress because it is not perfection. He is brilliant, honest, courageous and peaceful. We need to support our legislators in voting for plans to restore our economy, which necessitates finally committing to a healthy health care system, good education, creation of new jobs to support a modern and environmentally sound infrastructure and regulations to harness unbridled greed and harm to the goals and dreams of the middle class.

After submerging himself in the subject of health care in "Sicko," his best film, Michael Moore comes back to crowd-pleasing form with his most wildly uneven movie, "Capitalism: A Love Story." He bases this documentary screed on the litany of disasters that have brought the once fast-breaking American economy to its kneepads - the reckless deregulation of finance and other industries, the homebuying bubble and the legal loan-sharking that went with it, the vast disparity between corporate honchos and the middle class and working poor who are supposed to fuel the economy with their consumption.

"This is a story about a bad smell. About a bunch of rich, powerful people pushing [and shoving] each other and everyone else to get a whole lot more money and power that they don't really need in the first place. It's about payoffs and favors and double plays and connections." Playwright George F. Walker, Filthy Rich If you think about it, the financial meltdown and giant bailout of Wall Street has the makings of classic film noir: There's corruption and greed, conspiracy and scandal, misappropriation of vast sums of money, and all manner of shady dealings that won't stand the light of day. So Everyman Theatre's production of Filthy Rich, which officially opens tomorrow, seems weirdly prescient.

I suppose I must be the only person in these United States who appreciates why the parents of a 13-year-old boy are suing rock superstar Michael Jackson for allegedly sexually abusing their son. I seem to be the only one who understands that the motive is not greed, as many assume, but revenge.And by George, I'd do the same thing myself were I in the parents' position! So would you.We are a vengeful society -- perhaps the most vindictive on earth. Our jails and prisons overflow with people who have provoked our ire, from matrons who have bounced a check to madmen who have killed and devoured their victims.

In one explosive sequence in Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell, the appearance of a goat at a seance rouses belly laughs and fear. How does a director judge the comic and dramatic impact of such outre content? For Raimi, it's simultaneously difficult and easy. "Getting audiences laughing in the wrong way would be a disaster," he says. "But I have to get back to how I feel about each image. I have to take the point of view that I am the same as any audience member. If I find something frightening, they will; if I find something funny, they'll find it funny, too. ... "The moment I begin to think I feel one way and the audience feels another way - that would be the beginning of the end for me. I'd be holding myself above or apart from the audience, and I can't imagine doing that.

Super Bowl Sunday fun: Try saying these words out loud, in the incredulous voice of former NFL coach Jim Mora in that Coors beer commercial: "Bonuses? Don't talk about - bonuses? You kidding me? Bonuses?" Yes, coach, I'm afraid it's true: Something like $18.4 billion in bonuses for Wall Street executives in 2008, the year Wall Street came tumbling down. We had 2.6 million jobs disappear from the American economy last year, another 60,000 just last Monday and more expected, with the number of people getting unemployment checks now at an all-time record.