Monday Odds and Ends

Did You See Them? - CMPD Officers did. Turns out the DNC 2012 anarchists are already in Charlotte. CMPD has more than a dozen officers watching and photographing people who are apparently checking out Charlotte's Uptown in advance of the DNC 2012.

Word on the street is that elements of groups known to generally impede traffic and wish to cause general chaos, have been spotted in the Uptown area.

Those observed have not been confronted, only watched and photographed. Officers have reportedly spotted some known trouble makers as well as other individuals writing notes, making sketches and taking photos as well as videos of the area.

CMPD plainclothes, uniformed and civilian employees are all part of a team assembled to "watch" for suspected anarchists as well as terrorists threats. As one Officer told CP, "we definitely know that are planning on causing some trouble".

The End of Penn State Football  - Early Sunday morning workers removed the iconic statue of JoePa from Beaver Stadium, as a small group of onlookers gathered chanted "We are PENN STATE" and the Joe Paterno era came to a very sad and still stunning end.

A ghostly reminder of the bronze mural that represented decades of winning football.

Early Sunday morning workers moved quickly and quietly remove the 7 foot tall statue.

The university announced at 7 am Sunday that it was taking down the monument in the wake of an investigative report that found the late coach and three other top Penn State administrators concealed sex abuse claims against retired assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

The statue, weighing more than 900 pounds, was built in 2001 in honor of Paterno's record-setting 324th Division 1 coaching victory and his "contributions to the university."

Cedar's Take: There is a certain uneasiness regarding the erection of statues to living people. The photos of the statue being removed are reminiscent of the pulling down of the giant Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad years ago, a process that climaxed with the head of the statue being dragged through the streets.

This entire PENN State mess has been much like the removal and execution of Saddam Hussein. The sudden resignation and subsequent death of Joe Pa, the Sandusky Bob Costas interview, the fast track trial, and guilty verdict. The entire process has been unseemly, unpleasant, and messy.

Throughout all of this the statue which represented Paterno leading Penn State on to the field his right index finger symbolically proclaiming Number 1 held high, has been a lightning rod and media focal point.

Penn State President Rod Erickson said he decided to have the statue removed and put into storage because it "has become a source of division and an obstacle to healing."

"I believe that, were it to remain, the statue will be a recurring wound to the multitude of individuals across the nation and beyond who have been the victims of child abuse," Erickson said in a statement released at 7 a.m. Sunday.

Which brings us to this:

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;— Exodus 20:4-6 (KJV)

And should the 3rd of 10 commandments be a little too deep, then perhaps George C Scott, as George S. Patton can provide some timeless advice and wisdom.

For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph - a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot, or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.

The PENN State Football program will not recover from Jerry Sandusky's perversion for decades. The NCAA while not likely to give the Nittnay Lions the death penalty, is expected to hand down some heavy fines and actions that shuts down bowl games, scholarships and recruiting efforts. But in the end these sanctions will only extract the highest price from those who are already co-victims, the students.

Danica Patrick on Fifty Shades of Grey - Patrick admitted on Twitter recently that she had, to her disappointment, reached the end of the first of E.L. James' best-selling mainstream erotica trilogy.

"I finished the 514 pages that were in that first book. It's sad I even know that, but it felt like a victory for me."

Patrick tells ESPN "I didn't put it out there, exactly, in the first place, although I wasn't … I gave it up pretty easily," she conceded. "I basically just made a statement the worst part about a great book is finishing it. You get there and don't want it to end. 'Maybe I'll save a little bit.' Somebody right away chimed in on Twitter, like the third tweet that came in, 'Let me guess, 'Fifty Shades of Grey,'' and I was like 'How did you know?"

Cedar's Take: There is something very intoxicating about a woman who handles her sexuality the same way she drives a car, that is to say with reckless abandon.