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A real grab bag today:

►George Will doesn’t buy that the polar bears are threatened, and he offers some more thought on the global warming fad.

►Lorne Gunter challenges the idea that the fad is a “settled science”.

►I haven’t been able to decide if Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN is a good columnist. I’m pretty sure he isn’t, but the verdict is still out. Anyway, here he apparently wishes there were more global warming as he bitches and moans about the recent decision to play the 2012 Super Bowl in “cold” Indianapolis. I have zero sympathy for sports writers who complain about the location of Super Bowls. His argument is that locations like Indianapolis, Detroit, and Minneapolis are no fun because they’re cold, and no one likes the cold, and the NFL is punishing not only the players but the fans (Oh, sports writers! Always thinking of the fans! How valiant.) by choosing these awful locations. “Playing in a Super Bowl is supposed to be a reward, not a reason to visit your local North Face outlet. And attending a Super Bowl as a fan is supposed to be the experience of a lifetime, a chance to break out multiple bottles of SPF 30.” First of all, isn’t going to the Super Bowl enough? It’s the freaking Super Bowl! As a player, that should be your ultimate goal, no matter where it is! Does Gene really think that players can’t afford to take their own vacations to exotic locales in the offseason? Not to mention, the NFL does offer this reward for good players, known as the Pro Bowl; which, incidentally, many players turn down invitations to! I guess tropical destinations aren't as important to players as Gene thinks they are. As a fan, seeing my team win the Super Bowl would be enough of a reward. Plus, if the point of the trip was to go to the beach, I’d go to the beach. On top of it all, whiny sports writers like Gene need to remember that they’re being paid to go to the Super Bowl and write crappy, unoriginal columns, so shut it.

►Speaking of football, I thought TMQ was gone until the fall, but he made a special appearance and wrote about why Bill Belichick should be suspended over Spygate. As usual, I have trouble disagreeing.

►Tom Friedman is terrific once again. He mentions Fareed Zakaria’s new book, which I think is great because in my senior seminar class at Mason, which was about globalization, one of the possibilities for a project was to come up with a TV show that would encourage dialogue between the West and the Islamic countries, and my choices for dream team hosts of this show were Friedman and Zakaria. Look for Zakaria’s book, “The Post-American World”.

►Finally, Ed Koch thinks that in the end (whenever that is), George W. will be seen in a similar light as Harry Truman: a President who leaves office with superbly low ratings, only to be reviewed later as justified in their fear (or realization) of a foreign aggression (the Soviets for Truman, extremist Islam for Bush). Koch also thinks that W’s Hitler comments were reasonable, and offers up the best explanation I have hear yet.

►In the mean time, the Yankees continue to free fall, although they pounded the Orioles yesterday. The Yankees have begun to stretch out Joba’s appearances in preparation to move him to the rotation. I am excited.

►Jon Lester’s no hitter was a great story and I am happy for him and his family. My challenge has been to try my hardest to not quickly hate the story, as SportsCenter had Lance Armstrong on the phone congratulating Lester and telling him what a fan he is, and various news outlets that Ted Kennedy watched Lester pitch and how significant that was. Guess what, people: it’s not significant. I take that back. It’s significant, but none more so than any other person in the world who has cancer watching Lester pitch. And the Armstrong call was just another example of how contrived and exploited everything becomes. If Armstrong had really wanted to call so badly, he would have done it in private. Do you really think that Lance Armstrong can’t get Jon Lester’s phone number, that he needed ESPN to hook them up?

►Exploiting loved ones is bad; exploiting loved ones who have asked specifically not to be exploited is worse; exploited loved ones who have asked specifically not to be exploited who are risking their lives in Iraq is even worse. I heard the story last week or whenever it was about the soldier whose phone accidentally called his parents’ house while he was in the middle of a fire fight and getting shot at. The parents weren’t home so a minutes-long message was left on their machine, so they had the displeasure of listening to their son call for backup, that he was out of ammo, that he was in trouble, and that an RPG was on its way right when the message cut off. They immediately called his post and got in touch with him some hours after the initial call; thank heavens that he and everyone he was with was reportedly fine. In that conversation, he asked his parents to “don’t tell Gramma”, he didn’t want anyone to be upset. And then the parents ran to the news station. Okay, to be fair I don’t know that they ran to the news station. But I do know that they are so dumb as to not see the irony in telling a news reporter that their son asked to not let his grandmother know what happened. Oh I get it. Maybe they knew Gramma was going to be at bingo when the news was going to be on so she’s miss it. That must have been it.