Just watched “Funeral,” a Christopher Walken gangster flick.  Pretty standard stuff, except for elements of the human struggle with living out faith creeping into the dialog at times.  The best scene comes as the priest is leaving after saying the blessing over Ray’s (Walken) fallen brother Johnny.

Ray’s wife tries the dutiful, yet empty half-nod to religion that we’ve all employed more times than we can count, only to get a less typical response:

Priest:  If there is anything i can do …

Jean:  You can pray for us.

Priest:  Jean, to be honest, the only way anything is going to change is if this family has a total reversal of heart.  I don’t mean just going to church on Sunday mornings … it’s the practical atheism that all of you live daily.

Jean:  My family believes in God, Tony.

Priest:  I don’t think any of you are broken enough to believe in God.

Jean:  Well maybe we need a miracle … please pray for us Tommy.

Priest:  Pray for yourself, then you’ll be ready to receive it … I’ll be praying for you too.

Wow!  And get this … the priest wasn’t made out to be some kind of screwball.  He was actually one of the more favorable characters in the entire movie, despite his brief presence.

To me, this brings out the key to a Christian’s difficulty in living and sharing their faith.  The fact that there is a difference between believing and “believing.”

There are some, and actually this may be the majority, who really don’t understand that.  Shame on we, the Church.  We don’t communicate this very well in word or deed.

Then there are others who are willingly deceived.  After all, you King James fans can attest that the word “believe” is used quite a bit.  And it’s a very passive sounding verb on its face, throwing open the door for all sorts of scratching the itch by paying lip service to “a higher power.”

But Christ himself pointed out that even the demons believe … and in context this word, found in John 3:16, the cornerstone of the Gospel … this word which we so easily downplay is anything but passive.  It is an all-encompassing call to brokenness, to being at the very end of one’s self.

“Practical atheism.”  Living in a way that totally contradicts any faith you may profess.  We rub shoulders with them every Sunday, every Wednesday, every time we gather as a body of “believers.”  I don’t know who they are.  Not worth the time to even try to figure it out.  I just need to be aware, for it is easy to become one of them, and be aware that is difficult, but imperative, to reach them.

… then his accomplishment in winning the Tour de France seven times pales in comparison to his escaping detection over that span of time.

Just look at the minefield that this year’s Tour became.  It seemed like every day another rider was falling out in scandal.  Everything from elevated testosterone, to evidence of a transfusion, to simply not being available for testing claimed victims out of this year’s field.

Yet some would still have you believe that Lance Armstrong, probably the most scrutinized and most targeted of all riders during his reign, was the one man who evaded all of this.

Wow!  He really is Superman.

In August Business Week will be releasing its annual list of the Top 100 Global Brands.  Last year’s top 4; Coca Cola, Microsoft, IBM and GE are this year’s top 4.  And, although there was a little place shuffling, the top 10 and top 15 remained unchanged as a whole.

What I found interesting was Dell’s 6% decline in brand value, and fall from 25th to 31st on the list.  BW’s comment on Dell:

While rivals Apple and HP climb, Dell continues to struggle.  The company has pledged to shake up its consumer unit, recently launching laptops in bright colors.  (emphasis added)

Yes, big “shakeup” there.  Bright colors, and all.  Definitely a move aimed at Apple.  What the computer maker fails to realize is that Apple is no more successful at computers right now than Dell is.  Apple is surging on the strength of the iPod and now the iPhone.  It’s going to take more than a pink laptop skin to compete in that game.

In fact, Dell’s main problem may be just that:  they are changing colors when they shouldn’t.  The company was built on providing a quality product and great service at a semi-reasonable price.  What I love about my Dell laptop:  For right at $1K my company was able to provide me with a machine that is running XP Pro, SQL Server and a couple of other heavy applications without bogging the thing down.

Change is clearly afoot though.  Already the word is that Dell’s service followed Gateway’s right down the tubes.  Now if they are going to focus on dressing up the parts that don’t matter instead of continuing to provide power without the price, they will further alienate their existing base.  This brightly colored laptop thing had better be one killer marketing thrust because it’s going to have to take a big bite out of Apple and HP to compensate.

With the NBA ref scandal in full bloom, commissioner David Stern suddenly finds his every move criticized.  The commissioner was busy fixing the athletes dress code and the basketball all the while the real problem went undetected.  As if problems are mutually exclusive.

This guy is no Bud Selig.  Now there is someone who turns everything he touches to poop.

It’s also not as if the commissioner is limited to addressing one issue at a time.  I highly doubt that imposing a dress code on athletes somehow contributed to his not detecting that at least one official was on the take.  If we find that he know about Donaghy a couple of years ago and consciously made the decision to ignore the foundation-shaking scandal so he could devote more time to Ben Wallace’s headwear, I’ll eat my words.

Aside from the bizarre attempt to change the ball, I applaud what Stern has done so far in an attempt to clean up his league’s image.  Unfortunately his job just got a lot bigger.

Ahhh Lindsey, you minx!  Turns out the cocaine found in her pocket after her arrest earlier this week didn’t belong to her.  Boy, do we all have egg on our face or what?  Why didn’t you say so sooner?  Just out of curiosity, the cocaine or alcohol that was in your bloodstream … was that also not yours?

This on the heels of Michael Vick’s even more lame “I never visit the property that I own which has been set up specificially to be a dog-fighting mecca.”

Oh the side effects of ungodly money.  It renders the vicitm frozen in time with the emotional and intellectual development of a 6-yr old.

Really.  That’s about when most of us tried this brilliant ploy for the first and last time in our lives.  And it is brilliant in its simplicity.  It has as its backbone the “if I was lying wouldn’t I make up a better story than that?” defense.  Alas, back in the day, most of learned that no one buys it.

Tip for Lindsey … don’t try the “I’m too sick to stay in jail” bit.  It has already been tried with about as much success as your stay in rehab.

The headline cop is at it again. 

Fox Sports:  “Smith among 20 Enshrined into Hall.”  Interesting.  And in a related story, “Jones likes his team’s chances this year.”

Even more odd, the first four paragraphs of the story are about Bobby Bowden and his former Heisman Trophy QB Charlie Ward.  You have to scroll to find that the headline was referring to former Florida RB Emmitt Smith … or was it referring to former Va Tech Hokie, Bruce Smith who is also in this year’s class.  Either way, I was wrong.  I had been guessing beach volleyball partriarch, Sinjin Smith.  Close.

Come to think of it, my title for this post should have been “The Sky is Blue” by Brian.

Sadly, scandal and bungling in each of the three major sports are taking away from what should be a celebration.  Craig Biggio announced that this will be the final season in what has been an exemplary major league baseball career.  Biggio might not have exhibited explosive, Bonds-esque flash.  But what he did do was perform at the highest level, season after season, in whatever position he was needed, for the same team.  This puts him in a class with guys like Johnny Bench and Robin Yount.  Guys you feel good about because with them, it was never about “me” and “mine.”  It was always about the team.  Without even realizing it, you’ve been quietly respecting and fearing this guy for as long as you can remember.

We should be celebrating this career.  Biggio should be getting a standing “O” at every stadium he visits for the rest of the summer.  At some point Bud Selig should be there to honor the man and lament that things have gotten to the point where a Craig Biggio is a rarity.

Instead we’ll gripe and argue about steroids and dog-fighting, and a true superstar’s will depart as quietly as he battled throughout his career.

1.  NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell tackles the Michael Vick dogfighting issue.

I’ve been pleased with Goodell’s agressive approach to nipping off-the-field shenanigans in the butt before they grow into a problem for the league.  So, I was surprised at the commish’s waffling on the Vick matter.

First he was going to let the legal process run its course.  Then he steps in and orders Vick to stay away from Falcons training camp.  You’ve got to be resolute in dealing with these things.

Either approach is acceptable.  Waiting for the courts to sort it out … isn’t our whole nation about “innocent until proven guilty?”  On the other hand, Goodell has demonstrated that he’s out to protect the NFL brand.  Regardless of what the courst may say, he has not hesitated to step in and smack down a player just for being too close to trouble too often.

I’m not buying the “pressure got to him” theory.  If he couldn’t anticipate that there would be a lot of heat around this one, how on earth did he get to be NFL Commissioner?

2.  Bud Selig Handling Barry Bonds

Barry Bonds is on the brink of taking what is probably the biggest record in all of sport away from Hank Aaron.  And Bud Selig still hasn’t decided if he is going to be on hand for the event.  So finally, after more than a decade, the commish has decided to put his foot down on steroids.

Sorry Bud, you can’t have it both ways.  This is the logical result of your impotence in dealing with the MLBPA.  You didn’t have a problem with it when the festival of homers in the 90′s revived your sport after a damaging work stoppage.  Too late to close the barn door.

Now, you are the commisioner.  Bite your tongue and do your job.

3.  David Stern and the NBA Referee Scandal

At this point, I think that all the commissioner can do is batten down the hatches and wait to see how bad the storm will be.  One referee, Tim Donaghy, helped to “fix” NBA games and provide an advantage to mobsters to whom he was indebted.

This is easily the worst of the crises facing a sports commissioner today.  It goes to the very integrity of NBA.  One ref is bad enough.  Now Stern must wait and see if other refs and/or players will be implicated.  And even if Donaghy is the beginning and ending of this episode, it has been demonstrated how the balance of things can be tipped in subtle, hard-to-detect ways.  Unless he is ready to pay his officials as much as the athletes are paid, how can he ever be confident that the whole bunch is “untouchable.”

This, of course, doesn’t even begin to touch the “what did the NBA know and when did they know it?” question.

All Stern can do is wait and take his lumps.

Now we’re going to see some action.  Always a one-step-behind opportunist, John Kerry is taking on the dogfighting issue.

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:  “U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said in a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell that he plans to introduce legislation aimed at eliminating dogfighting, adding, ‘I believe that Mr. Vick should be suspended from the league, effective immediately.’ “

After that he’ll get to work on repealing prohibition which the Senator believes has been a miserable failure.

Caught Falcons owner Arthur Blanks’ press conference on the Michael Vick matter.  I’m hoping the owner was instructed by his legal staff to tread carefully. Otherwise the guy needs to get a clue.

Example: repeatedly, “The situation Michael finds himself in …” It is amazing how, when you do things to put yourself in a certain situation, you one day “find yourself” in that situation. You break the law and you “find yourself” on trial and eventually in prison. While I’m aware that Vick has not yet been convicted, we know enough that he has only himself to thank for the current mess in which he “finds himself.”

Example: “This isn’t the Michael Vick I know.” What is that supposed to mean?  You mean he didn’t leave his copy of “Dog-Fighter Monthly” laying around the locker room? He didn’t invite you up for the weekend matches? Weird.

All indications are that this has been going on for at least as long as Vick has been with the Falcons. So, if this isn’t the Michael Vick you know, then there were things you didn’t know about the guy. No shame in that.  Few leave their dirty laundry hanging out for all to see.

But no, I can’t leave it there.  I have a big problem with the implication that this is surprising.  Vick has been no stranger to trouble during his tenure with the Falcons.  The Michael Vick who stole a Rolex at the airport … was that the Michael Vick you know?  The Michael Vick who flipped off a Georgia Dome crowd … was that the Michael Vick you know?  The Michael Vick who knowingly gave his partner genital herpes … is that the Michael Vick you know?  No, the truth is this IS the Michael Vick that you have known and been cleaning up after for years now.

The current charges are bad with a capital B.  The “basically good guy who made some bad decisions” spin won’t fly here.