Still feeling the losses

It’s winding up costing former Hogs coach Bobby Petrino even more than his average annual $3.6 million salary (and additional lagniappe lost) when he was canned nearly a dozen weeks back.

Now we learn that his former Fayetteville home sold for $1.7 million. That’s $550,000 less than he paid for the lushy and plushy six-bedroom, 8,741-square-foot mansion purchased upon his much-ballyhooed arrival in 2008.

Our former more-than-capable-atfootball coach apparently still owns the ill-fated Harley that brought him crashing down in more ways than one. It still rests, crippled, dusty and bent in a lot in Prairie Grove. No one seems to know what will become of it.

Somehow I doubt he has any interest in climbing back aboard. Way too many really bad memories in that long leather seat built for two.

He did manage to break even on the sale of his 2,500-square-foot lake house, which went for $600,000.

Man, was it ever financially good to be the Razorbacks coach, kinda likebeing good to be the king. Well, for a few glorious, top-of-the-world years, anyway.

Sad stuff, my friends, and a lesson for all in power, if there ever was a lesson to be learned.

How many times have we seen egoconsumed power princes topple from their lofty perches onto hard ground to land on their knees because of a woman?

John Edwards, Ted Kennedy, Rick Pitino, Gary Hart, Jimmy Swaggart, Bill Clinton, Jim Bakker, Newt Gingrich, Mark Sanford, yada, yada.

A professor and author named Joris Lammers of the Netherlands writes in the journal Psychological Science that his research, and that of his colleagues, reached the same conclusion when it comes to high achievers and infidelity.

It’s about the level of a person’sconfidence more than anything else, including opportunity or self-esteem.

He said his Internet survey of more than 1,500 readers of a Dutch business magazine reached this interesting conclusion: The further up the hierarchy chain of an organization, the more likely the person was to be unfaithful.

“More [leaders] at the top reported cheating on their partner or intending to,” he said. And it didn’t matter whether the person was male or female.

“One of the strongest effects of power is that it increases the feelings of confidence,” he wrote. And that leads to dissolving inhibitions. This person becomes sure they can get whatever it is they want “and can take risks to get it.”

He said such carefree bravado rooted in one’s confidence not only applies in romantic infidelity but also in a greater tendency to cut corners ethically.

So there you have it from one man who’s actually taken the time and effort to research the matter. We can bet Petrino’s lapse and collapse won’t be the final word on the issue.

I suppose all that’s left to be said at this point is that he never lacked for confidence.

Oh, and if your own alligator loafer of comfy confidence happens to fit, I suppose it doesn’t hurt to understand how and why.

A humane idea

Before the general election, I wrote a column that, while not endorsingKelley Cradduck for Benton County sheriff (I don’t endorse political candidates), nonetheless sang his praises because he deserved them.

Now Sheriff-elect Cradduck’s latest statements about the sad demise of Faith Whitcomb of cancer in the Benton County jail, and his related thoughts about possibly converting part of the jail’s new $2.2 million barracks complex to house and properly care for mental patients now being inhumanely housed in his and other jails across Arkansas only reinforce my earlier comments about the man.

He told the press that inmates with mental health issues could be better off held separately from the general population because their conditions and needs might require specialized supervision or care.

“When you house people at a jail, you’re responsible for them,” Cradduck correctly told a reporter.

“We need to look at it as an opportunity to make changes to ensure this situation doesn’t happen again.”

He continued: “It would give us the chance to make sure they’re watched by jailers and medical staff who are trained to handle and identify mental health issues.”

That kind of badly needed, positive reform might be wise to include as part of Cradduck’s announced general policies overhaul at the sheriff’s office.

Here’s another suggestion while remodeling: Scrap those tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars earmarked annually for reported practice ammunition by the department. I suspect that’s already on the incoming sheriff’s lengthy to-do list.

Keep the good ideas coming, Cradduck.

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Mike Masterson is opinion editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Northwest edition.

Editorial, Pages 69 on 06/24/2012

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