This is Lando. Sort of.
Some of you may recognize him from a popular science-fiction film trilogy. My wife thinks I resemble him. My wife is also sleep deprived.
As I mentioned before, the 2008 Presidential campaign is finally, mercifully over. No more periodic checking of polls, no more fact-checking campaign statements, no more wooing of undecided voters, no more bald plumbers riding coat-tails to D-list fame and misfortune. Understandably, cable news is suffering withdrawal. They've decided to fill the vacuum with speculation on cabinet positions and stories about the potential First Dog. The most interesting nugget to come out of all the supposition is the idea that the President-elect may be considering former rival Senator Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State. The idea is intriguing, and has apparently been met with near-universal (Democratic) acclaim. Clinton seems fairly well-suited for the job. She comes prepackaged with an international persona and global connections from both her own work and that of her husband. Secretary of State is the most prestigious cabinet appointment, and would go some distance toward mending fences with the former First Family of the Democratic Party. However, it is not without its demerits. Unfortunately for Senator Clinton, most of these demerits stem from her relationship with one husband and former President, Bill Clinton. Obama's pledge of openness requires him to rout through every nook and cranny of the Clinton's lives to ensure there are no surprises that might come back to haunt him later on. That might include revealing the list of donors to the Clinton Presidential Library and to all the other charitable organizations run by the former President. No word yet on whether or not Senator Clinton will take the job. As a matter of fact, there has been no confirmation that she has actually been offered the job. The Obama campaign has been frustratingly leak-free to this point, so the fact that this suggestion has even seen the light of day and then not been denied by either Clinton or Obama suggests that it might have some merit.
President Bush hosted the leaders of the G-20 (leading economic nations) this past weekend in Washington D.C. Yes, it was pretty much exactly as boring as it sounds. Twenty world leaders standing around snapping photographs and agreeing to agree to do something about the global economic crunch, while not actually doing anything about the global economic crunch. I wonder if I could talk my boss into paying me to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
Ted Kennedy returned to the Senate today, months after being diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumor. In talking to reporters, Kennedy looked pretty good, all things considered. Best wishes to the senator for a full recovery.
President-elect Obama met with John McCain today in Chicago for the first time since the election. As previously noted, the Obama transition has been virtually leak-proof, so there is no word as to what was discuss, aside from a generic joint statement indicating their desire to work together to solve the nation's problems, blah, blah, blah. My guess is there was some discussion of bipartisanship, perhaps working together on immigration and ethics reform, and maybe a cup of hot cocoa and some reminiscing about old times and the way things were. Okay, maybe not the hot cocoa.
Governor Sarah Palin stole the show at the meeting of Republican Governors last week. Hey, don't we put thieves in prison in this country? Oh, that's right, she's already in prison, she's Governor of Alaska. My bad. But seriously, for someone who refused to give interviews to the "liberal media" in the eight weeks she was running for vice president, she certainly is chatty now. It's always amusing to hear people criticize the unfairness and inequity of the "liberal media" while appearing on the "liberal media". Over and over again.
California is burning again. Nothing new really, this sort of this happens every year - albeit earlier in the season. I guess when you live in a state covered by forests and you build you million dollar homes in the middle of the trees, bad things are going to happen every now and then. Good luck to the firefighters and I hope everyone makes it home in one piece.
The domestic automakers have been working Capitol Hill for weeks now, trying to drum up support for a $25 billion bailout package - in addition to the $25 billion Congress has already approved to help them retool. The hubris of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler grates on my last nerve like fingernails on a chalkboard. I lived in town with a GM manufacturing plant for ten years, I understand that millions of jobs depend on a healthy automotive industry. But why does the public have to prop up these clowns when times are bad only to get our wallets gouged out when times are good? Detroit has spent years making money hand over fist on the consumer selling these monstrous sport utility vehicles to people whose idea of sport is trying to navigate the mall parking lot while texting to order a pizza, all the while claiming they are only fulfilling market demand. Really? What's the market demanding now? It seems to be demanding that some of you go out of business. If market demand was good enough justification when you were making money, it should be good enough now that you're losing it. As for the "market demand" argument, there is such a thing as innovation for innovation's sake. There was no market for an impeccably designed, ridiculously overpriced MP3 player before Apple invented one. There was no market for legal online music sales before Apple created one. There was no demand for cheese stuffed crust pizza until Pizza Hut baked one up. If Detroit had spent 10% of the time working on making smaller vehicles more profitable that they spent on making larger vehicles even bigger, they might not be in the situation they're in. Besides, General Motors and Ford already manufacture smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles which they sell - for profit - Europe, Asia and South America. Can't they fill the holes in the fleet by importing those vehicles? There must be something else we can try before we hand over fistfuls of taxpayer money to companies who obviously incapable of handling their own affairs.
A South Carolina Catholic priest has instructed his parishioners to repent for voting for Barack Obama. It's not clear what gave him the impression that members of his congregation voted for Obama, or why that is any of his business, but he seems to feel that due to his pro-choice stance, Obama is a baby-killer, and any Catholic (and I guess any other religious person) who voted for Obama must be a baby-killer as well and must repent. I mention this story only to raise the issue of the single issue voter. I happen to believe that one should vote on the totality of the candidate's platform. There are others, like the afore-mentioned South Carolina priest, who would disagree with me. But if you allow your vote to be held hostage by a single issue, you lose your ability to influence the democracy - your only power as a voter. As long as one candidate supports your pet issue, they can abuse you and your vote in whatever manner they please and never be held accountable for their actions. That's damaging to the republic and not something I'm comfortable with as a voter. By the way, I don't remember hearing this priest instructing his parishioners to repent for voting for John Kerry in the 2004 election. Is it only a sin to vote for a pro-choice candidate if the pro-choice candidate wins? Or maybe he did call for repentance last time and I just missed the story. It's been four years, I'm old and my memory's not what it used to be.
My NFL Thoughts for Week 11:
The New York Giants have the best committee running game I have ever seen. Brandon Jacobs simply cannot be tackled. He outweighs most of the linebackers trying to tackle him by 20 or 30 pounds and just runs over anyone who gets in his way. Even the great Ray Lewis and the rest of the vaunted Baltimore defense were humbled by the Giants ground game.
Carolina is the most dubious 8-2 team I can remember. They played Detroit yesterday - so they essentially had the day off. Yet somehow they came within a failed two-point conversion of giving the Lions a chance to dash my hopes for a perfect 0-16 season from them. Usually when a team gains 250+ yards rushing in one game you can sagely make the assumption that they dominated the game. But this one was much much closer than the 31-22 score would indicate.
The Titans are for real. They can win 'em ugly, and they can make it look good. The undefeated season may still be in doubt, but we will be seeing this team deep into the playoffs.
The NFC North confuses me. Three teams with the same record, eleven weeks into the season. Following Sunday's 34-point taxidermy of the Bears, the Packers seem to have the upper hand in the division. But much like the weather in the upper Midwest, if you don't like the standings, just wait a minute.
My how the Eagles have fallen. Two weeks ago experts had this team competing for a Wild Card playoff slot. On Sunday afternoon they were given 15 additional minutes to defeat the pathetic Cincinnati Bengals, and failed to do so. Note to Eagles management; find yourself a top-tier receiver. It got you to the Superbowl once, it might do it again.
Dallas finally figured out how to win football games; hand Marion Barber the ball.
Steelers safety Troy Polamalu snagged the most beautiful interception I've seen since I've been watching professional football, soaring in from out-of-frame and laying out to cradle the nose of the ball as it brushed the tip of a blade of grass on snowy, soggy Heinz Field Sunday night. He was later robbed of an impressive touchdown by yet another blown call by the officials at the end of a game. As a result of the 11-10 final score (the rarest in NFL history), Vegas bookies were livid at the loss of about $66 million. Suckers. That's why they call it gambling.
Jeff Garcia is one tough S.O.B. There is no way a 185-pound quarterback should be able to survive in this league - let alone score with Playboy centerfolds.
My Superbowl picks for Week 11; New York Giants vs. Tennessee Titans
A Japanese professional baseball team signed a 16-year-old high school girl to pitch for them in their upcoming season beginning this coming April. This would make her the first woman to play professional baseball in Japan. To the best of my knowledge, women haven't played professional baseball in America since 1954, but if the Japanese experiment works out, it may not be too long before we see a little of that here. As far as I'm concerned, if she can throw strikes at the same rate as the guys, let her play. Somebody find Jeanie Finch and teach her how to throw overhand. I'd love to see her strike out Manny Ramirez.
Finally, a British woman divorced her husband when she discovered his avatar was having and affair with a "prostitute" in the online role-playing game "Second Life". Apparently the couple met and married on Second Life prior to doing so in real life, and spent as much time interacting through the game as they did in person. I guess I could be mistaken, but I thought the purpose of games like Second Life was to escape reality. If your Second Life is as real and as crappy as your first life, what's the point of having a second life? Get a (real) life people!
5 comments:
Actually, I just disagree with one thing you said. I was ALWAYS demanding to have a stuffed-crust pizza.
Someone over on Tumblr suggested that rather than just giving the big 3 a bailout, the government should place an order for vehicles to replace their fleet (he suggested Priuses). Maybe the auto companies would still have to go into bankruptcy to restructure, but the order would give them something to work on while they were doing so, thereby keeping people in work, and still giving them a cash flow. Then it wouldn't be a handout to a company that has done practically nothing to anticipate or adjust to the changing world. He explained it better than I did (http://jeffmiller.tumblr.com/post/60131919/detroit).
Yay Titans! Yay Cowboys! Yay Brady (I just can't bring myself to cheer for the Browns)! I would like to point out that I am, once again, TOTALLY WINNING at the NFL Pick 'em.
My being sleep deprived does not alter the fact that you look like the Lando Mighty Muggs.
Alright, so I went "full retard" and clicked the publish button without typing anything... So just ignore the comment above. You never go "full retard."
(if you saw Tropic Thunder you will be laughing right now.)
When it comes to Lando vs. Mark; I found an image that may clear things up.
Click Here For The Picture
wow. thanks chris. you should burn that picture of me. can you burn a digital picture?
(i did see tropic thunder, and am laughing hysterically.)
Ahhh. The blog is so much happier and flowery now. (at least the comments are. I'm not mocking - I love it. I'm so tired of fighting, especially after the week from hell I just endured).
I've always thought you to be a bit of a Billy Dee Williams look-alike. Lando I've never seen before. But that will work too, now that I think of it.
My husband is in the market for a new car right now, and the prices have dropped to some crazy levels - for some models. Of course, he wants a BMW X3 (I think), which really hasn't dropped in price. I have a G6 coupe and I'm kicking myself for not waiting until now to get a car. I can pick that puppy up for a bucket of chicken now. Frustrating.
I heard somewhere that the auto industry is responsible for 1 in 7 jobs here in Canada. Therefore, a meltdown of the auto industry would be catastrophic over here. But I also agree with you that forking over a big cheque is not the way to help.
Imagine if you qualified for social assistance at the age of 25 and the government just handed you a cheque for $100,000 and sent you on your way. That's right, you'd blow it all and would be back in the bread line in 3-5 years. That's why almost 70% of lottery winners are back to where they started within 7 years of winning their riches.
The auto industry needs one penny at a time, not the whole dollar at once. And they need to be accountable to somebody. And for the love of mercy, STOP FLYING PRIVATE CHARTER! Fly commerical, dammit. I wouldn't even be mad if they went first class. But leave the 20K plane at home.
I hear that the new season of "24" had to quickly cast a female president, now that the idea of bringing in another black president (as in seasons 2 and 3 of "24") is no longer prophetic and forward-thinking. As if Fox needed another reason not to like Obama.
Post a Comment