Remainders

Okay. So I missed a few things yesterday. Let’s get to those now, shall we?

Last week, the UK released a list of individuals barred from entering the United Kingdom for fostering extremism or hatred toward other individuals or groups. On the list are leaders of neo-nazi organizations, holocaust deniers, terrorists, and San Fransisco-based radio talk show host Michael Savage. Savage has threatened to sue. Now, I’m no legal expert, but I think that in order to win a defamation suit, Savage would have to prove he is, in fact, not a hater. Trouble is, he has 15 years worth of his radio show as evidence to the contrary.

Newscorp chairman Rupert Murdoch, announced last week that news websites owned by his company - including Fox News and the New York Post - will soon begin charging “handsomely” for the viewing of their content. Uh huh. Murdoch might as well have announced he intends to stuff hundred dollar bills into trash bags and burn them. I’m not sure why Rupert thinks he can get people to pay money for information they can get for free from any number of other websites, but I’m sure there are a number of others in the news industry hoping he can actually pull it off. That future looks pretty bleak right now.

Well, it’s finally happened. The romance born of an old man and a bumper sticker during the the 2008 presidential campaign has finally come to an end. Oh sorrow of sorrows, Joe the Plumber has left the Republican party. You can’t see it, but the tears are flowing over here. Seriously. What are we going to do without Joe the Plumber jokes? Okay, joke. Guess I answered my own question there, didn’t I.

Pop quiz hotshot. Your name is Republican Minority Whip Eric Cantor. Your party just lost control of the presidency and both houses of Congress. Your party chairman has labeled your core voters bigots, and your party spokesman has made it clear that those with opinions differing from his own shouldn’t let the door hit them in the butt on the way out. You’ve formed a committee to travel the country to solicit ideas from the party faithful on how you can recapture your swagger and return to a position of prominence and leadership, but at every turn one of your own leaders stabs you in the back declaring you are leading the party down the road to ultimate ruin. What do you do? What do you do? Well, you issue the following statement in response to your critics, “We don’t lose our principles by broadening the debate.” Eric, that is absolutely true, I’m so relieved you’ve finally come to that conclusion. I’m sure you would now agree with the President when he applies the very same logic to matters of far greater importance than rebuttal of talk-radio hosts, wouldn’t you?

Finally, L.A. Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez has been suspended for 50 game for taking a “banned substance.” There is no official word on exactly what the banned substance was, but Manny insists it was NOT a steroid. Subsequent reports indicate that the substance is actually a female hormone, often taken by athletes coming off a steroid cycle to return their testosterone to normal levels. So, unless Manny can explain how he got pregnant and what happened to the fetus, he becomes the next in a far too long line of Major League baseball players to be caught cheating the game and the fan by using performance-enhancing drugs. Oh well. Guess that’s just Manny being Manny.