11.24.2009
Conspiracy
No thoughts on things this week as I am on vacation in Seattle. Oh, and by the way, this is the coolest city I've ever been to. But Shaun, what about all the rain? Pft! It rains here like it does in the Carribean - once a day for about ten minutes. This rain thing is just something the locals tell other people to prevent them from moving here. Which is bizarre considering how nice everyone seems to be. Check back next week.
11.18.2009
Fly Me To the Moon
Several interesting things happened over the past week that deserve discussion. Unfortunately, I’m leaving on vacation this week and don’t have time for in-depth analysis. So, we’ll roll with the CliffsNotes version instead.
It’s official. At 7:08 Eastern Standard Time last Wednesday, Lou Dobbs officially terminated his career at CNN. The former business analyst turned xenophobic populist lunatic was the last of the original anchors at the Cable News Network. But, on a network trying (yet failing miserably) to carve out a niche for itself as the neutral zone between the “extremes” of Fox News and MSNBC, Dobbs’ presence as an anti-immigration conspiracy theorist thoroughly undermined those efforts. Although cryptic about his plans for the future, speculation is that Lou and his politics would be far more comfortable at, say, Fox, than he was with his former employer. Frankly, I think that might be a good idea. Confine all the crazy to a single channel.
Late last week Attorney General Eric Holder announced that suspected 9/11 “mastermind” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and several of his cohorts currently housed at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility will be tried in Federal court in New York City, and that others are to be moved to maximum security prisons in the continental United States. This immediately sent Republicans scrambling for the nearest television camera in a race to see which of them could provoke mass hysteria the quickest. It’s pretty much cliché at this point: the Kenyan fascist imposter president Obama wants to sacrifice us all to the Muslims, turning us into a terrorist target, cats and dogs living together, end of the world / wrath of God-type stuff. Sigh. Why do these people hate their country? Why do they believe America to be incapable of prosecuting a terrorist and bringing him to justice? I know this might surprise some people, but KSM will not be the first terrorist prosecuted in Federal court. Oh, and by the way, he won’t be the first terrorist interned in a maximum security Federal prison in the continental United States. The ADX Supermax facility in Florence, Colorado has held convicted terrorists since at least the mid-nineties, no escapes, no assaults. KSM and his associates have been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002, no assaults, no escapes, not even an attempt. For anyone who does know, the detention center covers a small portion of the 45 square mile naval base, surrounded by 43 THOUSAND square miles of communist Cuba, over which the U.S. Navy has no control. Anybody (who is not a U.S. citizen) could hop a boat from Haiti, drive out into the countryside and lob rockets at the base from the jungle. Yet no one has. Contrast this with Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and the Green Zone in Iraq, which have seen dozens – if not hundreds of attacks since the wars began. This argument that housing these prisoners on the mainland somehow makes us more of a target is ridiculous. We’re a target for terrorism because we are the United State of America! How many terrorists were detained in the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995? How many terrorists were held on board the U.S.S Cole in 2000? How many terrorists were imprisoned at the World Trade Center in 1993 or 2001?
Burger King franchisees have sued the corporation over the $1.00 double cheeseburger offered on their value menu. According to the franchisees, the burger they are required to sell for a buck, costs them $1.10 to produce, therefore costing them ten cents for each burger sold. I guess I’m a little confused by this. Do the franchise owners not understand the concept of a promotion, or a loss leader? In order to draw more customers, businesses often cut the price of certain items below profitability in the hope that more people will purchase additional items, like fries and sodas, with their (in this case) double cheeseburger, thereby increasing overall revenue. Since I don’t own a Burger King franchise I can’t say for sure, but it seems like when you sign up for something like that, you’re obligated to adhere to the rules and regulations – and promotions of the franchiser, no? If you don’t like being told what to do or how to run your business, perhaps running a franchise of a national chain restaurant is not for you.
My NFL Thoughts for Week 10:
Let’s get this out of the way right off the top. Bill Belichick is not crazy. He made a good call and got a bad result. This is a classic case of hindsight being 20/20. On 4th and 2, with 2:04 left in the game and the ball on his own 28-yardline leading by 6 points, future Hall-of-Fame coach Belichick decided he was going to play to win the game. Following a timeout, he sent three-time Superbowl champion quarterback Tom Brady back out onto the field with the offense to get the two yards they needed to get the first down, run out the clock and hand the undefeated Indianapolis Colts their first loss of the season. Most coaches would have punted the ball away and try to force the Colts to go 60+ yards to score. But Belichick plays to win the game. The Patriots snapped the ball, Kevin Faulk ran a three-yard pattern, turned around and caught Brady’s pass beyond the first down marker, then was brought down a yard behind the sticks. But the official juggling standing behind Faulk ruled that he juggled the ball, and did not gain control until after he had been pushed back behind the first down marker. Turnover on downs. Colts ball. Two minutes later Indianapolis was 9-0 and every sports talking head on television was throwing Belichick under the bus. But not me. Prior to that play, the Patriots held a 4th down conversion rate of greater than 75% and Tom Brady can make two yards in his sleep. Twice already in that quarter, Peyton Manning had taken his team 79-yards in a little over two minutes to score touchdowns. If he hadn’t wasted a timeout on first down for an incorrect personnel grouping, he would have been able to challenge the referee’s call and possibly have it reversed, winning the game. You play to win the game. Sometimes you lose.
In the final minute of the Jaguars/Jets game and trailing by two points, Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew burst through the middle of the Jets defensive line and rumbled toward the end zone for a touchdown. But a funny thing happened on the way to a score. As her reached the one-yard line and noticed that the Jets defenders were going out of their way to AVOID tackling him, MJD took a knee before reaching the goal line, thereby allowing his team to keep the ball, run down the clock and kick the game-winning field goal as time expired. The same commentators who would later rip Belichick for playing to win the game, praised Jacksonville coach Jack Del Rio for playing to win the game. Only what Jacksonville did was far more stupid than the decision New England would make several hours later. Field goals are missed routinely in this league. By half-time in eight games I had already seen six missed or blocked field goals/extra points, including one by the Jaguars’ own kicker! Not to mention the number of times the center snaps the ball over the holder’s head or behind his back or into the ground. It would have been a different story had Jacksonville been LEADING by two points. But unless your kicker’s name is Perfect, purposefully putting the game in his hands (or on his foot) is a recipe for disaster.
The Saints squeaked out another victory on Sunday in a game that seemed far more difficult than it should have been. However, this isn’t college football. It doesn’t matter how you win the games, only that you do.
Fortunately, what was billed as perhaps the worst game in the history of the NFL, did not live up to the hype. Don’t get me wrong, the Chiefs/Raiders game was bad, but the first half of the Browns/Ravens game Monday night was atrocious. It was like a nightmare where you’re driving through Cleveland, and no matter how long you drive or how far you go, you’re still in Cleveland.
I know I’ve said this before, but these are not your father’s Bengals. Cincinnati has now defeated the defending Superbowl champions twice this season, this time by playing better defense than a team renown for playing outstanding defense. I am officially on the bandwagon.
Effective this Tuesday, the Buffalo Bills fired their head coach after a disappointing start to their season. How long until the Browns, Rams, Bucs, Raiders, Chiefs and Lions follow suit?
My Superbowl Picks for Week 10: New Orleans Saints vs. Indianapolis Colts.
Finally, NASA announced this week that they have discovered “significant” deposits of water on the moon. Sweet. Sign me up for 10,000 shares of “Lunafina!”
It’s official. At 7:08 Eastern Standard Time last Wednesday, Lou Dobbs officially terminated his career at CNN. The former business analyst turned xenophobic populist lunatic was the last of the original anchors at the Cable News Network. But, on a network trying (yet failing miserably) to carve out a niche for itself as the neutral zone between the “extremes” of Fox News and MSNBC, Dobbs’ presence as an anti-immigration conspiracy theorist thoroughly undermined those efforts. Although cryptic about his plans for the future, speculation is that Lou and his politics would be far more comfortable at, say, Fox, than he was with his former employer. Frankly, I think that might be a good idea. Confine all the crazy to a single channel.
Late last week Attorney General Eric Holder announced that suspected 9/11 “mastermind” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and several of his cohorts currently housed at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility will be tried in Federal court in New York City, and that others are to be moved to maximum security prisons in the continental United States. This immediately sent Republicans scrambling for the nearest television camera in a race to see which of them could provoke mass hysteria the quickest. It’s pretty much cliché at this point: the Kenyan fascist imposter president Obama wants to sacrifice us all to the Muslims, turning us into a terrorist target, cats and dogs living together, end of the world / wrath of God-type stuff. Sigh. Why do these people hate their country? Why do they believe America to be incapable of prosecuting a terrorist and bringing him to justice? I know this might surprise some people, but KSM will not be the first terrorist prosecuted in Federal court. Oh, and by the way, he won’t be the first terrorist interned in a maximum security Federal prison in the continental United States. The ADX Supermax facility in Florence, Colorado has held convicted terrorists since at least the mid-nineties, no escapes, no assaults. KSM and his associates have been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002, no assaults, no escapes, not even an attempt. For anyone who does know, the detention center covers a small portion of the 45 square mile naval base, surrounded by 43 THOUSAND square miles of communist Cuba, over which the U.S. Navy has no control. Anybody (who is not a U.S. citizen) could hop a boat from Haiti, drive out into the countryside and lob rockets at the base from the jungle. Yet no one has. Contrast this with Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and the Green Zone in Iraq, which have seen dozens – if not hundreds of attacks since the wars began. This argument that housing these prisoners on the mainland somehow makes us more of a target is ridiculous. We’re a target for terrorism because we are the United State of America! How many terrorists were detained in the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995? How many terrorists were held on board the U.S.S Cole in 2000? How many terrorists were imprisoned at the World Trade Center in 1993 or 2001?
Burger King franchisees have sued the corporation over the $1.00 double cheeseburger offered on their value menu. According to the franchisees, the burger they are required to sell for a buck, costs them $1.10 to produce, therefore costing them ten cents for each burger sold. I guess I’m a little confused by this. Do the franchise owners not understand the concept of a promotion, or a loss leader? In order to draw more customers, businesses often cut the price of certain items below profitability in the hope that more people will purchase additional items, like fries and sodas, with their (in this case) double cheeseburger, thereby increasing overall revenue. Since I don’t own a Burger King franchise I can’t say for sure, but it seems like when you sign up for something like that, you’re obligated to adhere to the rules and regulations – and promotions of the franchiser, no? If you don’t like being told what to do or how to run your business, perhaps running a franchise of a national chain restaurant is not for you.
My NFL Thoughts for Week 10:
Let’s get this out of the way right off the top. Bill Belichick is not crazy. He made a good call and got a bad result. This is a classic case of hindsight being 20/20. On 4th and 2, with 2:04 left in the game and the ball on his own 28-yardline leading by 6 points, future Hall-of-Fame coach Belichick decided he was going to play to win the game. Following a timeout, he sent three-time Superbowl champion quarterback Tom Brady back out onto the field with the offense to get the two yards they needed to get the first down, run out the clock and hand the undefeated Indianapolis Colts their first loss of the season. Most coaches would have punted the ball away and try to force the Colts to go 60+ yards to score. But Belichick plays to win the game. The Patriots snapped the ball, Kevin Faulk ran a three-yard pattern, turned around and caught Brady’s pass beyond the first down marker, then was brought down a yard behind the sticks. But the official juggling standing behind Faulk ruled that he juggled the ball, and did not gain control until after he had been pushed back behind the first down marker. Turnover on downs. Colts ball. Two minutes later Indianapolis was 9-0 and every sports talking head on television was throwing Belichick under the bus. But not me. Prior to that play, the Patriots held a 4th down conversion rate of greater than 75% and Tom Brady can make two yards in his sleep. Twice already in that quarter, Peyton Manning had taken his team 79-yards in a little over two minutes to score touchdowns. If he hadn’t wasted a timeout on first down for an incorrect personnel grouping, he would have been able to challenge the referee’s call and possibly have it reversed, winning the game. You play to win the game. Sometimes you lose.
In the final minute of the Jaguars/Jets game and trailing by two points, Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew burst through the middle of the Jets defensive line and rumbled toward the end zone for a touchdown. But a funny thing happened on the way to a score. As her reached the one-yard line and noticed that the Jets defenders were going out of their way to AVOID tackling him, MJD took a knee before reaching the goal line, thereby allowing his team to keep the ball, run down the clock and kick the game-winning field goal as time expired. The same commentators who would later rip Belichick for playing to win the game, praised Jacksonville coach Jack Del Rio for playing to win the game. Only what Jacksonville did was far more stupid than the decision New England would make several hours later. Field goals are missed routinely in this league. By half-time in eight games I had already seen six missed or blocked field goals/extra points, including one by the Jaguars’ own kicker! Not to mention the number of times the center snaps the ball over the holder’s head or behind his back or into the ground. It would have been a different story had Jacksonville been LEADING by two points. But unless your kicker’s name is Perfect, purposefully putting the game in his hands (or on his foot) is a recipe for disaster.
The Saints squeaked out another victory on Sunday in a game that seemed far more difficult than it should have been. However, this isn’t college football. It doesn’t matter how you win the games, only that you do.
Fortunately, what was billed as perhaps the worst game in the history of the NFL, did not live up to the hype. Don’t get me wrong, the Chiefs/Raiders game was bad, but the first half of the Browns/Ravens game Monday night was atrocious. It was like a nightmare where you’re driving through Cleveland, and no matter how long you drive or how far you go, you’re still in Cleveland.
I know I’ve said this before, but these are not your father’s Bengals. Cincinnati has now defeated the defending Superbowl champions twice this season, this time by playing better defense than a team renown for playing outstanding defense. I am officially on the bandwagon.
Effective this Tuesday, the Buffalo Bills fired their head coach after a disappointing start to their season. How long until the Browns, Rams, Bucs, Raiders, Chiefs and Lions follow suit?
My Superbowl Picks for Week 10: New Orleans Saints vs. Indianapolis Colts.
Finally, NASA announced this week that they have discovered “significant” deposits of water on the moon. Sweet. Sign me up for 10,000 shares of “Lunafina!”
11.11.2009
Bullets
Enough of the Pittsburgh Steelers already!
Twenty years ago tonight I remember sitting in front of the television with my dad, watching the ten o’clock news on CBC. I’m pretty sure I was supposed to be in bed, but my parents were less strict about that sort of thing if something important was going on. And young as I was, I was aware enough of the world to know that I was witnessing much more than a group of people swinging sledge hammers at a graffiti-covered concrete wall. That night, 40 years of Communist control over the Eastern Bloc collapsed, a city was reunited, and the red-headed step child of the Cold War, the German Democratic Republic, ceased to exist. Of course, it didn’t happen overnight, and there were numerous factors that brought about the change, but the fact that it happened at all was a fulfillment of a dream many - if not most people at the time considered impossible. If you told anybody in the summer of 1989 that by October the following year, East and West Germany would be replaced on the map by a single, unified Germany, they would have laughed at you. Here’s to the fall of the Iron Curtain.
My condolences to the families of those all those affected by the tragedy that took place at Fort Hood, Texas a week ago. Last Thursday, Army psychologist Nidal Hasan allegedly walked into a readiness center on base and started shooting. By the time it was over, 13 people were dead and 31 injured. It’s bad enough that this sort of thing continues to happen in this country, only made worse by the fact that this time, it happened to the very people ready and willing to give their lives to protect us, by someone they thought was one of their own.
In an unusual twist of fate, the alleged Fort Hood shooter survived his rampage, and is currently recuperating under guard at an undisclosed hospital location. Typically these maniacs get to take the easy way out, either by taking their own lives or being cut down in an exchange of gunfire with police. But this time we’ll get to ask why, and maybe even get an answer, before final justice is dispensed. No, Hasan’s fate is not in doubt. This is Texas after all.
As soon as the name of the Fort Hood shooter was released, Muslim groups across the country scrambled to find a microphone to denounce Hasan’s actions, while some at another end of the political spectrum stumbled over themselves to suggest that perhaps all Muslim soldiers - if not all Muslims as a whole - should be viewed with suspicion and maybe even questioned as to their allegiances. I have a dream. I have a dream, that one day, minorities in America will not have to rush to a television camera to emphatically state the obvious, that the actions of one individual who happens to share some aspect of their faith or culture, do not represent the group as a whole. When a white man blew the side off a twelve story building in Oklahoma City, spokespersons for the “white community” did not have to waste airtime explaining that the actions of a single 27-year-old anti-government white man did not reflect the sentiments of the entire caucasian population. When Scott Roder allegedly assassinated Dr. George Tiller several months ago, cable news anchors were not calling for the detention and interrogation of all pro-life activists. When are we going to get to the point in this country when the actions of a single minority are accepted as just that, and not a reflection upon everyone else?
November 10, 2009 is scheduled to be the last day of John Allen Muhammad's life. Better known as the D.C. Sniper, Muhammad will be executed in Virginia on Tuesday for the murder of a local man during a seventeen day shooting spree in October of 2002. The details of this case have largely been forgotten in the years since, but at the time, this was the most terrifying thing to happen on U.S. soil since the attack on New York City. Maryland and Virginia were absolutely paralyzed with fear for more than two weeks, as people were simply murdered at random by a phantom marksman, while the police and the FBI seemed powerless to stop the bloodshed. People were ducking behind their cars as they pumped gas, zig zagging on their way into stores, sneaking their kids into school through back doors in an attempt to avoid being shot. Where the anthrax letters failed, Muhammad succeeded in holding the entire country hostage to the will of a pathetic vindictive man, angry at his ex-wife and intent on killing her when he got through with his rampage. I don’t believe in the death penalty, but I won’t be sorry to see this man go.
In the aftermath of Republican victories in New Jersey and Virginia last week that apparently heralded the end of the Obama presidency, RNC chairman Michael Steele decided that Conservatism - and by extension the Republican Party - is now such a juggernaut that they no longer need so-called “moderates” under the tent. When asked about the loss of the NY-23 Congressional District to a Democrat for the first time since the Grant Presidency, Steele dismissed it as being about local issues, (although I guess none of the other races were), then launched into a pseudo-tirade in which he threatened to “come after” any moderate Republican politician that so much as entertained the thought of working with the President or Congressional Democrats for the good of the country. Nice work Mike. Way to grow the party. Way to make people feel welcome. I can’t tell you how comforted I am to know that Michael Steele is running the GOP.
Oh, by the way, the House voted to pass its version of healthcare reform on Saturday by a margin of three votes. Three votes. In the Senate, a three vote margin of victory would be equivalent to a four game sweep of the World Series. But a three vote margin of victory with a forty-seat majority is so much more than pathetic. Of course, this is par for the course from a party that still hasn’t figured out how to or is too afraid to act like winners. How long is it going take before Democrats figure out that sniping at each other and picking each other off is the quickest, surest route back to minority status?
In an attempt to prove they are more than the “party of no,” House Republicans introduced their version of healthcare reform last week. A couple days later the Congressional Budget Office released it’s evaluation. Over the next 10 years, the Republican healthcare bill will cover an additional 3 million people and reduce the deficit by about $68 billion. Not bad. Unless you consider that the same CBO scored the Democratic reform version as covering an additional 36 million people while reducing the federal deficit by $104 billion. That’s right. The Democratic bill, already gutted by the special interests and watered down by three legislative committees covers 12 times more people and saves $36 billion more than the non-alternative offered as political cover by a disingenuous, obstructionist Republican Party claiming to be concerned with fiscal responsibility and the well-being of Americans.
My NFL Thoughts for Week 9:
The two best teams in the league struggled a little this week against inferior teams, yet still managed to pull out a victory. Neither the Saints nor the Colts played their best football. But great teams find ways to win, regardless of the circumstances. The only thing standing between these two teams and a date in Miami are the defending champs and some guy named Favre.
The Cleveland Browns did not lose this week. Of course they didn’t play either. That might have had something to do with it.
I’m ashamed to admit I lived in Wisconsin for a few years, and even now consider myself a fan of the Green Bay Packers. Aaron Rodgers and company were defeated Sunday by the previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their rookie quarterback Josh Freeman. Embarrassing doesn’t begin to describe it. Hard to believe that merely two years ago this team was one interception away from the Superbowl.
If the NFC East Division were to suddenly drop off the face of the earth I don’t think I’d miss it. Well, every team but the Cowboys of course. Sorry honey.
With the exception of New Orleans, no team in the league is more fun to watch than the Cincinnati Bengals. Halfway through the season they find themselves on top of a pretty competitive division, half-a-game ahead of the the defending champion Steelers, with a trip to Pittsburgh coming up next Sunday. And I don’t care what anybody says, Ochocinco attempting to “bribe” the official with a single dollar bill to change a call was funny stuff. The league needs to lighten up a little.
My Superbowl picks for Week 9: New Orleans Saints vs. Pittsburgh Steelers.
Against the best interests of his school and his team, University of Central Florida basketball star Marcus Jordan (son of Michael Jordan), stepped on the court for his first preseason game last week wearing his Nike sneakers. They might have been the most expensive pair of shoes any athlete has ever laced up. That act constituted a violation of the school’s endorsement deal with Adidas, and cost UCF over three million dollars. What a team player. I realize three million dollars is nothing more than an evening in Vegas to the Jordan family, but to a small school trying to make a name for itself in big time college sports, three million dollars is a pretty big deal.
Remember way back in the 80’s when the VCR hit the market? Remember how Hollywood freaked out, claiming that if people could watch and record movies in their own homes, no one would bother going to the theater? Funny how all that fear completely disappeared when they realized that not only did people continue to go to the theater, they also dropped million - nay, billions - of dollars a year to rent, and then purchase a copy of the same movie they had just seen on the big screen the week before. Several years ago when the digital video recorder first appeared in stores, television and cable networks tore their hair out trying to figure out how they were going to stay in business if people could just skip right over the commercials. However, it turns out they had nothing to fear from DVRs after all. Recent studies have revealed that, lo and behold, people are now watching more commercials than ever before. You see, back in the days before DVR, if there was more than one television show broadcast at the same time on different networks, viewers would have to choose one to watch, neglecting the others. But now, no one has to choose. They can watch all the shows they want, whenever they want to watch them. And as if that weren’t enough, it seems people are just too lazy to pick up the remote and skip through the commercials after all. Three times the programing means three times the advertising, which means three times the revenue.
Funny thing about fear. The fear itself is often - if not usually - far worse than the feared result. The fear of change is more frightening than the actual change. It’s true for television, it’s true for politics and it’s true in life. We would all be better off if we spent a little more time understanding and a little less time afraid.
Finally, remember Carrie Prejean? Ex-beauty queen turned traditional marriage activist, family values crusader and hero/darling of conservative media? Well she’s back. This time it’s not about pageant questions or topless photos or performance-enhancing breast implants. This time, there’s a sex tape. That’s right. Turns out this symbol of purity filmed herself engaging in a little “quality time” with... herself, and sent the video to her boyfriend. Sigh. We’ve gone down this road enough times with people like Prejean before that what I’m about to say shouldn’t have to be said. But, just in case, nobody cares that a reasonably attractive young woman sent naked video of herself to her boyfriend. What turns Carrie Prejean and her apologists into objects of ire is the fact that she has made a name and is making a living off of extolling the evils of some of the same behavior she herself has engaged/is engaging in. Americans like their celebrities to be flawed. They don’t like them to be hypocrites.
Twenty years ago tonight I remember sitting in front of the television with my dad, watching the ten o’clock news on CBC. I’m pretty sure I was supposed to be in bed, but my parents were less strict about that sort of thing if something important was going on. And young as I was, I was aware enough of the world to know that I was witnessing much more than a group of people swinging sledge hammers at a graffiti-covered concrete wall. That night, 40 years of Communist control over the Eastern Bloc collapsed, a city was reunited, and the red-headed step child of the Cold War, the German Democratic Republic, ceased to exist. Of course, it didn’t happen overnight, and there were numerous factors that brought about the change, but the fact that it happened at all was a fulfillment of a dream many - if not most people at the time considered impossible. If you told anybody in the summer of 1989 that by October the following year, East and West Germany would be replaced on the map by a single, unified Germany, they would have laughed at you. Here’s to the fall of the Iron Curtain.
My condolences to the families of those all those affected by the tragedy that took place at Fort Hood, Texas a week ago. Last Thursday, Army psychologist Nidal Hasan allegedly walked into a readiness center on base and started shooting. By the time it was over, 13 people were dead and 31 injured. It’s bad enough that this sort of thing continues to happen in this country, only made worse by the fact that this time, it happened to the very people ready and willing to give their lives to protect us, by someone they thought was one of their own.
In an unusual twist of fate, the alleged Fort Hood shooter survived his rampage, and is currently recuperating under guard at an undisclosed hospital location. Typically these maniacs get to take the easy way out, either by taking their own lives or being cut down in an exchange of gunfire with police. But this time we’ll get to ask why, and maybe even get an answer, before final justice is dispensed. No, Hasan’s fate is not in doubt. This is Texas after all.
As soon as the name of the Fort Hood shooter was released, Muslim groups across the country scrambled to find a microphone to denounce Hasan’s actions, while some at another end of the political spectrum stumbled over themselves to suggest that perhaps all Muslim soldiers - if not all Muslims as a whole - should be viewed with suspicion and maybe even questioned as to their allegiances. I have a dream. I have a dream, that one day, minorities in America will not have to rush to a television camera to emphatically state the obvious, that the actions of one individual who happens to share some aspect of their faith or culture, do not represent the group as a whole. When a white man blew the side off a twelve story building in Oklahoma City, spokespersons for the “white community” did not have to waste airtime explaining that the actions of a single 27-year-old anti-government white man did not reflect the sentiments of the entire caucasian population. When Scott Roder allegedly assassinated Dr. George Tiller several months ago, cable news anchors were not calling for the detention and interrogation of all pro-life activists. When are we going to get to the point in this country when the actions of a single minority are accepted as just that, and not a reflection upon everyone else?
November 10, 2009 is scheduled to be the last day of John Allen Muhammad's life. Better known as the D.C. Sniper, Muhammad will be executed in Virginia on Tuesday for the murder of a local man during a seventeen day shooting spree in October of 2002. The details of this case have largely been forgotten in the years since, but at the time, this was the most terrifying thing to happen on U.S. soil since the attack on New York City. Maryland and Virginia were absolutely paralyzed with fear for more than two weeks, as people were simply murdered at random by a phantom marksman, while the police and the FBI seemed powerless to stop the bloodshed. People were ducking behind their cars as they pumped gas, zig zagging on their way into stores, sneaking their kids into school through back doors in an attempt to avoid being shot. Where the anthrax letters failed, Muhammad succeeded in holding the entire country hostage to the will of a pathetic vindictive man, angry at his ex-wife and intent on killing her when he got through with his rampage. I don’t believe in the death penalty, but I won’t be sorry to see this man go.
In the aftermath of Republican victories in New Jersey and Virginia last week that apparently heralded the end of the Obama presidency, RNC chairman Michael Steele decided that Conservatism - and by extension the Republican Party - is now such a juggernaut that they no longer need so-called “moderates” under the tent. When asked about the loss of the NY-23 Congressional District to a Democrat for the first time since the Grant Presidency, Steele dismissed it as being about local issues, (although I guess none of the other races were), then launched into a pseudo-tirade in which he threatened to “come after” any moderate Republican politician that so much as entertained the thought of working with the President or Congressional Democrats for the good of the country. Nice work Mike. Way to grow the party. Way to make people feel welcome. I can’t tell you how comforted I am to know that Michael Steele is running the GOP.
Oh, by the way, the House voted to pass its version of healthcare reform on Saturday by a margin of three votes. Three votes. In the Senate, a three vote margin of victory would be equivalent to a four game sweep of the World Series. But a three vote margin of victory with a forty-seat majority is so much more than pathetic. Of course, this is par for the course from a party that still hasn’t figured out how to or is too afraid to act like winners. How long is it going take before Democrats figure out that sniping at each other and picking each other off is the quickest, surest route back to minority status?
In an attempt to prove they are more than the “party of no,” House Republicans introduced their version of healthcare reform last week. A couple days later the Congressional Budget Office released it’s evaluation. Over the next 10 years, the Republican healthcare bill will cover an additional 3 million people and reduce the deficit by about $68 billion. Not bad. Unless you consider that the same CBO scored the Democratic reform version as covering an additional 36 million people while reducing the federal deficit by $104 billion. That’s right. The Democratic bill, already gutted by the special interests and watered down by three legislative committees covers 12 times more people and saves $36 billion more than the non-alternative offered as political cover by a disingenuous, obstructionist Republican Party claiming to be concerned with fiscal responsibility and the well-being of Americans.
My NFL Thoughts for Week 9:
The two best teams in the league struggled a little this week against inferior teams, yet still managed to pull out a victory. Neither the Saints nor the Colts played their best football. But great teams find ways to win, regardless of the circumstances. The only thing standing between these two teams and a date in Miami are the defending champs and some guy named Favre.
The Cleveland Browns did not lose this week. Of course they didn’t play either. That might have had something to do with it.
I’m ashamed to admit I lived in Wisconsin for a few years, and even now consider myself a fan of the Green Bay Packers. Aaron Rodgers and company were defeated Sunday by the previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their rookie quarterback Josh Freeman. Embarrassing doesn’t begin to describe it. Hard to believe that merely two years ago this team was one interception away from the Superbowl.
If the NFC East Division were to suddenly drop off the face of the earth I don’t think I’d miss it. Well, every team but the Cowboys of course. Sorry honey.
With the exception of New Orleans, no team in the league is more fun to watch than the Cincinnati Bengals. Halfway through the season they find themselves on top of a pretty competitive division, half-a-game ahead of the the defending champion Steelers, with a trip to Pittsburgh coming up next Sunday. And I don’t care what anybody says, Ochocinco attempting to “bribe” the official with a single dollar bill to change a call was funny stuff. The league needs to lighten up a little.
My Superbowl picks for Week 9: New Orleans Saints vs. Pittsburgh Steelers.
Against the best interests of his school and his team, University of Central Florida basketball star Marcus Jordan (son of Michael Jordan), stepped on the court for his first preseason game last week wearing his Nike sneakers. They might have been the most expensive pair of shoes any athlete has ever laced up. That act constituted a violation of the school’s endorsement deal with Adidas, and cost UCF over three million dollars. What a team player. I realize three million dollars is nothing more than an evening in Vegas to the Jordan family, but to a small school trying to make a name for itself in big time college sports, three million dollars is a pretty big deal.
Remember way back in the 80’s when the VCR hit the market? Remember how Hollywood freaked out, claiming that if people could watch and record movies in their own homes, no one would bother going to the theater? Funny how all that fear completely disappeared when they realized that not only did people continue to go to the theater, they also dropped million - nay, billions - of dollars a year to rent, and then purchase a copy of the same movie they had just seen on the big screen the week before. Several years ago when the digital video recorder first appeared in stores, television and cable networks tore their hair out trying to figure out how they were going to stay in business if people could just skip right over the commercials. However, it turns out they had nothing to fear from DVRs after all. Recent studies have revealed that, lo and behold, people are now watching more commercials than ever before. You see, back in the days before DVR, if there was more than one television show broadcast at the same time on different networks, viewers would have to choose one to watch, neglecting the others. But now, no one has to choose. They can watch all the shows they want, whenever they want to watch them. And as if that weren’t enough, it seems people are just too lazy to pick up the remote and skip through the commercials after all. Three times the programing means three times the advertising, which means three times the revenue.
Funny thing about fear. The fear itself is often - if not usually - far worse than the feared result. The fear of change is more frightening than the actual change. It’s true for television, it’s true for politics and it’s true in life. We would all be better off if we spent a little more time understanding and a little less time afraid.
Finally, remember Carrie Prejean? Ex-beauty queen turned traditional marriage activist, family values crusader and hero/darling of conservative media? Well she’s back. This time it’s not about pageant questions or topless photos or performance-enhancing breast implants. This time, there’s a sex tape. That’s right. Turns out this symbol of purity filmed herself engaging in a little “quality time” with... herself, and sent the video to her boyfriend. Sigh. We’ve gone down this road enough times with people like Prejean before that what I’m about to say shouldn’t have to be said. But, just in case, nobody cares that a reasonably attractive young woman sent naked video of herself to her boyfriend. What turns Carrie Prejean and her apologists into objects of ire is the fact that she has made a name and is making a living off of extolling the evils of some of the same behavior she herself has engaged/is engaging in. Americans like their celebrities to be flawed. They don’t like them to be hypocrites.
11.06.2009
...The Sincerest Form...
I was going to hold on to this until next Tuesday for the regular update, but I can't. It's just too funny. Jon Stewart as Glenn Beck. If you've never watched Beck's show, now you don't have to. The best part is, it's only slightly hyperbolic. Enjoy.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| The 11/3 Project | ||||
| ||||
11.04.2009
Vote For Pedro
Apparently, today is Election Day. How about that. Figures that the first election I’m eligible to vote in is referendum on some kind of regional transportation authority that doesn’t even apply to my district. Stupid off-year elections.
According to persons far wiser than I, there are actually elections of consequence today. And somehow, despite the fact that he has been in office only ten months, these elections in New Jersey and Virginia have been billed as a referendum on the entire Obama presidency. Interesting, considering that the New Jersey race is really about how much the people of the swamp hate the highest property taxes in the nation, and that since Richard Nixon in 1974, the party in the White House has never also occupied the governor’s mansion in Virginia. Yes, even Ronald Reagan, the savior himself, failed to keep Virginia out of Democratic hands. I don’t remember Reagan’s legacy being defined ten months into his presidency by races for governor he wasn’t actually involved in, but the political news narrative isn’t required to make sense, is it. Especially when it comes to Obama.
And then there’s the strange case of NY-23. New York’s 23rd Congressional District has sent a Republican representative to Washington since 1856. That is not a type-o. For 153 years, Republicans have controlled that seat in the House. Things looked on track to maintain that perfect record this year, as the local Republican Party nominated Dede Scozzafava to cruise to an easy victory against the token Democratic challenger Bill Owens. But that didn’t sit well with the new conservative rage machine. Angered by her moderate to liberal positions on abortion and same-sex marriage, (despite very conservative positions on, well, everything else), the local Conservative Party re-animated a wax figurine they then named Doug Hoffman, made sure he passed the anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-government litmus test, and hustled him out to run against Scozzafava. As Hoffman received national media attention and the endorsement of Fox News, everyone wanting to be someone in the Republican Party, from Tim Pawlenty to Mike Huckabee to Sarah Palin to Glenn Beck, stumbled over themselves to endorse the man they labeled “the true conservative” in the race. As typically happens in primaries and off-year elections, those who scream the loudest tend to get the best results. Support for Hoffman among conservatives surged, while support for Scozzafava plummeted, until, less than a week before the election, she dropped out of the race. The following day, Scozzafava, the Republican candidate, fully endorsed her Democratic opponent and began campaigning for him. As a result of all this drama, the reliably conservative NY-23 is now a statistical toss-up between Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman and Democrat Bill Owens.
The case of NY-23 is less about the President than it is about the Republican Party. There is a debate raging inside the party over its identity. For some, the lesson of the 2008 election was that the Republican Party is shrinking, and in order to recapture national prominence, in must grow and become more inclusive. Statistics seem to back up this opinion. Only 20 percent of American voters identify as Republican – the lowest in 26 years – while 35 percent identify as Democrats. (There is an interesting disconnect in the numbers, since far more Americans still identify themselves as ideologically conservative than ideologically liberal, but, one subject at a time.) With Blacks voting 96% Democratic, and a rapidly increasing Latino population trending Democratic by a two to one margin, Republicans are finding It increasingly difficult to maintain national relevance. But there is a significant – and vocal – portion of the Republican Party that feels the reason they were defeated in 2008 was because their candidates simply weren’t pure enough. They have made it their mission to purge from the party, anyone they deem to be insufficiently conservative. Translation; anyone Republican supporting a woman’s right to choose and/or same-sex marriage and/or any tax increase of any kind, should shut up and get the bleep out, because they aren’t welcome anymore. District 23 is a battle of conservative ideology. But I’m not sure the results will translate well to other races in other parts of the country. It’s no more difficult to send an ultra-conservative instead of a moderate conservative to Congress from a white, middle-class district that ALWAYS sends a conservative to Congress. It’s a different ballgame to attempt to repeat that feat in a far more diverse swing district.
Update. As of 10:30 Eastern time, Republicans are victorious in Virginia and New Jersey. Results for NY-23 are not yet in.
Even more recent update. As of Wednesday morning, Democrat Bill Owens becomes the first Democrat since the Ulysses Grant presidency to represent NY-23 in Washington. Ouch.
Last week President Obama signed the defense budget into law, and with it, finally killed production of the F-22 fighter. In his farewell address in 1961, President Eisenhower warned of the evolution of a “military industrial complex,” a self-perpetuating system that will continue to grow, regardless of whether or not it is needed. The F-22 was the textbook example. In the early ‘80’s, the Air Force decided they needed a new generation of fighter aircraft as a deterrent to combat and deter any Soviet aggression. So, the search for a new plane began as a competition between the Lockheed Martin YF-22 concept, and the Northrop/McDonnell Douglas concept YF-23. Eventually, Lockheed won the competition and the F-22 went into production. From the very beginning, the program has been somewhat of a disaster. Even before manufacturing of the aircraft began, the reason for its existence, the Soviet Union, dissolved. But, because Lockheed had spread the manufacturing of the F-22 amongst 38 states, no one in Congress had the political courage to vote against jobs, so production continued. The plane was then plagued with problems, like parts that didn’t fit because they were manufactured in 38 different places. By the summer of 2009, the Air Force was the proud owner of 187 fighters that had never been used in combat, cannot be flown in the rain and cost 2 1/3 times more than they originally contracted for them. For eight years, representatives claiming to value fiscal responsibility above all else had the opportunity to end this waste of money, yet didn’t. Why not? Why did it take a “tax and spend liberal” government to trim a bloated defense budget?
After news of his refusal to marry an interracial couple went national a couple weeks ago, Louisiana Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell resigned his office, effective today (Tuesday). He offered no explanation with his resignation, but I don’t think an explanation is necessary. In writing about him in my last column I suggested that Justice Bardwell should either perform the mandated duties of his office or find a career that did not conflict with his personal ethics. My congratulations to Bardwell for this flash of integrity, and good luck to him in whatever that new career may be.
Both Ford and General Motors released quarterly earning this week showing an increase in sales. Ford even reported a profit of nearly a billion dollars, both due in part to the success of the Cash for Clunkers program. The Commerce Department also reported a 3.5% increase in the national Gross Domestic Product – the first increase in 2 years, due also in part to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which also has reportedly saved 650,000 jobs since its enactment in March. So much for the stimulus being a failure. Let’s be clear about exactly what our $787 billion was supposed to do. The bill was designed to pick up the economic slack in a severe downturn until the private section could get back on its feet, protecting a number of jobs in the process. At this point, about 30% of stimulus funds have been spent, with the rest to be distributed through 2010. Seems like 3.5% growth and more than half-a-million jobs (not including the multiplier effect) is a decent return on investment, considering the market is still doing fairly well and inflation remains at 0%. Republicans argue that despite the positive economic numbers, unemployment continues to rise; therefore, the stimulus was a failure. Measured against what it was supposed to accomplish, that statement is obviously false. If there is an argument to be made it is that if $787 billion resulted in 3.5% growth and 650,000 jobs with no inflation at 30% completion, then a larger stimulus bill designed to spend more money earlier would have produced better results. They don’t seem to be making that argument.
My NFL Thoughts for Week 8:
The Saints keep finding different ways to win football games. Again, New Orleans still has more than half its schedule left to play, but great teams find ways to win games that by all rights they should lose. New England did it to Baltimore two years ago, and New Orleans has done it to two different teams, two weeks in a row. At this point in time the Saints are every bit as good as the Patriots or the Colts.
Tough win for the Colts this week. But, to paraphrase what I said in the previous paragraph, it doesn’t matter how you win, as long as you win.
Congratulations to the Rams and Titans for notching their first win of the season on Sunday. No small irony that the Rams first – as possibly only – win of the season came against the team that went winless all of last season. The sidebar to the Titans victory is that for the first time in two seasons, former third pick in the draft Vince Young got the opportunity to start a game. True, the game was virtually meaningless, but a start is a start nonetheless. Perhaps this is the beginning of better days for a troubled VY. That leaves only the Buccaneers left without a win. I’m not holding my breath.
I’ve ripped Carolina defensive end Julius Peppers more than once this season for his abysmal play/salary ratio. But over the past three games Peppers has begun working his way out of the doghouse, throwing in an interception return for a touchdown this week against Arizona. If only they could get this quarterback on the same road to recovery.
What the heck happened to the New York Giants?
There was a Terrell Owens sighting in Buffalo this weekend. And me without my popcorn. I had forgotten what he looks like.
Play of the week goes to New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez, in a losing effort against the Dolphins at the Meadowlands. With the Jets lined up near the Miami goal line, Sanchez fakes the handoff to his running back and rolls left, right into what might as well have been an empty stadium. Everybody – and I mean EVERYBODY – all 21 other players, the fans and even the referee thought the ball was at the bottom of the pile. It’s too bad that a play that spectacular was wasted on a loss.
In case you were living under a rock, Brett Favre returned to face his old team in Green Bay Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately for the Packers, this game ended just like the last one, with a Minnesota victory. Favre has accomplished what he set out to do, prove to the team that let him walk away that he can still play the game at the top tier of his profession. But in doing so I think he forever altered the way Wisconsin feel about him and his legacy. I hope it was worth it.
My Superbowl Picks for Week 8: New Orleans Saints vs. Indianapolis Colts.
If you've seen the movie "Office Space," this is the greatest thing you've seen since.
Finally, a football story with non-football application. Kansas City Chiefs running back and long time pain in the butt Larry Johnson was suspended this week for comments he made during a post-game interview. On several occasions, Johnson used gay slurs in reference to various individuals and other things, and then abruptly ended the interview. This, in addition to Johnson ripping his coach on Twitter pushed Chiefs management to decide to discipline Johnson, and I can’t say I blame them. Have we really not yet reached the point were we understand that it is not acceptable to degrade people in public? Yes, this is America. You can think whatever you want. For the most part, you can say whatever you want. But just because you CAN do something, doesn’t mean you SHOULD. Is it really so difficult to run your words past your brain before they exit your mouth? Especially for someone who talks to cameras after games every week?
According to persons far wiser than I, there are actually elections of consequence today. And somehow, despite the fact that he has been in office only ten months, these elections in New Jersey and Virginia have been billed as a referendum on the entire Obama presidency. Interesting, considering that the New Jersey race is really about how much the people of the swamp hate the highest property taxes in the nation, and that since Richard Nixon in 1974, the party in the White House has never also occupied the governor’s mansion in Virginia. Yes, even Ronald Reagan, the savior himself, failed to keep Virginia out of Democratic hands. I don’t remember Reagan’s legacy being defined ten months into his presidency by races for governor he wasn’t actually involved in, but the political news narrative isn’t required to make sense, is it. Especially when it comes to Obama.
And then there’s the strange case of NY-23. New York’s 23rd Congressional District has sent a Republican representative to Washington since 1856. That is not a type-o. For 153 years, Republicans have controlled that seat in the House. Things looked on track to maintain that perfect record this year, as the local Republican Party nominated Dede Scozzafava to cruise to an easy victory against the token Democratic challenger Bill Owens. But that didn’t sit well with the new conservative rage machine. Angered by her moderate to liberal positions on abortion and same-sex marriage, (despite very conservative positions on, well, everything else), the local Conservative Party re-animated a wax figurine they then named Doug Hoffman, made sure he passed the anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-government litmus test, and hustled him out to run against Scozzafava. As Hoffman received national media attention and the endorsement of Fox News, everyone wanting to be someone in the Republican Party, from Tim Pawlenty to Mike Huckabee to Sarah Palin to Glenn Beck, stumbled over themselves to endorse the man they labeled “the true conservative” in the race. As typically happens in primaries and off-year elections, those who scream the loudest tend to get the best results. Support for Hoffman among conservatives surged, while support for Scozzafava plummeted, until, less than a week before the election, she dropped out of the race. The following day, Scozzafava, the Republican candidate, fully endorsed her Democratic opponent and began campaigning for him. As a result of all this drama, the reliably conservative NY-23 is now a statistical toss-up between Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman and Democrat Bill Owens.
The case of NY-23 is less about the President than it is about the Republican Party. There is a debate raging inside the party over its identity. For some, the lesson of the 2008 election was that the Republican Party is shrinking, and in order to recapture national prominence, in must grow and become more inclusive. Statistics seem to back up this opinion. Only 20 percent of American voters identify as Republican – the lowest in 26 years – while 35 percent identify as Democrats. (There is an interesting disconnect in the numbers, since far more Americans still identify themselves as ideologically conservative than ideologically liberal, but, one subject at a time.) With Blacks voting 96% Democratic, and a rapidly increasing Latino population trending Democratic by a two to one margin, Republicans are finding It increasingly difficult to maintain national relevance. But there is a significant – and vocal – portion of the Republican Party that feels the reason they were defeated in 2008 was because their candidates simply weren’t pure enough. They have made it their mission to purge from the party, anyone they deem to be insufficiently conservative. Translation; anyone Republican supporting a woman’s right to choose and/or same-sex marriage and/or any tax increase of any kind, should shut up and get the bleep out, because they aren’t welcome anymore. District 23 is a battle of conservative ideology. But I’m not sure the results will translate well to other races in other parts of the country. It’s no more difficult to send an ultra-conservative instead of a moderate conservative to Congress from a white, middle-class district that ALWAYS sends a conservative to Congress. It’s a different ballgame to attempt to repeat that feat in a far more diverse swing district.
Update. As of 10:30 Eastern time, Republicans are victorious in Virginia and New Jersey. Results for NY-23 are not yet in.
Even more recent update. As of Wednesday morning, Democrat Bill Owens becomes the first Democrat since the Ulysses Grant presidency to represent NY-23 in Washington. Ouch.
Last week President Obama signed the defense budget into law, and with it, finally killed production of the F-22 fighter. In his farewell address in 1961, President Eisenhower warned of the evolution of a “military industrial complex,” a self-perpetuating system that will continue to grow, regardless of whether or not it is needed. The F-22 was the textbook example. In the early ‘80’s, the Air Force decided they needed a new generation of fighter aircraft as a deterrent to combat and deter any Soviet aggression. So, the search for a new plane began as a competition between the Lockheed Martin YF-22 concept, and the Northrop/McDonnell Douglas concept YF-23. Eventually, Lockheed won the competition and the F-22 went into production. From the very beginning, the program has been somewhat of a disaster. Even before manufacturing of the aircraft began, the reason for its existence, the Soviet Union, dissolved. But, because Lockheed had spread the manufacturing of the F-22 amongst 38 states, no one in Congress had the political courage to vote against jobs, so production continued. The plane was then plagued with problems, like parts that didn’t fit because they were manufactured in 38 different places. By the summer of 2009, the Air Force was the proud owner of 187 fighters that had never been used in combat, cannot be flown in the rain and cost 2 1/3 times more than they originally contracted for them. For eight years, representatives claiming to value fiscal responsibility above all else had the opportunity to end this waste of money, yet didn’t. Why not? Why did it take a “tax and spend liberal” government to trim a bloated defense budget?
After news of his refusal to marry an interracial couple went national a couple weeks ago, Louisiana Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell resigned his office, effective today (Tuesday). He offered no explanation with his resignation, but I don’t think an explanation is necessary. In writing about him in my last column I suggested that Justice Bardwell should either perform the mandated duties of his office or find a career that did not conflict with his personal ethics. My congratulations to Bardwell for this flash of integrity, and good luck to him in whatever that new career may be.
Both Ford and General Motors released quarterly earning this week showing an increase in sales. Ford even reported a profit of nearly a billion dollars, both due in part to the success of the Cash for Clunkers program. The Commerce Department also reported a 3.5% increase in the national Gross Domestic Product – the first increase in 2 years, due also in part to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which also has reportedly saved 650,000 jobs since its enactment in March. So much for the stimulus being a failure. Let’s be clear about exactly what our $787 billion was supposed to do. The bill was designed to pick up the economic slack in a severe downturn until the private section could get back on its feet, protecting a number of jobs in the process. At this point, about 30% of stimulus funds have been spent, with the rest to be distributed through 2010. Seems like 3.5% growth and more than half-a-million jobs (not including the multiplier effect) is a decent return on investment, considering the market is still doing fairly well and inflation remains at 0%. Republicans argue that despite the positive economic numbers, unemployment continues to rise; therefore, the stimulus was a failure. Measured against what it was supposed to accomplish, that statement is obviously false. If there is an argument to be made it is that if $787 billion resulted in 3.5% growth and 650,000 jobs with no inflation at 30% completion, then a larger stimulus bill designed to spend more money earlier would have produced better results. They don’t seem to be making that argument.
My NFL Thoughts for Week 8:
The Saints keep finding different ways to win football games. Again, New Orleans still has more than half its schedule left to play, but great teams find ways to win games that by all rights they should lose. New England did it to Baltimore two years ago, and New Orleans has done it to two different teams, two weeks in a row. At this point in time the Saints are every bit as good as the Patriots or the Colts.
Tough win for the Colts this week. But, to paraphrase what I said in the previous paragraph, it doesn’t matter how you win, as long as you win.
Congratulations to the Rams and Titans for notching their first win of the season on Sunday. No small irony that the Rams first – as possibly only – win of the season came against the team that went winless all of last season. The sidebar to the Titans victory is that for the first time in two seasons, former third pick in the draft Vince Young got the opportunity to start a game. True, the game was virtually meaningless, but a start is a start nonetheless. Perhaps this is the beginning of better days for a troubled VY. That leaves only the Buccaneers left without a win. I’m not holding my breath.
I’ve ripped Carolina defensive end Julius Peppers more than once this season for his abysmal play/salary ratio. But over the past three games Peppers has begun working his way out of the doghouse, throwing in an interception return for a touchdown this week against Arizona. If only they could get this quarterback on the same road to recovery.
What the heck happened to the New York Giants?
There was a Terrell Owens sighting in Buffalo this weekend. And me without my popcorn. I had forgotten what he looks like.
Play of the week goes to New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez, in a losing effort against the Dolphins at the Meadowlands. With the Jets lined up near the Miami goal line, Sanchez fakes the handoff to his running back and rolls left, right into what might as well have been an empty stadium. Everybody – and I mean EVERYBODY – all 21 other players, the fans and even the referee thought the ball was at the bottom of the pile. It’s too bad that a play that spectacular was wasted on a loss.
In case you were living under a rock, Brett Favre returned to face his old team in Green Bay Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately for the Packers, this game ended just like the last one, with a Minnesota victory. Favre has accomplished what he set out to do, prove to the team that let him walk away that he can still play the game at the top tier of his profession. But in doing so I think he forever altered the way Wisconsin feel about him and his legacy. I hope it was worth it.
My Superbowl Picks for Week 8: New Orleans Saints vs. Indianapolis Colts.
If you've seen the movie "Office Space," this is the greatest thing you've seen since.
Finally, a football story with non-football application. Kansas City Chiefs running back and long time pain in the butt Larry Johnson was suspended this week for comments he made during a post-game interview. On several occasions, Johnson used gay slurs in reference to various individuals and other things, and then abruptly ended the interview. This, in addition to Johnson ripping his coach on Twitter pushed Chiefs management to decide to discipline Johnson, and I can’t say I blame them. Have we really not yet reached the point were we understand that it is not acceptable to degrade people in public? Yes, this is America. You can think whatever you want. For the most part, you can say whatever you want. But just because you CAN do something, doesn’t mean you SHOULD. Is it really so difficult to run your words past your brain before they exit your mouth? Especially for someone who talks to cameras after games every week?
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