Wahoo!

Baseball season is almost here!!! JOY!

It's about your republic, not about your team.

"Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."

- Vince Lombardi, NFL coaching legend

That quote is ingrained in the American psyche. It's the mission statement of the country. "Just win, Baby," says infamous Raiders owner Al Davis. It's all about the winner, and if you criticize the winner you're just being a poor sport. "Get over it! We won!" We here in Seattle heard a lot of that message from Steelers fans after the refs had their way with Super Bowl XL. It's also a phrase those of us on the political left have been hearing a lot lately. Unfortunately, in politics we are talking about the republic and not just a football game.

Living in Seattle I still have visions of Steelers fans running about screaming, "We won! We won!" Congratulations. The team you root for won. Enjoy it. It doesn't happen that often. Take a moment, however, and think about it. Were you directly involved with the team? Will you get any compensation for it (outside of a bet on the game)? Yeah, your team won, but you're not gonna get anything out of it except the honor of wearing an overpriced sweat shirt. That Visa bill is going to hurt.

Now think about voting for George W. Bush. Yeah, the guy you voted for won the election, but trust me, YOU didn't win anything. You lost big time. Everyone not in the 99.999th economic percentile lost big time. You didn't even get a sweat shirt out of the deal.

Sadly, trying to convince a Bush fan that she/he isn't a winner by association is like trying to convince a Steelers fan that she/he isn't a winner by association. It's all about winning, but the victory will be hollow when the bills come due.

KMTT Loves Me. They Really Do.

Wahoo! I just won a two passes to see Jamie Cullum at the Triple Door next week at lunch time. A local radio station, KMTT - the Mountain, organizes short acoustic sets with artists when they pass through Seattle. The sets are typically pretty short. This one is scheduled to be only 45 minutes. Crystal and I are going to make a lunch date out of it. We've never been to the Triple Door, but I've heard that it's one of the best music venues in town. In fact, I'm more excited about the venue than I am about the artist (about whom I know next to nothing).

Mmmm... Progressive Propaganda

I've been passively listening to Air America lately and not doing enough reading. There are several good repositories of progressive writings on the web. Common Dreams is a excellent place to start. Another terrific site that fell off my radar until recently is Truth Out. In particular is this article by Williams Rivers Pitts which spells out precisely why we can't trust this administration.

We have confirmation...

Ice skating is NOT a sport. I swear this guy read the post on my blog. I found at least three points and two comparisons that were identical. Perhaps there's just not much that is original you can say about sports.

I do differ with him on, however, on boxing. He claims boxing is a marginal sport because one competitor can end it at any time with a knock out. Boxing is not a sport. It's not even a corrupt sport. Boxing is barbaric exhibition which only serves to satisfy our repressed human blood lust. It should be banned. Bogey agrees with me, so I must be right.

The Liberal Media Strike Again.

Not only does Cheney have a gun, he has the liberal media on his side. First, look at this screen capture of the original MSNBC online story about the accident. Now take a look at the updated story. Notice anything different? Notice how all mention of alcohol has been scrubbed from the story? Isn't that special?

The Kenedy County Sherriff's department has officially said that "no alcohol" was involved. There seems to be a minor conflict here. How could the Sherriff make that claim with any certainty when they were denied access to the VP until the next morning? Alcohol was certainly available before the hunt. I suppose the Sherriff department relied on Cheney's long history of selfless honesty.

As Josh Marshall points out, it doesn’t take a guy in a tinfoil hat to suspect that the Kenedy County Sherriff’s department may have been a bit less than rigorous. It puts me in mind of one of the greats in law enforcement history.

Mo betta blogs.

Here are some disturbing Orwellian observations posted on a good blog. Of course, most blogs are better than this one. Talking Points Memo by Josh Marshall is an excellent political blog (yes, he's a leftie).

Also, most people write better than I do. I freely acknowledge that I'm probably the only person who actually reads my blog, and if you note the number of typos it contains you can accurately conclude that I don't read it very closely.

All quiet on the wasted front.

There's not much to report today. Politics are still political. Sports are still sporty. Work is still tedious. I've been relegated to making a hyperlink out of every tenth word in this post. Meanwhile, here's a blurry picture of my son proving that he's a Seattle boy. Yes, that's a Starbucks cup. No, it's not coffee (it's whipping cream). Yes, the fleece he is wearing is from REI. Yes, he is sitting in the Seattle Center under the shadow of the Space Needle.

Random Kewl Stuff

There are currently two bald eagles circling over the Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle. You're not gonna see that just anywhere. Westin Hotels aren't THAT common.

HSR updates. 500 the Cheats (it's even more annoying than it sounds). Can you find the severed hand in this Strong Bad e-mail?

Ah, shoot!

Was Dick Cheney drunk? It’s a reasonable question to ask two days after he accidentally shot a companion while quail hunting. The press and the police were kept in the dark for almost 24 hours after the shooting. Why? Was it just typical, Cheney-esque, knee-jerk secrecy or did the VP need time to sober up? A breathalyzer test is mandatory in most states following an accidental shooting, but it would be rendered meaningless if it were administered so long after the incident. Similarly, it’s not uncommon for a hit-and-run driver to turn himself/herself in to the police 24 hours after the incident to avoid additional alcohol related charges. Cheney has two DUIs on his record and still has the reputation around DC as a heavy drinker. I doubt the liberal media will bother investigating this aspect of the story.

Let the Games Begin!

Sound the trumpets! Let the doves fly! Light the flame! The Winter Olympics are here once again, and we once more get the opportunity to watch network TV absolutely butcher this spectacle. This year it is NBC’s turn to utterly fail to capture the excitement of this unique sporting event.

Can’t wait to watch the luge? Stoked about the hockey tournament? Too bad. You’ll have to slog through hour upon hour of “up close and personal” spots where we explore the profound stories of upper-middle class, so-called amateur American athletes as they struggle with the tragedy of bunions or some other such nonsense. Every once in a while they will sprinkle in a few minutes of an actual event, packed with commercial breaks, that took place several hours or days ago.

Meanwhile, using a propaganda machine that would make Karl Rove proud, they will try to convince you that figure skating and all the other events that involve judges awarding points are actually sports, and that you should give a damn about them. After two weeks of constant bombardment you will be bludgeoned into numbly believing that an event that includes “style points” is a sport. If Super Bowl XL hinged on style points both teams would have lost, and the University of Texas would have been named champions of the NFL. An athletic event that centers on judges to pick a winner is no more a sport than an episode of American Idol. I am proudly one of the eight people in this country that doesn’t watch American Idol, and I’ll be damned if I watch any of these alleged sports.

To me, a sport is some manner of physical activity with clearly defined rules and OBJECTIVE goals. In other words, given a specific set of rules for doing so, you or your team has to do something MEASURABLY better than all the other participants (i.e., more goals, a faster time, a longer distance, a higher velocity, etc). Funky costumes, flamboyant flourishes, and musical accompaniment are fine if they are legal and help you perform better. However, there will be no judge standing by to take away your medal if Zoolander doesn’t like your outfit or if your record-breaking time wasn’t pretty enough.

Mercifully, those of us close to our endlessly tolerant Canuck border buddies can watch the Olympics on Canadian television. Amazingly enough, Canada seems to understand the concept that the Olympics are a SPORTING event, and a broadcast should be focused on SPORTS. What a concept. It almost makes me wish I had cable so I could watch it. Go Norway!!

Baseball is Coming...

Only three more weeks until the World Baseball Classic begins! Joy!




















(Yikes! Look at those pudgy knees!)

Warning: This Cartoon May Be Harmful to Stability in the Region

If you are like me, the insanity revolving around cartoon depictions of the prophet Muhammad has you shaking your head in bewilderment. This article goes a long way in explaining the situation. Also, today's episode of Democracy Now! features an excellent segment exploring the controversy. I found two aspects of the story particularly interesting.

1) The western media is misrepresenting the story when they report that the outrage is about the mere depiction of Muhammad. The outrage is, as you may have suspected, about offensive and insulting depictions of the prophet.

2) The violence and riots were NOT incited by the cartoons in the Danish newspaper. Those cartoons certainly upset a great many Muslims, but the violence began when Islamic extremist agitators faked and circulated cartoons that were even more offensive.

There is blame aplenty in this sad tale. The Danish newspaper has essentially admitted to the fact that they wanted to offend people. Nice job, dumbass. See what hate speech does? Meanwhile, the rioters and agitators who are spurring them on have gone a long way reinforce the very stereotype illustrated in the cartoons. Maybe everyone should stop asking, “Why do they hate?” and ask, “Why do I hate?” The situation will only get worse until both sides admit how they worked together to create this mess. Sadly, that kind of introspection is rare and unlikely.

A Truth to Power Moment

The political tempest in a teapot du jour is the comments by various speakers at Coretta King's funeral. Apparently, some of the people who gathered to honor a woman who spent her life fighting for civil rights had the audacity to launch a few salvos at President Dubya for doing his level best to undermine civil rights during his time in office. Gasp and swoon! Who wudda thunk it!?!? /sarcasm off

To Bush's credit he was there in person to absorb the rhetorical blows, but he was politically obligated to do so. Presidents Clinton, Bush Sr., and Carter were also in attendance. President Ford's poor health was probably the only thing that kept him from attending. If George Jr. had been conspicuously absent it would have been a political blunder, so he was forced to change his schedule at the last minute and be there in person.

Now the right-wing echo chamber is trying to paint the speakers as disrespectful to the President. Pa-leees! Give me a break. Why should they have been respectful? The funeral was about a woman who fought against injustice. It was not just another photo-op for a President who is trying to institutionalize injustice. I guess the last-minute nature of King George's arrival didn't give the FBI enough time to set up one of his now infamous free-speech zones where the speakers could have had their say without polluting Dubya's beautiful mind. By the way, did you notice that Ms. Beautiful Mind herself, Barbara Bush, couldn't be bothered to attend? AP reports that she was giving her own speech down in Orlando.

Ms. King's funeral put me in mind of another funeral in 2002. When Senator and liberal Democrat standard bearer Paul Wellstone was tragically killed in an airplane accident shortly before the 2002 election a large funeral was organized. As with Bush and King's funeral, the resident Republicans were obligated to attended and feign grief for the passing of a man who they had been vilifying only a few days before. Not surprisingly, in that politically charged environment the speakers had a few choice words for the Senator's political opponents who were then unceremoniously booed by the mourners who were there to actually mourn.

The Republicans immediately went into spin mode, and painted the grieving followers of Senator Wellstone to be an angry mob that soiled the proceedings. The lap dog media picked up on the Reps spin, and before you knew it they turned it into a full-blown scandal that went a long way to bolster Republican Norm Coleman's rise to Wellstone's Senate seat.

Will it work again? Can the Republican spin machine once again paint those who dare speak truth to power as a menagerie of fringe elements? The early returns say no. Ms. King is not an unknown Senator from Minnesota. The national audience and the caliber of the people in attendance will not allow them to easily distort the facts. This spin job is a much harder sell, and the credibility of the Republican machine has started to slip. Besides, most Americans are not yet seriously thinking about the elections in November. They aren't a very receptive audience at the moment. Heck, there's a new episode of "Lost" on tonight. We can't be bothered with politics until October.

The Last Post Digging the Refs... Really This Time.

I forgot that I needed to wait 48 hours for the Photoshop artists to do their magic. Here are a couple more...

Pittsburgh Stealers

It's not just a song by The Kendalls anymore. I guess some folks simply refuse to get over it.

Rated 'P' for Poopsmith

Today's Strong Bad e-mail.

For those with nothing to hide...

Pointing out hypocrisy in the Bush administration is as easy as opening a newspaper. However, Tom Tomorrow has made a career out of doing it well.

(Click on it to view a legible version)

A final bitch about the Super Bowl refs

The very fact that people are still talking about the refs two days after the Stupor Bowl is telling. I can't believe that the NFL doesn't hire full-time referees. What's the problem? It can't be that it would cost too much. I'm just spit-balling here, but I'd wager that all the NFL officials combined get paid less than Peyton Manning. Oh well, it's over now. Here are my last two parting shots on the subject.

The Seahawks got JOBBED by the refs - this means war!

It had to be said.

I know, I know. Bitching about the refs is considered by sports purists to be a cop-out for a team that didn’t perform. However, I don’t agree with the notion that the Steelers made the big plays and the Seahawks didn’t. The Seahawks made big plays, but every time they did the refs took it away. We aren’t talking about obvious, bone-head penalties either. The Seahawks we getting called for stuff that even the announcers (who typically don’t trash the refs) had to admit were dubious. They were the “you could call that on every play” sort of penalties that you hope would balance out over the span of the entire game. Unfortunately for the Seahawks, those calls didn’t balance out. They didn’t come close to balancing out.

Oh, and by the way, to you fans of the Steelers who, like everyone else, will never read this blog, SCREW YOU! You have FIVE bleeping Lombardi trophies now. Rooting for the Steelers is like rooting for the Yankees (Pittsburgh locals excluded). I have ZERO remorse in belittling your championship this year. This Steelers team is easily the worst NFL championship team I’ve ever seen. They made three plays. That’s it. Three! The rest of the game they were completely out played by the Seahawks, and if not for the lopsided help of the nincompoops in stripes the Seahawks would have won in a romp.

The backbreaker, of course, was the phantom holding call that erased what would have been a first and goal for the Seahawk inside the Steelers five yard line. Ignore the fact that replay clearly shows that the Steelers were off-sides on the play. Ignore see-no-evil John Madden pointing out that it was a terrible call. What happened to the concept of just letting these guys play the damned game?! Instead of the Seahawks driving in for a touchdown and taking a 17-14 lead, the refs gave the momentum back to the Steelers. Also, would someone please explain to me how a player making a tackle can be called for an illegal block?

The refs just took control of the game and turned it on its head. It was dumb luck for the Steelers, and they can now bask in glory while the Seahawks season is rendered virtually meaningless.

Perhaps that’s the lesson in football. As in life, you only get one chance, and as unfair as it may seem, luck has a lot to do with weather you win or lose. You can have all the ability. You can work hard and be completely prepared, but you won’t win the prize if lady luck turns away. Sorry. Sucks to be you. As a nation we have apparently embraced that notion of life. The attitude embodied in the axiom, “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing,” seems to rule our country. I must say I find the attitude to be hollow and in the long run destructive.

Certainly there are times when winning IS the only thing. War leaps to mind. When your country’s very existence is in danger, then I can see that axiom holding sway. In recent times, however, we have come to take war too lightly and seem willing to declare war on anything and everything without considering the implications. It’s dangerous folly to pursue that path. The very essence of war is destruction, and that destruction is wrought regardless of who wins or loses. As Bertrand Russell told us, "War does not determine who is right - only who is left.”

The analogies between football and war are so obvious that George Carlin’s classic comedy routine echoes in America’s subconscious. As we just saw in Super Bowl XL, winning and losing is just as much a matter of luck as it is a matter of ability, hard work, or preparation. We should consider the example of the Seahawks when we next ponder the virtues of declaring war.

The second first post

The first first post is lurking somewhere in blogspot-server limbo. There are 'errors' whenever I try to post it. That's why I'm posting this one.

Honestly, can you think of a more inauspicious way to begin? First I craft a reasonable first attempt at a first post, the tempo setting post of a blog, and what happens? The server barfs all over it. Humph!

I can set my indignation aside, I suppose, long enough to put something up else, but to be perfectly honest I'm no longer in the mood to type anything. Let's see if this thing lets me paste the first first post into the second first post:

STOP! No need. The blogspot server gods have smiled on my blog and my first first post is there. The joy.

Now I can compose my the-Seahawks-got-jobbed-by-the-refs post without concern for it's future.

The first post.

Ah, the tyranny of the blank page. I defy you!

The pressure of the first post is withering, but, as Joel Mabus says (http://www.joelmabus.com/), first times don't mean a thing. This won't be my best post, and it won't be my worst. Regardless of how I stagger out of the gate, I'm out... of the gate, that is.

I’ve previously posted some of my ramblings at Yahoo.com. If you are desperate for something to read you can check them here: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-0AQuwlw6fqgSj94mbeprsxnBCYI- I’ve posted a couple pictures there too.

There’s so much to type about my fingers are stunned with awe. Mostly, I’m just hungry right now, and my brain can’t focus on anything long enough to compose a coherent thought. What were you expecting? Insights to meaning of life? Nope. I'm just one of the bungled and debauched who is doing what everyone else is doing: blogging.

After all, why not blog? Everyone is doing it. "Look, a cliff! Lemmings HO!!" Besides, there's no point in hiding anymore. Thanks to our beloved President NSA now knows how every American whipes after going to bathroom. Random thoughts posted at random intervals on the Internet won't reveal anything new to the NSA or to the rest of the world.

The only thing I have to offer is my perspective, so here goes...