Some recent cases in Ohio demonstrating how f'd up we are.
Case #1
A man's home is invaded by two robbers. One of the robbers stabs the man's son. The man has a gun in the house and shoots one of the robbers. Police arrive and while performing their investigation see a small bag of pot out in the open in his house. It also happens that the man disdains banks and keeps his savings in a safe in his house. Police seize every penny of his savings under the authority of a law that is intended to seize the profits of drug dealers. Eventually the city where the man resides takes his money...all of it, permanently. They take the money because they demand that he produce receipts, checks, etc. for the money and he doesn't have it. So they assume it's drug money. The guy is guilty until he proves that he's innocent. Bassackwards, sounds to me.
Case #2
Columbus Dispatch
Columbus, Ohio has an odd law that allows women to sunbathe topless in city parks. The police have begun an operation whereby they have an undercover policewoman hanging out at a park topless. This is done to catch perverts, etc. In one case a firefighter (the man had driven by the park on several occasions and seen her) went over to sit with her. I believe he went on his own volition but I'm not sure. This guy was a normal citizen by all accounts, was not suspected of any "perverted behavior" at the park. So he sits down and she begins to come on to him, eventually asking him to unzip and show her his wang, wanger, john thomas, you choose the term. I repeat, she asked him, he was not the one who offered to "pull it out". He then "pulled it out" and immediately several cops came rushing out of the bushes nearby to arrest him for indecent exposure. Way to go boys, you just saved the citizens from a real criminal there. Nice job. The judge was not swayed by defense claims of entrapment and found the guy guilty. What the hell, Columbus. Knock this crap off. Get your lady cop skanks to put a f**kin shirt on and leave men alone.
Jay Leno has 15 vintage Vincent motorcycles. This goes against my usual attitude (if you're wealthy buy whatever you want, be conspicuous I don't care) but in this case I think that's bullsh*t. Those bikes are too rare for him to hoard 15 of them. Take 2 and move on Jay. Let some other wealthy people have one. The Vincent bikes are classics made from 1924 to 1955 in England and are rare and highly prized. The Black Shadow and the Black Lightning are two famous models. They probably became famous in America for being the fastest production bikes of the time and also Hunter S Thompson wrote about them. Currently there is a Vincent "Black Shadow" on sale on Ebay for $45,000.
Which leads me to my next topic....
Whatever happened to the "Dude yer gettin a Dell" guy? He must be somewhere.
I don't get the buildup to the Patriots/Giants game. In order to equal the 1972 Dolphins they will have to win the Super Bowl. Until they get to the Super Bowl, I'm not interested. And besides, aren't the Giants already in the playoffs, which means they'll probably be resting players at some point and/or not playing all out to avoid injury?
My Xmas haul: 3 CDs, Mission Impossible Season 3, Lightscribe DVD+R discs, Quesadilla maker, Gamestop giftcard, a papoose type baby carrier, automatic adjustable wrench, ceiling light fixture for our kitchen (which I get to install) and some cash.
Well the baby arrived 4 weeks early. Oh, it's real fun dealing with an unexpected newborn in the house and trying to arrange 50,000 different things. My wife had a C-section, which went well. Her labor wasn't progressing so the doc took the easy way out. My wife's uncle by sheer coincidence was visiting the U.S. He lives in China and he said about 75% of all births in China are done by C-section. Well, you've got to assembly line things when you're dealing with however many billion people are in that lovely Communist dictatorship. That's all for now...your life becomes a series of 15 minute breaks to do what you want when you've got a newborn around.
Oh, yeah you guessed the arrival part of the entry subject. But what does the departure mean? That would be my life departing as I knew it.
And the white zone thing is from "Airplane".
Following up on my Bengals post, there was a Q&A with none other than Mike Brown in today's Cincinnati Enquirer. This is perhaps the most comical example of front office football buffoonery ever recorded.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention in the previous post that the Bengals do NOT have an official GM. When he took over the team as president in 1992, Mikey was basically the GM/President. When asked during this Q&A if he would hire a GM, he said no, we currently have a 3-headed GM consisting of himself, his daughter Katie Blackburn, and his son-in-law Troy Blackburn (Katie's husband).
Here are some choice samples:
What's served for lunch? Right you tight-ass, gotta check the prices on the vegetable tray.
King Kong, rabbits...my head is spinning.
Jesus, now elephants too?
You're not sure who Hines Ward is? It's kind of important seeing how Pittsburgh is in your division.
Awwwwwww, he's glum.
Finally a decent horror moive...from 27 years ago. After the crap movies I saw for Halloween, I finally saw a decent one this weekend. "The Burning" is a classic summer camp slasher from 1980. In a word, awesome. I love the free-wheeling, PC-free attitude of those times. Kids at summer camp swearing, smoking, running around with beebee guns shooting at people. In other things that would get you expelled and sent to a social worker these days. The story involves a mean summer camp caretaker who is horribly burned in a prank gone bad. Of course he exacts his revenge with hedge clippers. Fuckin A.
During NBC's laughable green segment during the SNF halftime show, Matt Lauer referred to Al Gore as one of the "best minds" on Climate Change. Best minds? What exactly is his science degree in?
So the purpose of the segment is turns off the lights in the studio for the halftime show to demonstate being green. I'm not kidding. They had candles on the desk. Yet their generators were certainly still going, the giant plasma screen was on behind Costas' head, all the power necessary to video link to Lauer on the other side of the world was not shut down. This had to be an SNL skit, right?
We got our email notice about a Holiday Party at work today to take place December 14th. That's right, Holiday Party, not Christmas Party. Earlier this month we received an email about the Thanksgiving Luncheon that will take place November 14th. Ah PC split personality, I love it. Why is it OK to willy nilly use the word "Thanksgiving", and yet "Christmas" must NOT be used. Everyone knows it is because of Christmas that we have this party, but we must not name it so.
The Bengals suck. Why they suck is not known by people outside of Cincinnati. Bengals owner Mike Brown's first priority is not winning. He doesn't particularly care if they win or not. He doesn't do what's necessary to field a winning team. All NFL teams are of course a business and they wish to make money, but at the same time they care about winning. Not Mike Brown. The Bengals are just as capable as any other team of acquiring high quality NFL talent. This isn't high school folks, this isn't a case of "well, their school is bigger than ours and they have better players than we do." The Bengals could have acquired the same difference makers that have helped the Colts, the Patriots, etc. to become winning teams. A typical NFL team will have 10 to 20 scouts. The Bengals have 1 person designated as a scout and 3 assistant scouts. Their marketing department has 18 management people and of course more beneath them.
A few years back, Mike Brown threatened the city with taking his team away from Cincinnati if they did not give him a stadium, i.e. have the people of Cincinnati pay for it. We should have told him fine by us and have a nice day. But people gave in, in part from efforts by a "citizen" who was all over the media citing the advantages of having an NFL team in the city. (There are advantages but of course the people also want a winner.) This guy, after the whole thing was over and the deal was done, was found to be on the Bengals payroll. Brown got his stadium and a whole lot more. He is guaranteed a sellout by the city. If people get pissed and stop showing up to the games, it matters not to Brown. He still gets 100% sellout money from the city. In addition, he doesn't pay utilities for the stadium. The city pays all utilities. Nice.
The Bengals bring nothing but ridicule and embarrassment to the city and it's all on Mike Brown. May the cancer fairy visit the bastard and rid us of him for good...oh wait, his daughter, Katie Blackburn, will take over the team when he croaks. This city is screwed.
Well, there's one in every crowd. As you read the following, keep in mind that this guy is responsible for teaching kids.
Source: Cincinnati Enquirer opinion page, 31 October 2007.
Well, I've been watching my Halloween horror movie line-up and here goes.
Land of the Dead: Not very good, I didn't enjoy it. Well, it didn't suck completely but it just wasn't entertaining. I still like "Dawn" better as well as "Night". I never liked "Day" much and guess what? Romero is remaking "Day". Why I have no idea. The one good thing about "Land" is the cameo by "Dawn" make-up artist Tom Savini as a zombie. He also had a cameo in "dawn" as a crazed biker chopping up zombies with a machete. Good stuff.
Hatchet: Pretty disappointing. I was looking forward to this, but it was a mess. It was too much of a homage/parody of Jason movies and seemed like it couldn't decide which it was. The "bad guy", a deformed backwoods type with overalls, was just silly. I guess they meant him to be silly, I don't know. There was no attempt to give him quality make-up, he looked like he was wearing a rubber suit. It clearly wasn't supposed to be legitimately scary, but it went a bit too far in the other direction. There were plenty of bare breasts and plenty of gore.
Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Meyers: Not bad, I enjoyed it. It cleared up for me the mysterious guy at the end of H5, although that whole Satanist storyline got put on the back burner/ended up on the cutting room floor. They did not flesh out the backstory on that at all. In the movie, they are trying to "capture/control" Michael's evil. But that takes a backseat to Michael doing his usual mayhem. All in all, a good flick with a good nude scene to boot.
The Burning: Have yet to see this. Now this I'm looking forward to seeing. It's the real deal, made in the early 1980s horror. Before horror movies became comedies later in the decade with the Freddy sequels. I'm sure it will be chessy, but I'm also sure it will be over-the-top and feature plenty of nude chicks. I'll report on this later in the week.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article.../710310438/1081
http://www.prideofdetroit.com/story/2007/10/31/05312/660
I like an original, well thought out Halloween costume. Jon Kitna, the Detroit Lions quarterback, and his wife showed up at a Monday Halloween party wearing an outstanding costume, in my opinion. But first a little backstory. Last year one of the Lions coaches was arresting for DUI--he drove through a Wendy's drive thru completely naked and drunk. Pretty funny, but also it turns out he was an alcoholic. Well, Kitna goes to the party dressed as a naked guy and his wife dressed as a Wendy's employee. Not bad. He's catching some heat in Detroit over this for being mean or whatever, but I'll cut him some slack because it's been a year. If the arrest had happened a couple weeks ago, then you have to lay off, but the time factor allows me to give him a pass.
David Copperfield is being accused of sexual assault by some lady while he was in the Bahamas. So far the reports are very tenuous at best. He has not been arrested or anything. But now, enter the media. Yes, the media God love them. They are trying to find stories, any story, that could cast Copperfield in a negative light. Get this--there is a story about a guy who attended a Copperfield show with his wife here in the States. (I heard audio of this story on the Phil Hendrie Show, I couldn't find a print link.) Well, what is this guy's deal? Apparently Copperfield sent his assistants to ask his wife if she wanted to come backstage and meet him (they weren't aware she was married to the guy). When they found out she was married they dropped the whole thing and everyone went their merry way. OH MY GOD. You mean to tell me that entertainers pick up women at their shows? NO WAY. And this story is presented in such a way that is trying to show Copperfield as a predator. Jesus, the media.
I really sick of major sporting events starting at 8pm or later on a weeknight or even on a weekend. Hey, I may sound like a grumpy old SOB because I go to bed early because of work, but I'm thinking of future generations here. There are so many kids who are missing the majority of, for example, the World Series because the damn games don't begin until 8:30pm. 11pm rolls around and they're still in the 6th inning. A great college football game took place last night (well, the first 3 and a half quarters were apparently pretty boring) and very few young football fans got the chance to see it. Nor did they see anything beyond the first couple innings of the World Series game (providing they have responsible parents who get their ass in bed on a school night). There's a game on Saturday night, and it could well be the only game played on a non-school day.
I dare anyone to name the last World Series day game for crissakes.
Alright enough bitching. I think Fox's coverage is terrific. Well, besides the awful, tired, so 20-years-ago James Taylor singing the National Anthem, which Fox may not have had a hand in anyway. I guess I'm old when I consider Jeannie Zalasko to be pretty hot.
Well, I guess I'll let it out. A kid will be arriving in our house and it isn't going to be a cat or a dog. Yep, the Terror's are expecting. A boy to be exact, due December 9th. Well, at least it'll get me off a couple weeks work....I'M KIDDING. Yes indeed, get ready for another right-winger coming into the world. I just might pipe Rush, Boortz, Beck, Medved right into his crib. But all kidding aside I'm sure I'm in for a wild ride and it's going to be great.
One thing's for sure, the kid is going to have a tennis racket and/or golf club and/or baseball glove placed in his hands as soon as he can take those first steps. Scholarship baby, scholarship, followed by million dollar paychecks, followed by new house on the coast for daddy.
Oh, and I've been going to various baby classes at the hospital. I'm dead certain my dad never had to go to a baby care class or birth class, etc. But these days it's expected that the father is going to take part in every microsecond of the birth. Yippee.
kkk brought up losing his wedding ring in his blog. I have a similar story, although in my case my wife found out that I had lost it. I'm a little older than kkk, but we're roughly the same generation and most of us take our rings off far more than our fathers did. As far as I know, my dad's ring has NEVER come off, it's fused to his finger. But our generation seems to not really be used to wearing rings full time. Mine comes off all the time. This can lead to trouble. Here's my story.
One day I realized that I didn't really know for sure where my ring was. I looked in all the normal places it could be, I checked every single pair of pants pockets, shirt pockets, every nook and cranny in my car, briefcase, bedside night table, every drawer in the house, desk at work, etc.
Then I remembered one of my favorite lines of all time, written by Arthur Conan Doyle in a Sherlock Holmes novel (I think it was "The Sign of Four").
"Once you have eliminated all possibilities, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
I'm telling you, this worked for me. It was amazing. I thought what remains, I know it isn't in any of the usual places, so what's left? I remembered that I had been vacuuming in the dining room and there were some small boxes in there. I remembered I had changed the vacuum bag and dumped it in the nearest thing handy, which was the boxes. Here's the critical part: I didn't know where to look for a new replacement bag, so I had emptied out the bag and reused it. Emptying the bag involved digging in through the one hole with my hands and taking out the stuff in there. Since my ring doesn't fit snugly on my finger, it can come off somewhat easily. I looked in the remains of all the dust and crap that had come out of the vacuum bag, and there was the ring. Thank you Mr. Doyle.
The Cincinnati Reds have hired Dusty Baker as thier manager. Good God. Well, I guess it's appropriate to hire a racist in this town. After all we had Marge Schott and her Hitler memorabilia for an owner. F*** me it's going to be a helluva 2008 season.
Amazing, kids actually learn better and become smarter by DOING things. It seems this study finds that playing with blocks produces smarter children than playing classical music to them while they are in their crib or even in the womb.
Some dopes actually believe that if they put on Mozart it will somehow stimulate the infant's brainwaves and develop their brain better. Uh, sure. I guess this is similar to the old tall tale that if you play audio of some textbook under your pillow at night you'll "absorb" the knowledge right into your cerebellum. Knock it off people, achieve by doing, don't be like... teachers.
7:45am
The brand new Airbus A380--the largest passenger plane in the world--flew into Greater Cincinnati Airport today as part of a promotional tour. This is a French built plane (Airbus is a French company and a big rival to Boeing). The engines are manufactured by a joint venture between usual rivals General Electric and Pratt and Witney.
The GE engine plant is right here in Cincinnati and on its way to the airport it did a low altitude flyby over the GE plant, which is about 25 miles north of the airport and close to where I work. We could see the thing out the window of our office building. Eh, big deal, it's a frog plane, I'll take a new Boeing 787 Dreamliner anyday. A lot of people around the area phoned police about the low flying plane, thinking it was in trouble or a terrorist attack despite forewarning by Cincinnati authorities.
James Brown had to be embarrassed as a black man when he pimped the 60 minutes segment on Vince Young and had to lead in to a clip featuring a Young quote. Young, eschewing the time-honored double negative preferred by ignorami for centuries, passed go and went straight for the triple negative. In responding to a question regarding being told by critics (and presumably coaches) that he should be less reckless he said "Can't nobody tell me nothing." Now, trying to glean any meaning from the grammar of that sentence would probably produce a confused look similar no doubt to the look on the face of the scholar who was first presented with Egyptian heiroglyphics and asked "what does this mean?" But it certainly has a lot of street cred, I guess.
"Timeout" is the latest fad for "correcting" children (and utterly bullshit) but now we have a situation in football where the adults are getting hip to timeouts--and the refs are enabling them.
On Sunday during the Florida v. Auburn game the Florida coach was allowed to call a timeout during his opponents field goal attempt in such a way so that the kicker was forced to go through with the kick but it wouldn't count. So he had to kick it again. This is effing bs. It would be awesome though, if a coach tried this and the kicker missed the 1st attempt, and because of the timeout, kicked it again and made it. Ouch.
7:50pm More road nonsense
kkk always seems to have an asshole driver story...don't we all.
A couple days ago I was at a light waiting to turn left--waiting for an opening in the stream of cars coming the other way. A truck comes up behind me after I had been there already. Finally there is an opening and apparently I didn't accelerate fast enough because this guy was nearly touching my rear bumper. So I speed up and we come up to the 4 way stop at an intersection. This intersection is weird in that it has 2 lanes. The lane on the right ends not far up ahead. So I know what this guy is going to do--I'm in the left lane, the correct lane to eventually continue. He gets in the right lane and doesn't really stop at the stop sign, he wants to fake a stop and get ahead of me. I, seeing this coming a mile away, give him a taste of his own medicine. I mimic his "rolling stop" and take off just as he is taking off (there was no other cars at the other 3 stop signs) staying ahead of him. Now, there is a car ahead of us, in my lane. This guy decides to gun it and barely gets ahead of the car in front of me. I had to slow down because the car in front was going a normal, slowish speed. But at least he didn't cut me off and if the car wasn't there, he would've had to get back in my lane behind me.
Wow, our Navy is really evil. Check this out.
This building has existed since 1967 and now thanks to Google Earth, some people are outraged. Due to complaints the Navy will spend $600,000 of your dollars to fix something that is completely meaningless and doesn't affect anybody.
The U.S. women's soccer team has been pummeled by Brazil, 4-0 in the World Cup semi-final. For this game, the goalie that had played in all the games of the World Cup was benched in favor of a veteran goalie who had played well against Brazil earlier in the summer. Not since whats-his-name (Red Sox manager) left Pedro in the game one inning too long in 2003 and the Sox blew their 3-0 lead in the playoffs has a player change been this controversial. Well, maybe not, since no one is paying the least bit attention to this.
HBO is making a movie about the 2000 presidential election in Florida. So what's the over/under on how many days this will be premiered before the presidential election between Hillary and Guliani/Romney/Thompson?
Savage is trying to set differentiate himself from other Conservative radio hosts by taking the side of the U of Florida student who was tazed by the campus police at a John Kerry speech. He wants to be the "renegade independent Conservative" don't you know. In explaining his position he told a few untruths. Maybe he thought what he was saying was true, but I doubt it. That would make him a liar. Oh well, if the shoe fits. Here's what he said.
1. The kid was hand-cuffed when he was tased.
Wrong. They could not handcuff him due to his squirming and resisting.
2. The female officer tased him without warning.
Wrong. They warned him, telling him to stop resisting.
3. "They" cut off the mike during his allotted time because tase-boy was asking Kerry unsettling questions about Skull and Bones.
Wrong. The Q&A had been declared over and tase-boy interrupted and strated giving a speech and not obeying the rules of the Q&A. He would not stop yelling.
By the way, tase-boy's yelling "help! help me! they're arresting me!" during the event is eerily, hilariously, similar to a scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. When King Arthur is riding along among a bunch of serfs and he drags Michael Palin off, who is protesting the fact that Arthur has declared himself King of the Britains because some "aquatic tart" handed him a sword. Palin yells out "Help! Help! I'm being oppressed! See the repression!"
So I'm reading the next to last book in the Harry Potter series. Why I'm not sure, maybe it's just the massive pull of something that is a cultural phenomenon. I want to read the final book and I might as well read the book that leads up to it. It hasn't gotten up to a good start. I'm already annoyed with it. There's a line in the opening chapter about the Prime Minister of England meeting with the U.S. president. The president is referred to as a "wretched person". Great, and I have some 700 pages to go.
At my workplace, I have the misfortune to have my desk (cubicle) near the break room. I get to hear the noises and conversations of everyone making lunch, whatever. Today I heard some lunkhead saying to someone "Don't drink from the tap! You should drink from the water fountain, the water in the fountain is treated!". Man, how did we get to the point in the US where people believe tap water is dangerous and/or unhealthy? Tap water is safe to drink and will not harm you. It is treated. Remember when the saying was "don't drink the water in Mexico"? They were talking about the tap water and it was because it wasn't treated, unlike the nice, safe water we have here in the USA. Nobody ever said "don't drink the water in Mexico...oh yeah and also don't drink it in the US either". Well, until now at least. For some reason, it has become the norm that you shouldn't drink form the tap, even though nothing has changed to make it less safe to drink.
In some instances, water from a water fountain will taste better, but it is no more safe. Taste is the reason you should drink from a water fountain or bottled water, not to avoid sickness. The bottled water you buy is from the tap, unless it says specifically that it is from a spring, such as Evian or Poland Springs. The bottling companies take the water from the tap and then do further treatments on it, mainly to improve taste and sometimes to introduce minerals and/or vitamins to the water.
Me and the Mrs went shopping for a cabinet thing for the basement, since we're moving the computer down there. We went to the frontgate outlet. Frontgate sells yuppie, expensive stuff for your home and patio. Right up my alley. We found a nice wood cabinet that had a chip in one of the corners and it had scratches from being a floor model and all, but it looked ok, especially for something that is going in the basement. This thing retailed for about $500-$600. We got it for $65.
I was watching G4 channel's coverage of the 2007 Comic-Con and they showed a
special announcement by the principal cast and director of the new Indiana Jones
movie. This was broadcast to the Comic-Con audience and featured Spielberg, Ford
and others. I liked it when Spielberg was muted when he said the title of the
new film (I'm sure a lip reader catched it and it will soon be spoiled all over
the internet).
But then Spielberg did something that could only appeal to the hardcore Raiders
fans: he brought out a chair with the name "Marion Ravenwood", followed shortly
thereafter by Karen Allen. Pretty cool if you ask me. Marion was one of my all
time favorite female characters of any movie. The fans always wondered why she
disappeared from the two sequels and now Spielberg has made things right. I just
hope he makes the movie right. There are those who will go nameless who are
opposed to this new sequel (kkktookmybabyaway) and they have a point. Last
Crusade was a fitting ending and Ford is a senior citizen at this point, etc. I
don't know, it's to big of an event for me to ignore it. I'll be seeing it in
the theatres for sure.
I tried the new Miller beer product called "Chill". You've probably seen the
commericals. It has lime and salt and is a Mexican recipe going way back. Last
week I was walking through Biggs and there was a lady handing out little plastic
cups of Chill along with chips and salsa. They were 25 cents to try so I gave it
a shot. It was good and the typical beer after-taste is non-existent. Works for
me, way to go Miller. PLus I love those Miller High Life commericals with the
guy removing Miller beer from places that have expensive prices, so Miller good
with me. Besides, Budweiser has George Clooney as a spokesperson, so I'll not be
drinking a Budweiser anytime soon.
The new sitcom based on the Geico Caveman commericals is making news. It seems
the producers/network suits/whomever have seen fit to announce that the show "IS
NOT A RACIAL ALLEGORY". Liberals everywhere must be saddened, I'm sure they were
looking forward to seeing race themes on the show as whites abused the poor
cavemen. Now I'm very skeptical of this show's success because only one of the
three actors from the commercial are going to be in series. Big Mistake.
RFK Jr called Glenn Beck a fascist and corporate toadie during the Live Earth concert. Glenn is outspoken as not
buying into the man-made, iminent disaster global warming hysteria. Glenn had Jr on his CNN show and asked him what
the definition of fascism was. Jr responded "the American Heritage dictionary definition is government controlled by
corporate power".
Now the real American Heritage dictionary definition of fascism:
NOUN: 1. often Fascism a. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent
socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of
belligerent nationalism and racism. b. A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of
government. 2. Oppressive, dictatorial control.
I happened to see Mission Impossible 2 the other day. It is both a great movie and a terrible movie. It's terrible
because of its title. The movie has nothing to do with the television series upon which it is based--it is in fact a
disgrace to connect it to that series. It is nothing like the TV series. It's great because it is an entertaining,
flashy film experience. The music is great, John Woo directs with flair and style. Movies are supposed to be
entertaining and as long as you push the words "mission impossible" from your mind, MI2 is fantastic. We need more
movies like this. This movie was supposed to usher in a new era of action film and in a limited way it has, but not
nearly enough in my opinion. Now, I still want diversity in movies, dramas etc. Take Prince of the City for example.
You don't know anything about this movie but it is an adult, interesting movie, well written and well acted. I suggest
giving it a look sometime when you have 2 hours to kill. It's a perfect example of interesting vs. entertaining. It's
not exciting. We need more MI2.
Well, lookee at us...Cincinnati has made the bigtime. The Wall Street Journal published an article about a regional backyard game called Cornhole. It's in the same genus as Jarts, badmitton, etc.
WSJ
excerpt:
It is a fun game and goes well with beer. And it is a lot cheaper than golf.
Many years ago Marge Schott, then owner of the Cincinnati Reds, made a remark about Adolf Hitler that got her in hot water and made the national news. She was roundly criticized as a racist. She said that Hitler, in the beginning of his rise to power in Germany "was not that bad" and that only later on did he become "bad" and go a little nuts.
Fast forward to 2007 and an NPR essayist and Huffington blog columnist Peter Mehlman, says essentially the same thing. "Hitler meant well for the people of Germany" while he was going about trying to murder every jewish human on the planet. His point while saying this is that George Bush is worse than Hitler because George Bush doesn't mean well and Hitler at least did mean well.
To use Mr. Mehlman's very hip and with-it writing style: Hmm. Ok. Umm. Yeah. At. Least. You. Wrote. For. Seinfeld.
Well, I don't expect a media fire storm because this guy is essentially nobody. But imagine a Clear Channel essayist saying something similar about Clinton, Edwards or whoever. BTW, NPR officially describes him as an "essayist", not a liberal essayist, just an essayist. Yeah, he's very reasonable and level-headed.
Conservatives think that Liberals are wrong. Liberals think that Conservatives are evil.
Cincinnati Reds manager Jerry Narron made a move in yesterday's afternoon game against the Oakland As that was just downright silly. Here's what happened: The Reds were behind by 2 runs (5 to 3) and Josh Hamilton was due up with nobody on base (it was the 8th or 9th inning). Hamilton has been a good player--he was the No. 1 draft pick several years ago and then had problems with drugs and now has gotten back on the straight and narrow. He is being called "The Natural" around Cincinnati because he excels in all 5 areas of the traditional baseball tools and because he kind of showed up after being off the map for several years, like the Roy Hobbs character.
So we have Hamilton due up and Narron decides to pull him in favor of Juan Castro. Castro is hitting .167 and Hamilton had homered earlier in the game. Part of the rationale was that Castro had success against the pitcher. What success? He was 1 for 1. Seven years ago.
Another thing Narron said was that Hamilton hitting a home run still left you down a run and he wanted Castro to get a hit and be a spark plug. Yeah, god forbid Hamilton hits a home run.
Now I'm not going to freak out and call for him to be immediately fired, but that was just weird logic in my opinion.
