Transfer of power

Not sure why everyone seems to be so impressed that we're having a smooth transfer of power. Are we supposed to be proud of the fact that their aren't armed factions dueling in the streets over this? What other third-world chaos should I be patting myself on the back for avoiding this week?

Clinton vs. McCain

I keep hearing how a significant portion of Hillary supporters would vote McCain if Obama got the nomination.

Just 2 things to say about that:

1, I don't really believe it - these are people in the heat of the campaign and they'll say anything. When the inevitable occurs and Hill ends up rallying behind Obama as the nominee, most of that animosity will disappear.

2, anyone who's willing to trade a Hillary vote for a McCain vote is so stupid they probably shouldn't even be voting.

Prison terms

Just read an article about Giants' WR Lawrence Tynes' brother Mark. He's currently serving a 27 year prison term. His crime? Selling marijuana.

Just the other week I read an article about some loser out on parole who killed his girlfriend and then subsequently offed himself. He had served less than 10 years in jail. His crime? Murder.

People are so stupid.

Even Steven

On 9/11/2001, al Qaida killed almost 3,000 of my fellow countrymen for absolutely no good reason.

In response, and over the past 5 years, George Bush made sure that 4,000 MORE of my countrymen were killed for no good reason. That'll teach 'em!!!

Redlining

Isn't it illegal to make decisions about insurance coverage based on geography??

Mortgage insurers, whose backing is required for borrowers who can't afford the traditional 20 percent down payment on a home, have already flagged nearly a quarter of the nation's ZIP codes where they refuse to insure some home loans.

O'Reilly

I find it hilarious when racists like Billy O'Reilly get angry about being called a racist.

Weird

I just read an article that confused me. Kraft and Sara Lee are worried about shrinking profits due to the rising cost of their inputs, namely beef and pork. This is, of course, exactly the opposite of what's happening with the oil-refining industry. The cost of oil has increased by a factor of six over the past several years, yet Exxon and the rest experience record profits. Someone please explain this to me.

Bear Stearns

So now that Bear Stearns is being purchased for pennies on the dollar, was that "little" cash injection the other day just a complete waste of cash?? Wouldn't surprise me. Go Republicans!!!

Horatio's debate school

THEIR COMMENT: Obama is where he is because he is black

YOUR RESPONSE: laughter (while pointing at them)

Liz

Hard to believe (no it isn't), but Elizabeth Hasselbeck really did intimate that it must have been because Mrs. Spitzer didn't let her husband get his freak on often enough that the ex-guv was forced to visit hookers.

The really sad thing is that there are about 1,000,000 Elizabeth Hasselbeck clones running around the world. It's true. I've met them. And I kept count.

Stupid Non-news

Must our sex-obsessed corporate press unearth EVERY last sordid detail of this stupid Spitzer story?

Spousal support

Why are the wives always trotted out to "stand by their man" whenever some random public official decides to come clean about cheating, or visiting prostitutes, or whatever lurid thing they're meant to have done? Why do they stand for it? How does it make them look anything but ridiculous to be seen on a stage while their husband details exactly how much of a scumbag he is?

All I'm saying is if I'm Mrs. Spitzer, I tell my husband that if he expects me to be photographed at press conferences, and appear in front page photos and publicly go down with the ship, he's living in a dreamworld.

Wow

Wow. Foster won. That's kind of a big deal. Oberweis is a really horrible candidate (even for Republicans) but still, this district should have gone his way. If only the NRCC could've wasted even more money on this race.

Kreskin-esque Prognostication Abilities

What the hell. I'm sitting at my computer, might as well make it two in a row. I hope Upyernoz remembers (and possibly can produce) my comment from years ago predicting that Obama would be the next president.

Sorry

I've been MIA for awhile now. Well, I'm working a full time job, going to class in the evening for my MBA at Kellogg, and my wife is currently pregnant with twins, which will be our 2nd and 3rd children. So there's not a lot of time for frivolous things like writing on blogs no one reads. Maybe I'll try to connect this thing with Facebook or something and that will inspire me to write more often.

Black Head Coach

After the Bears victory in the NFC Championship game, reporters asked Lovie Smith about a hundred times how he felt to be the first black coach to lead a team into the Super Bowl. Of course he said he was proud to be the first and indeed his staff and his team and his fans, myself included, are proud of him. But really, isn't the fact that it's taken until 2007 for a black man to coach a Super Bowl team more a reason to be pissed off than anything else? No one can say so, because then they're labeled "angry" and "controversial" but it's taken a long long time for owners to wise up to the fact that blacks coach just as well as whites. Why, when faced with the tangible evidence of this, should we be all swelling with pride?

Lessons in Cause and Effect

Blaming the media for the overwhelming world-wide anti-war mood is sort of like blaming the pile of vomit for the fact that someone feels sick.

Go Bears!

Hell yeah!!!

Believe it

Sometimes, after a particularly pointed rant about the US government, I find myself having to defend my love for this our wonderful country. My explanation is always the same: we only bitch about what we love. I like to bash the Catholic Church, too, on everything from their outlook on gays to their curious devotion to all things European, but only because I love the tradition I was raised in and want desperately to see it become the force of good I know it can be. As a Cub fan, I don't care about how the LA Dodgers spend their money. Sure I may laugh hysterically for hours on end that they paid Juan Pierre $45 million over 5 years, but do I care? Not at all. I will, however, find time to complain about almost every misappropriated dollar that the Cubs spend. Same thing with the USA. Our country is more than a plot of land circumscribed by borders. The USA is an idea, an ideal. It's a notion of something better, a committment to freedom, and the proof that such places can exist. This is the role of the USA, not just for its own citizens, but for all people of the world. We are the place that they dream about in their jail cells, when the ethnic cleansing begins, when the police can no longer be trusted. We are the hope that keeps them going. At the very least, we have the ability be all these things. I know that this country can be all these things. No one can convince me otherwise. And to see its legacy betrayed by shortsighted and stupid men infuriates me beyond all report. So that's why I add my voice to the chorus of disapproval. Because I love this country more deeply than any war-cheerleader could possibly imagine.

Russia

When the history of our present times is written, I believe that there's a fair chance that, not the struggle against Islamist terror, but Russia's re-emergence as a pariah state will be the central narrative. Bush's stunning incompetence in continuing to silently countenance Putin's power grab may very well overshadow an unstable Middle East. I really believe that for all its bluster, the Islamist threat is primary a regional issue. Iran might talk a big game, but it is Russia who is, in fact, right now projecting and expanding its power. Who knows what this chapter will bring, but a thuggish Russia redrawing the Iron Curtain seems a lot more likely than it did 6 years ago.

Fears that Russia is using energy supplies as a political weapon increased last night after Moscow forced Georgia to accept a doubling of gas prices.

The deal came within hours of a threat by Gazprom, Russia's statecontrolled energy giant, to cut off supplies to the former Soviet republic from January 1.

...

While Gazprom insists its motives are commercial, critics say it often acts as a political instrument for Russian president Vladimir Putin.

This is not good. I'd hate to see an emboldened Russia using the various Middle Eastern interests as attack dogs. I could be way off, but to me the big story here is how easily any campaign against terrorism could morph into a Cold War redux.

All the more reason to research alternate energy sources. Spend the money, research the technology, and distribute it to vulnerable countries. The main goal should be to put these guys out of business and cripple their ability to strong-arm their former vassals.

Sorry for the three week old link, but that's when I can get around to these things. Deal with it. All five of you.