Hey Eugene, Fuck You!
It must be nice to be an ignorant puss-head like Eugene Kane, living in a fantasy world where you
carefully avoid facts and contrary data when smugly dishing your opinion (and disguising it as self-evident reality).
He takes a few (highly unoriginal) shots at supporters of the war and Bush. See, to prejudiced knee-jerk lefties, ...it's all about Bush.
Kane states flatly that :
I always insist it wasn't a just war, at least not for the reasons given by President Bush.
Meaning, the threat of weapons of mass destruction Iraq allegedly possessed at the time of our invasion.
Didn't Bill Clinton blomb Iraq a number of times? What was the justification used for those attacks, ....anyone? They would be the SAME reasons used for the war the Bush administration prosecuted. I don't remember hearing "Clinton lied! Clinton lied! Clinton lied!" from the left during his 8 year term. For one thing, they would have had to have been more specific.
All Kane has to do is look up Bush's actual speaches from the time to see that the WMDs were merely ONE of the reasons we went to war. But the left always focused primarily on that because they just were not going to support a war prosecuted by a Republican. They couldn't be against the war for the other stated reasons, liberation, UN violations, common descency, genocide, ...so they needed something.
They kept saying, "Well, Iraq hasn't attacked
us." Furthermore, they needed to show that Iraq was not going to be a threat to us in the near future, ...so they grabbed on to the WMDs.
Now, the WMDs were the reasons for the UN violations. Saddam was supposed to disarm and prove that he did so. He never proved it, never provided documentation of it, and acting like he was concealing these weapons all the time. Maybe it was a bluff, ...but we called his bluff and he lost. You can bet no one else will follow the same strategy (see Libya).
I see this as a GOOD THING. But for a partisan democrat who cares less about his country than he does his party, ...it's a BAD thing.
Then, while speaking of David Kay, Kane writes a carefully worded sentence meant to imply something different than what it says:
In any case, no evidence of weapons or a comprehensive program to produce large amounts of weapons was found.
They DID find LOTS of evidence pointing directly to weapons programs. Why did Kane leave out other statements from David Kay?
I must say, I actually think what we learned during the inspections made Iraq a more dangerous place potentially than in fact we thought it was even before the war.
Or this: Kay told the Telegraph that some materials ? not stockpiles, but perhaps substances and "some components of Saddam's WMD programme" ? likely made their way to Syria.
Finally, Kane suggests that the whole world will be shocked to learn that Bush was a Vietnam deserter. He then salivates over the fact that Kerry was active and wounded in action in Vietnam, which is weapon they will use to bash Bush.
First, this story came up in the last campaign and has largely been discredited. Records from the time were not kept well, but the base commander at the time gave Bush the "all clear" over the affiar.
Second, Bush already beat a Nam vet, ...Al Gore.
Third, how can a party (and for that matter a hack like Kane) bash Bush over his Vietnam service after having their tongues halfway up Clinton's ass for 8 years? He begged his way out of the draft (claiming in a letter that he "loathed" the military), letting other young men die so he could chase skirts and go to England. Furthermore, he participated in anti-American protests in the communist Soviet Union (yes, he did, in Moscow) during the war. The lefties supported Clinton all the way and now they are going make a big deal about Bush because he may not have filed out all his paperwork the correct way?
What else do you expect from them?
Finally, ...why can't Kane be happy for the liberation fo Iraq? The fact that a brutal dictator is removed, that his apparatus or terror is gone forever, that 29 million people have a reason to think positively about the future for the first time in decades?
It's all about Bush.
Still Too Young, Still Too Old
In 51 hours I leave the sweet, sea-scented San Diego air and depart for the fishy-smelling metropolis of Tokyo. (Well, the city doesn't actually smell like fish. Far from it. But each train station sits near a number of food stands and restaurants, so my oversensitive schnoz always picks up the scent).
A full day and a half later I'll end my 18 year and 4 month march of single-hood.
18 years.
In another (conveniently symmetrical) 18 years, my soon-to-arrive child will be an adult, ...here's why that scrambles my formerly comfortable grip on reality:
I still feel like a kid. A few years ago I read a Dilbert cartoon where he confessed that he felt like a 15 year old kid walking around in an older shell hoping no one would notice. I can relate.
I never did figure women out. I still feel like a peon around adults, even though the "adult" may very well be my exact age. I still lose all brain function in the presence of a beautiful girl (even a young one).
On the other hand, ...I don't like the company of young people either. If I accidentally listen to more than 20 seconds of conversation between two people below the age of 25, my brain starts to ooze out of my ears.
I cannot fathom the next 18 years, but the last 18 felt like 2. I still remember high school. I still remember cruising the strip on Friday nights, hanging out at Southridge mall, and living off of McDonald's drive-thru. I can still hear "In the still of the night" by Whitesnake blaring out of the back of a Camaro. I can still smell the 80's mix of cigarettes, hairspray, and leather that preceded bra-fumbling and back seat gymnastics.
I don't feel significantly more mature today. Sure, in some ways I am, but not in any way I imagined. Perhaps my view of adulthood was wrong all along.
Adulthood is not synonymous with stability, maturity, wisdom, comfort, satisfaction, achievement, or happiness.
It's just like your life as a post-childhood single guy, ...just a lot less fun, with potentially less variety, more heartache, more worry, higher stakes, and less chance for a risk-taking grasp at the brass ring.
This past weekend I talked to an old girlfriend who said my whole movement towards marriage and fatherhood was "weird". By that, she meant that I had always been the kind of guy who resisted those things, and now, in the span of a few months, I was committed all the way.
She's right, to an extent. She was the last girl I dated where thoughts of the future were non-existent. It is partly because of her that my outlook on life changed. I knew for certain that I did not want to be with her forever, ...and for some reason that bothered me. I kept asking myself why I was in the relationship at all. Suddenly, "sex" and "boredom" and "waiting for something better" were not good answers.
For some reason, I had started to want
more.
How about that, ...it looks like I HAVE matured after all.
Somewhat.
But, like Homer once said, "I guess people really don't change. Or, ...they change and then quickly change back."
One From the Road
For the married, whipped, and lonely, ...
enjoy this picture.
No, I did not personally take this picture. While I've had a small string of good fortune lately, I'm not THAT lucky.
Shit!
Captain Freaking Kangaroo
died!
That sucks.
I always watched his show, even when I was a little too old for it. That ping-pong gag never got old.
Kane Digs Up Another Racial Boogeyman
In a column filled with
speculation and conspiracy theories, Kane equates Rush Limbaugh's precription drug addiction with Robert Downey jr's drug problems and criminals arrested for crack cocaine.
This might be news to him, but Rush hasn't been charged with or convicted of
any crime.
If he is charged, it will be for the crime of "doctor shopping". Not quite the same thing.
Geez
I didn't know there was such a rivalry between UW-GB and UWM in bastketball. The other night they played an intense conference game against one another. UWM prevailed due to better atheletes and better shooters.
During and after the game, assistant coaches from both teams got into a 4th grade style
"war of words".
Money quote:
Jones and Kowalczyk exchanged glares and Kowalczyk told Jones, "What are you looking at?" Kowalczyk then apparently told Jones to sit down, to which Jones replied, "Make me, make me, make me."
The Dullest Blog in the World
I haven't dropped by
the dullest blog in the world for a while (aside from my own), good to see it's still alive and kicking.
Blasphemy!
How can
this website even have a category for Asian Babes?
Insanity!
Nice girls, though.
Holy Shit
Brewers are for
sale!
Apparantly, the Seligs want out.
Press conference this afternoon.
Will they stay or will they go? They have a lease at Miller Park, but ...
Hmmm, I say, ....hmmmm ...
UPDATE: Looks like the team almost certainly will stay here. The lease is very strongly worded and is for 30 years. Also, it could be that they had planned this for some time, which might explain their desire to cut expenses over the last few years.
Uh Oh
The Packers have scheduled a news conference for 10am today.
The word is that it is a "significant announcement" involving one or both of the coordinators.
What's my guess?
Dunno. I think Rossley redeemed himself in the latter half of the year. Donatell seemed the most inconsistent, blitzing a lot one game, then abandoning it for a few games.
Interesting. Listen to the press conference live
here.
UPDATE: It's Donatell. Suprising. Also, the tight ends coach is gone. Since the RB coach is already leaving, they may also announce that Edgar Bennet is the new RB coach. This is advance word, press conference is coming. My biggest question is, ....WHO WILL REPLACE HIM???? That's what I'm worried about.
UPDATE II: Sherman called it a difficult decision. He also said it had nothing to do with the 4th and 26 play. Probably had more to do with losing games at the end because they could not stop the other team, ...the KC game which the had won, the first Philly game, not so much the second Philly game, Detroit, Arizona ....
Also, word is that he's looking to promote within.
Sunset in Narita
Now That's a Satisfying Result
And Then There is the Red Skull
Here are the low-lights of Gephardt's
laughable tantrum before the council of Foreign Relations.
Gephardt said that if elected, he would press the World Trade Organization to establish "an international minimum wage" that would be different for each country "but always high enough so we don't compete with slave, sweatshop and child labor around the world."
So, ...under the brave President Dick, the freaking WTO will be in sole control of what a business can pay it's employees? WTF is he thinking? Who in their right mind thinks it's a good idea to let a bunch of bureaucrats dictate the economics of US private business (or the economics of business around the globe)? Like this won't be used as a weapon against the US. Putting this kind of power (which no one should have) in the hands of unelected, unaccountable buffoons is absolute insanity.
He said he is running for President "...to restore American leadership in the world, to show that foreign policy is more than a John Wayne movie, more than a forum for boasts and bravado and amorphous ad-hoc coalitions."
For a guy who claims to have some foreign policy smarts, how does he justify implying that the support of our closet, most loyal, and trusted allies is somehow not enough to be legit. What countries would President Dick add to the list? And how would he get these countries to play ball? It's been proven that France and Russia were selling illegal arms to Saddam up to the eve of the war, ...so what is the likelihood that they would have ever supported taking out Saddam?
Furthermore, Bush has shown nothing but leadership. He went to the UN, haggled with them for months and months, and finally said, we've given you chance to do the right thing, but you're not going to stop us from doing what we need to. Would he have shown more leadership by knuckling under to France and Russia? Is that what President Dick would do?
He also said,
...the Bush administration is to blame for "a deadly quagmire in the sands of Iraq with no exit strategy and scant international support."
What is/was Gephardt's exit strategy? Anyone ...? I thought so. Besides, Bush's strategy is pretty clear. Wipe out Saddam's control of the country. Check. Occupy and stabilize the country. Check and underway. Hunt down resistance fighters. Underway. Get the country's services up and running. Check. Form an interim government. Check. Schedule elections. Check. Rebuild the police force. Check. Rebuild the Iraq army so they can defend themselves. Check. Schedule a transfer of power. Check. Bring the former dictator to justice. Check. Stay until the country is stable and safe, probably 4 years. Underway.
Makes sense to me, but I'm not a Democrat.
A Game of Inches and Bad Decisions
This is not just a case of "one play here and one play there" and the outcome is different. This is different.
If Ed Donatell calls a competant defense for 4th and 26, the game is over.
OVER
They kneel down twice, ...hello Carolina. Hello NFC Championship game.
But they leave the middle of the field open, and Philly converts.
All the other bad decisions and unforced mistakes contributed, but that one play was the hook, line, and sinker.
The corners played great. The d-line stepped up in the later quarters. Ahman Green had another fantastic game. For the most part, Rossley and Donatell called great games.
But Rossley and Sherman must have some degenerative disease that causes their brains to melt in the 3rd quarter. Bad decisions on 3rd down stopped a few promising drives where Philly was having a hard time stopping Green.
The fourth down in the 4th quarter was a gut call that Sherman failed to answer.
The game was won and in their hands. The coaches gave it away.
GAVE it away.
Good Guys, Bad Guys
I cannot offer a rock solid prediction for this weekend, just a guess.
While I can make a good case for the Packers winning, the odds are heavily against them. The game is on the road, Philly had a bye week, and their secondary is healthy. Also, Philly is an aggressive team that has lost in the NFC championship game 2 years in a row. Chances are they will get it right this time.
Frankly, I don't think the Packers are aggressive enough defensively to beat Philly, which is too bad because no one deserves to suffer more than the
idiotic Philly fans.
Attacking Brett Favre's family in some lame attempt to, as they put it, damage the halo of "saint Brett".
Jealously. Fear. Envy.
They are big city, but hardly a World Class city. You have to have class to be considered world class.
They fall dramatically short of that mark.
So, there will be no blowout and yet it won't be a real close game. Philly will win. The Packers will play ok, but they'll just be overmatched a bit. McNabb will get the accolades, but the secondary will pull the weight.
A score?
24-17 Eagles.
The Making of a Bad Father?
Mentally preoccupied with my upcoming contribution to the world population, I've been paying closer attention to the swarm of previously unnoticed crum-crunchers in my immediate vicinity. There seems to be no shortage of these coughing, pint-sized snot factories.
Kids were always a very distant concept for me, something I wanted, perhaps now, perhaps later, but something that was far from imminent. Without the pressures of a long-term relationship (or a short-term one, for that matter), I could think about this issue without having to confront its reality.
Now that my fortunes have flipped, I can't get over one simple thought that keeps jumping to the top of the print queue that is my consciousness, ...God help me, but I don't think I like kids very much.
What does that mean?
I don't know exactly, ...but I find myself forcing a smile when I see a child blatantly disobey his or her parents. I feign a "isn't that cute" smile when a child operates as if there are no morays or societal rules to which he has to abide. I pretend to think that a baby's blank, round-faced stare, complete with a fountain of snot, a stream of drool, and a diaper full of you-know-what is cute.
I'm sorry, but it's all I can do to keep that open faucet of germs away from me. Will this make me a bad father? Will I feel a stronger connection to my child after he or she is born? Why am I beginning to dread this birth? It's starting to worry me.
I'm a dog person through and through, but maybe that is a lesson for me.
While I used to cringe at the thought of being licked on the face by a dog, it now happens all the time and I hardly think about it. I used to be grossed out by dog crap in the yard, but now it's just another chore like dusting or changing the toilet paper roll. I used to hold my nose when face-to-face with dog breath, but now I regularly check my dog's breath just to see how bad it's gotten.
Will a doughy, diapered, leaky squawk-box transform me into a diaper bag holding, formula-mixing, bath-giving "dad"? I don't know, there's something wrong about a guy contemplating the idea of becoming a dad while simultaneously counting the days until the next
Splinter Cell game is released for the PC.
General Napoleon
Gen Wesley Clark is a
dangerous dangerous man.
He has firmly guaranteed that no terrorist attacks will befall the US if he is the President.
First of all, we all know he cannot guarantee such a thing. Secondly, even the most immature political hack (yes, even Chris Lehane) can see this for the transparent load of crap it is. In these comments, and in others, he is trying to blame the 9/11 attacks on Bush. He is repeating the mantra, "If I'm president of the United States, I'm going to take care of the American people."
Does he think we are all children? I'm wondering what type of mental midget would be wooed by this baby talk. I guess we know, ...it's
Madonna.
Clark is a dangerous
megalomaniac. He flops between positions, makes bald-faced contradictory statements, and floats accusations he admits himself that he cannot prove. He wants the power of the Presidency to feed his massive ego. He sees himself as the smartest, bravest, most capable man alive, ...and if we dunderheads would just vote for him, he could save us all.
Thanks Mr. Clark, but NO THANKS.
Being There
Dr. Dean is sounding and looking a lot like Chauncy Gardner these days. On the heels of General Weasly Clark gaining 17 points on him, his all powerful aides have begun
spinning.
Dr. Dean, who has spent two years campaigning as the candidate willing to say what he thinks, initially told reporters that he would be "happy" to discuss his tax policy. Then, as aides glared at him, he immediately said a senior adviser had "veto power" over what he would say.
"I'm not allowed to say I'm happy to do anything anymore," he added.
But this is the best part:
He added, "I sometimes speak elliptically, so I leave out pieces that seem to me to be obvious but aren't obvious to the people who haven't heard me talk about whatever the subject before."
He said, "There's been more than one time when I've said something, and sort of the middle of what I've said is not said but thought, and therefore assumed to be understood, which is a ridiculous assumption on my part, but sometimes gets me in trouble."
Huh?
He's Back
Well,
Conrad's back and I'm sure he'll soon make with the asian boobie pix and sex stories for which we love him. Thus, today marks my last day as amatuer pornographer (for now).
I leave you with
this and
this.
Bat-Eared Shit-for-Brains UPDATE
Dennis Kucinich, the scrawny, bat-eared, goblin-faced Presidential jock-sniffer has outdone himself this time. The genius brought a
pie chart to today's presidential
radio debate broadcast on National Public Radio.
via drudge
A Close Win
Despite a few horrible coaching decisions, the Pack sends the
Walrus back to coffee town.
It's no small wonder that all the Packer defensive highlights (including the game winning,
ass-saving interception) took place during blitzes. Despite this, Ed Donatell refuses to manufacture pressure with blitzes because he has no confidence in his secondary. While I sympathize with that, playing them 10-15 yards off the Seattle receivers is a recipe for disaster. For certain, the Packers greatest need going into the 2004 draft is secondary help. A number two need would be on the D-line. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. They've got Philly in 7 days, so let's take one day to celebrate.
Here's a beauty for each of the Packer's four touchdowns.
1st Quarter: Bubba Franks 23 yard TD pass from Brett Favre
4th Quarter: Ahman Green 1 Yd Run
4th Quarter: Ahman Green 1 Yd Run
OT: Al Harris 52 Yd Interception Return
