Some quick predictions for tomorrow's primaries in Colorado...
Senate Republican race: Jane Norton defeats Ken Buck. Republican voters become more cautious after seeing Sharron Angle and Dr. Rand Paul blow up gimmie elections in other states.
Senate Democratic race: Senator Michael Bennett defeats Andrew Romanoff. Romanoff had a chance until he put out a distorted, ugly political ad that would have made Boss Tweed proud.
The ad leaves out the fact that the movie theater chain that Bennett "pushed into bankruptcy" lost only a few jobs during the reorganization under Bennett and now has more jobs than it has before it was saved. What happened to the plucky, spirited Andrew Romanoff? And the Cherry Creek News? Was the Tabernash Tribune not available? No Parker Picayune? I'm sure that anyone can rub two pages together and call it a newspaper.
Governor's Republican Race: Scott McInnis defeats Dan Maes. The ill-tempered plagiarizer defeats the conspiracy theory loving procrastinator in the race to be Mayor John Hickenlooper's opponent in November. It boggles the mind how large of a victory that Hickenlooper can pull out if the current trends continue. McInnis and Tom Tancredo get rolled in November.
- California's ban on gay marriage was overturned in federal court on Wednesday. Good. There is no rational argument against gay marraige. The opposition to it is simply due to religious reasons. Two heterosexual strangers can meet in Las Vegas and 24 hours later get married while a committed gay couple of 20 years cannot. That is inequity in its highest form.
- I don't hate Tim Tebow. He's athletic, works hard, and does great work outside of the I despise his cultist like followers that believe he will become the greatest player in NFL history before he has played a down. To bring perspective here's a list of Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks.
2008 Sam Bradford Oklahoma QB 2007 Tim Tebow Florida QB 2006 Troy Smith Ohio State QB 2004 Matt Leinart Southern California QB 2003 Jason White Oklahoma QB 2002 Carson Palmer Southern California QB 2001 Eric Crouch Nebraska QB 2000 Chris Weinke Florida State QB 1996 Danny Wuerffel Florida QB 1993 Charlie Ward Florida State QB 1992 Gino Torretta Miami QB 1990 Ty Detmer Brigham Young QB 1989 Andre Ware Houston QB 1986 Vinny Testaverde Miami QB 1984 Doug Flutie Boston College QB 1971 Pat Sullivan Auburn QB 1970 Jim Plunkett Stanford QB 1967 Gary Beban UCLA QB 1966 Steve Spurrier Florida QB 1964 John Huarte Notre Dame QB 1963 Roger Staubach Navy QB 1962 Terry Baker Oregon State QB 1956 Paul Hornung Notre Dame QB 1947 Johnny Lujack Notre Dame QB 1944 Les Horvath Ohio State QB/HB 1943 Angelo Bertelli Notre Dame QB 1938 Davey O'Brien Texas Christian QB
So out of this list we have 2 Pro Football Hall of Famers (Roger Staubach and Paul Hornug who made his living at tailback in the NFL), one standout whose career may be on the path to the Hall of Fame (Carson Palmer), two guys who had long, admirable careers (Jim Plunkett and Vinny Testaverde), three young quarterbacks that the jury's still out on (Matt Leinart, Tim Tebow and Sam Bradford) and a bunch of career backups and flops. So discounting the three young guys (Matt Leinart may be on the verge of busthood regardless), you have 5 out of 24 successful Heisman quarterbacks, one of which played halfback in his NFL career.
If Tim Tebow succeeds in the NFL, it won't be for the lack of trying. He's not the only winner in college football history. Gino Toretta went 26 and 1 as a starter for the Miami Hurricanes, won the Heisman and flopped in the NFL. Jason White was 24-3 as a starter for the Oklahoma Sooners, won the Heisman and wasn't even drafted in the NFL.
I get it. Tebow isn't Ben Roethlisberger or Michael Vick. He's spent time as a missionary. He's a milk drinker in a Jack Daniels' world. But his fans are setting him up to fail, and doing a great disservice to him.
I hope he proves me wrong and I believe that he'll try his hardest. But history is against him.
Sooooooooooo... what's this world coming to? Wikileaks. Mosques. Bikes that are under U.N. Control. Senate candidates that want the press to ask the questions that they want asked.
-Brad Manning is in heaps of troubles as he should be. The former Army PFC had an act of conscience and leaked thousand of documents that showed war was hell. And outside of exposing the names of Afghani informants, nothing really crucial was exposed. We all know that war is hell. We all know that unfortunate killings are part of war. But what Manning did is treason. There's no other way to put it. He took classified documents and exposed them to the general public. He's no martyr and may have put people's life in danger. Why? To show that war is hell, which we knew anyway. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and on the side of the road is where good people with the best intentions that did the worst things lie.
-A muslim rights group is building a Mosque near ground zero in New York and it should be built and should be disdained at the same time. Allow them to build it but let the Muslims know that building this so close to where many Americans were killed by radical agents of their religion is harming their cause more than helping it. The 9/11 survivors and victims families have the right to be hostile. Politicians on both sides are missing the point. America is a forgiving country that needs to realize that moving on is what needs to be done to heal.
-Before we talk about Colorado Senate Candidate Dan Maes, a little house cleaning is in order... Okay, now that's taken care of... If the Republican Party's chances of winning the Governors race weren't decimated enough, Maes took a weed eater to them by espousing that the recent boost in bike riding and the Denver program of rent-a-bikes were part of a conspiracy to put U.S. cities under United Nations control. No, I'm not making that up. First, Scott McInnis is found to have plagiarized a report on Colorado water rights and then he threw his researcher under the bus. Then former Congressman and currently most despised conservative figure in Colorado (an impressive feat when this state also boasts Douglas Bruce and Reverend James Dobson as residents) Tom Tancredo joined the race as a third party candidate and now the mumbo jumbo conspiracy theory by Maes. If the GOP doesn't want the office, just say so. You're taking an office that was winnable and turning into mush, and may I remind you, you're doing it against the strongest possible Democratic opponent in the state. Mayor John Hickenlooper is a moderate Democrat and popular figure amongst all in the city of Denver. He has real life business acumen and bi-partisan support. You could run a perfect campaign and still lose. And the two candidates for the GOP are doing an Abbott and Costello routine... way to go. - I used to think that actor and Christina Hendricks' hubby Geoffery Arend was the luckiest man in the world, now I'm pretty sure that U.S. Senate majority leader Harry Reid is. Reid had no shot to retain his Senate seat and was a surefire loser in November in an down with the incumbent atmosphere. Then Sharon Angle happened...
You can see Carl Cameron's soul die in this video. He's a good newsman and he knows that her stance on the media is utter bullshit. Tea Partiers... again. Not every right wing person is Sarah Palin and not everyone believes everything that the Tea Party believes in... sometimes if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a loon. Reid went from being down double digits to being up by 4 points. The GOP and Tea Party are acting like they've hit a triple when they were born on third base.
It's been too long since I posted... so here goes - BP has finally capped the well and the first part of the disaster in the Gulf is over...for now. Let's hope for a quick resolution. - Lindsay Lohan is going to jail for at least three weeks. Good. If a "civilian" had violated their probation like she did, they'd be going away for longer. Let's hope that Lindsay finds her self in solitary and comes back to what could have been a great career. She has immense talent and she's been wasting it. I don't care what Tila Tequila does to herself, but Lindsay has the potential to be an Oscar winner if she gets her head on straight. She was dealt a nasty hand with her worthless parental units. Jail gives you time to think. Let us see if she uses it. - The NAACP has come out and accused the Tea Party Movement of having some racist elements... and they're right. There are some elements within the Tea Party that are racist and the moderate members of the Tea Party have done very little to repudiate them. Nope, no racism there... To all Tea Partiers, I respect the energy that you have shown and your desire to fix the country for the better. But the longer you allow the fringe elements to take part in your movement, the more harm is done. This is the disadvantage of not having clear leadership. There should be a sign patrol at the rallies to say to the people bringing these signs, "Gee, maybe comparing Health Care Reform to Dachau isn't the best idea." At this point, Tea Party members who say nothing are just as bad as the moderate Muslims who say nothing when their extremist element comes out. Put your foot down willya? -In other news, George Armstrong Cust... err, Alvin Greene gave his first official campaign speech yesterday... it was the first step in him getting rolled like Cinnabons in November by Jim DeMint. -Elana Kagan won the approval of the Senate Judiciary Committee... with one Republican breaking ranks and voting yes. Darn that Senator Lindsey Graham for wanting a qualified nominee to get an up or down vote in the Senate. Darn him all to heck. - That's enough fake outrage for a while.
Two days ago a city was rocked to its core. That city was Cleveland. LeBron James decided to leave his hometown Cavaliers to be on the same team as two of his Olympic teammates; Dwayne Wade and the luckiest man alive Chris Bosh. While Cleveland inevitably melts down over his decision and his hideous decision to destroy his hometown on a prime time special on ESPN (which has become the worst thing for sports ever, but that's another topic for another time), there must be some navel gazing by Clevelanders on why this keeps on happening to their city. It's been called "the mistake by the lake," and at times hasn't been the cleanest city in the world (see Cuyahoga river, burning of), but what could be causing this lack of karma towards a simple city like Cleveland? It's been destroyed in sports over and over again, and for a city like Cleveland where hope is not always easy to find... it's a bad omen to see the shining light of your town seemingly leave without a morsel of regret. The amount of acting that LeBron James used to say that it was a "hard decision" was Oscar worthy.
But why? Why is this city so cursed? Why "The Drive" and "The Fumble" and "The Decision" and "The Shot" and Jose Mesa... Why? The reason is relatively simple. There's a reason why Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, the two closest cities to Cleveland in size and location, have had major sports successes and Cleveland hasn't.
THAT. Cleveland supports the most embarrassingly racist logo in the history of American sports. There's political correctness run a muck, there's charges of racism where there's none to be found, and then there's full on you should be ashamed of yourself Mel Gibson style racism. With a karmic albatross as large as Chief Wahoo, Cleveland will never ascend to to any sort of greatness. But what about Braves and Chiefs? There's at least a hint of respect being shown. What about Redskins? Redskin is bad, almost at the same level as the N-word... but there's no big karmic path of destruction in the city of Washin... okay, so maybe there is. Notice that the only time the Atlanta Braves won a World Series was when they faced the Indians?
It gets to a point where there's no defense. In the past, I've asked a couple of Clevelanders on the subject and their response was "It's a Cleveland thing, you wouldn't understand." They were right, I don't.
Let's put this on a hat and then act all surprised that things don't turn out the way we want them too. It's your choice Cleveland, get rid of Chief Wahoo forever or just remain the mistake by the lake.
When the management and writer J. Michael Straczynzki of DC Comics decided to change Wonder Woman's costume, the whole world seemed to get into a tizzy about the change. It was as if they undressed the Statue of Liberty herself. There were cries of outrage from all walks of life. Suzi Parker of Politics Daily writes:
But perhaps originality is too hard these days. It's better to toy with a known commodity like Wonder Woman than test-market an entire new brand. There's something endearing about a classic remaining -- just that -- a classic.
Wonder Woman in her red, white and blue glory is an American icon. She should remain so.
That's entirely the problem with Wonder Woman. To most, she's a symbol... she's not a living breathing character. There are very few great Wonder Woman stories and a pathetic rogue's gallery. There's Cheetah... and... and... well, you get my point. It was her costume and ideals that made her an icon. Other iconic superheroes have stories to add to their mythos. Bruce Wayne is as an important part of the Batman character. Clark Kent and Peter Parker are symbols as much as Superman and Spider-Man. Straczynzki's familiar with Spider-Man having been part of the ill-advised "One More Day" storyline that erased much of Peter Parker's past and memories in a move to get Spider-Man closer to his original character, or at least to the Spider-Man that older people remember.
Wonder Woman is the exact opposite in the sense that there's no texture to her. A motion picture about her is about the origin and the costume. There's nothing else to really draw from. The mainstream shock about this reminds me of the reaction when Major League Baseball wanted to retract the Minnesota Twins in the late 90’s. Minnesotans had been negligent in their support for their team, but the second that the proposed retraction was proposed there was outrage. You can’t take our team away from us! The retraction was dropped and the Twins have gone on to become very well supported and very well attended. But it’s the threat of having something taken away or altered that scares people sometimes, not the actual action. Famed feminist Gloria Steinem reacts every time Wonder Woman is changed, but it is about the symbolism, never about the character.
It’s a John Wayne western. You want to sit back and watch the western for what you want it to symbolize. Whether it’s about the fantasy of the American west, or the fight of good versus evil, there are people who want to just watch a John Wayne western. Never mind that Wayne only made 10 or so great westerns; the ideal and iconic images of John Wayne fighting the good fight make it all right to sit through some of his stinkers. Wonder Woman is about the ideal and the iconic image.
Most comic book fans (and they’re comic books, not funny books Ms. Parker, what are you, 80?) have looked at the changes and either dismissed them or liked the changes and treated Wonder Woman as she should be, a good character who had a costume change and will probably go back to the old costume in no time at all. To the rest of society, Wonder Woman is a porcelain statue who simply inspires by appearance and not by actions.
-To no one's surprise, Michael Steel has popped off...again. This time he's getting heat for saying the Afghan war was not winnable and is a war of President Obama's "choosing." If there's one thing you can without doubt say about the previous administration, it's that they chose the war... and then chose to get distracted by a war that was unnecessary. I think that Steele needs to concentrate more on trying to get Republicans elected in the fall, than trying to be a walking sound byte. The Republicans can get some great grounds in November's elections, but they often act like they've hit a triple when they were born on third base. Truthfully, Steele should have fallen on his sword after the lesbian-bondage club fiasco, but he's pretty much dead man walkin' at this point. And if Ron Paul is the only Republican who comes to your defense, you're screwed. Paul is only a member of the GOP because Libertarians can't win elections.
-Speaking of the walking dead, Larry King is retiring. Finally. King has been behind the times for a decade now, and this is CNN's chance to get fresh again. What CNN needs is a personality transfusion, stat. Wolf Blitzer is dry, Anderson Cooper is dry and the late, lamented Campbell Brown was as dry as the Sahara Desert. You need to get smart again and bring in viewers that are frustrated by the base partanship on both Fox and MSNBC. But is CNN smart enough to do it? They hired this guy after all...
Ahhhhhhh, Rick Sanchez... you never cease to amuse.
-Brock Lesnar came back to submit Shane Carwin at UFC 116 and guaranteed a huge payout to everyone involved. If anything, this shows the difference between MMA and boxing. MMA has one major federation with one man's, Dana White, vision. You have many different stars in MMA that can create excitement. Boxing has seemingly hundreds off different federations, no clear vision, and only two stars (Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao) that can sell tickets. But boxing has sports writers and columnists that remember the good old days, and paid shills like Jim Lampley to downplay MMA's rise. Wish we all had barking dogs in our pockets to shout down our enemies.
-While on the subject of Lesnar and his past occupation, we take a look at Linda McMahon's doomed, doomed campaign for Senate in Connecticut. She is a political nightmare. She is more or less a figurehead for a company that treats its greatest assets (wrestlers) like they were working on a plantation picking cotton. Now both Martha Hart, widow of Owen Hart, and Michael Benoit, father of Chris Benoit, have spoken up about Linda's moral ambiguities. That and all the simulated necrophilia, crucifixtions, dog killing, mocking cancer, making a woman bark like a dog on all fours, a transvestite simulating oral sex, Mae Young giving birth to a hand, Mae Young stripping, choppy choppy pee pee, simulated incest, Billy and Chuck's gay wedding, J.R.'s "colonoscopy," Hot Lesbian Action, 3 simulated deaths (Vince McMahon, Al Wilson and Paul Bearer), inability for Dolph Ziggler to "perform" in a broom closet with Maria that have been on the programming over the years and, last but certainly not least, 6 wrestlers dying on the payroll and more dying after they've been released. McMahon's argument that she wasn't involved in the creative side of things doesn't hold water because if she was really CEO she could have stopped some of those things. Someone had to say that simulating necrophilia is a bad idea... Linda McMahon is a thinly veiled attempt by the WWE to get an insider into Washington to try to prevent a) anti-trust hearings or b) serious reform to an industry that desperately needs it.
-In the grossest thing that people are fascinated with, Joey Chestnut ate 54 hot dogs at the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Competition. Then the stage was rushed by Takeru Kobayashi, the Babe Ruth (I know, I know) of professional eating champions.
This is what years of competing in eating contests does to mental competence. Stay in school kids!
Took a nice long walk to enjoy the Colorado weather and discovered one thing. I just don't like heat for heat's sake. Oh, if I'm out and want to dive in a pool that's one thing, but just to be in hot weather is just not enjoyable.
I feel for our men and women in uniform being in the sandpits of Afghanistan. As with many things in this world, there are no easy answers. I regret not having enlisted when I was younger and then I think about my problems with authority and realize that spending time peeling potatoes for 4 years wouldn't have done any one any good.
It is a disaster of no end. It has wreaked havoc on a region that is coming close to a complete meltdown. The one thing that the BP oil spill has taught me is that Hollywood is full of crap.
In disaster movie after disaster movie, there is always a rogue scientist that knows what's really going on, and tries to get the evil corporation or the tone deaf government to stop whatever they're doing and "just listen to me." Whether it's Dustin Hoffman in "Outbreak" or Chiwetel Ejiofor in "2012," the rogue scientist with a heart of gold is there to save the day.
Poppycock.
There are no super scientists. There's no out of the way scientist who is going to miraculously stop this.
If an asteroid is heading to earth... we're toast. There is going to be panic in the streets and a lot of head scratching on what to do, other than to kiss our butts goodbye. We're not going to see a rescue mission led by Bruce Willis or Robert Duval to land on the rock and blow it up with a nuke.
Hollywood has lead us to believe the impossible. It is this mindset where people look at a disaster and wonder why nothing is being done. Sometimes, there's nothing to be done. We can't predict earthquakes and tsunami's can happen at a moments notice. And when a man-made disaster of biblical proportions happens, you can bet that the company or government that creates it has never thought about the worst case scenario. They've maybe given it lip service, maybe even run computer simulations, but in the end they're as clueless as a monkey with a remote control.
Hollywood has promised us personal jet packs...jet packs! Flying cars and cell phones that don't drop calls (okay, that one is a little far fetched). Maybe it's the Hollywood in all of us that believes that everything will be okay; sometimes it's not going to be. Some times it's just not going to work out.
Well, I don't know if this is going to be funny or not, but I have to start expressing myself somehow. So, let's begin.
I am trying to become what I've always wanted to be and that's a writer. It's the one thing that I'm pretty good at and it's really the only skill I have. I'm not very athletic, I'm not slick at all... I couldn't sell hot chocolate to Eskimos, much less water to somebody in the desert. I get migraines when I see a screwdriver or a wrench. I'm about as handy as a snake. I can follow directions well enough, but ask me to put together anything by scratch, and it's not happening.
But a little about me...
I love great beer, great red wine and good brown liquor (brandy/whiskey/rum) My favorite movie is Spartacus My favorite super-hero is Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) I've been to 38 states... missing Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Indiana, South Carolina, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho and Montana. I've never left the continent. I prefer milk chocolate and believe that dark chocolate is the work of the devil. My favorite song is "Stars go Blue" by Ryan Adams. My favorite book is Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison I prefer the National League over slow pitch softball the American League I believe that Keanu Reeves sullies every movie that he's in. I would rather die than give up my Red Dwarf DVD collection. I have a dog named Lady. I love most genres of music 'cept anthem rap and opera, but consider myself a hard rock/metal geek first and foremost. While I disagree with a lot of her political views, I would pick the peanuts out of S.E. Cupp's shit. My second home is a lake in the Colorado Rockies named Sweetwater. I enjoy wrestling autobiographies (Chris Jericho, Bret Hart, Freddie Blassie, Superstar Graham and William Regal's books are worth checking out even for non-wrestling fans) I read about a book a week. The best feeling in the world is reading a good book on the porch while listening to John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. I haven't been to concerts lately because my hearing's gone to utter crap. I am a homer when it comes to sports (Broncos, Nuggets, Rockies, Avalanche and Colorado State Rams) Young conservatives always come off like Alex P. Keaton to me.
What is this blog going to be about? Everything. It may be a personal missive, could be a formulated column on politics, sports, music, beer and wine... anything.
I'm hoping you enjoy what I'm writing. It's gonna be a fun time.
