Tuesday Musings a.k.a. Gotta lot of catching up to do.

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.

LeBron and the Cleveland curse...

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.

Icons and statues....

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.

Random Thoughts...

Random thoughts on a glorious day...

-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!

Saturday is all right for...

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.

What the BP oil spill has taught me.

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.