Ramblings...and a tangent

If Simmons can do it, why can't I?

* Besides the NBA, there is no more overhyped, overpublicized, and underwhelming event than the College World Series.  I can't believe anyone watches this crap.  Aluminum bats...bad pitching...scores like football games.  I can't imagine what it was like before the television coverage took a dramatic turn for the better. 

* Why would the Weather Channel build a big HD studio and only use it for some shows?  Are the Mets only planning on playing divisional games in CitiField next year, relegating other games back to Shea?  This makes no sense. 

* Dr. James Dobson goes off about Obama "distoring the bible."  I don't even have a joke here.  People like Dobson are the reason I have less and less interest in religion with every passing day. 

* Here's Matthew Berry with some great anecdotes about the late and great George Carlin.  If you ever want to know what kind of person a celebrity really is, you see what they do off camera.  I'll never forget the Senior Players Championship that I volunteered at in Dearborn.  Tom Kite led going into Sunday, played poorly and got passed by Raymond Floyd.  After the round is over, they do the trophy presentation on #18.  When that wraps up I began to head for the car.  As I'm walking toward the clubhouse, there's Kite *still* signing autographs between 18 and the locker room.  Mere minutes after blowing a major championship, Kite signed every autograph.  That's the kind of stuff great people are made of. 

* "I'm just so, so thrilled."  Those the words of Ana Ivanovic after barely winning her second round Wimbledon matchup.  In response to this, the entire male population of the world was heard saying "whew, I'm glad we get to see her play another match this week."

* Here's a gem.  Glenn Beck on conservative values.

So what are my core values, the things that I refuse to compromise on? To figure that out, I decided to try to define what I think a conservative really believes.

A conservative believes that our inalienable rights do not include housing, healthcare or Hummers.

I agree...with the last one.  But why on Earth is some level of healthcare for our citizens - even the most basic care level - not an inalienable right?  Nobody has ever sufficiently explained this to me, but it's clear that the rich don't want to pay for it.  

A conservative believes that our inalienable rights DO include the pursuit of happiness. That means it is guaranteed to no one.

Blah blah blah...

A conservative believes that those who pursue happiness and find it have a right to not be penalized for that success.

Correct.  Instead, penalize the less successful - fuck them all.  They don't need homes or healthcare either.  Fact is, dickwad, that the existence of government is critical because there are certain things only governments can pull off.  And with our infrastructure crumbling, the government needs more revenue (i.e. taxes) to pull off said things.  

The root cause of all these problems is wasteful government spending.  It's not the sources of the tax dollars - it's the USAGE of the tax dollars. 

A simple analogy for your simple mind, Glenn.  Say you have a kid in college.  The kid loves him the booze.  Spends a TON of money on it.  What do you do to correct the problem?
a) If you're a conservative, you give him less and tell him to get by with it. 
b) If you have a brain, you educate him/impose restrictions on him/discipline him so that the money he has is not spent as wastefully. 

Attack the problem, don't put a band aid on it.

A conservative believes that there are no protections against the hardship and heartache of failure. We believe that the right to fail is just as important as the chance to succeed and that those who do fail learn essential lessons that will help them the next time around.

A conservative believes in personal responsibility and accepts the consequences for his or her words and actions.

These two are both very true.  

A conservative believes that real compassion can't be found in any government program.

A conservative doesn't believe in real compassion.  That's my observation.

A conservative believes that each of us has a duty to take care of our neighbors. It was private individuals, companies and congregations that sent water, blankets and supplies to New Orleans far before the government ever set foot there.

True, but only the government was *capable* of properly dealing with the Katrina disaster.  Now they royally fucked it up and that is well known.  But no disorganized group of volunteers, private individuals, congregations, etc. could adequately pull off the recovery effort that was needed to rescue New Orleans.  Government could pull this off.  It didn't, but it's the only kind of entity capable.  To fix this, we don't abandon government, we fix it, monitor it, and kick the asses of those within it who continue to screw up.

A conservative believes that family is the cornerstone of our society and that people have a right to manage their family any way they see fit, so long as it's not criminal. We are far more attuned to our family's needs than some faceless, soulless government program.

What faceless, soulless government program would this be?  Seriously, I haven't a clue.   When did government try to interject itself into how people manage their own families?

A conservative believes that people have a right to worship the God of their understanding. We also believe that people do not have the right to jam their version of God (or no God) down anybody else's throat.

Fine.  Everyone has the right to worship or not worship.  I wholeheartedly support the second point.  And I'll add a third - I reserve the right to question the entire concept of religion (not the concept of God - but the bureaucracy and bullshit that accompanies religion) without being branded as an evil person.  

A conservative believes that people go to the movies to be entertained and to church to be preached to, not the other way around.

Conservatives also believe that people go to restaurants to eat and to laundromats to wash their clothes, not the other way around.  Seriously, WTF is the point of this?

A conservative believes that debt creates unhealthy relationships. Everyone, from the government on down, should live within their means and strive for financial independence.

Smartest thing he's written - perhaps ever. 

A conservative believes that a child's education is the responsibility of the parents, not the government.

True, though EVERY child is entitled to the right to go to school.   

A conservative believes that every human being has a right to life, from conception to death.

There are just SO many grey areas in here.  I'll just say this - I believe that everyone who isn't 100% ready to parent a child ought to exercise birth control.  It ain't that expensive.  

A conservative believes in the smallest government you can get without anarchy. We know our history: The larger a government gets, the harder it will fall.

Moderately true.  But as I mentioned above - if you starve a government, you get nonsense like the Katrina response.  You get deteriorating infrastructure.  You lose the ability to have a military presence that we need.  You lose the kinds of things that only government can provide.  There's a balance in here, and the way to best achieve the balance is to continue to fund the government AND hold the government accountable for what it does.  The latter surely hasn't happened in our last 7.5 years - perhaps it hasn't happened in decades.  Government has come to mean entitlement for those in it - not responsibility to those who fund it.  Therein lies the problem.  

Those are the things a conservative believes in, and they're the things that I believe in. Now, if only I could find a candidate to match.

Keep searching, ol boy.  I've found mine. 

* When you have 57 suited in the BB, see a free flop of 3 5 5, what could possibly go wrong?  Well when you try to trap an aggressive player and said player flopped a boat with 35...'nuff said.

* "Kobe, how my ass taste."  Brilliant. 

* Woo hoo, Jerry Manuel yelled at an umpire.  Who the hell cares?  Win some damn ball games and get back into the NL East race first, then I'll start to worry about the little things like team fielding exercises and argued balls and strikes.  That's not an indictment of Manuel - it's a prioritization of what needs to happen.