Bengals - Colts MONDAY Night Football!

Tonight's the big night, the Bengals trying to avenge last year's costly defeat and fighting for the wild-card playoff spot. The Colts have wrapped up their division but want a first-round bye. So it's gonna be big. Can't wait.

Been neglecting

Been neglecting the old blog. There will be lots to write about now that the GOP blew its chance to get things done. The best thing about the election is that gridlock is virtually assured, at least for two years, so things shouldn't totally collapse. Look for the Dems to find ways to tax the rich (i.e. anybody making above minimum wage), to cut and run in Iraq, and to investigate and prosecute as many conservatives as possible. Of course, any party with Alcee Hastings and William Jefferson shouldn't be slinging mud about ethics, but they will anyway. Why not, look at the free passes Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton (still) get!

I Love This One Too - and Vote Tuesday!

I like these pictures, too. I wonder if I can get Cheney to autograph my copy?
Hey, be sure to vote Nov. 7th. I am like many who have been very disappointed at the Republican Congress seemingly unable to pass any of the things we elected them to do in the first place. It does seem like its been downhill ever since the "Contract with America." But as badly as they have performed, a Democratic takeover would be far worse. Better to have a do-nothing Congress than one led by the likes of Pelosi, Conyers, or the ancient one Ted Kennedy (burp) I mean Robert KKK Byrd.

Egg on Kerry's face -- Priceless!

This says it better than anyone else I've heard on the subject of John Kerry and his idiotic remarks about the education of our military.

Bengals Lay an Egg

After weeks of hype the Bengals were humbled in a big way Sunday, getting smashed by New England. I should have known it was coming just from the Sports Illustrated cover jinx, but the fact is the Bengals injuries and suspensions have caught up with them, and the holes they created have now been exploited. Maybe the bye week will help with the healing.
By the way, congrats to the Reds. Even though they finished 80-82 which is the sixth straight losing season, they were in it all the way until Friday. And they did way better than the aforementioned SI said they would.

RCI Award Nominee - Jacques Chirac

So Chirac isn't worried about Iran's nuclear program, at least not enough to support international sanctions. And why would he, since his buddies in France are making lots of money supplying the Iranians with nuclear technology. So what if they want to wipe Israel off the map.
For Rectal Cranial Inversion above and beyond the call of duty, Chirac receives a nomination for the RCI award.

Thoughts on 9-11

Now that the fifth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks has come and gone, it brings about an opportunity to reflect where we were, where we are now, and where we are going. Firstly, I think Americans cannot bear the thought of a prolonged fight. That was true before 9-11-01 and I think it's still true. We want it all wrapped up nice and clean by the end of the hour show, so that we don't have to dwell on the details or stew too much on hard choices. This is a weakness the terrorists know about and have tried to exploit. Politicians are aware of it too, and unfortunately for us, try to use it for political advantage. We have to rely on our leadership to be adult, and it has been, many times, lacking.
So a short attention span and a lack of politicians with spine is a real handicap. Fortunately, we have tremendous resources and smarts to combat the bad guys and drive them into hiding. Since 9-11, we have gotten much better at "connecting the dots" and thus have prevented many attempts at terrorist acts. I think it's realistic to expect, however, that it's only a matter of time before someone else succeeds in attacking us. After all, when you are willing to die you become a much tougher opponent. The sooner we can get out of Iraq, or at least reduce our large numbers there, the sooner we can get more assets back into Afghanistan, where the fight never really stopped. Time is working against us because the Iraq situation has dragged on for so long, and the remnants of the Taliban continue to reorganize and get stronger.
But if we relent on that front then the terrorists will come here again.
Perhaps it will take another and yet another major attack on us, maybe a dirty bomb or anthrax attack, to get us to focus hard on this problem. We talk a lot about 9-11, but then elect people with weak records on defense and security. I don't want to hear any more about how America is at fault; evil ideology is at fault and evil people. And when it comes to standing up to those who would kill us, we must be just as ferocious. Our military is up to the task; the real question remains, are the rest of us?

Not much blogging lately, football's almost here!

This week was busy, jammed-packed with fantasy football drafts, and Carson Palmer back in the fold on Monday.
Thank God for football because the other news is too bad to even contemplate. The saddest is Marcus Fiesel and the demons who were put in charge of his care.

Still missing

We got to hear all about Jill Carroll, her book is coming out soon. So what about Steve Centanni? And what is reason to hold him? He's probably being ransomed, but to whom? If Fox News paid, wouldn't just be asking for more of the same? Maybe the family is wealthy enough to warrant interest from the kidnappers, but I'm sure he isn't making Katic Couric-type money.
As for the Bush Derangement Syndrome people who hate Bush above else, and by extension, anyone or any organization not from the left, and who therefore glad that something bad happened to Fox News, well, you deserve a thorough butt-kicking. Report to Big Daddy to receive your just due.

JonBenet's killer found?

Lets hope so. Anybody who does this should fry. And I am against the death penalty. Even so, anyone that would dare do this kind of thing to a kid of mine better never hope I find out who he/she is, because I'd be all about an eye for an eye.

Wild Card Lead Keeps Baseball Exciting

The Reds unexpected strong showing this year have got Cincinnati fans, normally used to gearing up for football by this time in the summer, glued to the TV to see if they can actually pull off an improbable playoff run. Once again, last night Ross provided a bottom of the ninth, come-from-behind win with a walk-off two-run homer against the division-leading Cardinals.

Not that we are not gearing up for football, go Bengals!

Don't forget our troops in harm's way and kudos to the law-enforcement types that foiled the terrorist airplane plot in London. Take that, Ned Lamont.

We are in trouble

Why say this? Why be such a pessimist? History.
We live in a country where we can forget we are at war. We watch baseball instead. And basketball. And football. And American Idol.

Whole segments of the population totally avoid military service. Because its dangerous. This is nothing new, by the way -- just ask all the politicians that received deferments back in the days of Vietnam.

We choose not to face these things in the face of day-to-day living. Because reality can be brutal. And we don't like brutal. Abortion is brutal reality; let's not deal with it and instead hide behind words like "choice."

But eventually events catch up with us that shatter our perfect little world. Just ask those metro New Yorkers that worked in the World Trade Center. Evil is a part of man; it is a part of our world. We can deal with it or we can ignore it until it is too late. And we really like to ignore it.

Israel wakes up and smells the coffee; what about us?

Israel is finally figuring out that there can be no peace with people who are committed to seeing the end of the Jewish nation. All the hand-ringing and kumbaya-singing of those in the West who just want to get along just emboldens Hamas, Hezbollah, and the various other would-be Zaqarwis out there. These people have to be dealt with, because they won't just go away. Meanwhile, a very dangerous situation is unfolding before our eyes, and its easy to see how we could get drawn in to the conflict. Morally, we should but its questionable if there is sufficient political will to do so in an election year. And we haven't even talked about North Korea or Iran yet.

New blog!

I have a new blog at townhall.com, called Pocket Rockets Cracked Again. I'll keep more personal stuff here and do more standing on a soapbox there. I'll put a link to it so you can see what I have got there.

It's July, the Reds are in first!

Here's something that we haven't seen in many years in these parts. The Reds are in first in July! Last night I saw something I've never seen with my own eyes -- bottom of the ninth, two outs, down three runs -- walk-off grand slam game winner! If you can't get excited about that you're probably already dead. They may not be baseball's best team, but they have done far better than anyone expected (Sports Illustrated picked 'em dead last.) Two good teams in Cincinnati in the same year? Say it is so, Joe.

Zarqawi Dead; A Great Day for Humanity

Great news today as Zarqawi is dead. Burn, baby burn.

Now this is the way to work the immigration problem

One at a time, methodically. You don't have to get them all, just enough to get the word out that we are serious about our laws. Come here and work, rebuild your life. Just be legal. When a city councilman is a neighbor and he doesn't know about all the illegals in his own backyard, it shows just how much work there is to do. See this story in today's Cincinnati Enquirer.

In case you weren't paying attention

In case you haven't been watching what's going on in the middle east, perhaps you should. Iran is proposing a new law to force Christians and Jews to dress conspicuously in public, so they could be identified on sight. One official in Isreal has already said that those who would make Jews wear the star would find themselves in a coffin.

Who's running the CIA anyway?

From the looks of things, it wasn't the Director, Porter Goss. One analyst fired for leaking to the press, and suddenly he's gone. I guess the bureaucrats are still running things at CIA, bureaucrats that don't like Bush. Let's hope Hayden will clean house, but getting rid of entrenched bureaucracy is the hardest thing in government to do.

One of the best American sports stories ever

It happened thirty years ago this week.
It wasn't about who won the game.
It was about respect.
See the details here.

Is Cincinnati going to blow up again?

Five years after the riots from the Timothy thomas shooting, now another shooting. This one right outside city council, of a well known local black activist calling himself Kabaka. Thank God it wasn't the police who shot him, or the hell would have broken loose already. Look for the same people who did the boycott of Cincinnati to find some reason to blame the police. Downtown Cincinnati is becoming nearly as dangerous as Bagdhad.

Nuke Iran?

We might have to. I have been saying for months that we will be shooting in Iran soon, because Isreal won't allow Iran to go forward and we will be stuck in the middle. If we tactically nuke weapons facilities, we may set them back and minimize civilian deaths. But it's going to get ugly, and gas is going to be a whole lot more expensive. If you don't yet own some gold, now is a good time to get some.

Check this out

Check out this gem, it's a beaut.
Too bad DeLay threw in the towel, that will only embolden the Ronnie Earles of the world, who is the one who really should be indicted for prosecutorial misconduct.

Cha-ching

Way to go Bruins!
By the way, if you get an invitationto a zombie party, I would respectfully decline.

Today's the day

Back from Florida, tanned and rested, today will be the day I find out if I money in the basketball pool. Go Bruins!
Say, how about the protests right here in America, by illegals demanding their "rights" and waving flags from other countries? I say go back from whenceforth ye came and protest there. If you are here you should be here legally. Of course, we will always have illegals as long as we have people willing to pay them under the table.

Florida - virtual post card

Here on my laptop in Destin, Florida. Catching some rays at the pool and the beach, ev en though it's not really hot enough yet to do a lot of swimming. The kids insure that every day I spend more than I planned on, but what else did I expect?

bracket crap

As usual, my brackets are crap. At least UCLA is still in it, I've got them in the pool. Spring Break is a couple of days away, and I'm looking forward to some sun. So I hope the weather cooperates.

March madness

Can't go without mentioning the NCAA tourney, the annual reason to take vacation days in the middle of March. I'm rooting for all underdogs, and also UCLA, my team in the pool. Just watched the Pacific - Boston College game, a great game that went to double-overime. It's no wonder this tournament is so popular.

Lack of blogging

My blogs have dropped off the radar recently, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I have been pretty busy with my tax "consulting". Secondly, football season is over, and the mid-term elections are still far-off. Plus, my traffic is so slow, I really only need to update once in a while anyway.
It looks like the port deal is dead, which to me was a lot of blather about nothing. If we were really worried about port security we would be checking more than 4-6% of the incoming containers, and wouldn't have let the Chinese run the port at Long Beach. At least the sudden interest in the security of our ports may help to focus our efforts on better protecting our ports from attack. The real problem is the economic vulnerability, and the terrorists are smart enough to figure that out.
I will soon take my first-ever actual spring break trip, taking the kids to Destin, Florida the last week of this month. Even though its only going to be a four day stay, the hope is to recharge the batteries and get out in the sun a little bit after the long winter, which sounds really good after three days of rain.

Winter Olympics

Am I the only one who doesn't get particularly excited over the winter olympics? Hours of figure skating, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, and curling just doesn't do it for me. I kind of like the speed skating and hockey, but I'd just as soon watch 24 and catch the highlights on sportscenter. Ok, I know they have more athleticism in their pinky fingers than I have in my entire body, but when it comes to watching sports on TV, give me football or March madness.

Super Bowl

The Super Bowl has arrived, an unofficial national holiday. Think about it, its easier to publically celebrate the playing of a game than it is to publically celebrate Christmas or Easter.
I can't bring myself to root for either team, so I'm going to bet the under and root for that.

Tax Time

Busy with taxes. Mine, yours, whomever.

The new season of "24"

I've been hearing a lot of buzz about the Fox show "24" at work and flipping through the blogs. This show is great entertainment, just like an old western, where all the bad guys ultimately get what they got coming to them. Last season was the first I watched, since I don't make it a habit to watch a lot of new TV. For the most part, I find new shows lame and not fit for family viewing, especially the so-called comedies. And while this show also has stuff I wouldn't recommend to kids, there's something deliciously politically incorrect about skirting all the rules to get the terrorists. Anyone who has ever worked for the government knows about all the rules and restraints placed on you from all the layers or bureauacracy.

Man, Do I Stink

I am the worst in terms of picking playoff winners. I was sure Indy would win easily, but I guess I should've known better by how well the Steelers handled my Bengals last week. Its a really good thing I don't actually bet the games, because I woulda went broke. Maybe the Bears will do something and kick a lot of field goals. Fantasy football players have a sickness, I'm convinced.

Alito through the worst of it

Supreme Court Justice nominee Samuel Alito has finished his interrogation by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and will be confirmed soon. The Senate Democrats did not disappoint, with yet another disgusting display of partisanship. The thought of the idiot Durbin and the drunken Kennedy sitting in judgment of someone like Alito is frankly nauseating. It's no matter, because of the fact that the Dems keep sending guys like this to Congress, which is the reason they've become and will continue to be the minority party.

Bengals Fans Hopes Sink With the Loss of Palmer

After many years of waiting for a playoff game, Cincinnati fans hopes of a post-season run were cut short when Carson Palmer was injured on his first throw of the game. Both the receiver and thrower were hurt on the play, and though the Bengals held a lead through halftime, they could not overcome the loss of their franchise player and eventually fell to the hated Steelers.
Well, as they say, there's always next year.

Playoff Week; Excitement Building

It's finally here, my Bengals are in a playoff game, against the hated division rival Steelers. Pep rallies and smack talk. All the things that make football a party.
By the way, congrats to the Longhorns, what a great victory over USC!

Romance on TV

I've been watching Ohio State and Notre Dame play today, and I've seen ABC run a bunch of ads for new "romantic" comedies like "Emilys Reasons Why Not", "Crumbs", and "Jake in Progress". These shows purportedly "put the fun" back in romance, but, from what I can tell from the promos, all they really do is trivialize real romance and reduce it to the glorification of casual sex. I mean, what is so funny about "I nailed a chick in the freezer, I win" which was in one of the promos for "Crumbs"? Is it really smart to offend that portion of America with any remaining morals by producing such shows? Whats worse, they are aggressively promoting them with the sleazy inuendo during "family" programming (if your family likes to watch football games.)
I submit that the real romance was shown during halftime, when Faith Jarvis, in a fund-raising promotion from Tostitos for the USO, was surprised by the appearance of her boyfriend, 1LT Ray Vera, who had just got off a plane from Iraq, and proposed to her on the spot. All this, of course, on national television. And lets not forget the girlfriend of Ohio State's AJ Hawk is the sister of Notre Dame's Brady Quinn, a story which got a lot of play during the game itself. Should the executives suffering from rectal cranial inversion at ABC recover long enough to see that the real romance was at the Fiesta Bowl and not from imaginary characters that think "monagamy is overrated".

Happy New Year!

It's a new year, and hopefully we'll make it better than the last. I will make the blog better, get my health better, get in better shape, and get my mind ready for new challenges.
I'm going to start a new award for this blog only, the RCI award (short for rectal cranial inversion.) It will be given for substantial rectal cranial invertedness during 2005, and ordinary inversion just isn't enough. If you have some nominations, leave a comment.