Delaware Gets Teabagged

Great job, Delaware Republicans. Way to throw away a sure U.S. Senate seat pickup in favor of a lost cause. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. Look, I don't agree with Castle's voting record 100% either (most notably his support for cap-and-trade, but that's a topic for another time). We could have sent a moderate Republican who can work with the Democrats in Congress and the White House, engaging in discussion rather than screeching and feces-flinging that's better suited to howler monkeys than elected officials. Instead, we've got a choice between Christine O'Donnell, a paranoid maniac who can't manage her own finances and believes that pregnant rape victims should be forced by law to carry the consequences of their attack to term, and Chris Coons, a man who's never been elected to office above the county level (the highest office he's held is county executive--the equivalent of being mayor of a city with a population of around half a million) and managed to convert a budget surplus when he took office into a whopping deficit in just four years, only managing to pull out of it with three property tax hikes over that same period.

There are no high cards in this hand, folks....just a bunch of jokers. That's why I'll be pulling the lever for Libertarian Jim Rash in November. It's a wasted vote, but it's the only call I can make in this election that'll allow me to sleep at night.

Mosque Pit

Remember that episode of The Simpsons where they go to the carnival, and Homer has them deep-fry his shirt? Remember this exchange between Homer and Marge?

Homer: And you said they couldn't deep-fry my shirt!

Marge: I didn't say they couldn't, I said you shouldn't.

That's pretty much how it is with the "Ground Zero Mosque". Yes, it's not technically on the site of the former World Trade Center, but it was close enough to be hit by one of the planes' landing gear. There's no denying that the group trying to build this mosque has the right to do so--the First Amendment guarantees that. But isn't it funny that most of the people who are defending the decision to put this here are the ones crying for "sensitivity" in other situations? How about, just this once, showing some sensitivity to the victims and their families, and just stepping this mosque back a few blocks? And while I'm not in any way condoning vandalism, if it happens in this case, those who chose the location will have to shoulder their share of the responsibility. Or at least as much of the responsibility as America deserves for the 9/11 attacks.

His Toughest Case Yet

Matlock has taken on a new client--one that he might not be able to get off the hook with a dramatic cross-examination and a piece of last-minute surprise evidence. Andy Griffith is teaming up with Medicare to extol the virtues of ObamaCare to senior citizens (who tend to vote in the highest numbers).

I have no idea if ol' Andy got paid, or if he volunteered out of the goodness of his heart, but that's immaterial. This is a (supposedly) party-neutral government agency, funded 100% by our tax dollars to subsidize health care and medicine for our senior citizens, spending that tax money on TV propaganda to extol the virtues of a partisan program put into place by the ruling party (for the moment.) This is the kind of crap we, Americans of all parties, used to cry foul over when it happened in other countries. Wake up, and keep this in mind when you're deciding who to vote for in November.

Weekend Without Common Sense

Let's have a "Weekend Without Oil"....because oil companies are evil, MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!

Go check out the site and all of its pomposity, specifically, its first two points. Better yet, I'll list them right here.

1. Walk or ride your bike: Avoid using cars and if you must, always try to carpool. Transportation accounts for 40 percent of our petroleum consumption and is easily one of the biggest areas we need to improve upon.
2. Enjoy the outdoors: Avoid buying new sporting equipment, since oil makes up nearly 25% of rubber. Footballs or basketballs, for example, can last for many years and used equipment is often just as good and will reduce demand for oil needed to make new rubber.

They didn't even bother to put some space between points number 1 and 2 on their list. Walk or ride your bike, but don't use any rubber! I don't know about you, but I just love walking barefoot on streets and sidewalks in mid-August.

These clowns do a great job of promoting the "drill-baby-drill" agenda, by showing just how much in our society depends on oil, and just how bad life is going to suck if we restrict the supply and tax the shit out of it, like certain people who can afford it seem to want to do.

I Know What They're Really Saying

Probably because one would need divine power in order to "perform" for these oinkers.

H/T to the San Francisco Weekly blogs and Nick Lucchesi on Twitter.

If You're Reading This...

...then Homer Simpson has something to tell you.

No, seriously. They did a study and everything. Of course, that's only true of other, lesser blogs. Reading this one makes you 100% more masculine and heterosexual. Kind of like the Old Spice Guy. Although watching that commercial might make you gay too. I'm not sure. I'll let you know after I watch it a few more times.

New Blogroll Link: The Oily Pelican

I've got a new site in my blogroll section, and it's one that I'm reading daily: The Oily Pelican. It's written by a friend of mine who, in her own words, "decided to trade in her cushy desk job for chest waders, snake boots, and 90-degree heat to go help with the environmental effort on the Louisiana coast." It's a firsthand account, not filtered through some PR department or condensed into a press release, and that's really important if you care at all about what's going on down there. (And if you don't, then you're a sorry excuse for a human being, and I pray for your death.)

Craig Kilborn Must Die

Or his new show must be canceled. I'm not a picky man.

No, I've never seen it. But here in the greater Philly area, the local Fox affiliate has removed their last syndicated Simpsons slot in favor of this dreck that appears to be, based on the commercials, the gawdawful TMZ-on-TV meets the admittedly-funny early Daily Show. The nightly Simpsons rerun is what I'd relied on to watch/listen to as I drift off to sleep every night. I'd seen them all a hundred times, so I never worried about missing anything, and hey, anything's better than being alone in the dark with only your own thoughts trying to go to sleep, right?

I guess it's on to House reruns as a replacement, at least for the time being. But I shudder to think about the effect on my brain absorbing that guy into my subconscious as I teeter on the edge of sleep. I just hope it doesn't turn me into a cynical, sarcastic jerk.

Vu-Vu-Zao

In the same vein as yesterday's post, here's yet another reason why I'm a lifelong Yankee fan. They know enough to nip this vuvuzela nonsense in the bud. What an idiot this guy is, too. "Duh, OK, I'll give up my twenty dollar seat so that I can hold onto a $2 piece of plastic that's been down the front of my pants. Not so much because I like blowing a horn as much as because the mouthpiece tastes like Funyuns." At least, I assume this is the typical mindset of an American vuvuzela-blower.

If you ask me, they didn't treat him harshly enough. Security would have been more than justified in giving him the Philly treatment. Or the Seattle treatment. Or just put it back into his pants...from a slightly different angle. (Yeah, I hate vuvuzelas.) On the other hand, that probably isn't the best solution. If anything, it might just make the noise louder.

Vu-Vu-Ka-Choo

I've been watching a little bit of World Cup this year, despite the fact that the extent of my knowledge of the sport is what I can remember from playing on my elementary school club teams from the ages of 8 through 12. It really is interesting to watch....like hockey without the sticks, played on a field the size of a small U.S. state. And even though I found the vuvuzelas somewhat....off-putting, I was against banning them, at least at first. After all, part of international competitions is experiencing the host country's local "flavor" and traditions, right? But then I read a little bit about them, and it turns out that there's nothing local or traditional about them, at least where it comes to soccer games. See, the idea was "borrowed" from Central and South American countries, and wasn't introduced in South Africa until sometime in the 1990s. So I've changed my mind--get rid of the freakin' things. Or at least filter them out of the broadcast audio.

Kicking Kissing Ass

One week, the political talking heads and polls are saying that Obama isn't showing enough emotion, and specifically anger, in dealing with the BP situation. Meanwhile, the headlines are all about the allegations that the White House offered PA Democrat Senate nominee Joe Sestak a cushy White House job in order to stay out of the primary against ex-Republican Arlen Specter.

Then, yesterday morning, we get this:



So is this the our courageous leader getting tough on those polluters, or a career politician putting a wet finger in the air to see which way the political winds are blowing? I know which way I'm leaning, but I'll leave it up to you, the reader, to decide. Personally, I don't want my president ranting like Carlo from The Godfather, screaming at BP to "clean it up!" I tend to agree with White House press secretary Robert Gibbs--the administration will be judged on how it performs rather than what it says during this crisis. I hope that ends up being more good than bad, but based on what I've seen so far, I'm not optimistic.

A Sad Day For Baseball

No, I'm not talking about Jim Joyce, although I do think he should be given a prostate exam with a cactus. I'm talking about The Kid, Ken Griffey Jr., and his retirement. It truly is the end of an era, and not just for the Mariners and Reds. (Not just for the White Sox era, though for them, the Ken Griffey Jr. era lasted for about two months back in 2008, so I think they're over it by now.) No, this is the end of an era for the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant All-Star Team, for the last of Mr. Burns's All-Stars has hung up his spikes and called it a career.