Random Randomness

All right.  Got quite a few things to throw out there ranging from politics to sports to reality TV.  So, gonna get right to it this time around:

• Been hearing a lot about this whole mess with Harry Reid and his comments about President Obama a couple of years ago.  Have to say he should probably be embarassed about the comments, but not sure if he should have to step down or not.  Besides, if the polls are correct, he won't be around next year, anyway, as the voters in the Great State of Nevada don't appear too happy with him right now.  And that was before all this mess came out. Can't help but think if a Republican had made the comments, even about a black Republican, the media and others would howl until they had someone's head on a platter.  Anyway, the Republicans have just been waiting to jump on someone since Trent Lott was run out in 2002.  (Not sure that was the right thing in 2002, either.)  Don't really think Reid's comments were on the same level as Lott's, for that matter.  Besides, if every politician who said something stupid were run out, we would have no politicians.  Hmmm, come to think of it, might not be a bad idea after all.
• Read an interesting article on climate cooling today.  Said we go through 20-30 year cycles of climate cooling and warming.  Right now we are transitioning from a heating trend to a cooling one (December 2009 was the 14th coolest in the last 115 years), and we should expect to have winters like this for the next 20-30 years.  Has something to do with ocean currents.  Have attached a link to the article right here cuz don't think I can do it much justice and think you should decide fer yerself what you believe or don't believe.  Two things which struck me are:  1.  The Arctic ice is growing again, and 2., folks were saying the same things back in the 1920's that the AlGore's of the world today have been saying.  Seeing as how I'm presenting this article (here again) for your perusement, should give you a hint on how I feel about it;
• So, Mark McGwire used steroids.  I'm shocked!  Shocked!  I tell you!  Yeah, right.  Not really sure how I feel about it.  Still takes a lot of talent to hit a 90+ mile an hour fastball a long way.  Ain't no steroid or human growth hormone gonna help your hand/eye co-ordination enough to make an average ball player into a home run hittin' king.  But, ain't gonna say it won't enhance someone who already has the talent to do it like Mark McGwire or Barry Bonds, either.  All of this justifies what Jose Conseco has been saying for years but people wanted to ignore cuz they either didn't like Jose or just didn't want to believe him.  You know, even a broke clock is right twice a day (well, at least the old-fashioned kind with a real face and hands);  
• See where Pete Carroll is getting out of Dodge.  Sure, Pete, the fact that USC is probably going to NCAA jail and your AD is ready to throw you to the wolves had absolutely nothing to do with your sudden decision to go back to the NFL.  Whatever...;
• The wife and I watched Axmen and Madhouse on the History Channel last night.  Axmen is about logging bidness folks in Oregon and Louisiana.  The dudes on that show make the Deadliest Catch crews look like they've been to finishin' school.  Think of the craziest person you can and they still won't be half as nuts as that guy from Lusianner.  He's a hoot!  Madhouse is about small-track car racin' in Winston-Salem, NC.  The Hatfields and McCoys got nothin' on these folks! Highly recommend both shows as it looks like both will be purty interesting.  Have to warn you about Madhouse, though.  I'm fairly fluent in both Southern and Redneck, but had a hard time understanding what was being said half the time;
• See where Simon Cowell is leaving American Idol after this season.  Seems to me like he hasn't been very interested for the last couple of years so reckon he should move on.  Ain't nothin' wrong with that.  The show's gonna be hard to watch this year now that Ellen DeGeneres is going to be a judge.  Next year will be downright unbearable without Simon.  Think most people tune in to hear what he has to say whether they like him or not.  Maybe that's just me; 
• Biggest Loser's got some biggun's on it this season.  One dude is starting out at over 500 lbs!  Right now have to say will like this cast better than last season's cuz they don't appear to be as weepy as that bunch.  Will be interesting to see how much the folks lose this time around.  Most of them put up pretty big weight-loss numbers in the first week.  Hope they can keep it up;
• Haven't had a chance to comment on Evil Russell not winning last season's Survivor. Think he was totally hosed cuz he determined just about everything that happened this time around.  However, the jury was a bunch of sore losers and voted for the blonde instead.  Can't help but think that they didn't want to give a millionaire another million.  That's his own fault, though, cuz he never should have told that to anybody.  But in Natalie's defense, she did make the decision to align with Russell and she did instigate voting out Eric.  So, she did make a few major moves.  Just not enough for me to think she should have won.  Looking forward to the Villians vs Heroes edition this time around.  Could get interesting;
• Someone (a fan) said in the paper the other day Nick Saban is Alabama's football messiah.  Holy cow.  (No pun intended)  Hope most Bama fans can realize some of this 'celebrating' is starting to get a little out of hand.  People even stood in line for hours in two local Wal-marts just to get their picture taken with the crystal football.  Not coaches or players, just the championship trophy.  Come on, people, get a grip. Know this will strike some folks wrong, but there are a few things more important than college football.  (Will probably get run out of Alabama for that one.)  

Well, that's all I got this week.  Thanks for playing along.  Please feel free to leave any comments below, or send me an e-mail.  By the way, know this week's song is a stretch since it doesn't really go along with any topics.  Mostly just like the song and felt like using it.

Y'all have a great week!

And Now Back to Our Regularly-Scheduled Programming...

Don't know about where you live, but it is some kind of cold here in the Deep South. Guess it's wintertime so it's to be expected, but we usually stay in the 40's and 50's, not the 20's and 30's. Anywho...

Now that the holidays are over, have some things to get out of me head that I've been holding off on. Now that you've been warned, here we go:

• Saw where a global warming protest had to be cancelled the other day due to a blizzard. Have heard of that before, but this one was going to be in Utah mountains. Seeing as how snow skiing is a purty major industry in Utah, didn't make much sense to me to have a global warming protest there. Guess you pays your money, you takes your chances...;
• Yahoo had an article about Obama not being able to truly get away from his job over the holidays. Guess that's the price you pay for being the leader of the free world. If you're planning on running for president, please remember this is part of the job. Didn't read the article so don't know if President Obama was complaining or not. Would guess not. The cynic in me thinks they would have been criticizing a Republican for taking a vacation during these times, especially to Hawai'i, rather than moaning about his inability to truly get away from it all. Maybe that's just me;
• Speaking of vacations interrupted, the dude who tried to blow up his underwear has raised some interesting discussions. Saw where Napoliano (the Homeland Security czar, whatever her name is) tried to claim the system worked since his plot failed. Sorry, but his failure had nothing to do with "the system." Just plain dumb luck on our part. Think this exposed more kinks in the system. Has also raised discussions about full-body scans vs. privacy. To me, making sure someone doesn't sneak a bomb aboard a plane is more important than someone seeing if I'm wearing skivvies that day or not. Again, that might just be me. Joke all the time we will all be flying naked before too long. Might not be too far off since they say the full-body scanner wouldn't have picked up that stuff, anyway;
• Did read an article that whined about all the flak the president is catching about this episode. Said Bush didn't catch much grief from the Dems when the shoe-bomber thing happened. Don't really think you can blame President Obama for what happened. However, this did happen 8 years after we "tightened" our security whereas the shoe bomber was only 3 months after 9/11, when the new system was just starting and we were pretending to get along a lot better. Although it happened on Obama's watch, there's probably a lot more blame needed a little further down the food chain. When you consider the dude's own father tried to warn us about him and our only reaction was to mark his folder to be scrutinized closer if he decided to renew his visa, there is definitely something wrong with the system. Seems like that was an issue before 9/11, too. Hmmmmmm;
• Any of you play FarmVille on Facebook? Love that game. Think it feeds my inner desire to be a farmer like half my family without actually having live the life. You plant seeds, harvest the crops, raise animals, and do lots of other things you would on a real farm. Can even help your neighbors by fertilizing their crops. If I have several to choose from, will usually choose the crop which I would actually eat even though there's no chance it will ever happen. How crazy is that? Lots o' fun, though;
• All this stuff with Urban Meyer and Mike Leach shows what a pressure cooker college football coaches live in these days. The job is literally killing Meyer, and he can't make himself quit. Leach gets fired one day before he's due an $800,000 bonus over what appears to basically be a player complaining about lack of playing time when you get to the root of it. Not sure if we'll ever get all the facts since one of the principles involved is a well-known college football analyst. Can't help but think the media will look out for its own in this whole deal. Will just have to wait and see I reckon;
• See where Tigger is losing more sponsors because of all these women coming out of the woodworks. His best remedy will be playing in tournaments again. Once he wins one or two, all will be forgiven and the media will start singing about how much he's overcome. You know how folks love a comeback story;
• My kids start back to school from Christmas break on Wednesday, provided it don't snow around here. Way back when I was in school, seemed like we only got about a week off. Now they get a month and a half. Well, it seems that way sometimes. Think they will have been out two and a half weeks when they finally start up again. Been nice having them home, though, for the most part.

All right. Well, that's all for now. Hope everyone had a happy holiday season no matter which holiday(s) you choose to celebrate.

Don't know how many of you have your sound turned up when you read this, but I do have music playing in the background. Usually try to pick something that goes with one of my topics. Anyway, will go ahead and warn my non-Bama fan friends that, if we are lucky enough to win Thursday night, our fight song will make it to this site shortly thereafter. So, do with that info what you will.

Have a great week and, as always, thanks for stopping by and readin' fer a spell!

These May Only Interest Me, But...

Been cold and rainy 'round here for the past, oh, six months or so. At least it seems that a way. Combine that with the fact ain't been feeling very well and it leads to a recipe for lots o' thinking, which can be a dangerous thing. But, hopefully it will make fer some interesting reading. Will let you be the judge of that. Anywho, here's a few things I've been thinking and observing this week:

• Saw where President Obama is trying to pressure banks into loaning more money to folks. Ain't that what got us into this mess in the first place? Just sayin';
• Watched a show about the Beatles on the History Channel this week. Was about their studio/album recording sessions. Seems for the most part they just walked in and jammed for a little while to come up with many of their songs. That's just flat-out remarkable to me. Can remember seeing Mick Jagger being interviewed about them once. Said they were waiting backstage at some TV show with the Beatles. There was some guitar lick The Stones couldn't figure out how to play so they sang it for Paul McCartney one time. He picked up a right-handed guitar, flipped it around, and played it perfectly left-handed on the first try. Not bad for a guy who can't even read music. After hearing that story, have thought they are some of the best musicians the world has ever known. Watching the show this week just solidifies that in my mind;
• Know I talk about the Beatles a lot, but, if you were to ask me my all-time favorite band, would tell you in a heartbeat it's Pink Floyd. Just something about their music that really strikes home with me. Have seen some biographies about them lately. One said they made sure Sid Barrett received royalties from all of their albums until the day he died in the early 2000's. In case you don't know, he was one of the founding members and he basically went insane after their first album in the late 60's. Now THAT's what I call loyalty. Roger Waters said they used to "sit around and talk about using drugs." Never said if they actually used them or not although probably know the answer to that already. Don't condone that, but really appreciate the music, which would probably have come out one way or the other. (That's what I've convinced myself of and you ain't gonna change that) Like many other bands, the two really creative forces in the band got to where they couldn't stand each other so they eventually split. What a shame;
• The Mrs and I have started watching Pawn Stars on the History Channel. Have to admit never thought I'd like a show about a pawn shop in Vegas, but it's purty good. People bring some interesting stuff in there to sell/pawn. Always amazes me how much they think their stuff is worth, too. Most of the time they overinflate the worth, but occasionally they have no idea what they have. To the shop's credit, they will usually tell the person what they have in those cases. Most of the deals I've seen have been fair to both parties. Recommend you check it out sometime;
• Had what George Costanza would probably call the "perfect channel switch" Saturday night. Watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer then switched it over to the Heisman award ceremony right as they were opening the envelope. Perfect! Got to see the winner without having to watch all the stuff leading up to the announcement. By the way, Roll Tide! Congratulations to Mark Ingram for bringing the first ever Heisman to The Capstone! Think he deserved to win it, but also think if one of the kids from Nebraska or Stanford would have won, they would have been good choices, too. Now it's time to concentrate on the championship game...;
• Was glad to see Megan and Cheyne win The Amazing Race this time since Flight Time and Big Easy were eliminated. Overall, the challenges were purty lame (with a few exceptions - i.e. - repelling face-first down The Mirage), but the show managed to keep my interest. Hopefully, they will have better challenges next time and will stay away from the ones which the winners are based on totally random luck instead of based on the teams' skills and/or knowledge;
• Can't wait for the finale to Survivor this week! Gonna be interesting to see if Russell makes it all the way to the end or not. You can call him lucky and/or a real SOB, but he has played the best game by far this year, probably the best since Richard Hatch in the first season;
• Good thing there's global warming. Cuz, if there weren't, the Deep South would be a solid block of ice right now. Been cold and rainy for like FOREVER! Well, it feels like it, anyway. We even had snow a week or so ago. Don't usually get that, when we actually get some, until January - March;
• One last thing, my cousin's 4 month old daughter is in the hospital with pneumonia and/or RSV right now. She's made a lot of progress but still has a little ways to go. Please say a prayer for her and her parents. God will know who you're prayin' for. Thanks.

Thanks, as always, for making it to the end. Have seen a lot of different places on the map this week. Appreciate each and every one of you who take the time to read this. Please feel free to become a follower on the left-hand side. Comments are always welcome, too. Please check out the other blogs which have links over there, too.

Peace out!

Random Randomness

Well, hope everyone survived Thanksgiving. Ours was pretty nice. Went to eat at my parents this year cuz they bought the new condo. Managed to eat too much but had a good time. Anyway, got a few thoughts to throw out for public consumption this week.

And awaayyyyy we go:

• Read Black Friday had more folks out this year but they bought less stuff. Interesting. Me and The Mrs were at HH Gregg at 3:30 Friday morning. First time I've been out on Black Friday in years. But, we were looking for something specific so we decided to get out amongst everyone. Found what we wanted and were in line by 4:20 to pay for our items. We finally got out around 6. Unbelievable. Went to our next stop and they had already sold out of what we were looking for. Figures. Ate at Waffle House then went home for a nap. Hope that will be my last Black Friday adventure for several more years to come;
• Been halfway following the story about the folks crashing President Obama's big party last week. Purty scary stuff when you think about it. Here we've spent billions of dollars trying to increase our security across the nation, and two yahoos with TV cameras following them are allowed to meet the president with no questions asked, at least not until it was too late. Just as a reminder, no one would have suspected Timothy McVeigh was a terrorist by looking at him, either. Just sayin'...;
• Have been following a story where some "prominent global warming" scientists in Great Britain have fessed up to not using information which does not support their theory. Have thought all along the "experts" have been using junk science. And, at least this group of bozos have been. Not saying all of them have, but it doesn't make any of them look good right now. Not sure what I think about global warming myself. Science has proven that the world's temperatures have always gone through cycles. Could be we are just going through a warming cycle. Not saying we aren't contributing to it, but hardly think the world is about to come to an end like AlGore and his followers want us to believe. Would be a little more concerned if we were breaking daily high temperature records every year from the last year. But, when you watch the weather, they always talk about how we broke a record from 1895, 1905, etc. Can still remember the headlines from the 70's which said we were about to enter another ice age. Just shows me that we don't control the weather, He does...;
• All this stuff with Tiger Woods has been interesting...sort of. The injuries being described do not match the description of the crash in my opinion. When it first happened, told me wife he was probably running from his at the time. Might turn out to be true. This would go away if he would just come out and talk about it. Americans love to forgive their heroes. All they have to do is fess up. A-Rod fessed up and people (or some, anyway) love him again. Roger Clemons hasn't and he ain't a favorite like he used to be. Would think celebrities would learn from that. To be honest, since he wasn't killed or permanently maimed that we know of, could really care less about it. If he was cheating on his wife and she found out, that's between him and her. But, it's aggravating that every news network in the country is talking about it cuz he won't. Tiger, just be a man and fess up, for Pete's sake;
• Will be curious to hear what we are going to do in Afghanistan. The Ruskies were there for 10 years with no success. Not sure why we think we will do any better. Fightin' in mountains ain't nothin' like fightin' in a desert. Too many places to hide. But, if we decide to stay, will support the decision and especially the troops who go there. Ultimately, agree we shouldn't just lie down and take it from these folks any more. Sometimes the alpha dog needs to bear its teeth to remind everyone who they are;
• Hear Bobby Bowden will be "retiring" tomorrow. Not sure who's decision it really was, but sure have enjoyed watching the Seminoles play over the years. He brought a lot of innovations to college football. Always respected the fact that he would play anyone anywhere, even after the program had made it to the big stage. Will miss you, Coach Bowden;
• Went with The Mrs to see The Blind Side last week. All the good stuff you've been hearing about the movie is true. It was AWESOME!!!! Highly recommend going to see it if you haven't already;
• Got a map at the bottom which basically shows where folks are in the world when they look at my blog. Have noticed one from what looks like Great Britain several times in the last couple of weeks. Purty cool. Cheerio and all that stuff!

So, anyone have any interesting Black Friday stories they want to share? Any opinions about anything else? Comments are always welcome.

Y'all have a great week!

Do As I Say...

No, I'm not trying to hypnotize you. I'm talking about that old expression, "Do as I say, not as I do." What's making me think of that? Glad you asked. Politicians!

The last couple of months I've been reading how one political party wants to bring back the Fairness Doctrine. Say they want to make sure both sides of the story are available to contradict the Rush Limbaughs of the world. They talk about ideals such as freedom of speech. But, I suspect that's not really their agenda.

When people attended the tea parties several weeks ago, some people who lean left talked about how un-American it was to protest taxes. Excuse me? People have a right to express their political beliefs as long as they "peaceably" assemble. (See the First Amendment if you don't believe me) I even heard several people say the protesters were racists because they were not for President Obama's agenda. Sad to see people have stooped to that accusation. Are there people against President Obama because of the color of his skin? I'd be an idiot to say no. Is everyone who does not agree with him a racist? Absolutely not. Political discourse is one of many things which make our country great. This country was founded by people who protested about things they did not agree with. When people resort to name-calling, that usually means they cannot defend their position with facts. There are a lot of facts which can be used without having to resort to calling people names. Do not agree with many of them, but they are there.

Today I read about Al Gore testifying before Congress on global warming. Also read the majority party would not let someone with a contrasting opinion offer his testimony. It's pretty sad they talk about bringing back the Fairness Doctrine so people can get both sides of the story, but they only want to allow both sides when it suits them.

Before my liberal-leaning friends start protesting, I would like to point out the party that leans right is just as guilty. Case in point, anyone who opposed them in recent years was un-American and threatening national security. That argument was just as bogus. And, that's just one example that comes to mind.

My point is, everyone is for freedom of speech. The caveat is they only support freedom for the speeches which support them. And, that, my friends, is what I call un-American. Thomas Jefferson must be shaking his head somewhere.

Have a great day.