If it's not your cup turn on The Munsters

 Trying to grasp the importance of the Bad Bunny/Super Bowl halftime controversy but it eludes me.  That's next February.  Can we get through Halloween first?  Said to be one of the most popular global music sensations on the planet right now.  Where was I?  Kristi Noem getting involved.  ICE getting involved.  MTG getting involved.  The Latin rapper is gonna do his thing in Spanish.  Said to be anti-Trump.  Is that now a crime?  Wasn't NippleGate back in the day enough?  Maybe Homan can sing a few tunes.

There is nothing inspiring about the Trump presidency

 The dismal 2nd term continues.  I honestly thought Marco Rubio was a decent choice for Secretary of State but he's turned into a dick.  He's boasting he revoked 300 Visas of foreign students who have engaged in pro-Palestinian protests on campus.  Actually it may be more he lost count.  He says those coming here from abroad to colleges and universities are here to study and learn and to earn a degree.  Has he never heard of intercollegiate sports?  The Vietnam War protests?  Thou Shalt Not Criticize Israel.  Rubio somehow conflates condemning the ongoing genocide in Gaza with support for Hamas.  Expect more judicial spanking.  Meanwhile RFK Jr. in his mission to make America healthy again has cut about 10,000 jobs from his own agency.  So where are all the Fruit Loops cops gonna come from?  On the Greenland front Trump is now making almost daily veiled threats against the island nation.  Denmark is not amused.

You can't make this shit up.

Taylor Swift and Kelce

 I don't give a rat's ass.

Trump's war on women continues with his selection of a woman to be his Chief of Staff

 Little known Susan Summerall Wiles or Susie Wiles for short.  Was Trump's campaign manager.  67-year old grandma and daughter of the late American football player and broadcaster Pat Summerall.  Back in the day involved in Reagan and Florida politics.

The New Republic.  I used to read this when it was just a mag in Barnes and Noble.  Kind of a liberal version of National Review I would read it on occasion.  With Michael Kinsley as editor I found it a tolerable read.  He's gone on to other things and now it's just straight up deranged political commentary basically untreated TDS.  Reminds me of the scene in Easy Rider when they drop acid in the cemetery.  

Is Trump gonna find a role for Snoop?

Ethnic humor doesn't fly anymore

 The NYT has studied Trump's campaign speeches and says they have grown harsher and darker.  Trump throws in a penis joke to lighten the mood and there's a bee in everyone's bonnet.  Ethnic humor -- You might be able to get away with a few Irish jokes but the better comedians have moved on.  Back in the day on his radio show Stern used to say A LOT of racial things.  Didn't stop Kamala from talking with him though.  Just watched the 12 minute clip of comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at Trump's recent MSG rally and a small portion was devoted to what you would call racial humor.  Yes cringe - groan.  Times change.  Every once in a while you need to open up the window and look outside.  Jon Stewart defended him as a roast comedian who once roasted Tom Brady.  My take calling PR a floating island of garbage is rough even by ethnic humor standards.  Having said that it doesn't affect the race in the least imho.  On the other hand the Left's claim that Trump has it on his bucket list to be an aging Hitler now that's HILARIOUS.  A tyrant for life with dementia.  ROFL!!!

The ghost of Arnold Palmer was appalled by Trump's crude remarks

 It's hard to find decent coverage of the elections these days at least in my curated newsfeeds.  Heavily anti-Trump it's almost as if they're trying to influence the election.  Ya think?  Trump can't serve fries at McDonald's without a negative spin.  No longer objective news that pretense has been long abandoned with the rise of MAGA.  We're engaged in trivialities in these final days.  Kamala Harris has time for Stern but not the Al Smith dinner.  Did she have a souffle in the oven?  Bill Maher is gibbering about this and that.  He's kind of lost me.  The whole election thing is like a bad dream.  What does any of this have to do with the price of Fancy Feast?

While you're watching the Olympics

 

Health food stores are a kind of niche market.  They give off a kind of eco-hippy vibe and  I don't think they can always sustain themselves businesswise as several have closed in my County of Westchester, NY alone.  They're great if you're looking for a non-fluoride toothpaste or aluminum-free solutions to your armpit funk but not so great for everyday basic grocery shopping imo.  Their tea tree oil mouthwash did help me with a bad case of gingivitis though but I still want my Little Debbies.

I never understood veganism.  I get vegetarianism but what do vegans have against eggs and milk exactly?  Eat a vegan cake or cookie and it's full of oil.  Never understood how it took off as a concept and reached the status of trendy to the point of vegan restaurants and cookbooks.  Pity the poor kid being thrown a birthday party by vegan parents.

Lastly I wouldn't trust the bathroom tissue in these organic markets.

This is what you came for

 I honestly think Taylor Swift only goes out with well-known men for the sheer publicity of it all.  Nothing ever comes of it.  Conspiracy theorists say she hooked up with Travis Kelce because he's pimping for Pfizer.  I don't take it to that level it's simply par for the course for her.  She's 34 now and her biological clock is ticking.  I can't check out groceries at the store without seeing her on most magazine covers.  Dua Lipa or any other artist doesn't get this press.  She's a whole sub-economy now.  What are your Swifty thoughts?

Mad dot in the universe

The God Problem - You finally meet God someday and go to him "how come you didn't do anything about ISIS?" God: "Who?" then you see Him quickly searching wikipedia. God truly has swarms of galaxies solar systems and other planets to worry about but then there's the guardian angels. As a Catholic we're taught they exist but I see no evidence. Where were James Foley and Steven Sotloff's guardian angels? (angel walks in on the imminent beheading: "what's going on here?" bullets passing harmlessly through his Michael Landon-type body to the utter amazement of the crazed jihadists). Are our guardian angels too busy on their smartphones? Foley even prayed the rosary during his captivity in Libya, did it help? A priest or theologian might say it helped his soul but did it help his situation? Personally speaking my faith crisis really started after Newtown which imo is the most shocking news event to happen in my lifetime after 9-11. We still don't know why the bug-eyed psycho did it and it didn't change Wayne LaPierre one iota so there goes your great Saul-like conversion on the road to the gun show. My Mom just had a dear friend die of cancer, why doesn't al-Baghdadi get cancer or at least a damn bug egg-sac in his brain to say nothing of Kim Jong-un? Why doesn't the executioner/beheader the day before suddenly get a heart attack instead of your brother-in-law or dearly beloved aunt? Ray Rice was done in by TMZ not God but maybe God works through TMZ? Look it's fairly obvious to me God the Creator or an architect of the Universe or a central planner exists but does He care? Big Speech tonight, no not God although He should be giving one too:)

The Donald Sterling Matter

A thumbnail summary for the few troglodytes out there - LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling has been banned for life by the NBA Commissioner for making racist comments in a private conversation with his ex-girlfriend. She kinda looks like a model and he looks like a sagging bag of flesh so the word golddigger comes to mind but I digress. What if you went to your uncle's place of employment and said to his boss "you know what Joe said when he came over on Thanksgiving?" Many people have conservative Dads, do you want EVERYTHING leaking out about what was said in the living room especially after the goblet's been sipped a few times? OK you say the uncle is not a millionaire who owns a sports team so episodes like this is gonna churn out the usual pc self-righteous commentary. I already know you never said anything stupid in your life, hell you could smoke ten joints in a row and nothing stupid's gonna come out 'cause your software programming is so right on. Maybe it's because Al Sharpton has predictably involved himself in this case so I reflexively go the other way, dunno. OK throw your coins into the fountain:)

Mitt Romney had a better grasp of foreign policy

Just sayin'. Most countries these days are responsible for at least one or two positive contributions to the civilization-at-large. Of course everything is Made in China today but Japan has given us superior cars and cameras for example and even South Korea has Samsung headquartered there. Has Russia ever given us a digital camera, a computer chip, a smartphone or a new tablet? Russia is known for two things only - vodka and its military buildup. I remember learning in high school that a large % of the Russian economy, maybe it's even the majority is devoted to its keeping up its military might. Putin is an anachronistic leader and seems to have a very bad case of those cold war blues. Putin doesn't like Pussy Riot, he doesn't like the gays and he's not into going forward. Of course Obama's red lines mean nothing, it'd be like Gilbert Gottfried being a bar bouncer. A former director in the KGB vs. a former Chicago community organizer and I'm thinking my Dad is right Hillary would have been a better president at least on the world stage. So what's gonna happen now if Crimea becomes officially annexed to Russia again? is Obama gonna issue one of them executive orders he likes so much say banning the import of their famous drink? It's like as soon as the Sochi Olympics were over Putin couldn't wait to get back to the action. So has anyone apologized to Mitt Romney yet?

The Boston Marathon Bombings

One of my first and earliest thoughts in the tragic wake yesterday was Mayor Bloomberg needs to stop worrying about stupid stuff.  My other feeling was we've been lulled of late, no major domestic terror since 9/11 really and the few thwarted plans within the last few years were obviously concocted by amateurs (e.g. shoe bombers, undie bombers) and so there probably wasn't that heightened security at such a major event as there should have been not that there wasn't any security but you know what I'm sayin'.  Learned from some of the experts interviewed on the news yesterday that just like in the movies it is possible to detonate a bomb using a cell phone so maybe you can chalk up another negative into the cell phone/techno-addiction corner ("today's mayhem brought to you by Droid").  John Miller I like and will always stop while channel-surfing at such a time and see what he has to say, insightful and well worth listening to.  During his first address on the subject President Obama it was said made a deliberate decision to not yet use the word Terror even though CBS's Scott Pelley and some others were freely using the word so that seems to be some kind of early initial reflex on the part of the president following such events so make of that what you will.  Lastly Mayor Bloomberg needs to stop worrying about Stupid Stuff and if God forbid something like this should happen in NYC again many folks are gonna look back and say too much time spent on the Big Gulp:) 

Faith & Politics

OR leave your Bible at home.  Been wondering though are liberal politicians ever motivated by their faith? and if so is this invalid too as when us Christian fundiecons do it and why is it never pointed out?  Gay marriage, equal pay for equal work, social justice, reproductive rights, low-income housing (desegregation), immigration reform, health care and the liberal list goes on but can laws or legislation to pass these things have a religious underpinning and do liberal politicians ever get motivated by their very own personal liberal understanding of faith to take action politically on these and other important matters?  So far nobody's sayin'  Sure there's politics in the Catholic Church but is Nancy Pelosi ever inspired in her House actions by her Catholic faith?  Certainly Martin Luther King Jr. was openly motivated by his faith and talked about it in marching for civil rights so that was a good thing but if a pro-lifer......well you get the picture.  Bibles, Korans, Torahs I don't care put it on the table and while we're on the subject does that old fragment of a papyrus paper show Jesus had a wife perhaps Mary Magdalene? and oh btw why do atheists use God's name in vain from time to time say when they're stuck in traffic?  Some new pro-Islam ads just went up in the NYC subways in some cases right next to the controversial ones about Support Israel and be against the savage.  This is the RIGHT way to handle speech you don't like - GET IN THERE!  I'm kinda tired of Tim Tebow wearing his celibacy on his sleeve, you can brag about your sluttery or your chastity and it's all the same to me and some woman's gonna seduce him and my other thing is if he's only the backup QB for the Jets why is he getting far more presstime than Mark Sanchez?  These and other matters feel free, coffee's perkin':) 

Speaking of vice presidents

Seems to me Romney is beginning to conduct a serious, professional and highly polished campaign in his choosing Wisconsin Congressman and budget hawk Paul Ryan.  On the other side we have the walking gaffathon Joe Biden and Obama happily defended his latest put y'all back in chains remark what was that last week? not getting the whole Wall Street/Racism angle but I was thinking if I were a high-ranking key advisor to the President first thing I'd do is say you gotta dump the guy.  It's like getting a fresh pair of sneakers or a spanking new car with that new car smell or even when you clean your room and buy new clothes, you just feel different.  Biden is like the friend who's always a snot's throw away from embarrassing you but you hang with him anyway.  Obama is clean and articulate (where did I hear that before?), Biden is like your uncle on Scotch and for the life of me I don't get why Obama sticks with him unless he wants to lose.  Biden is Yogi Berra without the charm and, OMG they have vice-presidential debates don't they!! 

The Closing Ceremonies were a little weird

Maybe it was the influence of the Christian Bros. but the whole thing reminded me of a cross between Madonna's Bedtime Story music video and Shock the Monkey.  Even Duran Duran wore long pointy hats, whirling dervishes to West End Girls and then there were peformers dancing around with garbage pails on their feet and then giant supermodel posters came by paraded by dark figures and then Annie Lennox without Dave Stewart sang out something on a float and there was some kind of tribute to David Bowie thrown in the middle but again I was over the hump at that point.  Ah the Brits, just a sliver of acid, get those dark Gothic creative juices flowing.  I only watched the Games sporadically heavy channel-surfer that I am.  There was the inspirational Oscar Pistorius story of course with its sci-fi edge, Gaby Douglas the first black American gymnast to get the gold and Phelps who's retiring.  Now he can go home and smoke his bong.  There was the high-diver Tom Daley from Great Britain who splashed too much during one critical dive and didn't go in at the right angle only to make beautiful comebacks right after that.  I was always afraid of them hitting their heads on the board.  There was the Mo guy who won the 1000M and 500M races and speaking of which I think I only saw one white runner.  I remember many years ago some really fast black runner I forget the name and one interviewer asked him how come he's so fast and he said when he was growing up he was used to running away from the cops.  Actually I don't think you can say that today, Bob Costas would be fired.  American swimmers Missy Franklin, Ryan Lochte...tried the butterfly as a kid in Tibbetts Pool in the big YO and that there's a stroke that completely goes against the grain and human nature, dunno the purpose.  Not into the beach volleyball at all, that's when I channel-surf.  Likewise women boxing each other's brains out and don't care to watch cycling indoors around some track, more into the diving/swimming and track & field events as I said.  Of course they never had that Munich moment-of-silence marking in 1972 when terrorism and international sports mixed but what did you expect exactly?  It's like the Olympics is being run by the UN.  Kudos to Jewish-American gymnast Aly Raisman for even bringing up the topic. Next stop in cuatro anos Rio de Janeiro, expect a decadent undervibe.  Mark my words someday chicken-spitting will become an Olympic event.  Why the hell not? everything else is:)

I think the election of the first African-American president was a great historical moment

Too bad he sucks.  Is this a racist statement? I don't think so because I honestly think the election of the first black president was a great historical moment but it's like Tiger Woods the first in his game too, he let us down and deep down it always pains us.  IMO liberals' great great unabated love for Obama goes beyond simply that he's a good liberal Democrat in the best progressive mold, they're still nostalgic for the sheer historicity of that moment so I get it, like Tiger they want to see him make that comeback.  The historical importance of that moment, put it this way unemployment could jump to 20 or even 30% and he could pardon Sandusky and you'd still have the same folks defending him (be honest).  Jimmy Carter isn't black so it's easy for everyone across-the-political-board to render the historical verdict that he sucked whereas in Obama's case I sense some reluctance to do so.  Political Psychoanalysis, I think in this case most of it hinges on Race which is why Cindy Sheehan could protest the Obama White House and the msm won't cover it which is why I learned it from BB in a reply to the Dude, it sure as hell wasn't Brian Williams.  Frank Robinson became the first black Major League Baseball manager, not that long after he was fired.  So yes it's important to make History, I'm kind of a progressive conservative in this regard but it's also important just as or more so to make an objecive analysis, an impartial and fair evaluation after a time and in this regard he suffers.  FDR was handicapped although at the time it was kinda downplayed, been there done that so now I say let's elect the first woman president, then the first gay president (they can be one and the same) but here's a minor sticking point for me, can they at least be good?  Don't just make History, give us a good historical product.   

What does OWS & ice-fishing have in common?

Not much.  I lost alot of respect for them when they stopped protesting throughout the winter months.  Sure some judge told them they can't camp out in Zuccotti Park anymore but what was it? by late December or early January they weren't even in the news anymore probably replaced by some Kardashian crap and the latest political scandal.  Lost alot of steam imo by hibernating like this, even the 'possum risks ice-frost every now and then to get a bite to eat.  The brave May Day protests to shut down work, schools and banks, expect more brave protests throughout the summer months, probably into the fall as well.  This blogpost is not about whether you agree or disagree with them, you probably don't and will comment as you see fit but real protesters protest in whatever kind of weather.  12 degress in the middle of January, you're out there with your frozen snot and a chapped ass, a rumbling belly because you're body expelled all that fine OWS cuisine and you have to use the Port-o-San at least 10X because you had a couple cups 'o' joe when you woke up in the morning, now that's Democracy in action and I can respect that politics be damned!  They really need to watch reels of those old-time black civil-rights protesters from the 60's getting pushed back by fire hoses and bitten by German Sheperds these hippy/yuppie hybrid malcontents.  Bunch 'o' pussies, meteorological cowards.  They don't make protesters like they used to:)

Ted Nugent is like your brother-in-law from hell

You may have to interact with him from time to time but he'll drag you down.  He causes the big family blowup and then sits in his darkened little bedroom with the hockey game on all Charles Manson-like, you don't know how exactly but he caused the whole thing.  He's the guy you take fishing with the idiot mouth like the time I was fishing in the Kensico/Rye Lake Reservoir in a rowboat one day and we passed these two nice girls sunbathing on a rock and yeah it would've been nice to stay in the area and angle a bit, maybe strike up a conversation but I just kept rowing and rowing away from the area and normally I wouldn't do that but I knew what could come out of the guy's mouth, some nice stream of pottyisms and you'd be like I just picked him up he's just some homeless guy I'm taking to the highway on the other side.  I don't understand these efforts at minor endorsements, I mean why not Romney going after Danny Bonaduce's support as well? get Kardashian's endorsement too in your back pocket I mean who the hell is Henry Kissinger anyway?  Nugent which sounds like a candy bar, no he doesn't threaten the President he'll just say things like he'd like to sautee his testicles and when the Social Service finally comes around when they're not whoring that is it was all meant figuratively speaking of course and crack open his skull come November in a figurative political sense and......The Fringe, it's time to lop 'em off, send 'em off into Space and orbit the Earth which reminds me I just saw the most interesting NOVA program on the Sun's corona last night:)

The Obama Platform is what exactly?

I mean when things finally get down and dirty between him and Mr. Romney what is it shaping up to be or to put it another way why is it self-evident we should reelect the man? He can't run on the strength of his first term because there wasn't any at least that's not the word that comes to mind I'm sure even among his most ardent supporters. His main achievement would seem to be health-care reform and a majority of Americans are hardly behind him on that one so should he push it even if the SCOTUS strikes him down? He can always trot out of course the OBL Card but even here that video the news networks keep showing of bin Laden talking and the other one of him watching the boob tube wearing a wool cap looks like some B-actor out of a bad spoof (he found time to watch porn too?), too SNLish to have the gravitas of a world-master terrorist at work and maybe if I were the networks I'd keep it in the can. There's Obama's race to consider naturally and the nostalgia born from the historic and emotional moment of this country finally electing the first black president hasn't worn off and this is understandable, it was a good moment historically and it's like you want Tiger Woods back in the game. You can make the case that he played a major role in Khadafy's demise but even here he has been pretty much laid back on Syria and the regime of Bashar al-Assad. I believe at last count the death toll there of the citizenry stands like 9,000 or something so maybe when it reaches 10,000 he'll get off his duff. Taken as a whole, snowballing it altogether is all this reason enough for those who voted for him the first time to do so again? Of course for Shaw et al. it's a no-brainer but why would you not have a Democratic primary season especially when your main guy is so weak? My Dad who served in the Navy during WW2 and is as rock-ribbed conservative as they come said to me one day Hillary would've been a far better president than Obama. All you liberals out there make the case here because I'm not getting this one, it's way over my head:)

GOP Has-Beens

The subject of has-beens interests me. One day Rocky and Blaine are one of the biggest things in the NYC radio market, the next day they're frying chicken at some Popeye's off the Interstate. These days the GOP has-beens are Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, that pizza godfather guy and maybe, make that probably Newt who can already feel the powerful vortex of the has-been hole sucking him in. IMO the architect of 1994's "Contract with America" deserves more respect than he's getting but that's just me. Michele Bachmann, too many brain farts and maybe the last straw was her mistaking Elvis' birthday for his deathday. I know it's not a big thing but taken as a whole you don't want her trying to reset Russian relations or pondering ending the embargo against Cuba. I want to devote the bulk of this blog though to Sarah Palin. Now when her star was early rising in the political sky (it didn't hurt that most men would've done her) early conservative commentary focused on such things as a family that hunts together stays together but the Gander Mountain voting bloc is only so big. Many many people have a mild distaste for the sport of hunting not through some elaborate theory of critter rights but Sarah and her family having a fine bowl of Moose Nose Stew on a snowy winter's night doesn't exactly impress them. Those be all-American values, heartland stuff to be sure but maybe not to a Manhattanite. So what makes a has-been or who has has-been potential? Could simply be just the inexorable Passage of Time, I mean Danny Bonaduce had to beat up a tranny to get back on the radar screen but in Palin's case and this is a biggie it was her overall Lack of Knowledge especially on the foreign affairs scene. You don't want this chick going up against Bashar al-Assad or negotatating some Arab/Israeli peace deal. I think the final nail in the coffin though, no it wasn't Tina Fey but Back in the Day some 8' giant black man who played the hoops plowed her. Sure it was back in the day but it's still a shock to the evangelical mind, yeah I know she's for the smaller gov't and pro-life and all so we can forgive her her youthful dalliances, her sex'chal 'perimentation but we kinda can't forget it either. Thanks Joe McGuiness! Oh yes Herman Cain and that's the really painful part of being a has-been nobody talks about you anymore. You know gimme someone who quietly has staying power through the years. Um I hate to say this but you can kinda say that about Romney. I hope to never become a blogging has-been btw, please lemme know:)