Nanowrimo

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Stupid is as Palin does

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/10/palin-fears-med.html

"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

One of the stupidest things I have heard her say. So far. Today.

Wholloween

DEEPLY IRONIC MUSINGS DEPT: David Frum, former Bush administration official, says on “Marketplace” that it is important that we have an exit strategy from the bailout plan, so as to prevent those evil regulators from remaining in control forever. Oh, NOW an exit strategy is important!

Now that Philadelphia has shed the label of “Biggest Loser”, (Philadelphia had been suffering as the team with the longest title drought-among cities (or metropolitan areas) with four major sports teams, they had gone the longest without a champion) one wonders who the titlist is now? I did some thinking, and based on my own memory, I believe it is San Francisco-assuming you include San Jose to give them a hockey team. Their last title was Steve Young and the Niners, which was, I believe, in 1994 or 1995.
Philadelphia had been waiting since 1983, with Moses Malone and the Sixers.

My workplace has music in it. You can call it Muzak, but I don’t think that’s really what it is. I suppose whoever programs it is programming “Halloween music”. I am not sure what that means-I think there are maybe 10 Halloween songs, technically. What interests me is the fact that they consider the overture to the “Phantom of the Opera” to be Halloween music. That seems like a stretch. I enjoy listening to it, because I am a big “Phantom” guy, but it seems like a stretch.

I tried to absentee vote this morning, but I couldn’t find the person you need to find. I am going to be at work until long after polls close on Tuesday, so if I can’t get in that morning, I’m screwed. I’m in a pretty safely blue state, but still…I want to vote. I should have absentee voted months ago, but I didn’t.

My immediate supervisor is going to be out for 2 weeks, possibly more, with a flareup of fibromyalgia. I fully understand that is a real, serious, and debilitating disease, but at the same time, it doesn’t seem to me that she takes it seriously enough-not enough to make changes in her lifestyle to accommodate it. Don’t we, at some point, need to accept that maybe we can’t do everything we want to? I’m frustrated. I'm not mad at her, really, I'm just mad.

I bought "Who's Next" today on ITunes. The Who documentary was on VH1 Classic this morning after my mandatory West Wing A Thon, and it inspired me to add more Who to my collection.

I love the Internet.

Who's In Charge Here?

Last night, I had a dream that Alec Baldwin and Cal Ripken, Jr. were doing a commercial for Diet Pepsi.

Brain, I hate you.

An Instructive Comparison

http://tinyurl.com/6pom4c

John McCain says that Barack Obama should be ashamed of his friendship with former PLO member Rashid Khalidi.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/28/mccain-funded-work-of-pal_n_138606.html

A man so dangerous, so evil, that a McCain led group gave him hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I guess we're not the only ones getting early snow...

http://tinyurl.com/55tmam

It's snowing in England, too.

Congratulations to the 2008 World Champions!

The Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series, fair and square, 4 games to 1, ending this wierd, wonderful season. Thank goodness that the tragedy of this final game ended properly. Congratulations to the Philadelphia Phillies and their long suffering fans.

WS LB G5 P2 Part II: Stepping over the threshold

Bottom Eight: David "Deathbringer" Price on for Tampa. JRoll flies out to left.

Jayson "Pay Me What I'm" Werth takes called strike three.

Chase "Pretty Face" Utley walks, steals second, and Ryan "Don't Call Me Olivier" Howard whiffs.

Here comes Brad "Living On The" Lidge for the ninth.

Lidge, in 2005, had the Houston Astros one out away from going to the World Series when Albert Pujols hit a neutron bomb of a homer that hasn't come down yet, spoiling Houston's plans.

Lidge now on to face Evan "The Desperate Third Baseman" Longoria.

Longoria pops out to second.

Dioner Navarro now flares a broken bat single to short right.

Ben Zobrist, who came into the game for defense, watches pinch runner Fernando Perez steal second. Zobrist lines out to right for the second out.

Eric Hinske ,who hit a home run in the 2007 World Series, on now. Last hope for Tampa.

Lidge strikes out Hinske and the Phillies are World Champions!

Nearly 48 hours later..(WS G5 P2 LB)

Grant Balfour throws a ball to Geoff Jenkins, continuing Game Five of the 2008 World Series.

Bottom Six, score tied, 2-2.

Jenkins pulls a fastball into right center for a double to open the inning.

(That's The Way) JRoll bunts him to third.

There would be a certain poetic justice if Philadelphia just pounds the ever loving crap out of Tampa, sealing the Series right here.

Jayson "Yeah, I Spell It That Way" Werth is up now.

Werth hits a sky high popup behind second base, which Iwamura gets to, but drops, scoring Jenkins with a run.

JP "Thurston" Howell comes in for Tampa to face Chase "Heartthrob" Utley

Ryan Howard can't act.

Howell whiffs Utley on a neat little hook, and now it's the Big Fella, Ryan Howard, with two out.

Werth sneaks into second on a busted pickoff attempt-Howell threw to first, but Werth just took off, beating the throw. A Jackie Robinsonish move.

The Big Fella hits it eight miles up, but The Desperate Third Baseman tracks it down for the out.

Onto Inning the Seventh.

Ryan Madsen, a tall drink o'water, facing Dioner (Maker) Navarro. Madsen freezes him on the inside fastball for a called strike three.

Philadelphia seems to have it goin' on.

But then the pride of Providence, Rocco Baldelli, homers into the stands in left center to tie the game at three.

So much for that little idea.

Jason Bartlett, who couldn't hit water if you threw him into the water, is up against Madsen.

Bartlett singles to left.

So much for that little idea.

"Beautiful naked big titty women just don't fall out of the sky, you know!"

(I figured, since everything I say is immediately being disproven by reality, I'd try that trick, courtesy Jason Mewes' Jay from the movie "Dogma".)

Maddon allows the pitcher, Thurston Howell III, to bunt Bartlett to second.

Manuel answers with JC "Superstar" Romero to face Iwamura.

Iwamura grounds the ball up the middle. Utley comes over to get it, does not throw to first, but clutches and whips the ball home. Bartlett, who hadn't stopped running, is out at the plate.

Phew. Exciting stuff.

Bottom Seven

Howell pitching to Pat "The Bat" Burrell, aka Pat "The Rally Killing Swinging Strikeout" Burrell.

And Pat the Bat launches a moon shot, crushing the ball into left center and just missing a home run near the "State Farm" sign.

Maddon goes to his bullpen for Chad "Groundballs are My Business, and Business Is Good" Bradford to face "The Flyin' Hawaiian", Shane Victorino.

Victorino grounds to second, advancing pinch runner Eric "At Least I'm Faster Than Pat Burrell" Bruntlett to third.

Now Pedro "Didn't you used to be Pedro Feliz?" Feliz.

And Feliz smacks a groundball single back up the middle to score Bruntlett.

"Ain't no stoppin us now..we're on the move...Philly's in the groove..."

Now catcher Carlos Ruiz. Ruiz hits a shot back through the box, but Iwamura tracks it down, flipping to Bartlett to get a forceout.

JC Romero is allowed to bat, and he also grounds out to Iwamura, ending the inning. 4-3 after 7.

Romero is on to face Carl Crawford, who singles to center. Bossman Junior, BJ Upton, hits into a 6-4-3 DP, which is huge. Suddenly the Rays have 4 outs left in their season.

Northeastern's own Carlos Pena flies out to left, and Tampa has 3 outs away.

It has been 28 years since Philadelphia had a World Series champion, and 25 since they had a title in a major sport.

And they're three outs away.

If you don't give me my XBox back, I'll...

http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/microsoft-offers-reward-for-missing-xbox-gamer/1260470


Uh...what?

We've had some battles in this house that resulted in XBox removal, but this is ridiculous.

Comment that deserves no further comment

“Democrats think they ought to live in a society where success is determined solely by personal merit; Republicans think they already do.”

(From http://punkassblog.com/2008/10/28/waving-hand-wildly-in-the-air-me-me-i-have-one/)

Vive la difference!

http://news.aol.com/story?id=n20081020211809990002

Sarah Palin calls Barack Obama a socialist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Permanent_Fund

The Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend, a payment that goes to the citizens of Alaska. This payment is a share of the state's income from oil reserves.

That, of course, is not socialism, because, well, you know, it, like, isn't.

Fishing Contest

The Baseball Today podcast had a lot of talk about the ongoing disgrace that is World Series Game Five. For those of you who are actual grownups, the Philadelphia Phillies lead the Tampa Bay Rays, 3 games to 1, in the 2008 World Series. In defiance of everything that is good and holy and commonsensical, the powers that be decided to try to play Game Five last night in what quickly became a driving, cold rain. Baseball games, you might think, are not played in the rain. Yeah. You might think that.

They played five innings, which is the limit for baseball games-according to the rules, if five innings are played, and the field is decided to be unplayable, the game is over. After five innings, Philadelphia led 2-1. So, game over, and the Phillies are world champions, right? You might think that.

But no. In the continued defiance of all that is good and decent, they began play in the sixth, during which Tampa scored a wet, sloppy, horribly fraudulent run. They then suspended the game, to be continued when conditions allow it. The weather in the Philadelphia area today, if this is even possible, is even worse than yesterday- thus, if there is a flicker of mental activity remaining in the powers that be, the game will be further delayed until Wednesday, during which it should still be cold, but at least it won’t rain.

It snowed here today, for frack’s sake. I took a picture of it, which I was going to post here, except for some reason, my phone won’t transmit the file-apparently it is too big. But it snowed here, briefly.

So, given a choice between a)calling the game after 5, which would have been unfair to the Rays, but at least legal according to the rules, b)never starting the game at all, which would have antagonized the networks and the teams, but sensible and fair to both teams, and c) calling the game after an inning or two, wiping it from the books, and starting fresh Wednesday, which would have also been sensible and fair, they chose d) suspend the game into a pseudolegal limbo, thus making 2008 infamous as the “Series with a 48 hour game”. According to Fox, they did introduce a new rule allowing for the suspension of postseason games in 2007, which is stupid and bogus, but I suppose fair.

It’s about damn time for baseball people to put the baseball ahead of all other considerations. You could have played Game Five at 1:00 in Philadelphia yesterday. Would that cause FOX to lose money? Sure-so MLB reimburses them. You cannot schedule postseason baseball for late October in the Northeast. It’s silly, it debases the baseball, which is your product, and its wrong. Period.

According to the Fantasy Focus podcast, Steven Jackson did not play on Sunday, which does not bode well for my fantasy team. I haven’t checked yet, but I have to assume I took a loss. My company, being retarded, doesn’t allow us to use the Internet, so I didn’t have a chance to check lineups Sunday, as fantasy players usually do. Like everything else that approaches having a personal life, my work interferes again.

The West Wing was on all day yesterday on Bravo, which broke my heart-I had to leave to go to work. They did something funny, though-after two episodes from the election storyline (Jimmy Smits/Alan Alda as the two candidates), they went back to several seasons before, when Rob Lowe was still on the show. It was okay, but it was mostly episodes I remembered. Then this morning, they went back to the Smits/Alda storyline, with Janeane Garofalo and Patricia Richardson as campaign aides, and Oliver Platt as White House counsel investigating the leak of classified information. Thanks to this program, I am not getting much done at home in the mornings.

It is interesting how many plotlines from the real world in 2008 make appearances in the show-the right wing base being uncertain about their support for a more centrist Republican nominee, the 527 groups throwing up ads that cause headaches, the question about whether to run negative ads or campaign honorably. All that’s missing is a good looking neophyte VP.

I am getting a lot of calls from headhunters, as well as from people trying to sell me a car. Makes it a little hard to imagine this talk of an economic slowdown, truth be told. I know that isn’t a true reflection of what’s going on, but it’s still interesting.

Interesting fact I learned on “Countdown” Monday-Elizabeth Hasselbeck was originally famous for appearing on Survivor. I only knew her for marrying a football player, and later, of course, appearing on The View. Everytime I say that, I picture the SNL satire where they sing, over the “View” graphic, “It’s the view…I’m all nude…”. I don’t remember what the sketch was about, though.

According to someone on Twitter, the Christian Science Monitor has stopped publishing a print edition. That’s a shame, because I know, though I don’t read it, it is quite a venerable publication. It seems like, according to everything I read, it is the first of many. I have to be honest, though-I don’t read the paper regularly, either. I will read it if it is available, but I don’t need it the way a previous generation did.

Rachel Maddow on the McCain campaign-“[they couldn’t win] a fishing contest where you’re the only one with a pole.”

Common sense suddenly appears!

Mercifully, they decided to put the tarp on the field and suspend play during Game Five of the World Series.

But face it, folks, it is cold in the Northeast in October at night! They should have played this game this afternoon, television be damned.

A Bad Joke

Game Five of the 2008 World Series is on, and the conditions are an absolute mockery of common sense and good judgement. It is 40 degrees and raining steadily in Philadelphia, and, at any other time, there is no way in heck this game would be played.

I know about the influence of FOX and their barrells of network cash, but it is a damn shame that baseball's show piece, the World Series, is allowed to be made into a bad, silly, wet joke like this.

It's a disgrace, and baseball's decision makers should be ashamed of themselves.

Genocidal Alcoholic Rugby-Playing Gospel Singers Unite!

I have reconsidered a line of attack I am taking in an ongoing dispute with management. I remember being told that a certain figure tends to react poorly when confronted with ultimatums. I thought about it more, and further reflected that I don’t know anyone who reacts well when confronted with an ultimatum.

On the other hand, I did float my resume at Monster.com.

It is 9 days until the presidential election.

Wisconsin Public Radio’s To The Best Of Our Knowledge (www.ttbook.org) continues to stun me with its brilliance. Even topics that I know nothing about, or think I won’t care about, they manage to make interesting, or at the very least listenable. Alcoholism, rugby, genocide, gospel-it’s all there.

I wonder where “Really?” came from. Not the word, but the one word response-someone (Sarah Palin, say) says something outrageous, or offensive, or mindalteringly stupeifying, and your response is, “Really?” I have heard a lot of standup comics do it. I am afraid it is a pop culture reference that I am just missing due to my ignorance.

Sarah Vowell, on Studio 360 this week, so neatly encapsulates the American paradox-the agony and the ecstasy, the high virtues and the low comedy. That’s what so deeply offended me about Sarah Palin’s notion that Americans are unapologetic.

That’s why they hate us, partially-because we won’t apologize. The Founders were all about criticizing your leaders-“the tree of liberty must be refreshed by the blood of tyrants”. We can embrace the beauty and still try to change what is outrageous. Something can be beautiful and terrible-not everything is black and white.