A year ago, I wouldn't have said...

According to the Blogger Code of Ethics, I am duty bound to have an opinion about the issues of the day, so here goes-

Michael Vick, for those of you who have been living on the moon, is a talented professional football player, who was convicted of running, or allowing someone to run, a dogfighting ring, or gang, or whatever it is that they call them, from his house. He went to prison, and has now been released, and is now, apparently, eligible to play in the NFL again. The question of the day seems to be, should he be allowed to play? (Not really relevant, since it’s not up to us.)

Any thinking person finds dogfighting, training and breeding animals to fight and making them do so for sport, abhorrent.

But Vick has paid his debt to society-not only a prison sentence, but also the loss of more than a year’s income for a man who, however many millions he makes, faces a very limited time to make his life’s income. However repugnant his acts, everyone deserves a second chance. Could it be that someone committed a crime, was punished, and is now going on with his life, a chastened, wiser person? Could it be that simple?

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I’ve started rereading Dracula by Bram Stoker. My brother gave me his old IPhone, mostly to shut me up from whining about it on Twitter, and one of the free aps on it was a Barnes and Noble EReader. It came with Dracula, which I read in high school, I think, as part of a paper. It’s a really good read. I don’t typically like novels from much before A Farewell To Arms, but I am enjoying this one.

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Someone in my organization thought an appropriate song to motivate the workforce contains the words, “I love to work at nothin’ all day”.

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On Baseball HQ Radio, a weekly fantasy baseball podcast I listen to, the host mentioned a thread on their message boards that asks you to complete this sentence,

“A year ago, I would never have said…”

I think my answer is obvious.

What’s yours?




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There is a rumor whipping around the Twitterverse that the Killah from Wasilla, Sarah Palin, is getting divorced. Now, this, of course, is based on a blog post, and it was repeated by, among others, Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, and at this time, I can’t check to see how reputable the blog in question is. This will be an interesting case study-Palin loves to scream and yell about how the media is making things up about her. Again, according to Twitter, a Palin aide has already answered and called the story untrue. If the story is true, of course, then it isn’t something they “made up”-and since divorces are matters of public record, the truth will eventually emerge. If the story isn’t true, it will be interesting to see how far the media pushes it.

Now, I can’t imagine that anyone could have any interest in this fact, but were you to ask me, “Are you getting a divorce?”, my truthful answer would have to be, “Not that I’m aware of.” (Implying, as any careful scientist would, that there is always a slim possibility that my wife is preparing to divorce me, and I’m just not aware of that fact yet.) (And, my wife would hasten to remind you, some days that possibility is less slim than others.) I’m always a little curious why that isn’t their first answer. “Are you getting a divorce, Governor?” “Nope-at least, not that I’m aware of.”

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