Saturday, April 30, 2011
the daily rant: Springtime Apathy.... The Writings Of An Indiffere...
the daily rant: Springtime Apathy.... The Writings Of An Indiffere...: " The Cubs beat a D Back team in transition last night and Alfonso Soriano has nine home runs. But the team is 11 and 14. Starlin Cast..."
What would Abe say?
I don't understand the people of my state sometimes. Especially when it comes
to the voting and or election process. One year, congressman Bobby Rush,
Yes, Bill Brady was a radical. Yes, his mathematics were a bit fuzzy in a lot of respects.
Still, the guy had a plan. Then there was Pat Quinn, stumbling about like the political
to the voting and or election process. One year, congressman Bobby Rush,
during an attempt to unseat Mayor Daley, shouted to the heavens that the human
Malaprop was essentially a crook and a walking billboard for both civic mismanagement
and political shenanigans. In the end, Rush received roughly two percent of the vote.
Fast forward to this past political season. Pat Quinn, taking the reigns from the
self deluded Rob Blagojevich, managed to run up even more debt and alienate even more
of his fellow constituents. So what happened when D Day came around and the voters
of Illinois had a chance to throw Quinn out of office? They re-elected him.
The Daley re-elections are less puzzling in light of the fact that a worthy successor
never emerged at any point. So noted. But folks, you re-elected a governor
who has the fiscal skills of Bernie Madoff.
Malaprop was essentially a crook and a walking billboard for both civic mismanagement
and political shenanigans. In the end, Rush received roughly two percent of the vote.
Fast forward to this past political season. Pat Quinn, taking the reigns from the
self deluded Rob Blagojevich, managed to run up even more debt and alienate even more
of his fellow constituents. So what happened when D Day came around and the voters
of Illinois had a chance to throw Quinn out of office? They re-elected him.
The Daley re-elections are less puzzling in light of the fact that a worthy successor
never emerged at any point. So noted. But folks, you re-elected a governor
who has the fiscal skills of Bernie Madoff.
Yes, Bill Brady was a radical. Yes, his mathematics were a bit fuzzy in a lot of respects.
Still, the guy had a plan. Then there was Pat Quinn, stumbling about like the political
equivalent of Jacque Closeau. Like Closeau, Quinn's ineptitude spawned accidental
triumph. To the people of Illinois, I say this. I didn't vote for Quinn, so I can complain all
that I want to. I didn't vote for a man I didn't trust. But you, the good people of Illinois,
you gave the keys to your state back to an elected official who has declared war on the
business community. You had a chance to start over and you handed the keys back
to an elected official who rewarded your misguided faith by taxing you to death.
Imagine it, good people of Illinois, if you were Billy Hayes in Midnight Express and
you chose to stay in a Turkish prison rather than escaping. Well that's what you did when
you gave the keys to the state back to Pat Quinn. You good people chose to suffer
rather than escape. Yah yah, Bill Brady was anti gay and anti abortion and anti people
and anti everything. The guy scared me too but what choice was there?
But what did you do, good people of Illinois? You handed the state back to Moe, Larry,
and Shemp; sorry Curly, Shemp has become my favorite stooge as I've aged.
I know that voting Republican is akin to betraying the force but you can do it my fellow
Illinoisans. Now if you'll excuse I have to go apply for a job at Jimmy Johns
before they leave for Indiana.
triumph. To the people of Illinois, I say this. I didn't vote for Quinn, so I can complain all
that I want to. I didn't vote for a man I didn't trust. But you, the good people of Illinois,
you gave the keys to your state back to an elected official who has declared war on the
business community. You had a chance to start over and you handed the keys back
to an elected official who rewarded your misguided faith by taxing you to death.
Imagine it, good people of Illinois, if you were Billy Hayes in Midnight Express and
you chose to stay in a Turkish prison rather than escaping. Well that's what you did when
you gave the keys to the state back to Pat Quinn. You good people chose to suffer
rather than escape. Yah yah, Bill Brady was anti gay and anti abortion and anti people
and anti everything. The guy scared me too but what choice was there?
But what did you do, good people of Illinois? You handed the state back to Moe, Larry,
and Shemp; sorry Curly, Shemp has become my favorite stooge as I've aged.
I know that voting Republican is akin to betraying the force but you can do it my fellow
Illinoisans. Now if you'll excuse I have to go apply for a job at Jimmy Johns
before they leave for Indiana.
Springtime Apathy.... The Writings Of An Indifferent Cub Fan
The Cubs beat a D Back team in transition last night and Alfonso Soriano
has nine home runs. But the team is 11 and 14. Starlin Castro continues to perfect his
Derrick Lee imitation; IE, smashing hits all over the yard that mean absolutely nothing.
By the way, the Cubs are 11 and 14 as of this writing. I used to go into an emotion funk
when I'd see my beloved Cubs sputtering about. But with age comes a degree of
both cynicism and indifference. No longer do I think with my heart when it comes to the
Cubs. No, I trust my eyes these days. The same eyes that fill me with a sense of
surrender as I watch another year of mediocre baseball slowly unwind. Maybe the Cubs
just don't possess the mindset to actually do what's right. They are baseballs version of
bad luck Schleprock. Dusty Baker came to this mystical world of angst and misery
with the confidence that he could break through and grab the grail. By the end of 2006,
he was nothing more than a babbling and self delusional mess. Then there was our
dear old Uncle Lou. He was gone half way through the 2010 season.
Like Baker, he left Cubdom searching for answers. If I were ten years younger,
I'd tell you that this misery will end. I'd tell you that there is indeed a manager
out there who can not only survive but also thrive within the confines of this tomb
called Cubdom. I'd tell you that no teams luck can consistently come up snake eyes,
that the misery will end sooner rather than later. But I'm older now
and what I see is an organization that is even more inept and even more baseball dumb.
Boston gets an owner who has the business sense to turn Fenway into a cash cow in
which to attract to free agents. And the Cub? We get Tom Rickett's. We get cutesy
nostalgia and free hot dogs and pitching prospects who have no clue how to get
major league hitters out. Free agents come to Boston and Philly and New York
and find championship solace. In Cubdom, our free agents slowly crumble
beneath the glare of high expectations and a mystical sense of ineptitude that
defies all sense of baseball logic. In Boston and New York and Philly,
they have owners with both the business sense and the financial resources to win.
What do Cub fans have? We have Tom Rickett's, a clueless king who doesn't
have the resources to properly run the very baseball team that was virtually
handed to him by Bud Selig. Remember, this was man who
barely had enough liquid capital to actually finish the purchase at one point.
I'm not mad anymore and I'm not angry. I love the Cubs and I can't say I won't be back.
But not until I can be offered more than hokey nostalgia and the tiresome mystique
of a crumbling financial sinkhole/pick up joint. Nostalgia is for kids. Nostalgia
is for the tourists. True Cub fans want more. Heck, we deserve more.
I just wish someone was listening.
has nine home runs. But the team is 11 and 14. Starlin Castro continues to perfect his
Derrick Lee imitation; IE, smashing hits all over the yard that mean absolutely nothing.
By the way, the Cubs are 11 and 14 as of this writing. I used to go into an emotion funk
when I'd see my beloved Cubs sputtering about. But with age comes a degree of
both cynicism and indifference. No longer do I think with my heart when it comes to the
Cubs. No, I trust my eyes these days. The same eyes that fill me with a sense of
surrender as I watch another year of mediocre baseball slowly unwind. Maybe the Cubs
just don't possess the mindset to actually do what's right. They are baseballs version of
bad luck Schleprock. Dusty Baker came to this mystical world of angst and misery
with the confidence that he could break through and grab the grail. By the end of 2006,
he was nothing more than a babbling and self delusional mess. Then there was our
dear old Uncle Lou. He was gone half way through the 2010 season.
Like Baker, he left Cubdom searching for answers. If I were ten years younger,
I'd tell you that this misery will end. I'd tell you that there is indeed a manager
out there who can not only survive but also thrive within the confines of this tomb
called Cubdom. I'd tell you that no teams luck can consistently come up snake eyes,
that the misery will end sooner rather than later. But I'm older now
and what I see is an organization that is even more inept and even more baseball dumb.
Boston gets an owner who has the business sense to turn Fenway into a cash cow in
which to attract to free agents. And the Cub? We get Tom Rickett's. We get cutesy
nostalgia and free hot dogs and pitching prospects who have no clue how to get
major league hitters out. Free agents come to Boston and Philly and New York
and find championship solace. In Cubdom, our free agents slowly crumble
beneath the glare of high expectations and a mystical sense of ineptitude that
defies all sense of baseball logic. In Boston and New York and Philly,
they have owners with both the business sense and the financial resources to win.
What do Cub fans have? We have Tom Rickett's, a clueless king who doesn't
have the resources to properly run the very baseball team that was virtually
handed to him by Bud Selig. Remember, this was man who
barely had enough liquid capital to actually finish the purchase at one point.
I'm not mad anymore and I'm not angry. I love the Cubs and I can't say I won't be back.
But not until I can be offered more than hokey nostalgia and the tiresome mystique
of a crumbling financial sinkhole/pick up joint. Nostalgia is for kids. Nostalgia
is for the tourists. True Cub fans want more. Heck, we deserve more.
I just wish someone was listening.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Superman is a liberal.... when does it stop.
So I load up my beautiful and streamlined MSN page to check emails and what do I see?
Gasp!!! The man of steel, aka Superman, is renouncing his US Citizenship in the pages
of DC Comics. I ask you good folks. Are you as sick of this politicizing as I am?
When did politics spread into the fabric of pure and unbridled escapism?
When did the innocence of comic books become fodder for the political agenda
of a company like DC Comics? I fear what's next. Perhaps we'll see Batman
waxing poetic in a future issue about the war that wouldn't end
or the lingering effects of 9-11.
My point? This is not Batman's place or Superman's place to tell us what's wrong
with the world. These are two legendary characters whose goal is escapism,
plain and simple. If I want obviously biased coverage of our government and
where it's headed, I can seek out the manipulative and self serving blowholes at NPR.
Heck, I know that the New York Times will certainly give me plenty of their patented
liberal rhetoric.
These days, the New York Times makes one think of the great Chicken Little himself.
For better or for worse, THESE are the institutions that serve up the political side of things;
not DC Comics for goodness sake. There's a lesson to be learned here and my hope is
that DC Comics will not follow the lead of Hollywood and their painfully obsessive
liberal agenda. Hollywood is still trying to mix politics into a medium that simply
wasn't built for it. You pay top dollars at the Cineplex to be entertained, not to have
Liberal Hollywood give you a referendum on Obama Care. Hollywood keeps cranking
out political films and time after time they open to low attendance and thousands
upon thousands of empty seats nationwide. America won't be force fed politics.
Movie goers will NOT be forced fed politics when the state of our world demands
outlets in which to escape the reality of a sometimes scary world. DC Comics,
don't be like Hollywood. Don't ignore the cries of your audience.
Gasp!!! The man of steel, aka Superman, is renouncing his US Citizenship in the pages
of DC Comics. I ask you good folks. Are you as sick of this politicizing as I am?
When did politics spread into the fabric of pure and unbridled escapism?
When did the innocence of comic books become fodder for the political agenda
of a company like DC Comics? I fear what's next. Perhaps we'll see Batman
waxing poetic in a future issue about the war that wouldn't end
or the lingering effects of 9-11.
My point? This is not Batman's place or Superman's place to tell us what's wrong
with the world. These are two legendary characters whose goal is escapism,
plain and simple. If I want obviously biased coverage of our government and
where it's headed, I can seek out the manipulative and self serving blowholes at NPR.
Heck, I know that the New York Times will certainly give me plenty of their patented
liberal rhetoric.
These days, the New York Times makes one think of the great Chicken Little himself.
For better or for worse, THESE are the institutions that serve up the political side of things;
not DC Comics for goodness sake. There's a lesson to be learned here and my hope is
that DC Comics will not follow the lead of Hollywood and their painfully obsessive
liberal agenda. Hollywood is still trying to mix politics into a medium that simply
wasn't built for it. You pay top dollars at the Cineplex to be entertained, not to have
Liberal Hollywood give you a referendum on Obama Care. Hollywood keeps cranking
out political films and time after time they open to low attendance and thousands
upon thousands of empty seats nationwide. America won't be force fed politics.
Movie goers will NOT be forced fed politics when the state of our world demands
outlets in which to escape the reality of a sometimes scary world. DC Comics,
don't be like Hollywood. Don't ignore the cries of your audience.
The Royals Have Left.... And You Londoners Are Still Standing There....
I am a cynical bastard, I confess. The idea of a young man with more money than god
getting married fills with me the need to fax Prince William a pre nup. But, what's done
is done I suppose. Actually, it's not the institution of marriage itself that bothers me on this
day of bloated news coverage and journalistic principles set afire in the name of a pop
culture feeding frenzy. My issue is with London itself. Actually, not London.
Some of its people. Namely, the ones that are still standing around AFTER the newlyweds
split for their honeymoon.
Good people of London, I beg of you; go home. You saw what you came there to see.
Actually, since you're commoners, you stood outside and didn't see anything,
but that's another story for another time. Please London, tell your people to go home.
Let all celebrations cease immediately. Good people of London, remember this; you're
celebrating the marriage of two people who are richer than you will ever be.
You are all milling about in celebration of a Gatsybyesque festival of self indulgence
that will have absolutely no immediate or future impact on your overall quality of life.
Go home London, demonstrate that stoicism that your people are known for and simply
disperse. Don't be like your neighbors across the pond. Don't linger about,
don't painfully overestimate your place in pop culture history.
To quote the great Tom Hanks in Castaway..... "You Have To Go Home."
]
getting married fills with me the need to fax Prince William a pre nup. But, what's done
is done I suppose. Actually, it's not the institution of marriage itself that bothers me on this
day of bloated news coverage and journalistic principles set afire in the name of a pop
culture feeding frenzy. My issue is with London itself. Actually, not London.
Some of its people. Namely, the ones that are still standing around AFTER the newlyweds
split for their honeymoon.
Good people of London, I beg of you; go home. You saw what you came there to see.
Actually, since you're commoners, you stood outside and didn't see anything,
but that's another story for another time. Please London, tell your people to go home.
Let all celebrations cease immediately. Good people of London, remember this; you're
celebrating the marriage of two people who are richer than you will ever be.
You are all milling about in celebration of a Gatsybyesque festival of self indulgence
that will have absolutely no immediate or future impact on your overall quality of life.
Go home London, demonstrate that stoicism that your people are known for and simply
disperse. Don't be like your neighbors across the pond. Don't linger about,
don't painfully overestimate your place in pop culture history.
To quote the great Tom Hanks in Castaway..... "You Have To Go Home."
]
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