Nobody 795c

Sunday, December 6, 2009
Nobody # 795

Nobody Asked Me But:

“We live in an age obsessed with “reality” and overrun by fakers.” Maureen Dowd

SARAH STRIKES (OUT) AGAIN

THE ALPHA

In her book “Going Rogue,” Palin quotes legendary coach John Wooden as saying “We remember the land. We remember that our grandfathers paid for it with their lives.” Grandfathers? Doesn’t quite sound like Coach Wooden. That’s because it wasn’t. The man who said these words was Native American activist John Wooden Leg.<<<

IN MY UTOPIA

The success of public education will be measured by the fact that no one over 21 says dude.

Anyone who vandalizes gas pumps at filling stations by defacing the pumps so that they are unreadable will be imprisoned for life. (As you know, I do not believe in capital punishment.)

The political left will once and for all get the message that strong is good and flailing is bad.

Gloria Allred, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton will stop being media whores. (OK – so I want the impossible.)

HOW A TAX REFUND CHANGED A LIFE.

In 1973, when ESPN's Bill Simmons, “The Sports Guy,” was 4, His father received an income tax refund - either $200 or $600 depending on whether you trust mom's memory or dad's. Dad wanted to use it to buy a motorcycle. Mom said, "when you bring it home be sure to kiss me goodbye."

So dad turned to his second choice, a season ticket to the Celtics. ($4 a game bought him a seat, 5 rows behind the visitor’s bench.) Dad had to make one more concession. He would take Bill with him and let him set on dad's lap.

From lap, to standing in the runway through which the Celtics ran onto the court, to shagging balls during warm ups: Dad lost his chance for motorcycle. Bill found his career.<<<

AFGHANISTAN

As much as I would like for us to get out now, President Obama’s decision is a reasonable alternative. Unlike Iraq, Afghanistan was a moral war. We were defending ourselves. But once our attention shifted away from al Qaeda and as we continue to support a corrupt government our moral cause became murky.

Anything close to a total victory in the “Poppy Paradise” is not possible. So let us do the best we can within the announced timeline and then bring our people home.<<<

SPORTS PAGE

How about this from Yahoo sports? No wonder Arizona lost the game. - :43.1 Arizona – Kyle Fogg misses a 999’-jumper.<<<

Double P, (For promising and pig-headed) otherwise know as Drew Gordon, left the UCLA basketball team this past week, because of a misunderstanding when he was recruited. He thought he was going to be allowed to coach the Bruins, and Ben Howland said no. While this may turn out to be addition through subtraction for UCLA, it is a troubling reminder of the huge ego problem in college basketball. Many of the elite players are coddled by high school, and amateur coaches, parents and other hangers on all wanting a piece of the ego action or future bucks or both.

Coach Ben has always recruited for character. Drew and Jrue Holiday were anomalies – I hope!<<<

Jerry Tarkanian was a dirty coach but a funny one, as in when he used to say he loved Pac-10 transfers because “they already had their cars paid for.”<<<

Post-game arrogance - Let’s hear from USC linebacker Malcolm Smith (who’s brother Steve, now a wide-out for the New York Giants, went to Hale): " Not saying anything bad about them but they really weren't a tough offense."

WOW! It is a good thing that he wasn’t saying anything bad about them??<<<

Action: McCain challenges Obama

Reaction: Obama says no because “when he left the White House, Teddy Roosevelt took all the boxing gloves with him.”<<<

HAVE A GOOD ONE

My wife called the Crayola Company last week to check to on something or other, the person she talked to ended the conversation with: “ Have a colorful day.” It’s a small thing but kind of neat.<<<

COMMENT/RESPONSE

From the thousands of comments about last week’s Nobody, I chose these two for a response.

G: “Why the two-party limit? Why not open up Congress to anyone elected, regardless of party? Is it to encourage registration with a specific party? Or to limit a minority party's ability to control legislation?”

Me: The latter. I don't like government by coalition. I want each party to be burdened with and freed by responsibility. And I want the voters to make the either/or choice so that they can fix responsibility.

L: “Devil's advocate says that Pete Carroll DID take a knee and offer some sort of courtesy to the Bruins.”

Me: There is a difference between a team that is losing choosing, on principle, to fight to the end and a team that is winning by a margin impossible to overcome, playing to score again.<<<

Q: Mr. Answer Man. What are your five favorite rock songs during the period from 1960-1999?

AM: As soon as I name five, I will think of some that I forgot. But here goes, and I am including Folk Rock as well. My five choices encompass only three artists.

Paul Simon
Graceland
Bridge Over Troubled Water

John Lennon
In My Life
Imagine

Bob Dylan
Blowing In The Wind<<<

CAPITALISM AND DARWIN

If there was a God, and if She had a sense of humor, She would have a cosmic laugh out of the irony and contradiction that is the United States of America. We are a nation that clings to religion and denies evolution. And yet, we are one of the most Darwinian countries in the world. The basic tenant of capitalism is survival of the fittest. I will get mine even if it means stepping all over you. And sometimes I may even take pleasure in the stepping all over part.

Say all you want about the social welfare state, and I may even agree with some of what you stay. But at least social welfare has a heart whereas capitalism simply has a dollar sign.<<<

AND THE OMEGA (Sarah again)

Bill Littlejohn of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., sent this e-mail to the LA Times - "I can't wait to get to the part where she talks about George Washington Carver crossing the Delaware.”<<<