Gutter Ball

Lets go bowling and grab your orange ball. It is time for the BCS and the NCAA National Football Champion to be crowned. The system the BCS uses to determine a bonafied national champion is broken. Ok maybe this year the BCS got lucky. They can rest easy with the number 1 team playing the number 2 team. It looks like the USC-TEXAS game is gift wrapped with a big red holiday bow and the winner will be presented as the genuine national champion. This year there can't be any complaints, controversy or wondering why we can put a man on the moon but we can't figure out how to divvy up the bowl goodies. Just plain luck, that's all I've got to say. The BCS will bowl a gutter ball once again next year.
This is the only sport on the planet where the national championship is not strictly decided on the field. For years the BCS has been the equivalent of getting to the final four, playing the semis and instead of playing the title game, turning to the writers and computers and saying OK you watched the games, you have all the stats, who do you think the best team is? What the teams actually did on the field does not count.
College football at it's highest level is a miltibillion dollar industry, it will never have to answer to the fans. No system will ever be perfect but there is a better way. We need what we've always needed, a play off.
I hope all the negative talk does not rain on your Rose Bowl parade. At least number 1 plays number 2 and both are unbeaten. That has not happened in a long time. How could anybody throw darts at those who run the NCAA cartel? Game of the century, I don't think so! Does it really matter? NO! I just hope the Texas Longhorns remembered to bring their orange umbrellas because there is a real good chance it will rain on their Rose Bowl parade.

Bah humbug ! Santa wants his cookies back

Why can't we just leave Christmas alone? It's fine as it is. Don't give me any of this Happy Holiday crap! This is Christmas. I demand you say it. Go ahead say it. MERRY CHRISTMAS.
There is a conspiracy going on to take Christ out of Christmas, It seems to be the Christians against the Secularist. Secularist is just another word for atheist and I don't like it one bit. Political correctness has gone too far. It looks like the political correctness police have arrested Christmas. Observancing Christmas has been going on since the birth of Jesus, just ask Santa. I really don't know what all this huff over Happy Holidays is all about. Retailers figured it out a long time ago. They know people will fill their shopping bags with gifts no matter how many times they have heard Linus explain the meaning of Christmas to Charlie Brown.
Christmas should be just like my childhood recollections. Running outside on the morning of the 25th and joining my friends who like me had already dragged presents from under the tree. Getting that new bike, ball or pair of roller skates. That's what Christmas ment when I was a kid. You could always hear an echo of Merry Christmas from yard to yard.
Well you know what they say! "Things are sure not what they used to be". We can't even put up a Christmas tree, we have to decorate a Holiday tree. I don't care how many ACLU lawyers, Grinches, Seculariest or Liberals take a wack at December 25th, I am still going to say Merry Christmas.
There is one thing I am going to do different this Christmas eve. When I leave Santa's cookies on the table I'll leave him a mug of Starbucks coffee instead of the usual glass of milk. I sure don't want him to fall asleep before he takes my new laptop out of his bag and places it under my Holiday tree. Oh!!!!!!!!! I mean Christmas tree.

Holiday Buffet

Thanksgiving and Christmas weekends are the best time to face the ugly truth about eating right and exercising. We are in the mist of a thirty day period of over indulging. If there was ever a place for over indulging it is the all you can eat buffet. I think it should be called a stampede instead of a buffet.
Our brains know that sensible eating habits make for a longer life but our appetites keep getting in the way. We can't seem to get enough turkey and dressing or ham and green bean casserole. We eat then plop our ass down in front of the television. No wonder almost everyone is out of shape, morbidly obese and at risk for heart disease, stroke, diabetes and any number of cancers.
We didn't get to the top of the food chain just so we could eat grass, we pay a heavy toll for the good life. Next year will be no different! We will all be stampeding to fill our plate a second time and then grabbing the remote controls. If only we could convince ourselves it didn't have to be this way but we will not.
I just might be able to stay away from a second plate of turkey or ham but staying out of the desert line, well there is no chance of that. If I see a pie that has not been cut or a cobbler that has not been scooped, I'll have a piece and a scoop. What's a few more pounds? I have all next year to lose it! Where have I heard that before?

Moral Testing Ground

President Bush's policy in Iraq has been tragically irresponsible. The US went to war because the President said Iraq had weapons of mass destructions and ties to the attacks of Sept 11, 2001. Iraq had neither. Our government had no good plan after the fall of Saddam Hussein. With no plan, insurgency took hold and chaos has rained ever since. There does not look as if there is an end in sight. We have lost 2000 soldiers with 14,000 wounded. We need to change directions but the only way this can happen is if our leader put forward real solutions and a time table to bring the troops home. If our troops are removed it does not mean we are abandoning Iraq, we will still provide military training and advice as well as political and economic support as we do for lots of nations. If we stay in Iraq until a stable government and military are in place we will never leave. If the goal was to establish a stable government we should have had more boots on the ground a long time ago, but it's too late now, the public will not stand for more troops.
The global war against terrorism has become one big moral testing ground for the Unites States. The choice is not as simple as do we fight the terrorist thousands of miles from home now or fight them later on our own streets. Do not confuse morality with responsibility! Real responsibility means not just saying what you believe in is right but also working to make it happen in a timely manner. Only when we move beyond finger pointing and political rhetoric will we arrive at real solutions that can end this war.

Smoke em if you got em

It has been a long time since I have heard that phase. The other day I tried to remember when I stopped smoking. It must have been in 1992 or 1993 I really can't remember. When I smoked there were no restrictions on where one could smoke, but now indoor smoking bans all over the nation have chased smokers outside where they can been seen puffing away in a fog. I guess that is progress, protecting non smokers from the health risk of second hand smoke. The cultures entire view of smoking has changed since I stopped smoking. Now one can not smoke in enclosed places, virtually all restauants, and now they are trying to outlaw smoking in all bars. No one should be surprised that smoke free zones are growing. Smoking biggest risk has never been wisps of smoke that might touch a passerby, it's teenagers taking up the habit. Most adults who smoke took their first puff as a teen. Have we forgotten the lessons of the past when we tried banning alcohol? It was a disaster for the public law enforcement and the county. The only ones who made out like bandits were gangesters and bootleggers. It appears we are moving in the same direction with tobacco.
We have become a nation of control freaks who mind every one else's business. We don't want anyone to smoke, drink, eat meat, wear leather, fish or hunt. We might as well set in the corner like a potted plant, devoid of free will and the ability to think, except of course if we are thinking politically correct thoughts. The age old phase " mind your own business " is a good rule of thumb when one gets the urge to judge or criticize someone else's behavior. Smokers may not be popular anymore but as long as they harm only themselves that's their choice. So smoke em while you still got em.