movin', movin', movin'

I am moving my blog over here, in order to take advantage of WordPress, an open source blogging software. It has the ability to (among other things) let you categorize entries.

I pulled all of the entries from this blog and several from an earlier blog, as well, over there.

Going to leave this one here for at least a while, as there are folks with links to entries here.

Who's this "we"?

Everybody out there who calls us spoiled because we play a game, they can kiss my ***. I will say personally, to everybody who calls us spoiled ... don't come. We don't want you in the rink, we don't want you in the stadium, we don't want you to watch hockey.

-- Jeremy Roenick, center for my (formerly) favorite NHL team, the Flyers (6/25/05)

Who's this "we"? Is Roenick suddenly the spokesman for the NHLPA? Does this statement come from him having polled every player on every team?

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that it didn't. But in the spirit of being the self-appointed spokesman for a bunch of other people, I have a reply. If you're going to lash out at the people who really pay your salary (because it's not the owners) while the millionaires and the billionaires can't come to an agreement, then "we don't want you in the rink, we don't want you in the stadium, we don't want you to play hockey", Jeremy.

Sure sign of the apocalypse

Bono, lead singer of U2, was being interviewed by Tim Russert on Meet the Press on June 26, 2005, to promote a concert series to aid Africa. On several occasions, Russert attempted to bait Bono into criticizing the United States and President Bush. Thankfully, Bono -- in a move totally out of character with his celebrity status -- refused to stoop to that level. His reaction:

I love America. I believe in America. It offs me, it upsets me, when the rest of the world thinks America is not doing enough. The president is right to say they're giving a quarter of all aid to Africa.

To use Bono's words, I bet Russert was "offed" and "upset" after lobbing softballs at Bono that he refused to swing at.

("Upon further review", it occurs to me that Bono is Irish. So perhaps he hasn't been quite as tainted by the asininity that most American celebrities display proudly.)

It must be weird definition month

I e-mailed this at John McCain's website tonight:

While I do not quibble with Senator McCain's choice to defend Senator Durbin after his apology concerning his reprehensible comments comparing our servicemen and servicewomen to Nazis, the statement that his apology was "the courageous thing" is absolutely laughable. Senator Durbin refused to apologize for several days, then attempted to "clarify" his comments, then finally apologized after even staunch members of his own party classified his comments as "disgraceful".

While it is clear that Senator McCain has on several occasions tried to extend an olive branch to the Democratic party, those of us on the right side of the aisle would appreciate it if, in the future, the Groucho glasses were removed from the branch first.

"ethical"?

Allegedly, PETA stands for "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals". One of the things they do is find homes for animals -- dead in a dumpster. That's a weird definition of "ethical".

What were they thinking?

Read the title of this article and then read Jesus' words from Matthew 7:13 (NKJV):

Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.

And then explain to me how this is a good thing.....

(Props to my friend Randy Brandt for discovering this first.)

hey, here's an idea

I just saw the weirdest thing on ESPNnews. In this report from Austria, there was this big patch of ice, and guys were moving around on it on these blades on their shoes. They were hitting this round flat thing with sticks. Two of the guys were really fat -- or they had stuff under their clothes. A lot of them had gloves and helmets on -- I guess since it's so cold on the ice.

It must have been a sport of some kind since it was on ESPN -- maybe they ought to try doing it professionally in North America.

License and registration, please

There was to be a segment on Good Morning America today that my wife wanted to see, so I recorded the whole show. Right before the part she wanted, the weatherman was outside, greeting folks who had come to see the show. There was a group from a Catholic middle school there, with their principal, Fr. Albert Capone. :-)

The weatherman asked him to tell an interesting story about having that name. He admitted that once he got pulled over for speeding in New Hampshire, and the policeman let him off with a warning, just so the cop could say that he had let Al Capone go.

International Respect for Chickens Day

OK, this one is just too funny. It'd be even funnier if it wasn't true.

My favorite line: A day to celebrate chickens throughout the world.

Oh, I'm old

I was born in 1966 -- I'll wait while you do the math. Spent my first 12 years in and around Philadelphia before we moved to Atlanta. When I was about 16, we went back up to Philly for a visit. My cousin Keith (about 18 months younger) and I were shooting hoops in his driveway one evening when our fathers came out and challenged us to a game. We accepted, thinking, "we'll wipe up the court with these old men".

We lost 10-1. The 1 came because, one time, I put up a shot as soon as we got the ball. After the game, we remembered that our dads (who are brothers) incessantly played basketball together growing up. They could've been blind-folded and still would have each known where the other was.

Keith lives in Kansas City now. We were chatting online the other night, and were reminiscing about that game, when it occured to me:

I am the age now that my dad (one of the "old men") was then!

Time for my Geritol.

Maybe he can only start on the road

John Smoltz got his first win tonight. At first, I was excited that the Braves finally gave him some run support -- over his last 3 starts, he had a 2.11 ERA and had an 0-2 record to show for it.

But then I realized that the Braves' batters may not have known which pitcher they were doing this for -- 3 of Atlanta's 4 runs came before Smoltz even took the mound.

Maybe for John, others' ignorance is bliss.

(very) smart bombs

From a story in WND:

A TV commercial warning Americans that Iran intends to launch a nuclear terror attack in the U.S. has been rejected by several stations....

Apparently the ad was deemed "too politically partisan and controversial."

Partisan? Wow -- how do they make a bomb that only kills Republicans?

A bit of sanity

Looks like Mae Magouirk is going to be OK, despite her grand-daughter's efforts to kill her. Her brother's and nephew's lawyer finally managed to inject some sanity into the case, and Magouirk is no longer being treated like an annoying bug.

Interesting note in the article:

Troup County Probate Judge Donald Boyd, who has had charge of the case since April 1, voluntarily recused himself ... [giving] no reason for his decision.

WND may not be able to say it, but I can. Rats always leave a sinking ship.

Pass the buck -- I've got a few million more

First, let me say that I don't like the unbalanced schedule in Major League Baseball. I don't like the idea that a team in another division comes to town only once (if that much), especially if I want to see them and they come in April or May when the pollen count in Atlanta is around 87 billion.

Having said that....

Every time there's a fight or the start of a fight or anything else bad between two teams in the same division, the players, the commentators, and everyone else in sports blames the unbalanced schedule. "Oh, these guys have to play each other so much; there's going to be bad blood between them."

Say that again, and stop before the word "each".

PLAY!!!!

(insert over-used, but true, stuff about millions of dollars and little boys' game here)

All around the world, there are people who work with the same people hundreds of times a year -- not 19. And some of the folks out there in the workplace are bigger jerks than even Roger Clemens. But when's the last time you heard about a brawl breaking out at IBM?

Can you say "slippery slope", boys and girls?

It's Terri Schiavo, all over again, except with a few differences that make it even worse. The victim of the yanked feeding tube this time is Mae Magouirk of Lagrange, GA. The one who had it yanked is her granddaughter, Beth Gaddy.

• The whole Schiavo battle revolved around hearsay of what Michael claims that Terri said to him.
• Mae Magouirk has a living will that states that she wanted to live.

• Michael Schiavo was Terri's next-of-kin, from a legal standpoint. Technically, his medical decisions came first (even if they were stupid and self-serving).
  
• At least 3 people are legally closer to next-of-kin to Magourik than Gaddy is -- all of whom want her to live and are willing to take full responsibility for her.
  

• Michael and some of Terri's doctors claimed that Terri was in a vegetative state.
• Mae was neither terminally ill, comatose nor in a "vegetative state" when admitted to the hospice that is "over-seeing" her murder. These were the only conditions under which Magouirk did not want to be kept alive.
  

The one other issue that these two cases have in common: once again, our wonderful "legal" system is thumbing its nose at the law, and siding with Gaddy.

If I haven't made you nauseous enough, here's the full story.