This is why people think pro athletes and agents are not worth rooting for sometimes.  Thomas Jones, a running back for the Chicago Bears, has been playing out a little contract drama since the end of last season.  Jones, who was a bust his first four years in the NFL as the number 7 overall pick of the Arizona Cardinals, had a 1300 yard season for the Bears and wants the opportunity to sell his services on an open market.  Jones' agent Drew Rosenhaus believes that's fair.  I guess Jones and agent forget that Jones got huge money in his bust years for putting up second string numbers... and the teams he worked for never asked him to renegotiate terms or to return bonus money.  Pro athletes... pay me before I'm worth it, pay me when I'm not worth it, and let me find another sucker when I have one good year.  I'm of the belief now that the one good year is a fluke... and that Jones is likely to return to bad form as soon as he gets a raise.  Make him live up to his contract Bears, then let him fly away.  As for Rosenhaus, he's been failing his clients consistently for a couple of years now.  Probably because his round red nose has lost its beep.

I enjoyed watching the Space Shuttle land at Cape Canaveral this morning.  I hope North Korea was watching over their dial-up modem lines.  It would have been nice to dump a load of potty waste over North Korea while Discovery glided home after its 5 Million mile journey.

Hmmm... world news reports claim that Lebanon wants the U.S. to use its influence to stop Israeli attacks inside Lebanon.  But what has the Lebanese government been doing when the U.S. wanted Lebanon to use its influence, or authority for that matter, to rid Hezbollah from southern Lebanon?  The U.S. has magical control of other countries and organizations I guess, but no one else does.  Some woman called into C-Span with a hint of the Arab problem in the region... all she could do was go on about Israel... never a word about who drew first blood in this mess, or why Arabs can't let Israel be.  I must say, though, that perhaps Israel overreacted from the beginning of the Hamas tunnel operation and kidnapping.  On the other hand, Hamas, Hezbollah, and their supporters should have figured the chance of an overreaction on the part of Israel.  Unlike the U.S. operation in Iraq, Israel's operation to rid-the-rats-from-Lebanon is following a ready plan.

People are using Ken Lay's death to renew criticism of Bush II and Texans... but more New York City bankers, brokers, accountants, and others did time and paid fines in complicity with Enron than all of its executives.  New York-- the city so fond of lice, a louse lays her eggs twice.

My local NPR radio station ran a story about Hispanic voters.  Some group in Florida is suing county officials for voter fraud.  The evidence?  They claim Hispanic voters are being excluded from voting because there aren't any Hispanics getting elected in that county.  Now, a basic assumption to that claim is that Hispanics would necessarily vote for a candidate who is simply Hispanic, regardless of all other qualifications... an assumption that is racist.  Discrimination is not illegal when casting one's vote, but such a view does not lead to a warm, fuzzy feeling about the people who would cast such a vote.  So, maybe the Hispanic racists are wrong and their fellow Hispanics are voting... but doing so intelligently rather than on the basis of race.  On the other hand is the specter of new racism in the land of the free... by a group of people that has spent most of this year praising U.S. values and begging for our pardon.

I had a chance to watch oral arguments about gay marriage in the highest New York appeals court, (everywhere else the highest court is the supreme court, but New Yorkers are again out of the mainstream).  Without taking a side on the political issue, this hearing was particularly disgusting in that attorneys for gay marriage basically told the justices to be activist and assume a law that the New York state legislature could not be persuaded to adopt.  For the record, the next time someone complains about which political party tries to make judges into activist super-legislators, the attorneys on the gay side of this hearing were Democrats.

The golf U.S. Open has come and gone.  I wonder if Tiger Woods gets sick of his coverage sometimes.  When Tiger wins he gets 80% of the news coverage, when Tiger loses he gets 80% of the news coverage, when Tiger doesn't even show up... sometimes he gets 80% of the news coverage.  Do the news people really think I won't watch the news unless Tiger is the main story?  Cretins...

Hmmmm... the General Accountability Office reported that $1.4Billion was misappropriated (stolen) from Katrina relief aid.  A FEMA officer argued that sum is an ordinary, expected level of waste.  That officer should be dismissed without severence.

It seems that the same sort of corruption in New Orleans that helped create the before and after disaster from Katrina survived better than the city...

I flipped upon the ol' Letterman show again last night to hear more nonsense.  Dave must've been second in his class behind president Bush when it comes to math.  The show had a recurring joke based on the idea that 6-6-06 is the only time every 100 years that 666 will be in the date.  I guess there is no 2060 or 2160 or 2260 etc... which of course would record June 6 as 6-6-60.  6-6-60 might be a better mark of the beast because the sixes are sequential.  Maybe the saddest part about Letterman's gag is that most of his audience probably left the show thinking the date talk was true.  Well, Letterman's show is humor... and mindless to a degree... and a little break from reality, I guess.

I see that the Da Vinci Code movie is doing better overseas than in the U.S.  It seems that Hollywood has grown to be just like tobacco companies.  While the U.S. consumer becomes more attune to the negative health effects of Hollywood products, and cuts back on consumption, the international consumer chokes down the product without care.

I heard where the New York Times Book Review tried to assess the best works of fiction in the last 25 years.  I went to see the list at their website and have to wonder if there are any best works of fiction in the last 25 years.  I'm not sure who their panel of critics, writers, editors, and sages are, but the list of books and authors is narrow-minded, at best.  I admit that I gave up fiction for the most part in the last 25 years, but I have read two prominent list members, Roth and Delillo, in that time frame... and I'd never think to recommend their work to anyone.  The only fiction written in the last 25 years that I've enjoyed was by T.C. Boyle and Thomas Pynchon.  If you want to read one work of fiction this year, pick up Tortilla Curtain by Boyle. The New York Times may not be the best authority for fiction anyway, since they don't even recognize it when their reporters file it as news (remember Jayson Blair).

There was a time when senators and congressmen had to powder their wigs to go to work, but with the constant hum of TV cameras these days, it's become more important to powder one's nose.

I had the displeasure of seeing about two minutes of Letterman last night.  When is Craig Ferguson scheduled to take Letterman's place?  The two minutes I saw between Letterman and Bill Maher was about as fun as an interview between the late Chris Schenkel and Earl Anthony.  Schenkel was once called the "human tranquilizer" and Anthony was a quiet, shy Pro Bowler.  Letterman's material has become about as funny as public housing.  Praise be to the "Applause" sign and the home crowd.  Ferguson, on the other hand is ON every night.  I'll take the Scotsman over the Letterman any time!

I see the pro-illegal immigration people, such as Diane Feinstein, continue to defend employers who hire cheap illegal labor to compete against other employers who hire more expensive legal labor. This situation is anti-competitive and wholly unfair to law abiding employers. Am I the only person tired of hearing that we are a nation of immigrants? We're also a nation of gas guzzling energy hogs, but does that history mean we should not bother to change for the future? My ancestors came to America for political and religious freedom (the same reason I had for leaving California)... not because they were poor and unskilled and uneducated. A lot of the same supporters of tradition take the opposite extreme when defending activist judges who decide to rewrite the Constitution. We look more like a nation of hypocrites... than anything else.

I'm also bored by the claims from pro-Hispanic voices who say that strong illegal immigration efforts are racist. The truth is that strong pro-illegal immigration efforts are racist. I don't see anyone going over to African countries and offering them a fast track opportunity to come to the U.S. There would certainly be no Hispanic person doing that. Mexico is also proud of its efforts to block illegal immigration into its southern borders. So, the pro-immigration movement here is really a racist, nationalist pro-Mexican movement.

There's 4 ways into the movie businesss: be born into it; marry into it, buy into it; or bang into it.

It's no accident that every major Hollywood actress plays a hooker early in their career.

Passion... is a cheap cologne.

It wasn't God who took John and Robert Kennedy from us and left behind Ted, it was the Devil.