Racquetball

Holy Cow!!! I'm in the finals!!

I've been playing league racquetball for a few years now, and have done respectably well, but I've never made it to the finals before. Today I beat my arch-nemesis Jerome. He's a wily old fart, and I've beaten him in games before, but never in a match. Today I beat him in the semi-finals 15-11 and 15-1.

Finals are Monday evening. You'll know who won soon after.

I messed up the link in the original post

Yes this is a winter landscape, but not an earthly one. Believe it or not, this is a shot of the landscape in a polar region of Mars! Pretty cool eh?

For more information and more incredible pictures, check out this site http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007962_2635

I'm glad I didn't have a mouth full of coffee when I watched this

Road Runner Funny Clip - For more funny videos, click here

Get some balls!

Here's another posting taken from Andrew Sullivan's blog. Considering that he is a gay, religious, and somewhat neurotic conservative, I sure do like his stuff. (Maybe his gay, religious, and conservative impulses have something to do with his neuroses)

Where in the world is Obama?

Obama desperately needs to turn things around before he (and America) become toast. He campaigned on change and being everything that Bush wasn't. Throughout his campaign, he exuded a cool and calm and competent demeanor even when everything seemed to be melting down around him. No drama Obama. But he could give one hell of a passionate speech and connect with people in a way that could bring a tear to the eye of even a hardened political cynic like me. He could connect with ordinary people who struggle with jobs and healthcare costs and who ordinarily view the government with suspicion and cynicism. He could connect with the people who followed politics on a deeper level and were greatly concerned about the rise in the power of the President, the shredding of the Constitution, and the rise of money and power on Wall Street. For the last year, he has hung on to that calm cool and cerebral demeanor, but the passion and connection with the people of any sort are gone.

Here is the current state of the Union:

-Healthcare reform looks like it's dead.

-Wall Street continues its shenanigans with record bonuses while unemployment is over 10%.

-Iraq is off the radar screen, but maybe not for long.

-Afghanistan is in the middle of a military surge.

-Guantanamo is still open, and indefinite detention without trial is now Obama's official policy.

-And Haiti, let's not forget Haiti.

So Obama's probably got more on his plate than any President ever, and unless he truly was a superhero, there's no way he can fix everything at once. But one would think that he would fix some of the problems, and one would think that he could retain some of the popular and populist support that propelled him into office.

Here are a few things (not necessarily in the order of importance) he could do:

-Tax the hell out of Wall Street bonuses rather than proposing wonky fixes no one understands.

-Ram healthcare reform through congress. If nothing is done, Obama and the Democrats will still be tarred with the brush of failure.

-Blame Bush more. People have forgotten that Bush created the economic mess. It took two terms of Bush (and arguably at least one term of Clinton) to create the mess we're in. No reasonable person could expect it all to be fixed in a year.

-Blame Bush more. Bush created the quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan.

-Repudiate rather than embrace the Presidential powers that he inherited from Bush. Close Guantanamo and either try or free the current inmates. And while you're at it, investigate and try former Bush administration officials for war crimes.

-Give Haiti some real aid. While the rubble is still being cleared, give incentives to business to open a few sweat shops there. While do all our t-shirts have to be made in Vietnam anyway? Provide boatloads of propane and stoves for cooking and start a major reforestation effort to restore the land to agricultural productivity. Set a goal of spending 10%/year in Haiti of what we're spending in Afghanistan.

And finally, bring back the passion and conviction. Use the power of the bully pulpit. Grow some cajones. Don't try and compromise with your opponents. Just do what has to be done and if you fail, you'll go down in a blaze of glory.

Video at 11

Have you ever wanted to lose six pounds, cleanse the body of all those nasty toxins that have built up over the years, discipline the mind through fasting, and watch rarely seen video of your inner being? It's easy and cheap! All it takes is thirty hours of your valuable time, a $14 prescription for Colyte, a $30 co-pay, and an appointment with your local colonoscopist!

Video at 11.

Massachusetts

If I were part of the Democratic leadership, I don't know what I'd do about Martha Coakley's loss of Ted Kennedy's Senate seat to the teabagger Scott Brown. I don't know if I'd try to ram the Senate healthcare bill through Congress so it doesn't need another Senate vote, or whether I'd scrap the whole thing and start over. Democratic officeholders will be tarred with the bill no matter what happens, so on one hand they may as well go for it. On the other hand, they've done such a crappy job of selling the bill to the general public that they should stop digging the hole that they're in. I don't know.

What I do know is that the Republicans have made the country ungovernable with their obstructionism. There's nothing that the Democrats can do on the major issues facing the nation like global warming, financial regulation, deficit reduction, fiscal stimulus, unemployment, etc., etc. With far smaller majorities, Bush was able to roll the Democrats because he was ruthless and always managed to get a few "conservative" Democrats on his side. It seems unlikely that Obama can get any "liberal" Republicans on his side, mainly because there aren't any. Even Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe have maintained party discipline.

I think that Obama should say to hell with bipartisanship and do what he can with executive orders and use of the reconciliation process in Congress. If he's going to be a one-term President anyway, he may as well get something done what he can while he still has some power. Who knows? He might even succeed in creating some change we can believe in.