"Speaking Stupid All the Time"

That's how Power Line's Scott Johnson puts Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's inept articulation.

And, is anyone else tired of the non-apology apology (who would question the sincerity: he only waited to get he got called out a year-and-half later?) which basically regrets that we listeners are too stupid to understand the superior thinking so eloquently misstated? I mean, really -- isn't a more apt description of Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi thinking stupid all the time?!

I've hinted before that I'm embarrassed that the two chambers of our national legislature are headed by individuals who'd fit right in with mid-level county commissioners back home.

What Do People Expect?

I suppose this NY Times treatise about men who regret becoming homeowners is supposed to garner sympathy and some sort of androgynous bonding, but it simply struck me that these men bought a house with unrealistic expectations or just to check off a life-experience box:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/garden/07men.html?ref=garden

Anyway, I bought my first house after 35 years of adulthood last year, too. It's a 'rambler' -- it has waaayy more room, both inside and outside, than I need living by myself. And, it's tying up much of the money which was either savings or discretionary, spendable cash just a year ago. I'm having a hard time affording a motorcycle-buying,  mid-life crisis, for Heaven's sake!

All that said, I don't regret being here for a minute. I've missed having space, trees, wildlife, and my own dirt since leaving the farm on which I grew up two months out of college. I've adopted seemingly ALL of the erstwhile neighborhood stray cats -- there are five of 'em (only one moved in with me) asleep around the house as I write this -- and we're not the least bit crowded. I spent an hour this morning in the crawl space under the house insulating water pipes against the cold -- and feel good about it!

In short, I think the premise of this story is all wrong, although it's certainly PC: the problem with these homeowners wasn't that they are young, professional men, it's that they are too unfocused, too unrooted, or too self-centered to value anything that doesn't put money in their pockets, or social viability into their schedules. And, it's true they probably don't need to be homeowners. But it isn't because the American Dream has lost its luster or value, but rather because some Americans can't see beyond the scope of their own horizons, and find stewardship of anything that will last longer than they do stultifying.

The First Duty of a President

It remains to be seen if President Obama has yet internalized this fact, but it is increasingly obvious to the rest of us that the primary thing Americans demand from their chief executive is that he protect the country. And, if he fails to do it, no combination of other 'achievements' will make up for it.

The fact that Obama, despite his previous campaign rhetoric, has left in place many of the Bush-era intelligence and security protocols hints that he gets it. The treatment of the Christmas-Day, would-be undie bomber as a character in "Grand Theft Airliner" doesn't.

It's Global Warming, Of Course...

...but, otherwise, it would be ironic that today's prediction of the worst U.S. winter in 25 years harkens back to a time when we were just snapping out of climatists' expectation of a new Ice Age (personally, I remember January 1985 pretty well, since there was some question whether or not sextons could open a grave in which to bury my recently-deceased father).

And, if we still held in high esteem Judeo-Christian values, how ironic and sinful it would seem that folks are dying from the cold http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-cold-deaths,0,5066667.story in places whose former senator and vice president is getting filthy rich promoting the idea that what's happening to them just isn't possible!

Meanwhile, I'm trying to corral the former stray cat turned household pet inside tonight where it's warm, worrying only that my heating bill will top $200 this month -- while folks in parts of the world worry that they'll run out of the fuel of which I'm in ample supply, and where some in parts of my state die from the cold perturbing my cats!

Sometimes, irony sucks!..

Apropos of Nothing and Everything...

...but it has now been more than 37 years since U.S. astronauts 'Gene' Cernan and Harrison Schmitt left the moon during Apollo 17 in December 1972, the last time humans have visited an extra-terrestrial place.
Thirty-seven years.
It is beyond comprehensible to me that -- in obvious contradiction to the advances of technology and science in the interim -- that we are in sight of the end of a manned U.S. presence in space. Soon we will be unable to send an American into earth orbit, let alone back to the moon. Which, in utter humility, I posit shows EXACTLY the value -- when ill-used -- of knowledge and technology. Nothing! A big, fat NOTHING!!!

An NFL Reflex

I don't think I've alluded to it since my initial 'blog post, but I spent 25 years, full-time and part-time, as a newspaper journalist/sportswriter/photographer. Concurrently (in part), I also have been a charter, season-ticket holder of the Tennessee Titans since their advent in this state as the Oilers in 1997, and was one of their 'beat writers' for four years. Thus, I have some experience that, while not integral, does make me conversant with the league and team, and their players.
That said, here's what I expect from the 2009 final weekend (albeit, played in 2010), and beyond:

• Titans running back Chris Johnson, who likely will be the NFL Offensive Player of the Year, WILL break the record for yards from scrimmage (rushing and receiving), but is 50:50 to gain the 128 running yards needed to achieve the 1,000-yard plateau (he would be just the sixth back to do it) in Seattle Sunday (the Seahawks' rush defense is pretty good!); his odds are no better than 1:5 of gaining the 234 he'll need to eclipse Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing mark.
• The New York Jets will benefit from two 'bye' weeks -- competing against 'resting' Indianapolis and Cincinnati -- to gain an AFC wild-card berth, and will become the tangible evidence that charging full NFL ticket prices for both pre-season and post-clinching football games is a leading factor in lengthening the NFL schedule. If the fans are going to pay 'meaningful' (to them) prices, the games better damn well be meaningful, too!
• The Detroit Lions will become the most-improved team in the history of the league, winning two games after a winless season in 2008. That's a .125 winning percentage, against one of .000 last year. Thus, the Lions are infinitely better than they were. But, wait till next year!

'Happy' New Year! (sigh)...

...Yeah, that's the definition of a day late and a dollar short, isn't it? Really, I wish I could do better.
There are a bunch of factors in my personal dread of the coming year:

• personally, one year ago, I was debt-free and putting aside a full one-third of my income monthly as savings and/or discretionary spending! Today, after buying a house last March -- and taking on the accompanying mortgage -- trading in my car for a newer model in August, and acceding to a couple of low-limit credit cards amidst all that, I have more debt than ever (though more assets, too!). Don't get me wrong, I love my house and feel lucky to be here. It's the best place I've ever lived besides the farm I grew up on. But, my financial options are tied in knots...
• I'm as un-enamored with our current federal administration as I expected to be when Barack Obama was elected president. He is everything I thought him to be: inexperienced, and arrogant about it (meaning he doesn't realize how out-of-his-league he is)!; left-wing to the border of Socialism; personally aloof, which along with his arrogance, almost makes you want him to fail until you realize it's MY COUNTRY, too, he'd be failing!; his failings are coming into view early, giving him plenty of time to recover before seeking re-election (Americans have such short, optimistic memories!) -- and 8 years of this sort of government may be fatally irreversible.
• I truly don't know what to do about money, which I fear will soon be almost worthless with the inevitable hyper-inflation that so many protest today won't really happen. Well, yes, it will! We've been pumping up the money supply since at least 1994, at a rate far out-stripping employment and productivity. I don't blame it on Obama, specifically -- it began with George H.W. Bush's 'no new taxes' dishonesty, and has continued through three presidencies since! -- but the current lack of realism about budgets and deficits is beyond scary. So, I don't know whether to hold cash in the safe, buy canned goods and non-perishables, lay in more ammo, or just spend it all and man the barricades! I DO have a long-tenured, public-employment job (teaching), so I may be able to ride out the high unemployment -- which will allow me to pay back my mortgage with worthless dollars! Alas, you might also find my starving, dessicated body on the living room floor.
• We've spent eight years and thousands of American lives opposing an implacable, Islamist foe to Western democracy, and are now led by political entities who think if you play nice and fair with it, it will respond in kind. If we wind up suffering terrorist victims in large numbers at home or in allied lands, how will we stand the guilt and regret that it would have been better to spend those lives gaining ground on some foreign battlefield toward irradicating the threat for future generations?
  

All in all, I expect 2010 to be a regrettable year. If I am wrong -- and I hope almost beyond hope that I am! -- I pray that I am around at its end to make amends. That is, I'm afraid, my best wish for you and yours, too.