Left on a bar napkin:
Conformity is much like government. The more we give to it, the less we have left of ourselves.
Break it, Fix it.
September 30th, 2009Breaking news! What is that?
I hear the phrase all the time. Breaking news!
What is news if it’s not breaking?
I’ve never heard breaking news of anything I haven’t already heard about.
They should fix this.
Here Ye! Here Ye!
September 28th, 2009I see the President is going to Denmark to make his pitch to bring the Olympic Games to Chicago.
And why not? He is the epitome of the medicine man of the Wild West who pitches a tonic and ale and witches brew for anything that ails us. Is this guy full of himself or what?
If he can’t fix it, nobody can.
Oh, They Play Football Too?
September 27th, 2009The National Football League should change the rules for televised games to allow each team four time-outs per half instead of three as it is now. Then there would be 33% more time for commercials.
Un-Unite The Nations
September 27th, 2009Most Americans would not oppose an immediate withdrawal of United States membership in the United Nations. It is a disgraceful sham!
It is nothing more than an assembly on our soil of renegades, terrorists, thugs and circus freaks of the world come to bash the U. S. and be lighted up by the International media and given groundless esteem and standing on the world stage.
What in the hell are we doing this for?
Enough is enough. Pull out of the United Nations now. Close it lock, stock and barrel.
The Vote is In: America Wins!
November 15th, 2008Congratulations America!
History’s pioneering experiment, the notion of a government of and by a free people once again manifested mankind’s most noble endowment: Freedom of choice. With the ballot box as its instrument, America has validated the righteousness of its ideals.
World, take notice! Americans, one by one, made clear the high value they attach to a fundamentally human principle: To speak out, to give their opinion, to express their choice and to do so completely immune from fear of reprisal.
For most of us, the right to cast a free ballot is an inherent element of our nature. We don’t deliberate it, we simply exercise it. And perhaps we lose appreciation for the genuine magnitude of it. It is easy to forget that brave men and women have made great sacrifices in order that this be preserved. Some of us have forgotten that freedom has a price and often the price has been high.
America’s liberties and the freedom of her citizens were not cheaply gotten. Nor will they be cheaply preserved. We must never forget what it has taken to achieve our freedom and we must always stand ready to do whatever is necessary to eternally preserve it.
Ours is the world’s best example. May it never perish.
Technorati Tags: Politics
Say It Ain’t So
August 3rd, 2008Major League Baseball may implement video re-plays. They may do it soon, perhaps introducing it during the upcoming division play-offs. Is bringing this technology to the National Pastime a good thing?
Baseball is pastoral. It is at once aesthetic and intellectual. It is a rite of spring, a contest between two teams afield a lush green lawn and a stone-red clay diamond. It is an intricate web of numbers and statistics, batting and earned-run averages, and wins versus losses.
It is the exhilaration of a close play at home plate and the tension awaiting the umpire’s verdict. It is a fleeting hopefulness reluctantly ceding way to a wrenching agony as a home-run slam veers foul at just the last second.
It is as much the taste of the hot dog as the smell of the gloves of leather wafting in on the spring breeze blowing in from center. It is the crack of the bat and the ovations spurred on by the flight of a ball passing beyond the park’s outermost boundary.
There is no clock. There is no rush. Instead, there is leisure in the pace, a welcome escape from Monday thru Friday’s nine-to-five brain-numbing grind. There is a solace to be known in realizing the game just might go on forever.
It is the pride in our nation and the patriotism we demonstrate in the preamble to every game – the anthem. It is peanuts and cracker jacks and hot dogs and beer and “Take me out to the ballgame.” It is the camaraderie amongst the fans and the seventh inning stretch.
There is enough technology at the ballpark now: Monster digital scoreboards playing funnies between innings, state of the art sound systems blasting loud rock and rap music between innings, and cell phones a plenty in the hands of the ‘casual’ fan, the one who would rather be somewhere else. There are iPods to amuse listeners lest they be bored as the game slows. And there are radar guns and dozens of TV cameras that make us witness to every single angle of the game.
Who needs video replay? The game has gotten along just fine for over 100 years. And besides, arguments over close calls are in the culture of the game. The resulting antics are pure entertainment: An irate manager, claiming to have been wronged by a bone-headed call, kicking up dirt and yelling face to face at a resolute, unyielding umpire while the fans erupt in ecstasy. It is pure baseball lore. It is classic. It should not be infringed upon.
It has gained a wider audience in recent years. It has become an international spectacle owing to the success of contemporary marketing techniques and gadgetry. But at its core, the game’s tradition is uniquely American. It is Mom and Dad’s, and Grandpa and Grandma’s game.
I hope we keep it that way for there is value in leaving the finer things “un-modernized.” They have survived the passing fads, resisted profound change, and emerged just as they have always been because they are good just as they are. They are the best. They should remain as they are: A perpetual reminder that the past was simpler, hot dogs with dad tasted better, and spring was longer. And maybe, just maybe the game will go on forever.