The ongoing round table

(OK, this is from an earlier e-mail between Tony and I...)

I still stand by my convictions.  Whoever wins this time is in for a world of hurt.  I do love Hillary's ploy of acting like it's sewn up and offering Obama the VP slot.  How typical that they do that, I truly love it.  And the kicker is, she has always been the smarter one.  I wonder why she wants it now, when 2012 looks sooooo much more promising.

If I was at the RNC, I would let the winner from the 2 of them run unopposed.  Why beat up the war chest when you don't have to?

Of course, there is also always the chance of a republican win?  That would probably serve the Democrats better than a victory in '08.  Let a republocrat take the fall for the economy/war and then clean house. Trouble is, politicians are never that far sighted.

Reminds of Heinlein's starship troopers.  Only let veterans vote.  You can only get the franchise if you have done something to earn it. ??

Poor Hillary, if she wins, she loses the court of public opinion. She'll be endlessly beat up for anything she says/does all because her plumbing is inside.  She's a freaking genius and capable political mind.  Worse yet is Obama, if he wins, he will most likely die in office.  It sickens me to say it, but I fear it with every fiber of my being.  America is not ready for a black president, sad to say.  Too many NASCAR fans.

<sigh>  the waters in the political arena have muddied recently, and there is nought to do but see who can buy more super delegates.  Nice thing about the democrats is that they do their scandalous, back room politics in front of everyone.  I wonder how much money is, right now, changing hands all over the DNC.  The republicans are lucky, we don't have to do that this time.  but if they did, it would all be back room, hush-hush stuff, and nobody would notice mike wallace and his camera crew...

I do love a country where the leadership is up to who ever has the most money.  Perhaps the ultimate expression of capitalism?

(I haven’t posted Tony’s Reply, because I don’t have his permission.... yet :)

Who else, your friendly moderator

I posted that without edit, btw...

Losing Mississippi, a shocker for Hillary.

Geraldine Ferraro - Proving you can be very stupid in several decades worth of news clips.

Can Hillary actually do more to make a mockery of this than she has already?  We all know Ferraro's slip (err comments) were not unguarded, any more than the VP offer was a slip.  But come on, she is starting to sound like a republican who gets caught in a scandal - very shrill and hypocritical.

And all the while, money is being spent on ad buys and superdelegate bartering.... <sigh>   BTW - heard a rumour that Hillary is buying ads at a 15% margin while Obama is getting in at 11%.  Over the course of the campaign, that's HUGE...  Purely unsubstantiated though...

Thursday, March 13, 2008 - 04:33 AM

Paul

The VP "offer" wasn't even a slip. This is one of those cases where my compatriots in the media made a story out of nothing.

The story started like this:
Good Morning America question:
Could we see a Clinton-Obama or Obama ticket?

Hillary's answer:
Anything's possible, but first we have to find out who's going to be on the top of the ticket.

That is what the media has called Hillary offering the VP spot to Barack. All of the successive comment has, likewise, been in response to questions.

My pet peeve is the Obama camp -- only because they currently lead the delegate count -- saying the role the superdelegates should play is simply ratifying the pledged delegate count. Clearly, that is not the role they were intended to have. If they were merely a rubberstamp, why bother having them at all? The pledged delegates could decide it on their own. No, the superdelegates were created as a check for just such an instance as what we see this year.

Remember, the superdelegates are elected officials and party leaders, who would bear the brunt of local efforts across the country to get out the Democratic vote in November. Giving them a voice at the convention safeguards against them having to stump half-heartedly for a candidate they don't really like who had only a small margin of victory in the primary process.

By the way, what's up with these caucuses? A handful of people gathering in someone's living room gets to decide for tens of thousands of voters who their state will support at the convention? And while the caucuses may be a quaint form of grass roots democracy, we pick the eventual winner in an actual election, not caucuses. Using caucuses to choose a nominee makes about as much sense as using the results of batting practice to determine which teams make the playoffs.

In a similar vein, it's interesting to note that Clinton still leads Obama in the number of electoral votes represented by the states she has won, and electoral votes are the only stat that will count come November (or December or January, whenever it is that the College gets together).

Glad I'm not a Democrat (though I technically am for the next 90 days because I voted in their primary).

OK, end of rant. That felt good.
Thursday, March 13, 2008 - 05:42 AM

Are you smarter than a 5th Grader?

Wow.  Every now and then I catch this show on TV.  It amazes me.  Last night a Magna Cum Laude school teacher didn’t know that the Danube river was on the continent of Europe.

O M F G

Is all I can really say.  Are people today really that ignorant?  Have the cell phone owning, texting generation really taken over the schools?  Are kids really being taught like this?  I could understand if they were getting all the contestants from Mississippi and New Mexico, but they're not.  This girl was a MAGNA CUM LAUDE graduate of her college and had trouble with every question, real toughies like “how many centimeters are in 3.5 meters?”  I do not blame her for her ignorance, mind you.  It was her wedding day and she just may have had other things on her mind, like her tats showing, both ankle and back.  Yep, her tramp stamps were in full view.  And get this, her husband was ALSO a teacher and didn’t know the meter/centimeter question.  How cool is that?

Did you know they have NEVER given away the grand prize on that show?  The $1 Million prize, for answering 11 5th grade questions has NEVER been given away!!!  How brilliant are that show’s producers?  God bless ‘em!  11 questions, 1 million bucks! WOW.

Am I saying I could do it?  NOPE!  I got one wrong yesterday (Who invented Penicillin?  I forgot about Fleming and for some odd reason thought it was Jonas Salk?)  I bet I would have looked funny standing there all smug and been called wrong...

Is the show a dumbed down Jeopardy?... you bet it is.  It’s Jeopardy for the text message crowd.  The ones too ignorant to know better and too stupid to do anything about it.  I have never minded ignorance, but when you are and you know it, and do nothing, you cross the line into the realm of the stupid... and then I despise you.

Here is some fun... a quick quiz for you 5th grade graduates out there... be honest, how did you do?  And then there is the Salina, Kansas 8th grade test hoax that I post here. That really is not an 8th grade test, it is a test developed for the teachers to make sure they knew what they were doing.  Just as the internet seems to screw everything around, this is no different.  For years this has circulated trying to make us all feel dumb.

All I can say is I thank god I was educated when and where I was.  A reason I love living in New Mexico is the feeling of superiority I get when I walk around...  after all, we’re 50th in education, and it pervades every part of our existence here.

Blu-Ray - Part deux

I know most people hate my Blu-ray ranting... but I cannot help it.

Golly gosh, guess what, without competition, blu-ray prices have gone up???  Who would have thunk it?

Unfortunately you would hope that with Sony being able to sell more Blu-Ray players, they could up production and lower price points for consumers. But unfortunately for us, Sony would rather gouge it's customers... They have been doing it for decades, so why not now?  Especially seeing that Sony gets licensing fees from studios on every title sold and not to mention that they are themselves a major movie studio.

Analysts says consumers did not end format war.

“As we poked and prodded through the ups and downs of the format war, we noticed a recurring theme -- HD DVD seemed to have things going in its favor on more than one occasion. Consumers adored the low priced hardware, studios were coming on board and Sony's PlayStation 3 (along with all the other Blu-ray players) was priced extraordinarily high. Not to mention Sony's absolutely awful track record with formats. In a recent interview with ABI Principal Analyst Steve Wilson, BetaNews found that he believed that the outcome of the format war wouldn't necessarily benefit the consumer. Besides being more expensive and less developed, some Blu-ray players have had quite the time performing as advertised. According to ABI, "it wasn't customers' likes or dislikes that powered the fatal blow in the format war, it was Warner Bros.' decision to switch allegiance to Blu-ray, along with subsequent moves to dump HD DVD by major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Netflix and Blockbuster." Frankly, we can't argue with that one iota.” - Quoted from EngadgetHD

For me? I'll  be sticking with plain old DVD. As much as we all like the way Blu-Ray titles look, the  cost of the players and not to mention the stupid costs for media compared to DVD is just way too high.  The early adopters, in this case, are going to get royally screwed by a company (Sony) that just got raped by Micro$oft and they’re looking to make you their prison bitch!

See ya' round, Brett Favre

Wow, it is the end of an era.

There are so many things that come to mind when you think of Brett Favre...

1. He is the classiest football player I have ever heard of.  Nobody, on the field or off, speaks ill of him.  Every player in the league seems to respect him.


2. He is a real role model (yes, even with his addiction problem).  He played the game for what it meant to win.  He wanted to give his best whenever he stepped onto the field, and it showed.


3. How in the hell do you get FARV when it should be pronounced FAVER???  I mean, I can SEE where the R is... it’s AFTER the V.  maybe I shud hav gon to a gooder skool.


4. NEWS FLASH - DATELINE 2013 - BRETT FAVRE ENSHRINED IN HALL OF FAME ON FIRST VOTE - DUH!!!!!


5. No matter who they played, or when, you knew watching number 4 was going to be enjoyable.  I do think, however, that the legacy of Brett Favre will live on more in the football follies reels that they have compiled over the years.  His banter with other players, other team players, coaches and refs are the stuff that legends are made from.  He’s hilarious.  He might have a future in comedy?


6. Manning and Brady may have the spotlight now, but it’s longevity that matters.  They’ll be remembered for the rings and the seasons, Favre will be remembered as a “Player of the game of football”


7. I think it was a great call to walk out on top of his game.  He had a GREAT year and it will make his leaving that much more memorable.  Had he left last year, people might have said, “Well he stayed past his useful life”.  Now, they can say he left on top of the game of football - where he belongs, with the legends!

See ya round, Brett.  Take care and thanks for 17 years of sharing a part of your life with us non professional athletes.  Good on ya!