Thursday night television

I kept switching back and forth between the football game and the convention. Giants were dominant and I thought the super star at the convention was John's little lady, Cindy. Interesting stuff here at wikipedia, like she considers herself an only child though having two half sisters, and she was involved in the Keating Five scandal back in the late '80's. Oh my. Ah... I see that John was cleared in the Keating Five scandal but reprimanded for exercising 'poor judgment'. Oops.

Cubs best team in baseball!

Haven't made many comments about stuff recently but sometimes one can't just remain still:

Of note:

-Cubs 'best team in baseball' - so says espn.com.

At 33-21, the Cubs have the best record in the majors and one more win than Boston, Tampa Bay, the Los Angeles Angels and St. Louis.

Color me flabbergasted. And, of course, go Cubbies!

Friday Follies: Obama, Clinton, Woods, Wie, Sampson, LST1166, Halberstam

This and that from around the world of news and sports:

-1st time ever in the US a global primary - voting by mail, fax and the internet. Hey, what a grand idea! Obama won this one, too!

-visited with Jim and Wilma and Erin and Colin yesterday afternoon at Jim's place while Tiger and Michelle were doing their golf thingee in sunnier climes. Hurray for the sterling showing by Mz. Wie! Would love to see her get a win and quiet the critics not to mention boost her own confidence about a gazillion percent.

-Hillary and Barack had a debate in Texas last night. What little I've read indicates that they were very civil to each other. Good for them. Hillary's closing statement - a good one and one in which she refers to her life as a public servant. Bless her.

-Sampson story at IU gets complicated. Players reported to have given ultimatum: Coach goes, we go, too! Oh boy... In the poll at cbssports.com (see linked article), 48% say fire him now.

and other stuff:

-a picture of the USS Washtenaw County (LST1166) off loading troops at Chu Lai in May or June, 1965. I'm probably on that ship somewhere. That landing was the first of many after the folks in Washington decided to go big in Vietnam - turned out to be a very bad decision. Discovered the picture while looking for more information on Di An, Vietnam. Good neighbor Jack Lents was there in 1966 and 1967.

-did finish The Coldest Winter. It's a goodie. Some of the notes I took while reading it:

-MacArthur's G-2's job is to prove his boss is right.
-the decision to go north of the 38th parallel by MacArthur in July of 1950 kind of the opposite of what the elder Bush did in Iraq War I when he chose not to go to Baghdad some 40 years later.
-MacArthur's life up to Inchon: luck on his side; post Inchon: luck ran out.
-the Cold War era closed out the Colonial era.
-General Ridgeway wanted a grinding war, a war of attrition, one in which the Chinese would pay dearly. Sounds like something tried in Vietnam, too.
-Maxwell Taylor, who later played a major role in Vietnam, told his troops to abandon Pork Chop Hill, a little piece of Korea that had seen both sides win and lose and suffer high casualties. The truce was signed a few weeks later. Good neighbor Jack Lents arrived in Korea the day the truce was signed.
-One of the many consequences of the Korean War: NSC-68 came to pass and the United States became a National Security State; when Eisenhower left office several years later, he warned the American people of the dangers of the Military-industrial complex.
-Another consequence: Democrats were labeled as weak on Defense and soft on Communism which led both Kennedy and Johnson to make decisions about Vietnam that had more to do with standing up to that charge than the reality of the situation.

The book is another good one from Halberstam and I highly recommend it.

Time for breakfast and more of Halberstam - The Next Century. Do you remember something called the peace dividend?

Tiger, Barack and Hillary, Electability

On golf:
-Tiger doing well in Dubai and Charles Warren (?) and Kevin Sutherland lead in Phoenix. With today's cold and wind here in Loogootee, wouldn't mind trading places with any one of those gentlemen. Don't know if Diane would go along with that or not. Probably would.
-Read John Daly's ten things to do before hitting the ball at espn.com or Lakeview Golf Course News.
-Michelle Wie to start her season in Hawaii. With the women. Hope she does well and is back to 2006 form.

On Politics:
-Obama and Clinton make sweet at last night's last debate before monster Tuesday voting. Watched some of it on cnn.com - streaming video. They really were nice to each other. I like it. Nice contrast to the guys from the other side who went at each other with everything but the kitchen sink the night before...

-Eugene Robinson at WaPo on the electability of the four remaining candidates. Two of the four will not make it to the general election; only one of the four will eventually get the gold ring. Any guesses? And what about the possibility of none of the four making it to the general election? Don't know enough about the selection process to even guess what the chances of that happening are. But I do know that there are some awfully good people on the sidelines, both parties.

Time for breakfast with Diane. World turns at it's usual pace.

Friday Follies

-Number One Son reports from Indy that it's been 30 years since the big blizzard of 1978. He remembers an ambulance coming out our way - that would be deep in the hills of Martin County out along the Lost River - and wondered if it was 'bringing oreo cookies and donuts'.

-NYTimes editorial makes the case for HRC and then throws its support her way.

-Tiger on the prowl at Torrey Pines. Press making a big deal of the Rory thingee. Are the two of them paired together today?

-Note from pga.com: Ping Eye2 golf clubs are at the top of the search for clubs (Top Ten Club Searches PGA Value Guide). You remember George Templin moved up to Ping G10's last month and sold his Ping Eye2's to me - I like them. Second on the list are the Callaway X-20 irons.

-a second note on the weather: we're heading back into the 40's the next several days; low 40's on the weekend and then into the high 40's the first part of next week. Might be a good time to unbend and try out that golf swing that has been resting for way too long.

Let me see now; that covers the weather, politics, sports. Anything else before I go have breakfast with Diane? Would have been a good morning to head to The Cabin and mix with the Catholics coming from their Friday morning Mass. But too late for that now. And we got the boys this evening and tomorrow morning which will be excitement enough all by itself. Better check the WaPo's front page to see if I'm missing anything. Hmmm, tax break plans, GOP debate, Egypt and the Wall; here's something cute:

President Hillary Clinton: Three words that cause Republicans to forget their differences and join together.

Hmmm, sounds both cute and interesting and it's one way for Senator Clinton to claim she's running on a unity theme. Might be something Senator Obama wants to pursue as a way to attract more Democrats...

Gotta stop, at least for now. Friday follies, indeed.

Holy Mama! Colts Lose...

Did you check out the ten day forecast for the Boston area before watching the game today? I did. Supposed to be sunny with a high of 16 degrees next Sunday there. Brrrr. And then we watched the Colts lose to the Chargers (Bolts?). Plenty of blame to go around but Manning certainly had his chances; defense couldn't stop the passing of the other team; Colt receivers dropped passes; Harrison fumbles his first catch in ten games as Colts are driving for a score early. Oh boy...

No vested emotional interest in the other teams so the NFL season is over for me; can go on to other things in the sports world: golf, college basketball, horseshoes, bowling... Oh, and taxes, too, which I got started just the other day.

I remember what one of my younger brothers used to say all the time: what goes around, comes around. You remember Tuesday night, don't you? Hillary's surprise victory in New Hampshire. Remember how sweet it was? That apparently was the go around. The come around just arrived. Darn.

(In the things-that-matter column, I would weight the Tuesday competition just a tad more important that today's. Yeh, I know, a lot of you would disagree.)

Darn again.

p.s. Hope the Hoosiers don't make matters worse by loosing to Illinois up in Bloomington. Were doing just that the last time I looked (30-34 at half time).

Update: Here's a good article from cbssports.com on the meltdown of a whole bunch of Colts but not Manning who actually was exceptional.

And, btw, the Hoosiers did win...

Movie with Miki and Kevin: The Reaping, Golf

Picture: golf course from across the highway.

Miki and Kevin down from Bloomington for dinner and a movie. The movie: Hillary Swank in The Reaping. Wasn't exactly what I was thinking it would be, rather a horror film. Pretty good job and Hillary was good too. Gave it a four though it might be a while before I'm ready for another horror film. Expected more of something on the line of Million Dollar Baby. Oh well.

Spent the afternoon at the golf course. Had several golfers, practiced some and got in two forty minute walks around the course and the neighborhood - first time I've actually gone across the highway and on that short stretch of road populated by LaMars and Toys and Fryes and Coles and Crays and Swartzentrubers. Nice walking area.

In case you missed it:
-Packers in a 'walk' after spotting the Seahawks an early 14 point lead. Wonder if Danielle and Naomi and Leah and Phil were watching out in Kirkland just across the lake from Seattle? I kinda doubt it...
-Pats beat Jags in a Boston that looked like an area blessed with some pretty good weather. Got some more of that for next weekend? (I know, don't be counting chickens; Colts have a game to play tomorrow.)
-K.J. Choi in a walk at the Sony in Hawaii? Up by four going into the last round. No Michelle Wie this year for anybody to kick around. I did read recently that she is sitting out the Spring semester at Stanford to play more golf - can't find a google reference for that so it may just be a rumor.

So it goes. Looks like we're going to get some winter around here. Darn.

Friday Follies: Marion Jones, Hillary and Bill

Of note:

-from the NY Times: Marion Jones to serve six months in prison and to do 400 hours of community service. I would think increasing her community service time would be much better since then she could spend more time helping educate the young in playing without cheating.

-lots of chatter on the Clintons and racism (tpm has several comments and links; try this one for Bill and his 'fairy tale' comment). Both Hillary and Bill having to clarify their statements which, to my way of thinking, have been misquoted and intentionally misrepresented.

Diane is saying 'five minutes'. That means finish up and get my butt out to the dining table. I'ld better do that...

Sunday funnies: North Korea opening, Dems, Impeachment, NFL, Movie

-Read this the other night and then forgot to post it: From the NY Times: This is good news about North Korea: opening up its borders and allowing tourists in for a peek. Some of the tourists, born and raised in one of the cities being visited, have not seen the place in over six decades.

-Obama: 12% bump with win in Iowa. Wow! Watched the Dems debate on ABC late last night. Several good laughs, way too many I's, and that other moderator, not Charlie Gibson, was excellent in that he asked very good questions and then followed up on them with equally tough questions. Hillary was good; Edwards doing everything including body language, to try and exclude her and make it a two person race (not gonna happen, big guy). Here's the NY Times write up of the debate - lots of Hillary in it.

-From WaPo: George McGovern wants to impeach both Bush and Cheney. It's the right thing to do though improbable.

-Watched Jacksonville come back and beat Pittsburgh last night. That late fourth quarter run by Garrard was a thing of beauty. I would just as soon have whoever goes to Boston next week, probably Jacksonville if the Chargers do what everybody expects them to do later today, knock off the Pats so that the Colts, after their win, will play at home in two weeks. Expect most of you feel about the same.

Movie last night from Netflix: The Kingdom. Set in Saudi Arabia, and FBI crew goes over to do a crime scene investigation and gets into all sorts of trouble. Kinda like CSI though with an international flavor and tons more violence. Good peek at the Arab world and the last scene, when a characters from each side reveal what dying heroes from each side had whispered in their ears, is priceless. Gave it a three because it reminded me too much of CSI.

Time to go get myself ready for the golf course.

Sunday Funnies: Patriots, CIA Tapes,

Pats beat the Giants last night in a very good game. Good for the players and coaches in not believing all the words written that claimed this was a game that was meaningless and that went out and played their hearts out. Pats go 16 and 0 but won't have their season validated until they win the Super Bowl (Chris Collingsworth last night with Bryant Gumbel). Go Colts...

Good NYTimes article on the CIA tape destruction controversy. It shows that people at the CIA and the DoJ and the WH did consider what they were doing and recognized the iffy status of the tapes. Seems to me that such investigations should be taped not only for the value of that evidence but also as a way to keep the brute that is in each of us well under control. This taping should be part of investigations at every level - maybe it is already standard procedure in most police departments. If not, should be.

Guess I'll go get the rest of my day started. I hear the golf course calling if for nothing other than a walk in the windy cool of a late December day.

Sunday Funnies: College Football Chaos, Wolverine Woes, etc.

Picture: Little Darling Leah yesterday morning before Oma and Lucas' leave taking.

Diane stumbled in just before 2 am this morning, tired...

-College football: Watched LSU win yesterday afternoon; watched Oklahoma win last night. I'ld put them in the championship bout but looks like OSU, who never played a top 20 team all year, will get one spot. Crazy year, right? Right. cbssports has a summary of the chaos.

-Michigan basketball team falls to Harvard and Amaker (MI's former coach). Not on the scale of the football's team loss to Appalachian State last fall, but nice for Tommy Amaker. Get this: they played at the Ivy League school's gym, a sell out crowd of 2050, that's two thousand and fifty, ended up chanting "We got Tommy! We got Tommy!" That's cool. Of course, there's also the public announcement by the LSU coach just before his team went on the field yesterday, that he was staying at LSU, scotching rumors that he was taking over the Michigan post. Bad day for Wolverine fans.

-Go Colts, stomp Jaguars. Jag QB Garrard hasn't had an interception in a long time, none this year yet in fact. Time to put a stop to that kind of stuff. Let's pick two just for the heck of it.

-Warm, misty and windy up here on the hill. Too bad about the mist - would be a golfing type day; still may head over there in a bit, at least for a walk.

World turns. Iraqi War still on; global warming still on; presidential politicking still on. Oh my.

Saturday Sun and Fun: Sports Today and Yesterday

Picture: Sunrise this morning; picture taken using the 'sunrise' scene setting on the e410. Gold wash.

Notes to get a day started:

-Pacers lose 6th straight. Tinsley quoted as saying the team is laying eggs in the second half. Should these guys maybe change professions and get into the egg business? Or at least consider it as a lucrative thing to do on the side?

-John Feinstein in WAPO suggesting tough love with all the steroid athletes. With Bonds being indicted, Feinstein is saying that this is all good for baseball. His conclusion:

Which is all good. If you love baseball, Thursday was a day to celebrate. The sport's steroids nightmare isn't over, but the end is getting close. And no one in this saga should be pardoned -- not now, not ever.

My oh my. So does Bonds do a Pete Rose and deny for ten or fifteen years? Or a Marian Jones and make a public confession like tomorrow or even later today? My guess is he goes with the Rose pattern, tells baseball and the public to go stick themselves, then heads off to a hideaway for the rest of his days.

-Irish play Duke today. This is amazing:

GAME 11: NOTRE DAME (1-9) vs. DUKE (1-9)

Still hard to believe that the Irish are so bad this year. The two teams meet for the first time in forty years. Any bets the Duke youngsters (these guys really are very young) come out on top?

-Hoosiers and Boilermakers for the Oaken Bucket today in Bloomington. Winner expected to get a bowl bid. Hope Lewis in hot.

Heading to the golf course for a ten o'clock scramble.

Last Night: Pacers Win and a Movie: Shooter

-Number One Son drove down last night: dinner and a movie along with all sorts of conversation including camera talk (my new Olympus E-410 which has made it out of the house the past two days - its first excursions).

-Pacers win again. Still perfect. My oh my...

-Netflix movie: The good guys win in this shoot em up thriller about, get this, nefarious guys in government, in our very own US government. What a thought. Diane loved it. Shooter with Mark Wahlberg. Diane and I both had trouble understanding this non foreign language, multiple dialect American movie. Didn't use subtitles though...

-Saturday morning scramble starts at 9...

Thursday Wrap: Mukasey, Torre, Manchester

Notes to close another beautiful fall day:

-Mukasey nomination on the ropes? tpmmuckraker has lots more including a lot of discussion that delves into the legalities, illegalities and moralities of it all. One of the commentators writes:

The real travesty here, folks is not that the administration has tortured, not that they have decided to attack a country without cause, not that they have decided to exempt themselves and their hirees from prosecution in Iraq, not that they have decided "We the People" need to be spied upon with or without Constitutional permission.

The actions to fear is more basic and more dangerous is that Congress and the Senate is fully aware of the deeds and transgressions and has decided to allow it to continue. We have about 6 hundred folks up their in Washington voted in by "WE the People" who have decided not to submit or support actions to stop these events from happening now or in the future. Instead, they are condoning it (yes, I know they are speaking out against these clowns... but at the same time they are also voting to continue the actions).

That certainly would be a real travesty and certainly one of those not to be mentioned fears that I harbor. Please do not let it be so.

-Joe Torre to manage Dodgers. That would be the team that came from my birth city. Cool.

-Manchester (Goodbye, Darkness) done with Guadalcanal. Survives. On to Tarawa. Question for those of you who watched Ken Burns' The War: Did he spend any time at all on Guadalcanal? I don't remember it being mentioned. Manchester believes it was a decisive battle, one that showed that the Japanese could be stopped even when the Allies failed to support the Marines at Guadalcanal.

Notes to get a day started

The World:

-From WAPO: Kurds kill Turks, Americans kill Iraqis. Death on the move picking up souls whose lives have been arrested for unknown crimes. Dispatched to some better place or to no place - we just don't know though each of us will find out eventually, or not.

Sports:

-Red Sox beat the Indians in a 7th game which was great for seven innings, and head to World Series to face Rockies. Would have been fun to see the underdog Cleveland team advance. Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima - two guys from Japan, make super contributions on the mound. Cool.
-Houston loses to Tennessee but not after a 4th quarter that was everything a sports guy could ask for. A guy named Bironas kicks a record setting 8th field goal to give the Titans the win after the Texans had stormed back with 29 points in the 4th quarter to take a one point lead with less than a minute to play. Alas, that was way too much time. Fun to watch. I bet Tennessee did it on purpose just to give the fans in Houston a treat. Of course, most of them had already left after three quarters with their guys down, 32-7. Never give up. Never.
-Patriots' Moss looking super. Of course, I saw the highlights several times yesterday afternoon and he was still making those nifty catches for touchdowns over and over and over, time after time after time. He and Brady are clicking.
-Colts tonight. Has it been a long time since they last played, or what? Go Blue.

Weather, etc:

-Sunny and cool and nice. Time to go play golf. Which reminds me: kept my head absolutely still and my eyes on the ball (or a spot just this side of the ball) during my swing yesterday and actually hit the ball cleanly. Having to wear the glasses all the time is a bummer but I do like to see the far things.

Saturday Wrap: Football Woes, Wie,

-Irish waxed by Trojans, 38-0. Player of the game for the Irish - the punter. TV announcer says "not rubbing it in..." Wouldn't surprise me if that was the first time ever a punter was so celebrated. Irish are indeed woeful.
-Hoosiers hand one to the Nittany Lions. Too many turnovers in this one that reads like the Hoosiers could have won easily.
-Boilermakers win. Hurray.
-Nancy Lopez wants to give Michelle Wie a hug:

It's the mental pressure that Michelle Wie has had to endure that has been really tough. She may have the golf game like a 20 year old, but her mind's still young. For her to have to deal with the press and the media...here she was this great player and often times I would just cringe because I just wanted to take her into a room and hug her and tell her everything's going to be alright. You're young; Just concentrate on having fun.

The way I've been playing, though not because of any mental pressure that I'm aware of, I need to find a Nancy to take me into a room and hug me... Hmmm, that doesn't sound just right. Anyway, we all know it's my new glasses. Dang things.

World turns. More and more news items on Blackwater, that Crusader force fighting the infidel around the world. Worth watching them and reducing them to gate guards at gypsum plants. This is a start - report that says they are to be eased out of Iraq.

Sunday Wrap

Misc. items to wrap up another weekend:

-Colts win easily at Tampa Bay. And I for one think they are more impressive than the Patriots who I also saw a bit of today - lots of three and out for them. The critics are saying the Patriots are the team to beat. They got to go through the champs first.
-Lorena loses in playoff.
-Marty, Number One Son, returns to Indy. He's in the business of selling blogs. New for him this year and something that is going great guns. And yes I did ask him about my blog. More on that at another time.

Reminder: Lakeview-Washington Golf Challenge tomorrow at 9am. Should be fun.

Friday Follies: Cubs Must Win, etc.

Picture: August 1962

-In Arizona, the Cubbies dropped a 2nd straight game to the Diamondbacks and put themselves on the very brink of being put out to pasture for the winter. Come on, Cubbies; win one for Ernie, and then another one for your fans, and then the third one for yourselves. The march to the pennant must continue.

-Latest Blackwater incident and Blackwater cowboys getting the attention from the major media that they deserve: link is story from WAPO, and PBS News Hours last night covered story in it's first in-depth segment. Let there be consequences for one's actions - of course, that is something that has been missing these last several years. Guess we're still waiting for the second part of 'what goes around comes around'. Or maybe not - certainly we are seeing a lot of investigations and a lot of screaming and yelling for documents. Too bad impeachment is off the table though what we have in it's stead is a steady stream of bad stuff for this administration, a festering sore that will not heal. And lest we forget, Gonzales and Rove are gone (though not in prison, yet).

-In my reading of The Final Days, it's late in July of 1974 and the Supreme Court has ruled, 8-0, that Nixon must turn over the tapes (those damning tapes!). Nixon, at San Clemente, has issued a statement that he will comply with the ruling and that he has always been a law abiding man. Hmmm...

Enough to get the day started. Heading to the golf course where birdies and eagles are in abundance having been left there by generous and sharing golfers of past days and weeks.

Sunday Funnies and

LPGA Golf

In NW Arkansas where there is much rain and wet, so much so that the ladies' golf this week has been shortened to 18 holes and spectators have been banned from the concluding holes to be played today. At the moment, an amateur is leading, Stacy Lewis, and if she holds onto her lead, she'll be the first amateur since JoAnne Carner did it in 1969. Hmmm, the espn.com leaderboard says the first round is complete so that means Stacy Lewis is the winner. Cool beans for the Univ. of Arkansas star.

Update: It is over but the LPGA has declared it not an official event. Sorry, Stacy. Of course, word is that they could have played a second eighteen today (rain has stopped, course is playable), but LPGA won't back off its decision made on Saturday. Bad decision, or at least one made too early, me thinks.

Books

Have picked up one of Diane's books, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner which I have read and enjoyed. Set in Afghanistan and spanning the last thirty years, it should give me a glimpse of the life and times of people in an unsettled part of the world, unsettled because of invading armies and dogmatic religious fanatics and ruthless talibans.

Weather

A little steamy but overcast and we had some more rain last night. Grass is growing again.

And the golfers are out there enjoying the rather nice conditions. Eric is in the clubhouse now; Pam later; I'll be wandering around. So it goes at the moment.

Saturday Wrap with Tiger and the Irish and a Book on Vietnam

Big League Sports

-Tiger one behind but sharp in play today just west of Chicago. Stricker going to win another? He's is in a zone.
-Irish football not so sharp in the Nittany Lions' Den, lose 31-10.. Maybe next week when they face the hapless Michigan Woverines who lost again today, again at home. Unheard of. Battle of the twice beatens.
-Tiny Justine Henin wins the US Tennis Open. Watched a little of it this evening; been forever since I've watched any tennis, maybe not since the '70's. Holy Cow!

Books

-Finish Robert Templer's Shadows and Wind: A View of Modern Vietnam. Been working on this book for the better part of a year. It's one of those books with lots of information, facts, theories, explanations and suggestions about a country going through a major renovation in its way of life. This was published in 1998 with Vietnam changing rapidly in the ever expanding market economies of Southeast Asia. Expect it is much changed, with even more capitalism, more individual freedom, less of a rigid Communistic government in the nine years since. Well worth the time and effort if you have an interest in Vietnam, or maybe nations recovering from war with the United States. It took Vietnam a full twenty-five years to get on its feet after it cast off the armies of China, France, and the United States. Wonder how long it's going to take Iraq to fully recover from it's 21st century fight with the invading armies of the United States? Maybe far less since it has the advantage of having a whole bunch of stuff to export to a world very desirous of its black liquid wealth.

-Ready to pick up another book; know Diane has several but most of them are fiction which is okay for me but only every now and then. Will have to look around.