Nay, we are but men. Rock!

Welcome to the official beginning of the US holiday season, the 2+ months from Halloween through New Year’s Day. This is, also, the first half of the Season of Sick.

So far in my family we’ve gone through a 3+ week battle with a cold, with overlap of those effected. Today happens to be the start (and hopefully the finish) of another bout with sickness.

My wife is off on a pre-school trip to the pumpkin patch this morning. The plan was that I’d take the youngest until a friend was available, and then I’d go into work a little late. When he woke up this morning he felt a bit warm, and was acting odd (lethargic). Whilst sitting on the couch with him, he proceeded to give me his opinion on my sweater by vomiting on me. He vomited at least one other time — this was before Aj left, so I was changing and don’t have an exact count of the times. He has since regained his normalcy; ate his breakfast, is wandering around playing with toys and reading to himself, etc.

Said friend is available now, but I’m not about to go dump off my kid who was puking 2 hours ago. So here I am, at home, half working and half making sure he’s ok. I just don’t want to have to change again.

I gave the boys a bath tonight. Nothing unusual, really, just a normal bath experience. My bath time routine goes something like this:

1. Get the water running; usually the sound of the running water brings the boys with excitement.
2. Strip off their clothes, “toss” them into the tub.
3. Let the playing commence.
4. After a while wash them down.
5. Let the playing continue.
6. Oldest out first; dry him down, and send off for pjs
7. Youngest out; dry him down, and let him roam freely until the wife clothes him or I…
8. Clean-up the mess of toys in the tub; address naked boy situation if necessary.

Everything went as normal until #8. I was picking up the toys, and youngest was roaming freely. He happened to step right up next to me to watch what I was doing. I thought nothing of it, until I recognized something was happening to my foot. Yup, naked boy was peeing on my toes. Fortunately I was wearing shoes, but I think I need to wash them now.

I didn’t get to watch the first presidential debate, but I’m watching some of the PBS local time replay of the second debate. With the growing use of the interwebs as a news medium I have found myself reading the stories, and hearing the soundbites online, so this is the first time I’ve seen the candidates together. The following is a little bit of a running log of my thoughts during the debate.

Cronyism is just a grating word. It’s totally descriptive, but when it is used it makes me feel a little bit dirty. It just sounds like a four-letter word, especially when John McCain says it.

And speaking of John, I haven’t seen him on TV in a while (don’t watch the news much, remember the interwebs), but he’s not looking so good. He unfortunatly looks every bit of his 72 years of age.

I find it funny that “the campaigns” agreed to the rules of the debate, but it apparently wasn’t conveyed strongly enough to the candidates themselves. Gotta love Tom and his velvet gloved smack-downs.

I tire of the candidates (veeps included) talking not about themself, and what they would do, but what their opponent has or hasn’t done in their public service tenure, or their lack of public service. Obama correcting McCain on history, and McCain correcting Obama.

I tire of the offshore drilling argument. Pretty much everyone agrees that it won’t have any noticible impact on fuel supplies and prices for around 10 years. I’d rather see us with a lower demand for oil in 10 years, rather than holding out hope for that being our saving grace.

Obama talks long. Follow the rules please.

McCain is very thankful tonight. The first thing he does with every question is thanks the questioner. Every. Single. Question.

John’s not very good a self-deprecation, nor pointed humor. He also talks long, too.

I don’t think Tom’s idea of a “quick discussion” is on par with what Obama and McCain think a quick discussion is.

This debate has degraded to really bad cartoon where Obama is on one shoulder and McCain is on the other. No comment on who is the devil and who is the angel. Neither is presenting themself as angelic IMHO.

In case you missed it on Saturday night, here it is. Enjoy!

Here are two videos for your Monday morning.

HT

http://www.vimeo.com/1654340
HT

I’ve been a registered voter since 1996, when I turned 18. The presidential match-ups that I’ve been “of age” for are Dole v Clinton (1996), GWBush v Gore (2000), and Kerry v GWBush (2004). I even remember my Freshman year of high school, when the school did a bunch of stuff around the 1992 election, Clinton v GHWBush v Perot (the mock election by students selected Perot).

I find it interesting that the media seems to be telling us that the match-up is Obama v Palin, and not Obama v McCain. And honestly, I think the GOP wants this to happen. John McCain is not a far-Right Republican, who will excite the staunch Republican base, and get them out to vote. In order to solidify his support from the Right, and make this election more of a race, they paired him with someone who is on that Right, and have positioned her as the person to vote for, not him.

Sure, she’s a woman, and McCain’s election would be historic for the role of women in politics. And yes, Barack is a black man, and that would be historic for the role of African Americans in politics. So the media has setup this “showdown for history,” when it’s really a black man v a white man, not a black man v a white woman.

We aren’t going to see Obama v Palin in the debates. McCain and Biden will not be dueling it out with the League of Women Voters moderating. Get the public debate back to Obama v McCain; let’s get back to comparing apples-to-apples, not apples-to-pitbulls.

This will be my attempt at blogging this years presidential election as an editorial on the individuals as much as the process, and politics in general. Part 1 is as follows.

This year’s presidential election is anything but the same old song and dance. However, Republicans are still saying things about “tax and spend” Democrats, and Democrats are still saying things about “big business” Republicans. Here’s my breakdown of the landscape right now.

Barack Obama is an inspiring speaker, who seems to look for, and get, the best out of people. His supporters are very passionate about him, and getting him elected to office.

John McCain is a Vietnam War veteran, and ex-POW, who has served his country more than any other presidential candidate has, save for a select few (e.g. Washington, Ike). His supporters play up the fact that he is a center leaning Republican.

I am a registered Independent. I think the two party system is broken, yet we are stuck in a horrible political landscape that we can’t break out of. I agree with issues on both sides of the political spectrum, yet I am forced to choose which side I want to “agree” with more than the other.

Case in point. I was flying home from a business trip during the DNC, and caught the last 10 min of Barack’s speech on my drive home on NPR. In the call-in commentary afterwards there was a caller from South Carolina (I think) who said he was a life-long Republican, that Barack was very inspiring, and he would totally vote for him, except he disagreed with him on the issue of abortion. That one political issue is what will keep a lot of people from voting for Barack this November.

For most people, of which I am definitely one, it comes down to choosing the “lesser of two evils.” Which candidate do I agree with more, or rather, which do I disagree with less. I honestly don’t know this time.

My wife and I were talking about the election the other night, and I am in a very different place today than I was four years ago. Four years ago I had a 1+ month old son. Today I have two boys. Four years ago we rented, and today we own a house. I am much more of an “adult” today then I was four years ago, and my opinions have continued to morph into what I currently hold to be good and right and true, but how does that correlate to what the two parties say I should think.

There needs to be more diversity in politics. Less us vs. them, and more “we” (Wii?). There are too many issues, and too many facets to these issues, to try an boil it down to Left vs. Right. Oh, and being Christian doesn’t oblige me to thinking one way (or the other) politically. There’s a reason Jesus didn’t come as a politician.

So, the Redeem Team has been redeemed. That’s a very good thing. I heard some chatter about who might be on the team in London, and that got me thinking who I think might be there as a new olympian, and who might be returning to the team.

Can you imagine Greg Oden joining Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh on the inside? How about a little Andrew Bynum there, too? What about some Lopez brothers, or maybe a little Love (Kevin, of course)? Talk about some big guys that will just pound you around inside. That just makes me a little giddy.  Take that Gasol brothers!

Thanks for nearly 8 years of crazy memories.  So many people giving their opinions about this “end of an era,” but I found one from The Joy of Sox that was an excellent wrap-up.  Just to quote some from the full post (which you should go read, plus the comments)

Maybe one day we’ll have a better grasp on what happened over the last month, as Manny’s public attitude about being a Red Sock changed so dramatically. Maybe it will be forever clouded, a mystery of how everything spiraled out of control so quickly … Either way, he’s gone.

When I think back on Manny Ramirez Era, I will think of nothing but the prettiest swing I’ve ever seen, the no-doubt bombs and the Mummy, the Camden high-five, the bare-handed grabs off the Wall and perfect throws to the infield, the ropes to right-center, the Cairo catch and double point, the quotes, hugs, fist bumps — the sheer joy he was unafraid to show while playing the game he loved. And the two (two!!) World Series titles.

I will miss him, but I won’t.  He excited fans by excelling in the big things (home runs, clutch hitting), and annoyed fans by ignoring the little things (running out infield hits).  It’s almost as if he was half committed to the game.  As a fan I became apathetic and tired of the drama surrounding him, and ultimately that is why I have a bittersweet contentment that he is gone.  The Red Sox are a very different team without him, no doubt, but it’s almost like there’s a freshness to it; a new chapter has begun, which is new and exciting.

I’ll leave this with some photos of Manny being Manny.  Many more can be found over here.

There seems to be a growing epidemic among professional athletes to show their greed by holding out from pre-season activities.  The current examples are Devin Hester and Steven Jackson.  I think this “tactic” some athletes use is complete crap.

First off, you signed a contract for your athletic services for, let’s say five years.  You have agreed to play for this team for five years.  Where in this statement — least of all the contract — does it say that you can play for four of those years, and then hold the fifth year hostage while trying to squeeze additional years — at a higher salary no less — from the people you are already contractually obligated to?  Plain and simple, you have a contract for five years, so just shut up and play out the contract.

Second, you can (or more likely your agent can) negotiate an extension while you are working your tail off in pre-season drills.  All you are doing is keeping yourself from being prepared for the season, and making it harder on your teammates for them to be prepared for the season.  Every athlete will tell you that it is totally different in speed and intensity between reps in practice and the actual game.  For an 11-man team sport, being on the same page, going at the same speed, knowing what each other is going to do and when is vitally important to the success of said team.  It’s just plain selfishness.  Show you are a “team player” and they will reward you.

And to top it all off, league minimum salaries are set way, way, way above what anybody truly needs to live on.  An example of this greed and selfishness comes to us from Devin Hester, “I can’t go out and play this year making $445,000. Come on, man.”  Come on, how else is he going to afford the 4000 sq. ft. house in L.A. and Miami.  And you can’t forget the garage loaded with tricked out cars.  Gotta get me a Bentley to go with my Mercedes and Porsche and Hummer and Escalade.

I get frustrated when I hear athletes complain about being underpaid when there is somewhere around 5-6% of US citizens who can’t find jobs.  There are millions of families that live in poverty conditions in the US, let alone around the world.  There is a rapidly growing list of people who are being foreclosed on.  Be grateful that you have a talent that someone wants to pay you for, and you are not huddled in some shelter somewhere in downtown Memphis.

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