Wednesday, August 15, 2012

83 DAYS TO THE DARK AGES

For those of you who tune in to my rantings, expecting or even counting on me to write about your beloved Phillies - Im sorry. Look, I told you Red Kool-Aid sippers very early in the 2012 season that your boys in the red pinstripes sucked big time. I told you that they were not a very good baseball team. I spoke to you of the faceless interchangeble white guys and how they would hardly make a positive difference. Some of the faces have surely been changed, but they still are mediocre players helping a very bad team battle it out for last place. They had their run - now repeat after me IT IS OVER. They are going to suck again next year - learn to deal with it.

I must point out to those of you who forgot that I selected the Orioles as my 2012 American League team. Have you noticed the baseball now being played in the Monument City at a place called Camden Yards? Of late they have been kicking ass and taking no prisoners. Way to go Birds!

In 83 days we the people (except those w/o state issued I.D) will decide whether or not we completely surrender our freedom and liberty to the evil forces represented by Romney and as of this past weekend Paul Ryan. The Dark Ages are upon us, but we can still do something about it.

For those of you who are casual observers of our politics - now is the time to sit up and pay the fuck attention. For you Progressives, Liberals, Moderates, and whoever believes in democracy rather than oligarchy YOU NEED TO GIVE A SHIT! You need to figure out that despite any shortcomings Obama may have - he is the only rational choice for those of us who don't have Swiss Bank Accounts, own a dressage horse, and understand that  Paul Ryan is a despicable excuse for a human being.

If you pay attention to what Romney and Ryan believe, who they are beholden to, and what the implementation of their policies would do to the middle classes, the poor, minorities, and women and you still say that you haven't made up your mind about how you are going to vote then you are an absolute moron. For real, an absolute cretin who should not be allowed to vote even with the proper I.D. How could anyone with a non-diseased mind agree with and vote for anyone whose philosophy about government, compassion, was ripped from the pages of a novel written by the Russian-Atheist Ayn Rand. Steven King couldn't make this up. Ayn Rand's novels were the rage when I was a young person and I read Atlas Shrugged in school. (It may have been the Cliff Notes version) Even I knew what happy horseshit her views were, and certainly not the stuff anyone should take seriously. Paul Ryan swears by here, though he now claims that he didn't know she was an atheist. Of course he knew. Look, when someone loves your ideas and patterns his own philosophy after the pages he read in a couple of novels he would most certainly want to know eveything he could about you. Ryan would have discovered Rand's atheism and her Russian ethnicity. She kept neither a secret. Why lie about something that innocuous?

Hypocrite Ryan speaks of how important his family and faith are to him. He likes to tell people that he is a devout catholic. Well, I'm a lapsed Jew, and even I know that Christians are taught that they will be judged by how they treat the least of us. Well, his own church has described his budget as being immoral for failing to address the needs of those at the bottom. And who the hell is he to make decisions about a womans right to choose the best options in dealing with their unique health and reproductive issues. As far as I'm concerned, Romney and Ryan can have all the Neanderthal beliefs that they want but they   do not have the right to impose those beliefs on any other human being.

I could go on for days, and speak to the economy, the banks, the 'special interests', but I'll deal with the economy in my next post. I want to finish tonight with a shout out for The Honorable Robert Simpson. (why do we confer Honorable on someone who is a judge. Shouldn't they have to earn the title?)

Earlier today Judge Robert Simpson ruled that the Pennsylvania Voter I.D. law was fine the way it is and its particulars wouldn't create an onerous burden on an electorate who use photo I.D.'s in every day life. I suppose you know that this bright boy is a republican, and if you didn't know it is time to turn off your facebook, twitter and whatever other social media you use to hide and learn some important shit.

The good guys are appealing this Nazi judge's decision, but who knows where that is going. But, what can I do LSF - I'm only one person. Here's something - and it wouldn't cost a dime. When speaking to people, ask them if they have the proper I.D. Ask the fucking question. Remind them, that without it - they will not be allowed to vote. If they don't drive offer to take them to where they can get the I.D. which the state is not charging a fee for. Call your elected representatives and ask what they are doing about the situation - and maybe even offer some time to help. I'm not just talking out of my ass - The Long Suffering Fan has been doing this, and I am proud to report that 4 people now have the I.D. needed and are registered to vote. It took little of my time, and virtually no effort convincing them. I basically told them that they were going to get the I.D. Hey, hard was selling boys jackets with pink sherpa lined collars - getting someone to register was and is easy when you explain what will happen to them or their loved ones if Romney wins.

That's it for now.

Monday, August 6, 2012

DESIGNATED FOR ASSIGNMENT

On and on for the past couple of years I would sit down and share a few thoughts with whoever cared to see them. I use the term thoughts loosely since most of the time I've just been sharing the rantings of a long time Phillies fan who has seen more than his share of baseball futility and despair. I've seen the Phillies show me ways to lose that were not to be believed - but since I have seen them screw up this game from the '50's to the 21st century I have become a believer.

There have been times when this team of ours played great - I refer you to the Dallas Green era, and the current edition who for the past several years have exceeded all of our expectations. I've enjoyed watching the team win, but as you should know the salad days are over. What we have now is a team in decline, a team that is filled with overpaid over the hill losers who will surely break your hearts if you continue to sip the kool-aid and believe that next year will return the team to glory. If you believe that, then you also must believe that Mitt Romney gives a shit about the middle class and that if elected he will create the 12,000,000 jobs he is promising. He will break your heart, just like mine was broken the other day when I received an e-mail from my editor telling me that he was no longer going to edit and then pass on my rantings. My only son had designated me for assignment.

His e-mail included a link so I could continue to post my rantings without his help. It's taken me a week to even attempt to do this. I am a card carrying techno-idiot who has no clue when it comes to the technology most of you take for granted. I have been known to have anxiety attacks while turning my computer on, so having to figure out how to get the thing to work has provided me with a great deal of stress. While I fully acknowledge my anxiety about technology, the long suffering fan did at one time know how to use a slide rule. I had to learn because hand held calculators hadn't been invented when teachers were trying to teach me algebra and other forms of mathematical exotica. I wonder how many of you have ever seen a slide rule, let alone know how to use one.

Anyhow, back to my former editor. Forcing me to figure this shit out by myself was not a very nice thing to do to the guy who used to watch Scott in right field playing with bugs and buttercups instead of paying attention to the game his teamates were playing. We learned early on that right field wasn't his best position. Actually we never did learn what his best position was.

I certainly know that he didn't put me on the waiver wire because he didn't have the time at work to edit my postings, since at work he spends his time doing all sorts of things besides work, and when he has played too hard at his desk, he strolls the campus marveling at the scenery. I hold no grudge, but my pain will never go away, and I'll have to do an extra bowl or two to mitigate my pain.

Let's move on. So have you been watching the Olympics? You know, the games where Bob Costa's is trying to get you all excited about an event they will show you after 37 commercial breaks. He must be on another planet. Yesterday he was hyping the 100 meter men's final, and trying to create tension and the drama of our collective anticipation. "Will Bolt retain his world's fastest man title?" Stay tuned he exhorted us because that race is coming right up! Duh! Hey Bob, the race is over. Bolt set a new olympic record. Maybe Bob was talking to the three or four human beings on the planet who didn't already know the result.

Now I've tried to watch some of the coverage, but I'm sorry, I have no interest in watching water polo. I was a shot putter, but not one throw has been broadcast while there hasn't been a day when I didn't turn the set on to find Croatia playing Serbia or some other lovely country the game of water polo. Don't they know that Americans don't know shit about that game. I mean what the hell is an exclusion? The other thing they showed - at least on my TV was women's field hockey. Why? And then they showed a men's field hockey game. I didn't know that men played that game - did you.

My favorite olympic activity is dressage. Dressage is a 'sport' that very rich people with too much time on their hands engage in -see Ann Romney. Give me a break. I teach women how to dance while the horsey set teach horses how to dance. The best part is that the Romney's took a tax write off in excess of 70 grand for the training and feeding of their horse. There ought to be a law against that sort of thing - I mean this clown wants to embrace the tax policies of  Paul Ryan which will disallow tax credits for he working class, but have no problem writing off the expenses of a fucking horse. And you wonder why I get so cranky. I'm convinced that the owners of dressage horses are the same people who own the dogs that show at Westminster. May they all develop an incurable rash where the sun don't shine.

So Mitt won't respond to our calls for him to show us his tax returns. We all know that he is a very rich bitch so what is he afraid of? He gives the impression that he is hiding something. What he's afraid of us finding out is disconcerting to me, and actually makes no sense. Mitt must not be as smart as he wants us to think because to make this controversy go away all he has to do is release his returns. Oh sure, if he did so, the democrats will rant and rave for a few days, but then the discussion will move on to something else.

I mean we could then start talking about his plan for tax reform. This asshole wants to not only extend the Bush cuts, but wants to give himself and others like him additional cuts. This would require him to raise taxes on everybody else in order for the deficit not to grow significantly larger than it is now. Nobody enjoys paying taxes - I understand that, but this guy has to avoid going to Italy because the Italian government will arrest him for Bain Capital avoiding the payment of taxes on the profits the company made while Mitt was in charge. Don't believe me - look it up.What is it with Republicans - Dick Cheney can't set foot in Europe because he is wanted there, and now we learn that Romney can't set foot in Italy.

And have you noticed - every time something is uncovered that touches a nerve on Romney's androidal body, the birther crazies are called out of their caves to tell us that
Obama's birth certificate is a confirmed forgery. Would they hate him so much if he was white? You know that answer to that - I hope. I'll close tonight with one thought. Obama was born in Hawaii; he is Christian; and he is smarter than most of us.

I'll check in again soon, but now I have to watch Gabby Douglas finish last on the uneven bars. NBC doesn't want me to know that, but I do.

I would be remiss if I didn't extend my condolences to Andy Reid and his family over the loss of their son. I can't imagine his pain, and hope he is able to find a way to deal with it.