Ramble on.

This is my lame "quick thoughts" post. I was clueless to the fact that raging wildfires were such an issue in Australia. Also, a policy there that is basically GTFO or "Good Luck Suckers". That picture above warms my cold, dead heart. But the cynic in me mews that it is probably just Photoshop. Speaking of which, baseball. Nice job, omnipotent union. Awesome, Bud Selig. So I guess the past 10 years didn't happen, huh? Baseball being a numbers game, and all that. The "Game" seems very broken and nobody wants to do anything to clean it up.  I am just waiting for the other (Ken Griffey) shoe to drop as the defenders are losing players to point to as clean. I know! I know! No one was. Not the stars, not the fringe hanging by their fingernails guys, no one. It was an epidemic. How's not having a salary cap working out for you? That is so awesome that the rest of the league is a farm team for the Yankees and Mets. Hard caps mean competitive balance, but why make your sport better, idiots.
I was reading Simmons' last column, and it was pretty good, and yes this is the worst winter ever for Wisconsin sports. No Packers in the playoffs (get used to that, a 3-4 defense with no personnel for it? Really?). Badger football is a joke and will continue to be as long as we have the most overrated coach's minion keeping us in that exciting 1950 style of offense. But what happened to my Bo? I think it maybe has to do with the fact that usually there is a superman (Tucker, Harris, that dude from Australia)surrounded by "hard working", "gritty", "strong motor" guys and that makes for an awesome team. We have plenty of the latter, but Landry is just not an offensive go-to guy, mainly a great defender. But as I was reading the "Sports Guy" list the NBA untradeables, I realized I had no idea who most of these guys were. Maybe it has to do with not having cable. Maybe I soured after the Mavs got totally jobbed in the Finals in '05, and the referee cover up from last year. Maybe I still have a hangover from Lord Football. I was reading the list and I kept having to go to the links to see what team they were on. Like this Granger dude from Indiana, where did he come from to average almost 30 a game? Oh, I didn't even know Jermaine O'Neal(sucker puncher) was no longer on the Pacers, or now for that matter, the Raptors as of today. I haven't seen a Bucks game since they used to be shown locally three years ago. It sucks for me, I know, as the NBA seems to be pretty great now with some unbelievable stars. I also may have to eat my prediction that Kevin Love is going to be fail. He is putting up pretty good numbers in a very hard NBA position.
I really wanted to watch the NC/Duke game. I had to hold my nose and pick root for NC as I watched "Gamecast". I hate Roy Williams and loved how his loaded Kansas teams always underachieved. But there is no way I would ever go for the Notre Dame of college basketball. I am picking Oklahoma to win in the tournament, I hope that they face NC at some point. Would be an excellent game.

Hey Barack, they don't want to play with you. It will never work, Judd Gregg did a Night of the Long Knives on you. To quote the original in Manhunter, "Do you see?" Well, look what has happened every, single, time the Administration has put their hand out in peace. I have said before that they would rather have us eating out of used tins by the train tracks than have a Democrat save the day or have their failed ideology challenged. Teh Repugs keep proving that they take their orders from Rush, and good on them, I guess. They lost, big time, in the elections and they don't seem to realize that, and never will. Only the donkey party willingly plays the battered wife in these scenarios. Can't look like the hostile left, donchaknow. The people want to try something different. The conservatives got every single wish they ever wanted (save for that whole privatization of social security thing, thank Jesus) for the past eight years. That seemed to work well. It will just mean they will never be anything but a facsimile of the Traitors in Defense of Slavery as far as being a strictly regional party. Yes, that's it, just put a black or Indian face in front of the ugly. They really think it is just that easy, don't they? That is telling. But I think Obama is learning, and hopefully is a bit more muscular in his approach from now on. And yes, let's keep throwing money at the banks, and then nationalize. Don't do it now, it might look socialist. Oh noes!!!111!!
Yay! The U.S. is now not the only one with a Lieberman problem. Actually, he is a racist asshole. Loyalty oaths, good stuff. And the kids just love him! Great job, Likud. You won and there it goes, forget peace. I can't wait 'til the natural demographics really make the "only democracy in the Middle East" fun and easy to defend. What are you going to do? Ethnic cleanse through illegal settlements which make an eventual Palestinian state impossible but ensures that the "democracy" continues to remain a Jewish state? Continue the Apartheid? Or horrors I know, actually give equal rights to the Arabs within? I don't know, but make sure you definitely kill another 1000 civilians before the next election again. That showed the Wogs and I am sure created no more "So called Terrorists". (Thanks Helen Thomas, nice question about the nukes, too.)
So, this ends my Old Lady Columnist stream of consciousness post, in honor of Keta Steebs of the Door County Advocate. Mrs. Charles White just celebrated her 75th birthday with three generations this past week. I keep hearing about this "Global Warming", but then why is it so cold?
Update: There is a video. How cool is that?

Well sure it was a war. And anybody that showed up was gonna join Lem Lee in the Hell Of Being Cut To Pieces.

Hey you all know ol' Jack is no historian. But I've seen enough shit with my own two peeps to kind of get a feel for the lay of the land, if you know what I mean. I don't know if you have heard, but over in Afghanistan it is all basically going to shit, and it has been for the last couple of years. We all know why; took our eyes off the ball, should never have went to Iraq, relied too much on airstrikes, blah, blah, blah. I mean, what is ultimately the endgame there? We are never going to get Bin Laden, he is going to just die of old age or kidney failure sometime. Besides, he is probably on the border in Pakistan anyway. And that is definitely not a hornets nest we will ever conceive of sticking our peens into. Poppy seed production and harvest was at the highest level ever in 2007. This year, because of drought, farmers being persuaded (for now) to grow alternative crops, and most of those crops being pot, are reasons why the harvest might be marginally lower. The drug money fuel the insurgency, which isn't really an insurgency, because would you want Brazilian troops running all over the good ol' US? Some would be OK, probably. But I digress. What are we, and NATO, gonna do? What is the best case scenario? Total victory and a western style Democracy, the ultimate Bill Kristol neocon wet dream? Cause that sure ain't happening (that is only for Iraq, Iran, and ahem, other gulf states) The Taliban is coming, and they are not going to be stopped. A surge will not work, just like it didn't in Iraq. (more like a successful ethnic cleanse of the Sunni's is what happened.) So, what should we do?
Give it to 'em. Let them have it. No, not just withdraw with our tails between our legs and be all pussy about it, not like that. Talk to them, tell them that OBL is just some motherfucking rich asshole from Saudi Arabia who is just going to cause them more grief. Play up the fact that from '79 to '89 we were like, BFF's, remember how cool that was? We helped kick out Ivan from their country and all that shit. Reagan was so fucking awesome, no blowback thought there, right? John Rambo even came by to help out. Remind them of that. Cause you know what, we just are never going to win a war of attrition with these guys. Be all like, "We kicked your ass, you guys are starting to beat ours, can't we work this shit out?" Have Karzai retire to whatever luxury flat he was living at in London, with all that fine British 'tang, and stay there. 'Cause he can't leave the capitol city of Kabul right now, in fact, very few people in leadership can. NATO (ie; us) needs to find the strongest, biggest warlord there and just bribe the shit out of him to strong arm a few other warlords and secretly get to a table somewhere. Yeah, losing those Buddhist giant statues sucked, but you know what, who really gives a fuck? Shit happens, you don't see a lot of old-timey Indian artifacts erected around here anymore, right? Tell them that we will continue to fund them, AS long as it is not funding to blow up buildings in the states, which they did not do any ways. In regards to all the women that will go back to being chattel if we leave, what are they now? Six years later they still can't go to school, and if they do, their whole family dies. Along with the teacher, too. What did we expect, miniskirts and bikinis? OK, I did, but HELLO, only Burqas and bad fiction about kites. Vietnam obviously wasn't the next domino, it turned out all right with us leaving, and so will Afghanistan.
So really, just let it go. There is no more talk of a Northern Alliance, or of finding that leader of the Taliban, Omar Epps or whatever. Our best option, and this sucks because, like everyone else, I have a wall sized poster of The tearful Eagle over the Towers, is just to punt. Make deals and GTFO. I know, I know, we were all fucking dumbasses six years ago, we won't make deals with terrorists and all that Tom Clancy shit. Fuck pride. How do you want it? With some honor or finally when NATO says "Screw you guys, I'm goin' home."? And if someone else starts shit somewhere else, we will go there for six years and accomplish fuck all, too. But it is time to just let it be. Declare victory, try to set up the most moderate Talibani government, and leave.