MISCELLANEOUS RAMBLINGS: THIS, THAT, AND SOME OTHER STUFF

 It was announced this week:   Pete Rose’s lifetime banishment from baseball in 1989 for betting on games while manager of the Cincinnati Reds will not be lifted.  The pros and cons of this decision have been argued back and forth but I hold the same opinion I had in 1989:  The ban is appropriate regardless of how times and attitudes have changed.  He knew better but made the bets anyway.  Time does not heal such a wound.  He betrayed the game that made him rich and famous………..

Are the number of college football bowl games getting out of control?  One look at the schedule should answer that instantly:  YES!  I understand the greed factor; it’s a way for schools to make a few extra bucks by being selected but do the fans of schools with 5-7 or 6-6 records really get excited over these games?  For example, if I lived in Minnesota I would not be thrilled to go to a garden spot like Detroit during the winter to see my 5-7 alma mater play Central Michigan, 7-5. There are 40 bowl games this year; that’s too many...…….. 

"Tinker" says "Merry Christmas"

Paul Messinger of Scottsdale recently mentioned how Levis were the overwhelming choice of blue jeans when he attended high school in the 1940’s.  It was wartime and acquiring a pair of those precious jeans was not easy but at Paul’s high school in Scottsdale, they were still a must if a guy wanted to be considered “cool.”   Some might say, “What about Wranglers?” Although they were a fine product, kids of the 1940’s were very brand conscious as they are today and nothing, including the otherwise fine Wranglers, would be accepted but Levis.   As a high school kid in the 1950’s, I can identify with that mentality.  Levis were still a ‘must” during that era………. 

I like this quote from writer Jonah Goldberg of the National Review.  He is referring to some of the college kids of today who think they need to change the scholastic attitudes to reflect a more liberal tone:  “You kids think it is somehow rebellious to be liberal. So, let me see if I get this right. The administrators at this school are liberal.  The professors are liberal. Your textbooks are, for the most part, liberal. Hollywood is liberal. The music industry is liberal. The fashion industry is liberal. The mainstream media are liberal, Silicon Valley is liberal. Believe it or not, most corporations and the overwhelming majority of charitable organizations are liberal.  And yet, you think you are sticking it to the man by agreeing with them?”  Goldberg’s comment reminds me of some of the 18 year old classmates I met after I returned to college after serving a hitch in the Air Force from 1961-1965. They felt a need to change the world even though it had already been changed to their liking; they just didn’t know it………..

Whether one likes or dislikes Donald Trump or hard rocker Ted Nugent, I think this is pretty funny if you have a sense of humor.  It was sent o me recently by one of my readers:   Ted Nugent walks into a Muslim bookstore in Chicago and asks the clerk if he has a copy of Trump’s book about the U. S. immigration policy regarding illegal Mexicans and Muslims.  The clerk angrily responds:  “GET OUT, GET OUT AND STAY OUT.”  Nugent replies, “Yes, that’s the one.  Do you have it in paperback?”……….

Have a wonderful Christmas holiday and New Year's. 

JUST WONDERING…….

Is it just me or does anyone else think Obama has his priorities mixed up?  ISIS is a serious threat to the U. S.  They have already wreaked havoc in other parts of the world and recently were responsible for the carnage in Paris.  Is Obama concerned? Apparently not enough since he is willing to let 10,000 Syrians into the U. S. with only minimal screening. Two of the participants in 9-11 actually trained in Scottsdale, Arizona. Wouldn’t that indicate how easy it is to enter this country with bad intent?

It looks like Obama is more concerned over whether the ocean will raise a couple of inches in the next million years than he is in destroying ISIS.  Dana Milbank is normally a left leaning columnist who writes for the Washington Post.  However, in his column of 11-29 he is not very complimentary to Obama; a guy he normally places on a pedestal.

Speaking of a recent East Room meeting between French President Francois Hollande and Obama, Milbank stated that Hollande and Obama were “united in their goal of defeating the Islamic State but separated by a stylistic gulf as wide as the Atlantic.” 

Milbank continues:  “On the left, facing the cameras, was Francois Hollande, war President. He spoke of ‘cowardly murderers’ who ‘dishonor humanity,’ of a ‘relentless determination to fight terrorism everywhere and anywhere,’ of ‘an implacable joint response’ of ‘hunting down their leaders’ and ‘taking back the land.”

“On the right stood Barack Obama, President Oh-Bummer.” (After reading that definition, I almost fell out of my chair as it was uncharacteristic of Milbank to mock the president.)

Milbank continued:  As far as defeating the Islamic State, Obama replied:  “That’s going to be a process that involves hard, methodical work. It’s not going to be something that happens just because we take a few more airstrikes.”

When questioned about a political settlement in Syria Obama replied: “It’s going to be hard and we should not be under any illusions.”

When asked if the Paris attacks could have been avoided, Obama replied that “it’s hard; that’s a hard thing to track…That’s a tough job.”  (Really?  Was Charlie Hebdo any indication of what was to come?)

Obama continued with “Some of them think that if I were just more bellicose in expressing what we’re doing, that it would make a difference.”

In reply to the above, Milbank made a great reply: “Well, yes.”

The result of this meeting showed no surprises:  The normally unpopular Hollande saw his support numbers increase while Obama’s poll numbers decreased.  Hollande was “upbeat and can-do” while Obama was “discouraging and lawyerly.”

Maybe Obama was more concerned about the glaciers.