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Polar bear with carrot

Friday, December 3, 2010

Freitag frolix


One of my boyhood heroes, Cub third baseman Ron Santo, has died after a long bout with diabetes. Santo and the Oriole's Brooks Robinson were the two greatest third basemen of my youth, later joined by the Phillies' Mike Schmidt. Santo was a nine time all star with five golden gloves. He led the league in assists from 1962 to 1968. He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Happy Trails, Ron. 

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"If we want people to work and keep up their work ethic, why are we keeping them on unemployment insurance to not work?" Juan Williams


Juan Williams is learning very quickly. The born again conservative thinks that unemployment benefits are keeping people from seeking jobs. Ron's fat new 2 million dollar contract with Fox may be blinding him from the fact that there is not a whole lot of work to be found for people out there, especially for folks in his age bracket. I am sure that the work effort is just fine. Way to show some empathy, Juan. You will do just fine at Fox.

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Wikileaks seems to be getting shut down at every turn. As much as I think that the whole leak was completely irresponsible, I think it is a shame if the faucet shuts off before the really great dirt is spilled on the Russians.

On another note, I was curious to learn that Julian Assange's three heroes are Philip Dick, Kurt Vonnegut and Che Guevara. The first two are also favorites of mine, which makes me feel a bit creepy.

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Bryan Fischer, noted blowhard from the Christian oriented American Family Association, thinks that Gay Right's groups should pay for AIDS research, since fags and junkies are the principal beneficiaries. "Homosexual activist groups likewise are pushing a lifestyle that kills," Fischer wrote Wednesday, on World AIDS Day. "If anybody should be obligated to pony up funds to mitigate a health crisis, it ought to be the organizations that are responsible for advocating the very behavior that created and perpetuates the epidemic."

What Mr. Fischer fails to realize is that the AIDS epidemic is still primarily a heterosexual disease in much of the world. Maybe he should find someone else to smite.

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Interesting article about U.S. force-feeding controversial neuropsychiatric drug to water boarded Guantanamo inmates.

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Senator Kyl doesn't think the time is right for the START treaty with the Russians. After Obama basically acceded to all of his demands he throws a wrench in anyway, sort of like Lucy Van Pelt and the football. Medvedev and Putin say fine, lets start a new arms race. Which is cool with Kyl  because his buddies in the defense industry get to make a whole bunch of money. Win win all the way around.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Loved Ron Santo. Saw him play some games at Wrigley Field. I saw a guy really close to left field call out to Ron Santo "hey pizza belly", Santo ran right up into the stands and there was a brief "struggle". Im pretty sure Santo stayed in the game.

Brian V

Blue Heron said...

Very cool, Bri. I saw Jack Clark come close to doing the same thing. Never have seen a game at Wrigley, myself, you are a lucky guy.

grumpy said...

robust retorts:

i don't know enough about the Hall of Fame to know who decides who gets in and why; it's just a pity that people like Santo can't be voted in while they are still around to appreciate the honor; RIP, Ronnie...

Juan W. is obviously one of those converts you recently wrote about; i wonder what it was the finally sent him over to the other side? all that political correctness over at NPR?...

what would be really creepy would be if Charlie Manson's heroes were the same as yours; i heard that until recently he had a cell phone in prison; apparently the inmates get them from the guards..

i could be wrong but don't gay rights groups already raise a hell of a lot of money to HIV/AIDS research?...

it was actually an antimalarial drug that the Gitmo detainees were given, but at doses that cause serious neuropsychiatric side effects...

the defense rests...