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Opinions in the Shorts: Vol. 9

On Politics
I had a hard time getting past William Kristol’s Will Obama Save Liberalism, but I successful read it the next day; only to discover an interesting nugget at the end.

Senator McCain proclaims he won’t be a rubber stamp for the President. Oh really! Are you expected to be? Does your party apply any pressure to its members in either chamber for rubber stamping its agenda?

Sometimes in life its best just to sit back, be quiet, and let others have their way; after all, give them enough rope and they usually hang themselves. I wonder if Capitol Hill Republicans considered the idea after get smacked in the November elections. Bob Herbert had a stinging opinion on the GOP’s current behavior.

On the stimulus plan, have greater respect for the 11 House Democrats going against the grain than the entire House GOP — yet I’m hopefull that both sides in the Senate will be less divided.

Since AIG is paying bonuses, no more bailout money … None!

Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins delivered a wonderful sermon at the National Prayer Service the day following the inauguration, and here’s the text.

I’m touched by my honorary membership in the American Hearland Party.

On Sports
Many regard Ray Guy as the best punter ever, but he’s not in the HOF. Here’s a great post about him, which includes a few other names from that era.

Now that NCAA hoop season is finally into league play, sure seems that the big basketball schools have borrowed a page from BCS football: play as many home games against lesser competition as much as possible. How many nonconference games do they need? Oh I forgot … it’s all about the money.

On Films
Last weekend we saw Oscar nominated Frost/Nixon. A must see for boomers! Frank Langella does very well portraying Nixon’s qualities: brilliance, calculating, controlling, & paranoia.

On Stuff
Have you ever thought about this question: What does life ask of us? With that thought in mind, see this nonpolitical column by David Brooks.

I enjoy using iGoogle for daily pictures as the National Geographic Picture of the Day, Places to See Before You Die, Most Sacred Places, Funny Cat Photos, and my favorite – Moon of the Day. Also with iGoogle, my settings automatically and frequently change the banner – It’s interesting.

Seems Cindy McCain interviewed with Dancing with the Stars, and then hubby nixed the idea, which is not being mavericky.

We love soup in the winter, and discovered a wonderful cookbook (with soups) for pressure cookers: The Pressure Cooker Cookbook (Taula Patsalis). Best of all, we found the book at our local Half Price Books.

Here’s a good one: a list of 10 things we should say more often.

From Things to Ponder Gadget
If pro is the opposite of con, is progress the opposite of congress?

6 thoughts on “Opinions in the Shorts: Vol. 9”

  1. Interesting topics this week.

    – McCain not allowing his wife to particpate is interesting, it can’t possibly hurt his running for President again, as I don’t think he has it in him again.

    – iGoogle is a nifty little home page option. I’ve used it, and it beats having MSN and trying to go to a URL before the page loads, only to have the script in the page move you from typing the URL to typing in the MSN Search bar.

    – I’ll have to check out Frost/Nixon. I was a history major in college and the first major paper I ever wrote in High School was about Watergate, so there is some interest there. Thanks for the head’s up.

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    • Frag: I’ll be interested to see what your historian take on Frost/Nixon. Watergate turned out to be one huge event … yet another peaceful presidential transition.

      Thanks Frag!

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  3. Ray Guy should be in the HOF. He set the standard for the punter position.

    I always find it interesting that prototypical fullbacks of this era often get overlooked, too. Jim Brown, Bronko Nagurski, and some others were fullbacks, but they got in because of being able to run the football. My problem is with guys like Darryl “Moose” Johnston, who for my money was a huge reason why Emmitt Smith had the career he did, doesn’t get more consideration. There are others, but he’s an example. I realize it’s hard to justify guys getting in with numbers to merit consideration. But ironically, offensive lineman are well represented in the HOF even though numbers aren’t why they are there.

    Furthermore, for one to say that the number of Pro Bowl appearances or All-Pro honors is a way to measure a lineman getting in, it’s always a subjective argument. That’s kind of like saying someone in baseball back in the early era of the game gets in because he was named a Gold Glove winner x-amount of times. It’s too subjective.

    As far as punters go, Guy had the numbers. But it’s what else he did for the game, and those numbers he had aren’t enough some people’s eyes. I think the problem with all this is that numbers are too much of factor. They most definitely should be a factor, but awards based on subjectiveness seem to work for many voters when it shouldn’t always be the case. Besides special teams not being factored in the minds of voters obviously, the intangibles are not looked at closely enough. As much as Guy should be in the HOF, I think special teams as well as prototypical fullbacks will have a tough time garnering votes for induction for that reason. So far, it’s showing, too.

    Anyway, good stuff as always Frank!

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