Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Random Possible Insensitivities

It's been a little over a week since I posted anything here, but the last week has been a bit distressing. This post will be a mixed bag of political thoughts, sports musings, and any other thing I might think of.

- This Sandra Fluke thing is getting out of hand. After her meet-and-greet with Congress (wasn't really a hearing, but just a small meeting called by Nancy Pelosi), conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said some uncouth things. I don't agree with Limbaugh, and I'm not a fan of his show. His words have brought a a firestorm of hatred his way. Advertisers have left his show, but oddly the ones that left are suffering almost immediate adverse effects.
Gloria Allred is now seeking a way to prosecute Limbaugh for a misdemenor under an archaic Florida law forbidding anyone to question the "purity" of a woman. However, in the not so distant past, Bill Maher called Sarah Palin far worse things than Limbaugh called Fluke. Maher also donated $1 Million to Obama's campaign through a PAC. Obama has not offered to return the money (not that I'm calling for him to, but some non-liberal pundits are). David Letterman called Palin a cheap slut and joked about her daughters being raped. Michelle Obama, the current First Lady, is set to appear on Letterman's show this week. So either the media is ignoring Letterman and Maher because they are comedians and not taken as seriously as Limbaugh... or it's okay to speak such vulgarities about a woman, so long as you are liberal and she is conservative.

- Barack Obama is touting the fact that oil production is up under his administration. Well, remember that he froze all drilling in the Gulf, and on the Atlantic Coast, and oil drilling on federal lands decreased by over ten percent in 2011. So the logical conclusion to it is that oil production is up in spite of Obama, not because of him.

- Rick Santorum continues to jockey with Mitt Romney for the lead in the GOP race for the Presidential nomination. Santorum is the GOP candidate I am least likely to support, because I think he would earnestly seek to underhandedly institute a theocracy in this country. I'm a Christian, and I consider myself a fairly religious person, but I don't want a Christian theocracy. Nor do I want a Muslim, Hindu, or Baha'i theocracy. Having a Christian theocracy opens the door for those others to exist.

-According to Rasmussen, at the moment Romney and Obama are tied at 45% each. Obama leads Santorum 47% to 42%. On generic congressional ballots, Republicans lead Democrats by six percentage points. Personally, I'm amazed at the Democrats holding such high numbers as they do, seeing as they haven't passed a budget in over 1000 days, even when they had complete control of the House and a near supermajority in the Senate. The government currently spends about $11 Billion per day. For every dollar they spend, they have to borrow 43 cents. But if we could just increase taxes on the top 1% we'd be okay, right? Wrong. Even if you took 100% of the wealth of the top 1% of wage earners in this country, you could run the federal government for about 24 days. If you took all the wealth and assests of the Fortune 500 companies as well, you could run the federal government for about eight months. We do not have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem.

Now for some light-hearted sports stuff...

- Chipper Jones, the veteran Braves third-baseman, stated today that he might not be able to last the year. He's not played a full season in a long time, and he seems to stay hurt more than healthy. If/When he retires, he'll probably be a first ballot Hall of Fame inductee. I'd argue that he was one of the best ball players of the steroid era, and he was clean.

- The Formula 1 season starts this weekend in Australia. Last season the Red Bull Renault cars dominated, more specifically, Sebastian Vettel dominated. Through the preseason testing sessions, it appears as if there is no dominant car or team going in to Melbourne. The cars are hideous (except McLaren), and it looks like Bahrain will be on the calendar this year, even though several teams don't want to go.

- The Peyton Manning sweepstakes is in full swing. Manning has already ruled out Kansas City and Seattle, and he's visited Denver and is going to visit Tennessee, Miami, and Arizona. I wasn't aware Tennessee was in the mix until today, and I think the Titans would be a good fit. The weather is usually pretty good in Nashville, he'd play at least two games a season in domes (Houston and Indianapolis), and the owner would throw a good bit of money his way. It's likely the team that signs Manning will also make a run at Reggie Wayne and possibly at Jeff Saturday.

- The Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins were penalized by the league for front-loading contracts during the uncapped season a year or two ago. The league specifically warned teams not to front-load, and the 'Skins and 'Boys did it anyway. The Saints and Raiders are also in the penalized group, but their offenses were not on the magnitude of Washington and Dallas.

- The Saints are still feeling the fallout from the Bounty Program their defense ran. The league has been slow to penalize the team, but rumored penalties include 8 to 16 game bans for Sean Payton and Gregg Williams (now with the Rams). The team could face massive financial penalties and possibly the forfeiture of draft picks.

- Speaking of the Rams, St. Louis just landed a haul for their 2nd Round pick. The Redskins (who did all this trading before the league penalized them) gave up their 1st Round pick (6th overall) and their 2nd round pick, plus their first round picks in 2013 and 2014, to move up to #2 this year. Their goal: Robert Griffin III.

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