another contribution to Demented Mod

The following represents only my observations and opinions. I don’t think surfing the web to find people who agree with me and then excerpting from and providing links to their sites adds anything to the discussion. Besides, I’ve never met anyone who agrees with me on most things, nor to I tend to agree with any of the political parties extant – although I generally find less to disagree about with Libertarians.

I also promise not to react to responses by using profanity or by insulting the intelligence or belittling the accomplishments of anyone who chooses to post. As a matter of fact, I won’t respond at all. Why? Because I’ve had my say and the purpose of “comments” is to allow others to have their say. If an argument breaks out among THEM that’s their business. I don’t think that posters should be like radio talk-show hosts and just print stuff to get people riled up and then insult them when they do what you want. Anyhow, here we go.

HatterDon’s rants about random stuff

1. Goose Gossage and Mark McGwire. The Goose wants everyone who has taken an Extra-Strength Tylanol to be banned from the Hall of Fame. He doesn’t think that McGwire and some others – including those who were never indicted for anything – should be publicly flogged because they cheated. He also thinks that McGwire is lying when he says that he wasn’t taking performance enhancers to keep fit, but to get more power. Gossage is full of crap. McGwire hit 49 home runs AS A ROOKIE while playing in a stadium that was nowhere near a home-run hitters paradise. He came up as big as Paul Bunyan’s older brother. The thing you heard about him after his rookie year was that, if he could only stay healthy for a season or ten, he could re-write the record books. That’s what he did.
A couple of points here: (1) McGwire didn’t need steroids to hit home-runs. What? He needed his 500 footers to go 650 feet? No, he didn’t need that any more than Barry Bonds needed steroids to hit 380 when he was in his 40s. What they both needed was for something to reduce the pain involved in working out and staying fit. (2) “Performance enhancers” are nothing new. Read about the sacred players of the past – Mantle, DiMaggio, Koufax, who took injections to reduce the pain and keep on playing. Read player memoirs about sports in the 50s and 60s, and you’ll read a lot about “Greenies” – a nice hybrid of pain-killing speed to allow players to “leave it all out on the field.”
Oh, and since we’re talking about steroids, what do you think cortisone is? And isn’t the purpose of a cortisone shot to help a player suit up for the game? What’s that you say? Cortisone is legal? Yep, and 95% of what baseball players took was also legal.

2. I predicted this from the moment he was elected: just as candidate Obama was a parallel to candidate Kennedy, so President Obama would be a parallel to President Kennedy – that is, photogenic, charismatic, inspiring, the darling of foreign populations, and totally inept at the business of governing. The fact that he was in the Senate for 5 minutes and that he leap-frogged 30 or 40 more qualified Democrats in Congress did not bode well for his ability to inspire THEM. For those who didn’t live through the Kennedy Administration, he was unable to get anything meaningful from his New Frontier program past Congress in the almost 3 years he was president, and had backed off of most of it to try and curry favor. LBJ, on the other hand, passed everything Kennedy DIDN’T barter away in a matter of months after taking office, and then installed the vast majority of his Great Society program within two hears of his election – all while conducting an unpopular war.

3. Of course, I blame the conservative Republicans for everything in paragraph 2. Why? Because they spent the entire primary season cutting the legs out from under Senator McCain – not a real conservative yada yada yada – as they continued their never-ending search for brainless suits to run for president – Rudy Guiliani was just the latest in a string that began with Pat Robertson and Dan Quayle. And, once the good senator actually made his nomination a certainty, they saddled him with a rare commodity in American politics: a person even less engaged with national and international affairs and a person even more ignorant of the purpose of presiding over the national government than George W. Bush. Why did they do that? So that a Democrat would be elected. Why? Here’s why?

4. Congressional Republicans are doing exceedingly well at following the Gingrich dictum that Republican bi-partisan cooperation with a Democratic president just means helping the Democrats succeed. If it helps the country, that’s even worse. And if it helps the country in dire financial straits, that’s worst of all. Proof? The self-proclaimed party of free enterprise and friend of businesses great and small has demonstrated its concern by refusing to participate in debate or even to provide one contribution to health care reform. When the single greatest factor in causing small business to fold, large businesses to operate at deficits, and Big Bidneth to relocate overseas is the cost of medical care, it is nothing short of criminal to contribute nothing but lies. But, hey. It sure makes thing easy for the 2010 elections. Since there’s going to be a Democrat in the White House until 2013, you can vote for the party that will absolutely refuse to participate in efforts to help the economy and improve conditions for people suffering from it, or you can vote Democrat. If on the other hand, you fancy an opportunity to run for Congress, by all means run as a Republican. You won’t have to study or learn anything. Just remember that if its part of a Republican president’s plan – vote for it – and if a Democratic president suggests it – vote against it. And, if you’re brainless enough, they might pick you to run as Sarah Palin’s VP! And, according to the Gingrich plan, if you can do everything you can to make a Democratic president fail -- especially if the country is much worse off as a result -- you can run any idiot as a Republican and win the White House back.

5. Speaking of which, congratulations to Fox News. Already the producers of America’s most successful mini-series: Tea Party, they’ve now hired Sarah Palin to, apparently, go on all the Fox News programs and get her ass kissed by all Fox’s hosts and panelists. Nice work if you can get it.

That's all from me. Discuss, ignore. I don't care. I do hope you found it diverting.