Tonight's game is Baltimore Ravens at Denver Broncos. Denver is favored by five points. That's crazy. There's a lot of hype about each team's defenses. But I think Baltimore's is better, and besides, they've scored more points this year. When these two teams met last year, Baltimore lost by only two points, with Denver scoring only one touchdown at home. I see the Ravens extending their streak to 5 and 0 after tonight, and I'll take them plus five points anyday. Agree with me, and you can laugh at the suckers later.

Update: The Broncos pull it out. I lose.

In other football news, I just learned that the unlikeable Bryant Gumbel and the intolerable Chris Collinsworth have teamed up to call NFL Network games. Could there be a more unwatchable broadcasting crew? Maybe, if they shoved Musburger in there.

Posted by: annika at 05:34 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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President Bush vows to pursue more diplomacy.

In related news, Annika takes two aspirin.

Developing.

Update: As always, I recommend you check out The Princess.

Back in 1994, we made a deal with their devil to allow them to seek out "enrichment" and nuclear technology--even to assist them in building reactors--so long as they made the Scouts Honor promise to use it for good and not for evil. We agreed to lift the sanctions that the government said was "harming" their population beyond repair, to the point where children and families were starving in the streets. We assumed that they would collapse as a government long before this moment, when a bomb equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT explodes underground. We gave them plenty of money, plenty of resources, engaged in talks with them as though they were a legitimate nation, like Germany or England, and all the while, they understood our motivations and secured themselves agains that. We were the stupid ones; they wouldn't let their regime fail, and they would certainly not allow our money to go to the projects we had designated. Instead, the international community, lifted the sanctions on their end, poured money into a nuclear program, and the results? A nuclear bomb, and a starving people. One step ahead for them, one giant step back, for us.

Many are suggesting this emerging situation reminds people of President Bush's strength, or at least will increase his approval numbers. I suppose this is because his numbers go up when we get a reminder that Radical Islamists are still out there and want to kill us. I'm not so sure that's the case here--what this situation actually reminds me of is the failure of the Bush administration to properly deal with North Korea. Yes, the Norks established their nuclear program under Clinton . . . but President Bush has now had six years to deal with it, and not[h]ing has been accomplished.

Posted by: annika at 07:12 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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One of the first albums I ever bought (waaay back when CDs were called "albums" and they were huge, delicate things stamped on black vinyl) was Elton John's Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. My best friend Dave had a copy of it, and I liked it enough to save up my allowance and buy it. I probably bought it for one song; The moderately-hard rocking (Gotta Get a) Meal Ticket. I mean, the rest of the album was good, but that song rocked! Moderately.

As I grew older, I came to appreciate the album for more than that song. Maturity changes one's point of view, and songs that meant one thing suddenly mean something else five, ten, or thirty years later. I'm almost ashamed to admit it took me about thirty years to finally realize what one of Bernie Taupin's best poems was about, but better late than never, eh?

(I think. I mean, it's all in the interpretation, isn't it?)

The poem/song is called Writing and it's a beautiful little song. The junior-high school kid who bought this album was probably bored by this song about two people writing a book or something, with its cutesy lyrics and lite-rock guitar work. In fact, I'm sure I used to skip over this song when listening to the album.

But suddenly, one day last week, this song completely changed for me. Sometimes, maturity is not overrated.

Writing

Is there anything left
Maybe steak and eggs?
Waking up to washing up
Making up your bed
Lazy days my razor blade
Could use a better edge

It's enough to make you laugh
Relax in a nice cool bath
Inspiration for navigation
Of our new found craft
I know you and you know me
It's always half and half

And we were oh oh, so you know
Not the kind to dawdle
Will the things we wrote today
Sound as good tomorrow?
Will we still be writing
In approaching years?
Stifling yawns on Sundays
As the weekends disappear

We could stretch our legs if we've half a mind
But don't disturb us if you hear us trying
To instigate the structure of another line or two
Cause writing's lighting up
And I like life enough to see it through

And we were oh oh, so you know
Not the kind to dawdle
Will the things we wrote today
Sound as good tomorrow?
Will we still be writing
In approaching years?
Stifling yawns on Sundays
As the weekends disappear

We could stretch our legs if we've half a mind
But don't disturb us if you hear us trying
To instigate the structure of another line or two
Cause writing's lighting up
And I like life enough to see it through
Cause writing's lighting up
And I like life enough to see it through

(NOTE: This is the song as sung by Elton John. Bernie Taupin might have sent it to Elton in a slightly different format.) more...

Posted by: Victor at 07:44 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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1 never heard it. i'll have to check it out on iTunes. i love EJ. Elton John for UN Sec Gen!

Posted by: annika at October 04, 2006 12:34 PM (fTmcd)

2 You just haven't been alive quite long enough or spent enough time in retail malls or doctor offices. Sir Elton is one of the very most overplayed pop idols in the universe. I used to like his stuff too, but now it just fills me with dread and agony. I just heard that crap waaaaaaaay too much. Along with, The Beatles, The Mommas and the Poppas, Rod Stewart, Billy Joel, Phil Collins, and for some reason which mystifies me, Micheal McDonald.

Posted by: kyle8 at October 04, 2006 12:54 PM (HA+F5)

3 Kyle, Did you really just include The Beatles, the great rock group of all time, with Michael Fucking McDonald and Phil Fucking Collins. I'm pretty sure there must be some sort of sin associated with that kind of bad musical analysis :-) Well, at least your politics are always solid.

Posted by: blu at October 04, 2006 04:21 PM (j8oa6)

4 actually i hate the beatles, (post revolver) but i like michael mcdonald and phil collins

Posted by: annika at October 04, 2006 07:04 PM (qQD4Q)

5 Yeah, who needs Strawberry Fields when you can listen to "Ya I'm Gonna Be There" or "Just Another Day in Paradise." If you tell that Michael Bolton is just a misunderstood genius I just might hurl.

Posted by: blu at October 04, 2006 07:14 PM (hXbaB)

6 Michael McDonald, eh? There's a great little video celebration of his career and the late-70s soft rock scene at www.yachtrock.com - me and my best friend, being the Steely Dan fans and musicians we are, have gotten a huge kick out of those short episodes!

Posted by: Chris at October 04, 2006 07:44 PM (g1lWg)

7 Ugh! I never got the whole soft rock, Steely Dan thing. Hate it, always have. And Blu, doesn't matter to me how great the Beatles were, being a reasonably intelligent person with an imagination and some taste I just cannot listen to the same goddam crap one billion trillion times and not get sick and tired of it. I'll tell you what there ought to be a law about. There ought to be a law forbiding the public playing of any song more than say thirty farking years old. My nightmare is that I will be a ninety year old in an old folks home and they will still be playing that lame ass shit.

Posted by: kyle8 at October 05, 2006 02:57 AM (ersXq)

8 Michael Bolton is just a misunderstood genius. (Who knew making Blu hurl was that easy?)

Posted by: Victor at October 05, 2006 03:06 AM (l+W8Z)

9 I'm entering the desert. I think I'll drop some acid and listen to Dark Side of the Moon... the lunatic is on the hill...

Posted by: Casca at October 05, 2006 04:31 AM (I6Vpt)

10 Victor, LOL Kyle, For me its when the stations play the same song over and over again. So, you start with a song you really like (or at least enjoy) and end up despising it. That's why I'm generally listening to CDs instead of the radio.

Posted by: blu at October 05, 2006 07:50 AM (hXbaB)

11 I’ll look for the CD. The lyrics are quite impressive.

Posted by: Flowers at October 05, 2006 09:39 AM (vcUSw)

12 Hmmm. For me, Writing was always one of the highlights of that album. It's a great little ditty that leads into the awesome Someone Saved My Life Tonight. Good stuff. Too bad Elton doesn't write music like that anymore.

Posted by: Tuning Spork at October 05, 2006 06:01 PM (fkQTo)

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Any treatment of the Mark Foley story must include certain disclaimers, so let's get those out of the way first.

1. Foley's conduct with the pages was despicable, inexcusable, inappropriate, sickening, and in my opinion may turn out to be worse than has been alleged so far.

2. I'm glad he is gone, good riddance.

3. If Dennis Hastert or other members of the House Republican leadership knew about the masturbatory internet chats (as opposed to the e-mails sent to a different page, which they did know about), then Hastert is no better than Cardinal Mahoney and needs to be booted out.*

An excellent summary of the story as of last Sunday can be found at American Thinker.

What do we know so far?

In the Fall of 2005, Speaker Hastert's office was first notified of "overly friendly" emails sent by Foley to a certain page (not the one from the masturbatory chats). Hastert's office was not shown the original emails.

Now, since Hastert is not the "boss" of the House of Representatives (he's barely the boss of the House Republicans) he appropriately handed off the issue to the Clerk of the House.

The House Clerk is kind of a quasi-operations officer for the whole House, and is elected by the whole House.

The Clerk asked to see the "overly friendly" e-mails in question and was told that the parents didn't want to reveal them for privacy reasons. The issue was resolved by the Clerk's office telling Foley to stop all contact with the page.

As far as I know, nobody is claiming that Hastert ever knew of the masturbatory chats before they were disclosed last week. All he knew about was the "overly friendly" e-mails, and he didn't even know what was in them.

Now, we can have a discussion about whether Hastert's office, or the Clerk should have been more vigourous in demanding to see what was in the e-mails. But even if they had seen the e-mails, what should they have done?

Look at the e-mails in question, and ask yourself why they are disturbing. I think they are, but I have the benefit of knowing about the masturbatory chats, which provide a hell of a lot of context.

In the first e-mail, Foley asks, "how old are you now?" In the second, he comments that another page is "in really great shape." In the third, Foley asks the page what he wants for his birthday. In the fourth e-mail, Foley says, "send me a pic of you as well."

In the law of defamation, there is a concept called "defamation per quod," which is used to describe a statement that is not defamatory in and of itself, but can be defamatory if one takes into account facts that are extrinsic to the statment itself.

You might say that Foley's e-mails contain statements that are "pederastic per quod." In other words, the statements themselves are not creepy unless one takes into account a fact that is extrinsic to the statements: the fact that Mark Foley is gay.

Alarm bells could not go off in anyone's mind upon reading those e-mails unless one takes into account the sexual orientation of the author. In other words, Hastert's critics are implicitly saying that Hastert should have made two assumptions about Mark Foley in general and the e-mails in particular (which he didn't even see).

1. That Mark Foley is gay, and

2. All gays want to have sex with young boys.

Add to that the fact that Foley was not officially out of the closet until this week. There were rumors, certainly, but Foley had always denied them. If Hastert had "outed" Foley on the basis of those four e-mails alone, Hastert would have been pilloried by the same people now calling for his head.

[Cross-posted at The Cotillion]
_______________

* As Mahoney should have been, long ago.

Posted by: annika at 05:59 PM | Comments (18) | Add Comment
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Tonight's game is Green Bay at Philadelphia. Philly is favored by 11½. I was stumped about who to pick, since Green Bay has burned me before. Here's the history.

On September 13, 2004, I bet Green Bay in the season opener. They won and I won.

On October 11, 2004, I picked favorite Green Bay, and they got trounced by the Titans, so I lost.

On November 29, 2004, I bet against the Pack. They won 45 to 17, and I lost.

On October 3, 2005, I bet on Green Bay. They lost, but Carolina didn't cover so I won.

On November 21, 2005, I bet against Green Bay. They won and I lost.

So I figure, there's enough information there to discern a pattern. Anyone who took the LSAT ought to be able to see it. If you want to try and guess it, don't click on the extended entry. Otherwise, the answer is below. more...

Posted by: annika at 07:46 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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