Hitchcock’s Revenge

Those aren’t leaves, they’re birds. Birds at dusk. Eerie.

Playoffs

Yay for the Seattle Seahawks. They deserve it… They won yesterday, you know. So did the Denver Broncos. I spent a good portion of my adult life loathing the Broncos, but now I find myself hoping they’ll win once in a while. As good as quarterback John Elway was throughout his career, I didn’t like him – I thought he was too cocky and full of himself for some reason. The current quarterback for the Broncos, Jake Plummer, is kind of fun to watch… He reminds me of a big goofy hippie who happens to be able to throw a football. I am cheering for the Steelers next week, though…

The first game today was the best of the bunch – the favored Indianapolis Colts lost to underdog Pittsburgh Steelers. Two classy teams led by two good coaches – it was a hard-fought nailbiter. The surprising part of the game was that there were no fights, no showboating, no spitting – it was very refreshing! Kudos to both teams and their coaches. I am, however, a little disappointed in the officiating – there were several questionable calls (including one head-scratcher that still has me wondering what in the world could have distracted every official on the field at the same time – UFO’s in the dome?), and all of them seemed to go against the Steelers. I’ll sure there will be some fallout over that… But, to be fair, both calls were rather obscure rules, and the refs may be one-hundred percent correct for all I know. But it sure didn’t look that way to me. This is the first time in years I’ve wondered if the officials had a handle on the game – the NFL truly does have quality personnel.

At the moment I’m watching the Carolina-Chicago game, which is not so classy. It’s a close game, and both teams are good, but there are plenty of scuffles, players yelling at their own teammates, receivers doing strange and unnatural little dances in the endzone… But, all in all, I’ve seen worse. No one’s spit on anyone yet today, and thankfully I’ve yet to see a player moon anyone since Mr. Randy Moss (formerly of Minnesota) pretend to wiggle his skinny posterior at the Green Bay crowd last year.

Looks like my beloved NFC North is pretty much through for the year. The Packers only won four games and fired their coach. The Lions won five games and fired their coach before the season was even over. The Vikings did better, in spite of losing all sense of morality, but still fired their coach. Chicago made it to the playoffs, relying on backup quarterback Kyle Ortmann, a solid running game, and a stellar defense. They are currently losing their playoff game, though, after putting in a different quarterback, abandoning their running game, and generally ignoring all the aspects of the game that got them into the playoffs in the first place…

Shoot. I just saw the officials make a mistake that cost Chicago possession of the ball (trailing by eight points with two minutes to go). That’s disappointing.

After all these years…

In the 1970s the United States was hit hard by a shortage of oil, leading to the now-infamous gas lines. Since then we’ve invented such environmentally friendly devices as the Dodge Ram pickup, which gets nine miles per gallon source, and the Hummer, which gets about eight miles per gallon source (though that’s just a guess – the Hummer is so large it’s exempt from having to post mileage figures). Since we inexplicably went to war with Iraq, gasoline prices have soared. I just saw a commercial on television touting a car that got an astounding 30 miles per gallon. Wow. Thirty miles per gallon…

Shouldn’t we be driving electric cars by now? We’ve had 30 years notice, for gosh sakes! We should at least be exploring the hydrogen economy… There ARE cars out there that get sixty miles per gallon (the Honda Insight and the Toyota Prius, for example), the problem is that no one buys them because if you buy an Insight or a Prius, you can’t see around the @*%($& Hummer that’s sitting in that cloud of smog next to you at the intersection. A quick glance at my company’s parking lot tells the tale – four very large trucks, four SUV’s, one ten-cylinder Jaguar (owned by the boss of course), and my little four-cylinder Geo Prism. (Side note – I often walk to work anyway. With all those behemoth vehicles in the parking lot I often lose my little car.)

The government NEEDS to do more to discourage the public from buying large vehicles. We NEED to re-invent public transportation. We NEED to encourage hybrid cars until we can switch to a hydrogen-based economy. We ARE going to run out of oil in my lifetime – and I smoked for twenty-five years. It’s gonna happen soon, and we’re going to be completely unprepared.

Passenger trains between major cities (by major I mean Sioux City, Sioux Falls, and Omaha) – wouldn’t that be nice? I’d take advantage of that… Sioux City needs to abandon the full-sized buses they use for public transportation and go to smaller buses or vans. That would save fuel money AND allow the city to run more routes and offer more services. Some cities, such as Seattle (I think), bought a bunch of butt-ugly bicycles (ugly enough that no one would steal them) and put them in the downtown district where anyone can borrow one to ride whenever they want. We really, really need to start thinking like that. Maybe we should put more resources into high-speed Internet access so more people in rural areas can telecommute. Maybe we need to go back to boarding schools to save on the cost of driving children around all the time. (I know – that’s probably a bad idea, but have you ever driven past a school at 3:30 and seen all the “soccer moms” sitting in their SUV’s waiting for their kids? Have you noticed that almost all the SUV’s are running, either to keep the air conditioner going or to keep the heat on or so the driver can listen to the radio…? It’s insane! Idea – put a solar panel on the top of every car to generate enough power to run the radio or the AC while the car is off.)

Et Tu, Mr. Grassley?

Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley ran a commercial several years ago when he was up for re-election. The commercial painted Mr. Grassley as a simple man from Iowa who likes to mow his own lawn. That appeals to Iowans, actually – we like people who do their own work and lead simple lives.

However, yesterday Mr. Grassley made some comments that did indeed make him sound simple. While sitting on the Senate committee to evaluate potential Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito, Mr. Grassley told Mr. Alito, “Your critics are grasping at any straw to tarnish your record.” source My immediate thought to this comment was that if Mr. Alito’s record were to be clean, there could be no tarnish – therefore he must have a tarnished record already.

Mr. Grassley also stated, “Judge Alito has a reputation for being an exceptional and honest judge devoted to the rule of law, as well as being a man of integrity.” source I have nothing against stating a man’s reputation. I just hope that Mr. Grassley also looks at Mr. Alito’s record. I have a good reputation as a graphic designer, but that does NOT mean that I’d make a good surgeon. Mr. Alito has a good reputation in his legal dealings thus far, but that does NOT mean he’ll automatically make a good Supreme Court Justice.

Some of the touchier portions of the hearings thus far involve the Supreme Court’s views regarding presidential powers (how much authority the United States President really has). Mr. Alito’s views are that the president’s authority should not be fettered much by the courts. According to Mr. Grassley, the president’s critics “are trying to make a case that President Bush is assuming more power than presidents over a long period of time have assumed … and it’s simply not true.” source This makes Mr. Grassley look like President George Walker Bush’s lapdog, as the Bush administration has taken it upon themselves to assume the power to illegally imprison U.S. citizens, secretly eavesdrop on U.S. citizens, authorize hidden secret prisons in Europe, and condone torture.

I have a sinking feeling that Mr. Grassley is going to rubber-stamp President Bush’s wishes regarding Judge Alito, and I have a feeling that should Mr. Alito become a Supreme Court Justice the United States will change for the worse. I had respect for Mr. Grassley, but that respect is waning. Especially as I just learned that Mr. Grassley has taken money from lobbyist Jack Abramoff (who pleaded guilty to federal fraud and corruption charges) and has no intention of returning the dirty money. source (incidentally, Representatives Jim Nussle, Tom Latham and Steve King each took $10,000 from Abramoff in 2004. I’ve heard rumors that Democratic Senator Tom Harkin also received “Abramoff money,” but I’ve not found out if he returned the funds, or how he came across them in the first place.)

There is a short funny blog about Grassley here.

Daily Pics

I took off work at four today and went to the riverfront and wandered around the Anderson Dance Pavillion. I needed to see the sun…

Gitmo

According to BBC News, Amnesty International found more claims of torture and abuse at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. source They say that 500 detainees are being held without charge or trial, and listed several atrocities (people being subjected to physical, sexual and religious abuse) in the prison. “There’s no middle ground regarding Guantanamo,” said Amnesty International official Stephen Bowen. “It must be closed and there must be an investigation into the dozens of torture reports that have emerged since 2002.”

I have no love of terrorists. I think that they should be held accountable for their actions, just like everyone else. But it’s been four years, for gosh sakes! Can’t we at least charge these people with a crime and let them see a lawyer? We NEED to follow the Geneva Conventions, whether we like them at the moment or not. Failure to do so leads down a slippery slope to a very cruel place, and I don’t wanna go there.

Why are these people held in Cuba, anyway? Why are we afraid to bring them to the U.S.? Or shouldn’t they be held as war criminals and tried by the International Criminal Court (founded in 1998 by the United Nations for just this sort of thing source) at the Hague in the Netherlands? Doesn’t that make sense? We wanted the rest of the world involved when we attacked Iraq, why can’t we have the rest of the world involved when we try these suspected terrorists in a court of law? Speaking of Iraq, why isn’t Saddam Hussein being tried by the ICC at the Hague? I just don’t understand… I don’t understand.

Football Thuggery

Mr. Michael Vick has been a great success in the National Football League as quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons. Since he’s entered the NFL he’s created quite a stir with his ability to scramble, his strong arm, and his quick thinking.

Too bad his little brother lacks the “quick thinking” part of the equation.

Mr. Marcus Vick, Michael’s little brother, led his college team (Virginia Tech) to victory in the Gator Bowl January 2nd. By the following Monday he’d been kicked off the team. Evidently he showed poor sportsmanship whilst stomping on someone’s leg during the game, lied about apologizing to the other team, was arrested for speeding and driving with a suspended license, and was charged with three misdemeanor counts of waving a gun in some kid’s face at a McDonald’s. source

Was Mr. Vick abashed at his unlawful and irresponsible behavior? Did he make amends? No… Instead he decided that he will skip the rest of his college career and declared himself eligible for the NFL draft. It’s possible that a professional football team will draft him, and instead of being held responsible for his actions he will make millions of dollars.

If the NFL has any social conscious, any morals, any sense of decency, they will ban Mr. Vick from playing in the NFL until he has finished college and paid his debts to society. This man must learn that he cannot run from his mistakes simply because he’s a good football player.

Mr. Vick, however, is not the first person to do such things. Mr. Randy Moss, famed wide receiver, had woes in college, was caught with illegal drugs, and tried to run over a police officer in Minneapolis. Instead of being punished for his actions, he continued to get paid millions to play a game on Sunday afternoons. (His NFL team, the Minnesota Vikings, did trade him to the Oakland Raiders. Since becoming a Raider, Mr. Moss has been rather quiet.)

The NFL used to be a classy operation. Players wore suits and ties to the games. Coaches wore suits and ties on the sidelines. Team rules meant something. Players listened to their coaches. These days players wear whatever they want, coaches look rather shabby, players know the owners will fire a coach before they’ll fire a “franchise” player – so why listen to the coach? And if a player does something wrong the league fines them instead of benching them. This is not a good deterrent to a player who makes millions of dollars. Last week a NFL player spit on his opponent. He was evicted from the game and fined $17,000. I’m willing to bet that he was more concerned and embarrassed about being evicted than he was about the fine.

The Minnesota Vikings sunk to new morality lows this season as many of the players went on a cruise and are now charged with “lewd or lascivious conduct, indecent conduct and disorderly conduct.” source The problem is that these players (who make millions per year) are facing a $1,000 fine and 90 days in jail. All bets are that none of them will see jail time, which is a pity; fining a millionaire a thousand dollars does NOT teach any lessons.

If the younger Mr. Vick does indeed get drafted by a professional team, I will not be surprised, but I will be disappointed.

Picture of the Day

Mr. Fruitloop kept me company when I had pneumonia.
I’m not sure why my oh so masculine puddy-tat has a teddy bear, but he seems to like it.

Pictures o’ the Day…

Ill as she was, my beloved came to see my band play New Year’s Eve.
At the stroke of midnight, we hobbled home, took our medication and went to bed. Wheee!

Beloved goddaughter Maddie on Christmas.

Goddaughter Maddie with Grampa Radloff…

Recent Quotes…

“But here he’s [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon] at the point of death. He was dividing God’s land, and I would say woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the European Union, the United Nations, or the United States of America. God says: ‘This land belongs to me. You’d better leave it alone.’ “

– Marion “Pat” Robertson source

Mr. Robertson has a history of saying dumb things. There are entire web sites devoted to Mr. Robertson’s strange utterances. He called for the political assassination of Mr. Hugo Chavez (a fine thing for a man who considers himself a preacher to say – “hey, let’s go kill that guy”), and he told a town in Pennsylvania that God was going to punish them via natural disaster for not teaching “intelligent design” in their schools. Quite frankly, if Mr. Robertson’s god is that vindictive, I want no part of it. The God I’ve been praying to all my life has a bit of compassion. After spending his parishoner’s money on a diamond mine for himself and sexually abusing Asian women whilst avoiding combat duties during wartime, source Mr. Robertson should hope for a compassionate god too. One more Robertson quote…

“When I said during my presidential bid that I would only bring Christians and Jews into the government, I hit a firestorm. ‘What do you mean?’ the media challenged me. ‘You’re not going to bring atheists into the government? How dare you maintain that those who believe in the Judeo Christian values are better qualified to govern America than Hindus and Muslims?’ My simple answer is, ‘Yes, they are.'”

– Pat Robertson, “The New World Order,” pg. 218 source

That’s just plain unconstitutional and ignorant. Mr. Robertson also attacked Mahatma Ghandi. I have a feeling he sacrifices kittens in his basement. Okay, just one more…

“You say you’re supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don’t have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist.”

– Pat Robertson, January 14, 1991 source

Okay, on to some other people…

“I don’t know that atheists should be considered citizens…”

– U.S. President George Walker Bush source

Okay, I’m scared now. In order to be a United States citizen we all have to go to Mr. Bush’s church? Ye cats!

Republican Representative Tom DeLay announced today that he will not attempt to reclaim his post as majority leader due to campaign finance charges in Texas and possible fallout from lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s guilty pleas to corruption and tax evasion charges. The reaction?

“We don’t just need new leaders, we need a course correction. This is deeper than just who stands at the head of the party. We have created a system here …that just breeds corruption.”

– Republican Representative Jeff Flake source

“For years, at the expense of the American people, the House Republicans have enabled and benefited from the Republican culture of corruption engineered by Tom DeLay. The culture of corruption is so pervasive in the Republican conference that a single person stepping down is not nearly enough to clean up the Republican Congress.”

– House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi source

“My belief is that Tom will eventually be cleared and exonerated, and my hope is that our conference will one day again benefit from Tom’s rare commitment to the principles of smaller government and freedom for which all Republicans fight.”

– Representative John Boehner, who is considering taking Mr. DeLay’s job source

Mr. DeLay is in trouble. Senator Bill Frist is in trouble. Now with the Abramoff scandal, it turns out that even President Bush has taken thousands of dollars in dirty money. Our vice-president, Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney is advocating torture. Our government is falling apart, to the surprise of no one.

All I Want is a Pizza…

My wife and I have been ill for over a month. Today I decided that I wanted something other than chicken soup for supper. Nothing against chicken soup, mind you, but it’s getting a little old. All afternoon I’ve had pizza on my mind.

“I’m sorry,” said the voice on the phone. “We don’t deliver any more.”

You know, I kind of want some buffalo wings, too. Next…

“You live where? Oh, we don’t deliver to that part of town.”

That’s okay. Now that I think of it, I kind of want something cheaper anyway.

“Can you hold?”

No. Life’s short. Next…

A recording. “Welcome to Domino’s. You can get three large one-topping pizzas and three large breadsticks and three Pepsi’s for ONLY TWENTY DOLLARS.” Who can eat that much? Oh well, all I want is a medium pizza – it shouldn’t cost much if they’re giving all that away for twenty bucks… “And remember,” the recording continued, “you can include wings for only six dollars…” My confidence is waning. A real person came on the phone.

“Yeah,” said the lady.

“Um, I’d like to order a medium Canadian-bacon and pineapple pizza, please.”

“Phone?”

“No, I’d like a pizza.”

“I need your phone number,” the lady said. I gave her my number. There was a long pause. Then, “Whaddaya want?”

“I’d like a medium Canadian-bacon and pineapple pizza, please,” I repeated. “On original crust, if you could.” I don’t even know what kind of crust they offer, but I do know that they all want you to make a choice, and they all have “original” crust.

“Is that all you want?” the lady said. I dreamt of buffalo wings, flying away at the cheap, cheap cost of six bucks per order. “That’s all,” I said. I gave her my address.

“That’ll be $14.65,” she said as she hung up.

Almost fifteen dollars for a medium pizza. I could have had three large pizzas for twenty bucks. That made me sad. What made me even sadder was when the delivery guy showed up half an hour later. “I forgot my change,” he said as I was getting my seventeen dollars ready (I always tip a few dollars). “Is it okay if I just keep the change?” I gave him fifteen.

On the plus side, the pizza was pretty good. It wasn’t fifteen-dollars-good, but I’d give an honest ten or twelve bucks for it. Too bad they treated me rudely on the phone and sent a greedy delivery guy over – I’ll probably never order Domino’s again, even if I do have to go pick my pizza up myself.

Being ill sucks.

Dagmar and I have both been ill since November. It’s starting to get old. I still have pneumonia and my beloved bride is at this very moment at the doctor’s office yet again. In a few more weeks I’m gonna start getting whiny about it…

Say It Ain’t So!

I just heard that the Green Bay Packers have fired head coach and former general manager Mike Sherman, just months after he signed a two-year extension to his contract. The Packers have had a miserable season, winning just four games and losing twelve – mostly due to injuries to key offensive players (at one point they were starting a running back whose claim to fame to that point had been being a third-string running back in college, but he, too, was injured and replaced). Future hall-of-fame quarterback Brett Favre has been making rumblings about possible retirement for three years now, so it’s possible that we’ll see the Packers with a new coach and a new quarterback next season. Favre has been the starting quarterback for the Pack for some fifteen years and has turned into an institution.

It seems a shame to me when teams fire coaches so quickly. Sherman had a winning record at Green Bay. The Detroit Lions fired coach Steve Mariuchi several weeks ago, and the Houston Texans have fired their coach as well. Both Detroit and Houston have been steadily improving the past few years, in my opinion. It would have been nice to see the coaches have a little more time to develop their system and their players.

Silly Software…

I use “Blogger” to maintain this silly little hobby of mine. I’m a tad upset at the moment – it won’t let me upload any photos. Grrrr… What really irks me is that the software is free, so I can’t really complain when it doesn’t work.

Have we REALLY lost all sensibilities?

Since I’ve been down with pneumonia for the past five weeks or so, I’ve had plenty of time to stare vacantly at the TV, and I don’t much like what I see.

There are good, entertaining, educational shows aplenty, but they’re buried in nonsensical fluff, gore and smut. I’ve enjoyed watching shows on the Science Channel, but like all channels owned by Discovery, they repeat every three hours. So, you get three good, quality, educational, well-produced shows a day. If there’s nothing else on, you get to watch those three shows over and over and over again. (I amuse myself by pretending I can see what’s behind the annoying logo in the lower right hand corner.)

Public Television is, of course, almost always worth watching. But there are times when they’re showing Sesame Street and I’ve already seen all three shows on the Science Channel. Hmmm… Click to the History Channel. Same thing as the Science Channel – three pretty good shows repeating themselves all day, half hidden by that silly logo in the lower right hand corner. (I absolutely, positively HATE that particular trend. I know what channel I’m watching. I don’t really need to have a quarter of the screen covered in logos to tell me what I’m looking at.)

I’ve watched a few college bowl games over the weekend. Whatever happened to the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl? Why do we have things like the Alamo Bowl and the Capital One Credit Card Bowl and the Outback Steak House Bowl? Why do they always have to have their logo on everything in sight? Again, I know what I’m watching, for gosh sakes. Does everything need to have a corporate sponsor? Doesn’t it weaken and dilute the honor of being invited to a bowl game if almost every college team in the nation gets to play in some bowl or another? (I keep waiting to see the Tidy Cat Kitty Litter Bowl or the Preparation H Bowl.)