This is lame …

… and this is laughably stupid (I mean, it’s Tony Little, what more do you expect?) …

… but this, is just plain wrong …

I’m already weary from being told how important the World Cup is, and all of the hand-wringing over the tragedy that America isn’t more of a soccer power.  Good thing is, I’m having a laugh at these folks because, after all the pompous chest-beating about soccer, they are now committed to watching this boredom.

With two matches in the books we have two ties and a grand total of two goals.  In three freaking hours of play, two goals and not a winner in site.  You’re right all you America-hating Euro-geeks.  I don’t begin to grasp the subtle nuances of a scoreless tie.  I’ll just take your word for it that, as scoreless ties go, this one was a blockbuster and uber-important.

Soccer isn’t the thinking man’s game, it’s the sleeping man’s game.  You can work in a decent nap and miss nothing.

No gang, I like my football with helmets, pads, scoring and a victor at the end of the day.

Yikes. Busy day / week at work so I haven’t had a lot of time to spend on this. But here, for the record, are my picks …

MIDWEST:
Kansas, UNLV, Maryland, New Mex St, Ohio St, OK St, GTown, San Diego St (upset).
Kansas, Maryland, OK St (upset), GTown.
Kansas over GTown.

WEST:
Syracuse, Florida St (9 over 8), Vandy, UTEP (upset, the dreaded 5/12), K State, Florida (upset), Pitt, Minnesota (upset).
Syracuse, Vandy, K State, Pitt.
Syracuse over Pitt (Pitt reaching Regional, mild upset).

EAST:
Kentucky, Texas, Wisconsin, Temple, WVU, Missouri (upset), New Mexico, Marquette
Kentucky, Wisconsin, WVU, Marquette (upset)
West Virginia over Kentucky (upset) OK, I can envision Kentucky doing well, but I just can’t bring myself to put it down on paper. Besides, I think WVU is coming in with a burr in their saddle.

SOUTH:
Duke, Louisville (slight upset), Purdue, Texas A&M, Villanova, St Mary’s (upset), Baylor, Notre Dame
Duke, Texas A&M (slight upset), Villanova, Notre Dame (upset)
Villanova over Duke (slight upset).

FINAL FOUR:
Kansas over Syracuse
Villanova over WVU
Villanova over Kansas for the Championship.

So, only one 5/12 upset pick. A lot of major love. A lot of Big East love. And I won’t mind a bit if a couple of upstarts take out Duke and Kentucky early and screw up my undercard. It would be a small price to pay for that joy. That said, I would hardly consider Kentucky’s potential second-round opponent Texas an upstart. The committee didn’t do the Cats any favors there.

After a bit of a sabbatical, back to blogging.

For the record, before it begins, here is my initial handicap of this season’s Celebrity Apprentice.

First off, general thoughts.  The first season of Celebrity Apprentice was awesome because you had some really colorful personalities.  There was a touch of nasty with the Piers – Omarosa feud, but then you also had some great entertainment with diverse and fun personalities.  Gene Simmons was my favorite celebrity ever in a Celebrity something-or-other show.

Last season was exhausting.  What appeared to be another mix of terrific personalities quickly degenerated into a week in and week out cat fight.  Turns out the women were strong but not pleasantly so, and the men were soft … other than Dennis Rodman for whom CA became a trailer for his appearance on Celebrity Rehab with Dr Drew.

Once again in looking over the list it seems like this could be a great season featuring a diverse and entertaining group.  But as we’ve seen, you never really know how it’s going to evolve until you mix them all together in a batch of boardroom stew.

So, for the individuals and my general prognosis …

Summer Sanders:  (olympic swimmer)  Athletes have tended to be rather passive and soft-spoken on CA.  Perhaps it’s because this isn’t their type of competition.  Early out.

Sinbad:  (comedian, actor)  I don’t know.  It’s hard to take the guy seriously.  But I can see him being one of those generally pleasant people who manage to stay under the radar for a while.  Middle of the pack.

Michael Johnson:  (olympic track star)  See Summer Sanders comments.  Early out.

Daryl Strawberry:  (former pro baseball player)  Straw is more than just an athlete.  He is a larger than life personality.  Since then he has also confronted his personal demons and written a lively tell all book about his days with the Mets.  Hard to tell how this one will go.  Can he still trade on his star power, or will he have the cautious demeanor of a recovering addict.  Middle of the pack.

Selita Ebanks:  (Victoria’s Secret model)  Hmm … eye candy on Trump’s show?  No way.  Obviously each case is different, however this type of candidate tends to get by on their “charm” which disguises their lack of initiative and creativity.  Unless there is a driven Annie Duke type who wants to use her for a pawn, Ebanks is probably an early out.

Maria Kanellis:  (former WWE Diva)  Another one that’s hard to peg.  Is she an athlete?  Is she eye candy?  Coming from WWE, she’s got to understand the marketing thing.  Upper middle of the pack.

Holly Robinson Peete:  (actress, philanthropist, on air personality)  OK, I have a tough time with this one.  I know her from 21 Jump Street which was waaay back.  Generally long ago celebs don’t fare will in things like this.  It’s like they’ve adjusted to being out of the limelight.  However I do see that Peete has experience in non-profit fund-raising which is one of the primary skills demanded on CA.  Upper middle of the pack.

Cyndi Lauper:  (singer)  Lauper strikes me as the strong artistic type.  An artist is generally not a candidate to win the whole thing, but can be a valuable creative force that teammates will want to keep around.  Contender.

Bret Michaels:  (rock star, Poison)  Without any buxom, blonde, brain-dead teeny-boppers Michaels could be out of this league.  However, Rock of Love revived his career so he’s got some star power in the bank.  Middle of the pack.

Carol Leifer:  (comedienne)  I could see Carol rocking this show.  She is hilarious and strikes me as the kind of person who is probably just as sharp and appealing when she isn’t on stage.  Serious Contender.

Curtis Stone:  (celebrity chef)  I really don’t know the guy.  A chef has to know something about business and marketing and should be able to bring some creativity to the table so I’ll give him some benefit of the doubt.  Middle of the pack.

Goldberg:  (actor, pro wrestler)  Again, those sport entertainment folks have to know the marketing and star power game well.  Middle of the pack?

Rod Blagojevich:  (former governor of Illinois) … and major sleazeball.  On the one hand he’s probably got a skill set that could serve him well on CA.  On the other I can just seem him taking some unethical shortcut that will piss the Donald off prompt one of his patented immediate firings.  He (the Donald) found out about Khloe Kardashian’s past DUI and had no mercy.  I guess a history of abuse of power and corruption is ok?  Middle of the pack.

Sharon Osbourne:  (TV star, music manager and Ozzy’s wife)  This my pick.  You can just see her taking this whole season over much like Piers did two years ago.  And the bonus is, she can be strong and entertaining at the same time.  Seeing her name on the list gave me real hope for this season.

So, I guess just looking at it person by person I came up with Sharon Osbourne and Carol Leifer as my top two.  I could also see Blagojevich in the finals.  Especially if the Donald is angling for a man vs. woman finale, which we haven’t had yet on CA.  Blagojevich definitely has the strongest potential of the guys.

OK, for the record, my pick in the Super Bowl:  Colts by 10, in a high-scoring affair.

Set aside the end of the regular season when the Colts and Saints were resting.  Look at the two teams’ run in the playoffs.  Indianapolis has rolled through two stout defenses while two weeks ago New Orleans needed overtime to beat a team that turned the ball over 5 times.

The Saints’ strategy will be to punish Peyton Manning as they did Brett Favre.  Good strategy if you can make it a reality, but bad idea to talk about it.  First of all, if there is a quarterback the refs will protect more than Brett Favre, it’s Peyton Manning.  Second, the day after New Orleans made their defensive game-plan known, the NFL came out and admitted that the Saints should have been flagged for one of their more egregious hits on Favre.  If you put Manning on the ground today, it had better be super clean.

All that aside, I don’t think New Orleans can pressure the QB in a game-changing way.  Indy has a decent line and Manning is second to none in his ability to read, adjust at the line and get rid of the ball quickly.  You won’t get to Manning with your base package and when you blitz he’ll find the open man.

I see Indy coming out and playing their game.  A lot of no huddle, and surgical precision.

So it will be the Saints’ challenge to try and keep up.  And that’s where it gets interesting.  You can’t look past New Orleans’ offense.  I don’t think the Colts “D” can shut them down.  But I do think they can come up with enough stops to give Peyton Manning breathing room.  The potential absence or reduced effectiveness of Dwight Freeney made me dial my pick back from two touchdowns.

Aside from the analysis, I also shudder to imagine the love-fest and avalanche of political correctness that will be unleashed should the Saints win.  If you’ve lost your home or are still struggling to get your business back on its feet after 4 1/2 years, a month from now is it really going to make a difference who won the Super Bowl?  Don’t let the blabbering mouths deceive you with overestimations of the importance of the sport from which they derive their livelihood.  Big game.  Exciting.  But next week we’ll be talking about who is on the bubble for March Madness.

Warning:  This could well degenerate into an extended Favre rant … we’ll see.

First of all, I must concede.  Coming into this season, I fully expected to see NY Jets Favre, or 2nd last Packer season Favre this year.  I figured him for 50/50 picks/TD’s.  And I didn’t see him lasting the whole season.  Couldn’t have been more wrong.  This season was a smash, and even more so when you consider the age factor.

That said, the old gunslinger showed up just in time to save Packer fan from two weeks, and possibly an entire off-season of miserable Favre over-exposure.  Sure, there is plenty of blame to go around.  Had “All Day” managed to hang on to the ball that last drive might have been irrelevant.  The sudden shift to conservative mode in that series didn’t help.  12 men in the huddle set Favre up.  But!  Up to that moment the Vikings were still in position to ice a trip to the Super Bowl in the closing seconds of regulation.  Alas, this was not the first, or even the second time that a Favre-led team’s final play of the season on offense resulted in an interception.  Thank you, football gods.

– B –

So now begins the annual “Will Favre retire?” off-season circus.  The really awesome thing is that no one, not even Favre himself, could say anything to squelch this noise.  God Himself could descend on halftime at the Super Bowl and announce Favre’s plans and no one would believe it.  LOL!!  Enjoy it Minnesota.  You get what you pay for.

– B –

For a serious analysis of the prospects … Even if Favre were in his prime, expecting another season like this one would be quite a reach.  Only Manning and Brady can turn in seasons like that year after year.  In addition, Green Bay and Chicago are on the rise.  The Vikings’ schedule will be tougher.

On the other hand, whether or not Favre is wiped out right now is irrelevant.  It has been years … YEARS since Favre didn’t feel like retiring at this time of the year.  Next August he’ll be rested.  The whole world will be talking about football.  He’ll get that itch.

Brad Childress has said he won’t put a deadline on Favre’s decision.  Wow.  Generous of him.  Like deadlines have ever accomplished anything with Favre.  And besides, isn’t Childress the guy who picked Favre up at the airport, halfway through the pre-season last Summer?

Minnesota is playing with fire.  A lot of things are forgotten when a team wins 13 games.  If the Vikings were to start out next season by losing a couple of games, let’s see how many players would forget that Favre was kicking back at home while they were puking in the summer sun.

– B –

How many playoff games has Aaron Rodgers won?  Wow, am I getting sick of hearing this one.  Comparing an 18-yr vet to a 2-yr starter?  Rodgers compares favorably to Favre at the same point in his career, and he is far ahead of prime time Favre in the reckless department.

– B –

Do you know where your QB is?  To me this is the major issue here.  Do you know who your QB will be two seasons from now?  A team either knows this, or has a problem that will preclude major success.  Green Bay knows who their QB of the future is.  So do the NY Jets.  Minnesota?  We won’t know who their 2010 signal caller is until kickoff in the regular season.  Two years from now?  It’s a good bet he’s not on their current roster. 

– B –

Moving on … would they give up on the Pro Bowl already.  After this season, the league’s “All Star” game will feature neither Peyton Manning nor Drew Breese?  Ridiculous.  This concept just doesn’t work with Pro Football.  The sport is so physical that each contest takes its toll on all who participate.  Risk of injury makes a mid-season classic impossible.  And by the time the season is over, everyone is out of gas.

– B –

Finally, I’m picking the Colts.  Prior to the Conference Championships my thought was that whoever came out of the NFC would be my overwhelming favorite.  But, I was expecting Indy to struggle with the Jets.  Actually, the Colts are playing their best football of the season right now.  Credit the Jets “D.”  They did a good job of curtailing Wayne and Clark.  Manning was still able to carve them up.  And I don’t see Indy helping the Saints out with massive turnovers.

Either way I’m really looking forward to the game.

Honestly, I’m getting sick of posting on this general topic.  However, the fallout from recent events has brought to a head a lot of the frustration that this voter has been feeling for the last year.  Not the last two years.  Not the last eight years.  The last, single, year.  It is arrogance that inspires my angst.

Now this word, arrogance, is thrown around a lot in political talk.  I’m here to discuss what it means to me, but my guess is that I’m not alone in my definition.

For me, arrogance refers to the attitude in Washington, and especially with our President, that says, “We know better that you do what is in your best interest.”

And despite being taken to the woodshed in Massachusetts, President Obama appears not to have the first idea that this kind of arrogance is part of his problem.  Excerpts from his interview with George Stephanopoulos after the Massachusetts special election …

“People are angry, and they’re frustrated. Not just because of what’s happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight years.”

Let’s just ignore the tired “Blame Bush” strategy.  This is classic Obama.  Polling of the voters in Massachusetts made it abundantly clear that Brown’s victory was a repudiation, not solely of Obama, but definitely of specific events that have been part of the past year’s orgy of appropriation in our nation’s Capitol.  Still here is Obama, helping the voters understand why they voted the way they did, just in case they didn’t know.  See, our President the narcissist believes that he can say anything and make it be so through the sheer force of his personality.

“If there’s one thing that I regret this year, is that we were so busy just getting stuff done and dealing with the immediate crises that were in front of us, that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people about what their core values are …”

This was the telling one.  Is he suggesting he embarked on the past year’s grand agenda without knowing or considering the values of the American people.  Doubtful.  He didn’t suggest listening to the American people.  He suggested talking to them.  So I believe his point is far more sinister than that.  He regrets that he didn’t do a good enough job of telling us what our values are or should be.  Again, he believes that through artful persuasion he can change the core of a man.  Frankly, that arrogance pisses me off.

If you look behind a lot of what the President has undertaken this year you’ll see that these aren’t isolated issues that needed fixing.  He is seeking to impose a fundamental change in how Americans act and what they value.  For example, he blatantly seeks to undermine the corporate leaders and prop up unions.  Through “Cash for Clunkers” he attempted to prop up a union-dominated industry in a not too subtle way, by paying citizens to buy new cars.  The last handout attached to the now faltering health care initiative was the exemption for union members.  This wasn’t just to curry favor for the bill.  It was to create a situation that would incentivize union membership.  Screw “Card Check.”  Who needs intimidation when bribery will do the trick?

Of course, in the words above and throughout the interview he repeated that he feels he just didn’t do a good enough job of explaining x to the American people.  For the love of God, NO!  Does this mean that now he’s going to do even more talking?  On the contrary, it’s high time for President Obama to shut up and listen!

Thankfully he won’t … even to save his own skin.

Scott Brown the Republican did not win last night’s special election for the US Senate seat vacated by the passing of Ted Kennedy.  Scott Brown the guy who isn’t a partisan, out of touch, political hack won.

Thank God he knows it.  In his acceptance speech Brown used party labels only once, in talking about how he will work with Democrats and Republicans.  He saluted Massachusetts independents twice in the opening moments of the speech.  But trumping them all he used “machine” in a derogatory reference to the political establishment, five times.

This was not a victory for Republicans.  It was a victory for the angry and fed up.  If Republicans want to claim a party victory and immediately begin counting November victories, let them.  This will make it that much easier to identify those on that side of the aisle who also need to be shown the door.

Obviously the big news is Massachusetts.

I had two concerns coming into the night.  1. There was so much focus on Scott Brown winning, that the main message would be lost if Coakley somehow salvaged a narrow victory.  Victory was won and the message sent when President Obama had to run back to Massa-freakin-chusetts two days before the election to try to save a Democrat.

And 2. That this voter uprising would serve as a wake-up call for all of the political hacks in Washington, and allow them to pull out of their self-inflicted nose dive just in time to avoid disaster next November.  Bill Bennett pointed out this morning that victory obscures the message while defeat clarifies it.

Well, #1 is a moot point.  But the fact that Brown won makes #2 even more straightforward.  All year long the Big Government crowd has ignored signal after signal and continued to pursue their hard left agenda.  This was a shot across the bow that can’t be ignored.

Thankfully I don’t believe it is possible to under-estimate a politician.  Early indications out of the White House and Congressional Leadership show a clear willingness to continue to test the limits of voter fury.  I must admit, I’m surprised.  These guys may not have the first clue how to fix health care or the economy, but they do know all about personal survival.  Of course they’ve never had to play the game without compliant voters before.  It’s a sea change for which they are unprepared and ill-equipped.

One last thing:  I’m sick of hearing how Obama is a moderate just because he has done a few things that aren’t ultra-liberal such as parting with the Public Option and stepping up in Afghanistan.

Pfft.  Please.  He may be clueless but he’s not an idiot.  You know, before he was in that one ceremony he was in that other one.  Obama has departed from his agenda only when he had no choice.  To pull out of Afghanistan would have been a disaster.  A very public, highly visible, disaster.  And the public option didn’t have a chance.  He gave up what he couldn’t keep.

But enough of what he didn’t do.  There are plenty of actual accomplishments of note from Barry’s first year on the job.  He has presided over concerted efforts to interfere with business and redistribute wealth, the likes of which hasn’t been for decades, if ever.  He has undermined our intelligence infrastructure leaving us vulnerable.  But hey, the media is all too happy to give him credit for admitting that we’re vulnerable, so it’s all good.  Rogue nations around the world thumb their noses at us and the apology world tour failed to win any allies in an effort to curb them.

In short … moderate, my ass.

At WalMart the other day I noticed a sign on one of the little cubicles in the front of the store where Jackson Hewitt does tax preparation:  “9 out of 10 Jackson Hewitt filers receives a refund.”

This is not a commentary on Jackson Hewitt.  It’s a commentary on people who get their taxes prepared at WalMart.  People who treat their withholding like a Christmas Club account.  Every January is like Let’s Make a Deal to them.  January, not April because, you know, it’s OK if the govt holds your money for 12 months, but not 2 1/2 months longer, that’s for sure.  Anyway, each January they know they are getting something.  Whether it’s a wheel barrow full of Jiffy Pop or a pile of cash remains to be seen.