2006 In Review

Happy 2007 -- may it be blogworthy -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
When looking back on my 2006 blogs, it was a heckuva year. I got a few a wrong and I got some right in my political predictions. Back in January, I wrote “Orange Alert”. Was sure that Karl Rove would succeed in using security once more as a blowtorch to scare Americans into voting Republican – the midterms proved me wrong on that. I wrote “Pelosification” on election night, when two states were still being counted. Now as it turns out, the Democrats took both houses by a microthin margin. How thin? Dem Senator Tim Johnson’s recent stroke was nearly enough to bring it back to the GOP, if he hadn’t recovered.

I was sure Joe Lieberman’s ship was sunk when he lost his party’s nomination to Ned Lamont in Connecticut. Joe ran as an independent and won – I stand corrected on that. He will vote as a Democrat, so we still have his mealy mouth double-speak but maybe some Dem votes as well. In “Second Thoughts About Kinky” my doubts were totally warranted. Kinky used the “N” word in casual, albeit recorded settings, and it didn’t sit well with blacks – a crucial demographic.

In “Da Vinci Mode” this blog hopped on the Da Vinci hype bandwagon. My only thought about that in retrospect is that so many devout Christians were threatened by it and held special seminars to debunk it. If you’re secure in your faith (think “Rock of Ages”) a fiction based around art history turned into a Ron Howard movie should not shake that faith. In “Passion of the Mel” I predicted that Mel Gibson would land on his feet and he has. “Apocalypto” has done well in theaters this month.

I did some science articles that were “out there”. I wrote about viruses, plant-eating dinosaurs and a species out-of-balance. Nothing is as deafening as the roar of no comments and no private emails that say it was interesting, off-base or weird. Can only speculate that my brainwave works at a different frequency on some of these and the topic doesn’t resonate with the general public. Not to worry – I’ll continue with them anyway. Hey, this is therapeutic for me.

Wishing everyone a great 2007, and hoping that we get some great new stories that are blogworthy.

© 2006 blogSpotter

Nam by the Numbers

Are we there again? -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

With all the talk about increasing the troops in Iraq, I thought I'd review the Viet Nam War and see how the numbers compare between the two wars. When you tally all the statistics, Viet Nam was a deadlier quicksand pit by far. At it's height in the late 60's, we had 550,000 troops in Viet Nam. Over the 14 year stretch (from approximately 1961 to 1975) we lost @ 58,200 men; we were losing 1,000 men a month during the LBJ years. The Iraq numbers are paltry by comparison -- we only have 140,000 men in Iraq, and have lost roughly 2,900 men in the 3.75 years we've been there. Still, similarities abound. With Viet Nam, we had a highly unpopular, controversial Secretary of Defense -- Robert McNamara. An ex-Ford executive in his fifties, McNamara was far better at guestimating Edsel sales than running a war in Asia. Unlike Rumsfeld, McNamara saw the error of his ways while in office and tried to scale back our involvement. LBJ would not hear of it, and so McNamara resigned in 1967.

Viet Nam also had catch phrases similar to "Stay the course". "Vietnamization" was LBJ's concept of training the South Vietnamese to fight their own war. Sounds familiar doesn't it? "Containment" was a phrase used by both LBJ and Nixon, alluding to the domino theory that a communist Viet Nam might energize other Asian countries to rebell against capitalism. The last phrase to be bandied was "Peace with Honor", and many Viet Vets are in dispute about whether a peace with honor was achieved. The United States faced a well-organized, determined enemy and our allies, the South Vietnamese, were increasingly diffident -- even hostile to Americans who were supposed to be helping them. LBJ chose not to run in 1968, as he felt that his welcome mat was withdrawn -- students tried to levitate the Pentagon chanting, "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?"

The Viet Nam war caused terrible havoc to Southeast Asia and took many lives -- but the effect on the United States was equally marked. The war caused such a rift that violent riots (1968 Democratic Convention, Kent State) rocked the nation and students became organized in antigovernment groups: Students for a Democratic Society, the Weathermen and even spin-off groups like the Symbionese Liberation Army. We don't have student rebellion to speak of now, but we do face a monolithic, seemingly faceless enemy. It appears that Al Qaeda has supplanted Communism as the great bogeyman of the day. That's not to minimize the problem of militant Islam. We just have to keep in mind what happened 40 years ago; it should serve as a warning that 550,000 troops and 14 years were not enough to quell Viet Nam. It's also worth noting that no other dominos fell when the war ended under Ford's administration. From our 40 year vanatge point, we see that Plan A was a flop in Viet Nam. Let's hope that someone has a Plan B, C or even D for Iraq.

© 2006 blogSpotter

Rosie Gives Trump a Thump

How many rounds will they go? -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Over in this corner we have the Donald -- this Trump ain't no chump. And over in this corner we have Rip Roarin' Rosie O'Donnell. May the best person win. As a blogger, I was secretly amused by the exchange that occurred on Wednesday between Rosie O'Donnell and Donald Trump; Rosie talked on "The View" about Trump's recent pardoning of Miss USA for all her partying. Rosie said something to the effect that Trump is a "bankrupt snake oil salesman" and a "bag of hot wind". Trump came back with equal vitriol: "Rosie's a loser whose magazine folded." He also guaranteed a law suit. Barbara Walters was left holding the bag, maintaining that both parties are good friends of hers -- may 2007 bring them calmness and level heads.


"I ain't nobody's chump" -- Pictures courtesy Wikipedia

Both of the people in this fight club have rubbed me the wrong way -- can't decide where to place my bet. What can I say about Donald Trump? He's a bloated, bombastic braggart whose combover hairdo is the stuff of legend. He begets nothing -- no project, no special, no real estate venture that isn't "HUUUUGE". He is really more celebrity flim-flam man than rich man -- most rich people shy away from the spotlight. His show "The Apprentice" captures him in his most self-promoting, puffed and pompous mode. "Ya fired!" he says to some unfortunate team-lead, who dropped the ball selling Trump water or modern art. But his puffery is fun, and so America golfs at his resorts, lives in his Trump Towers and tunes in to his TV shows.

Now, what can I say about Rosie O'Donnell? The portly comedienne, who outed herself after a couple of decades in the closet, is known for her Irish temper and her loud mouth. She's famously liberal, but her brand of liberalism, like that of Al Franken is probably off-putting and alienating to the conservatives she would like to convert. I quit her fan club when she sabotaged Tom Selleck on her own show, raking him over the coals for his support of gun ownership. There's a time and a place for everything, and somehow that wasn't the time or the place. As a college professor once told me, you want to be right, but you don't want to be dead right. We all need to learn "constructive assertiveness". O'Donnell has the assertive part down, to be sure.

Really, both people should cool their jets -- Trump is a public personality and should be used to public discourse about him. O'Donnell was trying to be funny, and she clearly went over the line -- she would probably do well to issue an apology and move on to 'next topic'. A 5-minute comedy bit isn't worth the ire of the Donald. Trump ain't nobody's chump. (Excuse me but I like that rhyme). Everyone, get a sense of humor, a sense of proportion and then get a grip. This is no way to behave right before Christmas.

© 2006 blogSpotter

Manatee Porn

A mana-"teen", relaxing on bed -- Picture courtesy NBC

by blogSpotter
On December 4th, Conan O'Brien had a comedy segment introducing "College Mascots We'd like to See". They had things like the conjoined-twin Vikings, but nothing was as funny as the "Horny Manatee". They had someone in a large, gray manatee costume, rubbing himself (or herself) to the tune of "I Touch Myself". The image was hilarious -- they also had trumpet player Mark Pender viewing the manatee via webcam on a computer laptop offstage. He appeared ecstatic looking at the gyrating sea cow. Conan said jokingly "You can check more of that out at www.hornymanatee.com".

Well by saying that, it seems Conan created a problem for the NBC legal department -- promoting a web site that might actually exist with unknown content. If someone bought that URL and placed real pornography out there, NBC could have some problems, image-wise at the very least. Instead, the staff of Conan O'Brien acted with vigilance to reserve the web site for NBC ($159 dollars for 10 years). They've now loaded it with other naughty manatee porn: manatee twins, manatee school girl and manatee-on-manatee action.

In what might be an NBC first, they asked the viewers to send in their manatee art, poems and stories. The viewers responded en masse -- 3 million site hits in the first couple of days. They now have hundreds of pictures which range in quality from stick figures to DaVinci paintings. You can also now buy a "horny manatee" tee shirt for $25, and part of the money goes to a save-the-manatee foundation -- the manatee is apparently an endangered sea mammal.

Conan had James Lipton read a manatee love poem and then dance with the manatee a few days ago -- I've never seen better television than that. Have to say I'm curious who is inside the costume. The person actually manages some coy, funny and flirtatious moves in that bulky outfit. Who knew that manatee love could be so compelling?

If you'd like to see more of this phenomenon, check it out at:
Official Horny Manatee web site

© 2006 blogSpotter

The Enchilada Dream

In dreams, I eat alone -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
If there's a therapist out there, you can weigh in with your advice. I need to talk about the bizarre dream I had last night, and maybe figure it all out. First, a brief discussion of my habits. Anyone who knows me knows that I like to eat. I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as afternoon and evening snacks. In my defense, my choices are fairly sensible (nothing deep-fried, no Double Whoppers); I also do a cardio workout 3 times a week. All that being said, I still have the need to diet and to do penance for all of the holiday noshing. The love handles are pretty obvious despite all my efforts. Must also say that holidays cause me to lose all sense of dietary decency. At Thanksgiving, I devoured an entire pumpkin pie topped with Cool Whip in one evening.

Yesterday, partly as a reaction to the above, I exercised extreme dietary discipline. No carbs, no junk food and sensible low-sugar snacks. I went to bed, feeling like an English orphan denied his second bowl of porridge. And that's when I had it -- the Enchilada dream. I dreamed I was in a restaurant being served a delicious Enchilada plate with rice and beans. The details are hazy -- it could have been Herrera's or Mi Cocina here in Dallas. Couldn't be Taco Bell or Taco Bueno, it wasn't fast food. As I was about to take a bite, my alarm rudely woke me up. I wanted to hurl it out the window.

My dreams are usually bizarre, unsavory and not the least bit fun. I've had dreams where I'm falling or about to be electrocuted -- always wake up before it happens. Have never specifically had a food dream, much less one where I could smell it so vividly. What sense can I make of this dream? I've never been one to think dreams mean anything more than the misfiring of neurons. But here, my brain was leading me to relapse or maybe taunting me:
"Hey fatso, here's what you can't have".

The outrage grows. I'm sure a cognitive therapist would say that the food dream is indicative of something in my past or current life. Imagine I could get similar insights from Tarot cards or a magic eight ball ...and yet ... this one was so well-timed. There’s a song about dreams and it goes:
"Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a dream."

Well, that song might be on to something. Maybe when we die, we wake up to some higher reality. It's OK if the Great Alarm Clock wakes me before I'm slumping sideways in a nursing home. In the mean time, guess what? Enchiladas, unlike a Lexus or a beach house, are very affordable; they’re an affordable slice of heaven. Right there at Herrera's, four blocks away. If anyone wants to know where I am.... I'll be running an errand, picking up the dry cleaning. And nobody should disturb me ‘til I’m done with that errand.

© 2006 blogSpotter.

Swimming with the Shi'ites?

Who are we supporting? -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Iraq's Prime Minister al-Maliki is in a bit of a quandary. As a democratically elected "moderate" Shi'ite, his mandate is to steer Iraq towards the ways of Democracy. However, the Iraq army and police are heavily infiltrated by insurgents and inadequate for any real enforcement purposes. The Mahdi Army of Moqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shi'ite cleric, is far more influential on al-Maliki's governance. Al-Sadr, who has been characterized as a powerful mafia don dispensing favors, now has representation in the Iraqi Assembly -- he needs little more encouragement beyond that. Radical Shi'ites feel legitimate to advance their aggressive campaign.

The picture is even worse when one considers the chaotic mess that comprises the Iraqi government. In the December 4th issue of Newsweek, staff writer Fareed Zakaria tells of a national government whose ministries have become factionized fortresses; the Ministries of Health and Interior are Shi'ite strongholds while the Ministry of Higher Education is Sunni-dominated. Sunnis recently attacked the Ministry of Health, and the attack was answered by the Shi'ites' mass-kidnapping of personnel in the Education ministry. All of this harks back to the French Revolution where the "Committee for Public Safety" was anything but that -- it oversaw the guillotine executions. The middle class has fled Iraq and it's said that a dentist is no where to be found in Baghdad. The situation is so horrific that relatives coming to identify a loved one at the city morgue may be shot themselves. Bodies go unidentified and a relative not seen for a while may be presumed dead. As many as 20 different militias representing different strains of Islam have turned Baghdad into a crazy quilt of no-drive zones and deadly check points.

The United States has tacitly sided with the Shi'ites whether we admit it or not. We are propping up the al-Maliki government, which also is propped by al-Sadr and his army. Perhaps now we should consider the company we keep. The December 4th issue of TIME magazine tells of this lovely person -- a Shi'ite warlord named Abu Deraa. He has been dubbed the "Shi'ite Zarqawi” because of his gruesome torture techniques. One of his favorite techniques is drilling holes into the skulls of live victims. He's the prime suspect in the above-mentioned kidnapping and many of the 153 victims have not been heard from since. Zakaria rightly asks, "What are we protecting here?" If we add 20,000 troops or pull back 8,000 troops, what difference does it make? Is the al-Maliki government what we or anyone desires as an end result?

Sunnis have received a bum rap out of all the furor from 9/11 and its resultant wars. To identify all Sunnis as al-Qaeda sympathizers would be much like identifying all American Protestants as members of KKK. 85% of the Muslim world is Sunni, and it just happens that a big percentage of the Shi'ites dwell in Iraq. If a government structure is not formulated that gives power and presence to Sunnis, the violence is certain to rage on. Saudi Arabia has now suggested that they will support Sunnis if America does not. This is a harbinger of regional war and other nasty consequences to come. When George W. Bush and his neocons opened this Pandora's Box, did they ever imagine the monsters it would release? And now we must ask -- can the monsters go back in the box?

© 2006 blogSpotter.

30 Rock Rocks

Jack and Liz in conference -- Picture courtesy NBC

by blogSpotter
Cast: Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski, Scott Adsit, Judah Friedlander & Rachel Dratch
Airtime: NBC, Thursday 8:30 p.m CST.

If NBC isn't careful, they'll have a Thursday night line-up which is Must-See TV all over again. In their comedy line-up which already includes the hilarious Office, they've just added 30 Rock -- a sleeper sitcom loosely based on Tina Fey's stint as SNL head writer. Tina plays frazzled head writer Liz Lemon. In the course of her day she must hash out comedy routines with a staff of juvenile (albeit adult) writers, placate diva performers (including the hilarious Tracy Morgan) and meet the emotional needs of her high-maintenance vice-president Jack Donaghy -- played to perfection by Alec Baldwin. There are so many interesting characters and moving parts to this show, it should never run out of plot lines.

Digressing somewhat, one of the things I've loved in other comedy shows is the extreme willingness of characters to look silly and lose all sense of dignity. Thus you have Seinfeld's Elaine feigning a foaming rabies attack and you have Lucy Ricardo getting squirted repeatedly in the face with a seltzer bottle. 30 Rock has mined this rich mother lode especially in the character of Liz. Liz is the butt of so many jokes and yet she isn't all that rattled or insulted, her character doesn't lose much momentum. The up-front Jack implies that she's an overweight old maid, or possibly a lesbian. When Liz inspires Jack with an acting lesson, Jack says, "Liz, if you were any other woman in the world, I'd be really turned on right now". All water on a ducks back; Liz is a little insulted but somehow takes it in stride.

Late night viewers will spot numerous cameos from the Conan O'Brien staff as well as the SNL staff. Conan himself did a cameo early on, and these are always a treat. Alec Baldwin has hosted SNL numerous times; his segue over to Jack is a perfect compliment to that. Jack is a no-nonsense kind of guy who says what's on his mind, like it or not. He's imperious, arrogant, sensitive and emotionally needy all at the same time. Many bosses have these traits -- Jack just lets them come to the surface a bit more. The cast of 30 Rock works as a team; cast members do marvelous joke setups where someone else might cash in on the laugh. This type of ensemble acting makes the show all the more hilarious while also making it more believable. It's well paced, and the dialog is credible unlike the predictable, boring laugh track formulas used by other shows. If you want to have comical Thursday night, you can't beat the NBC lineup including 30 Rock.

© 2006 blogSpotter.