tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37174852024-03-07T02:16:51.174-05:00The nitty grittyMUSINGS OF A CURMUDGEONIrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.comBlogger602125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-70038397261773926252020-06-19T13:21:00.003-04:002020-06-19T13:21:35.961-04:00Don't Forget Tisha B'Av!
I have had it with liberals of all advocacies whining, as
they do on Facebook, “Whyyy didn’t we learrrrnn about THISSS in school?"
Well, maybe it’s because history is infinite. It is not just
one thing; all things are connected. You learn basics in elementary school,
more details in middle school, concepts and linkages in high school, and particulars
in college. In fact, you never stop Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-48718444696089054672019-12-11T20:44:00.003-05:002019-12-11T20:44:49.629-05:00Hit the Road, Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi, it is time for you to go, you weak whimpering
feckless piece of antiquity. Here you are on Trump: It’s the fault of the press, not of a
Democratic party that couldn’t organize its own memorial service.
From an interview with Politico:
"What of Hollywood’s role in making Donald Trump a reality TV
star? Do you blame the industry for the current state of U.S. politics Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-13754544885732647682019-04-02T18:18:00.000-04:002019-04-02T18:18:20.455-04:00Harper Leave
I have been vocal about nothing else so much as Bryce Harper
for the past 7 years. While watching him in a Nats uniform would have been fun,
both for the circus he creates and the mammoth homers,
I am glad he is somewhere
else. He represents everything I despise in athletes, and in people in general. (Watching him on DC TV today, I am also appalled at his cliché-spouting and
teenage-likeIrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-45803775313389891632019-03-25T19:28:00.003-04:002019-03-25T19:30:27.599-04:00Portrait of Mobsters
From a book about a central character in the New York City business world in the 1980s by journalist Selwyn Raab:
“Flattering print and television stories about his opulent lifestyle, his unorthodox mannerisms, and his …invincibility magnified his opinion of himself. … ‘He was made to order for the press. The way he looked, dressed, his arrogance toward the law. The press was Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-7775535686903997842019-02-26T16:07:00.000-05:002019-02-26T16:07:39.073-05:00Bye, Bye, Bernie
I did not support Bernie Sanders
last time, and will not again, even though I might positively check most of
his policy boxes.
I gave him another chance while watching his CNN “town hall” but
had to leave after a few minutes when I realized what a horrible candidate he is. He is unlistenable-to with a whiny Brooklyn
accent; lengthy explications when a bumper-sticker-answer might Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-79193243897994619132019-02-25T16:30:00.002-05:002019-02-25T16:30:42.266-05:00Call Western Union
I am appalled at the criticism of Green Book as Best
Picture. First of all, this category rarely recognizes the actual best movie. Second, movies
are not meant to provide deep social commentary or reflect the aspirations of
this interest group or that. They are entertainment. Third, as with music and
comedy, mileage may vary.
This is not rocket surgery. Movies are not philosophical Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-56853572388430111492019-01-06T12:17:00.000-05:002019-01-06T12:17:25.189-05:00And yet ... and yet
Reading just one inside page of the Washington Post reminds me of why
I subscribe but one day a week, and that for the crossword puzzle.
For decades, the Post has appealed to its dwindling
advertisers by catering stories to rich guilty liberals. The story
today is about college early admissions, but only to top schools, and how
they supposedly help the wealthy and widen inequality. The story Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-10630509419352071012017-01-18T20:21:00.001-05:002017-01-18T20:26:30.213-05:00Obama's Short-Sighted Long View<!--[if gte mso 9]>
<![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]>
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>
Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-86111156615214864012016-11-09T18:06:00.001-05:002016-11-09T18:06:39.535-05:00Let's Blame the Victim This Time<!--[if gte mso 9]>
<![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]>
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>
Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-692481003997062142015-10-04T17:24:00.001-04:002016-06-30T19:51:06.257-04:00I Really Wish He WERE a Carpenter
Now that the Nats season is over, I would like to unload on
the most sickening aspect of the team – lead TV announcer Bob Carpenter. There
is not a cliché he hasn’t overused, not a poor play that he hasn’t
made an excuse for, and not an unctuous word undelivered. As a game show host
he would be mediocre. As a baseball announcer, he makes me glad I am losing my
hearing.
I naively Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-68556850984967628392015-09-27T19:53:00.003-04:002015-09-27T19:53:35.072-04:00Harper: Where's your ring, dude?
OK, I do believe Jonathan Papelbon was in the wrong for continuing to
harangue Bryce Harper after making his point about not running out pop ups. But, God,
am I enjoying viewing and re-viewing the video of someone finally choking that little bitch. He obviously said
something that provoked a barely sane Papelbon.
I can’t condone choking the franchise’s, if not the league’s,
Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-43530346074149376972015-07-28T22:52:00.000-04:002015-07-28T22:52:46.424-04:00Officially Dead
The most overused phrase on broadcast news and on the
Interwebs is “It’s official!” (More so than the single word "just.")
Stupid, ignorant,
thoughtless, uncreative drones who want to say something cannot say it without
first inflating their importance by saying, “It’s official.” Aside from the fact that nothing except a law
or judicial order can be said to be official, the phrase justIrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-57128759009407663612014-10-22T17:56:00.002-04:002014-10-22T17:57:51.266-04:00Ben Bradlee
The Washington Post became a great newspaper under Ben Bradlee,
and he cut quite a dashing figure we all would like to have emulated,
especially in his role defending freedom of the press when it was truly under
attack.
However, there was a great deal negative about his reign.
Foremost among them, in my minority opinion, was the creation of the Style
Section, which abandoned Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-65077115911553410102014-09-06T17:13:00.000-04:002014-09-06T17:13:19.340-04:00I May Be Wrong But I Doubt It
There are three weeks left in the regular season, and here
is why the Nationals, if they even make the playoffs, will self-destruct in the first round.
To quote the great Mike Royko, “I may be wrong, but I doubt
it.”
The Nationals are simply not as good as giddy fans and
broadcasters believe. Forget the won/loss record. When they win a string of
walk-off victories, in each case it Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-72815075660355421482014-08-11T12:15:00.001-04:002014-08-11T12:17:32.473-04:00Casey Jones, You Better Watch Your Speed
I fought the law today, and the law won. Naturally.
But I did get a chance to question an “automatic traffic
enforcement unit” supervisor and engage in some byplay with nice-enough June
Cleaverish judge whose legal career has awarded her realm over the county court
dedicated to speed camera violations.
Some people are outraged by abortion, some by the easy
availability of gunsIrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-83374816332897067592014-07-09T10:32:00.001-04:002014-07-09T10:43:12.918-04:00Post Traumatic Stress
In March of 1954, the Washington Post merged with the
Washington Times-Herald. I was 6, and what I remember was that I now had twice
as many comics to read. I had learned to read at age 4 under the tutelage of my
sister and by looking at the comics and the sports section of the Post. Except
for the 18 months I worked in another city, I have read the paper almost every
day. For nearly the pastIrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-70629505063919416652013-09-21T14:58:00.001-04:002013-09-21T14:58:35.570-04:00National Pretentious Radio
I have a secret to confess. I despise NPR. Always have, even
though I once tried out for a job there.
My dander is currently raised because
when I turned off “Wait Wait” today and then returned to my car an hour and a
half later, I heard a most tendentious “An American Life” report from someone
who unfortunately shares my first name – a whiny left-winger on an hour-long
rant against Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-20575581550828679792013-06-29T23:16:00.007-04:002013-06-29T23:18:15.680-04:00Dogpaddling or Just Plain Floundering?
This is the halfway mark of the 2013 baseball season, and it
is pretty depressing for the Nationals. Last year, they won more games than any
other team in the regular season through luck and weak opposition plus a couple
of guys on offense having career years.
Management’s failure to recognize the
thin margin between luck and success resulted in Stephen Strasburg sitting on
the bench Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-55830545637556987912013-05-27T18:17:00.000-04:002013-05-27T18:17:21.308-04:00Nine Reasons I No Longer Love Baseball
I have been in love with our once national pastime since
1955, when I first attended a Senators game and rooted for immortals such as
Jose Valdevielso, Bob Chakales and Roy Sievers. I indoctrinated a wife and two children
into love and loyalty for the game, which I believe transcends all others in
appeal to whatever intellect attaches to being a fan.
Now, with the 2013 season one-third Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-68085352670728099112013-04-09T10:44:00.001-04:002013-04-09T10:45:10.574-04:00Toppling a LieToday is the 10th anniversary of one of television’s biggest lies.
As a reporter trained to look for himself at the edges of the screen after covering a public event, my eyes scanned the perimeter of that TV shot in Baghdad when a few Iraqis were throwing shoes at the Saddam Hussein statue on April 9, 2003.
As the CNN camera pulled back, it exposed the typical distortion of television, Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-50287924237121921482013-04-04T11:41:00.000-04:002013-04-04T11:41:01.876-04:00Fried Rice
Pardon me, but I am not that exercised about the Rutgers
coach fired for verbally abusing and throwing basketballs at players in
practice. I am exercised about the
context in which the episode occurred, however.
If coach Mike Rice had not used
“anti-gay slurs” but used profanity or other insults, he would still be
employed. It doesn’t mean he is anti-gay; it means he used whatever Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-25367340026300860922013-03-26T23:03:00.000-04:002013-03-26T23:03:00.229-04:00Is marriage a right or just a rite?
A major argument for same-sex marriage is that it is a
family value that conservatives ought to be happy to encourage. But that argument is as silly as opposition
based on what the Bible says. Face it: LGBT people want the same rights as other
people, and opponents of same-sex marriage think that homosexuality is immoral.
It seems to me that both views ought to be respected. But why on Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-78332441514279080282012-11-05T15:26:00.002-05:002012-11-05T15:30:55.295-05:00Highway RobberyThere is one constituency that someone ought to organize to
put the fear of defeat into local politicians – those of us with excellent
driving records who are shelling out tax money under the guise of violating
speed limits as determined by remote cameras.
I am not for speeding or any other traffic violation. And I
am in favor of cameras that catch red-light runners because there is hard
Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-48635244774772710022012-11-04T18:02:00.000-05:002012-11-04T18:09:29.231-05:00Hypocrites, Thieves and Bullies -- Observations on the 2012 ElectionPeople who should know better sometimes ask me what I think
is going to happen in an election. I used to give my predictions with a
certainty born of pure guesswork. Now I am wiser, and my answer is, “How the
hell should I know?”
You have the same information as I do, my predictions have
been wrong in the past and conventional wisdom has been wrong in the past, too.
But I do have Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3717485.post-34525220303262254372012-10-13T15:25:00.000-04:002012-10-13T15:25:47.521-04:00Nats Post Mortem
Where to start? I could begin by saying, “I told you so,”
but that would be un-Christian. Oh, that’s right, I’m not Christian. But what I
have said most of this season about the rancid baseball mentality that finally
infected the Nats’ brains and hearts was proved mostly right. They cower, they wilt,
they don’t think and, maybe worst of all believe that their manager is as smart
as he says he Irahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898506777750053830noreply@blogger.com0