The SoapBoxers

Sorry PolitiFact, this may be news to you, but The Daily Show is not a real news show. Earlier in the week there was discussion over Jon Stewart’s comments in an interview on Fox News in which he stated that Fox News viewers constantly poll at the bottom in being the most misinformed. Then PolitiFact came out the next day giving Stewart’s comments a false rating on their truth scale. They found the polls Stewart was referencing and Fox News was not at the bottom, only near the bottom with almost all their programming. In fact PolitiFact stated that even Stewart’s own Daily Show ranked below the Fox programming.

The only thing is, PolitiFact, you forgot one thing, The Daily Show is a comedy show about media, not a news show. It’s kind of akin to Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live, not Fox and Friends or Bill O’Reilly and his spin filled zone. It is kind of like someone trying to compare amateur wrestling to professional wrestling on their value as sports. One is an actual sport and the other is sports entertainment.

It is kind of the same thing Wallace fell into in the interview itself when he started taking out old tape of clips from Comedy Central Shows. Now it would have been funny if Wallace was trying to fight back on the argument that Fox is not News with a Comedy Central is not really Comedy a lot of the time, but that is not what he was trying to do. Wallace was trying to use other Comedy Central clips to discredit Stewart because his network plays this filth.

St. Louis is still in mourning after the Cardinals lost Albert Pujols for 4-6 weeks with a non-displaced fracture of his radius (a bone in the forearm). After being pulled off first base by a throw, Pujols reached out his left arm in an attempt to tag out the baserunner. It was a bang-bang play, with runner Wilson Betemit having no opportunity to avoid the collision (nor was he under the obligation to do so). Although there hasn’t been the furor that followed the Buster Posey injury (should baseball ban home plate collisions?), the NY York Times has suggested a double bag at first base.  This seems like a rather silly idea to me, as all it would really do is force the first baseball to slide over another step before reaching out for a tag.  It’s worth noting that Betemit didn’t run into the body of Pujols, but into his arm.

The Cardinals have remained in the hunt in the NL Central this year despite being snake bitten by some injury.  Co-ace Adam Wainwright went down for the season during spring training, and Matt Holliday has lost time due to an injury and an appendectomy.  I do think the Cardinals can at least stay within striking distance until Pujols returns.

The big question is how this will affect Pujols’ status as the top free agent in the class.  Already, we had been hearing some murmurs that Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder – 4 years younger – might actually be a better option for a team needing an elite first baseman.  (I’m not sold on Fielder – his ability to keep his weight under control long term concerns me).  Pujols is going to have about 50 games at the end of the season (plus possible post-season games) to prove that he’s still the Pujols of old.  It seemed unlikely that his demands of a 10 year deal worth $30 million per year were going to be met in any case … but could this create a situation where Pujols signs a one year “prove it” deal rather than signing a longer deal at a lower rate?

In LA, the divorce case of Frank and Jamie McCourt (no, not the Angela’s Ashes guy) lingers on.  The two parties had finally reached an agreement, but it was contingent upon commissioner Bud Selig giving his OK to a new TV rights deal with the LA Fox affiliate.  Under the 17 year deal, Fox would have paid nearly $3 billion.  The deal would have featured $385 million in up front money.  $170 million would have been earmarked (by the divorce settlement) for personal debt and the divorce settlement.  Selig believes that baseball revenue should be used to pay baseball debts, rather than personal debts.

Every gambler knows, the secret to surviving in knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep.

Las Vegas is hopeful that the early returns in the annual World Series of Poker keeps the momentum going. The roughly 6 week long tournament which began over three weeks ago, is up almost 12% from the amount of entrants through the same point in the tournament series last year (they are basically at the half way mark with 30 of the 58 tournament results completed)

Raise!

Much like the Sportscard industry where Ebay has replaced the local baseball card show and neighborhood shop, on line gaming has put a dent in the live – cash games at Casino’s around the globe. The crackdown by the government effectively shutting down these sites may be a boon for the local establishments, or the backrooms at the golf course or VFW club for that matter.

On-line poker took a huge hit when the government basically shut down all of the operations this past year. This left many of the high rollers and big time gamblers with literally millions of dollars in total assets frozen in accounts, an no longer available to be paid out to the players that had established on line accounts. There was speculation from a number of folks that this might hamper the amount of interest as well as players for the biggest poker event of the year.

Layed down da monster…should have paid me off with dat…..

ESPN used to cover the Final Table of the World Series years ago. They still do..but now it is much more glorified. It was usually aired once instead of many times a week and was on at 2:30 AM in the morning, right after you got to watch lumberjacks doing log rolling and catching your favorite Australian Rules Football Team – Fitzroy kick their way to a slim victory.

This Friday will mark the debut of a new column, as Princess Kate joins us with her monthly article about the world of art. To get us in the mood, I’m re-running a short story of mine that originally ran on June 18, 2010.

On this particular evening, Sylvester Barnes traded his palette and brushes for a different set of tools. He stopped for a moment to collect his breath, and then swung the maul with all the strength he could muster.  The door resisted the first blow, but when Sylvester’s second blow landed on target, the lock yielded and the door sprung inward.

When Barnes stepped into the gallery, he was tempted to use the maul to smash every single piece of so-called “art” that had found a home in this third-rate gallery.  He’d be ashamed to use any of the statues as door stops and most of the paintings were worse than the garbage kindergartners brought home after a day of finger painting.  Certainly, all of this deserved to be destroyed, but he could not lose focus from the true mission.

Barnes came upon a door marked “Staff Only” and once again presented the maul as his key.  This door, too, allowed him entrance, and he strode into the back room studio.

Upstairs, above the Cherry Tree Gallery, Kailey Bell awoke from her deep slumber.  She was fully awake when Sylvester battered down the second door.  Kailey grabbed the pistol from under her pillow, slipped on her pink bunny slippers and snuck down the stairs.

When she arrived at the foot of the stairs, she saw the intruder plunging a hunting knife into the heart of one of her favorite paintings – Farm Pond By Full Moon.  She gasped with pain, as if the dagger was plunging into her own heart.

The man heard her and wheeled around to face her.  She recognized the man as Sylvester Barnes – an impressionist painter with a massive ego and a miniscule amount of talent.

“It’s for the best,” he shouted.  “These paintings deserve to be put out of their misery.  Moonlit lakes?  A sun setting behind mountains?  A boat adrift in the ocean?  Where’s the substance to this?  Where the creativity?  Where’s the meaning?  I’ve had piles of vomit that were more important to the world than these paintings.

“Get out, Barnes.  If you’re not out the door in ten seconds, you’ll regret it.”

“Regret it?” laughed Barnes derisively.  “What are you going to do – make me hang one of your paintings on my wall?”

Kailey pulled the gun from behind her back and pointed it at Barnes.

“Get out, or I shoot.”

“Kailey, you don’t have the balls. Go ahead, shoot me.”  Barnes laughed again as he lunged at another painting and cut it to shreds with the knife.

Kailey pulled the trigger and was devastated to hear a click as the hammer fell on an empty chamber.

She pulled the trigger again and the click was deafening amid the silence..  Barnes brandished his knife and took a menacing step toward her.  “Stupid girl.  The gun’s not even load –“

His words were cut off in mid-sentence as the hammer hit home on a live chamber.  An instant later, the bullet exited the back of Sylvester Barnes’ head, depositing a chunk of his rather small brain on the back wall.

This story originally ran on July 24, 2009.  I’m re-running it today because I’ve always liked it.

Dramatic poetic license has been taken with this story.  The dinosaurs featured in the story would not have interacted with each other in real life.

General Al Osoris paced the corridor of his military headquarters in a bunker at the base of the canyon.  The great general had won many great victories, and the superior Allosaur race had captured vast amounts of enemy territory under his leadership.  Nearly half the land had once been controlled by the Tyrannosaurs, the archenemy of the Allosaur people.  The Tyrannosaurs were now a beaten and bloodied race, now controlling just a small fraction of their previous territory.  The Allosaurs had become the unquestioned leader of the dinosaur world.

In the east, however, trouble loomed.  It seemed that one nation was indeed questioning the leadership of the Allosaurs.  The Raptors, led by General Velo Seeraptor, were attacking Allosaur strongholds.  The fortress at Dinosova was currently under siege.  Dinosova, like many Allosaur fortresses, was defended by Apatosaur soldiers.  The Apatosaurs, with their massive bulk and lethal tails, had been the soldier of choice for many generations of Allosaur generals.

General Seeraptor had been able to threaten the fortress by weakening the Apatosaur army with attacks by Stegosaurs and Triceratops.  These mercenaries, previously aligned with the Allosaurs, had taken money from the Raptors and had switched allegiances.  They suffered significant losses during their attacks upon the Apatosaur defenders at Dinosova.  However, they greatly outnumbered the Apatosaurs, and many Apatosaurs were being killed or seriously injured by the attacks.  Dinosova was in danger of falling into enemy hands within days.

If that news was not bad enough, yesterday General Osoris had received news of light attacks against the fortresses of Jurassia, Cretalion, and Triasso.  In these locations, the Stegosaurs and Triceratops were attacking with far fewer numbers than they were using at Dinosova.  While some officers under Osoris’ command felt that General Seeraptor’s supply of mercenaries had been stretched thin because of the massive attack upon Dinosova, General Osoris felt that the Raptor leader was simply using these attacks to gauge the strength of the defense before lunching a full scale attack.

The General’s radio crackled with static.

The United States Open Championship is being contested at Congressional this week. Congressional is not one of my more favorite venues for an open. It has your usual long rough, fast greens, super long golf holes, and lots of trees, but it is a fairly boring golf course in Johnny’s opinion.

There are some nice historic moments here over the years. Ken Venturi staving off heat stroke to play 36 holes in 110+ degree heat and win an Open here. Tom Lehman playing his normal right to left draw but drawing it into the water to lose an Open.

This year it appears early on to be a boat race.

Rory McIlroy, aka Spaulding from Caddyshack (Judge Smailes Grandson) is playing like a man possessed. The kid has probably more overall golf talent than anyone on the tour other than a healthy Tiger Woods or a Phil Mickelson. Problem is Tiger is wearing a leg brace right now and Phil is over thinking his way to not keeping a ball in play on the planet.

At the time end of his second round, McIlroy has taken it to 11 under, which is rare air in a US Open Championship. Even par normally wins. Shooting under par is unheard of. Rory is making it look easy. He shoots a routine 6 under in day one to lead by three and has added another 5 under today to get to 11 under par.

Granted the course is a little soft, they have had some rain, the greens are not as fast as the USGA demons would like them to be. But…no one else is within 8 shots of him early on. Spaulding is doing what he has done before. He smoked out of the gate at The Open Championship last year at St Andrews with a 63 – the lowest ever first round score in the 150 year history of the Open Championship, and tying the course record in the process….Then the wind nailed him on day two and he ballooned to an 80, effectively shooting himself out of it. He rebounded nicely to still finish 3rd.

Until Next week…

Stay Classy Northern Ireland!

Here’s the deal, boys, I know that politics is a boys club. My first political job was canvassing for the Iowa GOP in 2002. Since then I’ve been a Communications Director for a US Senate Campaign, served as Secretary and then Co-Chair for the Polk County GOP and volunteered on countless campaigns. So I get it, it’s a boys club. Which is probably why I got such a high tolerance for beer. If you can’t drink with the boys, you can’t play with the boys. At least on the campaign staffer level in Iowa.

But after Arnold’s little Schwarzenegger he has running around, John Edward’s “love” (ew) child with his former staffer (while his wife was battling cancer), Bill Clinton and the infamous blue dress and Weinergate, maybe we should look at who we have in office.

I warned you I was a feminist. So here we go. When you lost something as a kid, who did you ask? Mom. Because Mom always knew where it was.

When you had a problem, who did you ask? Mom. Because Mom always knew the right answer (and to do what was right).

When you thought you forgot Grandma’s birthday, who informed you she sent a card from you last week? Mom. Because Mom remembers.

I’m not saying women are infallible. Look at Eve (although I’m still partly convinced that Adam just threw Eve under the garden on that one). But women know better than to do things that get themselves into trouble. Women consider the risks, weigh all of the options (it’s how our brains work and why we talk so much) BEFORE they act. And talk (for the most part). And women rarely send naked blackberry pictures of themselves (not just because they don’t like the way they look, but because they know it will get out).

I was thinking the other day about how excited I was getting to get a new copy of the Madden 12 game when it comes out in early August (like it does every other year). But wait, will there be a Madden game this year with all of this NFL lockout nonsense? I’m not going to get into the gritty details of what’s going on with the lockout, because honestly I haven’t taken the time to figure it all out. I’m a huge NFL fan, and I enjoy playing sports games. This is simply the “sports game playing” side me saying JUST KNOCK IT OFF AND PLAY….preferably on time.

So, I started doing some research….and the first thing I find says the game won’t be released until August 30th this year. What?!?! August 30th. That’s almost THREE whole weeks we’re all going to have to wait to see the new game. Will this hurt sales? I really don’t think so. There is no other true NFL game on the market for any system, so it’s not like the competition is going to take advantage of the “late” release date. EA may not have the stellar sales that they’ve had in years past, but I personally don’t see the release date being a huge problem….just keeps guys like me waiting a few more weeks to play it!

I know that Madden 12 has been developed or is currently in development as several new features have been announced (I’ll save talking about those until I play the game). But if there ends up being no season in the NFL this year, what does that mean for the game? Some critics are saying that it could hurt the game’s sales by as much as 50%. Really? I get the correlation of NFL fans to the Madden game. But I don’t see millions of people not purchasing Madden because of the NFL lockout. Madden really has nothing to do with the lockout….it’s not like the game developers are on the same side as the owners, or the players for that matter.

Frankly, Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner is in a lot of hot water these days.  He sent racy photos (of his, well … use your imagination) to several women over the internet and lied about it when he was confronted.  (His acting was definitely not Oscar-worthy.)  When he finally came clean, it turns out that he was having online relationships with six women.

The media frenzy around the scandal has reached a boil, and many inside the Washington power circle are attempting the skewer the congressman.  The Republicans are relishing this opportunity, pushing Weiner to resign.  Members of Weiner’s own party are turning against him, joining the Republicans in the chorus, in an attempt to distance themselves from the congressman.

The most likely situation is that Weiner will resign, a special election will be held, and the democratic candidate will win.  The Democrats will continue to represent New York’s 9th congressional district.  They’ll lose Weiner’s seniority, but also distance themselves a bit from Weinergate.  It’s possible that a Republican can would, but it would be an uphill climb in the left-leaning 9th district.

My question is this:  why are the Republicans in such a hurry to see him go?  Time and time again, the opposition party tries to force someone to resign when they become embroiled in ethical issues.  Wouldn’t it be better to allow Weiner to keep his seat?

Here’s my logic.  If Weiner resigns and is replaced, the scandal will eventually fade, another Democrat will be elected to represent New York’s 9th congressional district, and the country will forget about Anthony Weiner (since the vast majority never knew he existed before this scandal).  The lasting impact will be minimal.

However … if Weiner stays in office, the Republicans have an albatross to hang around the neck of President Obama and the rest of the Democrats.  Find a photo of Democratic Senator John Doe giving Weiner a high five and use it in a commercial to support Doe’s opponent – painting Doe as a friend of Weiner, and painting the Democrats as the Weiner party.

The best plan for the GOP: keep Weiner in the House!

Work – Home Life balance is a buzz phase in today’s business world. What does it actually mean? For a company, it is the idea that employees need away time to be more productive. That idea is preached and repeated at every major corporation. The problem is that to stand out as an achiever, the employee still has to sacrifice family time to perform those extra tasks that cannot fit into a normal work week. This truth has a very negative effect on one specific class of workers, those who are raising children.

Early in the average career, before long term relationships and children, the only competition for time is entertainment. Entertainment includes the various mating rituals of young people as they try to pair up, for a night or a lifetime. Late in a career, after children have moved on to their own lives, most couples are actually looking for activities apart from each other. I am not suggesting that children hold all relationships together, it is just that by the time the kids are gone, most couples have matured enough that time apart is not detrimental.

Those people who are early in their relationships, especially when children are involved, are under so many more stresses; the stress of developing the relationship, the stress of child rearing, the stress of financial insecurity. Most people believe they are giving the most in a relationship, much more than their partner. Any other distraction only magnifies that perceived disparity of effort. When those stresses or life choice and events result in a single parent situation, the stresses are only worse. There is no support and yet the employer still expects the effort that will make you stand out among your peers.

Most corporations truly believe that they are helping in the work – home life balance. They have training, support seminars, even policies in place. The reality is that the final decisions cannot be based on how well you family is doing, but on the individual contributions to the corporation. Many people believe that corporations have a civic duty to take care of their employees. The best way for a corporation to fulfill that duty is to remain a viable company. That goal may actually be detrimental to individuals, but overall is beneficial to most of the workers.

I personally am in the category of children moving on. I have the capability of travelling whenever the need arises. I can work weekends or evening without causing a scheduling catastrophe at home. As a result of this freedom, I am being given opportunities at work that were never available before. I am also trying to help the younger people I work with understand that patience and dedication are the best ways to move up in a company. So many of the young people entering the work force today have an entitlement attitude. As a result, they believe that any single exceptional effort should be instantly rewarded and considered for all future compensation. Although instant compensation is available at most companies, these perks seldom add to the base compensation. Consistent excellence is what is rewarded in the long run. Patience is the trait, along with focus, that creates the best path to success.

Coming back to the work – home life balance, when an employee is in those stressful years of relationship building and child rearing, the aim is to do both. Work on your skills and you home life. Expect to grow, but do not expect to be the youngest Vice President. The consistency that you develop both in your career and in you home life will make you the most valuable employee that you company has when you hit your stride.