Talking Heads - Life During Wartime

I'm Not In The Mood

Well, the holiday season is upon us and all I can say is, "Meh." (Actually, I think the holiday season started around Labor Day.) Between the constant barrage of commercials telling me how great my Christmas will be if I would just spend more, TV commentators bitching about "The War on Christmas," and thin-skinned attention whores crying because someone said Merry Christmas to them instead of Happy Holidays or some such crap, and I just don't care anymore.

I can't wait till after New Years when I can have a couple of months till next years holiday season starts up.

World Series Champs!

As I predicted two posts before, the Red Sox won the Series with a four game sweep of the Colorado Rockies. As impressive as the streak the Rockies rode to get to the World Series and despite a couple of close games, the Rocks were no match for Boston's bats and their pitching.

With the young talent and the veterans they have, plus the resources to go after the big money players, the Sox are poised to be a World Series contender for a few years to come.




God, I love baseball.

BOOM! Headshot

It cracked me up when I saw this. I bet it hurt too.

Well, That Was Quick

I didn't expect the Phils to make it out of the first round, but I was hoping they would at least win a game or two. Instead the Rockies continued their hot streak and swept the Phillies.

Now I don't want to be one of those annoying fans who at the end of each season whine, "Just wait till next year." Because if the Phillies don't improve their pitching, especially the bullpen, then next year will be more of the same. They have a solid defense and their lineup is more than pretty good, but if you don't have quality pitching, then come the playoffs, other teams will be lining up to tee off your pitchers. Let's face it, the Phils only squeaked into the playoffs because of their hitting and fielding. Their pitching didn't get them there. And the monumental collapse by the Mets didn't hurt. I wouldn't count on that next year.

And now the predictions: As of Monday, October 8, the Red Sox, who just finished off the Angels, is waiting to play the winner of the Indians/Yankees series. Despite winning last night, I think the Yankees are done and the Indians will move on. (Win or lose, Joe Torre is out as manager of the Yanks. As this is the last year of Torre's contract, George Steinbrenner will finally fire him. The reason why it wasn't done before was that Torre was still owed a lot of money on his contract and the Yankees were still winning.) The Red Sox will win the World Series. They will beat the Indians for the American League Pennant and whoever the sacrificial lamb is that comes out of the Rockies and Diamondbacks series.


God I love baseball.

I Love Being Wrong

In an earlier thread I said I didn't think the Phils would make the playoffs. I'm so happy to be proven wrong. After an improbable last season surge and a colossal collapse by the Mets, the Phillies are in the playoffs for the first time since 1993.



God I love baseball.

George Bush Answers A Question

Wow, I mean just, wow. That poor girl is going to be some old rich guy's trophy wife or featured in a Girls Gone ...Oh wait. This is a different post, with a different fuckup. This is just another reason why I can't watch any of his speeches. It's just embarrassing to see the president of the United States unable to form a coherent thought. Whenever someone asks him a question that's not scripted for him, he's in way over his head and he's too dumb to even BS his way out of it. Whenever I hear Bush or any of his supporters defend him, I can't help but think the movie "Idiocracy" is a picture of what this country is going to become. I really hope for the future of my country that we the people start demanding a higher standard out of our leaders.

I hope after watching that video I don't catch some herpes-like stupid.

Miss Teen USA 2007 - South Carolina answers a question

Wow, I mean just, wow. That poor girl is going to be some old rich guy's trophy wife or featured in a Girls Gone Wild Video. I love the dude's look when she's answering the question. He's probably thinking, "When I'm boning her later, I hope I don't catch some kind of herpes-like stupid."

Aliens Vs. Predator 2: Requiem - Trailer

I was so looking forward to AVP1 when it came out. That cinematic turd cost me good money and an hour and a half of my life that I'll never see again. While the trailer for AVP2 looks good, I'm cautiously optimistic.

Illogical

From the BBC website:

Heroes villain lands Spock role

Quinto (left) joins Star Trek veteran Leonard Nimoy in the film

Heroes villain Zachary Quinto is to star as Mr Spock in the latest Star Trek film.

The Paramount Pictures film, whose working title is Star Trek XI, revolves around the first encounters between a young Spock and James T Kirk.

Leonard Nimoy, who played the original Mr Spock, will play an older version of the character in the new film.

Quinto plays Sylar in the hit US TV drama, which recently made its terrestrial UK debut on BBC Two.

The new Star Trek film will be directed by JJ Abrams, who created hit TV drama Lost and directed Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible III.

Christmas release

"We have a great director, a wonderful actor playing the young Spock... the answer is, it was logical," said Nimoy, explaining his decision to return to the role.

"This is really going to be a great movie. And I don't say things like that lightly," he told a gathering of 6,500 fans at San Diego's Comic-Con.

The latest movie, the 11th in the series, will be released in the US on Christmas Day 2008. The lead role of Captain Kirk has yet to be cast.

The original Star Trek TV series, created by Gene Roddenberry, ran from 1966 to 1969.

It went on to spawn 10 feature films, numerous spin-offs and a billion-dollar industry of books, computer games and consumer products.

Heroes, which was recently named programme of the year by US television critics, captured an audience of 4.3m when it debuted on BBC Two on Wednesday.

It has previously run on the UK's Sci-Fi channel and in the US, on NBC.

It follows the story of a group of ordinary people with superhuman abilities who are brought together to prevent a catastrophe.


************************************************
While I'm all for a new Star Trek movie, I don't know about this. With the talent they're bringing in for this movie, why are they going back to the beginning? Star Trek spent almost 40 years building up a whole universe of storylines to explore but the people making this movie are going back to a young Kirk and Spock. I would like to see a whole new crew on a different ship involved in something only alluded to in the other series'. Or set the movie in the future after the events of The Next Generation.

Kirk and Spock were great, but move the story along. Besides, no one...could be Kirk...like the Shat.

July 20, 1969: Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.

One of my earliest memories is watching the moon landing on TV. I was only 5 years old and I only knew something big had happened. It wasn't until I grew older that I recognized how truly amazing and significant the event was. It still boggles my mind that in one man's lifetime, we went from the invention of the airplane to flying to the moon.

Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Mike Collins and all the astronauts, past and present will always remain heroes to me.

10,000

As of July 1, 2007 the Phillies are the oldest continuous one city franchise in all of sports. And although they've had various nicknames in their history, they are also the oldest continuous one-nickname team in all of sports. And sometime this month, they will become the first team in all of sports to lose ten thousand games.

10,000 games. Based on a 162 game season, that's over 61 no win seasons. In 124 years of their existence, the Phils have been to the playoffs only nine times, to the World Series five times, winning it once in 1980.

From the "Whiz Kids" to the Wheaze Kids, from the Phold of 1964 to the World Series win in '80 and the heartbreaker in '93, the Phightin's have had their ups and downs. (OK, mostly downs) But as a Phils fan I have a lot of great memories. There was Pete Rose backing up Bob Boone when he bobbled that fly ball. There was Tug McGraw striking out Willie Wilson to win the Series. There was Mike Schmidt blasting four home runs in a game against the Cubs. (In fact, his whole career as a Phillie was a highlight for me) There was Steve Carlton who I idolized and I would always try to catch the games he pitched. There was Willie Montanez who would flip his glove hand when he made an out at first. There was Jim Eisenreich who always seemed to get a clutch hit. There was Larry Bowa and Dave Cash, who I loved to watch turn double-plays. There was the Bull, Greg Luzinski.

You had the Morons of 1993. John Kruk, Darren Daulton, Curt Schilling, Lenny Dykstra and Mitch Williams. They were nerve wracking to watch and fun to follow. (I had read recently about a guy who told his son at a recent card show that Williams was at to stay away from him. That Williams was a bum and a loser. For the record, Mitch Williams didn't lose the Series in'93. The team did that. Mitch was the go to guy in the bullpen all season and it made perfect sense to put him in the game at that time. And all the threats and crap he got just shows who the real morons were that year. And continue to be)

Right now the current Phillies are in 3rd place. Respectable, but I don't think they'll be making the playoffs this year. They have a real good core of young players in Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Aaron Rowand, Shane Victorino and Cole Hamels (Who is a hero not just for his pitching). But outside of a couple of guys, they don't have the pitching to get them through the season, let alone any playoffs. If the Phils can develop some good pitchers in the farm system and not rely on some expensive free agent years past his prime, the future looks pretty good. But with this being the Phillies, disappointment is always lurking around the corner.


God I love baseball.

How Subtle Can You Be?

Hide the Fart

Clicky the link.

WTF?

That's It?

I thought my cable went out.

We Are The Ones In Charge

When are we going to stop fooling ourselves and start saying what the mess in Iraq really is? Again today I read in the paper and saw on one of the 24 hour news channels that we're at "war" in Iraq. How many years has it been since "Mission Accomplished?" It's no longer a war but an occupation. An occupation that's killing our finest every day, plus who knows how many thousands of Iraqi citizens.

Calling it a war allows the Decider to grab ever increasing amounts of power and the chickenshits in Congress just bend over and take it because it might look unpatriotic. You certainly don't want the mouthbreathers at Fox News or on talk radio to say you're weak. Just today the Senate GOP blocked the no confidence resolution on the Attorney General from even coming to a vote. All because they don't want to be seen as opposing the president. If you're against the president, you're against the troops. Never mind the fact that Gonzales is utterly incompetent and that his only qualification for Attorney General is that he kisses Bush's ass.

But it's not just Congress who let's Bush get away with it. The whole run up to the Iraq invasion the so called liberal media never asked if the invasion was the right way to go. The administration kept feeding a line of crap and the media just ate it all up, never asking what that funny taste is. I thought it was the job of the media to keep those in power in check. Instead they regurgitate whatever the government says and keep their questions to themselves, just so they can get invited to all the parties, state dinners and other bullshit that don't matter. Instead of news, we can 24 hour coverage of Paris Hilton's run in with the law, Lindsay Lohan drinking habits, Britney's crotch and whatever else some pseudo celeb is doing. Is it any wonder why more people vote for American Idol than vote for the president?

I know people are getting pissed off. Now they gotta do something about it.

NHL Playoffs

At the beginning of the season, (though I can't prove it now) I was saying it's going to be the Ducks and the Senators in the Stanley Cup Finals. I was surpised at how well the Red Wings are doing (I picked the Sharks and the Ducks in the conference finals) but I still believe Anaheim will make the Cup Finals. As of right now they hold a 3 to 2 game lead over Detroit. For the Eastern Conference Finals I picked the Senators and the Sabres to meet with Ottawa winning. For once I got one right. But being a Flyers fan, I HATE Buffalo and I'll never pick them. No matter how good they are. I'll post my Finals pick after the Western Conference is decided.



Go Flyers!

First!

My first post on my first blog...

Hi, I'm Rick but I go by the handle, Herbert West. (I just love that movie.) Since I'm sure the world would just love to hear one more idiot shouting out his opinion, I started this blog to spout off on a whole bunch of stuff. From politics, sports, entertainment to family and friends, nothing's off limits.