Just Thinking

Paula is 5 shots down going into the final round in Alabama today.

Maybe it's me (it probably is) but I don't get this whole Borat thing. I understand that it's hip to do comedy that makes people look like jackasses - and even name the TV shows and movies such - but really, if this is the most creative thing we as a society can conjure, maybe it's time to go back to scrawling on the cave wall.
Of course, owing to my credo of not seeing movies alone, I haven't seen this one. However, I will quote Tom Smothers, who once said, "I'm an American - I don't have to see something to know it's stupid."

Earlier this week, Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb introduced his new clothing line, called Super Five. That's OK, I guess, but during the news conferences that preceeded it, he said that the reason he was doing it was to "look out for his future" and take care of his family.
The guy is in the middle of a 12-year contract that pays him $112 million dollars. $112 Million. So, I'm expected to believe that he couldn't take care of his family without this cheezy clothing line? And people wonder why there is a disconnect between athletes and the fans.

While preparing Saturday's dinner, I came to the grim realization that I purchased creamed corn on my last shopping trip. I can't read a can. Why would anyone do something as stupid as creaming corn? Or buying it?

TBS showed "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" on Saturday. November 11. Soon, we'll have to listen to news stories about how the Christmas shopping season is either a disappointment or a raging success. Shopping season? It starts on Hallowe'en now, and used to start the day after Thanksgiving. How long before we're seeing Christmas sales on Labor Day?

I'm a fan of Lance Armstrong, but now that he's doing commercials for Bristol Myers-Squibb, I think it kind of cheapens his "beating cancer" experience, although I'm sure it does not cheapen either his bank account or the coffers of his charity.

Although I don't regularly watch Keith Olberman on the TV, I did go to MSNBCs web site and call up one of his editorials. It reminded me of a Paul McCartney song from his old solo days, where one four-minute song would contain so many musical thoughts that a lesser songwriter would have made into one song, but Paul (being Paul) turned it into a work of art. Keith gives out a lot of thoughts that a lesser thinker would turn into a week's worth of commentary.

If everyone in the recording industry cared about their work as much as Fiona Apple does ... what a wonderful world it would be.
Upon receiving an MTV Award in 1997, Apple announced that "this world is bullshit." You go, girl.

There's a lot of hand-wringing going on around here with the demise of the Sands Casino in Atlantic City. One customer will miss his trips there, and the $1,000 he would spend gambling. Lost in the equation is the fact that someone has $1,000 to piss away on such things. I'd like to have such problems. Here's an idea: Find 10 people and give them each a hundred bucks. Ultimately, you'll feel better - and they will, too.

So, it turns out that Pastor Ted Haggard is a big scumbag. Go figure. Face it, we're just big lumps of protoplasm wandering around, with all the temptations and faults that everyone has. To prop someone up on a pedestal and make them bigger than the rest of us only lets the door open for disappointment. Rely on yourself, blame yourself for your lot in life and stop thinking that you are any better or worse than the person next to you.
We'll all be better off.

Randall Balmer, a Barnard College historian of American religion, said megachurches are so wrapped up with their pastor that New Life inevitably has hard times ahead. Without any creed or denominational identity for the church to cling to, attendance will eventually drop by half or more, he predicted.

"You have a kind of cult of personality that confuses the faith with a particular individual," said Balmer, author of "Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America." "I just think it's very difficult to recover from this sort of thing."