My Sick Mind

"We put a tremendous emphasis on character. There are many times (when) we will pass a player in the draft room that is a terrific physical talent. Character is so important that I really attribute it to when you are suffering in the middle of the season - very few teams have 15-1 seasons or 16-0 seasons - you are going to have periods where you're down. Your momentum is down, whether it's the offense, it might be the defense, it might be overall. It's character players that bring you out of that lull. Last year was the greatest example of all. I think it does translate to success. It's worked for us. I know we've had the best record in the NFC this decade and I really attribute it to having a very high character group of players." - Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, August 6, 2009 OK then. It seems that Jeffrey's idea of character is limited to their attitude on the football field. For the fans, obviously it extends to their homes, private liv...

Louisville head basketball coach Rick Pitino is under the gun after admitting to some sexual tryst with a harlot six years ago, then loaning her money for health care. I'm not concerned at all with the sex act or its implications. What I am concerned with is the level to which we as a society elevate these alleged misdeeds. Every five minutes we hear or see an ad for something designed to give you an erection, make your erection last longer or enhance the size of your penis. Included in the ads are words that most adults wouldn't use around their school-aged kids, but there they are, blasted over the radio and TV. Then, we are supposed to be incensed over a guy going out and "getting some." Whether he is married or not is his issue. The bigger issue is the way we promote sex and then act as disciplinarians when somebody takes advantage of what we've taught them and say that it's wrong to use that apparatus for what the drug companies tell us it's for. I...

A couple of days ago, I questioned the claims of General Motors over their 230 miles-per-gallon Volt vehicle, which runs on a battery and gasoline. As often happens, once something is exposed to light, the blemishes are exposed , and the people who make the claims are forced to admit to the actual facts, which is something that marketing people abhor. The Volt is one of several so-called Extended-Range Electric Vehicles, or EREVs, in development. An EREV functions as an electric car until its batteries are depleted to a certain level; then it starts a small gasoline engine. That engine, however, doesn't drive the wheels - it merely acts as a generator to recharge the batteries. The Volt, GM says, can travel about 40 miles at any speed before its onboard generator kicks in. That number is significant, because Department of Transportation figures show that most Americans drive less than 40 miles per day. For most of us, owning a Chevy Volt could mean rarely ever using gasoline...

I'm strange. I know it. Otherwise, I would have named the blog something besides My Sick Mind. The Eagles are playing their first pre-season football game on Thursday night. The coach is telling people that the starters will be playing "a quarter and a half." That's football math. It won't fly in your kids' grammar school math class, but it works in the multi-billion dollar world of the National Football League. Tell that to a kid who complains that he'll "never use this math they're teaching us." Hard to argue. Stuff like that makes me chuckle. To me, a quarter and a half is three-quarters, but then, I'm not a football coach. To a football coach, a quarter and a half is three-eighths (or a quarter and half of the next quarter) but if he told his players they were going to play three-eighths of the game, they'd probably be up all night doing the math. Some of them attended college. Call a kid in grammar school.

I love gadgets. I'm a gadget guy . Most of my gadgets wind up on Ebay, so I'm now being very careful with the gadgets I decide to buy. I've resisted the PSP and the Kindle - so far. Lately though, I've noticed that gadget just wind up costing you more money. Like that Kindle gadget. It's nice. Now they have a DX model or something, with a 9-inch screen. Once you buy the Kindle (for a cool $500) you need to buy the books (duh) for ten bucks and/or (slash) a newspaper subscription for six bucks a month. Currently, I'm wondering if the 500 bucks is a small enough investment to justify not having the newspaper delivered. I'm guessing not, so I'll keep getting my paper newspaper and throwing it in the recycle bin - for now at least. The latest gadget looks like a good idea, but I have a question: WARREN, Michigan – General Motors Corp. said Tuesday its Chevrolet Volt rechargeable electric car should get 230 miles per gallon (98 kilometers per liter) ...

This ridiculous "news" story appeared on Yahoo this afternoon: Trainers can try to understand their obese clients or they can take it a step further like 32-year-old Aussie trainer and underwear model, Paul James . In an attempt to empathize and eventually inspire his chunky clients toward a slimmer future, James is on his way to packing on 85 pounds to reach a 265-pound target weight by the end of March. He'll then gym-fight his way back down to his 180-pound starting weight. At least he's hoping he will. James has bulged his belly with deep-fried chocolate bars and creamy pastas, catapulting him into his fat-pants-of-choice - second-hand track pants. With the extra flab, his blood pressure has risen a bit, he's sluggish and finding it difficult to motivate. First, gaining weight intentionally will do nothing to help him understand his clients. People gain weight over years, not months or weeks. Gorging yourself on food so you can train it off isn't a meth...

We're conflicted, us humans. How? Glad you asked. There is a glut of gluttonous food available to us, and even though we keep hearing about how morbidly obese we are as a species, food products are foist upon us that aim to keep us that way. The latest deal at McDonald's is a third of a pound Angus beef burger for four bucks. A third of a pound. It even has its own web site . The Angus Third Pounder ranges from 720 calories to 860 calories. Most of us can get by on 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day. Have one of these boys with the requisite fries and soft drink and you can survive the rest of the day on tree bark and pond water, since your body can presumably live off the half-hour of intake. Burger King puts the word "Angry" in front of a couple of their sandwiches, including the Angry Chicken : Tender, premium breaded white meat chicken filet topped with sizzling bacon, Pepper Jack cheese, deliciously spicy jalapenos, angry onions and our signature angry sauce. It’s ...

Nothing goes down better in an economic downturn than a warm donut and a grande mocha mint latte. Um-um. Nummers! You'll remember, a while ago I wrote about some construction going on in the area. A donut joint, hair salon and a drug store were being built around the corner from me. In the race for economic supremacy, donuts beat hair and drugs. The drug store lot is still in the run-down condition it was, ditto the hair joint. Sadly, area residents are going without a decent haircut, and their angst cannot be salved by a heavy dose of prescription medication, but the lust for fried dough and hot sugary coffee can be fulfilled. Of course, that doesn't rule out the 6 other drug stores within a 5-mile radius (one less than 2 miles from the planned Rite Aid) and the numerous other hair salons that couldn't possibly compete with what was once a Taco Bell. Not to mention the Dunkin' Donuts that is a scant 2 miles up the street from the one they just finished building on...

WASHINGTON – The White House warned Monday that the "cash for clunkers" program, already zooming toward a quarter-million trade-ins with the initial $1 billion in rebates, could sputter to a stop by Friday unless the Senate quickly approves $2 billion more. Apparently, what I was missing was that the "clunkers" are being sold as scrap, crushed and removed from civilization. May I suggest that we add Hummers, Yukon's and any vehicle larger than a swimming pool to the list? Bucks for Behemoths . Everything needs a catchy name to lure-in the general public. Like so many other things, our government didn't properly read the public and found out quickly that people had old vehicles sitting in what we call "The Family Museum" out in the back yard - on two tires, rusted and apparently not worth more than the $4,500 that the Feds were going to give them. The program is running out of money. Go figure. Hurry up and get yours. Meanwhile, I'm sitting...

I'm squinting my eyes trying to understand the government's " Cash for Clunkers " program, which implies that the government is giving money to consumers for trading-in their gas guzzling vehicles for more economic ones. But I wonder if it's doing anything besides helping sell cars. What happens to the "clunkers" that are traded-in? Aren't they merely re-sold to someone else as a "pre-owned vehicle" and put back on the road? If they're being crushed and sold for scrap metal, somebody needs to tell me, because I don't think that's part of the program. The government (our government) is spending $1 billion as of now to support the program, which they say has been wildly successful. I guess that means that it's helping the auto makers reduce inventory, sell cars and drive up consumer debt in the form of a new auto loan. That's nice, since the government (our government) owns two of the auto makers, and has given out enou...

Regular readers (if I have any) know that in the past I've railed against the bane of television , American Idol . Sadly, it is very popular and has led to a bunch of copycat programs too numerous to mention. I have been cynical of the show and its format, saying things such as this: I think you're seeing the show for what it is: A manipulative, ridiculous excuse for a talent show that has for years, adjusted its audience in such a way as to present what they feel are people worthy of recording contracts. Otherwise, how could you possibly explain the idea of whittling down a few hundred thousand contestants to six without knowing the outcome beforehand? Alas, one former contestant, a Junot Joyner, has come out and said words to that effect. I don't know anything about him other than he is a former contestant and subsequent loser. In addition to being a self-proclaimed "troublemaker" he accuses the show of rigging the outcome. In an online chat, he described t...

I don't like insurance. House, car, life - whatever - no time for it. I'm convinced that the reason auto body repairs are so expensive is because of insurance, health care is so expensive because of insurance, and burial costs are so expensive because of insurance. Without insurance, dare I say, we'd lead much more productive and richer lives. Yesterday , the renewal notice came for my homeowner's insurance. It's not a big deal, since the condo association carries the bulk of it. All I insure is from the fire wall inward. When I got to the part about declaring a deductible I started to think - and you know how dangerous that can be. My current deductible is $500. If I increase it to $750 I can save $7 a year in premiums. Increase it to $1,000 and I save $11. Increase it to $1,500 and save $15. You get the point. Take a second and see if you can figure out my thought pattern. I'll wait. Here is a lovely photo of some hot-air balloons while you think ... Here...

I can understand women who "collect" shoes. Closets full of them, even though they are limited to two feet. I've never been much of a shoe person. I own a pair of dress shoes, two pair of work shoes and a pair of sneakers for the gym. If I had the unlimited income of say, a lottery winner, I'd have a drawer full of sunglasses. Oakley's, specifically. Even though I'm limited to two eyes, I enjoy the fashion statement. What I don't enjoy is the dollar statement, which is why I'm limited to two - one for each eye. Cheap sunglasses are just that, and I'm convinced they do more harm than good. I keep hearing about the economic crisis, and I'm feeling it as much as anyone, but a quick tour of the Oakley web site finds something called the Pit Boss, selling for a cool $595. Sure, you say, 6 bills for sunglasses - but they're sold out, which tells me that at least a few Oakley customers have so little respect for six hundred dollars that they...

The local media is kicking our ass. David Sale Jr. was brutally beaten and subsequently killed after a brawl with some hooligans at McFadden's at Citizen's Bank Ballpark on Saturday. There were three front page stories in the Philadelphia Inquirer today. One on the front page , another on the front of the South Jersey section by Karen Heller and a third on the front of the sports page by Phil Sheridan. The only one with any actual facts was the one on the front page. Read them if you want, but suffice it to say, Sheridan and Heller missed the point entirely by blaming Phillies fans. Briefly, the three assailants had rap sheets as long as their arms, and killed a guy who was involved in a bachelor party, over a spilled beer. The part where we're getting our asses kicked is the part where it supposedly involved Phillies fans. Phillies fans are the least of the people involved in this. To wit, the assailants: Those charged in Saturday’s fatal beating of David Sale Jr. ou...

When I get a stomach virus, I wind up on the toilet several times a night. It awakens me from my sleep, and each time I get up to agonizingly go to the bathroom I hope it's the last time. But there is usually one more salvo, and when I think that my body is empty, I am awakened once again and all I can muster is some lingering stomach pain and another twenty minutes of lost sleep. That's the way I view Sarah Palin. The lingering sickness that keeps coming back, and each time I hope this is the last time. She left the Alaska governor's seat on Sunday, presumably for good, but didn't let the event pass without firing off a few salvos at those of us sitting on the toilet waiting for the pain to stop. “So, how about, in honor of the American soldier, you quit making things up,” she said with an insistent voice, prompting loud applause and cheers from a mostly sympathetic audience gathered at a park in Fairbanks. What did we make up, I wonder? The troubled teen pregnancy...

I swear, if I see another one of these articles about "Money you waste on stuff" I'm going to drive to the author's home and smack him in the back of the head. Here's the latest one , from Kiplinger's which, if you read it, you probably don't care about how much money you waste, because you have enough to not care about how much money you waste. If you can follow their advice, you probably earn enough money to ignore it altogether. These are among their concerns: Letting your money wallow in a checking account, when it could be making big bucks in a high-interest savings account. Sure. My paycheck is wasting away in that checking account, until the creditors call and wonder where it is. Paying up-front fees for mutual funds. Uh-huh. I have so many mutual funds, I'm picking the scraps out of my ass. Here's one: Dust off your library card and check out books, music and movies for free (or dirt-cheap). Sure. I'm dying to see "20,000 Leag...

OK, so it's 1:53am and I'm hopped up on Starbucks' Vanilla Latte (milk and coffee) and I'm finding it almost impossible to consider going to bed. I don't know what that means for the rest of Saturday, but it can't be good. PATNA, India – Farmers in an eastern Indian state have asked their unmarried daughters to plow parched fields naked in a bid to embarrass the weather gods to bring some badly needed monsoon rain, officials said on Thursday. Witnesses said the naked girls in Bihar state plowed the fields and chanted ancient hymns after sunset to invoke the gods. They said elderly village women helped the girls drag the plows. "They (villagers) believe their acts would get the weather gods badly embarrassed, who in turn would ensure bumper crops by sending rains," Upendra Kumar, a village council official, said from Bihar's remote Banke Bazaar town. "This is the most trusted social custom in the area and the villagers have vowed to continue ...

It was hot today. " Africa hot. Tarzan couldn't take this kind of heat ." What made matters worse was that I had to spend the bulk of it in the sun watching the Phillies cough-up a 10-game winning streak to the Cubs in a 10-5 defeat. A day off from work, but even a bad day at the ballpark beats a good day at work. Sadly, by the time the clouds rolled in and the sun rolled out, the game was almost over, and the only thing left to do was to venture out and play in traffic. Maybe it was the heat, or maybe a moment of clarity, but as I sat there witnessing the carnage, I realized that most of the things I enjoy in life are on the fringe of what most people would call popular . Minor league baseball, the LPGA, professional cycling and most of the music I like get reactions like a dog hearing a high-pitched sound when I start talking about them to the humans. I think it was the heat. For instance, last Saturday I had a ticket for the Blue Rocks game against the Frederick Ke...

I bought a 4-pack Mike's Harder Lemonade tonight. The side of the box says, " WARNING Contains 8% alcohol." Warning? Why would they warn me that it contained 8% alcohol? The warning would be, "WARNING: Contains 3% alcohol." Then, you'd know you were paying 7 bucks for lite beer. Otherwise, it should say, " HEY! Contains 8% alcohol - Cool." Marketing. They think they should warn us for something that we want. I love the people who stand on line at the market for ten minutes, throw all thier junk on the conveyor, watch the cashier ring it up, bag the junk and then fish around for two minutes for the money to pay for it. Did they think that, at the end of the line, the cashier would say, "Hey, it's free!" Get your money out, dumbass. Now I'm reading stuff on the Internet that Barack Obama is apologizing for his "mom jeans" that he wore when he threw out the first pitch at the All-Star game on Tuesday. Jeez. In an int...

For those of us of a certain age (old) we remember where we were on July 20, 1969. If you have to ask what that date means, you're either too young to have any idea or just not paying attention. For children of the space age like me, the program was standard viewing, and in spite of all the hype surrounding the passing of Walter Cronkite, I was an ABC News kid. Either I liked Jules Bergman or we got better reception on channel 6 than we did channel 10. I think it was the latter. I was an 11-year old, perched in front of the TV until I got tired enough to give into sleep. I remember my mother yelling down from her bedroom for me to "turn the TV off and go to bed." She failed to grasp the gravity (pun) of the situation. To a kid, it was better than cartoons. Since we like even numbers, we're celebrating the 40th anniversary of men walking on the moon. We didn't celebrate 39 and probably won't celebrate 41. That would be senseless, right? It's nice, but i...