Showing posts with label Steve Howe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steve Howe. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

THE BAD SLEEP WELL


The Bad Sleep Well by Akira Kurosawa is a film classic.  But it still would be a notable film if only for its pithy title.  It is a title that has become symbolic of a fundamental truth of life--that good does not always triumph and that nice guys, as Leo Durocher once said, finish last.  Nevertheless, the Durocher quote, although taken out of context,  has also come to be the motto of bastard bosses, pushy feminists, card cheats, Social Darwinists, or any Socialist, including their fellow socialist travelers, the Fascists.  Make no mistake, Fascism is a form of Socialism, (see Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg pp. 31-38). 

Before I digress any further, and turn this post into yet another polemic against the left--that comes later--I would state for the record that the some of the worst actors in American politics seem to be the ones that having benefitted most from the country that they seem to hate.  But it's not only politics in which the "bad" seem to be prospering.  It just seems as if there is no crime or punishment anymore for any apparent privileged character in America.

Michael Vick, reinstated to the NFL after doing time for running a illegal interstate dog fighting ring and gambling operation was rehired by Nike as a athlete endorser.  After Vick was convicted in April of 2007 in Federal Court, he was dropped by Nike as an athlete endorser.  But what is most galling about this reversal of fortune for Vick is that there seems to be no consequences for wrongdoing.  Here's a guy that not only did sadistic acts of cruelty and violence to dogs, but was also caught running a gambling ring! 

Back in 1962, NFL Hall of Famer, Paul Hornung and Alex Karras were suspended for a year for betting on NFL games and associating with shady characters.  Both were reinstated by Commissioner Pete Rozelle in 1964.  In Hornung's case it was due to intense lobbying by Coaching legend Vince Lombardi.  The NFL was interested in building a fan base, particularly in light of the competiton from the upstart American Football League.  Bonifide stars were at a premium.  After all, business is business.

Unlike the Black Sox scandal in 1919, in which eight White Sox players were banned for like for throwing the World Series, the NFL seems to be more lenient viz gambling.  But when it comes to drugs, Major League Baseball (MLB) seems to have a more laissez-faire attitude.  Pitcher Steve Howe was suspended several times over a 17-year on and off baseball career for substance abuse, but was always reinstated when a live arm was needed. 

Outfielder Manny Ramirez recently of the Tampa Bay Rays, abruptly retired from baseball when confronted with the possibility of having to take a second drug test.  Ramirez however, is still owed some $21 million by the bankrupt Los Angeles Dodgers.  He'll get some of that money.   Many players such as Sammy Sosa were suspected of using performance enhancing drugs during the "blind eye" period of steroid use in MLB.   MLB greatly benefited from the fan increase during home run derby in the 1999 season between Sosa and Mark McGwire, also suspected of using  performance enhancing drugs.  Although they may not be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, none of these players has suffered any real financial hardship.  McGwire currently works as the batting coach of the St. Louis Cardinals.

*     *     *     *     * 
Unfortunately, it is bad politicians that continue to sleep well despite the collateral damage that they are causing to their fellow citizens through their bad deeds.  Senator Chuck "U" Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Friday that invoking the Constitution's 14th Amendment, which states that federal debts "shall not be questioned," to continue paying government obligations is a strategy worth considering should a debt-ceiling deal remain elusive.  What's happening here is what Constitutional lawyer Mark Levin said on his WABC radio talk program on 5 July 2011.  Senator Schumer is suggesting that Pharoah Obama simply use that clause to continue to incur debt.  Since when does America tolerate a dictator?  It is Congress' Constitutional duty to appropriate funds to meet the financial obligations of the United States of America. 

But Pharoah Obama continues his impression of Robert Mugabe by spending the nation into oblivion.  The Pharoah has parties at the White House while millions of Americans suffer from unemployment and other financial woes.  Mugabe had a party marking his 85th birthday while many Zimbabweans went hungry.  The Sunday London Times story of the birthday party gives a preview of what America can look forward to if the Pharoah is allowed to continue his profligate spending ways.  Under Mugabe's stewardship the unemployment rate is 94%!   Mugabe spent millions on luxury limousines while millions starved.  Are you starting to see a pattern? 

Meanwhile, Pharoah's wife, Michelle "Antoinette" Obama, is playing the part of the American iteration of Grace Mugabe, wife of Robert.  Her trips abroad with their children are legendary in their extravagence at the expense of the American taxpayer.  But does the Pharoah and his Queen care about that?  No, they sleep quite soundly in the People's House.  The bad indeed sleep very well.


Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Breaking Bad (Apologies to AMC)


All of us at one time or another have blown a good break.  Most of us have blown it over such mundane things like not taking a job, quitting a job, ruining a romantic relationship, or by not taking advantage of a really good bargain.  For me it was ignoring a mental flash of the winning poker hand for a California Lotto game that would have won me $5,000!  I didn't mark the hand on my play slip and thus didn't win the $5,000.  But the good thing with most blown breaks is that no one dies (we hope) and that life goes on most of the time. But what about one of those really great breaks that comes around only once in a lifetime?  You know the kind--the one that is a real life changer. 

 
How about being a professional athlete?  There hardly a guy (or nerd) in the world that wouldn't want to be one and live the life of a superstar athlete.  But the lucky dum-dums that blow those lucky breaks repeatedly really frosts the balls of all men relegated to watching sports on TV.  Notable examples of these dum-dums abound, but here are my two all-time favorites.


Lawrence Phillips, Nebraska University football star dragged his girlfriend by her hair down a flight of stairs in a Nebraska U dorm.  But Phillips got a big break when his coach, Dr. Tom Osborn, didn't kick him off the Nebraska college football team and kept him on the team.  Dr. Osborn sincerely thought that Phillips might benefit from staying in a structured environment like a football team.  So how did Phillips handle that break?  He subsequently screwed up with several pro football teams. But they still kept giving him breaks by signing him to lucrative contracts until it became apparent that he was a troublesome bust.  According to the blog Read and React:
In October 2008, Phillips was sentenced to 10 years in prison for assault with a deadly weapon, after running down 3 kids with his car after losing a pick-up football game to them. Let me say that again. He ran over some kids with his car because of a pickup football game!!! AND, at the time he was arrested, Phillips was also wanted by police for yet another domestic violence charge.
Eventually even a deep well runs dry.  Phillips simply ran out of fortunate breaks.


Pitcher Steve Howe was suspended 7 times by Major League Baseball (MLB) for drug and alcohol abuse.  (MLB is currently on a chest thumping binge in which they say that they disdain drug abuse.)  MLB also reinstated Howe 6 times. And teams kept on signing him to lucrative contracts to pitch a baseball until the talent was diminished by drug abuse.  Howe finished his career in 1997 playing with the Sioux Falls Canaries of the minor league American Association.  (Howe died in 2006.)  To say that Howe blew it on blow would be a gross understatement.  



Tiger Woods on the other hand is at a crossroads.  How Tiger Woods handles his current marital and public relations problems will determine whether or not he's blown his big break.  He is a billionaire at 33.  He has a hottie for a wife and healthy children.  He also appeared to be likeble straight shooter...until we found out that he was a serial adulterer.  Some guys like Bill Clinton can get away with it and continue to have the breaks fall his way. 


But there are some things that Americans get really angry and upset about.  They don't like child molesters, dog abusers (the NFL's Michael Vick notwithstanding), and morally inert golfers.  Golf is the only game where golfers are expected to be honest and penalize themselves when they break the rules.  The only penalizing Tiger did was to several bimbos while on the PGA Tour.  Golf fans are angered that Tiger turned out to be just another cheater not to be trusted.  It's too bad that we don't hold our politicians to the same standard as our golfers.




When you consider that in 220 years only 44 men have been the President of the United States, you get a sense of the great accomplishment that it is to hold that office.  You also realize that it requires a great many fortunate breaks to attain the Presidency.  To bear witness to the current office holder defiling the Office of the President is to watch the destruction of everything that this great country stands for.  

It would be one thing if the Obama's irrational actions were based upon a deeply held belief system and values.  After all, even an evil man is due some respect if only because he recognizes the difference between good and evil and voluntarily choses evil.  Instead, we have Obama who relies on a teleprompter to convey the commands of his master, George Soros.

In Obama we also have an "empty suit" who while an Illinois State Senator voted "present" 193 times on legislation. Take a gander at how Obama's fellow bipartisan political weasels defend such a gutless position:
Obama’s former colleagues who still serve [sic] in the Illinois Capitol say that the attacks are off-base and that either Obama’s opponents don’t understand how things work in Springfield or they are deliberately distorting his record.


“To insinuate the ‘present’ vote means you’re indecisive, that you don’t have the courage to hold public office, that’s a stretch. But, it’s good politics,” said state Rep. Bill Black (R), a 22-year veteran of the House and his party’s floor leader…

The “present” vote in Illinois is sometimes cast by state lawmakers with a conflict of interest who would rather not weigh in on an issue. Other times, members use the option to object to certain parts of a bill, even though they may agree with its overall purpose.

“The ‘present’ vote is used, especially by more thoughtful legislators, [sic] not as a means of avoiding taking a position on an issue, but as a means of signaling concerns about an issue,” said state Rep. John Fritchey (D), an Obama supporter. [Emphasis Added.]


What a total crock of crap!  The slimeball  Leftist elitists think [sic] that the American people are just too damn stupid to understand how things work in the "big time" world of legislation.  These "rubes" simply don't understand that a "present" vote is just plain "good politics" practiced by "thoughtful legislators"!  But think about the scary notion that Obama may also have had 193 potential "conflicts of interest" and then you realize how very dangerous his legislative "experience" really is.  Moreover, in 4 years as a US Senator, Obama attended Senate sessions a total of 143 days.  No busboy in a restaurant dive would keep his job with an attendance record as poor as that.

The offenses against American values committed by Barack Obama have piled up in the 11 plus months since the US government has been under the Bolshevik Captivity.

  • Obama has piled up more debt that the previous 43 Presidents combined!


  • Obama has appointed  militant gay activist Kevin Jennings to be the Department of Education’s director of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, i.e., the “Safe Schools CZAR.”   According to a Wall Street Journal blog article:


Early in his teaching career, Jennings encouraged a teenager who was in a homosexual relationship with an older man. If the boy was underage, as Jennings claimed in a 2000 speech, then Jennings may have violated the law by not reporting statutory rape to authorities. He has since admitted he should have “handled this situation differently” but has also altered the story, now claiming the boy was sixteen, i.e. of legal, consenting age. Surprise, surprise, the boy has come forward to the leftist Media Matters, saying he was sixteen at the time. But actually, the relevant state law requires reporting of sexual activity between an adult and any child less than eighteen years of age.

  • According to WOR radio blogger Steve Malzberg, Anita Dunn, the White House Communications Director, and Ron Bloom the Manufacturing Czar under Barack Obama have both had audio uncovered where they praise the "theology/philosophy" of Mao Zedong, Communist leader and the man responsible for the murder of 70 million people.



  • Obama appointed Tim Geithner, tax cheat, as the Secretary of the Treasury.  This is the guy who's going to come down hard on you to pay the confiscatory taxes that will surely result as a result of Obama's reckless spending.



  • Never mind that "Reidbamalosi" Health Care Plan is NOT wanted by the American people. But the American Mugabe is determined to seize one sixth of the American economy.



  • Obama's Crap and Tax (Cap and Trade) is also unwanted by the American people.  If it passes get ready to pay confiscatory taxes to pay for economic development of the Third World.



  • Obama's diplomatic faux pas like bowing and shaking the hand of the Emperor of Japan, bowing like a subservient vassal to the Saudi Arabian King, and snubbing the King of Norway's lunch invitation today shows what an incompetent boob Obama truly is with regard to foreign policy.


  • Obama has openly circumvented the Constitutionally mandated oversight function by Congress over the appointment of Executive Branch heads by appointment of unvetted political appointments--Czars--to carry-out the radical Obama Marxist agenda. "POLITICO has compiled a wide-ranging list of President Barack Obama's various "czars."  When you read POLITICO's Czar list and you'll be shocked as you find that there is a "Great Lakes Czar" and a "Central Region Czar." WTF are these Czars in charge of?!?!  Obama's campaign promise of government transparency is illusional because political appointments like these are not subject to the scrutiny of Congressional oversight. There's no light of day shinning on Obama's shadow government.

Thirty-five percent of Republicans want to impeach Obama now.  Now isn't soon enough!  We need to build a groundswell of multi-partisan opposition to this menace.  If you have received this post by e-mail, please take the poll on the Anti-Political Weasel Page.  If you are reading this post on the Gmail blogspot please take the poll on the Sidebar Potpourri.