If you missed it, Ann Coulter just wrung out John McCain like a dirty dishrag on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes.  Ann's decadent diatribe had a specific point, that is, if McCain squeeze's out the Republican nomination in the primaries, she will vote for...God forbid...Hillary!  "Ian" Ann's verbal spanking of our hero John was an auditory mugging worthy of YouTube repetition.

Ms. Coutler, our resident conservative barometer (sorry Rush, Ann just looks better when she shouts, plus it is hard to see you on the radio from a car) steamed that Hillary is more conservative than McCain. Worse, Ann's mugging continued along the lines of Hillary would be better at managing the war in Iraq.  Alan Colmes was speechless, either in shock, or thinking, he could not have said it better.

Let's face it, voting for McCain is just settling for what the big Media tried to push on us 8 years ago when they tried to "fix" McCain as the GOP nominee.  Ann's rant reminded me (and my wife) about McCain's temper getting the best of him in South Carolina during the primary.  Can we handle the truth? is essentially what Ms. Coulter was screeching so eloquently.  (Sorry Hon (Baltimore term of endearment) even when Ann screams, I still want to listen)

Well the truth has been outed.  A vote for McCain in the primary is a vote for Hillary in the general election.  Now is the time for all good men (women, dead or alive) to come to the aid of their romney.  Until Ann said it, I just didn't want to listen. 

Take your best shot (VOTE!) on Super Tuesday, and if you hit the bullseye, you will score one for the GOP and the future of our civilization. 

Slavic Mike

Colts v. Ravens more than just a game...

"Every time a Raven smashes a Colt on Saturday, a part of me will shatter inside again, and perhaps by the end of the game there will be no more pieces left to break. We remember in Baltimore the date March 29, 1984.  Let "them" never forget January 13, 2007."

No other NFL story is quite like this one.  A city who helped put the NFL on the major media, big profits gravy train--Baltimore-- battles the legacy of it's own past in what will most likely go down as an epic, emotional struggle of good vs. prime-evil. The prime-evil is explained thusly.  No other sports town has suffered this legacy of deceit, ignorance, back-handed stabs, and attempts to erase it's NFL football culture from the minds of the public (no disrespect to Brooklyn Dodgers fans). The story is old now, but it rings true for cultures since the beginning of time--the rise from humble beginnings, the reach to the top, achieving the greatest pinnacle of success (1958, 1959, 1970), and the slow, methodical fall culminating in an ultimate defeat--loss of team and tradition in March 1984.

The prime-evil reached its zenith as big-time, national TV dissing by the NFL Commissioner when Baltmore town tried to get back a team during the expansion beauty pageant in the early 1990's. That Commissioner, Paul Tagliabue, said Baltimore should "build a museum" after Charlotte and Jacksonville were awarded teams. Baltimore did just that, but not in the way the Commish envisioned, by plotting to get back it's NFL heritage, which took 12 years, a lengthy time given the history of the league. The fact Tagliaboo-boo, as we disaffectionately refer to him in old Balmer, is a nominee for the Hall of Fame, and our football savior, Art Modell, is not, gives you an idea of how Baltimore is viewed by the rest of the NFL sports culture. Could we feel any more like Poland during the Partition, or all through WWII?  We were an NFL sports nation without a team for 12 years. And told our NFL culture had no further right to exist. Some forget the NFL used to pump Washington Redskins games into our living rooms almost exclusively on Sunday afternoons for 12 years. It was like a forced conversion. A PR flack for Tagliaboo-boo was once even quoted saying Baltimore was considered part of the Washington market.  Oh how they erred and tried their best to ignore our Baltimore Colts history. 

And they still ignore it today. The Indianapolis Colts are allowed to print and quote Baltimore Colts history in their media guide as if it was built of their own sweat and tears. Many of us still remember Unitas, Donovan, Moore, Parker, Marchetti, Mackey, Jones, Havrilak, Laird, Matte, Smith, Mitchell, Ehrman, Cook, Carr, Doughty, White, Krause and so many others pouring out blood on our field, the largest outdoor insane asylum on 33rd Street, and then living and playing with us on our own streets for many years. The NFL is even complicit in the Hall of Fame, not including the Baltimore Colts history as part of Baltimore NFL football history.  

We have had our revenge. We did to them what they did to us. We acquired a team from Cleveland legally, ethically, leaving them their heritage, and helping them get back a team within 3 years. They should stop their whining. No one ever tried to erase their NFL heritage or culture like they did in Baltimore.  And we won a Super Bowl 5 years later. 

Today is really nothing more than a grudge match,  a way to say we are still here, a means of showing the NFL the best defense, like in the war of 1812, happened in Baltimore. "O Say Can You See", words from the Star Spangled Banner, sung at every Football game, was coined by a Baltimore doctor after the defense of Baltimore against the invading British. I don't know if songs will be written about today's game. I do know Baltimore fans will be singing a sirens song of hoots, hollars, screams and shouts in a psyche releasing crescendo, partly to close old wounds, partly to help destroy the will of the current progeny of our stolen team. 

And now "It's time"-- to go "William Wallace" on King Irsay and his band of Colts. Here's hoping the Ravens knock the silver and blue horseshoes off those tainted white helmets. Indy has been cursed since the Irsay's stole the team we in Baltimore helped build. They stole our lucky charms. Since then Baltimore has acquired another quality football team, won a Super Bowl, and established another tradition of NFL excellence. There was some hope here that Prince Jimmy Irsay, when he became King, would see the light and correct the sins of his father. The Prince has ultimately not succeeded in stepping out from under the King's long shadow, to our great despair. I do not know how he sleeps at night, but I doubt it is ever without a vision of the stunned looks of Baltimore Colts football fans haunting his last REM. Maybe one day the horseshoes will be returned to where they really belong and can be retired with dignity. I am sure Indy can find it's own identity. Baltimore Colts are only, truly a part of Baltimore football lore.  Every time a Raven smashes a Colt on Saturday, a part of me will shatter inside again, and perhaps by the end of the game there will be no more pieces left to break. We remember in Baltimore the date March 29, 1984.  Let "them" never forget January 13, 2007.
Slavic Mike

Just to get a few things off of my mind to lighten the load on the way to another season (winter), holiday (Christmas, for me and my family), day (work)--

NFL and Something Odd in Cleveland-
Ever notice the breakdown of the National Football League team nicknames?
There are 15 people persona's-Steelers, Patriots, Titans, Texans, Chargers (electricians or weather systems, or weekend shopping spouses (heck no I am not saying which gender!)), Chiefs, Raiders, Vikings, Packers, Cowboys, Giants, Redskins (I still can't believe that name has survived, why not the Pollacks, I would prefer Polaine Tribe, hey, B-Ball has the Celtics), Saints (to placate the Redskins atrocity), Bucs (pirates are so in), 49'ers (we really need to know more about them , historically...I remember a whole day about them in elementary school American History, oops, now they call it Middle School);
5 birds-Ravens, Seahawks, Cardinals, Eagles, Falcons;
9  four-pawed creatures-Bengals, Bills (or are they Polians?), Colts, Jags, Broncos, Bears, Lions, Panthers, Rams;
1 fish-Dolphins (if there was a mammal category, this would go in people persona, for the PETA people, just combine category 1 and 2);
1 machine (a tribute to the Industrial Revolution?)-Jets;
hey, to ring in the new century, perhaps we should rename the Redskins the PC's (personal computers, remember when PC did not mean politically correct)? (like the double use of the question mark)?

okay, before further objections, Colts, Broncos, Rams and Bills (maybe even if they are Polians) are hoofed creatures...(okay the Polian crack is so unfare (fair?), I don't even know them, I may not be spelling the name right even and for that I apologize, but us Regular Guys sometimes wonder if a person did not have to sell their soul to the devil to get the privilege of owning an NFL football team, hey, it was a dream at one time, made of pipe, sorry Mr. Polian, please allow me to feebly envy your success).
and finally,
The Browns.
What category do they fit in? (I will not say "besides Hapless Football Team", because that always comes back to bite like a tick in the wind, and I don't want to get on the bad side of Hugh Hewitt, and the Ravens are playing them this Sunday...)
I know The Browns (like The OSU) helmet is a shade of Brown, sort of orangeish, whatever that shade is called, too tired to google it.
I know they once used an Elf or Pixie as a logo, either on their jerseys or helmets in the mid 60's (?).
I know the team originally (not now since they relocated to Baltimore, like Baltimore relocated to Indy) was founded by the legendary (you have to say legendary first when you say) Paul Brown, and I read somewhere maybe the team was named after him, but if they were going to put his mug (albeit a rather successful one) on a shiny orange-brown helmet, they may as well put a Bulldog face on it. Some more things below.

Purple Rain
I predict the Ravens making it to the Superbowl now that Prince is the featured Half-Time entertainment. Purple Rain (Reign?) storms in more ways than one? It's just one of those too perfect coincidences of life.

Iraq Problem
Have you ever eaten those chocolate Pop Tarts? I say we drop thousands of crate-loads on Iraq in the worst violence-prone areas. After the locals eat them, they can't but wonder, how can Americans be so bad when they make such good food?  Maybe then the shooting will stop...

NFL and Iraq Problem
Okay, maybe since Americans have created a sporting event which gets the warring instinct out of us in a somewhat sane, harmless way as we "fan"atically root for our pigskin toting/bombing hero's...can we convince our acquaintances in the Middle East to lay down their arms and join us in our Weekend Pastime of over-eating good food, too much drink and a wink, sore throated nonsense shouting, excess revelry, face-painting, chest-pounding, as a surrogate for anti-American bashing and bombing?  After we kick the snot out of Iranian Mullahs, Saudi A Wahabbists, and Syrian Sneakies, maybe they can go back home and no one has to punch the ticket out of a beautiful life just yet. Hey, it works for Americans, we have not had a Civil War in over 100 years.  Soccer, er, euro Football just doesn't cut it, unless you play it like Zee ("The", for the French in Pittsburgh) Zidane...

The beauty of football is that no one type of athlete or mind can dominate the sport. It requires a combination of the fast, the strong, the tenacious, those big of heart, innovative thinkers, even beauty (not just cheerleaders) to make a strong team. Any team composed mostly of any one of the indicated talents will not succeed in the long haul.  A successful football team requires players and coaches who have a combination of these talents to succeed. There is a life lesson there somewhere.  

We need to export more football to the world, and Pop Tarts, to get these violent , fanatical tendencies in other parts of the world a healthy outlet.

Final Issue-Birth Rate in United States
I can't help but wonder as I massage my sore spot space between my left shoulder and breastbone (clavicle? I should have paid attention more in high school Anatomy class) that Madden Football is probably responsible for a declining birth rate in any country it is sold. Okay, you know it is true, how many of you guys have not stayed up too late trying to win that Superbowl, or achieve that perfect draft, turning Japanese on the Madden as it were, and left your wife snoring in the pillows?? Come on...you know it!  Have not heard any stats yet. Query-Madden Football the end of civilization as we know it. Drop some discs on the Iranians, Syrians (fill in the blank with any American-hating nano-nations).

Parenthetically Speaking (sorry, I can't help thinking about what I am thinking while I write, tap, finger dance on the PC floor),
Slavic Mike

 Life is Beautiful
I am happily married (more or less, apologies dear beautiful wife, it is all my fault) and my family is blooming. I am the product of my attitude, my religion, my education, and choices I have made during my short lifespan. Although I am not the most learned of individuals, I was fortunate enough to grow up in a generation that was provided a knowledge of history, and urged by my teachers and elders to develop a sense regarding how history is relevant to our times.  I intuitively understood that I must supplement the history lesson taught with additional reading and dialogue among family, friends and acquaintances to further and better understand our place, my place, and my country's place on this wondrous, spinning, sphere our scientists call Earth.  Perhaps I could call it a search for one's destiny.

Now sometimes our times require a self-analysis, a sort of forced focus prompted by events we find ourselves surrounded by or drowning in. This moment is one of those times--a time of great danger, stress, forced self-analysis.  Why?  Because people are trying to kill me, and if not me, my family, and if not my family, my neighborhood, and if not my neighborhood, my country, my known way of life. I saw a white-turbaned, thick-bearded, chubby, average looking man, on television, speaking a tongue unfamiliar to me recently. The TV voice-over interpretation told me how much I deserved to die. It was clear why the man evoked this concept. I was supposed to die because of who I was--a Christian, an American, not Muslim.  From the voice over, there was no mincing of words. On my own analysis of what I was hearing, I did not seem to be able to read into the words any hidden meaning. The words seemed to have only one meaning-that I should die, my family should die and my country should die. There was no room for interpretation, unless for some reason, I should think the man was not talking about me, or he was making an idle threat, or I simply did not, could not or would not believe his meaning. There did not seem to be any way to "rationalize" what he was saying.  

Now back to my search.  The search for destiny lead me to read books about American democracy, which led me to remain curious about why men and women would give up everything for the goal of achieving Liberty and Freedom.  I came to understand that Liberty and Freedom definitions can vary depending on who is defining and interpreting them, but one element of these goals stuck out like a bright light in the night sky.  Liberty and Freedom were defined by those who have the willpower and the courage to explore ANY possibilities.  The achievement of the goals of Liberty and Freedom helps us to better see how life is beautiful, because the search does not eliminate any possibilities.  Perhaps if I had searched from another perspective, such as a non-American perspective, I could find what might be characterized as insurmountable boundaries to the meaning of Liberty and Freedom.  An example cries out-such as, all men are equal, except men of certain races or religions; or all men are equal, and women are not equal to men, would constitute the boundaries to a Liberty and Freedom search, unless I start from a perspective which requires no boundaries.

Some current thinkers suggest we should search elsewhere for Liberty and Freedom, such as from the perspective of other nations or ethnic groups or religious beliefs, and these thinkers further suggest this search will lead us to the conclusion that the American way of thinking is inferior, flawed, and even hateful.  After my many years on Earth, I think I can confidently conclude that such thought perspectives are wastes of time. They are a waste of time because these other perspectives always start out with insurmountable boundaries-limits to the elements of the human condition (i.e. speech taboos, gender biases, religious hatreds born by non-sensible absolutes). Throughout world history, every single attempt, over time, to explore and define Liberty and Freedom for the individual has succeeded in enhancing and preserving the two inalienable rights of human existence, further enhancing our vision of the beauty around us. And every single attempt to destroy or quash the concept and the lifestyle afforded by the belief in these goals, has been crushed. Examples of Liberty successes are the formation of the United States of America; the many attempts at partitioning and destroying Poland which have failed, the subjugation of Slavs and Asian peoples through Soviet communism; and the reformation of nations such as Japan and Germany when these citizens were challenged by Imperialism and Fascism.  There are many more examples going back to ancient times, but this writing is not a history lesson.  It is merely an expression of what is already known-a truth so powerful, so basic, and so certain-it has survived the test of time, tyrants, natural disasters, and kooks.  So let me restate this human truth, for those who have not yet discovered it, or who hide from it, or for those who would like to pretend it does not exist:
"The best way to view and experience life's beauty is through the spectacles of Liberty and Freedom."

This writing is intended as a warning at best, and a suggestion at worst.  The faction of the world of Islam which teaches and believes that political and religious expansion, under the sword, will some day succeed in world domination is doomed to failure. That conclusion is more than just a view.  It is a conclusion based on historical fact. Our understanding of the facts of our own planet's world history bears out the evidence. The human community has existed for 150,000 years. No nation of people has ever succeeded in dominating the entire globe. It is against nature, as it would destroy the elements of humanity which reflect the beauty of our lives and our world--our differences, our different perspectives, which are needed to continue the exploration of our existence on Earth.

I think our religions, sometimes through trial and error, and properly understood, explain why such an attempt at world domination is not only fruitless, but counterproductive and wrong-headed. God has blessed the earth with people of many ethnicity's, races, religious beliefs, I believe in an effort to help us discover the absolute beauty of our environment. To destroy the delicate balance of what humanity has achieved intellectually and in more cases than not peacefully, is anathema to the human condition.  But caution here: the pursuit of Liberty and Freedom must be cherished by a certain number of world citizens, who are willing to sacrifice and die to keep the vision alive which will allow our ability to see, to experience life's beauty.  Poland under Hitler; the Jews and Catholics under Naziism, and Russia under Stalin are cruel reminders of the times when we were not willing to make the sacrifice; times when we allowed our vision to become clouded.

Humans worldwide recognize a right of self-defense, whether it be word vs. word, pen vs. pen, sword vs. sword, bomb vs. bomb. Whichever is the case, the pen/sword supporting Liberty and Freedom, over time, has relegated the violent, anti-freedom forces to "the ash heap of history."  Liberty has trumped forced subjugation every time.  They will beat their swords into plowshares is not a prediction-IT IS THE MORAL OF THE STORY.  I and my family and my country are not supposed to die. We are supposed to live in Liberty and Freedom, and because of our birth, as Americans, we have been chosen as keepers of the flames the burn Liberty and Freedom brightly.  We can welcome the differences surrounding us, and defend ourselves against violent attempts at subjugation.  We will not go gently into that good night.

So it is written, so it will be done.