SUMO GOLF?

You have got to be kidding.
Golf has been admitted to the Olympics?
Why? Golf isn't even a real sport. Sure, it takes great concentration and skill, but so does cooking an omelet. So does making love. So does bridge. OK, it takes more physical skill, and Tiger Woods looks like he works out.
But golf?
Ridiculous.
Pretty soon every physical skill will be in the Olympics.
What about billiards?
Bowling?
Miniature golf?
Where do you draw the line?
I don't think archery should be in, or badminton, or table tennis, or handball, or synchronized swimming, or sailing. All those are in now. They don't seem right either.
If we're going to have golf, what about competitive eating?
The most hotdogs, or the most tacos, or the most pancakes?
What about competitive singing? American Idol?
Ballroom dancing? Those people certainly sweat.
Writing? A poetry slam?
I think golf might work if you combined it with a real sport. How about sumo golf, with those big sumo wrestlers playing golf and fighting on the greens?
That would be fun to watch.
And it would be a real sport.

OBAMA FOR PEACE!

It was amazing today. Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. I was shocked at first. I even laughed out loud.
And then I thought about it.
Yes, it was undeserved. He hasn't done anything yet.
But on the other hand, it was wonderful.
Because he represents hope.
Our new president spreads hope around the world.
Hope for peace.
Hope for a rational and non-ideological approach to the world's problems.
Hope for Israel and the Palestinians.
Hope for the starving Africans.
Hope for Arabs and Asians, hope for Muslims and Christians and Jews.
Hope for a peaceful resolution to the conflicts between immigrants and their reluctant hosts in Europe.
Hope for an end to racism.
Hope for an end to senseless wars.
Hope for a stronger economy.
Hope for the world's environment.
Hope for a better way and a break from the past.
Now let the real work begin.

THE POLANSKI OF CELEBRITY

In 1977, the renowned movie director Roman Polanski raped a 13-year-old girl in Los Angeles. He admitted guilt and skipped the country to avoid prison.
He has basically been free ever since. For a recounting of the story, see Steve Lopez's column in the Los Angeles Times today, 9/20/09.
Polanski was (and probably still is) a sexual predator, and if the law is to have any meaning, he should pay for his crime.
I wonder how many other children he has raped or seduced over the years he has been free.
Why do people get outraged over sex criminals and perverts, and yet have a different reaction when the man is a bigshot?
Isn't it obviously wrong for a grown man to take advantage of his celebrity and use it to gain access to a child?
Celebrities have enormous personal power.
Polanski misused his.
I doubt if the girl's mother would have allowed him access to her if he wasn't famous. She probably hoped he'd put her in one of his movies.
By the way, have you seen his movies?
In "The Tenant" a severed head rises and falls in slow motion endlessly, one of the sickest scenes in all moviedom.
Have you seen his version of "Macbeth"?
Severed limbs all over the landscape.
Sick.
Sure, he escaped the Nazi Holocaust.
Sure, his wife and unborn child were murdered.
But does that give him the right to rape young girls?
Where do we draw the line?
Should we turn over our children to famous pedophiles for their sport?
If the law has any meaning, Polanski should come back to L.A., where the crime occurred, and take his punishment like a man.
If he is a man.
As they say, if you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

PALIN'S 'DEATH PANEL' LIE

Sarah Palin wrote on her FaceBook page that her son, who has Down Syndrome, might have to face a "death panel" under Obama's health plan.
What an obvious and hysterical fabrication.
Please, people, let's do everything we can to point out that this outrageous statement could not be true. It's like the Nazis telling the German people that the Jews were destroying their country. A very dangerous lie.

Take a look at the New York Times on this topic:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/sarah-palin-has-weighed-in-on/?scp=1&sq=%22death%20panel%22&st=cse

(Copy and paste into your browser address window.)

I WISH I LOVED BARACK THE WAY I USED TO

OK, it's been six months since Obama took office, and I haven't seen nirvana yet. The so-called "War On Terror" is still terrifying innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan. Americans are still dying. Gitmo is still functioning. And single-payer universal health coverage seems like a distant dream.
More and more, Barack sounds like George in foreign policy.
Change is slow a-coming.
What happened?
Politics, that's what.
Seems to me that Barack, being the smart politician that he is, is looking forward to the next election and trying to find a way to win again.
The dilemma is this: Do you go for it, and try to bring new policies into every arena all at once? Or do you look at the long haul, and figure you have got to keep winning elections to win the big battles?
It looks like Barack has taken the long view.
He's probably right, but I wish I loved him the way I used to.
Oh well, he's still a million times better than Bush and his band of cronies, sycophants, morons and war criminals.

SARAH PALIN: STILL CRAZY

You've heard the one about Gov. Sarah Palin resigning before her first term was up?

There once was a governor named Sarah
who didn't want to be a pariah,
so she sang and she danced,
she had ants in her pants,
and she resigned so someone
else could pay her.

Rumor has it that she resigned because she could make more money with a big book deal.
My theory: She never should have been in big-time politics in the first place.
Whatever happened to those responsibilities she crowed about when she was running for vice president?

LET THE MULES OUT

Free at last!
We used to sing a rhyme when I was in grade school:
"School's out, school's out! Teachers let the mules out!"
That's how I feel now, only I am the teacher. Or a teacher.
And I am the mule who is out.
I am so excited to be free for eleven whole weeks.
Oh, Lordy, it's such a great feeling.
Usually I write about politics in this blog, but today I'm going personal.
I'm hoping to go on a long road trip, either by rail or by car.
My dream trip: L.A. to Vancouver by rail.
Maybe another train trip to Denver.
Wish me luck.
More later.
-- Roger