With Me and Without Me

Great picture of the lovely Jeanne.

Just remember, Seattle D, they’re being shot in the back of the head over there so we don’t have to shoot them in the back of the head over hear.

By the way, I’d like to see Bill Maher have both Carl Bernstein and Dustin Hoffman on the same show … just to see which one has aged better.

Dave,

You were channeling Bush’s Bullshit Moment, the one in which he said something about being able to hear the American people. Ironic, ain’t it?

I’ve read that incurious President Bullshit lacks a sense of irony, so I guess it’s lost on him.

Glue, glorious glue….

And then there’s the issue of my Florida Gators playing the Tennessee Volunteers today. That was not an expected score by any stretch of the imagination. Don’t know what it means for the rest of the season, maybe nothing except that we are now 1-0 in the SEC, but Wow!

SeattleDan, I feel your pain for your Bruins. Murray, your Wolverines got it done. Boy, did they get it done. Waterfowler, that was a cliffhanger for the Longhorns at UCF. Who’d I miss ‘mongst the College Football Felbernauts? I haven’t yet seen the Harvard score.

Uh, hello, quack, quack. The Nike Ducks abuse Fresno State and go 3-0 in the preseason. And the mascot didn’t even have to help.

We’re not that bad this year! Whew!

It´s okay, Tennessee. It´s tough trying to win with a team of all Volunteers.

I gotta start watching Spike again. This guy may have a future in comedy writing. Maybe.

Dave, Zooker took some Saurian Mojo with him to Evanshevski Land. He recruits with a vengeance. I think I read somewhere recruiting was Evanshevski’s key, too. Said he’d go out into the corn deserts looking for farm boys. When he’d ask for directions, if the kid pointed with the plow he’d offer him a scholarship.

piglet, sounds like you are as annoyed as I am by that damned swoosh. I was thinking Saturday We’re the Florida Gators, not the damned Nike Gators. Between that and the decal patriotism…

cooper, that damned enemy’s air force pizza is a primary sponsor of Gator coaches’ shows, that and some pulp-free orange juice. Pulp free, for chrissake? Ranks right up there with instant grits for Huh?

A fascinating interview with James Carroll (writes a column for the Boston Globe) on the historic and present roles of religious fundamentalism in America:

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174837/tomdispatch_interview_james_car roll_american_fundamentalisms

OK, enough links for a while…

David, I think if I expressed annoyance at Nike, I would be excommunicated and anti-alumnized from the University of Oregon since Phil Knight, Grand Poobah of Nike, pretty much funds the entire athletic department.

I’m just calling it like it is. It’s Phil’s program.

David, I just read the interview at TomDispatch.com, and all I can say is WOW! What a brilliant, terrifying exposition of how the U.S. got to be where it is. Things I’ve been thinking for years, stated more clearly than I could say them. Everyone should read this!

Man, how ’bout them Beaners, man?

Ann, it’s always good to run across a fellow Village People fan.

What? She was talking sports? Who knew.

Nevermind. Forget I was here.

Okay, since OJ’s in the slammer without bond, let me take this moment to bring out a couple of paintings that he had secreted away in the 24 hours before the Goldmans’ moving van pulled up to the his house in Brentwood. I keep my ear to the ground about such things, heh heh, and managed to convince the doorman, Al Cowling, that I was OJ’s third cousin, once removed, for Ottumwa, IA (I had a killer tan that summer, plus Al has always been a real dipshit). OJ was on a mission to hide as much of his wealth from the Goldmans as possible, so he was spiriting away whatever he could to friends and family to keep under wraps for him. Al handed me a pair of diamond cuff links and had me sign a receipt for them. I palmed those cuff links and in one motion dropped them into my suit pocket and brought out a cheap-ass pair from J.C. Penney, acted insulted and pissed off and threw them under the sofa in the sitting room. While Al went to lift up the sofa (with one hand; quite impressive!) and retrieve them, I used that instant to rip the two paintings off the foyer walls and beat feet, as they say. Turns out they’re a Renoir and a van Gogh; what great luck! I hid them in an abandoned copper mine near Nine Mile, MT and waited for OJ to either die or wind up under ice again.

The stars have finally aligned, dear friends, and today is your dance with destiny. As you can see, these paintings are real beauts and are “a steal” at an opening bid of $147 million. Not to worry, folks - OJ’s posse will be keeping a low profile for a while, so they won’t be kicking your door down and rushing into your house, with guns drawn - at least not in the immediate future. Life is short, so savor every moment you have left with this art painted by some really troubled, but swell guys. Call in your bids now; operators are standing by.

Dave VE,

Apology accepted.

I did my undergraduate work in a small college south of Chicago and was accepted to grad school at both Illinois and Michigan. Had Michigan not given me the nod I’d be an Illini.

Yes ‘89 and ‘97 were our years.

CF was a scare David. The ‘horns are good this year, but a long way from overpowering. If they can beat OU, they’ve got a chance.
Mr. Coop, how’d my Texans look over in the Carolinas? They’ve got a chore in front of them named Manning.
David, I read the interview w/ Carroll. I didn’t disagree w/ most of what he said, but I think he makes a leap from the “Crusades” to me, or modern evangelicals, that just isn’t the case.
Susie, what’s your team?

waterfowler,

I realize that evangelicals are not all monolithic, nor do they march in lockstep. None of the evangelicals I know do, one a cousin who is an evangelical preacher and another who is the wife of an evangelical preacher ( a conservative evangelical, he nonetheless opposed the invasion and occupation of Iraq for mostly the same reasons as most of the FanApers).And you’ve never seemed two-dimensional, as do evangelical leaders who get most of the press’s attention and have the largest tv performance arenas.

Unfortunately Bush and the most notorious of those evangelicals are. Pat Robertson used to “review the troops,” that is the US-backed Contra guerillas, dressed in an ersatz military style. I’m still trying to figure out which Jesus he was worshipping, or for that matter any religious leader who subscribed to America’s right to wage military combat against “godless Communism,” which was certainly a crusade, as opposed to our obligation to confront actual military aggression by any government of any sectarian persuasion.

Re the ‘Horns, I still want to see a 16-foot gator and a three-quarter-ton longhorn on the sidelines of a national title game (maybe 2009?)

Lucky students. Your mom sounds like the kind of English prof I’d have put on my you’ve-got-to-take-one-of-her-classes-if-you-can-get-in list. And just a touch of envy toward you for being able to claim such a person as your mom, as well as toward Adam and Susie for being able to claim Edith Layton (Ouch! No, Mom, I don’t want to trade you in - never did and never will - and who knew a mother could come back to the land of the living long enough to deliver a such a solid dope-whack? But then Grandma does anytime I’m guilty of bad manners, so why am I surprised?)