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June 25, 2006
Random Thoughts After Two Weeks: US Version
Thoughts on happenings here in the States that occurred while I was away:
1. Schadenfreude. I've never been a fan of Shaquille O'Neal. I think he's overrated as a basketball player (put him more than five feet from the basket and he ceases to be a threat; it's true that he could be dominant in his prime, but that's due to genetics and not skillz), and his tendency toward self-aggrandizement and self-inflation can be annoying as all hell. (For example, referring to Dwyane Wade and claiming that "I knew when I came here that I had to take this young fella to the next level." Um, big guy? Wade carried your ass. All year, as a matter of fact, not just in the playoffs. You didn't take him to the next level, he pulled you back up to his.)
That said, I have put my dislike of Shaq aside and am mightily celebrating the Miami Heat's winning the NBA championship this week. I'm thrilled. I couldn't be happier. Why? Because right now, a certain rapist in Los Angeles is likley gnawing apart his own liver in a jealous rage as a result. And anything that makes Kobe Bryant miserable is something that makes me gleeful. Guess what, Kobe? Shaq has another ring! He won another world title -- without you! Your "it's all about me" team got bounced from the playoffs in one round, but Shaq went all the way back to the promised land. People think he's a champion, and that you're a selfish loser! Ha! I say. Ha!
2. Connie Chung commits murder. If there was anything left to her once-high flying career, Connie Chung killed it this week. No, she didn't just kill it; she bloodily dismembered it, Manson family-style. I don't know what the hell she was thinking... but journalists generally don't maintain credibility -- or hell, dignity -- by performing off-key musical numbers while in evening gowns, trying to play Marilyn Monroe but looking like Marla Hooch. I mean - her dismount from the piano was as clumsy as anything attempted in showbiz since David Letterman's "Oprah... Uma" joke at the Oscars a decade ago. If you haven't seen it, and if you're very brave, click here.
3. Fever. Now, the most prestigious and pre-eminent scientific body in the United States, the National Academy of Sciences, has endorsed a simple fact that any of us not involved in the Bush Administration have known through observation for a long time now: global warming is real, the earth is warmer now than it has been in 2,000 years, and humans and our activities are largely to blame. Better yet, the report was asked for by a Republican in the House, so it's difficult to charge bias (which is every conservative's automatic fallback position on every issue) when it's your own report.
What will be interesting to see is how the Bush Administration -- which has pathologically and habitualy distorted and suppressed science for its own political aims since seizing power in 2000 -- will twist, suppress or distort the findings of its own government in this report. Meanwhile, the danger to the planet keeps growing...
4. Hypocrisy. Isn't it funny how Dick Cheney -- the man who went to the Supreme Court to try and avoid having to let the people of the United States know even who was on his Energy Task Force, much less what its activities were -- is now out there trying to argue that allowing his government to search your private bank records, without your consent or even knowledge, is a perfectly legitimate use of government power?
Actually, it's not funny. It's sad. And it's just another example of how hypocritical and dangerous that man and his puppet in the White House are.
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Comments
Marla Hooch -- hehehehe. But I don't think Connie knows which end of a bat is which. Therefore, I'll take Marla.
Posted by: Eden at June 26, 2006 02:55 PM
