Time Warp

If you are reading this, then I am sorry for not providing my typically useful, insightful rants that you may have been accustomed to reading. Please take the opportunity to go back and read the May posts, which I have started backfilling today.

Not much longer now.

Ah Democracy, dies with a whimper. Now the government knows who you are calling. They are doing it to catch terrorists. I guess if you call a terrorist's number they will sit you down for a chat. If the reports are true there are tens of millions of people that they are compiling phone records from. Are that many people calling terrorist's numbers? What definition of terrorist are they using? Really what they need to do is start listening to those calls. And how much longer before they get the green light on that? They already have it for some international calls anyway.

I wouldn't presume to think everyone who follows Pat Robertson is a terrorist just because he has publicly called for the assassination of a popularly elected world leader. I wouldn't presume everyone in the NRA was in favor of the violent overthrow of the government even though many will explain that part of the foundation for a strong second amendment contemplated that possibility. Why monitor their phone calls or worse yet listen in on them.

I don't know if there is a clearer indication of the contempt and/or distrust the government has for the American people. Yet here we are in a time when people not only understand the government's motives but actually applaud them in certain circles. And I though Republicans were opposed to big government. It was supposed to be the liberal left that set up the mechanisms for totalitarianism.

Democracy in action

I read today about the tax cuts on dividends. That means tax cuts for the wealthy. And the tax package also protects many Americans who are about to be hit by the Alternative Minimum Tax.

Well my family is doing well this year. But I didn't see any Alternative Minimum Tax in sight. Exactly how well do you have to be doing to hit that bar?

Love the land of Democracy. Unfortunately in this country it seems it is one person, one vote; one dollar, one vote. Thats something different entirely than democracy, isn't it?

Route 66

I spent most of the day Saturday driving the Mother Road. It was fun, but telling. So many of the communities on the road are withering on the vine. Huge stretches of the road lie decommissioned and abandoned. The interstate, and even the reroutes of the route have sucked the life out of so many small towns which were formerly great, or at worst, someone's home.

But to me the road should still be celebrated. Not because of wonderment and days gone by, but because we chose to stake our fate on the automobile. For fortune or folly, we celebrated the car. Drive-ins, diners and the two-pump gas station abounded. Now it seems part of our history we want to forget. And not for something better. Strangely the roads and way that we drive now is not something we embrace. We want to forget the present as we drive. Forgettable superhighways, forgettable stops for fast food and gas. All in the name of the convenience in time and direction. Well, convenience isn't all I thought it would be.

Relegation

I've been watching a ton of baseball this year. I don't really know why. Well really I do know why. The Sox won last year. It was a nice change from what I'm used to. Unfortunately, I am not a baseball fan. I keep watching, and now I think I understand large parts of the sport. I can appreciate a lot of the sport. I do find it fascinating that the game is so intellectually complex, so cerebral on some levels, when played correctly. I just don't find it to be good sport. To me football (and I'm talking about soccer here) is so much more entertaining. But that's all personal preference.

My dad didn't really care for sports all that much and aside from a few Ali fights, I don't recall him ever following anyone in particular. He still doesn't. And I don't have any specific memories of him taking me to a ball game at any time, although it's possible. But I do recall going to soccer games with him.

Chicago, before 2003 was a bad town for a baseball fan. To me, although I love underdogs, a team that doesn't win a championship in 90+ years is a team that shouldn't exist. To call them an underdog is somewhat of a misnomer. Failure is a more appropriate term.

And although no one cares, I think there is a solution for such teams. Relegation. In the Premier League in England if you are one of the worst few teams in the league, you get the boot and go down to their equivalent of AAA ball. Why we don't do that here I don't know. Frankly, I think it is the only way the Cubs have a chance at success. The are owned by the Tribune company which has no incentive to improve the team so long as their ballpark is a shrine, filled with beautiful people and beer. The GM and coach are either perennially incompetent or tow the party line. And you continually hear "wait till next year." It's a lie. No one will stop going to that ballpark regardless of the product on the field. The owner makes more money by fielding a low payroll team than by fielding a good one. So what's the point? Just imagine if the Cubs were playing AAA ball along with the (former) Montreal Expos, Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Kansas City Royals. And wouldn't you love to see some scrappy guys from AAA ball elevate to the big game as a team? I know it's about as American as Fish and Chips or Mincemeat Pie but the alternative is just as rotten.