My Dumb Ass

The only thing my dumb ass was right about this whole season with the Bears...is they'd give up two defensive TDs and let the other team get one score off a turnover. And that's it for that. The Bears D really played great in the 2nd half and Urlacher had some of his finest moments since the Monday Nighter against the Cardinals in 06, but it wasn't enough.

Fun and surprising season for me. I thought the Bears would be mediocre and were on their way to being worse than that after dropping games to the Seahawks and the Foreskins but hey, they gave Chicago sports fans a heckuva ride.

Here's hoping Cutler is ok.

Except for the piece of crap who took some not so clever digs at Cutler after the game, good luck to the Pack and their fans. They have really been a great team to watch this year. It sucks that they beat the Bears, but you have to tip your hat to guts (running Favre and his wang out of town and turning things over to a technically superior QB in Rodgers), greatness (D Capers and his new twists on his classic defensive schemes...I still don't get what he's doing half the fucking time, but I know it works) and building through the draft. The Packers' staff and front office displayed all those thing.

The Bears could learn from that.

NFC Stands for No Fucking Clue

…if you ask me. Now please bear in mind…

BEARS!

Bear in mind as I offer these football ruminations that I thought the Bears (at the beginning of the season) would be 8-8

I thought the acquisition of Mike Martz was desperation and most acts of desperation tend to resemble acts of stupidity with like a clock running or a lion about to jump on you or something like that.

I thought Lovie's act (and more importantly his defense) was played out in Chicago and in the NFL as well. But then, I've been wrong about a lot of things in Chicago sports.

Here's a list

1. Jerry Reinsdorf purchases the WhiteSOX, threatens to move them Tampa Bay and I am sure that bastard will try to run the team always and forever on the cheap, and my favorite sports thing in Chicago will never win anything or even worse - become the Tampa Bay WhiteSOX

2. Jerry Reinsdorf's investment group takes over the Bulls and I am sure they are doomed to never win anything even thought they have the greatest player who ever lived (or is it "that" ever lived...see, I'm even wrong about that)

3. The Bulls, after being eliminated by the Pistons, fire Doug Collins and hire Phil Jackson to which I say, "Who?" I thought he'd be easier for Krause and Reinsdorf to control...and he turned out to probably be the greatest coach in NBA history

There are so many things I got wrong, let's skip ahead to this millennium where I almost quit my beloved WhiteSOX when they traded Carlos Lee for a guy who, again at the time, I called, "Scott Pudwhonik?"

oh, I also thought Chicago's baseball team would be better served hiring Cito Gaston rather than Ozzie Guillen

Wow, that's a big, steaming pile of wrong.

And that's why I watch sports. It is the only thing on tv that surprises me more often than not. It reminds me and provides direct evidence of what I don't know, where my reasoning can go so obviously wrong

The Tampa Two, and more importantly, Lovie's scheming has proved to be adaptable to a great number of different situations...the same with Martz's offense

When the team looked like utter crap against the Seahawks and the Redskins before the bye week, I though the only fun I'd have watching football this year was to see Bret Farve hit so hard, his wang would fall off...

So glad that I was wrong again

Bears fans have been blessed by a hell of a season. Too bad it will end in disappointment on Sunday when the Bears lose to the Packers 21-20

Here's hoping my wrong streak continues

GO BEARS!!!! Win the Superbowl and make me look like a jerkass again...

Not that I don't do it myself all the time, it's just nice to have someone or something else to blame

What's Up Baby Doc

I am not sure what is weirder, the Bears playing the Packers next week for the NFC crown with the possibility of Virginia McCaskey presenting the George Halas Trophy to Green Bay on Chicago's home field

...or Baby Doc's return to Haiti...

I think I'm gonna have to go with Baby Doc. The Swiss govt just freed up $4 mildo last year which allowed him to live in Paris with a longtime companion. He leaves that to return to Haiti and face the possibility of arrest for his crimes as leader in the 70's and 80's.

Virginia McCaskey ought to shove the George Halas Trophy up his ass.

As the political philospher Yosemite Sam once said, "Dictators is so stupid!"

...especially the ones who return to the scene of the crime to inspect the rubble.

I hope it doesn't sound like I'm blaming the earthquake on Baby Doc, I'll leave that to Pat Robertson or Wyclef. Just the stupidity and vanity of famous people amazes me sometimes. That is probably more of an indication of my own stupidity.

Maybe I should watch more tv

Point Spread Player Hater

It is games like today that I wish I was still a point spread player. As bad as I was...and I was very, very bad...I lived for those lines that showed the Bears too much love. I don't know what it is at this moment, but earlier in the week you could take the Seahawks and get 10 points.

Holy damn shit!

I think the Bears are going to win, but I also think that defense can give up some touchdowns late, especially to a QB like Hassleback who will identify the weak cover guys. Betting a game like today's is nothing but fun. If it is a rout, well the Bears are kicking the other team's collective ass and I always enjoy that. If it is close or the other team manages to win, you feel like a genius and have a little money to lose the next week.

Of course there is a reason Vegas has all the money so what the hell do I know?

GO BEARS!

Shorter and Sweet

There is no doubt this country will never be cool enough for its great indigenous music, but that doesn't mean we should ignore some remarkable sounds that take our minds away from bad things and transport them someplace else

Sometimes, someplace really wonderful

Listen to this now and thank me later

Or not

Just don't shoot fer the love of Mike.

And who doesn't love my Cousin Mike?

What Sort of Madness

I don't know what the motives of today's shooting were, I'm not sure I care. When things like this happen I always hope that the person is simply a monster who abandoned or lost their humanity and became a thing, for a time or forever. That is probably a strange thing to hope for but it is difficult to make sense out of the senseless.

I know people and news outlets are going to try whatever story they want to tell. I am not all that interested in their stories or blaming one side or the other for charging up the violence. My story is about the poison of ideology no matter who is enslaved by it. Ideology on the left leading students in another time to bomb buildings to end war, ideology on the right that might have led a troubled man to reduce a Federal building and the daycare inside it to rubble...the list of the simple hammer of limited thought breeding violence is long and depressing and makes less sense than the anarchist who killed McKinley saying it was his duty to shoot this man.

Ideology and the furvor it can bring, whether on the left or the right makes men less than animals. I need to site no other example than today. I do it, not because I have a pony in either ideology or the goods they may tangentially espouse. I do it because I know something that I choose to remind readers of this blog. Ideology put directly, without understanding mitigating circumstances, into action tends towards madness.

The political atmosphere is highly charged. Is this what we can expect going forward? Are there going to be folks, especially in an institution like the HofR who will suffer, be sacrificed in a sense to the absurdity and monstrous potential for violence that can grip a country like ours based on freedom...

Our beautiful country...

Our leaders shot through the head, hanging on to life because some ideologue some cumswilling gnat (and their partner?) who think they know something about America who love freedom so much they are willing to extinguish the life of a nine year old to take their politics to the street...

Ideology, that great useless shortcut to thinking can only lead to one goddamned thing...

Blood in the streets.

The Price of an Education

Andrew Luck has decided to remain on the Stanford football team for one more year...

He was sure to be the Number One pick and almost certain to earn between his contract and signing bonus 50 million dollars...

That's a fine thing. The young man loves school. He wants to learn.

I have a pretty good idea what he is going to learn next year...

OH MY GOD! I JUST PASSED UP $50 MILLION TO BE AN ARCHITECT IN A MARKET WHERE NOBODY HAS ANY MONEY TO BUILD A DAMN THING! I COULD'VE BEEN A QUARTERBACK IN THE NFL, THEN MY COACH LEFT, I FOUND OUT THAT COLLEGE SPORTS IS A DIRTY GREEDY FUCKING BULLSHIT BUSINESS, A BIGGER SCAM THAN PRO SPORTS BY A LONG SHOT, I FELL ON MY SHOULDER, MY HEAD FELL OFF AND NOW I HAVE TO TRY AND LIVE ON A $150,000 DOLLARS A YEAR IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA!

I AM SO FUCKED!

I wish I was smart enough to teach at a place like Stanford because if that kid walked into my classroom, I would simply, and in a nonjudgmental way chuckle and say to him, "Good luck dumbass."

Reading the Constitution

I love this country, weirdness and all but can someone please tell me what purpose reading the US Constitution serves during the first week of the 112th Congress? Like me, I'm sure many of the members had to read it in junior high or high school or during times of uncertain bowel movement. And if you've made it all the way to the House of Representatives without having read the damned thing I say, why start now?

Maybe they should have Alan Gribben read it. This time he could substitute the word "people" with "slave"

Beauty and Darkness

Fun night last night. Thanks and much love to the familes that came out and filled our house with fun and laughter for New Year's Eve.

Enjoying being a fat and dopey slug today.

On the recommendation of Bill Garver I saw True Grit this afternoon. The Coens' film echoes what I have always believed about America. Her landscapes are high and magnificent. The people are driven and nearly insane.