Oh yeah, My annual Birthday blog has been delayed until next year, due to lack of interest on my part, any questions, feel free to ask. In it's place I will give these tidbits:
My brother got me a juggling kit, but I don't really juggle.
My woman got me some good books on politics and Government, a couple of really cool time period pieces on the former Soviet Bloc
My Dad forgot my birthday :(
Nothing has really changed all that much in a year.
I got older, maybe wiser, maybe not. I bitched a lot about the government, things only got worse. Maybe next year will be better, then again maybe it won't...
Until the return of the annual Birthday rant...
I bid you piece (mmmm Cheesecake!)
JC

Just read 2 interesting tidbits on the web today. First of all the "10 Commandments" judge was removed from his post! Kudos, the system does still work sometimes, at least kinda. To quote TMQ (aka Gregg Easterbrook) "Why, is the Christian right maintaining that a 5,000-pound hunk of stone has anything to do with God, faith, or higher purpose? If you've got to look at a hunk of stone in order to believe, then you don't believe." You can Find Mr. Easterbrooks Blog in the links, also his weekly Tuesday Morning QB on www.footballoutsiders.com

Secondly, apparently the wonderfully awful Vivendi Universal group has sold off MP3.com to CNet, which plans to promptly shut it down and remove all content, only to reopen it as an information site about music, with {GASP!} NO DOWNLOADS! Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't CNet a software download site??? So why are they planning to buy MP3.com, and take out all of the mp3's? Does that make any sense? Why not buy something like musicnews.com to make a news and info site with? Has everyone gone goofy???
I read through a lot of blogs while I'm sitting here at my desk day after day, and I realized today that I'm really jealous of all the people who blog from college. I miss it sometimes, actually quite a bit. Of course I wouldn't trade what I've got now for anything. It just seems less stressful now to think about the big worries of school (like paper deadlines, exams) versus the stresses of the real world (can we pay our rent this month) Memories are gray, but man they're really comin back...
{short pause for flashback}
I suppose we all have to grow up sometime...
On to some political news:
GWBush takes credit for the introduction of about 130,000 jobs in October mainly in the service and temporary industries (90% ish). That must've taken guts. Under his administration, between 2 million to 4 million (depending on who you ask) Jobs were lost, and this guy is taking credit for a hundred thou? Net result: GWBush Administration -1,870,000 to 3,870,000 Jobs lost. In my opinion, you shouldn't brag about any increase in jobs until that 2-4 mil is back working. Of course I'm sure those people are just lazy and don't want to work. Another report stated that 1/3 of Americans will have extreme difficulty putting food on the table this Holiday Season (up from an average of about 20% or 1/5 over the past 20 years) I guess under the Bush rule, approximately 13 percent of Americans just suddenly got Lazy? Hmmmm....
Have A Nice Weekend :)
JC

Yea Tho Thy Football Gods Have spoken!!!!
Actually word just came in that there is hope for the TMQ column. While it will reside no longer in the abyss of ESP(Noplug)N.com It's future still remains uncertain, yet information will be posted on Footballoutsiders.com I will be adding the link to this website as well as to my main page.
Alas we may not be without our TMQ for long.

Now on a serious note. I do not endorse or support the stupid statement made by Mr. Easterbrook, although as many bloggers can relate to, I have myself said stupid things that I'm not proud of. I can understand this oversight by this person, but as in many other things in life, there aren't many second chances. Hopefully he doesn't make this mistake again. That said, I find it absolutely idiotic and extremely disturbing that the folks over at ESP(noplug)N.com decided to erase any trace of the TMQ column ever existing there. It's kind of scary. But what's really frightening is that Michael Eisner seems to be the one who personally pulled the plug on Easterbrook. And his true intentions have come into question as well. It seems that there are accusations against the Disney/ABC CEO that he used the Anti-semitism commentary as an excuse to fire TMQ because he didn't like the fact that Easterbrook publicly insulted him on another site. So was he fired for his comments about Judaism, or because he insulted the boss? I guess only he knows for sure.
Oh and by the way, it doesn't matter what faith you are, the people who produce tripe like Kill Bill are simply out for the buck. It's sick what people do for money. Personally I have not seen the movie, so I will refrain from being too critical about it, but from what most people who have seen it have said, is that it's just a vehicle for gratuituous violence. Given that, I doubt that I will ever see it.
There, Enuff said I suppose.
More to Come....

Coming off the heels of the loss of one of the internets best free football pools (football-pool.com), now ESPN's Gregg Easterbrook (AKA Tuesday Morning Quarterback, AKA TMQ) has been relieved of his post on espn.com's page 2. More than likely due to his poorly worded but essentially true harsh criticism of Disney's Michael Eisner and Miramax's film Kill Bill. I guess you don't diss the boss publicly and expect to be around for very long (disney is ESPN's Parent company). I suppose I'll have to find more entertaining ways to pass my tuesday mornings now. (SIGH).
So are the Bears the worst team in football? Probably not, but pretty damn close. Is it just me or has pro football become a watered down talentless shell of it's former self. Where the hell are all the "Star" players (and if anyone says Brett Favre, i will beat them to death with their own shoe) Maybe I'm missing it, but I just don't see the awesome players of yesteryears being replaced by new Stars. It seems like the NFL may be going through a rut similar to the post Jordan NBA. Maybe it's the up and coming stars such as Michael Vick, Chad Pennington, etc are injured. Maybe the older guard i.e. Brett Favre, Emmitt Smith, Jerry Rice, are hanging on too long. Whatever it is, the number of games that I actually want to watch this year has dwindled from a few to just about none.
In baseball news: excite.com reports that ratings for Game 1 of the world series are up 19% wow, sounds like ol JC was wrong about the ratings drop. Well when you actually read the article and not just the headline you learn that Game one was the 3rd lowest rated World Series opener EVER. The ratings were up 19% from last year which was THE lowest rated world series opener in history. Hmmmm, sounds like ratings went overnight from the highest rated league Championship series to the third lowest World Series opener. Translation: Nobody Cares anymore. There's no curse to overcome, theres no overcoming demons from the past. There'sno thrilling who's gonna make it all the way. What it comes down to is that outside of New York, and Florida (Miami) nobody's watching this thing, because no one cares. Why, cause we all know that the Yankees are gonna win it all for the billionth time, and to be honest, even if they don't, Florida has done so much to destroy whatever fan base it had developed back in 1997, that few people there even care all that much, after all there were probably as many cubs fans watching down in florida during the LCS. But I guess thats expected when you completely dismantle a world series team and go from first to worst in 1 season. But I suppose I'm totally understanding of this being from Chicago, where this is like an annual thing for us. Ever wonder why there's so many Packer fans at a Green Bay Chicago game in Chicago. Because ladies love cool Brett? Nah, cause the stoopid a$$ bears can't fill the seats with die hard Chicago fans. It's kind of hard to do when you havent won much in the past 15 years.
Go Blackhawks???
Later

So it has come to pass that the worst possible outcome for major league baseball has occurred. Alas the Mighty Yankees have sqashed the hopes of the Boston Red Sox, and the Florida Marlins Reversed the Curse Reverse, both in game seven, both in ultra dramatic fashion, almost as if the Baseball Gods were saying, "you really didn't think that Boston and Chicago were going to win did you???" Betcha Ol Louie is enjoying that cupcake right now(see below). Unless Florida manages to Sweep the Yankees, I gots a feeling that the ratings are gonna take a nosedive on Saturday, but I guess we'll see.

Quote of the day from Cubs outfielder Moises Alou:
"They don't go to school," Alou said, "to be taught what balls not to touch."
Pure Genius.

As it seems the Cubs are on the verge of self-destructing once again, I suppose they made things at least a bit interesting. But if I were Major League Baseball, I would do everything in my power to ensure that the Cubs and/or The Red Sox make it to the big game. Because, without one of those 2 teams in the series, those oh so high ratings that have been blessing MLB will vanish like a cupcake in Louie Anderson's house (or is it Don Zimmer's?)
Later

Finally a job that Dubya is suited for :)

U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) serves up a hamburger during an unscheduled stop at Caesarios's pizzeria in Manchester, New Hampshire, October 9, 2003.
(From yahoo.com)