Quick Hits- "For The New Decade, And Beyond, Mr. Spock"

To any and all...Happy Twenty-Ten!!!!!

(1). "Y2k"....it seems like only yesterday. And obviously there are a few young readers who have no idea what I'm referring to.

(2) Biggest story of the last decade....obviously 9/11 and its aftermath. Runnerup- the economic meltdown of 2008. Also- Hurricane Katrina, the rise of Barack Obama, the collective Bush Years, Iraq, Afghanistan, the proliferation of "reality TV"....and the how technology changed our lives forever.

(3) Holding that thought about how technology changed our lives- for some reason I was thinking about 2001: A Space Odyssey- probably because we are now in the year of its sequel, 2010. Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick created a scenario in the original 2001 where the computer, "HAL 9000" actually becomes a villain when it senses that the mission of the Jupiter-bound spacecraft is in jeopardy, and begins to kill off the crew members. In the real New Millennium we don't have murderous computers trying to systematically whack us. But what has happened is a dependency on this wonderland of new technology in which we feel lost when we are denied it, even for short periods of time. Do you think that's a stretch? Well, look at what happened a couple of weeks ago with the glitch that prevented Blackberry usage. People seemed lost; some even went into a panic. How many people have the need to have their devices on all of the time, and never- ever- turn them off.

No....mankind has no morphed into robots. But there is a kind of cyborgization that is going on- the technology is starting to rule and dominate lives rather than be there to serve us. And that is dangerous on a psychological level.

"Man does not live by bread alone". But he has voluntarily added a variety of electronic appendages which it seems have taken over aspects of life...."down time" is a thing of the past, and everybody is "on", 24/7. Frankly, I don't think that's a good.....or a healthy....thing.

(4). Charlie Daniels plays a mean fiddle, Ed "Too Tall" Jones is still "too tall", and Elmer Fudd still has trouble with the letter "R". OK GEICO, we get it. The same commercials on again and again and again.

But I suppose we have to live with these new ads. The Cavemen appear to be occupied.

(5). I will give him some credit where it is due- Rush Limbaugh seems to be coming around, if ever so slightly. He was recently hospitalized for chest pains while vacationing in Hawaii. he was treated at Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, and according to a report from ABC News the doctors found nothing wrong.

But here's what I found interesting....at least he is, by implication, admitting that President Obama might be a native US citzen after all.

Stay with me, OK? Limbaugh came out with this quote at his news conference...

"Based on what happened to me here, I don't think there is one thing wrong with the American healthcare system. It is working just fine".

So he admitted to the press that he was treated by the American healthcare system, while in Hawaii; therefore, by implication, the worldly Mr. Limbaugh is saying that Hawaii actually IS part of the United States.

And if that is the case, and Barack Obama has a birth certificate (plus a birth announcement in a local paper) from Hawaii he, our Chief Executive and Commander-In-Chief, must have been born in the United States.

So to any "birthers' out there....your man Rush just dissed you and your moronic theories.

So stop mouth breathing and deal with it!

(6). I went to the Rutgers women's basketball game this afternoon and watched them almost snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. A ten point lead with less than four minutes to go shrank to two with less than 15 seconds left....they survived with 60-57 win over DePaul. They still have a ton of growing up to do.

(7). The destruction in the Sugar Bowl of Cincinnati by Florida 51-24- and record setting performance by Tom Tebow- will give the critics of the Big East more fuel for their fiery rhetoric that the conference is not worthy of an automatic BCS bid. As a Big East fan, it was too much to watch. I turned it off at halftime and watched old reruns of the 1950's western HAVE GUN- WILL TRAVEL with Richard Boone for the duration. Paired with the loss by West Virginia at the Gator Bowl to Florida State 33-21, New Year's Day wasn't so good for the Big East. Today UCONN handled South Carolina rather easily 20-7 in THE PAPA JOHN's, and USF beat Northern Illinois in The INTERNATIONAL BOWL 27-3. Overall the Big East finished the bowl season 4-2. Its nice to have a winning record, and it is good for the conference. But its hard to spin a beating of the conference champion in a BCS game the way Cincy was destroyed- it was men vs boys, the Washington Generals vs the Globetrotters....it was a situation where one team didn't appear worthy of sharing the same space as the other.

And I'm pulling my punches here.

In order for the Big East to regain the respect it had before Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College bolted for the ACC the conference has to schedule out of conference better, and it has to be competitive in BCS games, year in and year out.

And that goes for my beloved Rutgers Scarlet Knights as well...no more two 1AA opponents.

(8). In closing......thank you Coach Bowden! There will never be anyone quite like you again.

"Daddgummitt!"