"The Naughty List", 2010 Edition

Hi!

Remember me?

I'm the guy who used to post new entries to this blog everyday......and then a funny thing happened. It's called "Christmas". From Thanksgiving until about 9PM last night (Happy Belated "Festivus", BTW) I've been running a 30 day sprint, trying to get things done before The Big Day. And finally, when I got up this morning, I looked around....and EVERYTHING IS FINALLY DONE!

Free at last! Now I know many of my fellow bloggers have been keeping up with current events, politics, and pop culture while I was making myself hysterical for the past three weeks. So why go through a rehash of everything that's been said already? Those guys know what they're talking about....I'm just a wise guy from Jersey.....no, not THAT kind of "wise guy".....maybe I should say "smart ass" instead.


But I will touch upon some of the people who deserve coal in they're stocking this Christmas.....there is a list, you know. Trust me. It does exist. I found this video on the internet that proves it.

Elf - Naughty List | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

Walter Hobbs is not alone, Buddy.....and as for New York, we'll I'll talk about that later.

But first.....here's a list of those who've made Santa's Naughty List. Some should remain on it for years.

(1). Senator Mitch McConnell- The Republican minority leader from Kentucky has earned this description from MSNBC's Chris Matthews; ".....a character from Charles Dickens.". It's hard to tell what he's for, and much easier to talk about those things he's against, like the START treaty, the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", The Dream Act, the bill for medical aid for the 9/11 first responders.....oh yeah, he is FOR the giving of billions of dollars in tax breaks to billionaires when the money could be used to aid municipalities around the nation on the brink of default.

(2). Senator John McCain- probably the biggest political sellout of the early 21st century. The Republican who ran for the presidency on the motto "Country First" opposes START, was a leading voice to kill the repeal of DADT, has swung way right on immigration issues, and called the Zadroga 9/11 First Responder's bill "fooling around" in a speech on the floor of the US Senate. The once proud maverick has morphed into The Angry Old Man of the Senate

3). Governor Chris Christie- the guy blows a $400 million government grant to education, then tries to blame the Obama Administration for the New Jersey delegation's error, and when that doesn't work he throws his education chief under the bus. His personal war on the teacher's union has led to referring to New Jersey students as "drug mules", carrying information from teacher union leadership home with them, and his allying himself with conservative gonzo filmmaker James O'Keefe. There's a lot more to say about this guy, but time is limited. The governor, who's personal style reminds me of Billy Martin at his worst, is finally starting to have some veneer wear off of his once somewhat (by GOP standards in New Jersey) lofty status. Recent polls have shown his job approval dropping 5% in the past month, while disapproval in New Jersey shot up to 48%.

4). Sarah Palin- much can be said why she belongs on the naughty list. But this year it's because Santa is afraid the former half term governor of Alaska will shoot one of his reindeer.

5). BP- It's not cool to pollute our waters....and even worse when some of our political leaders, like Texas Congressman Joe Barton apologized to BP's CEO when President Obama took the company to task for the Gulf Oil Spill of 2010.

6). Oh yeah....Joe Barton. You're on the list, too.

7). The New York Giants. You guys were beating the Eagles by 21 points (31-10) with less than eight minutes to play.....and lost 38-31! C'mon, man! All of you belong on the list after that one.

8). The NCAA- the governing body of college sports has decided to punish five Ohio State football players for selling personal items, trophies, and awards by suspending them for the first five games of the 2011 season. OK, the "student athletes" bypassed the rules laid down by the NCAA. But all five players remain eligible to play in next week's Sugar Bowl game. So when is a suspension not a suspension? When it impacts the showcase of a BCS bowl, and the big bucks a BCS game generates. Shame on you, NCAA.

9). LeBron James- to paraphrase Michael in GODFATHER II, "You broke our hearts, Fredo......I mean, LeBron". So speaketh the hurting sports fans of the city of Cleveland. But this video says it better than I ever could.


And finally.....

10). Rex and Michelle Ryan- the head coach of the New York Jets and his wife have been making some news lately......is it naughty?


Actually...it's not THAT naughty. Maybe even kind of nice.

That is, if you're into that kind of stuff.

I wonder if they exchange argle socks for Christmas?

Quick Hits For January 6, 2010- BCS Championship Edition

As I tip my big toe back into the real world after taking an extended celebration of the Christmas/ New Year's Holidays....and not having much ambition or desire to get back in the political trenches for a while...its time for some (DRUM ROLL PLEASE) "Quick Hits"

(1)"Unreal World World of Sports, Pt1". I'm a fan of WFAN (New York) radio's Mike Francesa, even though he'll take a shot at a person or a sports team that I might might think as being fair. And, to be candid, I did refer to his show on these pages as being a "bully pulpit with bully being the operative word". That was probably after he slammed Rutgers for some reason- he can't help himself; it must be in his DNA.

But I find myself agreeing with Mike 95% of the time. Yesterday Francesa made a plea to the BCS and the NCAA- enough of stretching the BCS bowls past New Year's Day through the next week until the BCS Championship Game in the first week of January.

This year the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl were both played on New Year's Day, last Friday. There were several lower tier bowl games on Saturday (the International, the PapaJohn's.com, and the Chick-fil-A), and Sunday was the last day of the regular NFL season. The BCS games resumed on Monday with a great Fiesta Bowl won by Boise State over TCU, and Tuesday gave us the Orange Bowl, another entertaining game where Iowa beat Georgia Tech.

Sadly....few people really cared about those last two games. They were lost in the shuffle of the pairings for the upcoming NFL playoffs, decided on Sunday. These games were supposed to be showcase events leading up to Thursday's championship game between Texas and Alabama. The idea was to let these games stand alone as a reward- and a showcase- for the programs involved. Instead, the opposite has seemed to happen- apathy from the sports world with the exception of only the most die hard college football fans.

Back in the day the major bowl games were all held on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. By midnight on New Year's Day, we had an idea who the new champion of college football was going to be, even though they were unofficial titles bestowed by the Associated Press and United Press International (later by USA Today and by the Coaches' Poll). New Year's Eve and New Year's Day were all about college football- it was like a second Christmas for the college football junkie, it was the time we looked forward to all season.

And by tampering with this imperfect system, the Lords of College Football have managed to diminish the product they sought to extol. By stretching the BCS bowls past January 1 the NCAA and the BCS blundered badly. Playing major bowl games on the day after the day after the day after New Year's they managed to marginalize these games. There are 12 teams alive in the NFL for the post season, and January belongs to the NFL- college football becomes a footnote, with the exception of the championship game, which serves as a diversion for the NFL fans until Wild Card Weekend.

The BCS needs to return its four non championship games to their original home, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Play the Fiesta and the Sugar on December 31st, and the Rose and Orange on Jan 1st. Then play the BCS Championship game on the first Monday after New Year's Day, or the Monday after the Sunday the NFL season concludes. This would restore the tradition to the games that they have known for decades. If its all about TV ratings, and the greed and poor judgement of corporate sponsors...and I suppose it is...this will never be remedied.

And that's unfortunate.

(2) As far as the BCS championship game. I'm picking the Texas Longhorns to beat the Alabama Crimson Tide 27-17.

Why?

Very simply, I like Texas coach Mack Brown a lot. And I don't care much for 'Bama Coach Nick Saban at all.

Hey, if you want in depth analysis, go to ESPN.com.

Those guys are a helluva lot smarter than me.

(3)"The Unreal World of sports, Part 2"- Today on Mike and Mike on ESPN radio Greeny and Golic had a minor debate about fans and the craziness attributed to them. Golic, a former NFL player, didn't seem to "get it"....fans really think they can change the outcome of a game from their actions- and Greeny concurred.

What Mike Golic doesn't understand its about karma, or the Butterfly Effect, or alternate universes and quantum physics- I know this because I believe this myself. For example, if I'm at my computer while watching the Yankees on TV, I have to stay there until the conclusion of the game, because if I don't give them my full support from my seat in my computer room, the space/time continuum will be totally messed up, and they'll lose because I wasn't where I was supposed to be.

Yankee fans worldwide will be up in arms, and it would be my fault.

If I go to a Rutgers football or basketball game and they win, I must wear the same clothes I wore to the game to the the next game to keep the karma going. If the weather turns colder I'll wear the original clothes under a layer of outerwear. And if I do this and they lose, it can't be my fault....its because one of the 50,000 other fans didn't wear the same clothes from last week.

But just to be on the safe side, after each loss I'll change outfit, and repeat the process until we have an appropriate winning streak going.

Yeah, I know how weird it sounds. But it could be much worse. Take, for example, another WFAN personality, Joe Benigno. Joe B is an avid Knicks, Rangers, Mets, and Jets fan- and he has said on air there is a curse on him. He believes his love for his teams is the source of much of the agony he experiences on this earth.

If you're a sports fan, you "get it".

The Buddha once said "Life is suffering".

The Enlightned One must have been a Mets fan.