Das Rad

And now for something completely different…



Ein lebhaftes kurz über die Entwicklung des Menschen durch die Perspektive von zwei Steinen auf einem Hügel. The movie is in German with English subtitles.

Konkurrieren mit das, Hündinnen.

Orville Redenbacher

Another good father commercial. At first I thought this one would be another stereotypical little-girl-tea-party ad, but it breaks new ground. First, this is a black family. There are still too many narrow-minded bigots who think that black families don't even exist as such, nevermind that their little girls have the same hopes and dreams as their daughters. But the clincher is when the big brother and father dress up and fold themselves into tiny chairs to be part of the tea party, all to get some popcorn. "Napkins, napkins." Too funny. My own father would have taken the whole bowl of popcorn away from me and told me I was selfish, so you can just imagine how much I appreciate this commercial.

I've been wanting to post about this ad for a long time, but had to wait to find it on YouTube. It wasn't on the Redenbacher site.

Fatherhood

The Ad Council has several PSAs running, including two promoting good parenting by fathers, but this one is my personal favorite. Actually, this is one of my very favorite commercials, period. Who wouldn't love to have a father like this?

I hope this ad inspires a few guys to get over themselves and not be embarrassed to be good parents in whatever form that takes.

Manny being Manny

I think Jonathan Papelbon sums it up nicely:

"They make a pamphlet in Spanish and English telling you what you can and can't take," said Papelbon. "It's not that hard."

Maybe we don't know everything, but look at what is known.

Ramirez is 37 years old and is still considered one of the best hitters in baseball. Nevermind that he's a glory hound and not a team player in a team sport — he can whack the ball, which gives him the chance to stand at home plate and admire his work. We're talking about being one of the very best at doing something that is widely considered to be the most difficult thing in sports, hitting a major league pitch. You may not agree with that (I don't), but let's accept it for the sake of the discussion. How is it that people like Ramirez and Barry Bonds, among countless others, get better at this most difficult of things when they should be winding down? Power hitting is not something that improves with age. Pitching might, but not hitting. Pool players improve with age. Baseball players do not, at least not after age 35 or so.

Ramirez was suspending for failing a drug test that was administered in Spring training. He tested positive for HCG, human chorionic gonadotropin, a female hormone prescribed to stimulate female fertility, testosterone production in men and to treat delayed puberty in boys. It is also used to restart the body's natural testosterone cycle after the use of anabolic steroids. According to ESPN, testing by Major League Baseball showed that Ramirez had testosterone in his body that was not natural and came from an artificial source, two people with knowledge of the case told ESPN's Mark Fainaru-Wada and T.J. Quinn. The sources said that in addition to the artificial testosterone, Ramirez was identified as using the female fertility drug human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG. The sources said Ramirez was suspended for using hCG because baseball had documentation to prove his use of the drug…

Let the whining being.

Limburger conservatives

Christine Todd Whitman
"...we need to provide a compelling counterpoint to the Obama administration’s tax-spend-and-borrow policies…"

Michael Steele
"Well, if spending the hard-earned dollars of the American people and redistributing their wealth and moving towards a collectivist socialist approach to government, if that helps you realize you're a Democrat, then, you know, good riddance."

Was the Kool-Aid that good for the last eight years? The *Democrats* are about big government? Have you not been paying attention, or is it only bad when it's not your guy? Do you have any idea what the deficit is now (vs. what it was when the Shrub took office)? Tax-spend-and-borrow?? Who mortgaged our great-grandchildren to China?? Increased taxes on the American people? Since when do you care about taxes unless they affect the top 1% of income earners? btw, have you figured out yet that Obama is talking about raising taxes letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire, and increasing the capital gains tax for families making over $250K from 15% to 20%, which is less than the 28% tax on capital gains under your hero, Reagan? Activist judges? Can you say Patriot Act?

Financially, conservatism is a joke. It's all about the very few haves increasing their holdings at the expense of the have-not-so-much, while conning them into believing they have a shot at joining the uber-wealthy. It's about a two class system, the top 1% who have everything and control everything, and the rest of the schmucks who scrape and serve.

And now poor Rush is apoplectic over the carved-in-stone eventuality of having a disabled, black, gay, pregnant teenage girl appointed, all because Obama had the audacity to say (two years ago) that it would not be a terrible thing to have someone who had empathy for people other than their pals.

OMG, we're all going to die!!

NOT.

The drama queens are already freaking out over "swine" flu. I don't understand why people are so anxious to draw attention to themselves at any cost. And the blame game is up and running, along with the I told you so game.

Go ahead and take your kids out of school, stay home, go nowhere, have your groceries delivered, avoid your friends… sheesh. Stop tweeting every five minutes.

This too shall pass, probably in about two years. Sorry about that, dq's. I hope you're in it for the long haul.