Tongue-Tied and Twisted, Just an Earth-Bound Misfit, I

Anyone who knows me well knows that I was not blessed with any artistic ability. When I doodle, which is not often, I find myself drawing a series of geometric shapes forming some larger, abstract shape. However, my lack of artistic ability has never suppressed my ability to appreciate the work of others. In my old apartment, paintings graced the wall in each room. My favorite painting, a reproduction of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, currently hangs above my couch in my living room. Hardly an art connoisseur…

Earlier this week, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) unveiled an exhibit at the Atlantic-Pacific subway station in Brooklyn. Along the walls, all throughout the station hang the reproduction of famous works by Pollack, Dali, Van Gogh, Warhol, et al. I have always been skeptical of anything New York City does in the name of art. The Gates of Central Park were supposed to add color during the gloomy days of the winter, yet I do not know of any person who enjoyed them. This past summer, the city unleashed The Waterfalls on the East River. But the eyesore of scaffolding took away from any beauty that could come from seeing a waterfall from beneath the Brooklyn Bridge. While on a smaller scale, this latest attempt by the city hits the mark. For those who are too consumed in the daily rigors of life to find the time to enjoy the MOMA, the MOMA has brought the art to you. I implore anyone who walks through the station, to slow down, look around, and enjoy… I know I will…

Does Alex Rodriguez deserve to be in the Hall of Fame after he finishes his career? The answer to this question is an unequivocal yes.

Baseball has been around for over a hundred years and it will be around for another hundred. The game has changed over time and has endured what could be described as different eras. The players of the “Dead Ball Era” cannot and are not compared to the players of today. How can one expect any pitcher of today to break Cy Young’s records when pitchers are used differently. The game itself is just too different…

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As per the news article from Bloomberg.com

The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nation’s home mortgages.

Consider the absurdity of that statement. Our government will have committed $9.7 trillion to help address the financial crisis and yet the economy has shown no signs of improvement. At the heart of this economic meltdown, exists a housing market that while still crashing, will not enable a recovery to take place. Now image if the government used that $9.7 trillion to specifically address the housing bubble…what would be the ramifications? Would the economy continue to veer south or would recovery be just over the horizon? Would foreclosures cease as to allow financial firms the ability to recoup some of their losses?

When a cancer patient comes to the doctor’s office complaining of feeling ill, is it in the best interest of the patient to have the doctor treat the cancer or treat the symptoms?  Our government has pledged an ungodly amount of money that it does not have at treating the symptoms of the economic crisis… it’s time to wake up and treat the cancer. Sometimes the most painful solution is the course that one should take.

Yet another baseball star has been implicated in the steroid scandal that has consumed the sport for the last decade and this time it’s the game’s biggest name. Ever since Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record, Major League Baseball has looked upon Alex Rodriguez as the man who will one day restore dignity to the hallowed mark. However, with the announcement that Rodriguez used steroids in 2003, will baseball ever be able to escape the shadow that is the steroid era?

In 2003, Major League Baseball, in conjunction with the Player’s Union, enacted a steroid testing policy that would eventually get them ridiculed by Congress. The agreement called for anonymous testing (without the threat of penalty) during its first year and if the percentage of players caught exceeded five percent, then steroid testing would become permanent and punishment would be enacted. Without much surprise, 104 players were caught, far exceeding the five percent threshold. It was official… baseball had a steroid problem.

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When asked about the delay in Congress passing yet another economic stimulus package, the president had these words to say:

The time for action is now. If we don’t move swiftly to put this plan in motion, our economic crisis could become a national catastrophe. Millions of Americans will lose their jobs, their homes and their health care. Millions more will have to put their dreams on hold.

To me this is eerily reminiscent of the Bush administration insisting that the country would fall into depression without an immediate approval of his economic stimulus package. Why have both presidents resorted to the use of fear in hopes that their bill pass through Congress quickly? Our economic crisis could become a national catastrophe? I highly doubt that a delay of a few days, even weeks will matter much in the long run when most economists claim that the brunt of the economic stimulus package will not be spent until 2010… so what’s the hurry?
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I recently read an article about how Hamas was seizing all the aid supplies pouring into Gaza in the aftermath of the Israeli invasion. I began to read the comments regarding the article and came across the following “joke” and thought it to be quite topical… even though it borders on being somewhat racist.

What happens when a fly falls into a coffee cup?

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Last night, the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals in the closing minutes of Super Bowl XLIII. Almost immediately, the media began to fawn over the perceived greatness of the game.

Sports Illustrated writer Peter King, described the game as “the best Super Bowl ever.” Joe Henderson of the Tampa Tribune felt the game was so good that there is no further need to ever watch another Super Bowl again. Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, not only lauded game in great esteem, but exclaimed that it also featured the “best play” and “best catch” in the history of the Super Bowl. Gary Henderson of the St. Petersburg Times felt that in a hundred years, Super Bowl XLIII “will be the finest of them all.” The praise did not stop with the media. According to ESPN’s Sportsnation, fifty six percent of those polled, thought that last night’s game was better than its predecessor. I am inclined to think that those same fifty six percent are greatly mistaken.

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(Originally written on January 21, 2009)

As the world begins to embrace the new administration of Barack Obama, I felt the urge to collect my thoughts on the prior eight years and the legacy of the Bush administration. While never an ardent supporter of Clinton and his policies, I decided to support George W. Bush in his efforts to become the 43rd president of the United States when it became apparent that John McCain would lose the primary. During the election, Bush ran on a more traditional Republican platform of fiscal responsibility and a stance of neutrality on the world stage. However, as we close the door on the Bush years, he will forever be remembered as a war-mongering president who presided over the worst terrorist attack on American soil and what could eventually amount to the worst economic crisis on American soil. While it could be argued that Bush was not directly responsible for either of these events, failures in his administration have tainted these events as we look back at the last eight years.

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A few years back, I decided to collect my thoughts, random as they may be, on my MySpace Blog. While much of the time, the entries I posted were brief summaries of what I did each day, I discovered that there came great strength in expressing oneself. However, as my MySpace usage declined, so did my propensity to blog, until I stopped altogether.

Yet in the last couple of weeks, I once again felt the urge to share my thoughts, with whoever stumbled upon them. Rather than inundating Facebook with random notes, I figured I would use my knowledge of the Interweb and create my own little world in which I could rant and rave about.

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