Thursday, July 8, 2010
It's time to call it quits...
I know I've messed around with this idea before, but now after 3,605 posts, I really feel like this blog has run its natural course.
Since I started The Donnybrook back in December 2003, I've had some of the greatest experiences of my life.
My amazing wife and I had two incredible kids and have watched them grow into the smartest, funniest people in the world.
I finally got to watch one of my favorite sports teams reach the top of the mountain and bring a championship home to Philadelphia.
I've met and/or reconnected with some very cool people thanks to this blog, and I'm sure I'll still be talking to all of you on Facebook and elsewhere in the future.
Thanks for listening to what I've had to say and for continuing to read even at times when my level of creativity was almost non-existent.
It's been a real pleasure, everyone. It really has. Even when we've fought about politics, sports or whatever, it's always been fun.
Thanks also to everyone who contributed to the site. Especially john, who brought a very clear-headed voice to a website run by a dope like me.
Thanks once again to all of you. I'm really gonna miss this...
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Fuck, shit, god damn it, fuck, damn it, damn it, DAMN IT, SHIT, FUCK, GOD DAMN IT!!!
This is how it feels to be a Phillies fan right now.
But I'm ok now.
Calmo...
UPDATE: Some needed perspective about the Phillies current woes:
Phillies record after 81 games in 2008: 43-38 (Went on to win World Series)
Phillies record after 81 games in 2009: 43-38 (Went on to win NL pennant)
Phillies record after 81 games in 2010: 43-38 (Go figure...)
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Great Judgment, Great Timing...
Why do this? What is the point...to keep it real? to show that you can have a party without any gunplay?
Whomever is advising Mike Vick is not serving him well.
DOD Feeds BP...
- In fiscal 2009, BP was the department's largest single supplier of fuel, providing 11.7 percent of the total purchased, and in 2010, its contracts amount to roughly the same percentage, according to DLA spokeswoman Mimi Schirmacher...... the agency could not meet its requirements without BP fuel.
Friday, July 2, 2010
The head of the Republican party thinks Obama started the war in Afghanistan...
No wonder he got the gig. He's as ill-informed as the rest of these mouthbreathers...
"Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama's choosing. This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in."And it's certainly not something the U.S. has been engaged in since October 2001...
--Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Is Vick done?
With the Eagles for a few games due to suspension?
With the Eagles for good?
With the NFL for good?
As blind as Andy Reid and the Eagles front office tend to be when it comes to conduct issues the Eagles are not the Bengals. I don't think they'll be dumb enough to keep this congenital liar-thug around. This story is gaining legs and Vick has been less than truthful, a trait Arthur Blank and Roger Goodell are familiar with. Now Vick's parole officer can get to know this side of him. I think it's about even money right now that he is gone from the league.
"Louie" is friggin' brilliant...
Like Louis CK, the comedian, "Louie" the TV show is downright brutal...and hilarious.
It's on at 11pm on Tuesdays on FX. You've gotta see it...
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
The Heart of Our Deficit and Debt Problems is......Us!
There is no doubt that neither party in Washington is fiscally responsible. But how can they be when their voters aren't either? Republicans who don't vote for every tax cut proposed don't last long. Democrats who don't vote for their constituents priorities don't last long either? Anyone who suggests that we should all pay higher taxes and get less services for them is a goner, too.
Everyone can agree that we need to make cuts. But when you look at the details, and the devil is always in the details, people can't come up with things to cut, and that translates very easily to lawmakers not taking action.Everyone seems to think that THEY should not have to sacrifice anything and that someone ELSE should pay more and get less. I don't have any expectations of our debt picture getting any better, regardless of which party wins elections. The problem is not the two parties - it is the voters. US...Melman hits it on the head:
Take cutting funds for K-12 education. A whopping 73 percent were opposed to states cutting money for schools.
How about cuts to money going to police, fire departments or other public safety officials? Nope. Seventy-one percent oppose that.
How about cutting healthcare services? Sorry, 65 percent oppose that.
Since Ronald Reagan, Republicans have made electoral hay out of stigmatizing federal spending as going to “welfare queens.” “Waste, fraud and abuse” was their mantra. Gov. Schwarzenegger, now suffering through his own personal budget hell, is perhaps being forced to do penance for the absurd claim, made repeatedly in his winning campaign ads, that the way to get control of California’s budget was simply to audit the state’s books, implying that once the waste, fraud anId abuse were eliminated, budget problems would disappear too.
The left is no less culpable. For decades, Ralph Nader raised money (and consciousness) by telling us that government spending was all perks and corporate welfare, while Sen. William Proxmire ridiculed science spending.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
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Republicans attack Elana Kagan by shitting on Thurgood Marshall...
That seems like a reasonable line of attack. Justice Marshall isn't a hero to many in this country or anything.
On a side note, isn't it interesting to see a white Republican Senator from Alabama named Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, III paint the first African-American Supreme Court Justice as a bad guy?
The GOP really seems to be serious about minority outreach, don't you think?
Friday, June 25, 2010
Various
- Michael Vick is still on probation and is not supposed to be hanging out with hefelons, particularly his dogfighting buddies. He does not seem to get it. He still acts as though he feels entitled and seems immature.
- I'm glad that Democrats got a financial reform bill passed. They would not have had much chance of doing it after the mid-term elections. Of the 35 races that are currently considered toss-ups, all but one are currently Democratic seats.
- If Republicans pick up a net of 41 seats and take back the House of Representatives in November, it could have a silver lining for Obama, though not his immediate agenda. The 2012 presidential race will be a different sort of race if Republicans take back the House.
- I hope the Democrats can use the oil spill to shame a few Senate Republicans into voting for the "spill bill."
I love this song...
Since it wasn't a big hit, I'm curious to see how many of you have heard it.
"Only a Memory" by The Smithereens
Have a great weekend, everybody...
Thursday, June 24, 2010
"...the NFL's record book is nearly worthless right now."
That's the best point made in the linked article about the effect of switching to an 18-game season. I tend to roll my eyes a bit whenever people start blathering on about how this or that NFL players was the "all-time" best. Comparing very different eras invalidates the notion of "best-ever."
- You've had the squeezing of the hash marks closer to the center of the field in 1972. You've had the moving of the goalposts from the goal line to the end line two years after that. You've had the endless rules to favor offensive linemen along with offenses in general. You've had the penalization of defenders just for breathing on quarterbacks.
And before 1960 there were only 12 games to a season. You simply cannot compare a season record for a player who played 12-14 games to those who played 16 or 18. You can make single-game comparisons more fairly, but even there, the rule changes have had serious effects on how the game is played. The record book is not completely worthless. But it is close. It's fun for fans and commentators to talk about records as though they are some objective measure of an accomplishment, but it is largely a bullshit concept.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Quite the Sports Record...
The score is 59 games each and counting. In ONE set. The longest match in tennis history is still going.
- The first-round match between 23rd-seeded John Isner of Tampa, Fla., and qualifier Nicolas Mahut of France already had been suspended because of fading light Tuesday night after the fourth set.
- ...the numbers [are] truly astounding: They played 881 points, 612 in the fifth set. Isner hit 98 aces, Mahut 95 -- both eclipsing the previous high for a match at any tournament, 78. And this cannot be emphasized enough: They are not finished. No one won. The match will continue, stretching into a third day.
