Marathon post

Guess what? Multi post again! Take a deep breath and let’s go!

Where to begin... Oh, I have an idea. How about sports? (I’m sure most of you will skip ahead... however, this one is more of a trivia question, so maybe you might find it interesting.)

Here’s our order: Sports, movies, theater, politics, controversy, outrage. Intrigued? Read on!

Sports: Any regular reader of JMO is fully aware of my ire with the Red Sox front office regarding the continuous dismantling of the team and the frivolous trading of minor league prospects. Some may believe that my feelings are not warranted, or, at the very least, are a bit out of proportion. Alright, chew on this: There are only six teams in Major League Baseball that do not currently have a former Red Sox player on their roster. Nearly all of the remaining 24 teams have a player on the active roster! Though I did have to delve into the 40 man roster for five teams. 19 teams have at least one former BoSox on their active roster! Here’s the question: Can you name the six Red-Soxless teams?

More Sports: This just in: Jason “The Huge Headed Cheater” Giambi has torn cartilage in his left foot and will not play in the upcoming series against the Red Sox! Looks like it’ll be more of a fair fight now. HGHers playing: 0. HGHers injured: 1. (I won’t mention the, now multiple, cheater A-Rod, who was caught cheating in 2004 when he slapped the ball from Bronson’s glove and is now denying that he cheated by saying “Got it” as he passed between Toronto’s shortstop and third baseman who was attempting to make a routine catch on an infield pop up that would have ended the inning for the Yanks, preventing Matsui from scoring. Mind you it was the shortstop who went after him and had to be restrained, not the man who was called off the ball. Providing some credence that A-Rod actually said something. The third baseman wouldn’t have known who called him off, but the shortstop would have know that he didn’t say anything and heard someone else call for the ball! But I won’t mention that...)

Movies: I recently viewed the animated movie “Happy Feet.” I would say that this motion picture had some hidden agendas if they weren’t so blatantly obvious! Where do I start? The most apparent are the greenie tree hugging themes and the bull-horned anti-religion message. Mumbles, the main character, learned that the penguins shortage of fish was due to large “alien” (human) fishing vessels. He attempted to make the aliens aware of the penguins plight and was “Angered at their indifference.” Puh-Leez! Yes, yes, let’s stop fishing so the penguins can eat. Let’s stop feeding the humans so the animals can live. (Sound familiar?) He goes back to the Elders to let them know of his findings and to offer a solution. The Elders treat him as an outsider (because he dances rather than sings) and say that they must keep faith in their penguin “god” to save them. The lead Elder (Not coincidentally named Noah) shouts, “We must hold fast to our ways!” The underlying continuation of that sentence is that the end result of such a dogmatic stance is starvation. Therefore: Faith = Death. A few lesser emphasized themes were pro-illegal immigration and pro-homosexuality. Before I get a hundred comments saying that I’m reading too much into this; I admit, these are a bit of a stretch but they fall in line with the other viewpoints put forth by the movie makers (this is in no way a “film.”) I’ll support both with various plot points. Homosexuality: Mumbles can’t sing. He’s different. He’s not like the other penguins. So much so that his father basically disowns him (until his dancing saves the penguins, of course). What other type of “difference” are modern parents disowning their children for? I can only think of one... As if to highlight the fact that they had a sexual message, the animators chose to put the two main characters in three blatantly sexual positions as they “tumbled” out of the ocean onto an ice flow. All three position, by the way, could have been formed by either opposite or same sex couples. Illegal Immigration: Mumbles (an emperor penguin) meets up with other penguins (Rockhopper penguins) who accept him for who he is. He brings them to his colony. The colony immediately demands that the Rockhopper Penguins are not wanted and they need to go back where they came from. Oh, did I mention that the Rock penguins all have (again, not coincidentally) Hispanic accents? There was outrage over Jar Jar Binks and the “minority” hyenas from Lion King but this stereo-type manages to slip past those who love to be outraged? Maybe it’s because they like what they were hearing. I can think of no other reason other than a pro-illegal immigrant stance that would make the obvious racism suddenly vanish. (One more thing. Hollywood again promotes the one “ism” it believes in. Coming soon, the completely original “Surf’s Up.” An animated movie about penguins!)

More Movies: The Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer opens soon. I truly hope that I hear the same critique of this movie that Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace received. You see, I heard countless people complain that they like their heroes to be out numbered. The problem they had with SWEITPM was that there were two Jedi against one Sith. This small point was enough for them to discount the entire movie. TFFTROTSS has four heroes against one villain. Not only that, but in this episode, the four heroes have interchangeable powers! At one point, at least one of the heroes has multiple powers, being stretchy and flamey at the same time! Sounds like a crappy movie to me!

Theater: The Hartford Stage in Hartford Connecticut has pioneered a brilliant theatrical experience. They are calling it the “Freeview.” During lunch, people in Hartford can catch a portion of whatever play THS is performing at that time for free. They don’t even have to purchase lunch from the theater, they can bring their own. Hurray for a big theater in a *snicker* “big” town oing a big thing for theater!

Politics: At first I was pleased, but upon a second thought I’m somewhat disappointed that Cindy Sheehan (who was the subject of one of my first posts) has announced that she’s “stepping down from the public eye.” I was glad that I wouldn’t have to hear any more of her inane banter. But then I realized that her stance truly sheds light on the hypocrisy, and honesty, of some of the people protesting the war. In her “farewell address” Ms Sheehan writes: “Goodbye, America... You are not the country that I love.” Hey, tell me something I don’t know! She continues, “I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you that country unless you want it.” It’s tough to remain a country if you hate all that the country stands for, which is what would be necessary to be the country that Ms Sheehan would love. She did finally come to the only logical conclusion of her viewpoint. She cannot refer to her son (Casey) as a hero. She wrote, “Casey did indeed die for nothing... killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think.” Obviously. It’s been so successful in changing your mind. I hope the family of the former NFL Player (who played for the Cardinals and really was killed by his own country) jumps all over her for this comment! Well, Ms Sheehan, JMO will miss you. One less piece of fodder for my blog.

More Politics: Here’s one I’m just throwing out there as the best of the best when it comes to bill passing! The Dems in CT want to decrease the income tax on the non-wealthy and increase it on the wealthy (And they mean wealthy! $250,000 annually and up get the increase, below, the decrease.). Gov. Rell (R) wants to temporarily suspend the 25 cent/gallon gas tax but doesn’t see why anyone’s tax should be increased as the state has a $9 million surplus. The Dems don’t want to touch the gas tax. Rell is promising a veto of any tax increase. The Dems put Rell’s gas tax suspension on their bill. If she vetoes their plan, she vetoes her own. I sit and marvel. I don’t know how I feel. I agree with Gov., why raise taxes with a surplus? But at least the Dems are true to their word. Unlike Gore and Kerry, when they say the rich, the mean the rich! Ah, politics at their finest!

Controversy: I’m just gonna toss this out there: Many homosexuals like to say that it is genetic; they were born that way. Well, blond hair is genetic. Height is genetic. If homosexuality is genetic that means one of two things: either at least one parent of every homosexual in the world is secretly gay, or homosexuality is a genetic mutation. According to natural selection, nature would choose the mutations that better the species. If all homosexuals were true to their identity, none of them would reproduce, effectively removing the genetic mutation from the planet. Hence: Homosexuality cannot be genetic.

Outrage: On the national news today I saw a story about a woman who had HG. This is a “debilitating morning sickness” condition. Mind you, however, this is a treatable debilitating morning sickness. This woman didn’t want to be sick any more so she chose to abort the baby. You read that right. Her selfishness went so far as to put three months of illness ahead of the life of her unborn child! I think what made it harder for me to understand is that this woman was already the mother of two other children! Her husband stood beside her in this decision. How can a woman who already knows that blessing of child birth and the joy of child rearing and the unbearable love that one experiences the first time your child smiles at you, or reaches for you, or says “Mama” and knows that you’ll come running; how can that woman terminate a life because needs to care for it before it’s born? I simply do not understand!

Alright... so all of that is out of my system (And see, it wasn’t all bad stuff! It was, however, all just my opinion.