And then there were four.....

The one-legged ass-kicking exercise known as the Republican Primary continues with another debate tonight.  Who will make the biggest gaffe? Who will steal the show?  Will Ron Paul get to speak? Wiull Newt's minions cheer? Will satan let Mitt prevail over that sweater-vested supposed hero of the religious right - Rick Santorum?  Amazing - the man cannot get elected Senator in his own state but suddenly is spoken of as a legitimate contender for the nomination.  Poor Ron Paul - he can't seem to get enough folks to take him seriously. Or maybe they do and like me feel he would be a danger to the country with his foreign policy views. Well - lets just see what happens tonight and next week.  I suspect Romney will ultimately prevail. Newt's  a loose canon and I am not interested in having a man like Santorum calling the shots for me - especially if the GOP takes control of congress.

Now on to something really serious (tongue firmly in cheek) - the recent TCU drug scandal. As a resident of Ft Worth and in fact I live in the TCU district I have enjoyed the gnashing of teeth and snarling certain individuals have espoused.  Sorry folks - this is not the end of the world. It's a bunch of stupid college kids peddling weed and a few other things to their peers. Been there done that.  Oh - the potential all american linebacker said surely most of the footbll team failed the surprise drug test head coach Gaary Patterson sprung on them when he lost a highly sought after recruit due to so-called rampant drug use on the TCU football team.  Guess that lineacker was assigned to squire the kid around.  Oh well. TCU football and Gary Patterson will be just fine. Patterson is a quality man in every respect and I'd be astonished if his team was rife with drug abusers. The NCAA has not even blinked at this and so our beloved Horn Frogs move to the Big 12 where they can feast on the likes of Kansas, Kansas State and a few others.  Purple power!!!

A couple of blogs I frequent as a reader/responder have been focusing on spirituality a lot lately.  That's an interesting subject for me as I am not what you'd call a believer. I think Thomas Jefferson had it right about Jesus - he lived by and established a moral code that is a model worth following. But as to the magic - oops - resurrection - well I don't buy it.  Genesis literally?  You've got to be kidding.  The age of the earth?  Lets not go there.  But someone I knew very well - one of my best friends, now deceased used to always tell me I was one of the most spiritual people he'd ever met.  We had many 3-way phone conversations with a mutual friend in the UK about the subject and they both essentially felt the same way about me. Pete - my late friend - was a staunch member of the Seventh Day Adventist church and Ron - our UK mate is a nondnominational Christian and active member of the Freemasons. I only bring this up because some seem to think a secular guy like me is essentially the pawn of satan. Living in the bible belt has been interesting for this lapsed Mormon. We'll start getting into that fith stuff next week.  I'm gonna make more time (better use of my existing time?) - and get in here more often.
So that's it for now.  day is done as PP&M sang.  

And what the heck - here's another

If it ain't broke don't fix it but if it is......

Interesting timing - to have the bogus BCS title game the day before the next step in the grand spectacle known as American politics. I suggest that both syustems are broken and need to be fixed.

The BCS is all about money - schools jockey for a BCS bowl game each year for the not insubstantial financial stipend that goes to each school for participating. The more prestigious the bowl the higher the payout.  BCS payouts according to Wikipedia are $18,000,000.00.  Non-BCS payouts range from 6.5M (Cotton bowl) down to .75M for several games that usually pit a pair of teams with as many losses as they have wins.

BCS teams come from the cryptic ranking system currently in place and coaches freely admit to being less than honest when bowl season comes around and BCS rankings and therefore bowl games and payouts are at stake.

That is of course the Cliff's Notes version of the BCS but it segues nicely into the election season currently just leaving the gate, Iowa already being in the books and New Hampshire voting today for the Republicans.
 Don't misunderestimate me.  Ahem - thanks for that one Dubya.  Our election system is the best one out there at the moment, we just keep screwing it up by electing the same clowns over and over.    We have made politics a profession.  We keep people in office often times until they can retire and become highly paid lobbyists or run corporations. They keep fat government pensions that we pay for, take advantage of the contacts they developed over time and then influence legislation to benefit those corporations. I mean WTF - isn't it the American way???  Improve yourself? get rich?

Clearly this is barely a sound-bite commentary on American politics and there is much more to come.  I just pondered the similarities between a flawed college football rating system and its payouts with a career in American politics and its big payouts. Where else but in America could a former politician run a company that requires signifiicant political ties internationally,  ascend to another even higher political office and then make that companies shareholders even wealthier when said company becomes an active participant - for profit - in international conflict.  Hells bells - one of the contestants in today's current New Hampshire contest spent recent years lobbying for substantial fees  but feels his calling as an idea man is to run the country instead.  Want to bet his lobbying fees go even higher when he inevitably loses??

So yes indeed I am saying that Americam politics are all about money. The Supreme Court says so.  They say Corporations have the constitutional right to influence politics. And Corporations exist for one reason - to make money.  There will be more on this subject later.

And so it begins.

The Iowa caucuses have spoken. Iowa's current 15-minutes of fame is in full force. And the decision??  That born-again, holier than thou Rick Santorum and uber-cultist Mit Romney are leading the Republican charge against Obie.  This week at least. New Hampshire is chomping at the bit to steal the spotlight away from Iowa.

So what does it all mean to us regular folk?  Not much.  Does anyone really think Iowa is a good snapshot of this nation's political leanings?  I sure don't. I do think Romney will be the eventual nominee and his most important decision will be his choice for a running mate. In my opinion, if he wins and selects Condi Rice Obie will be a one-term President (most deservedly so). Anyone else and it's 4 more years of the current nonsense.

One may think from my opening statement that I think both Santorum and Romney carry excessive religious baggage. I suspect Santorum truly believes Romney is a cultist - that's what any good card-carrying right wing BAC (born-again Christian) really thinks of Mormons.  I also suspect Romney believes Santorum is a far-right religious radical who would gladly impose his beliefs on this nation constitutionally if at all possible.  Of course what I believe and what they will admit to are quite different.  After all - it is election time and truth is further back in the bus than usual.  Hard to believe.  I know.

Both are decent men. I just prefer the decent man with a more moderate social view.  Clearly I am not a BAC.  Not sure I was ever even a C.  Disclaimer - I was baptized into Mormonism but am absolutely NOT active nor do I believe in the fundamentals of the LDS church.

So here we are - with a fellow removed from his Senate seat in his home state that somehow feels  qualified to lead the nation (rally round the flag right-wing religious tea partiers) and a businessman leading the charge against the evil democrats - those dirty, godless progressives.

From where I sit this election cycle will be more entertaining than network television could ever hope to be. I can't wait to read what the pundits have to say after New Hampshire