A-Rod oddity

OK, so New York Yankee baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez confessed to using performance-enhancing no-nos in the past, with the assistance of his cousin.

Everyone is disappointed ... awww ... but backs A-Rod, who no longer does anything wrong.

However, he was told by the Yankees to not allow his cousin anywhere the team congregates.

Why, then, do they allow A-Rod to hang around the other players?

Locked rather than loaded

One of those conspiracy e-mails making the rounds is actually true.

Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 has been introduced in the U.S. House as H.R. 45 by Rep. Bobby Rush, an Illinois Democrat. The full bill can be found here on govtrack.us. Snopes.com has a wonderful summation, including pointing out that Rush has not been able to gain any co-sponsors and that the Democrats would suffer at the polls for passing the act.

Just thought you might want to keep tabs on what's happening.

Sacrifice

Compassionate news out of the National Football League office today. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has taken a 20 percent pay cut because of the economy.

Whoa, that means his $11 million salary and bonuses would drop to $8.8 million. Thank you, Roger.

But he's not who is making the real sacrifice for the NFL. The league said it has dropped 169 jobs.

Those will see a 100 percent pay cut.

Thank you, Roger.

Getting Quotable

I'm back ... and just in time for the president's not-a-state-of-the-union address.

Actually, I did not see it last night, but the news reports summed it up with his quote, "We are not quitters."

Wow, I hope his speech writer doesn't get a bonus for that winner.

Furthermore, he said, "We will rebuild, we will recover and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before."

That has a familiar feel to it ... hmm ... oh, yeah: "We will not tire, we will not falter, we will not fail."

May I play through?

Golf is known as a game of propriety, even to the point of the player being in charge of calling penalties against himself for rules violations.

Imagine this man's surprise when, after allegedly pointing out another man's bad manners in the Cape Cod area of Massachusetts, he was reportedly beaten with nothing less than a golf club.

This came just days after another sports-clubbing incident on the Cape was resolved in court. It happened last summer when a man beat another with a baseball bat, supposedly upset that the victim was wearing a Yankees ball cap. I suppose he was a Red Sox fan.

Neither victim was seriously injured, which hints that the perpetrators may have been more upset by their lack of skill with their chosen sporting instrument.

The economic war

A Reuters article says President Obama's aides are warning that economic stimulus will take awhile; they should learn something from the last administration.

After the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush went to great lengths to stress that the war against terrorism would be a struggle measured in years instead of months. The public said it understood, but it did not. In short order, we were expressing doubt in Bush's leadership ability because the war on terrorism was, indeed, taking years.

Obama needs to keep that message out there that an economic turnaround is slow. And he must have an answer when people want to know about his exit strategy.

Domestic terrorism

Just received a forwarded e-mail from an old newspaper friend. It encourages readers to not buy Pepsi products because the company printed patriotic cans with the pledge of allegiance, omitting the words "under God."
The e-mail upset me ... not for the intended reason. I invested two minutes in a search at snopes.com and found the background story on the e-mail, which has also been circulated about Coca-Cola.
Of course, the allegation is false. So, instead of being patriotic by forwarding to everyone in your address book, you're actually contributing to a form of domestic terrorism.

Burris' memory woes

Let's review ...

Barack Obama was elected president and therefore resigned his seat representing his home state in the U.S. Senate, putting Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich in position to appoint a new senator.

Blagojevich was then charged with attempting to sell the seat. There were cries for his resignation, which he ignored.

As the state's legislative body prepared to impeach the governor, he went ahead and appointed Roland Burris to the position. During the state House's impeachment proceedings, Burris testified he had not talked to anyone representing Blagojevich about the pending appointment.

Burris was eventually accepted into the U.S. Senate.

Blagojevich was kicked out of office.

Then, Saturday, Burris admitted that he had indeed been contacted by the governor's brother, Robert Blagojevich, who wanted Burris' fundraising assistance.

Burris said he gave them nothing.

But he also had said no such conversation took place.

I have no idea if Illinois has enough honest politicians, but its residents deserve another shot at getting one.

Alps ouch

Consider this fair warning should you be planning a little nude hiking across the tiny Swiss canton of Appenzell-Innerrhoden.

Apparently, hiking the Alps au naturel is popular with tourists, but not with the locals, who number only 15,000 in the canton.

So, a new law now authorizes authorities to fine naked hikers 200 Swiss francs on the spot.

Like I said, be warned. Be sure to stick some money into your shoe.

Yield to pedestrians

It happened again.

I've always driven a lot and it amazes me when pedestrians seem to deliberately drag their feet -- sometimes quite literally -- to prolong the time they delay traffic.

Can anyone explain this?

When I'm walking across a street, I am more likely to move double-time. For one, I don't wish to inconvenience drivers, but I really don't want to be run over.

Maybe a morality coach

Heard on TV this morning that former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was released from jail after serving 99 days for lying during a whistle-blowers' trial about his role in a police official's firing.

It then said he was headed to Texas for a job interview.

My first thought, "Hmm, I wonder what kind of role he could fill in the Dallas Cowboys organization."

Good news from Iraq

Iraq held a resoundingly successful and peaceful election Saturday and who gets the lead quote in this Reuters story? Barack Obama, of course.

The good news from Iraq has been roundly ignored in recent years because it has been at least partially attributable to the George W. Bush administration.

Now, however, news reports can attach the name of the popular current president and, mercy me, it sounds as if he is getting credit for it. Forget that he fought against our being in Iraq; he's happy now that they had a peaceful election.

I'm sure the people with purple fingers are grateful for President Obama's support.