Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Truthiness

The Colbert ReportCurrently Watching:
The Colbert Report
Pronounced:
Kole-bare Ruh-por
On:
Comedy Central


Simply put, this is the finest show on television today. It's a lampoon job of all the primetime political shows on the 3 cable news networks. He comes off as a dumb conservative apologist -- making points with the most absurd arguments imaginable. And I laugh out loud every time I watch. It's the perfect show a person of my political persuasion: a frustrated Republican who's hesitant to be a Democrat. My favorite question that he regularly asks liberals:

"George W. Bush: Great President? Or THE GREATEST President?"

And Stephen never likes facts. Facts get in the way of what we feel to be true, which can always remain the same. In fact, he says this is his favorite quality about George W. Bush. WMD's in Iraq? That's a fact that changed: there were, and then when we went in, there weren't. But should we have invaded Iraq? Yes, we all know Bush feels like overthrowing Saddam was the right thing to do. His word for this is truthiness. It's great stuff.

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Schilling & Santana have a whale of a pitching duel going on right now, as well. Scoreless through 5 innings. Bottom of the 5th just ended on a strike 'em out, throw 'em out double play. It's good to see Big Schill pitch so well, and good to see Varitek throw a runner out once in a while.

Speaking of which, it appears that this is the season where the deterioration of Tek's (actually, my favorite Varitek nickname is "Quadzilla") skills is starting to show. And there are 2 years left on his contract. So a year and a half ago, Varitek was the priority but Pedro was expendable & there is no way we could give him 4 years? Not looking too bright right now. However, I think the Sports Guy said it best about Pedro leaving Boston:

[After putting so much effort & money into courting Schilling the previous offseason you ...] tell your incumbent franchise pitcher, "Let's talk after next season when you're a free agent, maybe we can work something out." If you were Pedro, would you have taken the hometown discount to stay after that? Hell no. If anything, you probably would have signed somewhere else and been extra-motivated to stick it to them.

Which is pretty much what happened. Maybe Pedro needed somebody to kick him in the ass, much like when the Red Sox lowballed Clemens and he proceeded to embrace the rehabilitative power of steroi-- ... er, weight training, get himself into phenomenal shape, cut down from five helpings per meal to one and roll off consecutive Cy Young seasons in Canada. And maybe the inferior quality of the National League plays a bigger role than we realize; we've seen too many NL guys switch leagues and flounder, and too many AL guys switch leagues and thrive, and if you don't believe me, look at Josh Beckett's home run stats over the past few years compared to 2006.


I love that dig on Clemens. Plus, when you think that Pedro's frayed labrum could snap at any moment & his career would be over, how could you hand that guy 4 years? Still, it doesn't seem right to see him pitching those gems at Shea and not Fenway.

BTW, Santana appears unhittable tonight. 12 K's through 6 innings. Hopefully Big Papi or Manny will put one in the seats, because there's no way we're gonna string together more than 2 hits in one inning against this guy tonight.

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Ok, I just heard about a third job opportunity in three days a few hours ago. This one is in Miami. And yes, I do believe God is working. I love it when He does that. It's like He's saying, "Yep, I'm still here, just where I've been all along -- watching out for you." Thanks for that, Father.

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Posted on a couple buddy's blogs today. I sort of went back & forth for several days over whether I'd do it or not. It's not that I don't value old friends: I do. In fact, I feel like I used to do this to a fault, to the expense of not making new friends wherever I found myself. It's just that I value the private thinking out loud I can do in this forum, and I thought that letting others know that this blog exists might ruin that dynamic. But I've decided this space is still for me. This is my digest, and I'm not necessarily writing for others. But if others want to read, that's ok too, but I'm not writing for them. That's the one thing about blogs that has always struck me as a little disingenious & somewhat comical -- a diary that you put on-line & let other people read? But whatever, it's a good way to keep in touch, hash out issues, and other stuff. So if you wander in here, welcome.

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And of course, just as I finish dissing on Varitek, he deposits one in the left field seats. 1-0, Sox. Seriously, I can't make this stuff up. Santana makes Ortiz look silly, strikes out Manny for the 2nd time, and then, with 2 outs, Varitek comes up and hits the first pitch he sees just over the fence in left-center.

Ataboy Quadzilla! Always knew you had it in you!

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