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Here’s hoping the Texans’ 49ers ‘stinker’ proves a one-night stand

The alarms sounded Sunday night as I watched the brutal beating San Francisco put on the Houston Texans. The alarm was in my head and it said: “Stinker Attack, Stinker Attack, Don your gas masks immediately!”

A bit of hyperbole perhaps, but only the alarm and the warning dialog. The truth is the Texans played a true stinker in the televised prime-time game. As was the case in most of the games the 2-3 Houston team played this season, they were “Pogoed.”  I say that, remembering the thoughtful and philosophical little cartoon ‘possum, Pogo, who was perhaps best known for his memorable political quote: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

The enemy wasn’t all Quarterback Matt Schaub. Although, his setting a record throwing “pick sixes” in four consecutive games certainly is far from the prestige of a Pro Bowl selection. The fact is the Texans have looked like a crap boat in most of the games this year, including the ones they won.

First, it was the Oilers Texans coming back from the dead to win in games prior to their Baltimore loss, and then blowing a 23-0 lead in overtime with Seattle. And is it just me, or do the Texans appear as if they are reverting back to old habits, like their falling apart at the red zone? The Texans just haven’t seemed to click this year. No one could reasonably expect a repeat of the spectacular season defensive end J.J. Watt had last year, especially his taking up some of the slack for linebacker Brian Cushing, who was out with an injury. But with both Watt and Cushing reunited, well, it just doesn’t feel so good.

In the backfield alternating runners Arian Foster and Ben Tate haven’t really had that shine they seem to have had in past seasons, then again it might just be me trying to find a reason to not believe.

Schaub, though, he looks, as someone said yesterday, as if he had seen ghosts.

I have taken up for Schaub, for what pissing difference that makes. And his little coach too! Well, Gary Kubiak isn’t little but I was taking a little “Wizard of Oz” license there. I expect Schaub will remain starter unless he just disintegrates on field. I think backup QB T.J. Yates did an amazing job in the season before last, when he had to come in for a battered Schaub. But I think some people operate better during noble urgency as compared with simple desperation.

Maybe Sunday night’s whipping by the 49ers will provide a little shock therapy for Kubiak, Schaub and the rest of the Texans. I sure hope so. Because if they don’t I will not only have a crappy fall being furloughed from my job, but I will likewise have to suffer with yet another dismal excuse for a favorite NFL team.

 

 

 

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This is no fun vacation. Of course, it isn’t really a vacation.

It has been a week since the government shutdown and many of us who work for the feds have been furloughed. Time off is good and I planned on taking annual leave next week, but it looks like that won’t be happening. I may be wrong, and I hope that I am, but I don’t see the federal government totally opening shop until at least Oct. 17. That is, of course, when the debt ceiling must be raised or the nation will default on its debts. At least, that is the best I can make out of it.

I have always enjoyed time off from work until lately. I can’t remember the last time I took off just to go somewhere and enjoy myself. It was maybe one or two years ago.

If I had the money, I would go somewhere for a week or a few days. Maybe I would visit a friend in El Paso, or another in Mississippi. But I have very little money and that little money I have I am trying to determine what I will have to use it for.

Never in my life have I seen a group of people – and I am speaking to Congress and my President – who seem to have a total disregard for the employees whose welfare they are charged to oversee. I still support the President, but I truly hope he gets something done and soon. I am headed toward a place I never wanted to be again, that is homeless. Wouldn’t that be a nice “visual” for Congress or President Obama?

I have a “Donation” button on my blog page that goes to my PayPal account. Please feel free to use it. Your help for this furloughed government employee is much appreciated.

Note: I work part-time for a government agency. In the last couple of years health problems have forced me to rely more on that part-time job than on my dream of freelancing. I ask those whom I know who read this to please give me a hand so both that I and this blog can continue. — Thanks, Dick

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Shots ring out near the nation’s Capitol

BREAKING NEWS

 

Shots fired near Capitol

 

CNN reports that a shooting incident occurred near the Capitol. Initial reports indicate that a Capitol Police officer was injured.

Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine said at 2:18 p.m., Eastern Time, a woman was near a White House checkpoint and words were exchanged with officers. The woman fled and a chase ensued. A police car was struck during the incident and the vehicle’s airbag employed.

A police officer was taken to a hospital with unspecified injuries. Dine said he did not know the officer’s condition other than he “ … appears to be conscious and breathing.” CNN showed a picture of emergency personnel loading an officer, believed to be the injured lawman, into a medical helicopter.

A black car was shown on CNN that appears to be that belonging to the suspect. That car apparently crashed into or near barricades in front of the Hart building.

Police had ordered those inside the Capitol and associated office buildings to “shelter in place.” That order has since been rescinded.

There is, so far, no word as to the condition of the woman driving the car or whether she was taken into custody. A child was reportedly in the suspect’s car although officers did not know that prior to the chase, according to Dine.

A lobbyist who spoke with CNN said he was in the area when the shooting took place. He said about six or so shots were fired and then he heard “a large crash.” Another witness said he heard seven to 10 shots fired and what sounded like an explosion.

Dine said there were no indications the incident involved terrorism.

 Note: I was once a newspaper reporter and currently freelance. Although this is an unfortunate occurrence, putting together this report helps keep my skills somewhat up to date.

 

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Idle hands, bad songs. What a natural fit.

Sitting here on Day 2 of America Held Hostage (I know, it’s a rip-off of the ABC series of the same name during the Iran Hostage Saga) I cannot stay perpetually glum and pissed off that I am out of work because the government is shut down. Or maybe it should be pissed off and glum. Who gives a rats ass anyway? So I decided to compile a list of terrible songs. Now I know many of these have found their way onto the Internet. It is surprising to find what some folks thing of as bad songs while millions of others buy these songs and their albums or CDs off the wall.

Some people think the Eagles’ “Hotel California” is bad. I think a lot of the dislike stems from what certain listeners believe are excessively cryptic lyrics. Examples: “Her mind is Tiffany twisted.” While some imagined a spoiled Valley Girl named Tiffany twisting some poor soul’s head, the reference is to a famous jewelry shop. In other words, the wealth that allows the woman who “drives a Mercedes-Benz” to shop in the glamor of such places as Tiffany’s. Also twisting some minds was the line: “Warm smell of colitas rising up in the air.” I think it was later explained by Don Henley or one of the other band members that “colitas” referred to a marijuana bud although folks had many other interpretations. One particularly hilarious meaning appeared in the early Internet days:

“There was this fireworks factory just three blocks from the Hotel California . . . and it blew up! Big tragedy. One of the workers was named Wurn Snell and he was from the town of Colitas in Greece. One of the workers who escaped the explosion talked to another guy . . . I think it was probably Don Henley . . . and Don asked what the guy saw. The worker said, “Wurn Snell of Colitas .  . . rising up through the air.”

Given tastes in music runs in many dimensions, I present My Unfavorite 10 Songs Of the Last Two Centuries:

1. Feelings — Morris Albert. I can’t remember how many bars I visited during my Navy enlistment in the mid-70s, but at least half had this God awful song playing. “Feelings,” I can just imagine singing, “I shot the piano player playing Feelings … ” I once had a trailer park neighbor who I heard playing a solo “Feelings” on a saxophone. Fortunately, he was a nice guy and I didn’t have to kick him in the nethers.

2. Havin’ My Baby — Paul Anka. I like Anka and many of his songs even though many of the songs I like are really by Neil Sedaka and not Paul Anka. It just somehow doesn’t sound right, “Havin’ My Baby,” as if Anka was ready to pop.

3. You Light Up My Life — Debby Boone. It might have been a good song for all I know. It just remembers me of a lonely birthday night in Guam during which I heard this young woman practicing this song over and over and over … “You make me sick, you make me die, you light up my gun …. “

4. We Built This City — Starship. Now I am a long-time fan of Jefferson Airplane and its parts and evolutions, Jefferson Starship, Starship, Grace Slick. Real hippie music. I also like singer Mickey Thomas, particularly his Elvin Bishop Group hit “Fooled Around and Fell In Love.” But there was something disquieting about “We Built This City.” When my friend Warren and I pal-ed around after graduating from college, we would hear the song on the radio or in the bar and I would always join in: “We built this city. We built this city on a garbage dump … “

5. Funky Town — Lipps Inc. This disco-esque electronic tune made me want to destroy any electrical implement handy.

6. Those Were The Days — Mary Hopkin. Not the happiest song to begin with, this was a song sad enough to make puppies cry. My Dad, a very bizarrely comedic man, would tire of the repeated ending saying that it sounded as if it should say: “Turn it off, turn it off, turn it off … “

7. Sukiyaki — Kyu Sakamoto. The first hit Japanese record (and maybe the last) presented a pleasant-enough tune but the words sort of defeated its purpose. If this isn’t bad enough, the title as I later discovered, had nothing to do with the song. Kind of like my headlines do here sometimes. The title, which bears the name of a Japanese hot-pot dish, was a translation that said one columnist: ‘like issuing the title Moon River in Japan as Beef Stew.’ “

8. Ice Baby Ice — Vanilla Ice. Just the concept of Vanilla Ice, the white rapper,  is confounding.

9. I’m Too Sexy — Right Said Fred. I’m too sexy for my own good. That’s what this annoying song implies. I’m too sexy to listen to this crap.

10. Last Kiss — J. Frank Wilson. I suppose I should be happy for any artist from my home area of East Texas. But this Lufkin native perpetuated the dreaded “tragedy tune.” You know “Teen Angel” “Leader of the Pack.” “D.O.A.”  “Where oh where can my baby be, the football captain took her away from me … “

Well, there is more. But the longer this damned lockout goes on, the more idle hands in the Devil’s Workshop.

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Furloughed and flustered

When I was growing up it seems as if I always heard the word “furlough” associated with someone in the military. “So and so is on furlough from the Marine Corps.” Furlough seemed synonymous with “leave” or perhaps “liberty,” the latter term is used by the Navy to mean a short time away from one’s duty station. For instance, an overnight liberty might commence once work for that day has ceased. The sailor wouldn’t have to be back on board or to return to their base until 7 a.m.

It seems like only in recent years have I heard the word furlough associated with unpaid leave or time off. I bring the word up, as many Americans might suspect, because nearly 800,000 federal government employees were on furlough today because of a failure of Congress to pass a spending bill for the new fiscal year. I am one of those persons who is furloughed.

If you have followed the news in the United States you will know the stated reason for members of Congress failing to pass a concurrent resolution, or a bill to keep the government running financially in lieu of a budget. Why no budget? Oh, budgets are so last century.

The short reason for this fiscal and internecine legislating is that a minority, though significant enough in congressional rules, of Republicans say they want to “de-fund” the Affordable Health Care Act, or Obamacare,” which took effect today. This law ensures all Americans have access to health care and can be fined if they don’t have some sort of health insurance plan.

Obamacare has been a deceitfully unpopular law. The Republican party continue to remind everyone of that. However, those who approve of it plus those who didn’t think it went far enough make up a number of folks that is larger than those who just don’t like it. ¿Entiendes? The fact that the law has gained a nickname taken from that of the President, and who is the chief proponent of the bill, is another reason for the unpopularity of the law. Unwisely perhaps, President Obama has taken up with the nickname. This unpopularity underscores that the so-called “Tea Party” faction of the GOP probably dislike the president as much or more than the law itself. The deep hatred for Obama is probably as much rooted in the dislike of his complexion than for his party or ideas. I would think many of those who do not like Obama because of his race may more often than not deny their intense dislike for people of color. Over the years, after knowing many people who feel this way, I don’t believe such feelings are driven by overt racism as much as something from inside their own heads. Maybe it is just from a prejudice that is so deeply-seated that it is hard to pinpoint.

This legislative drama that has played out over the media, especially that of cable news stations, has become so convoluted that it is hard to remember the initial premises. A Republican House member will be asked something, realize he has no case, and then shifts blame. It’s typical tyke …

Mom: “Jimmy, did you break the vase on the table?”

Jimmy: “Well, yes. Well, no. It’s not really broken.”

Mom: “Jimmy, it is clearly broken. There is glass all over the floor.”

Jimmy: “Well Mom. But it wasn’t being used.”

Do I blame the Republicans? Yes, but primarily those minority of GOP members who are ultra-right members who are mostly of the “Tea Party” faction. But the Democrats involved are not exactly doing all they can do, being all they can be.

Furloughed. That’s right ladies and gentleman. My ass is furloughed and Congress is acting like a bunch of little kids trying get themselves extracted from a series of lies. At least I know that many members of Congress will be furloughed when the constituents get their next chance to speak from the voting box.