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Ahmadinejad: A punk by any other name

There is not a lot more that I can say today than Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a punk.

I don’t know how long it would take — longer than I care to spend — to look up the words to describe this lunatic other than he is a punk. Let’s look at some definitions for the word “punk:”

  • Hood: an aggressive and violent young criminal — Well, he isn’t young but he definitely could be violent and aggressive. He has yet to be convicted of any crimes, but the Iranian dictator has probably violated many serious international human rights laws and other crimes.
  • Substance that smolders when ignited; used to light fuses — He seems willing to light some mighty big fires, perhaps even nuclear ones.
  • A prostitute. The bottom in a male-male sexual relationship; a catamite; A male used for sex by larger or stronger inmates — Who knows?

    Hmm. This infidel blog "eight feet deep" calls me a punk. Am I a punk? Well, yes, I suppose I am.

This I mention because Mamoooooooud got up at the UN General Assembly today and began spouting a bunch of ignorant s**t. That is all nothing new, but the fact he did so close to Ground Zero while accusing the U.S. of perpetrating the 9/11 attack  struck a particular chord so the U.S. and its allies including the European Union got up and began beating the living hell out of the Iranian president with their foot-thick briefing books.

I wish.

No those diplomats got up and walked out singing the chorus to the 1969 one-hit wonder by the band Steam, “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye.”

Sing it. “Na, na, na, na. Na, na, na, na. Hey hey. Goodbye.”

Well, they walked at least. I guess Mahmoud has a death wish. That’s all I can figure. That, and the fact that he’s a punk.

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Here is for change, or at least a stack of Benjamins

The Christian Science Monitor has a very good story I would suggest anyone who wants a real gut check on politics should read. The article is about the race between Democrat Andrew Cuomo — of the New York Cuomo’s — and Republican nut job Carl Paladino. Then you probably need to read the related story about just who this Carl Paladino is and why his campaign mail literally stinks. Now my recommendation isn’t because I give two hoots about the New York governor’s race. Albany is a nice town. I went there once, but I don’t think I want to live there.

Instead, the article looks at how the disillusioned voters in the country are grasping at straws for someone different, someone who will shake things up. I understand that but you have people like Carl Paladino, a rich real estate developer who is trying to buy a governorship, and whose solution to the “Ground Zero mosque controversy” is to take over the property by eminent domain. Who does that remind you of? The Ballpark in Arlington? Iraq? Torture? Spying on American citizens? You guessed it, Gee Dubya Bush.

Christine O’Donnell, running for the U.S. Senate seat on the GOP ticket in Delaware, is at least giving us some red-faced chuckles a minute. Witchcraft? Masturbation? Jeez, her campaign needs to come with an “R” rating.

The crux of the biscuit is that people do want genuine change. They elect whomever is different, or at least who they think is different. But then the person they elect turns out to be the same old crook  or the same old hack doing the bidding for his or her special interest. It’s all the same Brothers and Sisters. Why I didn’t even know our “illustrious” Congressman Judge Ted Poe has a Libertarian opponent. But he does, David Smith, who is described by political guide Politics1.com as a “software developer and Tea Party activist.” I am not a Ted Poe fan. I think he spends too much time railing on whatever is the right-wing cause of the day, mainly those danged Mexicans, when he could be helping his district. So a Libertarian doesn’t sound all that bad. Smith even has some great ideas, more Utopian than reality, when it comes to veterans health care. How he proposes to pay for these great ideas make no sense whatsoever. Plus, there is the Tea Party thing. Man, let me tell you when you have someone to the right of Ted Poe running against him, it is like Pogo said: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

I know you want change. I want change. Actually, I’ll take big bills even. Hundreds if you got ’em. I had no illusions Obama was going to bring any major change to the office of president and politics in Washington. I was right. But at least we don’t have President John McCain, or God Forbid, President Sarah Palin. Just don’t be fooled when your Tea Party stamp-of-approval candidate gets elected and gets caught with his or her hand in the cookie jar or with his foot in the adjacent men’s room stall. The more things change in Washington, the more they remain things.

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What it was was football, deal with it

This cloudy afternoon I did some catching up on my reading, mostly about Texas politics and in particular the governor’s race.

No links will be provided from my research because I don’t want to be blamed for confusing anyone. That said, I mean I am still totally in the dark as to whether Gov. “Goodhair” Perry could be beaten in November by Democratic candidate Bill “Sparsehair” White. Talk about your contrasts — in hairstyles. At least I understand what it’s like to be bald. I do not understand what it’s like to be rich like Bill White. I hope I never understand what it is like to be Rick Perry.

I don’t know. Some polls have Perry leading, mostly by single digits, others have them neck-and-neck. Okay, one poll does, and a Republican poll at that. I saw that on Texas Tribune which is texastribune.org. I already told you I am not linking today. I have the right to be contrary every now and then.

So I decided to write about the real burning question of the week: Can the Texans make it 3-0 and leave the Cowboys 0-3? You could get run out of town on a rail for such heresy in some parts of Texas. But 80 miles to the east of Reliant Stadium, I feel pretty safe.

I listen to “The Blitz” sometimes, mostly when I am in my truck going somewhere around noon-30. It is a local (Beaumont-Houston but all Houston and no Beaumont) radio program on 97.5 ESPN http://975theticket.com/ well, I lied. I ended up linking and didn’t mean to but I still have no remorse. The Texas Tribune has yet to prove to me that it is a journalistic gem that it is made out to be. “The Blitz,” with Fred Faour and A.J. Hoffman are on the other hand, at least a diamond in the rough.

One or the other Blitzers (not Wolf Blitzers) said in talking about the Oilers (Oops! Freudian slip is showing) Texans the other day something to the effect that a “cornered” Cowboys team is a dangerous Cowboys team. I have to agree. Dallas has a knack for pulling bad situations out of their a** and making them smell like a rose. The Cowboys, however, also can also snatch a defeat from the jaws of victory. (See Cowboys v. Redskins)

The Texans have been placed between Number 5 and 7 in most of the power rankings this week that I have seen so far. People who didn’t know Houston had a football team — how soon we forget except those of us who spit at the name “Bud Adams” — now are on the Texans bandwagon. Man, ain’t that Andre Johnson something! Uh, yeah, he’s been something since he was drafted by the Texans in 2003, you dope! Matt Schaub? He led the NFL in passing and completions last year. And the “faithful” said after the team’s first winning season last year that Coach Gary Kubiak should be fired. Idiots, to the left of me. Idiots to the right of me!

The Texans are real. Staying that way is going to prove the biggest problem. Last year the problem was finishing the deal. Running up leads at the half and blowing them. Success, at least in my way of thinking, is the number one danger any new big deal faces in the NFL or anywhere else for that matter. But can overconfidence make the Texans soar ever downward in flames? Hell if I know. I’m no football expert.

Although I do sound fearful that the mighty Cowboys will come in and level the Texans at Reliant Stadium Sunday I hope that doesn’t happen and I still see the Texans as the favorite by one touchdown over Dallas. Maybe something to the tune of 27-20 Houston.

Just a short-short on my other game of the week. Stephen F. Austin State University, the mighty Lumberjacks (and I’m okay), host the Lamar Cardinals. Okay, I am an SFA grad and support the Jacks, no matter how they embarrass me as they did in the suckola at Kyle Field in the season opener with the Aggies. It wasn’t so much a problem with the team — they are ranked in the top 10 of the FCS (former NCAA I-AA) — as it was with the scheduling. I understand money is money, but Hell’s Bells, can’t you line up a big-time school you have a chance of beating as SFA did last year with SMU? (A chance, SMU came from behind to beat SFA 31-23 in 2009.)

The Cardinals are from here in Beaumont-ville, Texas, where I reside. This is the first football team they have had in 20 years. One of my brothers is a Lamar grad. There are other ties as well. The Cardinals are the local team and I support them. Just not against my alma mater.  Oh and Lamar has done pretty well its first rattle out of the box this year. They posted a narrow loss to top 20 McNeese. Next, they beat a school I never heard of before. Last week the Cards beat Southeastern Louisiana 29-28.  I imagine that, for some folks, all of these teams sound like they are made up and should be the teams in movies like “The Water Boy,” but I assure you that these are real schools with real football teams. Lamar, since they are playing their first year and are getting their feet wet in football, are classified an independent school. Next year they will join the Southland Conference, the league in which Lamar already competes and has competed for some while in other sports. So, they will face McNeese, SE Louisiana and SFA each year. Get used to it!

Wild guessing, I think Lamar has a good team for its first year and has a great coach and decent guy in Ray Woodard, a former Denver Broncos player. I think the Cardinals will get beat up a bit when they play in Nacogdoches this week. The Swami (how i love ya, how I love ya, my dear old Swami) says SFA  36-Lamar 7.

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Zen and tonic

Wise ones have said: “Less is more.”

Is less how we learned how the cow ate the cabbage?

Is less more when a one-legged man wins an ass-kicking contest?

Or is more less when a water truck collides with a truck load of sponges?

These are all questions.

And not particularly good ones at that.

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Teach your children well. Just listen to SBOE’s Bradley instead of President Obama

Those who live where I do — Beaumont, Texas, — can find a lot to be proud of here slightly more than a half-hour’s drive from the Gulf of Mexico. Pass by on Interstate 10 and you can see an aging, paint-needing, Air Force jet poised next to a curious looking cylindrical building. The small cylinder building is home to the memorabilia of the hometown legend Babe Didrikson Zaharias. I hope they still teach her in school because she was the greatest athlete of the 20th century. Track and field, a founding womens’ professional golfer, basketball player, baseball, you name it, Babe was in it and she was the best. A number of great musicians call or called Beaumont home, Johnny and Edgar Winter, trumpeter Harry James, R &B queen Barbara Lynn,  and country stars Mark Chestnut, Clay Walker, and Tracy Byrd grew up nearby and made their name playing Beaumont watering holes. For football greats, you had the Smith boys, Bubba, Tody among other sports stars like the Celtics’ Kendrick Perkins who grew up in or near Beaumont.

What Beaumont shouldn’t be proud of is its member on the nut-laden Texas State Board of Education. Republican David Bradley has dodged questions of his residency on a number of occasions. He votes with the ultra conservative block on the board, the same block that plays down Thomas Jefferson’s contribution to America and if they had it their way would ban evolution from Texas schools. Bradley, a Realtor who owns a number of apartments in Beaumont’s Old Town district, also wanted the state to show in its social studies books the “unintended consequences” of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society legislation. Civil rights be damned!

Bradley now has the gall to say Texas schools should be excused from this year’s address to school children by President Obama. The reason? The state  has initially been denied millions in emergency jobs funding by the Obama administration. But I thought the GOP was against federal funding? Especially our governor with the great hair.  Bradley told the Houston Chronicle that Obama was “playing politics with public education” in withholding in a partisan manner the emergency funding.

Pot, Member Bradley? Not marijuana. I mean pot calling the kettle black. No pun intended. You can’t tell me that Bradley does not play politics every time he uses his board of education position to comment on something that doesn’t fit in his prim little, small-minded conservative world. Why does Bradley and his group of  puritanical holy rollers want to set Texas back centuries? Politics. Playing politics, my eye. I realize that if hypocrites were banned from the GOP then they would have a very small party. But this, is just a bit too much.