Life Lessons of Degrassi (pt 1?)

- Never, ever get relationship advice from Caitlin Ryan (Sending Emma to the internet stalker, the whole Craig, Ashley, and Manny thing, and then later the whole Craig, Ashley thing)

- Having a small penis (JT) can lead to many problems (unintended pregnancy w/ Liberty)

- If you are the "Queen Bee" of the school, you will get toppled (Ashley, Paige, Manny, Darcy, Holly J)

- Yuppie neighborhoods in Toronto have poor, middle class, and wealthy kids

- There is always money to be made at card games, at least initially

- Never, ever be near both Peter and a camera at the same time

- Meida Immersion is a real class in some places

- It's ok to hide who you are if you are Muslim, cos everyone will forget about it if they find out anyway.

- If you drink below the age of 18, you will get wasted, vomit, and probably black out. However, once you turn 18, nothing bad can happen.

- A high school is a suitable place to shoot a movie while school is in session only a few months after there was a school shooting

- Teenagers steal computers worth a few grand to buy car parts worth a few hundred

- You can be on both the wrestling and basketball teams at the same time in Canada

- If you hook up in the ravine, it will not end well for anyone

- Never disagree with Emma, but if you must, don't try to silence her, it will only make things much worse

- There are actually people who follow canadian football, and play it

- Whatever it takes, I know I can make it through, unless it's Paige trying to get through Banting.

Finally

Finally, a celebrity christmas album I can support.

http://christmaschebacca.ytmnd.com/

A rash reaction from the Knuttel

Ok, so there I am, just generally surfing the information superhighway on a laptop in front of the tv. I leave it on, mostly for white noise. Here, I know, I make a poor life decision and leave it on espn's nfl recap show. Yes, right there, two huge mistakes -- espn and nfl. Alas I digress.

Chris Berman is a man-child of an idiot. He mentions the Ed Hoculi call from week 2, which sent the Chargers on a downward spiral in need of direction, and says that now, after several weeks it has blown over. Now that the Chargers are facing a rematch to close the season, this time in Denver, with Denver at 8-7, and the Chargers at 7-8, it is a moot point.

Nevermind the fact that it should be (at least from values we actually can accurately deduce) the 8-7 Chargers looking to hold off the 7-8 Broncos in Denver to enter the playoffs.

It is not a moot point. The Chargers now have to win on the road in a very hard road stadium in order to win the division, as opposed to maintaining the division lead, they must leapfrog.

This does not even begin to quantify the psychological effect the jarring loss had on the Chargers. A defiant struggle to the finish was handed to the loser in week 2, and in addition to feeling exhausted, the Chargers felt defeated.

They have since gotten over that, but the point is they shouldn't have had to.

Chris Berman, please think before you speak, before you even open your mouth. I find it hard to believe you're thinking while uttering phrases such as "rumbling-bumbling-stumbling" and "woop". I realize it is just a re-cap show, and thus does not have any in depth journalism of any kind, but that is no excuse for idiocy and moronitude.

-- Knuttel

holdover?

Dunno exactly why, but haven't put anything up for a while on this. So here are some holiday themed links for your amusement/pleasure

http://vaderloveschristmas.ytmnd.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKhJ9IQdWQ8

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/wab/Christmas+6/

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/wab/Christmas+7/

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/the+christmassy/

http://cretaceouschristmas.ytmnd.com/

For the record, I'd like to point out it isn't the holiday I look forward to, but rather the ham.

-- Knuttel

And what's the deal with the heat and snow misers? I don't recall learning anything about them in Catholic School. The snow miser looks kinda like John Kerry, which leads me to believe he's a pushover, and his wussing out is responsible for global warming.

Bull-Conference-Shit

Why, BCS, Why?

Pretty much, unless Missouri decided to win the Big 12 somehow, everyone knew the title game was going to be Oklahoma-SEC. So why the hell is every sporting related talking head patting the bcs's back? Meh, that's another issue.

The real issue is -- how can one decide who actually gets to play for the title when there are 9 teams with one loss or less, two of which are undefeated (albeit in "non-bcs" conferences).

An even bigger issue -- two of these teams aren't even playing in a BCS bowl game. Texas Tech gets excluded because of the two-per conference rule, so being the lowest ranked team of those three, no dice. Fair enough, I mean, one wouldn't want a particular conference dominating the top tier bowls, unless its the SEC, cos we all know how awesome the SEC is, case in point two weekends ago when the entire SEC got beaten up by the ACC in rivalry games, with the exception of Florida(the ACC rep for the BCS has 4 losses, think about that for a little bit). The other team left out was Boise State. Apparently winning all your games doesn't guarantee you anything (even including a win against #17 Oregon, and 7 win Hawaii, Fresno State, and Nevada).

Here's something I bet you didn't know. Heading into the SEC championship game, undefeated Alabama had an easier schedule than both Utah and Boise State. Now, after the SEC championship game, this would probably have changed, but the bulk of the season has been played, so not by much. What does this mean -- playing in tougher conferences does not guarantee a tougher schedule. The argument BCS conference teams play tougher teams week in and week out does not carry nearly as much weight as it once had.

The thing that really baffles me is how Ohio State got a BCS bid. Now granted, I am not looking at this from a business perspective, as this is AMATEUR SPORTS (yeah, none of these players gets paid a dime from the Universities or NCAA). But they were actually ranked lower than Boise State, and have two losses. Their only actual impressive win was over #20 Michigan State. Their only hard non-conference game was against USC (where they were not only beaten, but humiliated) -- the other three games were against Ohio, Youngstown State, and Troy -- of which only did Youngstown State get beaten as they should have.

And this is just this week in the BCS. Last week, it cost Texas a shot to play for the title. Now, because they hadn't won their conference, they shouldn't be able to play for a title (even though they were robbed of the opportunity). But it still stands that there were 6 teams that won their conference with one loss or less -- including the two undefeated non-bcs teams. Assuming a non-bcs team can never play for a title, how do we still pick amongst the four others? Was Penn State's loss to Iowa really any different than Florida's loss to Ole Miss (at home), or USC's loss to Oregon State, or even Oklahoma's loss at Texas? Were Florida and Oklahoma picked because they like to run of the score and posses gaudy offensive numbers? Penn State and USC had gaudy defensive numbers. They also knew when to put the second string in and call off the dogs. Was the SEC really that much stronger than the Big Ten or Pac-10?

So don't even say the BCS got it right (which an ESPN poll showed 52% of voters agreed with). Don't worry, they're not too bright. The same poll said 60% thought Texas was most ripped off by the BCS -- when the crime against Texas happenned two weeks ago, and was a result of something like the fifth tie-breaker to see who plays in the Big 12 "conference" title game -- not a BCS game. ESPN's bias towards a bowl system is already becoming apparent, though I don't think the coverage deal even covers this year.

You know how this could be fixed. A playoff. Oh, and it would work so well this year.
Florida - SEC
Oklahoma - Big 12
Penn State - Big 10
USC - Pac 10
Cincinatti - Big East
Va Tech - ACC
Utah/Boise State/Alabama/Texas/Texas Tech/Ohio State - at large, depending on how many.

But oh well, this is merely a pipe dream. I think the winner of the Rose Bowl should be given a partial share of the national title anyway, just for good measure.

-- Knuttel

What of the Automobile Industry?

As some of you may or may not know, the leaders from the Big 3 American Automakers (dubbed "Detroit 3" by southern senators, but more on that later) and the UAW met in Washington to discuss the possibility of an Automotive industry bailout.

The first meeting did not go so well, as the leaders were chided for their symbolic gesture of flying in on their private jets. For this, the second meeting, they all drove in, again a symbolic gesture, from what I hear in Hybrid and Electric cars -- the latter part seems just a little unnecessary, as in a hybrid vehicle, the electric part of the motor is not engaged at all, or perhaps maybe only slightly, in the course of highway driving. I would imagine most of the journey from Detroit to Washington to be made of highway driving.

But nonetheless, the Senate Banking committee was noticeably more impressed and willing to bail out the automotive industry than previous. All groups made larger concessions, though really they should've been made before the first meeting.

What does this all mean though, how likely is it they are going to get bailed out, should they get bailed out?

The likelihood this is going to pass is still pretty thin. Oddly enough, the issue isn't really broken up by party lines, as it is broken up by geographic ones (though MSNBC would like you to believe they are the same). Northern manufacturing states are very much for the bailout -- Michigan obviously leading the charge, likely followed by Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania's Bob Casey, who made a comment to the effect of trying not to have another major industry collapse within the country (talking about the old steel industry, based out of western PA). The opposition to this bill is in the south. The reason for this is southern states, such as Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi all have thriving auto-manufacturing plants -- owned by foreign companies such as Toyota and Nissan.

So, in other words, the South doesn't want to bail out the American auto industry, because they are getting supported by foreign ones. A side note, this technically destroys the whole "buy American" movement for cars, because it was started more so for the labor, not the corporations. Anyways, not only would it be against their interests to vote in favor of bailing these companies out (at least presently) but these Senators and Congressmen are in the pockets of these companies (private interests eventually even out though, don't hate the player, hate the game). This is why they have dubbed the "Big 3" the "Detroit 3". They feel this problem is isolated to Michigan, and should thusly be dealt with locally. Not to mention the Senator from Tenessee was giving them shit about Federal subsidies to deal with developing new technologies and improving existing ones, such as hybrids. Fuggin Assclown. The Foreign companies that are manufacturing here are getting the same subsidies from their respective nations.

What's going to get this either passed or sunk is whether it can get support from the other regions of the country -- remember the Senate is evenly distributed amongst states. If it gets to the House of Representatives, it will have an easier chance of passing, as the house is represented by population, and the regions directly affected are more densely populated.

But should they get Federal support?

On the one hand, they represent a huge chunk of the remaining manufacturing and heavy industries. If these 3 companies go down, they could take an entire region of the nation, and put it in a depression that could last longer locally than whatever impending (or present) national disaster there is.

On the other hand, they have a flawed business model, which got them in this mess in the first place. In addition, the foreign companies are already manufacturing the cars to be sold in America, in America.
Not to mention they tried (pretty successfully) to ruin Johnny Cougar


Most of the cars (not trucks or SUVs) break down at 70,000 miles, forget about the fact that Toyota and Honda make more hybrids, their cars last to 150,000+, oftentimes quite a bit more.

The problem with the last argument is you can't tell if they changed that bit until at least a few years after the models roll out.

Do the companies need to be bailed out?
yes.

Why?
If the Big 3 fail, there will be no American company to take its place. Not to mention it would take too much time and capital to develop a car company to take its place, even to have an impact at a niche level. What does this mean -- America will eventually have to laxen its tariff requirements. This would lead to a very possibly vacation of the auto-manufacturing industry from the south also. Southern labor may be cheaper than Detroit labor, but foreign labor is even cheaper. In addition, all the supplying industries that still exist will all face a major restructuring that they themselves may not survive.

Simply put, the Big 3 are too big to let them fall. Their fall will destroy much in its wake. But they need oversight. This is, after all, a federal investment with taxpayer money. It's not the corporations that deserve this bailout, but rather the nation and its workers. So their bosses are idiots, why should they get fired, and more importantly why should that hurt the rest of the American economy?

The case for Oklahoma

True, the BCS is in turmoil -- a threat of 7 one loss teams and two undefeated non-bcs teams looms; but the issue of the day, or week, or whatever, would also affect any possible playoff brackets, if in fact the NCAA used a logical plan to decide its 1-A football champion. The issue is who gets to play for the Big 12 Championship. By rule, it is supposed to be one team from the Big 12 North against one team from the Big 12 South. This year had a mediocre showing amongst those in the north, and a bumper crop of good teams in the south.

Three teams in the south have one loss, and they have all beaten eachother, which would eliminate a head to head disqualifier. I think they actually went through about 20 tiebreakers before they had to use the BCS, which declared Oklahoma is going to the game.

Texas Tech was pretty much eliminated from being one of the teams going to the game after getting routed by Oklahoma. More importantly perhaps, they lost last.

But this left the basic argument between everyone on ESPN at whether it should be Oklahoma or Texas that goes. And because everyone at ESPN thinks alike, they all decided that Texas should go, because back in the beginning of October, the two teams played at a neutral site (in the state of Texas) and Texas won.

The problem is it is a simplistic argument, that addresses not at all any of the complex issues of college football. It is a strict head to head matchup argument, automatically disqualifying the team with the least history.

1. Oklahoma didn't only beat Texas Tech, they crushed them. This was the only blowout of all the head to head matchups. And this team that Oklahoma crushed, they beat Texas. Not to mention both of these games came much later than the Oklahoma-Texas matchup, and because teams become closer to their true selves the more the season goes on, that makes those two games possibly more indicitative of the quality of the teams than the Cotton Bowl matchup in October.

2. Oklahoma had a much tougher out of conference schedule, and they both had about equally tough in conference schedules. Both teams played every other team in the Big 12 South, and then three from the North. Oklahoma drew Kansas, Kansas State, and Nebraska. Texas drew Kansas, Colorado, and Missouri. Thats pretty much a push. However, out of conference, Oklahoma beat a then #24 TCU and eventual Big East Champ Cincinatti. Texas had a few teams that are competitive within their weak conferences -- Rice, UTEP, Florida Atlantic; and had one of the awfully weak teams of the SEC in Arkansas. Out of conference schedules do not compare at all, and gives Oklahoma more meaningful wins.

3. The last issue is the issue of Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State is also in the Big 12 South, and so all three of these teams played, and beat them. Additionally, these are the only three teams to beat Oklahoma State all year. Texas barely squeaked by Oklahoma State, 28-24. Texas Tech re-enters the conversation here, as they routed them 56-20. Most importantly, however, Oklahoma also crushed them, 61-41. The Oklahoma/Oklahoma State matchup is also more important than Texas/Ok St and TT/Ok St because Oklahoma/Oklahoma State is a longstanding rivalry, which means potentially the weaker team can win on emotion, especially when said weaker team has a bad streak going against them. Oklahoma State had already been eliminated from contention for winning the conference, so all they had to play for was their pride against a rival school, something oddly stronger.

Besides, I'd take Oklahoma over Texas anyway. Mack Brown's an asshole, and it appears Stoops has done at least a decent job of excorcising the demons of Barry Switzer. Besides, who can't help but remember the year their team had to be liked, the year Mike Leach (now head coach of Texas Tech) was the offensive coordinator, and Josh Heupel simply willed his team to win. He may not have had all the skills -- his arm was weak and his speed was servicable -- but he did what he could. Besides, they beat Florida State in that game, in the state of Florida no less. How could one not applaud the efforts to stymie the inflated record of Bobby Bowden?

Besides, maybe this makes up for all those times Texas campaigned and appealed for votes to get into certain bowls in years past. ... naaaaah

--Knuttel

More on the BCS and ESPN

This shit storm is just gonna keep going until it becomes a diarrhea that forces the nation into a dehydration of proper sports knowledge.

http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/8853534

And I thought America didn't have a cholera problem

Godspeed

-- Knuttel

Trouble on the horizon

ESPN, an already evil enough organization (trying to lowball NHL, for shame) is on a path to take over the world.

They must be stopped

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/sports/ncaafootball/25sandomir.html?_r=3&em

http://deadspin.com/5098814/exploring-the-espn-business-model-hint-it-involves-swimming-in-piles-of-cash

The most efficient way may be to start with the head, to take down Disney itself.

Godspeed

-- Knuttel

A Proposition to Roger Goodell, Regarding Quarterbacks

Dear Commissioner Goodell,

As you may or (apparently) may not know, there is a growing controversy over the rule being implemented this year on how quarterbacks are hit -- while either holding the ball or immediately after releasing it.

Well, Mr. Goodell, I have a solution for you, that I think wins for both sides.

When a defensive player gets within a certain distance of the quarterback, he simply raises his hands up and yells "SACK!"

How could this not fail, Mr. Goodell? The quarterbacks will remain untouched, and therefore unbroken. Because of this rule, we may never have to suffer through (*gasp*) another Tom Brady-less year. Plus, the defenses will still get to play at 100%.

The refs can decide how close it is you need to be to yell sack, and naturally it should change from game to game, as the current rule also works. Ties, should naturally go to the quarterback, cos we all know offense is the be-all and end-all of all that football is.

Thank you for your consideration,

--Knuttel

Why is Tim Burton Still Making Movies?

Seriously, why? I can't think of any good explanation for it. Anyone who's seen the suckfest that is Sweeney Todd:bla bla bla bla bla would know exactly what I am talking about -- and I should note for reference that the statement is not an indictment on musicals; I happen to enjoy them, and movies such as The Sound of Music, The King and I, and West Side Story all happen to be favorites of mine.

But the issue at hand is not Sweeney Todd. That has already been done, and little can be done to amend it. I'd suggest burying copies of the DVD in the middle of the desert, somewhere near wherever the video game for ET was taken, but I have hope that the land could one day be arable, and I don't wish the soil to be inadvertantly polluted. Ejecting them into space may incur the wrath of a normally peaceful group of aliens.

The issue at hand is his remake of Alice in Wonderland. For those of you that don't know, Tim Burton has little success with remakes. His Batman and Batman Returns I think were actually surpassed by Schumacker's later Batman Forever (which was honest about its camp) and never topped the movie based on the TV show from the 60s (Bat-shark repellent spray -- classic). The latest Christopher Nolan series of Batman movies really puts these to shame.

He then remade Planet of the Apes. The original was one of the greatest movies of all time. There will never be another actor like Chuck Heston. And for the record, Mark "Marky-Mark" Wahlberg is no Chuck Heston. So what if the monkeys in the original looked fake, it wasn't about the appearance. The movie was a classic for its script and direction and acting, not makeup. I would go so far as to say the last movie of the series in the 70s (or 80s, no one really knows when they stopped) was better than this pile of diarrhea that Tim Burton made.

Then he re-made Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Frankly the only people I know who claim to remotely like it are die-hard Tim Burton fans. OK, so the book might have been darker than the Gene Wilder film. The Gene Wilder film was made for children, no need to be excessively dark. The Tim Burton film was more so "sanitary" than dark, especially the scenes within the factory itself. And also, i did find the original "adequately dark." The scene in the tunnel with the boat and the end when he almost blows off Charlie are dark enough, not to mention the cold way he deals with every single kid who gets kicked out. Oh, and by the way, trying to turn the main character into an allegory of a man who was 6 when the book was written, why? Frankly, it just dates the movie in the worst of ways, much in the way vague genre movies date themselves. Who cares, the only movie that should even mention the life (not works, that is entirely different, and entirely touchable) of Michael Jackson is his own movie, Moonwalker.

Somewhere along the way he also made The Corpse Bride, which was essentially a re-make of his already made movie -- The Nightmare Before Christmas.

I'm thoroughly convinced he doesn't do casting calls anymore. Just take a look at the cast list for Alice. Every movie since he married Helena Bonham Carter has starred her. Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter? The list goes on to include -- Christopher Lee, Paul Reubens, Alan Rickman, and Deep Roy. For those unfamiliar with the last name, he is the Oompa-Lumpa from Charlie, and also has parts in Big Fish, Sleepy Hollow, The Corpse Bride, and Planet of the Apes.

The reason I'm writing this is because recently (this week I believe) the studio released stills from his upcoming re-make. Notably there was a picture of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. Sufficed to say, if I had not been made aware that this was a picture of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, I would have selected JOHNNY DEPP FROM ANY OTHER DAMN TIM BURTON MOVIE. Look, I respect, sometimes admire Depp's acting career for the most part, I just don't understand why he signs on to all of his films.

I also understand that filmmakers like to have a signature look. The problem is every single one of his movies seems the same. I didn't mind that when it was just Edward Scissorhands. At the time, it was an innovative movie, with a unique appearance. It's just that almost every one of his movies since then has the same exact neo-gothic look about it. Even Planet of the Apes has a somewhat gothic feel to it, despite being set well in the future.

I've heard the argument that he uses colors well. That's essentially the only argument I've ever heard, and its a bit weak. The only colors he ever really uses are black, white, and red. Maybe sometimes he'll use orange, which is really a light red. This also puts him in the company of I Know Who Killed Me, one of the latest films to star Lohan. Though I am a fan of the film (shocking, I know), one thing I'm not going to tout is its art direction -- for the exact same reason, its solely reliant upon an extremely small set of colors which are set well apart from the others. If you're looking to do something more artistic with it, don't make it so obvious. Use a full spectrum of colors, and perhaps have a group which signifies something.

Tim Burton needs to stop. He's simply adding to the trend of re-making movies and making more and more sequels. To make matters worse, it doesn't even appear that he's going to do a very good job with Alice.

Why can't someone do something creative, such as the screenplay I am currently working upon, about a national dilemma; where it turns out the nazi's aren't gone. They've simply escaped to a secret moon base, and are planning to launch an attack to make up for their prior defeat. The solution: a task force of werewolves, who will, because they are on the moon, be in a permanent state of werewolf. Sadly, if this gets made, I see a Tim Burton re-make ten years immediately afterwards, starring Christopher Lee as a Nazi, Johnny Depp and Alan Rickman as werewolves, and Helena Bonham Carter as the President of the Unites States of America.

--Knuttel

No More Clintonites

OK, so Barry-O has been busy trying to figure out who is going to be in his cabinet, and has named some pretty important positions thus far; notably Chief of Staff, Attorney General and Secretary of Health and Human Services.

One thing to keep in mind -- Barry O will pretty much be able to select whoever he wants to fill any of these positions, his party has a clear majority in congress, and there is even a possibility the Senate could be filibuster proof by party lines. It is likelier to already be filibuster proof due to the rather amorphous nature of American Political Parties. People are elected, rather than parties, thus people from the other side of the aisle may help in blocking filibusters.

Alas, I digress.

Barry O has been nominating too many Clintonites into these seats of power. In fact, I can't really name anyone selected thus far (except maybe Daschle) who doesn't have a strong Clinton connection.

Barry O ran on the platform of change. He has yet to take the Oath of Office, and already things are looking a lot like 1998.

While this is still a welcome difference from the expected continuation of Neo-Cons if McCain had won -- yes, I know he isn't a neo-con, but his campaign was run by them, and in all likelihood he would have picked several to run his cabinet -- This is not what I voted for, and more importantly, this is not what America voted for.

If America wanted another Clinton Administration, America would have picked Hilary Clinton to be the Democratic Candidate. She lost, and now it seems all too real that she could end up being secretary of state. Scary proposition. When you pick one Clinton, you get both of them. While I admire Bill Clinton, and his presidency, now is not the time for him to be at the forefront of American politics. This administration was supposed to hand off the party to the next generation of Democrats, not bring back the old ones.

We don't need someone who can advise Barry O on foreign relations, write foreign policy etc -- Biden is also in office, remember, he can do that stuff. We need Obama-Biden policy, not Clinton-Clinton policy.

That's another thing, Biden is/has experience. I know Barry O wants to pick up a bunch of experienced, qualified people, but -- sometimes, in fact oftentimes, experience does not equal qualified.

I could continue on this matter, but the issue is grating upon me too much.

--Knuttel

BOYCOTT THE NFL

To begin, let me assure everyone, this is not because the Eagles just tied the Bungles. This is about a disease which is plaguing the entire league.

The Quarterback is being overprotected.

The quarterback can slide down anywhere on the field, instead of being tackled down, if he so chooses. The quarterback cannot be hit below the knees behind the line of scrimmage. The quarterback cannot be hit in the head behind the line of scrimmage. The quarterback cannot be hit after he releases a pass behind the line of scrimmage. Now it seems the quarterback cannot be hit at all.

WHY?!!??!?

Last time I checked, the quarterback is a normal position, just like any other position on the field. Why is he given precedence? Even as the position is slowly moving back to accepting "athletes" to play it (after the doldrums of slow qbs which hung like a parasite in the 70s and 80s), it seems the NFL is slowly rejecting the notion that these players are equals of their teammates.

Why don't we just dress all of the quarterbacks up in tutus. That way at least the other team knows they should just prance around him and tap him down, as opposed to hitting him down.

Seriously, I think at this point it would actually be manlier to sit through The Notebook than to watch any given quarter (let alone a whole game) of an NFL game.

Personally, this is not a very tough decision on my part. I had previously boycotted the last super bowl, after I decided the best result of that game would be a natural disaster to destroy the stadium and all inside. I found a good alternative in the puppy bowl, voiced by none other than the legendary Harry Kalas, who is known nationally as the voice of NFL films since '75, back when they actually played football (locally, the legendary voice of the Phillies. Side note, why the hell is he not voicing the Phillies World Series DVD? That is an outrage, and I may think about putting a bounty of Bud Selig's head for that). I've also had a personal boycott on the Madden Series, since it has become total crap since it gained the right to be the exclusive NFL game, and a boycott on Reebok's NFL gear crap, for similar reasons.

Even though my Nittany Lions are effectively out of the BCS title picture (by default of having one loss as a Big Ten team, total bullshit. Florida's loss was at home to under .500 Ole Miss, shouldn't they be disqualified?) I think I will stick to watching only NCAA football. The way of deciding the champion may not be nearly as organized and coherent, but at least I know I will be watching football when I watch one of those games, even if one or both of the teams is playing a spread offense.

I think, as it stands, Italian League soccer may actually be manlier than NFL, even with all of their dives and flops and general delays.

Think about that.

--Knuttel

and another thing -- just because someone who isn't the normal quarterback may be lined up to take a snap directly, usually from shotgun, doesn't make it a "wildcat" formation. Sometimes its just, oh I dunno, someone else lined up to take the snap from shotgun. The wildcat formation is a modern variation on a very distinct old formation called the Single Wing.

What is Obama's next move: feet don't fail me now

It has been quite some time since the elections, and the results have shown a clear, if not dominating win by Barrack Obama.

But where does he go now (at least in a general ideological sense)? Does he take the total victories of the entire Democratic Party as a sign that America wants its government to be progressive and/or liberal? Does he view the election results as more an incumbent Republican defeat, and try to move more towards the center, bridging the partisanship which has plagued the country recently? Does he take the “pragmatic” approach, whatever that may be? Does he try to work with whatever state the nation is in, or does he try and reverse everything under Bush, trying to start from square one, circa 2000?

The answer is simple. We don’t know yet. There’s speculation from both sides, trying to figure out what he plans on doing, but the fact is there aren’t any hints thus far, and any speculation thus far seems more like something from the respective personal political fantasy lands. The choice of Biden as running mate doesn’t necessarily say much about where he intends to go politically, because VP’s typically haven’t had that role. Usually they’ve been relegated to appeasing certain party factions, whether they be geographic or ideological. His selection of Rahm Emmanuel for Chief of Staff also says nothing. The Chief of Staff should actually probably be renamed Chief of being an asshole, as that is essentially the role they have – doing the dirty work to make sure congress and the rest of the cabinet is on the same page.

Personally, I think he should try and go for a more moderate route. This goes along with my idea of radical moderation, where moderation must be sought for radically, as radical aims must be brought about moderately. As long as he doesn’t take his cues from Nancy Pelosi, and other far-leftists, it should be fine.

His choice of Secretary of State, which will likely be his next cabinet choice, should paint a more vivid impression of what the office will be like. Any Republican name (he did mention he wants a bi-partisan cabinet) will point to a more moderate office. The three leading names I’ve heard thrown around this position are Bill Richardson (Gov – NM), John Kerry (Sen – Mass), and Hil-dawg Clinton (Sen – NY).

Bill Richardson may have the most foreign policy experience of all current Governors. He was Ambassador to the UN for some time under the Clinton Administration, which would make this selection somewhat of a Clinton reprisal, though not so strongly. He, as a lot of the Democratic Party, has moved on since 2000. While his work in the Clinton Administration is strong, he has made his work of the past 8 years exemplar as well.

The Selection of John Kerry would signal a stronger break from the Clintons than most other selections. He does have the experience, being a high ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations committee for a long time, alongside VP-elect Joe Biden. This role may suit him, as John Kerry is not so much a leader, but a policy nerd. I just hope, if he does get the post, that he chooses not to surrender to countries before wars even start. It would be a real enough fear.

Hil-dawg has officially been confirmed as interviewed for the position. However, sources also say he is/has interviewed many many people for this, extensively. It’s something called vetting. Anyways, I really don’t see this as a good move. She touts her experience as from when her husband was President. And, yes, she was a very active First Lady, perhaps only preceded by Eleanor Roosevelt and Edith Wilson (who effectively ran the country in 1920). But the foreign policy duties as First Lady are usually limited to meeting foreign dignitaries under controlled circumstances, not negotiating treaties and imposing embargos, etc. In addition, her personality is too domineering. If she is assigned this post, foreign policy is hers. Plus, putting her in this post would be potentially putting the office back into the 90s. The Clinton administration is over, let her be a Senator and move on.

Another possible selection would be to put a virtual unknown in this post. Biden has enough foreign policy experience to spare, and they may actually use this post to groom the Presidential Candidate for 2012 (Biden may be too old by then). If anyone remembers their history lesson, something like the first 4 Presidents after Adams were all former Secretaries of State – Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, JQ Adams. The only thing I can think of that would keep this from happening is this whole lack of experience BS surrounding the whole campaign (even though Biden has enough to spare).

--Knuttel

Ohio State should be burned down, and the soil sewn with salt

Being a Penn State fan, or really I suppose this could go for a fan of any school in the Big Ten besides Ohio State, I really hate Ohio State.

What they have done to damage the reputation of the Big Ten is really incalculable.

The past two years they have made it to the BCS National Championship game. Whether or not it was merited, they were one of the teams selected (not gonna get into the whole, BCS sucks we need a playoff bit).

Both of those years they were not only beaten, but blown out, once by Florida, once by LSU (coincidentally both SEC schools, however I think that is merely coincidence).

By being blown out these two years, as the perceived consistent leader of the Big Ten (which is false) they've by default ruined the legitimacy of the entire conference.

They haven't really had a significant bowl win since really either 02 (when they beat Miami for the championship) or 03 (when they narrowly edged Kansas State for a Fiesta Bowl win). The BCS win against the Irish isn't really anything special considering the Irish only need like 3 losses for a guarunteed BCS bid, and the fact that the Irish haven't won any bowl games since the 80s when Lou Holshtz was their head coach. Come to think of it, they themselves decided not to play in any bowl games at all for about 50 years from the 20s to the 70s.

But the simple fact is this. Ohio State, at least/especially over the last few years, has been built only to win in the Big Ten. Anyone remember the year they beat the Irish in a BCS game, they previously lost to Texas in the regular season (and Penn State).

So naturally, they will go to these games. In fact, despite having two losses this year (USC, and Penn State again) they probably will go to a BCS game again, and get blown out.

And another thing. I'm tired of the SEC constantly, consistently, and most of all, incessantly being touted as the be-all and end-all of all awesome college football conferences. The fact of the matter is their basement sucks (Tennessee -- who lost to Wyoming, Mississippi State, Arkansas), they never play good out of conference opponents (often times much worse than the ones the Big Ten plays, at least the Big Ten usually schedules FBS teams), and once bowl season does in fact come around, they only do about as good as the other conferences, which is to say around .500. Ok, so Alabama and Florida are elite teams, so are Penn State, Texas, and USC, they don't seem to be in the SEC. OK, so they produce alot of NFL defensive players, so do the Big Ten and Pac Ten. It's really quite absurd the levels this conference is elevated above the others. Oddly enough it's probably karmic payment for that one year undefeated Auburn was left out of the national championship game. Nowadays it seems every single SEC fan is screaming "INJUSTICE" if the entire BCS Bowl series isn't filled with SEC teams. The funny part about that is the players themselves don't know the meaning of the word. They just don't learn it with their Basket weaving majors.

Damnit, I said I wouldn't go there, but you know how you fix all that crap with the conferences claiming their #1 team should go to the big game, Playoff. It's not that hard. Just an automatic berth for Big Ten, SEC, Pag 10, Big 12, ACC, Big East, and then two at large. 8 teams, that's only 3 rounds. simple.

Damn Ohio State for ruining this for any other Big Ten team's future hopes at a National Championship. I guess Mr. Sweatervest didn't want anyone else to join in on the fun.

--Knuttel

**Update 9:30 pm**
Here are the conferences as they stand currently
The ACC has 8 of its 12 teams eligible for a bowl berth, and none eliminated from contention. There are, however, none with less than 2 losses.
The Big 12 has 7 teams out of 12 eligible for a bowl berth, with 2 eliminated from contention, and two more dangerously close.
The Big East has 5 out of 8 teams eligible for a bowl berth, and one eliminated from contention.
The Big Ten has 6 out of 11 teams eligible for a bowl berth, and 3 eliminated from contention.
The Pac 10 has 5 out of 10 teams eligible for a bowl berth, and 2 elminated from contention.
The SEC has 6 out of 12 teams eligible for a bowl berth and one eliminated from contention.

What does this say? It says the ACC has a lot of good above average teams, none terribly weak, but none terribly good. There is currently a three way tie for the Coastal division lead. The Big 12 has some good teams, but the bottom is staggering. 3-7 Baylor, 2-8 Iowa State, 4-6 Kansas State, 4-6 Texas A&M. The SEC is pretty much a reflection of that; particularly the SEC West (which features undefeated Alabama), 4-6 Arkansas, 3-6 Mississppi State, traditionally strong Auburn at 5-5. The Pac 10 is doing its best Hamlet impersonation (there's something rotten in the state of Washington) -- 1-9 Wasu and 0-9 Washington. USC is unquestionably the best team, but their loss is to second in the Pac 10 Oregon State, who Penn State beat. The Big East is in a similar situation with the ACC, in that no team wants to win the division, the problem though is none of them are particularly good. With that much parity, to already have an eliminated team does not bode well for the rest of the conference. Which leaves the Big Ten. The Big Ten is currently in a three way tie for first place, 9-2 Michigan State, 9-1 Penn State, and 8-2 Ohio State. Each only has one conference loss. The six automatic bowl berths are most among conferences that don't have a conference championship game, because they do not have 12 teams. The teams already eliminated were an Indiana team that is never expected to anything really, a Purdue team that nearly pulled an upset in Oregon, and a Michigan team in transition. Wisconsin fell off the map once conference play started, but still sits at .500.

Also to consider, once bowl games begin, the only one of these conferences that does not have any "home" bowl games -- a bowl game in the immediate geographic area -- is the Big Ten. There is the Motor City Bowl in Detroit, but that is a crappy bowl game that features, if any Big Ten team, the one in seventh place in the conference. The overwhelming number of games are played in Florida, Texas, and California. This creates home games for, essentially, the SEC, ACC, and Big East; the Big 12; and the Pac 10, respectively. There are even more games in the southern states -- those that hold SEC and ACC teams such as Georgia and Louisiana, games in the general south west, and all up the west coast, for Pac 10 teams. Now, I know bowl games are seen as "vacation" to alot of people (sportswriters, coaches, etc), and few people plan to travel to the freezing Midwest, or (cold) Pennsylvania, for a bowl game, but this should put a serious hamper on the ability of Big Ten teams to compete in these games, and the fact of the matter is they usually do remarkably well, not even considering something like this. Sometimes I wonder if Jim Tressel's soul is darker than Urban Meyer's for doing something like this to the conference.

Presidential Experience

Time to put the Brad Lidge facts on hold for a little bit, though there will be more, I assure you.

This, I suppose, would refer to both Obama and Palin, who have little governmental experience, especially when in comparison with their respective running mates.

There have been great Presidents with a lot of experience (LBJ, FDR, Jackson). There have been awful Presidents with a lot of experience (Pierce, Garfield, Harrison). There have been awful Presidents with only a little experience (Grant). There have been great Presidents with only a little experience (Wilson, TR, Taft).

The roundabout point there, is there really isn't any particular job that can prepare one for being a President. It would appear that since Kennedy, the requirement would be either being a Governor or Vice President. But the truth is many people from many previous jobs have become President -- Senators, Governors, Generals, Representatives, etc.

But quite possibly the President with the least experience coming into office, is considered by many to be one of the greatest. In addition, he arguably had to deal with the largest crisis this nation has ever faced.

This man is Abraham Lincoln.

His government experience is essentially limited to ONE term in the House of Representatives (that's only two years) as a member of the Whig party. He decided not to run for re-election because he was deemed unelectable in his district -- he had been a strong opponent of the Mexican-American war, while it was wildly popular in his region of Illinois. By naming the war, you should also be able to figure out that this one term was in the 1840's, Lincoln was President from 1861-1865. After his stint in Congress, he returned to his law practice. While he argued cases before the State Supreme Court, he really didn't do anything again politically until he tried running for an Illinois Senate seat in 1858 as a member of the new Republican party. This campaign brought about the famous Lincoln-Douglass debates. Back then, Senate seats were decided by the State legislatures, and the Douglass' Democrats won more seats, thus making Douglass Senator. In 1860, the Republican Party decided to run Abraham Lincoln for President. The Democratic Party was split in two over the issue of slavery, and ran a northern and southern candidate (oddly enough, the northern candidate was none other than Douglass). A fourth party took further votes away from the Democratic party. The split in the dominating party of the time allowed Lincoln to capture enough electoral votes to become President, even though he had only won a small portion of the popular vote(>40%). Douglass, while winning the second largest portion of the popular vote, mostly received them from areas Lincoln won, and ended up only winning the State of Missouri, and half of New Jersey.

So what does this all mean -- When it comes down to it, sometimes experience means crap. The most qualified man should always be picked, but when there is no true training ground to become President, there really is no experience that can be counted against another's.

It's more about the person themselves, who they are, not what they've done.

--Knuttel

Brad Lidge facts part 2

There really aren't enough of them.


26. Brad Lidge dared Chase Utley to drop the F bomb in the World Series speeches after the parade on Friday, but then Utley wussed out. Lidge double dog dared him, and he still wasn’t gonna do it. So then Lidge triple dog dared him and threatened to throw his slider at his face. The rest is history.

27. One time Brad Lidge’s slider went up against Chuck Norris’ roundhouse kick. I don’t recall seeing any Chuck Norris movies recently.

28. Harry Kalas’ voice is so powerful it can open a pickle jar. Ok, that’s not about Lidge, but it needs to be said.

29. Brad Lidge once pretended to be a moose, and hunted Sarah Palin. The one out now is simply an imposter.

30. Brad Lidge gave his voice over talents to Harry Kalas after he heard what former Phillies relief pitcher Wheels was doing with his.

31. Brad Lidge ate John Kruk’s surgically removed nut on a dare, then spit it out and threw a slider at Billy Wagner’s face.

32. Brad Lidge recently took all of Pete Rose’s gambling prophets after Pete Rose said he could hit his slider.

33. Brad Lidge accidentally broke the window of the Delorean from Back to the Future when his slider slipped into the space time continuum as he was striking out Chipper Jones.

34. When Brad Lidge played for the Houston Astros, he always said whether the roof was open or closed while he was pitching, regardless of whether how it was the rest of the game.

35. Brad Lidge is currently on the NSA Terror watch list, after the incident in Crawford, Texas. He was pitching some balls to GW Bush, but Bush couldn’t hit his slider, Lidge wasn’t about to back down, so he beaned him in the head and threw a pretzel down his throat. The NSA has no chance of catching him.

36. When fans of opposing teams see Brad Lidge warm up in the bullpen, they either leave because they know they have officially lost the game, or they stay to marvel at the sweet-ass slider.

37. Brad Lidge’s slider put Pat Burrel in permanent slow motion.

38. Brad Lidge and Mitch Williams regularly play a pitching version of Horse, ala Michael Jordan and Larry Bird. The difference is they usually wager two big macs instead of one.

39. Brad Lidge used his slider to help John Rambo when he was in Afghanistan in Rambo 3.

40. Bruce Lee used to train for agility by trying to dodge Brad Lidge sliders. This didn’t last too long, as Brad Lidge never misses.

41. Once, Brad Lidge’s slider broke so hard, it went underground and killed a few Molemen. The FBI tried to keep the situation under wraps, but the moleman head Brad Lidge keeps as a trophy is too sweet to not show around.

42. The bomb that blew up the death star was based off of Brad Lidge’s slider.

43. John Wilkes Booth wanted to use Brad Lidge’s slider to kill Abraham Lincoln, but Brad Lidge liked the dude, so Booth was forced to use a derringer. On the way down, Lidge threw a slider at his leg and broke it.

44. Brad Lidge taught Zakk Wylde how to play guitar.

45. Brad Lidge can turn back time like Superman by throwing his slider against the earth’s rotation.

46. Brad Lidge’s slider once beat the Flash in a race because the Flash stopped to gaze at the awesome breaking action.

47. If Brad Lidge is bored while in New York, he’ll demand entrance to The Boy From Oz (he doesn’t have to pay) and just throw sliders at Hugh Jackman’s face.

48. Mayor Michael Nutter ran his campaign on the platform of how awesome Brad Lidge’s slider is. He won in a landslide.

49. Charlie Manuel almost didn’t want Brad Lidge on his team because he thought it was too unfair an advantage that the rest of his team would only have to pitch 8 innings a game.

50. Once Brad Lidge asked Vin Diesel if he was actually Fast and/or Furious. Vin Diesel ran away crying.

"...and on the third pitch, he threw a slider"

It was inevitable that somebody would make them, so I am personally taking it upon myself to write them.


1. The secret to Brad Lidge's slider rests not with his grip or throwing mechanics, but rather he simply tells the balls that they are in fact, going to slide. They always listen.

2. When Brad Lidge joined the Phillies he wanted to be the best Pitcher on the team, no question, so he kicked Cole Hamels' nuts back into his body (resulting in his voice). It is, however, theorized that when Hamels' nuts re-descend, his fastball will reach 140 and his curveball will break 3 feet.

3. Brad Lidge doesn't vacuum, dirt just doesn't dare linger on his floor. (courtesy of scott)

4. Brad Lidge decided to be a closer because his batting would unusually disrupt hitting statistics as we know them.

5. Additionally, this would create pressure to make him an everyday player, and its just not fair to the other pitchers to have this man go 9 innings every game.

6. The only reason Gillick approved of sending Bourne to Houston for Lidge was because of Lidge's blinding speed. Coincidentally, Lidge is the emergency pinch runner/ fielder for both Shane Victorino and Jimmy Rollins.

7. Brad Lidge once struck out Jose Reyes without even throwing a pitch.

8. Brad Lidge gave up the Homer to Albert Pujols in the 2005 NLCS because he was bored and wanted to see if a baseball could go into outer space. Pujols gravely dissappointed Lidge.

9. Underneath Brad Lidges beard, there is not a chin, but rather a slider.

10. Pope Benny 16 is officially changing the church hymn to "Lidge takes mound, Lidge is pitching, Lidge will save again"

11. Bernie Parent recently revealed that when only the Lord saved more than he, he was actually talking about Brad Lidge.

12. Global Warming is actually caused by Lidge's slider, as the ball itself does not break, but rather he brings the earth incrementally closer to the sun (or moon for a night game). Al Gore recently proposed that the greatest cure to Global Warming would be to insure Lidge only pitches when the earth is not facing the sun.

13. Pat Burrel is incapable of hitting a breaking ball because once Lidge threw him a slider in batting practice, and he shit his pants.

14. Brad Lidges clocks set themselves. (scott)

15. Brad Lidge can fix the economy with a slider (scott)

16. The Army once inquired about the use of Lidge's slider as a deadly weapon.

17. Brad Lidge's slider doesn't negotiate with terrorists.

18. Brad Lidge has not supported any Presidential candidate because he knew he would immediately be asked to be the running mate.

19. Brad Lidge realized at an early age that his slider could be used to achieve world peace. However, he realized at an even earlier age that he hates hippies.

20. Brett Myers' wife decided not to press domestic assault charges on him because Brett was simply trying to show his wife how to throw Lidge's slider, but failed miserably.

21. One time, Brad lidge beat Babe Ruth in a Hot Dog eating contest.

22. Joe Carter's body was found dead on wednesday night. The cause of death was reportedly Brad Lidge's slider.

23. Brad Lidge orders whoppers at McDonalds, and gets them. (scott)

24. When Pedro Feliz was hurt, Charlie Manuel tried putting Brad Lidge at third. Ryan Howard needed a new glove each inning.

25. Brad Lidge's slider can smell fear.

Portrait of a fallen man

While I hate playing the game, "What if?", here is a good piece on how McCain's campaign fell to pieces. It's really a shame too. I never thought a moderate/independent could/would shift so radically to one side in order to attempt to win a Presidency. McCain may ultimately go down in history as the Henry Clay of the late 20th, early 21st century.

On a side note, it's really interesting to see how the social conservatives hi-jacked the party so strongly in the past 10 years. Essentially they are responsible for McCain losing the 2000 primaries. Additionally, their stubbornness to adhere to such a stringent code of social conservatism has essentially driven out the rest of the members of the party. Their anti-intellectualist tendencies led to the state of current University teaching staffs being overwhelmingly Democrats, and the strict adherence to making social issues strongest eventually drove out the banking industry, now either made of libertarians or fiscally conservative democrats.


Nothing more on the World Series until its over. I may issue a death warrant on Bud Selig.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/10/29/mccain_2000/index.html?source=rss&aim=/news/feature

--Knuttel

The First Two Games of the Series

So, my rundown of the first two games of the 2008 World Series.

Some starting notes -- Tropicana Field is ugly, should be burned to the ground, and afterwards, the soil should be sewn with salt so nothing productive can stand there ever. There's so many strange ground-rules. I never thought I'd be so disappointed just to see a normal bouncing over the wall ground rule double, but after all the (yawn, boring) explanations of the catwalks (which actually support the roof, so they're ugly and get in the way) I wanted one of those kind of ground rule doubles. What's with the slanted roof? Is it better for the rain to fall on just one side of the building or something? And please, no more Dick Vitale. I liked being able to ignore him until March, but it looks like ESPN just loves throwing crap like this guy at us whenever they can.

Game 1

Whole Camels threw another impressive game (impressive consistent too). The man has gone 7 innings exactly in each of his post-season starts this year and has not let up more than 2 runs. The batting was good when it had to be, and there weren't any grievious base running errors. I'm getting a free taco because of a TB stolen base in the fifth, and then Chase Utley stole one later in the game for good measure. The bullpen came out and shut the rays down, like they have to every team thus far. Most importantly, they win game 1, which is something 10 of the last 11 winning teams have done. They've also won an away game, something they will have to do at least once if they want to win the series (damn you, Bud Selig), and it's always better to win games sooner rather than later.

Game 2

As indicated in the picture above, Brett Myers pitched his ass off (it's actually now concave). He had some bumps early on. One bump was entirely umpire induced, when the ump second guessed whether a pitch (which was a strike anyway) was a strike or ball, originally called it a strike, then went to ball, but the batter started swinging, so the ump appealed to the first base ump, who, though having a clear shot to see the bat went entirely over the plate and had pretty much a full swing, called him not swinging. Well the pitch count was 3-2, there were 2 outs I think. The man gets on base, when the inning should be over, I think someone was already on, so there's someone on first and second, and boom -- runs scored. The crisis should have been averted, but those asscunts of officiating decided to leave their brains and eyes at home. Fielding errors also cost the Phils some runs. Only 3 of Myers 4 runs allowed were earned. He went 7 innings, which usually is enough for a pitcher to get a win. The bullpen was again lights out, no runs whatsoever. The bats and baserunning left much to be desired. I would've thought Charlie Manuel, being an ex-AL manager (Indians), would know better how to deal with using the DH, but it seems otherwise. Two different DH's in two games (yeah, I know, one righty, one lefty) both play piss-poor. At least the next two games they don't have to deal with that, but the series will have to go back to Tampa eventually. Are they going to try someone new (Matt Stairs?)? Are they going to put one of the regular fielders at DH? -- Burrel, replaced by Bruntlet, Howard, replaced by Dobbs? Based on ability, the logical choice would appear to be Burrel, as Bruntlet scored the first run of the game, and is the defensive replacement for Burrel in late innings, but Burrel has always been awful as a DH, I think the batting average under the Mendoza line.

Whatever it is, the offense needs to get back on track. The offense is what won most of the games for the Phillies this season -- Cole Hamels can't pitch everyday and Lidge isn't worth pitching unless there's a lead to protect. The pitching has shown that it can keep games close, but they need run support.

Come on, I haven't seen a Philadelphia Championship in my lifetime, and I've already graduated College. 4 sports, no championships. Eagles - 1960, Flyers - 1976, Philles - 1980, Sixers - 1983. Don't be like the '93 Phillies, the '97 Flyers, the '01 Sixers, or the '04 Eagles. Just win the damn thing.

--Knuttel

That beard who is beard

Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, recently posited his opinion that there should be a second effort to try and help the economy -- a stimulus package -- much like the one given around tax season as a reminder to re-elect everyone HOORAY.

The problem with that is, it simply won't work.

Though, to be fair, if the government were to give me a stimulus package, I'd be hard pressed to say no.

But the problem with this is it simply reinforces the base of American economics as a consumer market. Bad news bears.

There is a simple fact that gets in the way of this working for an entire nation.
--In order for one to make a profit, someone else must lose money.
A unit of currency is worth a certain value, and goods and services can be exchanged for certain amounts of said currency. Therefore certain people/groups own/control larger portions of wealth. If the number of currency in circulation does not change, then there is no chance of the nation as a whole gaining or losing money. If the amount of currency in circulation increases, then each unit of currency is devalued, and again, the nation as a whole sees no increase or decrease.
Adding in international markets only pushes the dilemma onto an international scale. The World as a whole will see no increase or decrease.

Economically, a new system must start, in order for these financial woes to fix themselves. De-regulated and regulated capitalism has shown its flaws. To go to systems resembling feudalism or things prior would be preposterous. Communism/socialism only made sense as a solution to the industrial world of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

What's next? Who's to say?

--Knuttel

Phightins win pennant

yeah, boring title, I know.

too excited, definitely to biased to write anything about the actual win, so here's what I found to be the best article on the game -- the AP article sucked.

Phillies Finish Off Dodgers

--Knuttel

Jerry Jones, Lord of the Underworld

Jerry Jones; while may he may not be the most incompetent owner (that title is being fought for by Ford and Davis), he is certainly the most evil (yes, moreso than Jeffrie Lurie).

Recap -- He bought the team in the late 80s. His first act of business - fire iconic head coach Tom Landry. While I do hate the man as a coach, he had a tendency to run the score up in strike seasons with scabs and also served as DC for the Giants before taking this post, he will go down in history as one of the great ones (if not already).

Secondly, he built his team up with known troublers and fire starters. Most notably he traded for Charles Haley and Deion Sanders, but he also drafted Michael "I can't get open without throwing the cornerback to the ground" Irving and Nate Newtown.

Jim Johnson handled them well enough that they weren't out of control for the first two super bowls. However, Jones' domineering personality forced Johnson out which left him to hire former OU coach Barry Switzer, who just didn't care. Coincidentally, these are the only two coaches in history to win both a college nationa championship and the super bowl as head coach, as if anyone cares.

Well, he's at it again.

Recently he forced iconic coach Bill Parcells out of the job, which left him with Wade Phillips -- a coach of a much "weaker" personality.

Personel -- well after to left the eagles, he went to the cowboys, where he replaced Keyshawn Johnson -- a man, while troubled, looks like a saint as far as recent cowboys go.

He then personally fought the league for reinstatement of adam "Pacman" jones. No, he didn't think Pacman could be a normal, no trouble-causing human being. He just thought maybe he could have him avoid enough legal problems until he won a superbowl.

The altercation before last weeks game, it was a serious offense. Most teams would suspend their player for attempting to fight their own body guard. Not Jerry Jones. No, he needed a good cornerback while his secondary nursed some injuries.

Well, Roger Goodell looked into the matter(another man who doesn't really know what he's doing), finally decided -- hey, this is a serious matter. It is not consistent with what was required of Pacman to play in the NFL.

He is now out for four games, possibly more, possibly his whole career. Hey, there's always Canada.

Also, this kinda slipped under the radar at the trading deadline -- he traded for trouble maker receiver Roy Williams, who often whined about being the number two receiver, much more often than he whined about losing.

The fact of the matter is Jerry Jones cares not for the image of the National Football League. It's gotten to a point where I don't really care about what team it is. Yeah, I hate the Cowboys. But more importantly, i hate the image that they're giving the rest of the NFL and its players. Winning at all costs isn't winning at all. The worst part about it is he is the owner and GM. This means he is his own boss. He is responsible for removing himself from making these poor decisions, and I really don't see the man swallowing enough pride to do that.

Point is, he needs to be removed from his office.

--Knuttel

Phightin' on

The Phillies won in impressive fashion last night. The lead changed often, and with the help of another big inning, they won.

Mad, mad, crazy mad props to Shane Victorino and Matt Stairs.

Also props to Brad Lidge for going 1.1 for the save, sealing what would end up being a shaky 8th. good stuff.

Whole Camels pitches game 5, hopefully for the seal.


In other news, working on a conspiracy theory about McCain's campaign. Well, it's not really a conspiracy, moreso a really unconventional strategy.

Also, after Joe Buck announced to the world that Shane Victorino's favorite food is Spam Musubi, PETA became offended. To be fair, PETA becomes offended when people refuse to view an animal defecating as a beautiful act of nature, but I cannot be fair with PETA. They are a ridiculously radical organization for a cause that people may view with empathy, but not NEARLY to the extent they do. It would be like how we american's don't like how much gas we use, in cars etc.; well PETA's solution would be to entirely get rid of all modes of transportation requiring gasoline.

Alas, I digress. PETA took offense to Shane Victorino's food so much (personally, I find this a little offensive, as spam is pretty synonimous with post-America Hawaiian cuisine), that they personally wrote a letter to him describing how spam is made.

God forbid what happens when they find out his car may or may not have leather seating.

--Knuttel

Penn State is the greatest football team this year

Penn State University is the best college football team in the Nation this year.

If anyone has seen any of their games (I really mean any) than I should not have to qualify that statement.

In fact, out of defiance, I shall not qualify the statement. I demand you watch them play. The lines dominate and everyone else makes plays. It's really that pure and simple.

I am only torn whether to tout Derrick Williams or Daryll Clark as the clear front-runner for every single award made, ever. Consider it making up for past crimes against Penn State football (only one heisman, which I suppose is understandable on a team which emphasizes team, but only two national championships despite 5 undefeated seasons, and many many more one loss seasons).

Joe Paterno may even retire as the greatest coaching force in the history of the game, when he chooses to step down at the age of 120, counting the seven years he coaches from the grave. The man has either coached or played in essentially every era of football. Even his traditional two-running back offense (that's where both of the backs run the ball, not having one in a mostly blocking role) to the current spread-hd. He even mixed in the Nebraska I-option into his plan when he had Zack Mills and LJ. Defensively, it is Linebacker U. They have a defense that continues to produce player after player, specifically being known for creating the best all around linebackers everywhere (Sure, Shane Conlin wasn't as flashy as the Bos, but at least he didn't make any crappy movies), and has never managed to seem outdated.

Whatever, I'm rambling, and probably a little giddy from the post-victory glow, but that doesn't change anything I really said about Penn State.

--Knuttel

The worm has turned

Politics as usual?

This is one of the first things I approve of in the John McCain Campaign since he won the primaries.

He is noticing what he is doing. His quest to become the maverick President has become his quest to become the Republican President. I suppose it's sad that he only realizes this now, but better late than never, I suppose. Still not going to vote for him.

The country needs unity right now, and such a harsh criticism of a man based on absurd things can only wreak havoc.

The wheels are coming off. While I don't really believe he has had control of his campaign since probably January, I really don't believe he has control of it now. Yeah, I know McCain can be a bit aggressive, and a bit of a curmudgeon, but he never stooped to such a low blow. The enemy was never domestic, and it never should be. That isn't to say there aren't domestic enemies, it's just to say that perhaps we shouldn't create them.

Honestly, the respectful thing for him to do is for both him and Palin to drop out. I don't see it happening.

Thank God I lost all my idealism in 2004, otherwise I'd feel real let down about now, regardless of the November victor.

Perhaps I should continue to foment my Absurdist political views.
--The purest form of Democracy is revolution.


I'll just leave it at that for now.

--Knuttel

Degrassi season 8 begins!!!!

First, start off with some business that must be taken care of.
Phils won, big time. Manny's home run bugs me, not really because it was 3 runs and brought the game within reach for them or anything. It bugs me because he hardly got his bat on it. How? Also puzzling is Brett Meyer's all of a sudden getting good with the wood. He almost matched his season total for hits in this one game, and if you count the whole post-season, has already tied his season long hit total. His month in the minor leagues doesn't seem to affect that total either.

Now onto Degrassi --

Season 8 began tonight. 90210 comparisons end now. Degrassi is vastly superior. More importantly, it handles cast changes so fluidly. I think that has alot to do with how the show is serialized. It's the natural course of life. People come and people go. As much as I enjoy the original cast members, a part of me needs to see them move on. The show, after all, is Degrassi, not people who went to Degrassi, or Degrassi alum, though I do like they handled frosh year at college so far.

Plotlines which began are the Mia modeling plotline, the Manny-Liberty-Emma college beginning plotline (including a unique twist on the roommate situations), and the Clare plotline. Clare, while not entirely a new character, is going through her first year as a Degrassi student, so I guess this is her first time being a full cast member. This is what makes her plotline the most vague at the moment, and with the possibility to expand the most. It appears as if they are trying to establish Clare's group of friends/acquaintances as the new core.

What sucks about the new season?

First and foremost the new song. While I like that they are again showing the opening sequence in a setting, as opposed to the moving pictures of seasons 6-7, the song itself falls short. While there are fans of either the original song, which was used until season 5, or the instrumental version used for the setting-less 6-7, I question the judgement of anyone who likes this new song. It's all Hannah-Montana-ie, but it's in Canada, so i guess Roberta Alberta?

Also, the new principal is a douche-nozzle, ass-fag, cunt-nugget -- whatever you want to call him. But the antagonistic Principal was something the show did lack during the Ms. Hotsauce years. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. It is also interesting to note that a pretty large fraction of the current cast has some sort of Lakehurst connection. Even more interesting is the school was made up in season 6. Not even Paige's raper, Dean, was a Lakehurst alum.

All-in-all, the season should turn out well. They've done a good job of phasing out old characters and bringing in new ones (whatever happenned to Hazel?). The new plotlines seem at least in their worst to be interesting. A lowered Darcy presence might not be beneficial, mostly because I don't think the show was entirely done with the character, but at least she's still there physically.

--Knuttel

For the Phightin's

As anyone who follows things which matter would already know -- the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the LA Dodgers in game 1 of the NLCS. Normally, because this is baseball, it might not matter too much. But, as we all know, because it involves the Phillies in particular, it carries a weighted importance.

Good things
As they did throughout the whole Brewers series, The phils won through solid pitching and one explosive inning. I like to compare this to the winning strategy of the Ravens team that won the Super Bowl in the early part of the decade, winning each playoff game with solid defense and one breakout offensive play. When the pitching is on, the pitching is on. Cole Hamels will emerge from this playoffs, regardless of how the team does the rest of the way, as one of the elite pitchers in MLB, if he isn't on some of these lists already. Lidge still has yet to blow a save, and was quite impressive today, only having a one run lead to hold (=no margin for error). And for the offense, well, they capitalize on mistakes. They were dynamic in their totality during the course of the season, but as long as they're scoring more runs than the opposition now, I really can't complain with how it gets done.

Bad things
Manny, while being pitched to well, I thought at least, still went 2-4, an RBI double (which was only a few feet from being a 2RBI homer) being one of the hits. The idiot announcers made a big stink about pitching to him from the full windup (with no runners on base) as opposed to the short stretch. Statistically, they were wrong. Manny went 1-2 in both cases. While that one double was ultimately more devastating with the runner on 2 than the bases empty single doesn't change the fact that he batted .500, regardless of a baserunning presence. I tried to find Kalas on the radio (if you are unfamiliar with the Phillies, you may recognize his voice from various sports highlight reels, specifically NFL Films, or the Puppy Bowl). While I mentioned the runs scored as a positive earlier. Now I shall list them as a downside. The Phillies have had only a handful of scoring innings thus far in the postseason. I want to say the number is 5 from 4 games with the Brewers, and now 1 more from the game with the Dodgers. I think it's a great credit to the baserunning ability of the team that they can explode on an inning like that (even Hamels has a run) they need more consistent bats. Ryan Howard, while impressive so far as long as the pitcher facing him has showed fear, has hardly hit the ball. He has a lot of walks, but he also has a really low batting average. This needs to change. Oddly, one of the most conistent bats I've seen this post-season has been that of defensive cather Carlos Ruiz.

Now to switch gears to politics

I hate spin, especially when it is pushed through in campaigns by the committees of those running themselves.

There is no evidence that Barrack Obama is a terrorist, and to say his middle name (Hussein) has a terrorist tie to it, is simply racist. The man people say is his "terrorist" connection is Bill Ayers. He was part of the radical 60s/70s group "the weathermen." They were a military group, and had arms. However, since then, Ayers has become a supporter of the Chicago community, specifically with education, rather than trying to tear down the government and get after the man. While he would have certainly classified as a terrorist, it is not the Middle Eastern type of terrorist that they are clearly trying to draw ties with by calling Obama's middle name. He would have been more like the Tim McVey/Ted Kasinsky type of terrorist, except in a manner much more like that of the Black Panthers.
This all goes in addition to saying that his association with this man is weak at best. As far as I can tell, they have been honored in the same breath by the mayor of Chicago, little more than that.
Which brings me to another point. If you want to attack him in that sort of manner, attack his political origins. Chicago is the final remaining political machine in America (the Cook County Democratic Party). While it is getting weaker, this machine has been an extremely potent force up until the 70s/80s. It still has an extremely strong presence in Cook County. If you want to be elected to anything needing votes in Chicago, you still have to go through the machine. Why doesn't anyone bring that up.

John McCain has had numerous shady liasons throughout his professional carreer since leaving the military. One of which being Keating, I haven't really heard much about that, but that was also 20 years ago. He also used to be a part of several groups dedicated to aggresively arming people against Communism, regardless of the alternative. With how big of an enemy the Soviet Union was at the time, that in and of itself isn't that alarming, but he seems willing to tackle the enemies of "freedom", most likely "terrorists" with the same fervor he did the Commies. The liason itself here isn't extremely troubling, its the reason he had them that troubles me. Yes, he has foreign policy experience, but there's good experience and bad experience, and I don't think he has enough of the former.

Palin probably has the most dubious of all these connections. In addition to her Priest being probably more radical than Obama's Rev. Wright (he doesn't really like witches, and he still calls himself christian), her family used to be a big player in Alaskan Independence Party. Her husband was an official member for almost a decade, and her speach was characterized by some to echoe the party's founder. The founder, should be noted, was never seen without his magnum pistol, and actually was gunned down by the Feds for treasonous activities. With all of this talk about what is "American" and who is "un-American", I can't help but think there is nothing more un-American than treason. I think it's actually part of the definition.

I'm still unsure about who to vote for in this election, but I can't bring myself to vote for this Republican ticket.

--Knuttel

The looming war and crisis

There is a threat that is facing the whole world. It has the possibility of erasing many, many lives. It also has the possibility of forcing many more into hunger.

I am talking, of course of the upcoming Hummus War.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-10-07-lebanon-israel_N.htm?csp=34

This should not be taken lightly, and we should all try and resolve this before military action is taken, and no one has any hummus.

The horror, the horror (mumbled in dieing breaths)
--Knuttel

the tuesday after monday

I could only stomach about five minutes of the Presidential debate that went down tonight. Do they not know the illegality of the question "Who would you name as Treasury Secretary?" You cannot name that title, or any title besides VP until after the election. You'd think a seasoned journalist such as Tom Brokaw would recognize this, but even he gave a large introduction to the question. Fuggital.

In other television news I tried watching 90210 to bridge the time before I have Degrassi. The show just doesn't do it. I turned it on a few minutes in, and I still figured out that one person was undercover only seconds into watching it. Poor poor production, on a show with high production no less. I was switching around, because it bored me, but it does look like they're addressing suicide, or at least attempts thereof, which is something Degrassi hasn't done since the original series -- Claude shooting himself in the bathroom (I guess the first Degrassi shooting).

Sometimes I wonder if I know more about Degrassi than Linda Schuyler herself.

--Knuttel

friday is near

Friday is near.

This friday Degrassi will begin its 8th season.

That makes friday the most important day of the year since season 7 ended in America in the summer.

Perhaps more on Degrassi later.

Jeffrey Lurie is evil and must be stopped

As some of you may or may not know, Jeffrey Lurie is the current owner of the Philadelphia Eagles and has owned them since 1995. As fewer of you may know, I have reason to believe the man is satan (or some variant of either devil or general miscreant) in human pajamas.

True there have been playoff teams under his tenure, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

The man cares for nothing about the actual team itself.

The man is from Boston. This means he can never relate to Philadelphia sports. ever. Simple fact, but I don't wish to harp on it. I'll add this though before continuing on, in addition to being from boston, he was a hollywood producer of crappy movies before that. I'll just leave this suggestion about him. He bought the team as a status symbol, much in the same way Mark Cuban bought the Mavs, and Abrahimovich (or whatever the hell that guys name is) bought Chelsea FC. Point -- He doesn't really care about the team, it's his play thing.

But onto serious matters.

His first act as owner was changing the team's colors. Heresy. The team has had those colors since its second year of existence, shedding the colors it kept from the previous Philly team, the Frankford Yellow Jackets (colors inspired by the flag of the city itself). That's roughly 60 years of one set of colors. And what does he do? He "modernizes" it. He makes it "more intimidating and aggressive". What did he really do? He changed it from Kelly Green and Silver to Black and Midnight Green. What was wrong with kelly green and silver? Frankly, what is more intimidating and aggressive than a drunken irishman looking for a fight? A pine forest?

He also changed the logo. Before being a whole eagle soaring high, holding a football. Now, a decapitated eagle's head. "Oh but the look in its eyes is fierce!" Oh, but it doesn't have a body and is dead!

Next step of business -- Hire a head coach that is legally Batshit crazy in Ray Rhodes. Don't get me wrong, that first year or two wasn't too bad. But can you honestly expect a man to keep playing 120% for a man who threatens to kill your (noun) and after two years see no harm come to (noun), even after being a little lazy? Yeah. That's what I thought.

Next mode of business -- make a tv movie centered around the team about Tony Danza somehow becoming your kicker (vaguely, kinda sorta bastardized from the real story of Vince Papale). In addition, have an acting role in said movie.

Current mode of business -- settle for mediocrity.

The eagles made the NFC championship game 4 times in a row, winning the last one. Never in any of these years has there been a superbowl victory. But that's ok, look what they did. What?

Donovan McNabb, while being a gutsy QB who would scrap out wins early on, lost his stomach around the same time he started losing his thirst for running. Someone should have sat down a while ago and got him using his mobility to scrap out more wins, instead of sitting in the pocket and taking what is given, or gotten him to sit on the bench. While he is good, he's no longer a winner. If the team is down, they cannot rely upon him to take them upon his shoulders and over to victory. That is what winning qbs do.

Jeffrey Lurie must be done away with, possibly Andy Reid too. Maybe everything needs to get scrapped and start over.

I'm just slightly thankful we don't have THE worst owner. Currently that would either be the Ford family (Lions) or Al Davis (Raiders).

CONSPIRACY ALERT

There is a conspiracy in our midsts, more serious than one can imagine.

John McCain is a powerless pawn of the Republican party. His election would be not a victory for himself, but rather the party.

backstory: John McCain is a maverick. He is an individual in the senate. He often votes his own mind, regardless of where his party goes. While he is a republican, he is himself.
He runs in the republican primary in 2000, and loses to George Bush. His career is not over, but it appears that he needs party support to do anything requiring republican votes outside the state of Arizona.

The conspiracy:
-A war is about to begin in Iraq. It hasn't started yet, the republicans are trying to conjure support. John McCain is the perfect man to champion the war. He, after all, is not only a military man, but he was a POW. Regardless of circumstances, that makes him a hero. Who better to be the mouth of support. It doesn't matter what he would have done, this is his place to be part of national attention again, not involving savings and or loans.
So Dick Cheney approaches him, black devil that he is, and a deal is struck.
McCain will have support in 08 (it would be improper to run against an incumbent), if the administration has support now.
I do not believe this check has been fully cashed. Sadly, if McCain is elected, I fear neo-Conservatism will not die. I have a rational fear for 4 more similar years.

Some may say, so what, it'll just be foreign policy. Foreign policy was the heart of neo-Conservatism. It is also the scariest. Uni-lateralism is the worst strategy one could use when going into the world and creating enemies. If you're going to do something like that, at least get like a France or Germany on your side instead of Bulgaria and Latvia. And is supporting a Georgian dictator who likes America really worth it if it may cause problems with Russia?

I'm starting to ramble, but you get the idea. This shit's real.

--Knuttel

2 items

Two things of importance will happen today.

1. The vice-presidential debate.

This particular debate is more important than past VP debates. The reason for this is I have a belief that the VP will have to serve time in office without the V before the term is up. Obama is too large a target for hate groups, and McCain is walking death.

Biden can win if does not talk at all. If he chooses to speak, he should speak minimally. He has a tendency to throw words out of his mouth that either he doesn't mean to, whether he didn't mean to physically, or he was just playing around and took it too far, well, there's no way to know. Point is, there are fewer instances than today where he can dig himself into a mineshaft.

Palin has a similar problem. Whereas Biden's gaff issue comes with trying to be friendly ( I bet he actually is), Palin gets gaff-itis when she tries sounding like she knows what she's talking about. The woman has virtually no experience, and it shows when she has to answer any government related questions. I don't know how long the border with Russia is going to hold for foreign policy experience. It's one of the few borders that two countries can share without caring at all about. A lot of politicians get around an issue like this by using rhetoric, however she's also not very versed in that either. It will be interesting to see how she swims, or if she rapidly tumbles to the ocean floor in her homemade cement shoes.

2. Phillies playoff run continues.

I was actually in attendance at yesterday's game. There's really only one thing you can pull from game 1 of the playoffs though. That is how the starting pitcher does. It bodes well for Cole Hamels, as he was amazing. 8 innings, the win, and no earned (or unearned) runs. No one even got on base until I think the fifth (forget exactly, feel free to correct).

Every other player is an everyday player. This means any given game can be thrown out. Any one can have an off day. Even then, most of the play was at least what was to be expected. They didn't get alot of hits, but they got alot of walks, including one intentional. In fact, because of the walks, Ryan Howard only had one at bat in four plate appearances.

The only causes for concern would be Jason Werth, who went 0-4 with 3 K's, and Brad Lidge. The man was lights out all year. He never (ever) blew a save all year, went 41-41. No one does that, even the best blow at least one or two. He got himself into a pretty tight jam, and I just hope this doesn't translate into his reversion into the Brad Lidge who pitched in his last playoff appearance, with the astros.

Regardless, game two is really the only one I think the phillies have a chance of losing. The only reason for this is Sabbathia. He is the only threat at starting pitcher, and he cannot pitch every day forever. The man's arm is going to fall of soon.

--Knuttel

Monday the 29

Well the trip to Penn State was full of awe and awesomeness, undoubtedly partially due to my presence. And yes, PSU is currently ranked as 6, but we all know that is crap, and they should be number 1. Oh well, BCS sucks anyway. Regardless, alot has happened since my departure and subsequent return.


--Phillies made the playoffs. Hells yeah. The Brewers have exactly one arm pitching for them, and he is on approximately negative pi days rest. I like those odds. As Kalas would sing, we got high hopes.


--Nancy Pelosi and John McCain are on a mission to ruin this country.

McCain touted his restless work on "fixing" the economy with the bill, before the bill could even pass. Needless to say, the bill did not pass. The economy is still in shambles. It likely would still have been, but the sooner any solution is used, the better. Why don't we just try Hoover's idea of volunteerism? God knows it worked for him. Word has it Hoover was a disciple of Senator John McCain.

Pelosi was key in getting the proper amount of democratic support (from within her own party, as she is majority leader) and also in negotiating to get the proper amounts of Republican votes. Sadly, she is an idiot, and did not get a very large part of her own party to vote for the bill. More importantly, in a speech she gave just moments prior to the vote for the bill, she blamed the Republican party for all the wrongs that created this current economic crisis. I think she may have even said they crucified Jesus and had tea with Hitler. Nevermind the specifics, whatever she did effectively pushed away a significant amount of Republican votes. So for the sake of her own personal vanity, and party vanity, she did not get the bill passed. Nevermind the fact that the law passed which created most of this mess was passed under Bill Clinton in 1999. Yeah, whoever was in charge then must have really screwed up (don't even pull the Republican Congress card, Dodd and Schumer, two VERY prominent Dems were VERY in favor of this bill). Let me just put it this way. For God's sake, be professional Nancy Pelosi. Now is the time to sit down and figure out a plan, not blame everyone but yourself.

Right now the country needs someone to man up and fix this. God knows it can't be McCain. Please, he's mister deregulation. His economic ideology is the one that got us into this position. It also can't be Obama. The man rose to power as a cog in the Cook County Democratic Party, and with his silky rhetoric and baritone voice, took it to the rest of the state. Taking on Wall Street may prove to be too large a task for him. The most viable third party candidate, Barr, would also prove to be disastrous, as he has even more deregulatory and hands off ideas about economics than McCain.

The worst part -- it's going overseas. If anyone paid attention in history, they would remember that the Great Depression in America ran concurrent with economic depressions across Europe. The only country that was salvaged was the newly founded USSR, forcing itself into the industrial age. Only later did it find out it had no place in the modern one.

We're screwed. Divine intervention is what everyone needs right now. The rise of globalization can only speed the effect to which this can affect the rest of the world. Logically speaking, not all of us will be screwed. That's practically impossible. But it's gonna be awfully hard to escape this wherever you are, regardless of your life choices or given position.

--Knuttel