Local & State Politicians

by Bill Holmes

We are approaching the 2014 primary elections here in Texas. The primaries are March 4th with early voting beginning on February 18th. The run-off elections for those races needing final resolution will be May 27th. The 2014 Texas general elections in November will decide one U.S. Senate seat, 36 U.S. House seats as well as most of the major statewide offices including governor and lieutenant governor. In addition half of the state senate seats and all of the state house seats are up for grabs. There are also numerous local elections. 

We all know what elections mean. There are the signs, mailings, phone calls, radio and TV ads. About 98% of the campaign rhetoric is bull shit. Most of it is also negative. It is made up of outright lies, half truths, distorted facts, misinterpretation of facts, fake science and on and on. There are personal attacks, creative editing of comments, unflattering photos and just general nasty mudslinging. I am always amazed at what the voting public will swallow.

Texas is still a red state and the Republican primaries are often the de facto deciding election for many positions. Even though the November elections are over eight months away, many races will effectively be decided after these primaries. That means a big part of the campaign budgets are expended in February. We are getting quite a few TV ads, mostly by Republicans. They are all trying to out-conservative each other.

One of my biggest gripes is how many politicians make their main campaign issue something that the the office they are running for has little or no control over. Almost all of the Republican candidates seem to be running against Obama regardless of the office involved. We have one lieutenant governor candidate who has a six point plan to stop illegal immigration. A second candidate for the same office promises to secure our borders but he doesn't have a six point plan. Hell, he may be talking about keeping Oklahomans out of Texas. Silly me, I though immigration and border security was a federal responsibility with federal laws. I don't think any of these guys are going after the Latino vote. Let's not even bother with the fact that the lieutenant governor has very little executive power. Another candidate will stop Obamacare and sue the president. I'm sure that will work out. A third candidate wants to impeach Obama for Benghazi. 

Texas Republican Lt. Governor Candidates

If you are running for dogcatcher don't say you will fix the potholes. If you are running for mayor don't say you will cut the state budget. If you are running for governor don't say you will get the troops out of Afghanistan. 

It amazes me that most Republican candidates are taking positions that alienate almost all minorities. Texas is already a majority-minority state. By about 2020 Hispanics will outnumber European whites. Basing your parties future on angry white men does not seem like a smart long-term strategy. They can overcome the sheer numbers for a short time with gerrymandered districts, big money and slick political machinery. Eventually the numbers will prevail. 

I know why candidates use this tactic. Immigration, Obamacare, military engagements, NSA spying and other federal issues are in the news all the time. Fox News has a cadre of conservative buffoons telling us all day every day that Obama sucks. MSNBC has a gaggle of liberal idiots saying the Republican House of Representatives are obstructionists. Funding for the state highways, building a new reservoir or zoning are not sexy, hot button topics. Of course those are issues local and state office holders have control over. 

So if you want Obamacare changed or immigration reform be sure to vote in your local mayoral election. Problems with the federal deficit? Cast your vote for Texas lieutenant governor. Potholes in your neighborhood? Choose the right U.S. Senate candidate.

This practice will continue until the electorate makes lying, BSing politicians pay by not voting for them. Truth in advertising will only be achieved if people know the truth and they will only know that by learning the facts. I don't hold out much hope for that to happen anytime soon if ever. It doesn't matter whether you are Republican or Democratic, what matters is that you are informed. 

Vote smart.

wjh 

Winter Olympics 2014

by Bill Holmes

Unless you live in a cave without an internet connection or satellite dish you probably know that the 2014 Winter Olympics are underway in Sochi, Russia. I watched a little of the opening ceremonies and have caught glimpses of some events. The opening ceremonies were technically and logistically impressive, except for the four Olympic rings and an asterisk logo that Putin introduced. I actually saw the faux pas on Twitter first since I wasn't watching on TV at the time of the live (taped) event. I don't really enjoy four hour displays of pomp and circumstance combined with national chest pounding and sanitized versions of history. This post is not a critique of opening ceremony extravagance or a comparison of Russian to Chinese to British choreography. That's what host countries do. This is my view of the Olympics in general and the Winter Olympics in particular. So let the ranting begin.

New Olympic Logo

Let's get some facts on the table first. I have spent about 90% of my now kind of long life living far below the Mason-Dixon line. All but less than 1% of the other 10% was when I was an infant or toddler. The 90% is made up of my time living in Florida, Georgia and Texas. Not exactly rabid Winter Olympic sports territory. I am a big sports fan but I very much favor sports where there is a defined way to score points (or runs, goals, strokes) and the person or team with the most points, except for golf, at the end of the competition wins. Simple things like runs in baseball, points in football and basketball, goals in hockey or soccer. Those sports without defined scoring should be determined by the fastest or farthest or heaviest. Maybe a sub 10 second run in the 100 meters, a 20+ meter toss in the shot put or a 500+ kg bench press.

That means for me many of the events at Sochi hold little or no interest. I freely admit that I am not qualified to judge most sports played in the cold. They are held on snow or ice and judges decide the winners. Some of the events have other problems for me too. They require music, makeup and sequins. One event is named Ice Dancing, not Ice Sports or even Ice Skating. It apparently is different from pairs figure skating. My opinion is those type events are performance art and not sport. I'm not suggesting that those participants aren't athletes, they are. But so are the dancers at the Bolshoi Ballet or the acrobats in the Cirque du Soleil. The figure skating folks train just as hard as those who compete in timed events like bobsled, slalom or 100 yard dash. They sacrifice just as much as other athletes who throw the discus the farthest or teams that score the most goals in hockey. The problem is there is no fair way to determine who is really the best, just like the Oscars are bogus when deciding the best actress or movie.

Ice Dancing - Sport or Pornography?

There is another problem with the Winter Olympics, they are making up sports. There are twelve new events at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Most of them require judging to determine the winner. In the new ski and snowboard slopestyle events the courses have fake jumps and, get this, handrails on a downhill course. Those handrails are not for holding onto on the way downhill. They are there to be skied or boarded on top of. When is the last time you saw a handrail in the middle of a ski run? Of course judges decide who wins these events.

One Diamond for Difficulty -
One Diamond for Handrails on Trail

Yes, most sports have referees who can have an effect on the outcome, but they do not usually have the power to determine the winner. Even if they did, most fans can pretty easily tell if their rulings are right or wrong. In these judgmental sports who knows what the judges are judging? In figure skating or gymnastics are they giving extra credit for a fabulous costume or great haircut, how about a stirring musical accompaniment? 

Some of these performances can be thrilling but they are not valid competitive sports in my view. Why, because the scoring is completely SUBJECTIVE. As long as the judge from East Germany (an old reference) can nuke one competitor and pump up her countryman there will be problems.

Here is another point, Curling is a Winter Olympic sport. This is not a judged sport, the team with the most points wins. It is basically shuffleboard on ice with brooms added. It's played on ice but the participants don't wear skates but they do use brooms. You do have to give the teams credit for fun uniforms. I think they celebrate wins  with a cold beer. Kind of like the Wednesday night bowling league but with housekeeping skills added.

Norway Curling Team

I don't know the answer to this situation. I think we should at least stop adding new events that require judges to decide the outcome or that have fake fields of play. The gymnasts and figure skaters participate in an unscored, freestyle performance a day or two after the medals are awarded. Maybe that should be the emphasis for those disciplines and added for others. There is one other sticking point that has nothing to do with the athletes, well maybe the ex-athletes. Most Olympics announcers and analysts are unbearable. According to them, whatever sport (performance) they are describing is the most difficult, the most pressure packed, the most outstanding, the most (fill in the blank). Figure skating commentators rate right up there as the worst but there is a lot of competition for the top spot. NBC has to pull in many extra commentators for the Olympics. Most of them haven't covered the sport on TV for four years. Doing something once every four years for a couple of weeks doesn't exactly hone the skills. Chris Collingsworth, a former Gator, really does cover football better than opening ceremonies. Am I judging the media commentators? Yes I am but my vote doesn't decide the gold medal or the Emmy.

I may watch a little Curling to see what the latest fad is in pants, my youngest son will probably want some. Maybe there will be some new developments in broom technology. Not much else this Winter Olympics will interest me. I also don't expect this trend to stop or even slow down. I figure I have three or four more Olympics before I'm senile or dead. Maybe technology will eventually solve this problem. Rules and criteria can be programmed and the performance video would be fed into the computer. It can logically and objectively (unless it is hacked) evaluate each performance based on strict criteria. Of course if somebody does a spectacular move never seen before, the scoring program might crash.

None of this stuff is easy. I'm just glad that baseball season is almost here. The team with the most runs at the end of the game (no ties allowed) wins. No doubt, no controversy, unless the umpires blow a critical call or two but they have expanded replay this season to fix that too. Batter up. 

wjh

Scattershooting 02-09-14

by Bill Holmes

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to the great

 

Curt Gowdy 

Sunday's Summary

My incomplete recap of the week

Sad but true.

Is this legal? I just realized that I'm watching a Gators basketball game on TV while wearing an FSU sweatshirt. The shirt is from the 1992 Cotton Bowl which the #5 Seminoles won over #9 A&M. It was called the Mobil Cotton Bowl back then. Before Exxon & Mobil merged. The sweatshirt is older than my youngest son and my oldest son was attending FSU at the time.

• Good line - Dyslexics Against Fuddruckers

It's almost time for baseball. I thought I'd finally release my 1948 rookie card. I made the big leagues at 17 months. NY Giants infielder. A few years before Willie Mays.

Sharp & cold - not a good combo.

Rangers Ballpark new name. Not crazy about the logo.

Another beautiful day in the neighborhood. It's 19° now, wind chill of 4°, with a predicted high of 27° with snow flurries. I'm thinking about skipping the bike ride today. (2/6)

The end of an era. Tonight is Jay Leno's last night as host of the Tonight Show. Never my favorite but he was the top late night dog for 20 years. Jimmy Fallon takes over after the Olympics. (2/6)

In an effort to distance themselves from controversy and a redneck image, the spring NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway has changed sponsors. The NRA is out and Duck Dynasty is in.

The local morning news show that I usually watch has new music for the lead-in, lead-out for commercials. It had some notes that sound like an alert on a phone, tablet or PC. It gets my attention, but not for the TV. Aggravating, it is kind of like those radio ads that had a siren in the background during your morning commute.

This should be interesting. A liberal jerk joins all the conservative jerks at Fox.

James Carville joins Fox News as contributor

New Olympic logo. Four rings and an asterisk. Probably Putin's idea.

Putin fixed it for Russian TV.

Completely pissed at AT&T U-verse. I wasn't able to watch the Beatles 50th anniversary special live. So of course I set my DVR to record it. I even checked my scheduled shows on Saturday and it was in the queue. So, late Sunday I was ready to watch and guess what. No recording. There was another show recorded on Sunday night so I'm assuming the DVR was working. I'm hoping CBS puts the show on their website so I can see it, better late than never. Until then, #ATTSUX

wjh

Leno's Last Stand

by Bill Holmes

On Thursday, February 6, 2014 Jay Leno hosted his (maybe) last Tonight Show. It has been a run of 22 years that survived one firing that ended in a triumphant return. Although not a Leno fan, I am a connoisseur of late night TV and Jay is a major player in that genre. There have only been five hosts in the 60 year history of the show and Jay holds second place on the number of years hosted list.

The show opened with a longer than usual ovation. Jay's monologue started with several jokes about what has changed in the 22 years he has been host. Some were pretty good. He joked that 22 years ago marijuana was illegal everywhere but you could smoke cigarettes wherever you wanted. Times change. There were also flashbacks of political jokes. It was an OK monologue, not great. Next there were several clips of celebrities telling Jay what he should do next. It was mostly not funny.

The first guest was Billy Crystal. He started by paraphrasing some of Leno's best jokes over the years. He and Jay then reminisced about old times as young, broke comedians. That was followed by a lame musical number by Billy. It was merely a vehicle to get several celebrities out on stage to sing a line. Oprah was there as was Carol Burnett. The worst was a kind of chunky looking Kim Kardashian. One thing you don't want to hear is Kim K. singing. Hell, you don't want to hear her talk.

The musical guest was Garth Brooks who sang one of Jay's favorite songs, The Dance. It's a great song, but the performance was just fair. Garth's voice sounded a little off and the energy was lacking.

It was then time for Jay's goodbye speech. He teared up almost immediately. He thanked the fans, crew, writers, band and even NBC. It seemed sincere. He ended by quoting Johnny Carson's farewell line from 22 years ago, "I bid you a heartfelt goodnight."

The closing was another song, Friends in Low Places, by Garth. Once again, a great song but a mediocre performance.

Like most of these last shows, this one fell a little short. That's understandable. You can't really cram 22 years and thousands of shows into one hour. This one didn't touch me like the last Carson show. I was both mad and sad that Johnny was leaving. I choked up at the end. He had been part of my life since high school. Little did we know that Johnny would virtually disappear from public after that show.

I suspect we'll still see Jay around. He's only in his early 60's and is a workaholic. Hell, if Fallon falters we may see him back on the Tonight Show for a third time. At least for now, it's the end of the Leno era. What's next for him and what's next for late night TV?

Time marches on.

wjh

Double, Triple, Quadruple Standards

by Bill Holmes

Just a few days ago one of this generations great actors died. From all the preliminary evidence this is a self inflicted drug overdose. Was it a suicide or an accidental overdose? Who knows, does it matter?

Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in his apartment on Sunday, February 2, 2014. It has been reported that he was discovered with a needle in his arm and over 70 packets of heroin in the home. There were also several prescription drugs in his apartment. I don't think cause of death will be a big mystery.

Was this really a surprise for those around him? He has had substance abuse issues for over 20 years. He was one of the oldest looking mid 40 year old guys on the planet. He never really looked that healthy to me.

So why am I writing this post? Since his death, Philip has been eulogized on almost every news and entertainment outlet. All the network news shows. morning and evening, had solemn tributes to him. I don't watch the entertainment TV tabloids but my guess is that Philip's death and memorialization was the primary and maybe only story for the broadcast. I watch The Daily Show, Colbert Report, Charlie Rose and Tavis Smiley most nights. They all tripped over their private parts to give PSH more praise than the next. Charlie and Tavis showed portions of several interviews they had done over the years.

My contention is that entertainer/artist abuse of drugs may not be that different than top athletes using drugs. Is testosterone, steroids or EPO any more performance enhancing for an athlete's performance than cocaine, heroin, speed, anti-anxiety prescriptions and other stuff is for an actor? I don't know, but there are some parallel issues.

The problem with athletic performance enhancing drugs is that those who cheat, or cheat better, have an advantage, win events and make more money. There are some studies that show specific drugs increase performance by a certain percentage. Some athletes don't do drugs because they are opposed to them, are afraid of the consequences or fear the side effects. That makes for an unlevel playing field.

So what about movie, TV and stage performers? Did the myriad of drugs they take enhance their performance? Is it any different than an athlete? If an illegal drug allows an actor/actress or musician to get on stage how is that different than a little steroid boost to an NFL lineman? If an actor is successful the money and influence increases. Theoretically, if Hoffman hadn't taken drugs would he have excelled in his first performances or even gotten the part?

I'm not dissing on Hoffman or other artists and I'm not condoning Lance Armstrong or Barry Bonds. I'm just bringing up the issue of performance enhancing drugs. Apparently some are condoned while others are vilified. My guess is that all of us have taken performance enhancing drugs at some point. It's also hard to define exactly what is or isn't a performance enhancing drug. Is that aspirin or Advil you take because you have a hangover or an arthritic shoulder increasing your performance? How about Viagra? If there was a pill or injection you could take that would make you better at your job would you take it? That's the dilemma that athletes face with steroids, EPO and other drugs.

In sports there is the fact that many, but not all, of these drugs are against the rules. You can't take human growth hormones, but the team doctor can shoot you up with painkillers so you can play. As far as the rules issue, in most sports it's pretty much OK, even expected, to cheat a little as long as you don't get caught. Football linemen and defensive players hold on many plays. A baseball base runner might try to advance a second before a fly ball is caught. There are hundreds of other examples across most sports.

 

So, some cheating is OK as are some drugs. Some drugs are illegal while others that are similar aren't. It's complicated and confusing. We all have different thresholds for what we think is acceptable in this area. I'm sorry Hoffman died from a drug overdose, I'm sorry Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds and others broke their sports rules and profited over others.

What do you think?

wjh

Scattershooting 02-02-14

by Bill Holmes

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to the great

 

John Madden

Sunday's Summary

My incomplete recap of the week

I can hear the cold front blowing through (1/27). It was 74° on Sunday. Won't get out of the 30's today with 25-30 mph winds and 45 mph gusts. Call me crazy, but I like 74° more than 34°. Back in the 60's by Thursday.

Gators move up to #3 in the latest AP basketball poll.  http://goo.gl/o1yAbb 

Amazing. There will be several once the Olympics start. 

Sochi mayor claims there are no gay people in Sochi

Some pictures and part of the playlist is up for the Beatles Tribute on 2/9, the 50th anniversary of their appearance on Ed Sullivan. I already have my DVR set.

This looks like it might be good - it got a good review from a local D/FW TV critic. And the Oscar Goes To... on TBS. Saturday, 2/1, @ 8:00 PM (EST). 

http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/948325%7C908308/And-the-Oscar-Goes-To-.html 

Teller Speaks! The silent member of Penn & Teller was on Tavis Smiley promoting a documentary he directed called "Tim's Vermeer". He's an interesting and funny guy.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/teller/

There was a story on local TV about the cost of those skinny plastic pylons that separate HOV lanes from regular lanes on some of the Dallas highways. About 12,000 had to be replaced in the last two years on two major roads at a cost of over $520K. Texas DOT also spent $300K on a study to solve the problem and reduce costs. The problem is that people drive over them, often on purpose to change lanes. I have a relatively cheap solution. Randomly replace some plastic pylons with metal ones filled with concrete. The driver will never know if he's driving over plastic or metal until it's too late. Bet lane hopping is quickly reduced. A little Draconian, but effective.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/01/31/i-team-plastic-pylons-cost-taxpayers-more-than-expected/

I wonder what this means for the Fort Worth assembly plant. 

Google sells Motorola unit to Lenovo for $2.9B

Happy Birthday Nolan (1/31). Wish you were still a Ranger.

In other Rangers news, Michael Young retired today. He spent all but his last season as a Ranger. He played every infield position during his Rangers career. He was the Lone Ranger (pun intended) who survived the disastrous Hicks/A-Rod years to make it to the World Series 2010 & 11. A class guy and fan favorite. If the Rangers are smart, they will hire him. He and Pudge would make a great PR combo. Thanks Michael.

On Letterman tonight, the Eagulls. Not in anyway to be confused with the Eagles.

The Eagulls

Remember, we just celebrated the Chinese new year. It is now the year of the horse. Don't be writing a snake on your checks any longer.

Super Bowl Halftime - Bruno was very good. The guy is a talented entertainer with a lot of energy. I'm not a fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Put a shirt on guys and quit yelling.

It's too bad Peyton lost, but this is funny -

wjh

Super Bowl XLVIII

by Bill Holmes

In case you didn't hear, there was a football game on Sunday, February 2, 2014. It was held in New Jersey at MetLife Stadium. The stadium is about 10 miles from Central Park. More importantly it is only about eight miles from the hospital where I was born and about 6½ miles from my first home. This is Super Bowl XLVIII which is number 48 for you digital folks, 30 in hex and 110000 in binary.

I hope you got to bed early on Saturday night because the pregame show on ESPN started at 9:00 AM for the 5:30 PM game. ESPN had their regular lineup of buffoons plus several guest analysts. Everyone who works for ESPN had something to say about the game. OK, I'm guessing that was the lineup, I didn't really watch any of it. I can't stand that NFL gang on ESPN especially ring leader Chris Berman.

The official Fox pregame started at 1:00 PM. They had the regular guys, Howie, Michael and Jimmy along with moderator Curt. Terry Bradshaw was absent because his father died on Thursday. He was shown in some prerecorded segments. I didn't tune in until around 4:00 and there was some entertainment going on. Then there was an interview of Obama by Bill O'Reilly, what the hell was that? The POTUS predicted a 24-21 score but wouldn't pick a winner. He said the teams were too evenly matched. Oops, I'm sure the Republicans will jump on his error. I have to give Fox some credit. The pregame show was not overblown.

It was then time to turn the broadcast over to Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and the two sideline reporters, Pam Oliver and Erin Andrews. Just so we wouldn't be confused, this part of the broadcast was called Pre-Kickoff, not a continuation of the pregame show. Not much to report here. Opera singer Renee Fleming did an outstanding job on the National Anthem and the flyover by the helicopters was nice. For all the worry about the weather in New York City (or northern New Jersey) it was not a problem. The temperature at kickoff was 51°. That's considerably warmer than the 30° it was at my place. What's the fun of that? I was hoping for about three feet of snow. In other news, apparently NJ governor Chris Christie didn't interfere with traffic on the George Washington Bridge.

A funny moment occurred during the coin toss. Two old Super Bowl QB's, Joe Namath and Phil Simms, were the honorary tossers/captains. Namath did the actual flip. Apparently his adrenalin was pumping because as soon as he got the coin he flipped it. Unfortunately, Seattle had not called the toss. The referee made a great save and caught the coin. Namath gathered himself and redid the toss. Seattle won, deferred and kicked off to the Broncos.

That was the beginning of the end for Denver. On the first play from scrimmage they snapped the ball into their end zone for a safety. The Seahawks ran off 36 straight points before the Broncos finally scored with 00:03 left in the third quarter. There is really not much to say about the game. Seattle completely dominated every phase of the game. Although the Broncos only trailed in total yards by 35 yards, they also had four turnovers and gave up an 87 yard kickoff return for a TD. Peyton Manning never had a chance, he was under pressure all game and his receivers were covered. Score at halftime Seattle 22 Denver 0. 

Let's move on to halftime. I thought the graphics introducing the halftime show were good. I thoroughly enjoyed the Bruno Mars parts and could have done without the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Bruno has talent and a lot of energy. He's an entertainer. I detected a little James Brown in his performance. On the other hand, the Chili Peppers don't own any shirts and yell a lot.

The second half of the football game was more of the same although the Broncos did finally manage to score with three seconds left in the third quarter when the Seahawks were ahead by 36 points. Final score was 43-8. Very suspenseful. Denver was favored by 2½ and the over/under was 47½ points. I don't think the Broncos quite covered the spread and OVER won.

A Doberhuahua, an unfortunate cross breed

So, how about the other reason people watch the Super Bowl, the commercials. I thought dit was a very mediocre lineup this year. There were a couple of OK ads but nothing outstanding. The Budweiser puppy/Clydesdale one was good but it had already been on the internet for a few days. Some others were funny or clever. I liked the Wonderful Pistachios - Wonderful Colbert one, the Doberhuahua ad for Audi was funny as were the Full House - Dannon and Sienfeld commercials. In the not terrible category were the Tim Tebow/T-Mobile and Doritos/Mastiff ads. There were a few that confused me and/or made no sense for the product. All in all a disappointing year for commercials as well as the game.

The great Peyton Manning is now 1-2 in Super Bowls and still trails his baby brother Eli in championship rings. As a reminder, the great Peyton was 0-4 against the Florida Gators when he was the QB at Tennessee. In the Super Bowl, Manning got to watch Gator Percy Harvin return a kickoff for a TD. While Peyton's overall statistics are very impressive, he has not performed that well in big games.  

Thankfully after the game Erin Andrews asked Denver coach John Fox how he felt. Despite the urge to probably say "like shit", he said disappointed. Why do the networks insist on these post-game interviews with the losers?

I think we are now officially done with the 2013 football season. It is time to get ready for some real sports, the 2014 baseball season. High schools, colleges and pros are all either practicing or soon will be. I guess we'll have to also find some time for March Madness.

wjh