Yeah, I got angry.  First I was disgusted.  Then angry.

It was the image of a small frightened child being comforted by an older child in a supposedly safe venue in the stands above a basketball court that did it for me.

First of all, I don't even like men's pro basketball.  Grown men with body tattoos, gold chains and god-that-had-to-hurt-looking body piercings running up and down a court in baggy shorts (playing noooo defense while) swishing a ball through a net for money.  B.O.R.I.N.G.  Except for maybe the last nano-second of the 7th game in a best-of-seven series with the score tied 200-200.  (When I was in retail, we used to be leery of young men in baggy pants -- into which they could stuff merchandise when they thought no one was looking.)     

Maybe those over-paid kazillion dollar boyz in baggy shorts who play-for-pay will have to forfeit some of those big bucks in damages while sitting out the season.  Or maybe they can hit the pro wrestling circuit. (Forget it -- they wear tight pants in that league ....) Or take the rest of the season off (instead of a few games, as one bozo asked) to promote his music career.  At least NOW we know why some brawlball players put their hands into those baggy shorts while standing at the free-throw line (i.e., as baseball players are known for "adjusting" themselves) .... These bozos are SEARCHING for their brains!

Fans (including lots of impressionable kids who probably look at some of those idiots as role models) PAY to sit in designated seats where they have the right to cheer, holler and taunt (not throw things at, btw) players who perform less than professionally.  (Remember all those re-runs from the Christians vs Lions series and the original gladiator league?  Even then, there were rules of engagement.) 

Players don't, however, have the right to leave the court to enter the stands and attack fans.  Under any circumstances.  (I bet if we really really delved into word history, we'd find that the word "stadium" once meant, sta-di-heck-outta-um-stands.)  That's why the court has lines around it.  That's why the bench is also designated for players and team personnel ONLY.  That's why locker rooms are closed to fans.  Fans pay to see you play.  Get it?   

I hope the NBA commissioner has the guts to bounce a few balls himself.  (I doubt it.  But I still hope.)  I'd hate to see modern-day Rome-dome fall. 

Maybe someone will show the commish that image of those kids in the stands.

My side-bar reading list includes several references which, while I may read them regularly, do not necessarily reflect my personal opinion(s).  One such reference is The American Thinker. 

The article reproduced below approximates some of the tenets I have held for most of my adult years ..... Rather than TRYING to write them now, all I have to do is keep this link close at hand. 

Works for me. 

An open letter to Europe
November 11th, 2004

Hi.  Are you nuts?

Forgive me for being so blunt, but your reaction to our reelection of President Bush has been so outrageous that I’m wondering if you have quite literally lost your minds.  One of Britain’s largest newspapers ran a headline asking “How Can 59 Million Americans Be So Dumb?”, and commentators in France all seemed to use the same word – bizarre -- to explain the election’s outcome to their readers.  In Germany the editors of Die Tageszeitung responded to our vote by writing that “Bush belongs at a war tribunal – not in the White House.”  And on a London radio talk show last week one Jeremy Hardy described our President and those of us who voted for him as “stupid, crazy, ignorant, bellicose Christian fundamentalists.”

Of course, you are entitled to whatever views about us that you care to hold.  (And lucky for you we Americans aren’t like so many of the Muslims on your own continent; as the late Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh just discovered, make one nasty crack about them and you’re likely to get six bullets pumped into your head and a knife plunged into your chest.)  But before you write us off as just a bunch of sweaty, hairy-chested, Bible-thumping morons who are more likely to break their fast by dipping a Krispy Kreme into a diet cola than a biscotti into an espresso –  and who inexplicably have won more Nobel prizes than all other countries combined, host 25 or 30 of the world’s finest universities and five or six of the world’s best symphonies, produce wines that win prizes at your own tasting competitions, have built the world’s most vibrant economy, are the world’s only military superpower and, so to speak in our spare time, have landed on the moon and sent our robots to Mars – may I suggest you stop frothing at the mouth long enough to consider just what are these ideas we hold that you find so silly and repugnant?

We believe that church and state should be separate, but that religion should remain at the center of life.  We are a Judeo-Christian culture, which means we consider those ten things on a tablet to be commandments, not suggestions. We believe that individuals are more important than groups, that families are more important than governments, that children should be raised by their parents rather than by the State, and that marriage should take place only between a man and a woman.  We believe that rights must be balanced by responsibilities, that personal freedom is a privilege we must be careful not to abuse, and that the rule of law cannot be set aside when it becomes inconvenient.  We believe in economic liberty, and in the right of purposeful and industrious entrepreneurs to run their businesses – and thus create jobs – with a minimum of government interference.  We recognize that other people see things differently, and we are tolerant of their views.  But we believe that our country is worth defending, and if anyone decides that killing us is an okay thing to do we will go after them with everything we’ve got.

If these beliefs seem strange to you, they shouldn’t.  For these are precisely the beliefs that powered Western Europe – you -- from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance, on to the Enlightenment, and forward into the modern world.  They are the beliefs that made Europe itself the glory of Western civilization and – not coincidentally – ignited the greatest outpouring of art, literature, music and scientific discovery the world has ever known including Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Bach, Issac Newton and Descartes.

Europe is Dying

It is your abandonment of these beliefs that has created the gap between Europe and the United States.  You have ceased to be a Judeo-Christian culture, and have become instead a secular culture.  And a secular culture quickly goes from being “un-religious” to anti-religious.  Indeed, your hostility to the basic concepts of Judaism and Christianity has literally been written into your new European Union constitution, despite the Pope’s heroic efforts to the contrary. 

Your rate of marriage is at an all-time low, and the number of abortions in Europe is at an all-time high.  Indeed, your birth rates are so far below replacement levels that in 30 years or so there will be 70 million fewer Europeans alive than are alive today.  Europe is literally dying.  And of the children you do manage to produce, all too few will be raised in stable, two-parent households. 

Your economy is stagnant because your government regulators make it just about impossible for your entrepreneurs to succeed – except by fleeing to the United States, where we welcome them and celebrate their success.  

And your armed forces are a joke.  With the notable exception of Great Britain, you no longer have the military strength to defend yourselves.  Alas, you no longer have the will to defend yourselves.

What worries me even more than all this is your willful blindness.   You refuse to see that it is you, not we Americans, who have abandoned Western Civilization.  It’s worrisome because, to tell you the truth, we need each other.  Western Civilization today is under siege, from radical Islam on the outside and from our own selfish hedonism within.  It’s going to take all of our effort, our talent, our creativity and, above all, our will to pull through.  So take a good, hard look at yourselves and see what your own future will be if you don’t change course.  And please, stop sneering at America long enough to understand it.  After all, Western Civilization was your gift to us, and you ought to be proud of what we Americans have made of it.

---

Could be.  And I wouldn't be surprised.  Or disappointed, to be honest. 

Seems as if "someone" has been monitoring mysterious unmarked planes from an alleged US "company" that transports "unidentified" individuals to countries (South American, Egypt, Syria, Uzbekistan, etc.) that condone the torture of prisoners. 

Oh no. ::::deer in the headlights stare::::

If this IS true (there's that word again ...), are these countries also listed in the coalition of nations involved with the US in Iraq and Afghanistan? 

Probably not. 

Just as among "other" countries that currently train Iraqi army and police,  their identity is protected (for good cause) as silent coalition-combatants in the war against terror.

Can you spell INTEL?  Homeland Security?  Global Terrorism?

-- And don't spew that "buy-the-world-a-coke" baloney about our military's "inhumane" treatment of detainees at Gitmo.  Compare Gitmo detainees' status with that of hostages who've been "detained" by the Taliban and Al Queda ....  

If you want the Gitmo detainees released so badly, start a neighborhood Adopt-A-Terrorist program. 

 
(subtitled)  "Sharper than a serpent's toof...." 

My daughter (obviously brain-washed a few months ago after being invited to a private screening [la-de-dah] of Michael Moore's Fahrenhype-tripe, retrograded from being an independent-thinking realist to a far-left, tunnel-visioned A.B.B. [anybody but bush] liberal-cajoling dimocrat) is still the apple of my eye.   In all things a-political, that is. 

---

For starters, that is .... Dick Morris' two books on the Clinton's (Re-Writing History and Because He Could) should be required reading for every voter.  Morris is smart, determined and has the scoop on the antics of a woman desperate to crash an Oval Office her husband (wisely) locked her out of. 

Relying on Morris' knowledge (we forgive him for orchestrating Clinton's reelection) and the tenacity of bloggers are two web sites (with more to come...) to monitor this female Deaniac's stalking of the 2008 Dimocrat nomination:

Add them to your favs list.  Add a link.  Tighten your seatbelt and visit often.  The HillaryWatch has begun .... She will, of course, run for and (most likely) retain her Senate seat in 2006.  Then the fun will begin ...... Hillary, Edwards, sKerry, et al -- Stay tuned!

---

After learning that Michael Moore's Fahreheit fizzle will not be considered for a Golden Globe award (or a special recognition for him), I was reminded of PowerLine's effort to help the man get a grip on reality ....

Following his "Seventeen Reasons" for minions not to commit suicide on Nov. 3, PowerLine compiled responses for WHY Moore should reconsider the logic/rationale of his disjointed still-in-denial-mode reasons ....

1. George Bush WON.

2. George Bush WON.

3. George Bush WON…….I think you get my point.

4. You realize that the next Democrat nominee that hopes to win the presidential election is sure to obtain a Restraining Order against you.

5. Your anticipated appointment as Propaganda Minister may now be in a European country, rather than the United States, a much longer round trip for those late night Krispy Kreme runs.

6. Even though you HATE Texas, you still only have one Kinko’s you can really rely on.

7. The DNC commercials showing YOU windsurfing will never finish production.

8. The 1200 cameras you provided to intimidate voters at polls were instead taken by the "Vote or Die" volunteers you gave them to, who instead taped the Frat Parties and Homemade "Girls Gone Wild" videos, causing them to oversleep on election day.

9. You finally want to change underwear, and now realize you gave all of yours away for nothing.

10. Bruce Springsteen won't return your calls.

11. Whoopi Goldberg does return your calls.

12. Your villa in Fallujah was just blown up and you don’t have Iraqi homeowner's insurance.

13. The "thank you" letter for your contribution to this year’s election just arrived in the mail…..signed by Karl Rove.

14. The promise you received that Stem Cell research would make you more attractive to women has been fading fast.

15. Your latest film failed to sway voters to Kerry, but on the brighter side, Osama did follow your script.

16. You just realized that a "Puppet Show" has become more credible than your "documentary."

(Above is From http://powerlineblog.com)

And this blogger's 17th reason: 

17.  You were a bonefide loser longggggggggg before lines formed at ballot boxes on Nov. 2.

What's with pundits and die-hard-dyed-in-the-wool tunnel-visioned Dimocrats who are still re-hashing and making excuses for WHY and THAT Bush won reelection?  It's not enough that voters overwhelmingly endorsed Bush.  It's not enough that the 2004 election was determined by possibly the largest cross-section of voters in history.  It's not enough that Bush won IN SPITE of the hype and hoopla and the $$$$$$ poured into 527's by Soros and other vengeful bankrollers. 

It would be nice (for a change) to participate in a discussion that focused on CURRENT programs, issues and policies that affect our future .....

ABD (anybody but Dean ...) -- that is, if the Dimocrats want to have any chance of winning anything but screaming contests in 2006 or 2008 ......

Bill would be a perfect choice.  The public would have an image upon which to fixate until the candidates sort themselves out. 

And he could have a jumpstart on re-decorating ideas for the White House in preparation for his duties as a wanna-be FIRST GENTLEMAN of the US.

Beyond the rhetoric and hype, REAL stories come through ......

Three months after Alexandra Scott died of cancer at age 8, her goal of raising $1 million for cancer research this year by selling lemonade has been surpassed.

Alexandra's parents said Tuesday that the 2004 total probably will be close to $1.5 million, which the Alex's Lemonade Stand foundation will donate to cancer-research institutions, as it has done since Alex set up her charity four years ago.

Shortly before she died of cancer on Aug. 1, Alex told her parents that her new goal for 2005 was to raise $5 million. Her parents are now seeking continued financial support from individuals and companies.

"We are confident we can succeed, knowing Alex's spirit is with us," said her father, Jay Scott.

Alex was diagnosed the day before her first birthday with neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of childhood cancer. She set up a lemonade stand in 2000 in front of her suburban Philadelphia home. She took in $2,000 that first year, and $200,000 through 2003.

In June, lemonade stand fund-raisers were set up in all 50 states, as well as in Canada and France, and Alex and her family appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Today." Even as her energy waned, Alex insisted on doing interviews to reach her goal of raising $1 million, her father said.

Neuroblastoma is diagnosed in about 700 U.S. children every year. The survival rate for high-risk neuroblastoma, which Alex had, is 40 percent.

From Fox News (11-10-04)