Colts 12-4 Third Seed

I never thought I would think of a 27-22 win as proof of improvement but maybe one of my predictions might be wrong. Miami didn't try to stuff it up the middle all game and the secondary looked significantly better. Dallas Clark started and looked good. Sanders didn't start but they really didn't look like they needed him.
Next week Kansas City here.

PREDICTIONS!!!

As everybody else is doing it, I guess I need to post some predictions for the New Year.
Let's start with the serious ones:

1. Defunding the War; As much as they might want to, the Democrats in congress cannot simply call the troops home. It would be political suicide for those "moderate" Democrats who either got reelected because they looked and sounded tough on the war or got elected for the first time when voters held their noses ad pulled the switch marked "Dem" instead of "Rep". Look to see the House Democratic leadership talk like they are tough on defense but in fact the money they will appropriate will be for "non-combat related" issues. This will be to force President Bush to start a pull out of combat and support troops. Frankly I am of a mixed mind on this one; I thought the war was necessary when we invaded Iraq much as invading Italy in 1943 was necessary when the Soviets wanted a second front and insisted we invade northern Europe but we weren't ready to attempt that. I still think we will be fighting Islamic fundamentalist Jihadists (funny but one of the words that MS Word wants to replace Jihadist with is "Nihilist" and that might be more appropriate) but I fear we will be fighting them here and not overseas. In the end I hope we don't abandon the Kurds like we did the Vietnamese hill tribes when be bugged out in 1975. As far as a pull out is concerned, if we don't revamp our strategy to win and go on the offensive then we should get the troops out. Simply being a bulls-eye for Shiite snipers and suicide-bombers is guaranteed to destroy their morale and we will need the military again elsewhere some time in the near future.
2. Along with the congress defunding the war overseas, look to see the mainstream media ratchet up what I am terming "sympathy for those poor victims; the soldiers". We will start to see more and more press that emphasizes how terribly we are treating those poor soldiers who come home injured and distraught. There will be a number of stories on "post-war syndrome" soldiers who cannot reenter our society with out thinking of the war and how unjust it was. The fact that this military is overwhelmingly for the war and behind President Bush won't matter. They will find a few soldiers who will parrot the lefty line and we will see them splashed all over the TV. We are already hearing Rep. Rangel's outcry about how the military is overwhelmingly minorities (a falsehood that has been disproved a number of doesn't but the truth doesn't seem to matter with this one). The intent of this effort will be to convince the civilian populace that "the only moral thing to do is to Bring Those Poor Kids Home". I'm not sure how well this will work with the internet and the number of military bloggers who are telling a much different story than the one the mainstream media is telling.
3. If we start to pull combat troops from Iraq look to see the war in Afghanistan to get much hotter as Iran will push more money to the Taliban and Al Qaeda remnants. There will be a resurgence of "insurgents" there and we will start to see stories about how our troops there are fighting for the wrong side. There will be expose style stories about how unpopular Hamid Kharzi is etc...
4. Once the number of combat troops reaches a low enough level in Iraq the "insurgents" will stage an offensive similar to the 1968 Tet offensive. They will be soundly beaten militarily but the mainstream media will push it otherwise. Look to hear Katie Couric state that "the war is lost" or something ridiculous that can be repeated ad naseum. Again this one might backfire on them as there are too many people who will disprove this statement with blogs.
5. I was going to say that Charlie Rangel was going to introduce a "restore the draft" resolution but I think this will only happen if the military actually asks for more combat soldiers. He is too crafty a politician to pull that stunt twice. He knows it will fail.
6. Look for discussion of impeachment hearings before March 15.
7. One of the things I meant to add earlier was that the Democrat controlled congress will attempt to grant terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay constitutional rights and remove the threat of military tribunal proceedings from them.
8. Look to see a start of all sorts of "Green Laws" that will supposedly make our environment cleaner and safer. Whether they actually do make things cleaner or safer will be debatable but they will make things much more expensive.
9. Gas will hit $3.00 per gallon by November '07. (It's currently at $2.07 / gallon on the Indy west side 12/31/06).
10. By December '07 we will be talking about the impending recession for '08. I don't have any sort of hard facts on this one, only a gut feeling that Wall Street will take a breather soon.
11. Mortgage interest rates will climb towards %10 by December '07. (currently a 30 year fixed w/ zero points is %5.75 to 6.75 in Indianapolis on 12/31/06).
12. The House will push a bill that essentially does not change anything on immigration except for creating an amnesty/path to citizenship for millions of illegal aliens. Sadly the Republicans will do NOTHING to stop this fiasco. This will be the single worst effect of electing Democrats to power in '06. As a nation, we will regret not getting tough on our borders for years to come.
13. All of this will mean a resurgence of conservative Republicans by the end of '07 heading into the election year.
14. The elections will heat up and actually be fun to watch. I am betting Hilary will make a huge mistake next year and cause all the pundits to switch their "support" to Obama. Watch out though, she is way to smart to fail that early. I have always said that she would switch to become a conservative republican if she thought that would get her elected.
    
    Ok, now for some lighter but still important one.

1. The Colts will not make the Super Bowl in '07. They will win a first round playoff game but they won't make it past the second round (Baltimore?) and certainly will not beat San Diego if they get that far. I predict that next year's version will be all about the defense and will bury people through the season. Final record: 14-2 and will earn a first round bye and home field advantage. They will sweep the playoffs with a 14 point win advantage and be heavily favored in the '08 Super Bowl.
2. Not that I really care but the Pacers will not make the '07 playoffs. Someone on the team will shoot someone else (not on the team) and get arrested. Man this team in embarrassing.
3. The IU/Purdue basketball games might actually be enjoyable again.
4. Butler will make the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tourney. They will be the ONLY Indiana team to do so.
5. For the 17th year in a row, I will successfully boycott Major league baseball. I won't even read the box scores (I don't get a daily paper any more so I would have to look it up online and I won't go to the trouble). I will visit our local minor league ball park a few times though, that is way too much fun.
6. I will lose 20 pounds this year (hopefully I won't immediately find them again and place them back where they were.)
7. I predict that I will blog more but less seriously than last year.
8. My parents will successfully celebrate 50 years of married bliss in June. Hopefully we will have a successful blow-out party.
9. I will be proud of my daughter in all she does.
10. I will love my wife more than this year.

Maybe I was being too generous.

In the past I have been predicting that the incoming Democrat congressmen will need 6 weeks before they come unglued and start impeachment proceedings against President Bush.
Perhaps I have been being too generous.
As Captain Ed. Succinctly notes, it is usually considered the norm when a former president dies for the leaders of both parties to drop all and attend the state funeral proceedings
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/008790.php

Apparently incoming Senate leadership are too busy to be bothered.
Hopefully they will come to their senses.

Yeah right, and I will flap my arms and fly to Venus.

Alas Poor Dick, we knew him not well...

Perhaps I am cynical, perhaps its just the time and distance from the event but I’ve never understood why the Left and especially the press was so up in arms over Nixon and Watergate.

(From Nixon’s memoir – “In the Arena: A Memoir of Victory, Defeat and Renewal”):

“I was wrong in not acting more decisively and more forthrightly in dealing with Watergate, particularly when it reached the stage of judicial proceedings and grew from a political scandal to a national tragedy.“No words can describe the depths of my regret and pain at the anguish my mistakes over Watergate have caused the nation and the Presidency — a nation I so deeply love and an institution I so greatly respect.” – via NRO’s The Corner - http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWI0MzQ0NWZiNGRlYjkwMTNhOTI3ZDJkMmVlMTZmNDE=

There was a great pathos about Nixon. It was almost as if he were a character from a Shakespeare play.

(UPDATE TO A PREVIOUS POST)
Again I'll ask, "What was John Kerry thinking?" - http://the-tigers-eye.blogspot.com/2006/10/short-post-of-explaination.html
Sheesh! This man was the BEST the Democrats could do? - Over at the Powerline blog they have an update and a photo that says it all. Go there - http://powerlineblog.com/archives/016314.php

(UPDATE NO 2)
Well now apparently it has been officially "proved" that Sen. Kerry wasn't being snubbed by the troops in that photo. Apparently he and a pair of reporters decided to withdraw for a private conversation "off the record" and were photographed that way. So much of what was said was a tempest in a pisspot.

I still content that Senator Kerry was a horrible choice for a presidential candidate.

What I can't understand is ...

why anyone who might want a job cannot find one these days.

OK I realize that's a bit harsh but in our current economy it seems pretty hard for me to fathom why there are so many guys shaking cups in our downtown when I have contractors who cannot find enough laborers for some jobsites and I'm not talking skilled positions. On one of my last projects I had a cleaning contractor who could not keep his contract because he couldn't keep enough crews manned to finish floors on time so I know the jobs are out there if a guy doesn’t mind pushing a broom (or a vacuum cleaner).
When I first started working downtown over 8 years ago there were only a few "homeless Joe's" sitting on street corners begging change and those that did were direct enough to actually approach you. There are a few that I have given the change in my pocket to over the years. In fact one of them is sitting on "his" corner every weekday. He is casually friendly, a Korean War veteran who lives in one of the shelters downtown. He will take anything you offer and always responds with a "God bless you" even when you have only a few dimes.
Now there are dozens of them congregating downtown, most of them sullenly shake a BK cup at you and glare if you don't have anything for them. If you do give them anything they only look at you with a glazed expression of "why didn’t you give me more?"

Why am I bringing this up? After all shouldn't I empty all of my pocket change or pull bills from my wallet for them? Isn’t it "Christian" for me to support them without asking questions?
I don't believe so. I do give when the spirit moves me to and I have to admit to feeling some guilt when I have some spare change that I don't share. I guess because I am fearing that I will only see more and more of them but they increase I fully expect that they will be more recently without work because I am beginning to think that we are about to see the end of the biggest economic expansion in our nation's history.

With the incoming Democrat congress I am preparing myself to surrender more of my paycheck to the ever increasing maw that is our federal government. I do not believe that they will be any more prudent than the outgoing Republicans were in spending the tax income and over the next two years I fully expect them to demand more and more. The hew and cry over the disparity of the rich and the poor is already being ratcheted up on the various media outlets. Thomas Sowell over at National Review http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YWE4ZTU1MTNiYjAxMzlkNGQ1YzgyZDQyNDU3MGE5NTQ=
comments about how this is becoming a “dangerous obsession”. One quote stuck out, “Today’s “progressives” want to expand political control of incomes even more. They call it “social justice” but you could call it Rumpelstiltskin and it would still mean politicians deciding how much money each of us can be allowed to have. “

I only hope that in 2 years we come to our corporate senses and send some real conservatives (ones who will pledge to stick to a budget and decrease the size of the government).

That’s enough for now. I feel somewhat better having gotten that from my system.

Season's Greetings...OH HECK, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

"Lord God, we praise you for creating man, and still more for restoring him in Christ" (Opening Prayer) Christ is born, glorify him. Christ from heaven, go out to meet him. Christ on earth; exalt him: "Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice !" (Ps 96:1.11), for him who is of heaven and now of earth. Christ has made his dwelling among the human race; rejoice with trembling and with joy: with trembling because of sin, with joy because of our hope… Today the darkness is over and light is made anew; as in Egypt once plunged into darkness, today a pillar of fire enlightens Israel. O people that sat in the darkness of ignorance, come and see the great light of full knowledge for "the old things are passed away, behold all things are become new". (2 Co 5:17) The letter gives way, the Spirit comes to the front. (Rm 7:6) The shadows flee away, the Truth comes in upon them. (Col 2:17) The one who gives us our being today also gives us well-being, or rather restores us by his incarnation, for by wickedness we had fallen from wellbeing… Such is this great feast: it is this which we are celebrating today, the Coming of God to humankind, that we might go forth, or rather that we might go back to God— so that putting off the old man, we might put on the New (Col 3:9); and that as we died in Adam, so we might live in Christ (1 Co 15:22)… Therefore let us keep this Feast, not after the manner of a heathen festival, but after a godly sort; not after the way of the world, but in a fashion above the world; not as our own but as belonging to him who is ours, our Master's; not as of weakness, but of healing; not as of the old creation, but of our re-creation.

Saint Gregory of Nazianzus (330-390), bishop, doctor of the Church Sermon 38, on the Nativity of Christ

OUCH!!!!

As much as I want to see the Colts go all the way and win a Super Bowl. I think we can see how this is going to end. The way they have been playing on the road, I could run against the defense. Hell, My grandmother could have run against them today. We will see nothing but run and option plays for the rest of the season and the playoffs. Hopefully having Saunders back next week will help some.

Congratulations!, w-e-e-e-l-l-l..Sort of.

And here I thought that President Bush was correct when he told us that we had a long hard road ahead of us in order to defeat the Islamic Terrorists. After all they were a non-traditional enemy who refused to fight our troops in a civilized manner instead choosing to attack innocent civilians who simply wanted to go to work and support their families.

But now it appears that the war is over and the troops can all come home. - YEAAAAA!

Don't believe me?

That seems to be the case because Al Qaeda says so.

Why, just read the press release via ABC News:

"Al Qaeda has sent a message to leaders of the Democratic party that credit for the defeat of congressional Republicans belongs to the terrorists.
In a portion of the tape from Al Qaeda No. 2 man, Ayman al Zawahri, made available only today, Zawahri says he has two messages for American Democrats.
"The first is that you aren't the ones who won the midterm elections, nor are the Republicans the ones who lost. Rather, the Mujahideen -- the Muslim Ummah's vanguard in Afghanistan and Iraq -- are the ones who won, and the American forces and their Crusader allies are the ones who lost," Zawahri said, according to a full transcript obtained by ABC News. Zawahri calls on the Democrats to negotiate with him and Osama bin Laden, not others in the Islamic world who Zawahri says cannot help.
"And if you don't refrain from the foolish American policy of backing Israel, occupying the lands of Islam and stealing the treasures of the Muslims, then await the same fate," he said."
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/12/al_qaeda_sends_.html



The funny thing is that I don't remember reading that the opposing party got a congratulatory message from the Japanese ruling junta or the remaining Nazi's in 1944. For that matter I cannot imagine any American back then who would have welcomed much less cared what they thought of our electoral process.

My what a few years difference make.

Call me a skeptic but I somehow dont think that AQ will cease attacking us if we pull out of Iraq, Afghanistan and cease supporting Israel.

A Hat Tip to The Anchoress.

We take each day as it comes
Sometimes I hate my life
But mostly things are good

What a profound thought. I wish I could have thought of it but I am only borrowning from The Anchoress - http://theanchoressonline.com/2006/12/13/the-psalm-of-the-common-man/
who upon having a bad run of things had a moment of clarity.

I heartily recommend reading her on a regular basis.

...When I'm Eighty Five...

Ok, This one is too good to pass up.
According to "Scientists" by 2040 there WILL BE NO MORE ICE AT THE NORTH POLE!!! (cue the dramatic music) DA, DA, DA-DA-DA-DA-DA!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,235981,00.html

I'll go on record as predicting that these guys are wrong. I "predict" there will still be ice caps up there, Greenland and the rest of the Arctic will be inaccessible and "scientists" will still be predicting disasters that are just about to happen, all due to mankinds malfesance.

In my lifetime I have seen "scientists predict" a coming ice age AND a global warm up (ironically both for pretty much the same reasons). We were told that there would be no more oil, no more food, no more clean water, all the frogs would be gone, cats and dogs sleeping together (OK, I predicted that one and it came true every winter when Bailey and Whiskers got cold but at least I was RIGHT).

I'm only 45 but I'm pretty sure that most of these scientists are predicting this crap because there is MONEY at stake. The science of environmentalism is beholden to the government dole. Their gravy train will dry up if they suddenly decide to predict that the earth is still too big and they don't fully understand how it works.

Of course in 2040 I will be 85 and if I start telling people I predicted that the ice caps would not melt no one will believe me anyway...

Today's score

U-G-L-Y

I'm just sayin...

It hit me this morning as I cruised the internet news and political sites.
“What happened to all the Mark Foley hype?”
I mean for a few weeks there it was like the Democrats were suddenly the morality based party that was going to protect our kids from those evil page chasing Republicans.
Now...
(crickets chirping...)


Could it be that



IT WAS ALL POLITICALLY BASED?!???

6 weeks, I give them 6 weeks tops.

WOW TWO posts in less than one hour!

Its a new world record!!! - OK maybe I am a bit self absorbed.

Actually I heard back on the old Hard Drive and (that sound you hear in the background is TAPS being mournfully and slowly hummed) its toast, roasted and absolutely gone. It has gone to that happy reboot in the sky, it sprung its mortal coil (along with the logic board and perhaps the discs as well) and has joined the Moog Celestial in the Heavens.

It is DEAD...

My Raccoon story

I was going to resume writing by commenting on the recent Iraq Study Group report but that one has been done to death elsewhere and I would only add to the gloom and doom of the general comments from the right so...
Instead I will add my story to the already growing list of raccoon stories.
See here for Tony's - http://blog.otownhandyman.com/?p=455


When I was in college (Testicle Tech:1979 - 1986) I lived off campus at the local college Catholic Parish. St. Francis of Assisi where my roommates and I were the janitors/maintenance/caretakers of the facility. The church property was a converted mansion with the church in the back yard. The mansion functioned as parish offices and some apartments for foreign exchange students. We lived in a converted garage (all rent paid, all utilities paid, all we had to cough up money for was food, phone and cable TV) for almost 4 years. In exchange we had to be on-call 24/7 in case the church need cleaning after a late wedding or party (it was a multi-purpose space). All in all it was a pretty good gig. Directly in front of our house was a parking lot for about 5 cars and a dumpster. As I was in architecture school I kept pretty strange and long hours. One evening I came home late from studio around 3 AM and crashed thinking that I could get a few hours of sleep before having to resume the insanity I called study. I woke around 6 am to a hideous screeching sound out front. It echoed around the neighborhood sounding like someone slowly removing the hide from a live cat while suspended in a trash can. with a belt sander. My roommate Dave and I went downstairs to find that the screeching was also accompanied by a loud thumping sound that appeared to be coming from the dumpster. Slowly creeping to the edge of the dumpster we commented that the trash had been dumped the previous day so the thing should be empty. Peering over the edge we were able to ascertain that while there was only a few 2x4 boards propped up against the box the dumpster was pretty much empty except for one very pissed off raccoon who has apparently dropped from a nearby tree onto the 2x4 and climbed up onto the dumpster only to fall off and get stuck, the sides being too smooth for him to grab onto in order to climb out. We had seen this raccoon around a few times usually when the trash can was full so this probably wasn’t the first time he had gone dumpster diving but it was the first time he got stuck and it had ruined his otherwise perfect day. At this point my roommate (now an orthopedic surgeon) remembered that raccoons were usually rabid and we should be VERY CAREFUL with him. Ppooling our meager brainpower (remember it WAS about 6am) we decided the best course of action was to put the boards into the dumpster where Rickki Raccoon would be able to climb up and get out. Meanwhile we would back away quickly in case he decided we were to blame and come after us. Looking back neither of us was armed with anything, as it was we were both dressed only in gym shorts and tee shirts and barefoot (typ. college attire) so if he HAD decided to charge all we could have done was run like hell and hope he lost interest before one of us got bit. Anyway, we took one of the 2x4’s and tossed it into the box and ran a few yards back to watch from a distance as the raccoon climbed up jumped off and promptly climbed a nearby pine tree and sat there glaring at us like it was our fault he got stuck. His look seemed to say, “If you just put some garbage in there I would have had supper and all would have been well”. Now that I think of it we never saw him around there again so maybe his experience left him looking to the nearby fraternity row for victuals.
On another note I believe the word “Raccoonnookkeeperess” has the most number of double letters in the English language. It means the woman who keeps the Raccoon’s nook.

I'M BAAAAAAACK!

After much frustration and aborted attempts at fixin the old machine I am back online at home.