Fremont Steel

She cleans up real well. Just got back from the recycling center when it was decided to spiffy ‘er up a bit. Whether hauling around people’s furniture, yard trimmings or the fairer sex, the hoopdie gets it done. In the next month or so, she’ll roll over to 150,000 miles. Love the new 4-door Tacomas with the extended cab but we’ll keep truckin’ with this one for now.

Absolutely gorgeous day today. That’s Cowles Mountain (highest point in city limits at 1592 ft.) in the backround. How many major U.S. cities can say they have a legit mountain within their boundaries?

W.W.R.D.

It had not been 30 minutes after reading this piece from Peggy Noonan, when we got a call from B-Daddy alerting us to the same. We’ve been big fans of hers for years. We love her easy-going style that manages to be somewhat nostalgic without sounding dated. Like her hero, Ronald Reagan, for whom she was a speech-writer, she “gets” it. She “gets” the big picture of American politics and American society.

… and speaking of Reagan, she wonders if Reagan would succeed in today’s Republican Party given the hyper-intensive religiosity upper GIs to which “we” have been subjecting our leading candidates.

For our part, we believe he would. His message of optimism, hope and belief in the greatness of America would still resonate today with voters. Goodness, would it ever. He was a man comfortable in his own skin and a man comfortable with his faith, a faith which he weaved into the narrative of his walk and talk throughout his Presidency without ever coming across as preachy or self-righteous (Obama?).

In fact, we can imagine a Reagan “moment” today where at the height of the sound and fury regarding his or any of his opponent’s religious beliefs, he would look squarely into the camera, cock his head to one side and with that dry, droll Midwestern delivery give a, “Well, ……….” and whatever the quote would be, would be so spot-on and so dripping with good-natured sarcasm that it would instantly diffuse the situation making all those who have been the most rabid theological proctologists look down-right silly.

The fact though, Noonan doubts he could, worries us.

Our friend, KT at the Scratching Post suggests that Romney is unelectable because his Mormonism is so off-putting to many conservatives. We’ve read the comments at a few conservative blog sites and it ain’t pretty….. but we hope this isn’t reflective of the general feeling of the Republican voters towards Romney. If it is, it’s a shame because it would represent the following logic: “We” fear Mitt’s Mormonism more than we fear a Hillary or Obama presidency.

This election shouldn’t be about “Mormonism” and it shouldn’t be about “fear”. We “feared” Tom McClintock was “too conservative” for California voters (this, after 69% of those polled after the single debate deemed him “most-qualified”) so we went with “electability” in the recall election back in ’03. Now look where we are.

A beautiful thing, this Democracy where, by and large, we generally get what we want. And if we reject out of hand either Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon or Mike Huckabee because he is an evangelical conservative in the general election by staying home then it’s a backhanded admission that we do indeed prefer, want and deserve Hillary or Obama in the Oval Office.

"I Wanna Get the Lesbian Perspective....."

“From Baja to the Canadian Rockies.....

... and from the Pacific Ocean to the Mojave Desert....

.....this is Lee Hacksaw Hamilton and for the next couple of hours… I …. want to talk sports with You.”

We don’t care what Rome thinks…. its nice to have Lee ‘Hacksaw” Hamilton back here in San Diego doing drive time in the P.M. on KLSD AM 1360. “Uncle ‘Saw” had been a fixture on the San Diego sports talk radio scene for years before being exiled to do scrub-Saturday time up in L.A. at AM 570 for the past few years so hearing his program-opening “best 15 minutes in radio” again is like having an old friend move back into town…. a sometimes annoying, cantankerous and decidedly un-hip friend but a friend nonetheless.

Interesting advertisements on the station, though. Two regular spots are for Air America host, Thom Hartman’s book, “Cracking the Code” and another for “GoLeft.com” or “VeerSharplyLeft.com”… something like that.. which advertises itself as presenting the news truthfully…. from a liberal perspective.

We’re not advertising experts, but shilling lefty wares to the 18-54 yr. old male sports-loving demographic seems a bit of a stretch. Are we saying that no one in that demographic is a liberal or a Democrat? Certainly not. It just seems that by and large, that particular demo would be less inclined to go out and buy Hartman’s book or dial-up “SwerveLeft.com” than about any other radio demo outside of Rush’s listening audience.

Besides, even if individuals in this demo are politically-aware, let alone, left-leaning, these guys are listening to sports talk radio precisely because, for the moment at least, they don’t feel like listening to Rush, Hannity, Air America or anything else political. Hey, ya gotta cast a wide net, we suppose – just seemed a rather odd marketing strategy.

Indy..... Is that You?

Indiana Jones is back! … and we couldn’t be more excited. We were alerted to this development from a post over at Hot Air. Read here. Harrison Ford returns in the 4th installment of the Indiana Jones franchise and after battling snakes, Nazis, zombies and sword-wielding Arabs, he’s going up against the Ruskies this time around in a Cold War-themed adventure.

So in honor of the pending El Quatro, we are going to post a poll on what has been a favorite parlor discussion of ours over the years. Let’s face it…. Ford is getting a little long in the tooth to be running around and saving the free world and if "The Spielberg" wants to keep the franchise rolling, he will need to find a replacement.

We’re going to throw out some names and see what sticks. If you are not pleased with the choices feel free to “other” it and chime-in with your alternates in the comments.

Our short list:

Viggo Mortensen – Viggo has aquitted himself well in other action-adventure roles such as “Aragorn” in the Lord of the Rings triology and as the cross-country horse racer in the underrated Hidalgo.

Brendan Fraser - High likeability quotient. He’s got that semi-nerdy Midwestern, aw-shucks sensibility that Indy possesses but does he have Indy’s grit? Maybe a little too goofy, but we like the guy.

Nic Cage – The wild card. Cage could either nail the part or nuke it. He’s got Indy’s dry humor and sarcasm but will he throw a little too much Elvis (and thus, his alter-ego self)) into the part?

Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon - A little too obvious, perhaps? Hey, you gotta throw in the two biggest name in Hollywood, dontcha? For his part, Damon has said that his turn in the Bourne Ultimatum will be his last go-around in the Bourne franchise which suggests his time in the action-adventure genre is done, for now. And Leo…? Great actor but he lacks Indy’s gruff masculinity and broad-shouldered American- everyman presence.





So there you have it..... To the the polls!

She Even Kind of Looks Like Sara Connor.

Some thoughts on the Mission/Church shootings in Colorado:

Well, the truth is out. Our supposed gun-wielding hero, Jeanne Assam, who took down the gunman, Matthew Murray, is a liar. You see, Assam used to be on the Minneapolis police force but was fired back in 1997 for lying during an internal investigation on whether or not she swore at a bus driver during an investigation on a city bus (hey, public transportation tends to have that effect on people). Read story here.

Shoot…. Couldn’t keep the lid on our sarcasm for even a paragraph. What a miserable lot we are. Anyway, good. Good and thank G#d that she did lie some 10 yrs. ago or there might very well be more people dead because Jeanne Assam wasn’t there to defend them.

Its entirely probable that the incident was cause for a very traumatic period in this woman’s life and its probable that she has looked back on the experience and the life she was making for herself in Minnesota those 10 yrs. ago and thought “If only…” or “What if…”. We’ve got a good feeling, though, that Jeanne Assam will never have to ask those questions again.... It may be those surviving people in the church that will now ask it on behalf of Assam.

And a word of caution... What this woman did and the circumstances in which she did it were amazing - there is no doubt about that. But just as the gun enthusiasts and 2nd amendment types (of which we count ourselves among) wanted the gun-controllers to back off politicizing Columbine in the immediate wake of that shooting and others, lets not be guilty of making what Jeanne Assam did a cause celebre for right-to-carry laws just yet. There’s time for that, but not now… for the time being here during Christmas lets not forget that there were 4 young people (sisters Stephanie Works, 18, and Rachael Works, 16, Tiffany Johnson, 26, and Philip Crouse, 24) that were gunned down. That’s 4 people robbed of their lives with all of it in front of them and 4 sets of families and friends who have had a part of their own lives ripped from their hearts… a void remaining that will never be filled.

If you see this man coming towards you…. Run!

Click here for segment of a McLaughlin group roundtable debate on Romney’s Mormonism speech. Its over 9 minutes long but you only need to see to the first 3 or 4 minutes to see what a insecure grown-up, who was beat up by a Mormon as a kid and then later dumped by a Mormon chick as a 23 yr. old, acts and sounds like.

Lawrence O’Donnell an MSNBC political analyst and a person who has a history of untoward behavior on the talkies, kind of loses it by latching on to what he alleges as Mormonism’s (former) support of slavery like a hungry dog onto a meat bone. He just wouldn’t let it go and wound up looking the ass because of it.

Pat Buchanan’s facial expression during this tirade is classic. Head cocked to one side and eyes slightly squinted with a “Dude, what are you talking about?” expression on his face. Buchanan parries nicely by retorting, “My grandfather owned slaves”, as in “Are you going to hold that against me?”

To cap it all off, O’Donnell was interviewed later by Hugh Hewitt about his criticism of Mormonism but the lack of same regarding Islam. Here’s the exchange:

HH: Would you say the same things about Mohammed as you just said about Joseph Smith?
LO’D: Oh, well, I’m afraid of what the…that’s where I’m really afraid. I would like to criticize Islam much more than I do publicly, but I’m afraid for my life if I do.
HH: Well, that’s candid.
LO’D: Mormons are the nicest people in the world. They’re not going to ever…
HH: So you can be bigoted towards Mormons, because they’ll just send you a strudel.
LO’D: They’ll never take a shot at me. Those other people, I’m not going to say a word about them.
HH: They’ll send you a strudel. The Mormons will bake you a cake and be nice to you.
LO’D: I agree.
HH: Lawrence O’Donnell, I appreciate your candor. (thanks to Hot Air)

What a piece (of work), this guy. In a nutshell, there’s all you really need to know about the content of the character and the vertebral fortitude of those residing in the newsrooms and occupying the teleprompter pulpits in this country.

We still don’t know who we’re voting for in the Republican primaries but Romney seems to be pissing-off the right people so we definitely haven’t tossed him out yet.

Quickies: What’s in a word?, Mitt’s Mormonism speech and the 8(?) things you can’t say on T.V.

It would appear that campus “liberals” in Iran are far less enamored of their esteemed leader Mahmoud Ahmedenjiad than are campus “liberals” here stateside. Read article here reporting on student protests in Iran.

We have the text of Mitt’s Mormonism speech here. Read it and decide for yourself whether you think his religious beliefs would be an issue. Call us crazy but we don’t think Joe Lieberman would feel compelled to explain his Judaism to the American electorate were he running for President. Judaism being a religion, we might add, that rejects the central tenet of Christianity.

ESPN is becoming increasingly difficult to watch, anymore. They take self-absorbed and self-congratulatory behavior to an entirely different level. Here are a couple of recent examples of the World Wide Leader’s mediocre and/or possibly slanted programming.

…..in the wake of the Ravens choke-job against the Pats last Monday night, the post-game commentary was fixated on Bart Scott’s temper tantrum at the end of the game and Samari Rolle’s (an African-American) allegation that one of the ref’s (also an African-American) referred to him as “boy”. They simply would not let it go…. these two issues were beat to death all week providing cover for Brian Billick and his coaching staff flat-lining in the fourth quarter which was the real story.

also, Tim Tebow’s acceptance speech upon winning the Heisman on Saturday (he had our vote, btw) contained numerous acknowledgments to his faith in Christ… in fact, it was the very first thing he mentioned upon winning the award. SportsCenter aired immediately after the ceremony and the Heisman presentation (we watched the taped re-broadcast at 9 PST) was the lead story and they played back plenty of Tebow’s acceptance speech….. except for any of the “Jesus” and “God” stuff.

Look… we’re not advancing an agenda or necessarily trying to make a point, we just thought it odd that a speech we saw a mere 15-20 minutes earlier and which contained several testaments to faith throughout the speech was wholely sanitized of the same when it came time to roll the hi-lite tape. A faith that Tebow felt was just as important if not more so than any other factor if his acceptance speech was to be believed

I see stupid people

We were alerted to the fact the local CBS affiliate here in San Diego would be broadcasting the Broncos-Chiefs game at 1 (immediately after the Chargers-Titans this morning) instead of the infinitely more compelling Pats-Steelers game by the Sports Media article in Friday’s fishwrap.

Here’s Ed Trimble, head suit for KFMB and his “logic” for not showing the game: “It's a division game, and it's a big one,” Trimble said of Chiefs-Broncos. “Everybody wants to see if New England can go undefeated, and there's no question that's an important game. But Kansas City-Denver is a more important game for us here.” Ya hear that? It’s a big one!

The author of the article was kind enough to provide the email address and phone number for KFMB’s sports programming so we jumped on it in order for Mr. Trimble to be exposed to the light. Here’s an excerpt from our email:

"His [Trimble’s] reasoning that the KC-Denver game will draw here because they are the Chargers' AFC West rivals demonstrates a complete lack of understanding regarding what football fans are likely to watch. Fans like to watch good teams which will hopefully result in a well-played and exciting game and fans like juicy subplots associated with that particular game. Ask yourself which of these two games answers the bell for both qualifiers?

This is a no-brainer, guys. Do the right thing, hit the "easy button", throw us over to the Pats-Steelers game after the Charger game and kick back and enjoy 2 strong back-to-back ratings events."

The last point we bring up is particularly baffling. Mr. Trimble is in charge of the affiliate and thus he’s in charge of bringing in a profit. There is no doubt in our mind that Pats-Steelers will bring in better ratings than that other dog of a game so, what……? Trimble’s decision is based on…. principle? Please.

Upon breaking open the paper, though, this morning its apparent that our email did not have its intended effect. As of this writing we’re still getting a game no one wants to watch.

A man this criminally clueless and negligent should not be left to make sports programming decisions even if it is that of a crappy local affiliate…… its still just too important of a job to be left to someone like that. How he will manage to hold on to his job after today will be one of life's great mysteries

KBwD is on the Air.

This is our 2nd installment of KBwD, a (hopefully) regular Friday feature to share some music with you all.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Calexico!

We stumbled on these guys quite by accident some 5-6 years ago when we were looking for something to do on a random Thursday night. They were playing at the Casbah and the local fishwrap gave them a nod so we went with it.

We’ve been to about 7 or 8 of their shows including at the wonderfully restored art-deco El Rey Theater in L.A. and up in Seattle (we happened to be there on business so the Calexico-head moniker does not apply) and outside of an oddly flat performance there in Seattle, their shows have all been spectacular. In addition to their core group they are often accompanied by Mariachi Luz de Luna.

They are fond of mixing the same mariachi with ranchera, country and western and Ennio Marcionne Spaghetti Western themes. When they venture beyond this, they are given to darker, moodier tones. We forget where we saw it but we read one reviewer likening their music to a soundtrack for a Cormac McCarthy story. Anyone who has read “The Crossing” or “All the Pretty Horses” and has listened to Calexico will know just how brilliant that analogy is.

OK, because it’s the Christmas season and we’re in a giving mood we went with 2 songs: “El Picador” and “Alone Again, or..”. “Alone..” was done originally by 60s L.A. icons, Love (said to be Jim Morrison’s favorite band) and was later covered by the Damned.

We hope everybody enjoys the weekend. Please be safe out there as everyone knows San Diegans can’t drive in the rain!

What do Steven A. Smith and Helen Thomas Have in Common?

They don’t appreciate the fact that you are reading this right now.

Steven A. Smith is .... a guy with a very loud voice on ESPN and who had this to say about the internet and about bloggers in an interview with the L.A. Daily News (courtesy Farther off the Wall via DeadSpin): "And when you look at the internet business, what's dangerous about it is that people who are clearly unqualified get to disseminate their piece to the masses. I respect the journalism industry, and the fact of the matter is ...someone with no training should not be allowed to have any kind of format whatsoever to disseminate to the masses to the level which they can. They are not trained. Not experts."

To better get the Steven A. vibe, recite the quote above to yourself in the mirror but shout it emphatically, instead. And throw in a bunch of “E-VERs!”… as in, “They are not trained, E-VER!” Not experts, E-VER!” letting your upper teeth scrape off your lower lip while throwing your heart and soul into the "V". Yeah, we got Steven A. down cold.

(ummmm..... the guy in the red above is a Steven A. Smith but not the one we are talking about. Here's the Steven A. we meant. Sorry.)

And here’s the First Lady of the D.C. press corps in an interview with the Huffington Post via RiehlWorldView: Do you think technology is changing [journalism]? That a good reporter will always find a venue because there are so many media outlets now? "No, but I do think it is kind of sad when everybody who owns a laptop thinks they're a journalist and doesn't understand the ethics. We do have to have some sense of what's right and wrong in this job. Of how far we can go. We don't make accusations without absolute proof. We're not prosecutors. We don't assume."

Do you sense a little defensiveness? And you got to love it when journalists start talking about “ethics” and “qualifications”.

We would’ve posted a picture of Thomas but…. we’re all about taking the high road.

Besides, we didn’t want to take the chance of opening the comment floodgates to the likes of: “Couldn’t lure a hungry dog into a meat wagon” or “Couldn’t sneak up on a glass of water” or "Would make a freight train take dirt road" or, or..... well, you get the picture. That would be mean and derogatory and would simply not be tolerated here at BwD.

Beijing '08 Olympics Update

(One in an occasional series provided during the run-up to the ’08 Summer Games in Beijing, China. Archived posts in this series can be accessed by entering “Olympics” in the search box above).

You all have to read this article from Yahoo! Sports. In a word: hilarious. As China preps for the Olympics they’re whipping everybody into shape by holding cheering practices, urging decorum and trying their darndest to stamp-out all those English mis-translations on business signs and billboards.

And giving due credit, we were led to this article by 100% Injury Rate via Deadspin. Yes, That Deadspin… Father, it was them….it was they who stripped us of our blog-reading virginity.

The Cheering Program is sponsored by something called the “Beijing Civilized Workers Cheering Squad”. Just what is it about Communism that compels the addition of unnecessary adjectives to slogans and titles?

This cheering program is like the Texas A&M yell practice on Friday evenings….. but instead of a campus of 15,000 it’s one wound-up, eager-to-please, ain’t-nuthin’-gonna-stop-us nation of 1,000,000,000 (1 bil) people prodded by their Chi-Com overseers to make the entire country look somewhat less dreary and oppressed than it really is.

And this from the article: "Shouting obscenities at opposing players is common in Chinese soccer, which has been plagued with match-fixing scandals and on-field fighting. Beijing's top club team, Guo'an, plays at the Feng Tai stadium, which is draped with huge signs urging good behavior." Just how this differentiates Chinese soccer from soccer anywhere else on the planet was not explained.

By this article’s account, China’s efforts to make us really think they’re part of the gang is a bit off-putting. Its creepily analogous to how middle-aged moms and dads read books in an attempt to “relate” to their kids. Its as if China went out and bought “Getting Hip Y’All to the West” and “Using Awkward State-Approved Language to Connect with Your Inner Def Homie-Boy” and “Will they Accept Me?: the story of a young Socialist and her experiences at the Glorious (coed) People’s Olympic Athlete Village (of coeds)”.

As we’ve said all along, we cannot wait for these games. Add the unintentional comedy factor to the list of reasons why.