Declaratives

This is our war wagon.

This is our war wagon sitting at the Mt. Woodson trailhead parking lot at Lake Poway.

This is our war wagon that transported us and our camera to the edge of the wilderness to witness and photograph the spectacular green-ness of the hillsides and the yellow, blue and lavender color explosions brought about by the wildflowers which are going bonkers right now.

This is our war wagon in which that camera remained.

This is our war wagon.



Line of the Day out on the trail: Emily (9 or 10 yrs. old): "Hey look, Dad… porta-potties!"
Dad: "You can tell she’s from East County. She gets excited about that sort of thing."

Applying some common sense is probably asking too much

Last week, independent truckers staged a loosely organized protest of high fuel prices by pulling their rigs off the road or driving them at slow speeds (Story here). Truckers were hoping this protest might spur the President into action by tapping into the nation’s oil reserves.

From what we understand, the oil reserves are for emergency use only and though fuel prices are indeed high, we don’t think this necessarily qualifies as an emergency. But from what we know about “recessions”, its not a matter if you meet the technical definition of said state but rather that you “feel” as if you are in one.

So our advice to the truckers is that rather than further slowing the economy with this hair-brained “protest”, they might instead petition their lawmakers to stabilize the fuel market by putting a few more holes in the ground.

Honest to g#d… While we all sit around patiently waiting for the inevitable starving of the world’s poor so that our entire economy can rest in the hands of some Iowan farmers or that day when we can roll big rigs down the interstates bristling with solar-electro-catalytic laser panels, would it be too much to ask to use what’s sitting directly beneath our feet?

KBwD is on the Air.

Another iPod-while-in-the-shower inspirational moment: our favorite and most certainly underrated Beatle (hey, you all know us: one writes a song like “Tax Man” and that person is guaranteed a bust on the BwD Music Mt. Rushmore).

Ladies and Gentlemen, the late, great George Harrison performing the beautiful and soulful “Give me Love (give me peace on Earth)”

It appears to be Clapton’s backing band, though we can’t make him out. The old bald dude in glasses with the tambourine in the backround is a dead give-away, though. (If Clapton plays, he will be there).

Enjoy!

Class, We have a very special guest for you, today.

We look forward to seeing General Petraeus testify in Congress next week if only to see (again) in bold relief what the bearing, manner and presence of a professional and honorable military man looks like while addressing a roomful of children.

Nancy Pelosi has already gone on record as saying she doesn’t want to hear too much happy-talk from the General or Ambassador Crocker… no-spin regarding the recent events in Basra where militant Shiite cleric, Al-Sadr has backed-down (again) because, we imagine, he was tired of getting his ass kicked (again).



And Pelosi wonders how it is that the Iraq military and government were caught off-guard by this uprising in Basra. After all, the Iraqis are just the puppets, right? We’re the ones that are ultimately calling the shots over there, right?

P.S. If the gentleman pictured above balled at Ohio State, he'd need two helmets.

Sharia Law presents some interesting logistical problems here in the West.

We'd offer these ladies some Chianti but... oh, never mind.

H/T: Weazel Zippers

Don't Believe the Hype

Air America host, Randi Rhodes was suspended for calling Hillary Clinton a “whore”. Video clip of that incident here. Here’s what our tea leaves tell us: Randi Rhodes was not suspended for calling Hillary Clinton a shameless woman of the night. Randi Rhodes was suspended as a pre-emptive strike so that the next time Rush says something “controversial”, the liberal/Left will be able to say: “Hey… we suspended one of ours – its only right, Clear Channel, that you now suspend Rush”.

This is a type of media “asymmetrical warfare”, though, as Rhodes has a mere fraction of Rush’s listeners.

Next time Rush does say something…… “controversial” and we don’t hear this incident and “disciplinary measure” referenced to leverage a similar fate, please feel free to serve up our crow. We’ll gladly chow-down.

If One Doesn't Work then Two Will Do Just Fine

It’s a pretty well-known fact that Republican law-makers are in the back pocket of Big Business. And when they aren’t, as is apparently the case with California’s GOP legislators with respect to illegal immigration, they are ungrateful, untruthful and possibly hypocritical. At least this is the logic employed in op-ed here by Ruben Navarette Jr. who also trots out the “illegal-immigrants-are-good-for-the-economy” red-herring popular with border softies.

Navarette has praise for states like Arizona and Colorado who are trying to make a go of state-run guest-worker visa programs. Of course, we already have one run by the Feds but the states don’t think the Feds work quickly enough to provide them the necessary labor. Besides, the states can’t be blamed for thinking two bureaucracies would sufficiently muddy the waters on who should and shouldn’t be here. Two separate databases, two different sets of rules, two different enforcement methods, two separate jurisdictions…. Hell’s bells….. what’s not to like about that?

Yeah, were cynical. Blame Congressional action last June and July, though, for shooting to hell any good-will or trust we have in that or any other legislative body with respect to the belief that law-makers as care-takers of the Republic are acting in the best interests of its citizens.

Pepperoni and Mushrooms, Hold Your Fire

B-Daddy here. Not sure I want my sons working for Pizza Hut for their summer jobs after reading this. Apparently, a pizza delivery driver in Des Moines shot a would be armed robber while making a delivery. The robber was wounded, but survived three gun shot wounds. Amazingly, the deliveryman, James William Spiers III, will probably lose his job, even though he had a valid permit to carry a handgun. Pizza Hut states that it has a policy that its drivers may not carry guns because "that is safest for everybody." Safest for whom, would be robbers? Certainly not the drivers. As discussed at Hot Air, one can easily do an internet search for "pizza delivery murder" and turn up numerous cases of dead pizza delivery employees.

Also, this is another example of how concealed carry laws can help law abiding citizens defend themselves. According to CNN, Barack Obama supports a national law banning carrying concealed weapons with some exceptions, but certainly not for pizza delivery drivers.

H/T: Hot Air

Welcome Back Big Fella

And not a moment too soon. B-Daddy here, lifetime Laker fan. (Yes, even when Vlade Divac was the starting center and Nick "the quick" Van Exel ran point.) Dean commented here and here on what a great deal the Pau Gasol trade was for the Lakers. Fast forward a month, and the Lakers go 15-4 and take leadership of the Western conference. Then on March 14, he injured his ankle in a loss to New Orleans and the Lakers drop to a 5 and 4 won-loss record. But he's back in the line up tonight against Portland. As I write, the Lakers have built a ten point lead with Gasol in the line up. No guarantee of a win, but looking good.

I really believe this line up has the talent and desire to contend for the championship. My concern is that with injuries and late season trades, they haven't really played together as a team for very long. Getting by the Spurs, who always play great team ball under coach Pop, will be a big challenge. Still, I look forward to a deep run into the playoffs and a great season next year.

We're with the Rock-Throwers and Car-Torchers on this one.

A couple weeks back we were made aware by the sporting media that the Boston Red Sox were in Japan so we naturally wondered what they were doing there. Opening Day was 2 weeks away and since neither ESPN nor any other news outlet made mention of another MLB team being there, we figured they were on some sort of good will tour and would play an exhibition game or two against one of the Japanese professional baseball teams.

Well, lo and behold, on Monday of last week, we were informed that the Boston Red Sox would be playing 2 games against the Oakland As….. two regular season games. Whiskey-Tango…? That’s right, Bud Selig and the brain trust in the MLB front offices thought it would be a grand idea to kick-off the renewal of America’s pastime a full week prior to the start of the season in the Tokyo Dome. So for nearly a week, baseball fans would look at the standings in static form… Red Sox and Athletics, 1-1… Everyone else 0-0. And to put an exclamation point on this ridiculous stunt, both teams returned to the States to finish up their exhibition schedule.

That MLB thought this would be a good idea is baffling but that’s big-league sports these days where “expansion’, “tapping into new markets” and “globalization” have become key buzz terms.

Problem is, this sort of expansion isn’t going to work because it comes at the expense of the core fans of baseball. To wit, outside of Sully, Mikey, Fitz’ and Stosh, who woke up at 3 A.M. to start drinking and cheer on their beloved Saaahx from the stools of their favorite pub in Boston, no one watched this game and no one cared.

The NFL staged their first regular season game overseas last year when the Giants played the Miami Dolphins in Wembley Stadium. We were in Vegas at the time and we wanted some action on the game. While waiting for our drink at the bar, we struck up a conversation with a flight attendant who said she always felt punch-drunk after the flight from New York to London and would never recover before hopping back on the return flight.

Hmmmm…. The Giants and the Dolphins played exactly like that and in one of the few highlights of that weekend we covered the "under" easily as neither team could get out of its own way.

That’s what the NFL was trying to sell Britons. Why would they think any other two teams (one of which was the eventual Super Bowl winner, mind you) would perform any differently?

For this global expansion to work, what obviously has to happen is that the interest and thus revenue generated overseas (minus the expenses associated with overseas expansion) must be greater than the revenue lost here as….. the leagues are freaking screwing around and playing games in front of people who don’t give a hoot instead of fans who do.

Just a gut feel but we don’t think this is going to work and the dirty little secret is neither do the leagues.

With the billions of dollars they have at their disposal this whole enterprise becomes an ego trip for the respective league commissioners and owners, a lot whose collective ego is perhaps unsurpassed by any other group of people on the planet. They want to be seen as people who created or at least attempted to create something bigger, grander, bolder, if not better.

And actual results can be dammed or just ignored because in either success or failure these people want to be known as “visionaries”… and no higher an accolade can be bestowed upon the vainglorious.

H/T: Jonesy for sending this.

Its as if Nancy Pelosi knows something about Barry Bonds' heritage that we don't.

ESPN the Magazine asked members of Congress to chime-in with some opinions of their home-area baseball teams. Wrigleyville23 wrap-up here via DeadSpin. We liked best House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s musings: "We're all so grateful for the contributions Barry Bonds made to the San Francisco community. I'll always remember him embracing Willie Mays after his 756th home run. I'm especially glad it happened on Italian Night."

And here’s President Bush throwing out the first pitch at the Nationals’ new ball park in DC. Yeah, not much holding back from the fans voicing their displeasure. This should be factored-in to a country’s overall Freedom Quotient equation: The fact that people are free to lustily boo their leader and not feel like they’re going to get clubbed over the head with a night stick or receive a knock on the door of their home later that night ought to count for something.

We’re not big fans of booing our country’s democratically elected leader. Back at Seminary we were taught that you are saluting the rank or uniform…. not necessarily the person, so booing the Prez definitely strikes us as disrespectful to the rank, regardless of who he or she is. Nevertheless, this is America and we are happy all those people that booed President Bush felt like they got a few things off their chests.

… and speaking of which… we did not see the game but we listened to a portion of it on radio. Analyst Dave “Soup” Campbell gave a great rundown of Presidential 1st pitches. Before Bush took the hill, Campbell remarked that according to lore, the President who received the most hostile reception was Harry Truman throwing out the first pitch at a Washington Senators game…. just one week after firing General Douglas Macarthur.