Here we go again....

Back from vacation to Southern California....will blog later about all the activities, including the age-old question: "Is Chirs Berman sexy?"....

but no time for that now. We start the Cincinnati city championship this morning. Don and I are registered; I haven't picked up a club in 10 days - and I tee off in 2 hours. Follow all the action at www.gcga.org. I'll try not to embarass myself.

ESPN Golf Coverage

Hey fuckheads at ESPN, you are ruining the US Open for me. Some random thoughts while following the Open today.

1. Get a better producer. If you can't provide live coverage of each hole, don't ruin it by having the announcer tell us before the shot happens that "he knocked it close". Jesus, I know NBC and CBS do it occasionally, but its starting to happen a little too much.
2. Rick Reilly- I used to really like him. I have all of his books, but can he do anything other than sad stories now?
3. Berman- Horrendous. Terrible. A total disgrace. On the flip side though, I don't mind Tirico and Van Pelt.

Can't get it out of my head

I have a huge craving to play craps. Maybe its because Eric is in town, but I can't shake it. Eric wants to make a run to one of the local casinos, but I don't want to play California craps, which they replace the dice with playing cards.

I would almost recommend you guys to check the San Diego police blotters this weekend to see if there is a story about two guys in pleated khaki shorts arrested at the Hotel Del for rolling dice on the sidewalk on the backside of the hotel, yelling and screaming like two little girls. Its getting to that point.

Points against Obama

Hey Republican party! You want to make inroads against Obama and the Democrats?

Forget about raising the issue about Obama taking his wife to Broadway for a night out. yes, yes, yes, it's $24,000 to taxpayers. But for God's sake, he is the President. Let him do whatever he wants for a date night. I'd get a luxury box for every Browns game - and happily charge it to the taxpayer. Most people are sympathetic to Obama here. Lay off.

But you better hammer hard on two things that occured this week.

1. GM's head marketing boss, Mark LaNeve, was asked on a call-in show about diesel cars and who GM hasn't pushed that technology here. One of the reasons he stated was that diesel is $1.25 a gallon more expensive than regular gasoline.

Hold the phone there.

That is absolutely incorrect. Right now, diesel is $0.17 less than gasoline.

Diesel costs less than gas. But - the chief marketer at GM does not know, or is not aware of this, fact. How clueless is he?

What does this have to do Obama? This is the company that we are sending another $50 BILLION TO! This is the beahvior we are rewarding!

For God's sake, let them fail.

2) Chrysler. I'm still trying to sort the merger deal between Chrysler and Fiat, but apparently there was a hold up in the Supreme Court because unsecured bond holders (like the Indiana pnesion fund) were not being paid off first; instead, money was going to unsecured bond holders (such as the UAW).

What could this cause? By putting the United Auto Workers' rights above those of secured lenders -- and in the process seemingly upsetting years of established bankruptcy law -- the government risked creating uncertainty about the rule of law, and perhaps discouraging those willing to put capital at risk in America.

OK, one may say - but why aren't all the secured holders wanting a stop to this deal? Why is it just the Indiana pension fund that is pushing for a stop here?

Because most (the majority) of the other secured bond holders of Chrysler are held by institutions like JPMorgan (JPM, Fortune 500), Citibank (C, Fortune 500), Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), and Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500), all of which were themselves TARP recipients and, therefore, arguably subject to considerable government arm-twisting.

Hmmm......circumventing the rule of law, and arugably playing favorites with TARP. It may take a genius to make a 30 second commercial out of this issue, but I bet it can be done.

So - what we have is Obama:
- lining the pockets of incompetent corporate boobs at GM, and
- playing favorites by picking the UAW and TARP banks over state pension funds with the Chrysler takeover.

I think the actions of Obama are starting to worry many moderates out there....

Odd....

Is it just me, but does it seem like every time you hear about an 18-inning game, that:

1) it's always in the National League, and
2) the San Diego Padres are usually involved?

I would wager that in all of the 18 inning games plaed over the past 20 years, the Padres have been involved in 25% of them.

Pathetic?

I checked the on-line wagering site this weekend - and noticed lines for the WNBA for Saturday. Opening Day had arrived - and a full schedule of 6 games were on tap!

And yes, after doing 5 minutes worth of research, I was a perfect 3-0 on Saturday on the WNBA, and followed that up with a 1-1-1 performance on Sunday.

Mind you, I don't actaulyl WATCH the WNBA, but this may be a nice summertime diversion before the NFL comes rolling around again.

So- WNBA wagering - is this a pathetic new low for me? Or does it make me crazy.....crazy like a fox?

Thoughts from a Airport Chili's bar

Is there anything better than finding out that you have a 90 minute layover and finding a Chili's at the airport where you can watch TV, have a beer, and eat about 21 boneless chicken wings? Ahhh...below are some thoughts that prompted me whipping out the laptop to blog at the bar:

1. There is a fat chick sitting across from me wearing a pink Duke shirt. She of course is being very vocal about wanting the Lakers to win and all I can think about in my head is chucking my cell phone at her hoping that it would knock her out cold so I could then walk over there and kick her in the head. God I hate Duke and everything about them.

2. Poor hockey fan can't get the asshole bartender to turn one of the three TVs onto the hockey game. I've never seen such a dick before. Telling him that he isn't allowed to change it, when he has the remote in his hand. I will ask this again, where is the customer service gone in this country.

3. Sat next to an older guy who had a man purse on the plane. I was playing spider solitaire for the most part of the trip and had my headphones on, but he still decided to talk to me about how he is a master of spider solitaire. Really? What part of my body language gave you the indication that I give a flying fuck. I even did the annoyed "I'm sorry are you talking to me?" line. He went on to say that he only plays the 4 suit game since the 2 suit game is too easy. And guess what I was playing. The 2 suit. Ugh.

4. I know dudeman brought this up in the past, but I do find it very strange that Southwest only accepts credit cards on their flights to purchase drinks. Is that even legal?

5. Spent the week in Seattle, where it was sunny and 85 degrees the entire time. Wow, when its not rainy or cloudy, this place is amazing. Couple of comments:

• Its stays light outside until 9:30pm and gets light at 5:15am. I kept on thinking that I slept through my wake up call each morning since it was so bright at 6:00am. Pretty nice in the evenings and you totally lose track of what time it is when it stays that light out.
• So I guess they have this law in Washington that they must post the calorie count for every item at a fastfood joint right underneath the picture of the food. So confusing since I kept on getting the price and calorie count mixed up. And honestly there isn't anything worse than ordering a large Blizzard at Dairy Queen, knowing that it is 1600 calories. But of course I still did it...every freaking night.
• Everyone there kept on complaining about how bad the traffic was in Seattle. And my group from Southern CA was just laughing it off. Um, we are still going 20 mph. That's not traffic, that's moving in LA.
• They love their college sports in Seattle. Half page picture of the Lady Huskie's softball team that won the national championship.