Port Deal: A Republican noted that the ports deal is a good business decision, but was carried out with lousy political acumen ... paraphrasing, but that was the point. And, it is at least half the problem, and damning enough. We have leaders who cannot lead. This is troubling.
Oh, and Charles Krauthammer is really showing himself as a shill of late, including an editorial admitting "yes the deal shouldn't have been made, we have reasons to be concerned, but hey, I'm going to say the Democrats are just being cynical hypocrites for saying the same thing." What grates particularly is his phony self-image as a realist while feigning shock and disgust for political opponents taking advantage of the situation. But, is this not the whole point of our system? A system of checks and balances in part secured by the "outs" checking the "ins" because of personal interest? CK knows this, but is a shill, so cannot admit it.
Olympics Again: I caught a bit of the Olympics last night. First, after a favorite sports talk show, there was the audio of some of the women figure skating. This was at 11 P.M. ... after various 20/20 (every twenty minutes, the station supplies sports updates) telling me the end result of the slip-up that led to only a silver. It is not only a problem of the WFAN NY ... teases on television apparently also basically let the cat out of the bag. The perils of Italy live action, I guess, but what is the value of having Olympic audio if you ruin the ending?
The NYT today underlined that the Winter Olympics targets only a limited audience, since even more popular sports like hockey (not helped by an early U.S. exit) has a small demographic. This is so even if Due South praised the wonders of curling aka Men with Brooms. But, what else really is on? Just one more subpar television experience. After all, how much skiing can one take? The NYT was partly right -- they could make it more accessible, but inherently, the games are not too exciting to watch. After all, watching baseball/football straight thru is often a bit much. Hours of this, especially in tiny increments, is a bit ridiculous.
Still, I did catch two routines of women figure skating, and it is pretty amazing -- if quick, even the long routines. Silvia Fontana, the Italian home girl, was emotional for just having a chance to return and skate in her own country. And, Tugba Karademir was Turkey's (two official rinks in country) first Olympic figure skater, a late fill-in. Neither were close to winners, but more importantly, had good stories. And, no wonder the silver and bronze messed up -- darn the pressure those women (girls often) are under. Try to do those routines! Not bad on the eyes either.
Smoking Gun Tasteless Dept: Anyway, this might be deemed a bit much, but within limits something akin to it might be fun. [This reply suggests that this might be seen a bit flippant, but my first impression was "this guy is nuts" ... still, something like this consensually done probably is tried by some people. This seemed to be the general sentiment of other blogs commenting on the case. I guess the reply has an 'eye for an eye' feel. It also is probably in better taste than this account in my own paper. The part about her being married "for better or worse" ... a bit tasteless.]