It is bothersome that so many football teams played poorly in recent weeks, including those that previously played rather well. Such is life, but as with a certain bad call, we do as fans have the reasonable assumption that the alternative might occur. These people are making a lot of money; we are spending a lot of time and effort that in some fashion justifies it. Thus, when they fail miserably, we have the right to be peeved. Comparably, when certain other people use bad judgment, be they politicians or media or whatever, we should be annoyed. They get paid to care, to use good judgment. The acceptance of the opposite is at best ill advised.
People, especially in the age of blogs, do what these professionals do all over the place, just without the pay grade. If you are going to get so much money for doing it, you might at least do it with some degree of competence. This is especially the case at key moments of a game or on key points, such as not advancing the stupid meme that just because someone is "legally" a governor, s/he apparently can pick anyone s/he wants, in any way, since hey, s/he is just carrying forth his/her legally authorized duties. What if said person does this via bribery? A perfectly simple difference of focus, but one repeatedly ignored. Likewise, when officials blow a call at a key moment of the game, it rankles. Officials cannot always be right -- they are zebras, not gods -- but can try to be particularly careful at certain moments. Not all are.
This is also true, to an extent, in more run of the mill cases. You want a few simple things when you order food over the phone or at some public establishment. This does not always happen, and you have a right to be peeved when it does not. Rudeness, bad service, getting the wrong order, and so forth should not be TOO hard to avoid. And, it is all so tedious (or worse) when it is not, especially if you come home tired and want to simply order some food, or go out and pay a decent amount of money and/or don't want aggravation when you order a few things outside.
Health care is hard. Getting the right coffee and non-stale coffee cake without some degree of rudeness should not be. Not that I necessarily speak from personal experience ... Seriously, and this works on many levels, you can get pretty far following a few simple rules. The inability or lack of will to do so being so prevalent notwithstanding. I guess the two can be connected. Big solutions can be broken down and are necessarily tied to work down below. Good basic care, for instance, is essential for good health care. This involves rather boring matters, but ones that on an everyday basis is of special importance. Respect when calling to enquire about your son's cold or competence on fixing a local road helps one's faith the bigger jobs will be done too.
Anyways, Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow had good shows yesterday, both putting special focus on President Bush's last press conference. The extended speak/response quality of the shows was particularly useful, since it provided a good point/counterpoint effect. OTOH, they were both a bit too amazed at the nature of the press conference. It was no surprise, though the event put it in better display than many other things, that Bush spun things his way, and in effect created a little personal universe that didn't match with what many (most?) others saw. How else does a person survive, after all, especially when something like 75% often deem him a lousy President
BTW, RM in particular can call "bs" on the response to Katrina. Guest hosting for Al Franken that week, she was in the middle of the storm, so to speak, when it happened. Her basic competence and passion, without some of the baggage others brought -- though still having her own personal style, even if mixed with policy dork -- shined through. It is through such efforts that she actually earns her paycheck. I sometimes have problems with her; though sometimes it is really a result of the structure of the shows and stations she works for, but as a whole respect her job performance. And, it helps that I think she honestly would be concerned if I felt otherwise.
Consistence competence, even without bells and whistles, is kind of hard. We do deserve it all the same, but also should keep in mind how much respect it deserves.