Flotsam and Jetsam

 Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

President Trump agreeing via Twitter to a 4-hour debate with Joe Biden to be moderated by Joe Rogan is a perfect example of what Scott Adams calls "free money." There was free money on the table and Trump took it. There's no down side for Trump to agree to the debate because he knows that Biden's team will never agree to it and by agreeing to it he looks good to a large portion of Joe Rogan's 190 million fans... Many Patriots fans wanted to show their support of Tom Brady for all he's done for New England over the years by betting on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Those fans will be paying their bookies today... Confession - I am 100% Irish but am much more likely to get drunk the first Sunday of NFL football than I am on Saint Patrick's Day. This year was no exception... Meanwhile Cam Newton led the New England Patriots to both a win and a cover. Few more games like that and you'll see fewer and fewer number 12 jerseys around Boston (sorry but that's the way sports works)... "Liberty is the parent of science and virtue, and a nation will be great in both in proportion as it is free." - Thomas Jefferson. This quote makes me think of how the political climate is actually stifling science today because scientists have to be careful to toe the PC line or get cancelled for their "science." That's not a healthy situation... All these years later and I still can't shake the feeling that Anthony Weiner was some sort of elaborate long-con Borat-like prank from the folks at The Daily Show all along. Weiner was Jon Stewart's roommate in college... 

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Meanwhile in Iran - pulling out of the Iran Nuclear Deal may topple the government. Down with America but can we please trade our currency for US dollars?!?!

- FDA approves magic mushrooms for treating depression

- Cool Belichick story on how competitive Tom Brady is

- Heh Heh

- An effort afoot to make Quebec the 51st State. I hope Parti 51 starts to get more coverage. Love the idea of PM Trudeau scuttling NAFTA mostly to preserve protections for Quebec dairy farmers meanwhile Quebecois organizing to become part of the US so they wouldn't be subject to American tariffs.

- What was lost in Brazil's devastating museum fire

- It is a valid point

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Detailed look at all of Danny Ainge's NBA Draft picks

- Sad but this pretty much sums up the immigration debate

- Interesting - Stonehenge builders may have used Pythagoras' theorem 2,000 years before the Greek philosopher was even born. Bonus in the article the possible origin of the phrase "length of time."

- WTF? Seriously WTF?

- Germany's largest auto makers back abolition of EU-US car import tariffs. Interesting to see if this is a wedge issue dividing Germany and France in the EU.

- I've said it before but how ironic is it that Hillary Clinton's Presidential hopes may have been dashed by a sexual predator who was not her husband.

- I laughed too hard at this (hat tip Borepatch)

FBI IG Report

There are many bothersome things detailed in the recent FBI's Inspector General's Report (and full disclosure I haven't read the full report) but one thing in particular has gotten stuck in my craw.

James Comey asserted that he was unaware that Hillary Clinton's top aide Huma Abedin was married to Anthony Weiner. Now I don't mind suspending disbelief when watching a Sci-Fi movie but this is asking too much. If James Comey didn't know Huma Abedin was married to Weiner shouldn't the FBI have immediately jumped on Weiner to get to the bottom of why a former Congressman with no current connection to the government who is under investigation for potentially being a pedophile predator had stores of classified material on his laptop? I mean isn't this EXACTLY the sort of case the Director of the FBI should have made a top priority? Or are we to believe the Director of the FBI doesn't really give a shit about how classified government documents are obtained by persons who have no business having that material?

The only plausible explanation is that the classified material on Anthony Weiner's laptop was sat on for weeks because Comey was well aware of Weiner's connection to the Hillary campaign through his wife and Comey didn't want to the FBI to investigate the matter out of fear of no longer having plausible deniability.

James Comey has ZERO credibility with me. 

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

If dressing as scary clowns is outlawed - will people dressed as Rex Ryan get arrested?... Bills fan throws "marital aid" onto field during Patriots game. I just love that they call it a marital aid instead of a dildo... Every mention of Anthony Weiner should be prefaced with the words "Jon Stewart's former roommate" just to confuse and conflict Millennials... Why is it "Happy as a clam"? Is it because clams have no brains or feelings?... Scary pumpkin for adults... "Remember - with Great Pumpkin comes great responsibility" - Linus... Seems about right... I'm slowly starting to dislike Rich Eisen as much as Roger Goodell. Eisen's act has grown old... Heh heh... Sandy Koufax's career record in 1-0 games was an astonishing 11-3... Now I can't get this question out of my head...

Weinergate - Take 2

Yesterday Anthony Weiner admitted what to many was obvious - he sent the lewd picture to the 21-year old college student. There was no hacker. There was no prank. There was no conspiracy. There was only a scumbag named Anthony Weiner.

Take a look at how Weiner originally reacted to the situation and tell me he is not a scumbag. He was not a victim - he was and is a scumbag.

Keep in mind that Weiner cannot say with certitude that all the girls he had inappropriate contact with are of legal age. That means that he may have being violating the Internet Sexual Predator law that he backed.

Anthony Weiner - liar, hypocrite, morally questionable, vainglorious, national joke of a scumbag.

My prediction is that as details of his dalliances come out - and they will - it will be impossible for him to keep his job. You know he has a x-rated Brett Favre picture just waiting to surface. He didn't resign yesterday. He doesn't know it but he's just delaying the inevitable.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

OK - I'll say it! Watching the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals last night - the Canucks uniforms kept making me think the Bruins were playing the Hartford Whalers... The Weinergate situation keeps reminding me of a quote from the movie The American President where the character Leo Solomon says, "Amount of time it'll take you to go from being a hired gun to a cocktail party joke can be clocked with an egg timer." Anthony Weiner went from being the out-front pit bull of the DNC to being a national joke very fast but I'm not sure how fast since there's never an egg timer available when you need one... The Bruins may have lost the first game but the omens are good. Tim Thomas has shown he can play at this level of excellence for a full season whereas Roberto Luongo has not. Plus a tornado hit Western Mass last night. The last time a tornado touched down in Springfield Mass was 1972. That was the last time the Bruins won the Stanley cup... Chess-boxing... I missed this but supposedly Michael J. Fox was at the game as a guest of good friend Cam Neely... Flexing my lexicon muscles here - in regards to Weinergate - what started as perversion seems to be morphing into malversation... Wow - a stat so impressive that I had to recheck it! Since May 1, 2010, David Ortiz has the exact same number of HR's as Albert Pujols (44)... Nothing says white trash quite like a guy swimming at the beach or a lake in blue jeans

Weinergate

Just wanted to add my $.02 regarding "Weinergate."

Yesterday Representative Anthony Weiner characterized the whole affair as a prank that he wasn't going to spend any more time on. He tried to liken it to a guy in a crowd of 45,000 throwing a pie or heckling.

What this is at its core was someone - either Weiner or the mystery hacker - sending unwanted lewd photos to a 21-year old girl. That's sexual harassment at the very least. "Pranks" are supposed to be funny. Does Representative Weiner find sexual harassment funny? He seems to just want to wish away this sexual harassment - how do woman's groups feel about that? Those are the questions he should be made to answer. But he seems to be getting a pass.