Random thoughts, it's been too long

I really hope the Badger football team plays Stanford because playing TCU only can end badly. You either beat TCU and live up to expectations, or lose to TCU and look bad.

Badger basketball is REALLY bad looking all of the sudden. With the exception of Leuer and Taylor there isn't a player that can put the ball in the hoop with any kind of consistency. Nantkvil better pull his head out of his ass or this is going to be a VERY long season for Bucky.

Packers look very solid, even in a losing effort. I still can't figure out why Brandon Jackson can't run the ball and John Kuhn gets playing time. Whenever the Packers go into the full house backfield I want to drive to Green Bay and smack around McCarthy. That formation essentially tells the defense "We have 3 guys in the backfield that can't do shit, so two yards and a cloud of dust is best case scenario if you play base defense against it." It seems the Falcons are near unbeatable at home and will be a VERY tough out in the playoffs. Their defense can certainly be exploited as well.

The Jaguars ripped out my soul on Sunday. I wasn't paying close attention BUT noticed the Jags up on the Giants. Dreams of being AFC South front-runners at 7-4 were crushed after Eli FUCKING Manning and the dickless Giants with Tom Coughlin, a man I used to think a great deal of but now utterly despise, leading the way. With the Colts loss the Jaguars could have taken a COMMANDING 1.5 game lead over the Colts and at least after the next head-to-head meeting could survive a loss to them. That exists no more and again it seems like the Jags are doing just enough to keep Jack Del Rio's job and cock-tease the playoffs.

I can't figure out what would propel people to sit outside of a store for a few days in an effort to get a deal that you could no doubt get something similar to online, or just a few days later. Once the "DOORBUSTER" deal happens, the cats out of the bag. We know we can get whatever it is for cheap.

It's a great time to enjoy some sports. We have ACC/Big Ten challenge kicking off a great college basketball season. The football season is in the playoff hunt and blood is in the water. College football is heading into conference championships and Bowl games. NBA/NHL are both going on where you could flip on a game if you feel so inclined ANY night of the week. Pretty good time to be alive.

Bought my first baptism gifts of my young Godfather career. I went with a kids story bible and a mahogany cross for the wall. I feel pretty good about it being useful and practical, which is what I was going for. I'm getting after Christmas shopping as well, just chipping away at it. It's a pretty good time of year with the holiday cheer already in the air.

Shout out to our Veterans

There is just not enough things that can be said for the greatness of our veterans. It's a simple fact that the greatness of our nation has been proven on various battlefields across the world, the most awful being all over the East coast from 1861-1865. Without questions a large part of how our nation has been defined, shaped, even created has been through our veterans. Our way of life has been created and preserved by the efforts of men and women in our military. In a more direct route, people can piss and moan all they want, but they can't really do anything about it because of the greatness of our military.

Thanks veterans, special thanks to those who sacrificed everything for us.

Due Date

I really thought Due Date was going to be extremely disappointing and there was no way Zach G. could be a dimwit and entertaining for two hours. RDJ was his standard amazing self. He tip-toes the line of arrogant, selfish douche bag with moments where he genuinely seems really nice and decent. They are really good throughout the movie together and with a few well-placed cameos to break the repetition of two dudes hanging out together that don't like each other it clips along at a decent pace. Plot is RDJ is an uber-architect who is trying to fly back to LA to be with his super-pregnant wife who is set to deliver via c-section on a Friday. RDJ meets Zach and hijinx ensue (cue Woody Woodpecker laugh), they get put on the no-flight list and have to band together to get to LA, big city of dreams. It's very funny and actually pretty human and genuine for the most part. I wouldn't throw around money to see it again, but it is worth a viewing. Best cameo award goes to Danny McBride, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Bottom line: 7.2 out 10. Decent comedy with some memorable moments. Certainly not Hangover good, but good enough to see when it's available for rent.

Politics and Fearing the deer

So I have to say that I'm astounded that Russ Feingold is out of office. The guy is the definition of a lifer. He's been in office since I was a kid and he came at us with the slogan "I know Wisconsin like the back of my hand". He doesn't always vote the party line and is consistently praised by political analysts for being different than most politicians. Now we get Ron Johnson, a dude who owns/runs a paper mill. He complained about lawyers in office, but now we get a guy who doesn't know shit about the office and how things work. I hope I'm wrong, but there is no way Ron Johnson accomplishes jack shit in D.C. I'm honestly hoping he doesn't embarrass us on a regular basis. He will be Jon Stewart punchlines for the next 6 years I'm guessing. C-Span gold.

The Bucks haven't found their stride yet and I can't figure out their line-up configuration for the life of me. Carlos Delfino is logging a shit-ton of minutes while former starter Luc Richard Mbah-a-Moute sets foot on the floor. Delfino can shoot, that sums it up. He can't handle the ball or play defense. It's like having Spanish Mike Redd out there minus the scoring off the dribble. I'm a big fan of Jon Brockman rolling up his sleeves and getting after it to spell Bogut and Gooden. Gooden is better with the ball than I remember and as long as he's merely competent on the glass and on D the Bucks are very solid in the post. Finding playing time for rookie Larry Sanders is a different story that will be interesting and on-going the entire season. Ilyasova I forgot about and am very pleased with, it's too bad he picks up fouls like kids pick-up Halloween candy from the TAKE 1 bowl. I think sooner or later Maggette will go from super-sub to starting over Delfino. I just can't see the Delfino experiment continuing because it's not working out. The offense has no continuity and while it's nice to have a guy who can knock down open 3's off the pick-and-roll kick-out pass, he's a liability everywhere else.