Archive for September, 2009

Well I’ve looked at the Obama speech for tomorrow…

Posted: September 7, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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…and frankly it sounds pretty good to me. The best part:

I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

If he gave that kind of speech about American and the rest of the world all the time, he’d be at 70% approval.

The speech is good, it’s up to the teachers and schools not to go all obamacult over it.

I Just got a Robocall from Fitchburg High School’s principal…

Posted: September 7, 2009 by datechguy in local stuff
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…concerning the shootings yesterday. It appears one of the kids was in the junior class at the high school and since my youngest is a sophomore we are on the robo call list.

We were informed that there would be grief counseling etc available at the school tomorrow.

Personally I think rather than grief counseling we should have moral compass counseling, staying away from drugs counseling, avoiding gangs counseling, and not being at parties till 4:30 a.m. when you’re a teenager counseling and most importantly “this could be you if you don’t wise up” counseling instead.

Maybe if even some of those ideas are driven home we wont need the grief counseling next time.

I guess that would be too religious rightish for some.

If I had the money to send him St. Bernards I’d do it like a shot.

Not in front of Kirk Gibson

Posted: September 7, 2009 by datechguy in baseball
Tags: ,

I can’t think of anyone who it would be worse idea to dog out a ball in front of.

D-backs right fielder Justin Upton was removed from Sunday’s series finale with the Rockies in the middle of the third inning for not running out a deep drive to center field in the top of the inning.

Upton took starter Jorge De La Rosa to the wall in deep center, but he only got a single out of it, as Carlos Gonzalez fielded it cleanly off the wall and made a strong throw to second to hold Upton at first.

Upton thought he had a home run after making contact, walking out of the box as he watched the deep fly. He trotted down the line and did not run hard until he was around first base and had no time left to make it to second.

True the decision was made by manager but Gibson is the bench coach and I personally would be embarrassed to have done that in front of him.

But it looks like the young man took his benching respectfully as a learning experience. That’s a good sign:

“He did the right thing,” Upton said of Hinch deciding to bench him. “I should have been on second, at least. It’s one of those things that happens, and you’ve got to learn from it.”

I’m sure he won’t be doing it again, but lets look at the other end of the coin as well, if Carlos Gonzalez assumes it’s at least a double and doesn’t hustle to get to the ball into second Upton might have still managed second. So Kudos for Gonzalez on that play as well.

Glenn asks the $64,000 question…

Posted: September 7, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , ,

…concerning the MSN case:

What other major stories are they missing — or sitting on?

Answer: What ever they damn well can get away with! And by the tone of his post Dan Riehl would agree.

I think the MSM needs a Lombardi to coach them and insist on excellence. I can imagine their Max McGee moment:

Lombardi once opened pre-season camp by holding up a ball and saying, “Gentleman, this is a football.” To which team cut up Max McGee replied, “Can you slow down coach. You are going a little fast.”

Jake Tapper can be Lombardi, he actually does the work, I think Barnicle can play be McGee.

Update: RS McCain demonstrates the crazy uncles are driving the coverage on the left.

Jane Hamsher, Alan Colmes, and Keith Olbermann apparently live inside an echo chamber where a man who was a leader of a Marxist outfit like STORM, and who subsequently signed a 9/11 Truther petition, is not legitimately controversial. (The next time Colmes goes on Fox, somebody needs to ask him, “Hey, Alan, do you think Marxism is a bad thing?”)

That someone like Jones could be appointed as a White House policy “czar,” and that Olbermann can’t see where some people might have a problem with that, tends to disprove the worry-wart concerns of certain centrist Republicans that the GOP is the more “extreme” of the two major parties. Does anyone seriously expect an avowed “Birther” to get a White House job in the next Republican administration?

We need to remember that phrase when power comes our way and our own crazy uncles try to rise.

Update: VDH expands on the left’s indifference to this stuff:

What is strange about all this chic-radicalism is how would-be revolutionaries that wish to dismantle America as we know it and/or emulate failed systems abroad, always do so from comfort, security, affluence, and freedom of choice unique to America and Europe, suggesting that radical politics and those who agitate for them are sort of a fashion statement, aimed to resonate among particular elite leftist audiences and to bring dividends from them, but not to be taken too seriously as guides in their own lives.

Not so strange it’s the gravy train.

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