Everybody Plays The Fool

Overhead at last night's cocktail party:

"I keep saying to my wife, we can't make these open-ended commitments with no end-game and no exit strategy."

"You're right, Afghanistan is one more huge problem Obama inherited."

"I was talking about coming to this party...."

In sports news, King James kept alive the dream of a Kobe-LeBron final with the sort of last-second shot that makes legends.  Does anyone care?  Of course not, but the prospect of the K-Mart and the Denver Nuggets going to the canvas against whoever it is that plays for the Orlando Magic has broadcast executives on a suicide watch.

For myself, I am a typical post-Michael Jordan fan - I will watch a few minutes of the NBA on Sunday afternoon only if Tiger Woods is involved.

Comments

[clarice]

That guy (whoever he may be and I have my suspicions) echoes my thoughts about cocktail parties.

[matt foley]

i love football

[Melinda Romanoff]

I lost interest after the Jordan era. Watching him "perform" from thirty feet away was an experience not to be believed.

Almost up there with drinking beers with Dan Hampton and Steve McMichael.

[Buford Gooch]

I loved professional basketball before Michael Jordan. I loved it a whole lot more when Jordan was playing. I can't go back to loving what existed before Michael Jordan, which is what we have now: great players, doing marvelous things, but no Jordan.

[PD]

What is this "NBA" of which you speak?

[bad]

TM, "overhear" some more from your liberal friends. Guilty pleasure.....

[Danube of Thought]

Have you folks seen the latest not-my-fault spin from Obama? Now the problem with the terrorists who can't be tried but are too dangerous to release is that they "should have been tried earlier--now the evidence is compromised." There is beginning to arise in me a visceral dislike of this weasel that is going to be hard to suppress. It has begun to amaze me that more people aren't already sick of this guy.

Well with one second to go last night I had booked the Cavs' loss, which would have made Orlando a lock for the finals. Since I bet on Denver against the Lakers, I was looking forward pretty confidently to a finals featuring Nuggets vs. Magic instead of Kobe vs. LeBron, which is still a distinct possibility and one that I would very much like to see. The reason I would like to see it is that I can't stand David Stern and I like to see him unhappy. Sort of like, say, the insufferable Bryant Gumbel.

[pagar]

" "should have been tried earlier--now the evidence is compromised."
The evidence is always going to be compromised when there is a major political party that keeps telling them---just hang in there-we're on your side and we're going to win it for you. A political party that sees nothing wrong with some of their largest political contributing law firms rushing down to defend terrorists pro bono. A political party that thinks the MSM must only put out leftist propaganda 24/7.

Here's a suggestion from RBO about how to keep track of what is going on with Obama.

Put the Communist Party list on your office wall.

Tick the items off as the Obama administration acts on each and every one of them.

The complete list of what the Communist Party of the USA has planned for you is in the article. When Obama has completed his checklist-your freedoms will be the same as those of the people of Cuba. No Freedom!

LUN

[matt]

funny how the media is able to trot out so many republicans willing to denounce Cheney. The leadership of the party is truly screwed up. Somewhere, someone has to show some spine.

The president is pursuing an avowedly socialist agenda which strikes at the core of both our beliefs as a nation, and specifically, as conservatives, and yet these assclowns are piling on someone willing to stand up to Pelosi's and Obama's lies. It just makes me sick.

[Confused in Los Angeles]

And geez--I thought that Afghanistan was the "right war"--not a problem to be inherited. But then I'm just confused.

[clarice]

A lot of the media's sources seem to be made up. Sweetness & Light notes that about the mysterious, unnamed and unquoted former intel officials whom the WaPo CLAIMS support Pelosi's version.

Makes work easier if you have both made up sources and faked polls at your side.

[Danube]

First attempt at posting from my I-phone. If this works there will be he'll to pay in futoro.

[Rick Ballard]

Do the Futorese have any inkling of what is to befall them?

[PeterUK]

Why worry,you will all end up working for he state. Mark Steyn.

[PeterUK]

Mark Steyn

[bio mom]

Did I just hear that Obama made some statement about not falling for "celebrity". From the guy whose entire persona is about the trappings of celebrity!! This guy is the biggest phoney hypocrite of all time. What's wrong with this country not to see the glaring neon sign saying that?!

[Original MikeS]

Have you folks seen the latest not-my-fault spin from Obama?

After years of nasty mouthed talking down the economy, talking down our country, and talking down Gitmo, the Dems chickens have finally come home to roost!

I've been dying to say that!

[Ranger]

Well, the real fun is about to begin, as Obama sets off a civil war within the left. Over at Talkleft, Jeralyn is demanding a total rejection of preventive detention, while Big Tent Democrat is trying to find the "middle ground" of where the line can reasonably be set.

Obama is adopting Bush's entire counter-terror policy because he knows if there is another attack, his entire domestic agenda will be swept away over night.

[Captain Hate]

Although I'm a Cavs fan, if they fail to make the finals I'm hoping that an Orlando/Denver matchup would cause Devil Stern to bust an undetected aneurism and the NBA will finally be free of his witless reign of the last decade. DoT seems to share my feelings, just expressing them in a more civilized manner. Any of you Jordan-bots who haven't moved on (and I was as big an MJ fan as you could find before his massive ego caused him to shit the bed in that final pathetic season with the Wizards; but I still appreciate what he did with the Bulls) are missing a superb player in LeBron James.

[Mark O]

LeBron could be the best player ever, especially for those who thing MJ was the best. He was an incredible player, but, to use just one example, he would never have been able to count that last shot of his had the official called a clear and obvious foul he committed to push the defender out of the way with his left hand. Of course, NBA officials would never cheat (except on their taxes?) Michael was the best marketer of all time until LeBron.

Those who still believe in elves also believe MJ left the game, voluntarily, simply because he wanted to play double AA baseball and strike out.

But, LeBron is a force of nature. When he leaves Cleveland and goes to NYC, he will eclipse Michael. Kobe who?

[Mark O]

"thing"? think

[pagar]

From the Mark Steyn link that PeterUK put up.

"Of course, it's not just "low- and moderate-income taxpayers" who have difficulty completing their tax returns. So do high-income taxpayers like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Tragically, they're ineligible for the "Volunteer Income Tax Assistance" program. Indeed, the treasury secretary seemed under the misapprehension that it was a "Volunteer Income Tax" program, which would be a much better idea. But, being ineligible for VITA, Secretary Geithner was forced to splash out $49.95 for TurboTax and, simply by accidentally checking the "No" box instead of "Yes" at selected moments, was able to save himself thousands of dollars in confiscatory taxation! Oops, my mistake, I meant that, tragically, by being unable to complete his tax return due to a lack of Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, Timothy Geithner was the only one of 300 million Americans to pass the Treasury Secretary Job Readiness Program."

William Shakespeare has been replaced.

[Elliott]

Welcome to the club, DoT.

[PeterUK]

The future now.

[hit and run]

TM:
Overhead at last night's cocktail party

Here's http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/21/barack-obama-banks-protest-opinions-columnists-clifford-asness.html>some cocktail party-ish talk that is more chilling than 40 shakes in DoT's martini shaker.

From instapundit

[Daddy]

Good point Clarice about the Media's sources.

IN light of the Jason Blaires and Janet Cook's and Hilzberger's and Greenwald's sock pockets and Michael Belisles and Beauchamps and Stephen Glasses etc, who just completely lie and make stuff up in this era of layers of fact checkers, why should we put lying and making stuff up beyond the editors and layers of fact checkers themselves? We have all been raised on this meme that Ben Bradley only posted Watergate stuff if he had 2 corroborating sources. That may have been true back then in that particular case, (thou I doubt it when recalling the Tet Offensive Defeat meme pushed by the WaPo) but even granting that it may have been true back then, why imagine any of it is true nowadays?

The unnamed source is one of the last refuge's of power the MSM organs can claim as their own, and when we every once in a while get a glimpse of the actual story of the unnamed source it frequently turns out total B.S. Remember the Brit Minister who committed suicide after the lying reporter for the BBC, Gilligan?, doctored up his quotes to accuse Blair of "sexing up some Iraqi intel report?"

Or conversely, the instant the rookie FBI agent out here blew the whistle on the Ted Steven's WitchHunt, the Media conveniently came out full force the next day with Unnamed sources to confirm the lunacy and erratic behavior of the foolish FBI rookie whistleblower. How come we didn't have tons of unnamed sources printed telling us that Ted was getting screwed?

I buy none of the legitimacy of this unnamed sources business, as it remains the Presses weapon of last resort to attack their enemies and exalt their friends. It is "Trust, but don't verify", the one area they still control that can't be effectively monitored by the public. Well since I don't "Trust" and "can't verify", I go back to what the Roman's taught us 2000 years ago; to beware when nobody is watching the watchdogs.

[Daddy]

As for B-Ball, a fascinating undercurrent of this finals season is the just beneath the surface controversy of "Who is the Best Player in the Game today, Kobe or LeBron?"

Jerry West came out the other day and unasked, stated that LeBron is the best player in the game today. The next day Kobe had a monster game and Magic Johnson in post Game commentary flatly stated that "That's why Kobe is the best player in the game today." Then LeBron steps up last night, hits that amazing falling back 3 pointer with 1 second to go in last nights desperate thriller (ala Michael Jordon), and the Controversy grows, especially considering the relationship between West and Magic. And am I mistaken on thinking that it's West's image that is the official emblem of the NBA, the guy dribling the ball that they all wear on their sleeve? If so, is Magic subtley digging back against that? Don't know, and haven't read a Sports Illustrated in ages, but seems to me there's stuff enough out there for a thrilling NYTimes Sports Article on the Magic-Jerry West/Kobe-Lebron Controvery. Hope they use plenty of unnamed sources to sex it all up:)

[maryrose]

Living west of Cleveland and being a LeBron fan since he was in high schoolI am definitely rooting for the Cavaliers and could not believe that final shot last night. It's why I love basketball!

[jimmyk]

And geez--I thought that Afghanistan was the "right war"--not a problem to be inherited. But then I'm just confused.

You haven't been watching enough CNN. Then you'd have learned from Christiane Amanpour that all was peachy-keen in Afghanistan in 2002, but then we "took our eye off the ball" with the misguided Iraq war, and that's what made it a problem. So you see, it's Bush's fault.

[Strawman Cometh]

"What's wrong with this country not to see the glaring neon sign saying that?!"
public education