Monday, October 8, 2012

0005 - 08OCT12 - "...and down the stretch they come"... (for Elections and Baseball)


Sports…“…there is an event about to take place (one of the rarest in all sports) which has not happened since 1967: a winner of the baseball Triple Crown which means leading the league in batting average, Runs Batted In, and home-runs. The 3rd baseman of the Detroit Tigers, Miguel Cabrera, is about to achieve that…”  And he did it! Continuing with baseball, the team from Atlanta will be renamed, from Braves (they don’t deserve that name) to Wannabes; they just don’t – uh – amount to anything… Oh, and the fans were very classy, indeed, with the show they put on at the end of the game, pouting and littering the field… Moving on, so far the Divisional Series, both leagues, have been great! Football: Dolphins finally won; Eli and the Giants were something else (Bucs and Lions did not play); good game last night between Saints and Chargers… Some last words: GO GATORS, baby!

Politics… If you ever hear me talking about political analysis again just shoot me! Here are the points I thought were mandatory to talk about in this first presidential debate, and I was sure (I would have bet the house on it!) somebody would bring them up:
·         Foreign Affairs (The Libya debacle – isolated incident or the real status?)
·         The economy (are we better off?)
·         The 47% (what precisely is the meaning/concept here?)
·         Health Care (Obamacare vs. Romneycare – differences and similarities)
·         Immigration Reform
·         Tax Code reform (or lack of disclosure of tax returns)
·         Gay rights
·         Birth control
Only three, the ones highlighted, were brought up by the contenders or the moderator (was there really one?), and two of them only partially… Oh well. That ought to tell you something about my political analysis prowess…

Here are some political quotes from this past week:
From the Obama side: “Are we better off today than four years ago? You bet! This guy took over as Captain of the Titanic after it had hit the iceberg and we are not only still afloat but are gaining steam!”

From the Romney side: “Obama spent the first two years of his term, when he had a blank check (a Democrat congress), pushing Obamacare down people’s throats. If he really cared so much about the middle class, why didn't he push for jobs?”

Trivia… Did you know that the only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, MLS, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League All-stars Game?

Food for thought…
“If we consistently act on the optimistic hypothesis, this hypothesis will tend to be realised; whilst by acting on the pessimistic hypothesis we can keep ourselves for ever in the pit of want.”
- John Maynard Keynes
(From 'Essays in Persuasion') 

So, stay/think/act positive, my friends…

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