Did you know that Muslim religious services are held in the Pentagon? Yep. About 100 feet from where the 9-11 terrorist plane crashed.

Is our military aware of this? Don’t they know all Muslims are terrorists?

Muslims work in the Pentagon, and have religious services there. You can’t get more ‘inside’ than that.

There isn’t any issue with this. Not a peep of protest from those who work there.

But people fear a Muslim temple (a community center really), not at ground zero, but two blocks away at an empty Burlington Coat Factory store.

And people in far-flung Tennessee and Oregon are holding huge protests to stop Muslim temples from being built in their states. Is Murfreesboro the next ‘Ground Zero?’

What do the military brass at the Pentagon know that the average American does not?

They know there is nothing to fear from letting people practice their religion.

So why do YOU fear it?  Fear, fear, fear. You are sold this on a daily basis by the FOX news people and their minions, the Republican Party.

It is all a political calculation, and it works.

The FOX people don’t really fear terrorists, and don’t think Obama is a socialist, and know he was born in America. They just beat these drums to keep you in fear.

Is there any chance that you will be attacked, any time in your life, by a Muslim? Nope. But still you fear.

Do you know what it is to fear without cause? Phobia. By definition all phobias are irrational.

Go ahead, live in your bunker.

I am going to the park.

Eighteen percent of Americans think Obama is Muslim. Another 43% don’t know WHAT religion he is. This totals 61%.

These numbers are mind-blowing. Are these people just hopelessly, blindingly ignorant?

Can’t they at least remember back to Obama’s controversial (Christian) preacher? Don’t people remember FOX telling us that Obama has been going to the same church for years and years and years and never quit, even though this preacher is blah-blah-blah…..

Where do lunatic ideas, like ‘Obama is a Muslim’, come from?

Almost entirely from political gamesmanship. But what games are being played?

Democrats play beanbag: “Your candidate (not mentioning any names here Mrs. Palin) is a dunce. A charismatic dunce, but a dunce nonetheless. Now that I think about it, your previous candidate/president was dunce too.”

Republicans play the scorched earth/hired assassin game: “Your candidate hates America, hates our troops, is communist, is a Muslim, was not born in this country.”

Scorched earth/hired assassin was pretty much perfected by Karl Rove. The idea is just to make up s***, the more scurrilous the better, and a certain percent of people will believe it, regardless of ANY amount of counter-evidence.

Rove was the mastermind of the George W Bush campaigns. In the 2000 primaries Rove arranged for a “push-poll” in South Carolina, auto-dialing thousands of people, telling them John McCain had a biracial child out of wedlock. (McCain does have a ‘biracial’ child, an adopted daughter from Bangladesh.)

It worked. South Carolina Republicans bought into the racist message, voted for Bush, and McCain’s campaign donations dried up.

Ever since, Republican strategists have decided no tactic is too low.

So 18 percent of Americans now believe Obama is Muslim. Most of these people surely believe (a) Muslim = evil, and (b) Obama = evil.

What are we to make of the other 43% who don’t know what religion he is? I am guessing 8% of these are clueless and don’t know what day of the week it is. The other 35% probably know he talks about being a Christian, and goes to Christian churches, but that maybe that is just posturing, to win votes.

For the historically impaired, there has never been a non-Christian U.S. president, and this still holds true.

Liberals are all communists (or maybe fascists). We can all agree on that, right? Right!
Good.

Is there anything the commies and conservatives agree on? Sure, lots of things, but let us just use a recent example…

For years and years and years, the commies (at least the Russian version) and conservatives agreed that global warming was a hoax.

You would think this would be an especially odd thing for these two groups to agree on because….

• Conservatives feel this is a liberal plot.
• Russia felt it was a concoction of the west to limit the growth of Russian pollution-spewing industry (i.e.: They blamed anti-commie western conservatives for the global-warming hoax!).

Weird, huh?

News flash: Russia and all of Europe are experiencing crazy heat levels this summer. Wildfires and heat-related deaths are reaching record highs. This has caused Russia to re-think global warming, and even address it as a possibility.

But, just as a blizzard does not mean global warming is a fake, the current heat wave in Russia/Europe does not prove global warming is real.

Any given weather glitch can always be considered an anomaly, and does not automatically meet the scientific standard of “statistically significant.”

Anyone who tells you otherwise is a moron, or hopes you are moron enough to believe him. (This means you, Rush.)

By the way, the correct phrase is ‘climate change.’ During climate change, some areas will be hotter than ever, some will have more snow than ever. Some places will have more rain than ever, others will be dryer. These extremes can be statistically significant.

And yes, part of climate change can be a gradual increase in the Earth’s temperature.

If the oceans warm by one degree, it IS statistically significant. Why? Because oceans are really big, and it takes a LOT to warm them by even a fraction of a degree, let alone a whole degree.

Science is on the side of those who understand science.

Those who dispute it either have a political agenda, or just aren’t very bright.

Today’s recommended reading is the autobiography of former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey, titled ‘When I Was a Young Man’.

This book, published in 2002, is NOT the story of ‘how I became a governor/senator/president of a university’. It is a simple telling of him as a young child, up through the end of his service in the Vietnam War.

‘Simple’ is meant as a compliment here. All of the players, Kerrey included, are just normal people, and we are shown how they (and we) are all affected when we are exposed to dire events.

The soldiers, their families, and all those touched by them are all heroes. Through it all it seems Kerrey is made to wonder why he is one of the few with a medal.

A Navy SEAL team leader, he made it through only 50 days in Vietnam, then had the lower part of leg blown off by a grenade. On a subsequent stay at a military hospital he made a request to the surgeon to save as much of his leg as possible…

What follows is an excerpt from the book, when Lt. Kerrey awakes after surgery …

When I opened my eyes I was in the recovery room. My mother and father were there, sitting in chairs against the wall. They were holding hands. My mother’s eyes were red and puffy. “Mom? Dad? Is that you?” I called. They came to my bedside and looked down upon me. “How are you feeling?” my father asked me. “Fine,” I answered, “Just fine.” My mother held my hand and put a wet washcloth to my lips. Two other men were alone and still asleep in their beds. As my head cleared, I remembered where I was and what had just been done to me. I remembered my question to the surgeon, but could not lift my head high enough to see how much had been taken. “Do you need something, son?” my father asked. I addressed the answer to my mother. “Mom, I need to know how much is left.” She looked down at me, held my hand, and said, “There’s a lot left, Bob. There is a lot left.” She was not talking about my leg. From that moment I did not doubt that my body and spirit would heal.

Kerrey never totally heals spiritually though. An awful wisdom is gained through his personal experience and his witnessing of fellow soldiers who are dealt much more severe circumstances than his missing limb.

He concludes the book with information he has learned about an uncle who was lost toward the end of WWII. His efforts to learn this are made to honor his father’s final wishes.

This is a reflective book, not over-the-top. He underplays many of the significant events in his life. He presents issues of hopelessness, and of renewed hope.

In his eyes, life presents us many heroes, should we choose to notice them. He does not present himself as a hero, however, just as a survivor.

I have three boys, William, Felton, and Russell.

I have tried to impart wisdom upon them as they have grown. There are thousands of things I would like them to take to heart, stuff that I find very useful, but much of which I had to learn ‘the hard way.’ Time passes by though, and you forget to touch on many things. I suppose they have picked up a few of my lessons:

Among the few I remembered to address…

• Be honest at all times. Your reputation is the hardest thing to replace.
• Courtesy is dying. Say ‘please’, ‘thank you’, ‘sir’ and ‘ma’am’ and watch how surprised people look. (And don’t fret the whiners who say “I’m not old enough to be a ‘ma’am’”)
• Read, read, read.
• Enjoy the arts, and nature.
• Sing. You don’t have to sing well, just sing…
• Learn how to swim and throw a Frisbee. Both are potentially life-saving.
• Don’t make the first or third out at third base.
• Don’t forget to carry the ‘2’. (math homework only)
• Speeding isn’t a great idea, but two more dangerous freeway driving mistakes are changing lanes too often and driving tired (drunk goes without saying).
• Life begins on the other side of the front door. (Go outside.)
• Tuck in your undershirt.

I have even managed, to a certain extent, to teach them how to tie a tie, another dying art.

How should a guy deal with women? Uhhhh, that is more than a little tricky

• Look them in the eye. (Girls are rarely flattered if you stare other places)
• Conversation is good, but don’t dominate the talk.
• Listen.
• Don’t try to be the ‘bad boy.’ If a girl seems to like the ‘bad boys’ run like hell.

That’s about all I have on girls. Wanna know why?
Girls are damned near impossible to figure out, that’s why.

Feel free to offer more suggestions for either list, but please hurry.
For the time being, my kids still listen to me…somewhat.

Trivia question: Who, in 1999, derided George W Bush by saying “We do not want another candidate who needs on-the-job training.”?

Was is Vice President Al Gore? Nope. It wasn’t even a Democrat. It was Dan Quayle.

Remember Dan Quayle?

In August 1988, GOP presidential nominee GHW Bush picked him to be veep, and then won the presidential election in November.

As a candidate and as Vice President, Quayle seemed naïve and made a number of verbal gaffes.

Make no mistake though, DQ was no dummy, just a touch shallow and un-worldly. He was a child of privilege (not that there is anything wrong with that), and played a lot of golf (again, nothing wrong with that).

He was conservative, but not a demagogue.

He wasn’t even way off in the Murphy Brown flap. Kids ARE better off when they have two parents at home. (If you don’t know what the “Murphy Brown” flap is, look it up.)

Liberals made fun of his goof-ups, but Quayle is a Rhodes Scholar compared to ‘W’. Who knows how America (and the world) would have been different had he been able to knock off ‘W’ for the Republican nomination back in 2000?

(This was NEVER going to happen though. The same machine that got GHW Bush elected was in high gear for ‘W’, taking a lightweight, multiple-failed businessman to the highest office in the land. What a country.)

But back to Mr. Quayle.

Republicans will take back some House and Senate seats this fall. This always happens with the ‘out’ party. Regardless, the party is virtually leaderless.

Sorry, Giuliani, Palin, etc. are not serious candidates. Palin is now simply a money hound (there is a less polite term for this) and, unless we have another depression, Giuliani could never beat President Obama.

I am not saying he could beat Obama, but Dan Quayle carries a lot less baggage than all the other candidates, and he WAS the Vice President after all. That has to count for something.

And he is still only 63…..

Are you a fan of the TV show “The Office”? It is pretty widely accepted that Steve Carell is going to leave after this next (the seventh) season.

If you follow this show, you will no doubt be interested in reading this blog article.

This show is still very popular, so there were many comments at the end of the blog. They seem to be divided into two schools of thought:

1. Please don’t go Steve, the show will never be the same without you, and
2. This show has ’jumped the shark’ and should end this season…

My thoughts are more in line with number two.

Originally, this show was riotously off-beat. Some scenes, especially those featuring Michael Scott (Carell’s character) were hilariously uncomfortable, making the viewer squirm and laugh out loud simultaneously.

Those same types of scenes more recently just make me squirm, without the ‘laughing’ part. Now I find I can watch 15 straight minutes (of a 23 minute episode) without laughing at all. (Hey NBC, this is supposed to be a comedy…)

Some of this is due to an intentional increase in ‘dramatic’ scenes, but those would be made more tolerable if the ‘funny’ scenes were actually funny. Frequently they are not (but I love what Kathy Bates brought).

A possible solution? Dump some of the cast. There are many good/disposable candidates, but, believe it or not, the show could start by eliminating Dwight. His character is two-dimensional, and lost its’ zip a few seasons back. (We get it, he likes beets…)

Fans of Carell, I am sorry, but if the show is to remain on the air, it needs to make this one big change: Michael must go. As the boss, he is the central character, and his responses have become too predictable. The office needs a new boss, a new dynamic. Regardless of what other changes are made, not enough will be ‘new’ if Michael stays.

To make viewers happy, he should leave to be with Holly (No promotion from Dunder Mifflin, and DEFINITELY no wedding scenes allowed).

On the positive side, if Michael goes, Dwight can stick around to antagonize the new boss… (assuming the new boss has some earnest jerk-like qualities that need to be counter-balanced).

MASH was a better show after each cast change. The Office can be too. If they take this route, they should NOT bring in big-name actors, just bring in funny new people who are different than the ones they replace.

How did MASH do it?

• The very ‘military’ Colonel Potter replaced decidedly ‘unmilitary’ Henry Blake.
• Family man BJ Honeycutt replaced party animal Trapper John.
• Klinger moved into Radars spot, and changed from a dress-wearing punch line to a man with a depth of emotion.
• Wealthy and intelligent Harvard-grad Winchester replaced the bumbling Frank Burns.

With each change, the show got more interesting, and more popular, and still remained funny.

This could have worked for The Office, but they should have started a few years back. You don’t want to suddenly slash half of the cast this year. The shock would kill your audience.

Truth be told, the door was open for a great transition in season five, when Michael resigned and started a competing firm, the Michael Scott Paper Company. They had hilarious start-up problems and a tiny office. The Scranton office of Dunder Mifflin had to deal with his sudden absence. The writers should have run with this, and continued to let the two companies compete. You would have had two ‘offices’ with more twists and turns. New bosses, new underlings, former friends/now enemies, fresh storylines….

Nope, the show took the easy route, and just finagled a plot that allowed Michael to get his old job back. Back to the same old plot lines, and the same old punch lines. Boring.

To me, THAT was when the show jumped the shark.

Then Pam got pregnant. Ugh. Sharks upon sharks…

Robert Byrd has passed away at age 92.

The West Virginia senator had a distinctive career to say the least.

I do not intend to give a blow by blow rundown of his life. If you wish that, you can get it from many sources.

I will just touch on a few of the more significant.

• His filibuster of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. When he first ran for office he opposed civil rights, even going so far as to join the KKK in the 40’s. He came to regret that as the worst move of his life, and feared it would be in his epitaph (which it does).
• His almost 69-year marriage to Emma (who died in 2006).
• His vote against the resolution that gave George Bush the authority to launch the invasion of Iraq. He later said this was the vote “of which I am most proud.”

He was one of only 23 senators to vote this way. Most others (notably Hillary Clinton) voted in favor of expanding presidential power, because they didn’t have the political nerve to vote against it. (Give credit to ‘W,’ he always made sure these votes would be cast uncomfortably close to elections, so opponents could always question the ‘patriotism’ of those who voted against the president.)

Byrd warned that Congress was abdicating its constitutional power to declare war by giving the president what amounted to a blank check.

“We are rushing into war without fully discussing why, without thoroughly considering the consequences, or without making any attempt to explore what steps we might take to avert conflict.”

Years later, he called the invasion “the blunder of the age.”

He was very old by then, and very ill, but his vision was true.

RIP Senator Byrd.

Do you know what a ‘perfect game’ is in baseball?  This occurs when one team has all 27 batters (3 per inning, times nine innings) retired in order.

The very finest pitchers, even at the peak of their careers, know they will probably never throw a perfect game.

If a batter reaches base in any way the perfect game is out the window. Any hit or walk or hit-by-pitch ends it. A fielder misplaying a grounder or fly ball ends it.

To say that a perfect game a ‘statistical anomaly’ is more than a bit of an understatement. This has only happened 20 times in the entire history of the major leagues. (The real anomaly is that it has already happened twice this year)

This type of sporting event is so significant that, if a pitcher anywhere in the country, is five-plus innings into a perfect game, word spreads nationwide almost instantly.

And so it was on June 2 of this year. Armando Galarraga, a previously unheralded pitcher with the Detroit Tigers, was on the verge of earning the 21^st ever perfect game.  ESPN was not televising this game but, for the final few innings, kept cutting to the game to show every pitch Galarraga threw live.

Sports fans across the country were hanging on each moment, and calling their friends to alert them to tune in to ESPN

Baseball has lots of goofy superstitions. When a pitcher has a no-hitter going, after about 5 innings the rest of the team will refuse to talk to the pitcher as long as the no-hitter lasts. I suppose this is so no teammate ‘jinxes’ the pitcher. A perfect game is the ultimate no-hitter. We have to imagine it was pretty quiet in the Tiger dugout….

Fans have no such restriction however, and those in the stands at the game were going gaga with every pitch.

They, along with the rest of the country, were counting down….  “He just needs four more outs….  three more outs… two more outs….   ONE MORE OUT!!   HE JUST NEEDS TO GET THIS GUY OUT!!!

HERE IT IS… A SLOW ROLLER TO THE FIRST BASEMAN… HE SCOOPS IT UP AND THROWS IT TO THE PITCHER WHO IS COVERING FIRST AND….

Well, you know the rest. Umpire Jim Joyce thought, incorrectly, that the ball was not caught in time, so he called the runner ‘safe.’

A blown call. No perfect game. Not even a no-hitter. Nothing. History erased.

There are plenty of hotheads in professional sports, and baseball probably has a higher percentage than most.

I would not have been shocked if Galarraga ‘went off’ on the umpire.

Screaming, kicking dirt and throwing things are all part of baseball. It is distasteful, but routine.

Here was Galarraga’s immediate response to the blown call.

I hereby declare Armando Galarraga “Sportsman of the Year” for his charming response to an otherwise catastrophic disappointment.

For some reason, Major League umpires are protected from post-game press scrutiny. No one is allowed to ask them questions. Jim Joyce spoke to the press anyway. His apology was profuse and heartbreaking. You could feel his anguish at having made such an errant call.

His admission was actually historic. Umpires NEVER admit they made a bad call.

So Winkest Link also offers our highest level kudos to umpire Jim Joyce.

Thank you both for bringing ‘sportsmanship’ back to sports.

News is breaking that Al and Tipper Gore are separating.

The reasons have not yet been divulged and, frankly, I hope they never are. The private lives of public figures should be private.

This is sad

It is not sad because he is a public figure.

It is not sad because he is a former Vice President who has accomplished blah-blah-blah.

It is not sad because I happen to agree with him on climate change.

It is sad because it is sad.

They seemed genuinely meant for each other.

But I can’t wait to hear the FOX take on this.

I am sure they can work some ‘global warming’ jokes into this story.

Rush? Are you kidding? This multiple-divorcee is sure to treat this with some sort of glee. To Rush, all topics are part of the political game, and the sadness of the separation will not be apparent to him. After so many divorces, he probably thinks ‘separation’ is for sissies.

Certainly he can work in some “Love Story” jokes. The fact that Al and Tipper really were the models for the “Love Story” characters never stopped Rush from telling people it was a lie. Presumably Rush has no staff, and no time to fact-check.

To Rush, there is nothing sacred except executive mega-salaries.

I promise you I would be equally saddened if George and Laura Bush were separating. They too seem like they belong together, and ‘better’ each other.

To be consistent, if George and Laura were separating or getting a divorce, I would NOT want to know why. It is none of my (or your) damned business.

Sorry. I don’t care what happens to Dick Cheney.