et ceteras

It's Back!

Tomorrow night marks the return of college football, and I can not wait for kickoff. There aren't many intriguing games tomorrow night, but who cares? Just because they don't seem exciting now doesn't mean that won't change once they are underway...and there are some eye-popping match-ups set for Saturday, with Oregon and LSU locking horns and Boise State traveling all the way to Atlanta to face Georgia on a (ahem ahem) "neutral" field.

As an Auburn grad, I get the pleasure of watching my team mount its first defense of an official national championship since I was born. With as many players as were lost to graduation, especially on the offensive line, I do not expect the Tigers to repeat as champs -- but I do believe they are way, way better than the so-called experts are saying, and I look forward to watching them prove those so-called experts wrong.

And my last pre-kickoff comment on college football has me wading into waters I usually avoid until I have seen teams play: The waters of prediction. I am going on record saying that South Florida will upset Notre Dame in South Bend on Saturday afternoon.

The Exalted One

I hate to beat a dead horse by talking about how low an opinion I have of President Obama. However, he keeps doing things that drive my opinion of him even lower and I can not resist the urge to vent.

One year ago, with the economy floundering and millions upon millions of fit-to-work Americans unable to find jobs, Obama left for a fancy vacation on Martha's Vineyard and said he would unveil his economic recovery plan upon his return. This month, with the economy still floundering and millions upon millions of fit-to-work Americans still unable to find jobs, he left for another fancy vacation on Martha's Vineyard and again announced that he would unveil his economic recovery plan upon his return. I do not begrudge anyone, even Barack Obama, the joys of a well-earned vacation -- but for him to not see how ridiculous this appears to the average person shows he is out of touch with America.

The MSM is not making a big deal out of this, and perhaps they are right not to, but I have vivid memories of my ending college days when they were stridently claiming that George H.W. Bush did not deserve to be re-elected because he was "out of touch with America." Their reason for deeming him out of touch was that he went fishing in Maine, but apparently they do not find Obama spending a week lounging and golfing at a famous playground for the super wealthy to be grounds for the "out of touch" label. The double standard drives me madder than a 19th century hatter.

Fantasies in Freefall

I am not the first person to notice that liberals cling to their beliefs with a blind-to-facts fervor that can only be described as religious -- even as they claim to be immune to such fervor and to care only about science. This phenomenon is noticeable in all parts of the liberals' creed, but especially so when they talk about "the environment." Michael Crichton gave perhaps the best analysis of it in a 2003 speech that is captured here.

Anyway, alternative energy sources are one topic about which liberals are perpetual suckers. Tell them there is a source of energy that will outperform petroleum for a fraction of the cost and transform the world in the process, and they automatically believe you no matter how wrong you are.

Wind power is a perfect example of this, since every liberal on Earth seems to believe that erecting windmills can lead us to energy nirvana. Unfortunately, the facts fly directly in the face of this left wing fantasy. For a compelling dissection of facts about wind power, you may go here or here.

C'est la vie!