I finally got around to catching the re-run of Friday’s Real Time with Bill Maher. An excellent quartet — comedian D.L. Hughley, Wall Street Journal
columnist John Fund, country music star Trace Adkins, and pundit Dan
Savage — joined Maher for a round-table discussion of politics. One of
the subjects that piqued my interest in particular was of the
Confederate flag being flown in South Carolina and Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s cloaked support for it. Not surprisingly, the three liberals at the table were against it, and Adkins, the conservative, seemed indifferent about it.
I loved a couple of the points that were made in the discussion:
that the American flag itself stands for blotches in this nation’s
history, and that white Christian males always have and always will try
to keep the balance of power tipped in the favor of white Christian
males.
Anyone who has been following current events lately knows what
little the American flag stands for, if anything, these days. Get a
calendar from each year 2000-2008, and point to a random date, and you
can probably find this country doing something wrong. In 10 years or
so, we will look at our operation in Iraq as angrily as we, or at least
I, look at the C.I.A.-backed, Milton Friedman and Chicago School of
Economics-led military junta of Augusto Pinochet in Chile. I needn’t
cite the USA PATRIOT Act or the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (which, in effect, made Habeas Corpus moot), or Guantanamo Bay, or Walter Reed, or waterboarding (which the U.S. condemned the Japanese for using in WWII), or Halliburton, or the lawless private military company Blackwater,
or… you get the point. The American flag, if it supposedly stood for
something like freedom, no longer stands for anything good.
And the second point also doesn’t need clarification. There’s a reason why atheists are the least-trusted minority in the U.S.
and why we’ve never had a non-white, non-male, non-Christian President.
Power has yet to change hands in this country’s history and as long as
we keep producing white male Christian politicians, it will stay this
way. And no, this is not a thumbs-up to Hilary Clinton or Barack Obama
in subterfuge. Look at all of the names we’ve had run for President
just in recent history. 95% of them are white Christian males. It’s
amazing that we have not only a woman, not only an African-American,
but a Mormon running for President, too. Too bad all of them are
beholden to lobbyists of big business.
But my main point is the concern Americans seem to have about
symbols. George Carlin did an hilarious bit on this during one of his
HBO stand-up specials, saying that he leaves symbols to the
“symbol-minded.” We know that the Confederacy fought for the right to
oppress African-Americans in the Civil War and that the Confederate
flag represents that oppression, but seriously, what harm will a flag
do and if there is any harm, how does it warrant infringing on others’
right to free speech?
If it was a Christian symbol on a government building, I could see
the offense because that is explicitly outlawed by the Establishment
Clause of the First Amendment. But this is a flag being flown in a
state that was part of the Confederacy. If that’s what they want to do,
so be it. Ask them to take it down politely and if they decline, move
on.
And on the topic of “states’ rights,” a favorite phrase of
libertarians: what’s the point? Let’s take the issue of #### marriage,
for instance. It’ll obviously become legal in the liberal states and
banned in the conservative states. So, homosexuals who want to get
married in, say, Texas, will be forced to move to other states if they
want to be legally bound to their partner. In other words, they’ll be
forced to give up their residence, their job, friends and neighbors,
and perhaps family, all because they happen to live in a part of the
country that is highly close-minded towards anyone who isn’t
heterosexual.
Is that freedom — banishing someone to another part of the country
for having a quality that isn’t viewed favorably by most people?
This idea of states’ rights will also end up dividing the country
exponentially deeper than it currently is now between conservatives and
liberals. Just have a country-wide policy on these issues. That’s why
it’s called the United States of America, right? It’s not the “Some States do one thing and other states do another” America.
And, finally, libertarianism lends credence to ideas that may not
deserve such credence. The idea that homosexuals shouldn’t be allowed
to get married does not deserve one ounce of respect from anyone, yet
libertarians would like to give these people power potential. If you
don’t like #### people, fine, that’s your prerogative. You have no right
to tell them that they cannot be legally bound to their partners as
heterosexuals are, and it doesn’t matter if 99 out of 100 people feel
this way.
Here’s the clip of Maher’s show. Hopefully something exciting happens in the world of baseball so I can put up a decent sports-related post.
Given Keith Olbermann’s sky-high ratings
following his injection into NBC’s NFL half-time show, it’s easy to see
why FOX would want to try their hand at mixing football and politics.
It’s too bad that FOX News is easily the least credible of all of the
news channels, ever. Thumb through Crooks and Liars‘ posts under the FOX News category if you’re skeptical.
As a liberal, I think Olbermann is one of the greatest things to
happen to the television world since the original American Gladiators.
However, mixing Olbermann’s political observations into half-time of a
football game just doesn’t sit well with me. Sports and politics merge
in many ways: the playing of the national anthem before games,
Congress’ mingling in baseball’s drug issues, et cetera, but both are deemed necessary. Olbermann’s show and FOX News during the Super Bowl are
superfluous.
I want to know why Tom Brady will pick apart the Green Bay Packer
defense during the Super Bowl, not why Barack Obama will pick apart
Hilary Clinton’s voting records. And given that it will be FOX News
doing the reporting and opining, I imagine we’ll be hearing about why Mike Huckabee’s plan to Christianize the U.S. Constitution
is flawless, or why John McCain’s idea to stay in Iraq for 100 years is
guaranteed to both turn Iraq into a worldwide beacon of democracy and
strengthen our national defense. In other words, we’ll be inundated
with patently false statements backed up with skewed and made-up facts,
like the cries of a liberal media bias.
And for the record, it’s not that FOX News is blatantly right-wing
that makes me detest it so; it’s that they unabashedly ignore reality
and make up their own facts and figures on the fly so it suits their
agenda. And I’d be just as irritated if they had decided to throw in a
bunch of liberals to report and opine during the Super Bowl coverage
because it has no reason being there in the first place.
It’s bad enough most of us subject ourselves to the irritating Super Bowl commercials, only 5% of which are entertaining (well, maybe this will make it more entertaining this year). Now we’re going to sit through war cheer-leading and Republican back-patting.
Did I mention that the election is still 10 months away?
In Other News
You can tell it’s the baseball off-season when I go two weeks
without one inspiration to write about something. Counting down the
days ’til pitchers and catchers report…
Once I get Photoshop CS3 working on my computer again (or once I can
get a few graphics done by someone else for free), I’ll have a new
design for Crashburn Alley up. I haven’t really liked either of the
designs I’ve used thus far but I think the one I am waiting to use is
pretty snazzy.
Comedian and political commentator Bill Maher, during the taping of last night’s episode of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, was dealt the unfortunate hand of having to deal with numerous raucous audience members spouting 9/11 conspiracy theories.
Maher, known for his controversial take on current events, said that
his view of the 9/11 attacks are “the only time I defend [President]
Bush.”
[9/11 conspiracy theorists] often linger outside
his studio to share 9/11 conspiracy theories with [Maher] and try to
get into the show.
On how he dealt with the situation:
Maher was talking science during one of his weekly
panel discussions when a protester in his audience stood up, held up a
smuggled-in sign reading “9/11 is a cover up fraud” and shouted
comments to the same effect.
The host tried to shout down the audience member, who only became more agitated.
“Do we have some (expletive) security in this building,” Maher
yelled, “or do I have to come down there and kick his (expletive)?”
When security reached the man’s aisle and the man resisted
leaving, Maher ran into the seats and helped them push him out the
door, shouting “Out! Out! Out!”
Several other protesters, sprinkled throughout the audience, then stood up and shouted.
While Maher could have not let the issue get to him, the way he
handled the situation had to have been retribution for all of the
athletes who have been heckled or have had objects thrown at them by
fans, and for all of the celebrities who have been stalked — almost all
of them not retaliating (you know who you are… Milton Bradley).
I played in a poker tournament on PokerStars lasting nearly 4
hours (starting at 10 PM EST). It was a measly 25-cent buy-in that saw
3,565 players sign up, and I played well and got lucky enough to place
in the top 45, earning $1.59. Seems measly, but it’ll pay for 6 more of
these tournaments.
I was completely card dead towards the end, not that that was much
different than the rest of the tournament. My total statistics…
During current Hold’em session you were dealt 214 hands and saw flop:
13 out of 25 times while in big blind (52%)
5 out of 25 times while in small blind (20%)
14 out of 164 times in other positions (8%)
A total of 32 out of 214 (14%)
Pots won at showdown - 7 of 10 (70%)
Pots won without showdown - 12
You can definitely say that I played tight, and there were a few
spots where I would have cashed in big time had I been more aggressive,
but I erred on the side of caution and it seems to have paid off. The
killer was when I got pocket kings late in the tournament and got a
walk (everyone else folded before I had a chance to make a play, as I
was the big blind).
I got A-10 in first position with just over $20,000 in chips with
$2,500/$5,000 blinds, so I decided to push all my chips in and hope for
the best. Pocket red eights and K-10 of clubs both called me. I flopped
an ace, but K-10 flopped his flush draw and made it on the river,
knocking me out.
I was definitely card-dead, but I did get pocket aces early in the tournament and nearly tripled up.
From that pocket kings hand (when I got a walk) on, here were my hands (s = ####s; h = hearts; c = clubs; d = diamonds):
Kh 7c (1,500 small blind, folded to a +3,000 raise)
Jc 3d
4s 2h
3c 3s (folded pre-flop)
Kd 9c
Ks 6s
7h 6h
8h 6d (4,000 big blind, folded to +8,000 raise)
10s 2d (2,000 small blind, folded and the big blind got a walk)
5s 3c
8h 2d
Qs 3s
Js 9h
Kh 3h
10c 5d
Qs 4s (4,000 big blind, folded to +19,000 raise)
Qd 7h (2,000 small blind, called the other 2,000 and folded to a +36,000 raise)
Ks 2d
Jc 4s
Ah 7d (could’ve made my move here and it would’ve worked out with a board that read: [5c 7c 5d Jd 7h], but I didn’t since someone raised an extra 4,000)
Qc Jc (also could have made a move here, but I opted to limp in and hit nothing on the flop, so it was a good thing I didn’t)
Ad 3c
5d 5s (I pushed all-in and no one called)
10s 3d (5,000 big blind, folded to a +10,000 raise)
10s 4s (2,500 small blind, folded to a +15,000 raise)
Jh 7d
Kc 8s
9h 7h
Kh 2s
Jc 9s
Ad 10h (my execution)
Throughout the late stages of the game, it felt I was getting raised
in my blinds a lot, so I decided to check that out. From the above, we
see that 6 of my 7 blinds featured a raise, with the other one being a
fold to the big blind with 10s 2d.
But before that (going from most recent backwards)…
Ac 10h (1,500 small blind, folded to a +6,000 and +2,600 (short-stacker) raises)
Qs 10c (3,000 big blind, got to go all the way to the river with straight checks and folded to a $3,000 river bet)
10s 2c (1,000 small blind, folded to +4,000 raise)
Ks 5d (2,000 big blind, got to go to the turn and folded to a $6,000 turn bet)
10h 3c (800 small blind, folded to +2,700 raise)
Jc 3h (1,600 big blind, everyone else folded and I got a walk)
Ad 9d (800 small blind, got to see the flop and folded to a $1,600 flop bet)
5s 2s (1,600 big blind, everyone else folded and I got a walk)
9d 7h (600 small blind, folded to +2,400 raise)
10d 3c (1,200 big blind, folded to +9,700 raise)
Jd 2c (500 small blind, folded to +1,000 raise)
8c 5h (1,000 big blind, checked to the flop, flopped top pair of
eights, bet $3,000, called a +211 raise, and won against Ad 3c with a
board that read: [3d 7s 8h 5s] [5c])
4c 4s (500 small blind, folded to +5,700 raise)
Kd 7s (1,000 big blind, got to see the flop and folded to a $3,400 post-flop bet)
Js 2d (400 small blind, folded to +6,100 raise)
Kd 5d (800 big blind, folded to +8,900 raise)
Js 7d (400 small blind, folded to give the big blind a walk)
10s 3h (800 big blind, folded to +800 and +1600 raises)
As 8h (300 small blind, got to see the flop and folded to a $600 post-flop bet)
7d 2d (600 big blind, got to see the flop and folded to a $600 post-flop bet)
As 6c (300 small blind, got to see the flop and folded to a $600 post-flop bet)
Kd Qs (600 big blind, got to see the river and won a $3,400 pot on a board that read: [Tc Jd Kc 8d 2c])
8s 3h (200 small blind, folded pre-flop)
Kc 8c (400 big blind, got to see the flop, checked the flop, raised by
$900 a $300 bet on the turn, raised $4,150 all in and won a $13,475 pot
with a board that read: [2c Jc Ts 4c] [Tc])
That’s a good portion of the meaningful blinds. The results:
Folded 10 of 24 blinds to pre-flop raises (42%)
Saw the flop in 10 of 24 hands (42%)
Saw the turn in 5 of 24 hands (21%)
Saw the river in 4 of 24 hands (17%)
Won 5 of 24 hands (21%)
Was given a walk in 2 of 24 hands (8%)
The big blind (other than myself) got a walk in 1 of 24 hands (4%)
Of the hands I listed above, only my pocket 4’s and KQ (2 hands —
8%) would have been considered good hands, with A10, A9, A8, A6, and
possibly Q10 (5 hands — 21%) being considered marginal hands.
So, I was, I think more unlucky than usual in my blinds, both with the hands I was given and with the pre-flop raising.
As some of my readers here on FOX Sports know, I write for my own blog called Crashburn Alley. I purchased the domain at the beginning of August and published my first article there on August 9. Today is the two-month anniversary of that important day in history.
I normally try to stay away from self-congratulatory posts, but I figure one every two years almost (I've been blogging here on FOX Sports since December 2005) isn't too bad.
Regarding the itinerary, as a huge baseball fan, and a less-than-casual fan of the other sports, my writing will probably slow down a bit until March, when spring training exhibition games begin. In the meantime, expect a slightly higher amount of non-sports-related posts. I might start posting some "segment" blogs like a "Video of the Day," something like that.
After the World Series ends, I plan on a lengthy overview of the Phillies' work to be done in the off-season. I'll try to adhere to a schedule of posting one position per day.
Again, sorry for the lack of meaningful content, but I wanted to throw something up for my own sanity.
Visit my new website -- Crashburn Alley!>
Crashburn Alley is a fusion of the phrase "crash and burn" with Ashburn Alley, which is beyond the center field fence at Citizens Bank Park. You can read more about Crashburn Alley here.>
I'm a diehard Phillies fan who is still reeling from the 1993 World Series and Joe Carter's three-run homerun in Game 6.
