Friday, May 20, 2011

Nobody Asked Me, But...

1) OK, so it's the Friday before Rapture Saturday. Uhhhhhhhh, don't know why I'm mentioning that, other than if I do get Raptured, I'll put in a good word for anyone who posts naked pictures of themselves in comments.
 
2) Benjamin Netanyahu is in the US to speak with President Obama. Sparks should fly, diplomatically speaking. I don't imagine Barack Obama will be particularly pleased with an ally pulling the rug out from underneath himself.
 
3) I don't usually cover stories like this, but the Casey Anthony trial is an interesting one from the perspective of tactics. The judge moved the venue to Clearwater from Orlando in order to find jurors who were less aware of the case. He had hoped to have a jury selected by now, but various hiccups-- potential jurors talking about book deals, one panelist actually a potential witness-- have delayed proceedings sufficiently that the judge is now forced to find up to twenty warm bodies to sit for the trial. I'm not sure how fairly that works out.
 
4) Here's the thing: Lance Armstrong is the single most tested athlete in history, and has come up clean every time. Every time. Not even the great Alberto Contador can make that claim, having tested positive (claiming he ate tainted beef). Now, that doesn't mean he has never doped, but it does lend an awful lot of credence to his story. He's out of racing permanently now, and thankfully because science has not proven otherwise, no asterisks will appear next to his claim to fame.
 
5) Certainly, reprisals within Pakistan were to be expected. My heart and my prayers go out to these brave people who stayed and served and tried to clean up the mess we left behind, and more so to the innocent Pakistanis injured in the attacks.
 
6) The Republican flavor of the week? John Huntsman. I'm eager to see who is actually left standing when the dust settles. Huntsman could be a stronger candidate against Obama than any of his rivals, but the problem is, the same reason he'd be stronger in the general is the reason he'll get hammered in the primaries. You see, he worked for Obama. Which means they'll try and pin Obamacare on him, while they're not pinning Romney down with it. Huntsman will end up on someone's short list for VP.
 
7) Given that he was under suicide watch in Rikers, it would not surprise me to open the paper to an obituary any day now. 
 
8) It's rare that a story actually surprises me, much less shocks me. This one shocked me. Never saw it coming. Now, it's quite possible that it's a sham (the story mentions the FBI includes the Unabomer among a list of suspects) but still...
 
9) Your weekly Sarah Pal-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........Babe? Trying eating less cheese, K?
 
10) So this great and grand budget deficit...precisely how much of it is attributable to the social programs that Barack Obama has enacted since he entered office, including health care reform, but excluding stimulus spending? Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh...2%.