Fourth Of July Stuff

Senate has passed their version of the casino bill. Casinos will come. It is inevitable.

The mantra now is a “jobless recovery” that seems to be the catch phrase for defenders of the faith (WOW) within the media, administration and the every shrinking voting block. A jobless recovery? I am amazed that you can have a recovery with 10% of our fellow citizens unemployed. Notice how I said “fellow citizens” since when you add in the illegals…oops….got to be PC - undocumented workers it is even higher. That is not recovery when that many are still looking and hoping and forget about those under employed or who have given up. The latest job stimulus bill went down in flames as some Democrats woke up and realized it ain’t working.

The economics in total - meaning world wide - show little positives. In this country the weekly jobs reports are dismal and housing starts continue to sink. The economy is in molasses and government intervention polices have provided no relief and only added a debt burden that will be astronomical. Too big to fail gets the dough and too little to give a you know what about fail. I still think the best policy would have been a one year moratorium on all federal taxes. Nothing. No corporate taxes, excise, income - nothing. The ultimate stimulus. Been cheaper than what they are doing now.

One trick ponies is a term that I like to apply to those whose politics revolve around one issue and one issue only. The litmus test for any candidate is do you (fill in the blank) my pet cause. This is readily apparent with the casino issue but certainly can apply to other issues. This blinders on mentality just amazes me. Trying to convince a partisan of anything is like trying to convince the Pope there is no God.

When I travel I always look for trails to run - not that I ever will run them but simple curiosity. On a recent trip to Denver we went up Lookout Mountain that gave a great view of the city of Denver and Golden Colorado. Plenty of trails until I read the sign with the small print telling you how to handle an attack by a mountain lion or bear. Well if I ran these trails I have BB along since I can out run him and he does offer about fifty pounds more in meat on the hoof to any predator.

I also went to Garden of The Gods and again saw a wonderful trail system with many smaller trails breaking off that looked great to run until I saw the sign warning of rattlesnakes. Think I’ll stop complaining about the black flies and mosquitoes.

Coors Field in Denver and AT & T Field in San Francisco are great parks. The Coors field has a backdrop of the Rockies and in SF it is the harbor. Both parks have unobstructed views from everywhere. I had field boxes for one game in Denver and RF grandstand for two other games and the RF seats I actually considered better for about a third of the price. I’d give the edge to Coors Field since they have Dave’s Bar-B-Que that was just great. Both cities were infected with Sox fans who made up about half the attendance at both parks. The traveling circus of Sox fans is like locust hitting a wheat field. You can hear the Boston accents shouting out all the time - “Hit a homah Pedroah.” The Rockies fans gave up talking trash to the Sox fans since we have it all over them. Naturally I wore my collection of 2007 Championship shirts when we beat the Rockies 4-0 as a reminder.

I kept on calling Denver Dallas since it reminds me so much of the forsaken Texas city. Not anything to Denver as it is just a collection of skyscrapers and little else. Boston is a true world class city compared to most.

The two ballparks reaffirmed - again - just how much of a dump Fenway Park is. The ownership has invested 100+ million but it is still a lousy place to see a game unless you spend a small fortune for just the right seats.

Gay Pride Day was nationwide last Sunday and the parade of parades was held in San Francisco. On the way to the ballpark we stopped and watched for about forty-five minutes and this was certainly not the Middleboro 4th of July Parade. This was a very entertaining event in which virtually all civil, social and political organizations were represented. I love the sheriff’s prison wagon all decorated in rainbow ribbons and the Gay Pride contingents from the SF police department waving rainbow flags. This is a huge event in SF and the Giants should have started the game a few hours later to allow folks to watch and participate. We stayed in the Theater District so the parties went on well in to the night.