Mixed Bag

After a couple of days of vacation induced exhaustion I am back (almost) among the living. Have a mixed bag of fever induced thoughts and stuff to share.

First up is a couple of websites that show athlete's and others with in correct translations on their chinese tattoos. Here is Shawn Marion's tattoo that he thinks means Matrix and actually translated means "Demon Bird Mothballs". Here are a few other words that mean something other than what was intended. Not listed is another basketball player (Marquis Daniels) who meant to have his initials in Chinese on his leg and now has symbols that translate to "healthy woman roof".

OOPS.

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Much was made of Jesse Jackson's rant against Obama today. This is another case of much ado about nothing. If you stick have an open mic near anyone I'm sure over time you would pick up a remark that they would later regret. I thought Wolf Blitzer's head was going to explode over the (not so) vulgar remarks.

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While we are topic of CNN, can Lou Dobbs head hurry up and explode so they can replace him with an anchor that does not need to put himself in the middle of every story? CNN is far too good of a news station to have someone more suited for Fox news.

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Bob Novak has commentary on Rassmusen Reports about 300 members of Orange County's Lincoln Club that individually will contribute $1.5 million to Republican candidates this year. They are fed up with Republicans not meeting their agenda and are ready to work on electing a whole new set of Republicans.

Anyone else think this is a big problem with Politics? These Masters of the Universe think they are entitled to bigger influence on the democracy than their individual 300 votes. Similarly, 300 of Hillary Clinton's supporters were pressuring Obama to no avail. That is the benefit of having a large base of small donors. You are not beholden to large donors.

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It's natural that come time for the General Election, candidates move to the political center. Much has been made of Obama's move to the center. As best I can see, he flipped on FISA (which I think will get overturned by the courts). His position on Iraq hasn't changed as some have charged. I'm disappointed on FISA, but at the end of the day I'm less concerned with prosecuting companies that followed President's orders than making sure that the FISA laws are strengthened going forward. The only thing immunity is going to prevent is an unnecessary investigation into Bush. Let it go people. He is gone in 6 months. I'd rather the Congress work on the many issues that confront us than spending an inordinate amount of time next year investigating Bush.

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Note to Danny Ainge. Sign James Posey already. I'd like House back but Posey is the one that matters most. Get it done!!

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Good for Ted Kennedy dragging himself out to be a deciding vote today on a key vote. His arrival flipped 9 Republicans who had previously voted against it. Once the saw it was inevitable, they voted for it to give it a veto proof margin. Interestingly, John McCain didn't vote on it because he didn't want to anger either the AMA or the insurance industry by voting against them. Say what you want about Obama's FISA vote, at least he took a position that he knows isn't popular. John McCain took the coward's way out. Let's see if the press demands an answer from him.

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The neighborhood I used to live in was changed from Roslindale to West Roxbury. It is now official. I moved one mile and stayed in the same town. Had it been done sooner I would have qualified for a $500 less in car insurance premiums per year. Oh well.

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I mentioned that I was on a cruise to Bermuda last week. My daughter's dance group performed on the boat. I gotta tell you, if you can avoid Norwegian Cruise Line at all costs I would recommend it. The help on the boat was untrained, understaffed, and the entertainment (other than my daughter) were terrible. Every bar had one person working and 15 people waiting to be served and honestly it seemed that we were imposing on the staff most of the time. From what I have hear, this is not unusual for a NCL trip.

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Barack took some flak for letting his daughters do this interview. In fairness, I wouldn't say no to anything Maria Menounos asks me either.