Where's the Outrage?

We suck.

After the Denver Broncos clawed their way to a victory over the Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones, the team owner, said, “Hats off to Denver. They’re 4-0 and a good football team.” I am so tired of platitudes. This is the National Football League. I understand the politeness that one team needs to afford another, too, but the Denver Broncos aren’t that good. At least they weren’t that good on Sunday. To quote Denny Green, “They are who we thought they were.” They have a solid defense with a mediocre offense. Their special teams were nothing special, yet the Dallas Cowboys struggled all day.

First, the play calling — the Dallas Cowboys had four plays inside the Denver Broncos’ 10-yard line with time on the clock expiring. What happened? In a nutshell, nothing! The first play was a cross to Patrick Crayton for six yards. Second in two from the Denver Broncos two-yard line. Spike the ball and stop the clock. (If Sam Herd had gone out of bounds on that long fourth down play, that would have saved us a time out and we would have had another down. Mistake!) Third down — spread formation. A slant to Sam Hurd who is being covered by All-Pro safety Champ Bailey. The pass is a little high and inside. Incompletion. Fourth down — spread formation. Almost the exact same play again but this time, the throw is better and Champ Bailey’s position is also better. He knocks the ball down — game over. Sam Hurd is your go to guy in the clutch? Not an inside handoff to Marion Barber who has proven himself multiple times over the last two years. Not some sort of pivot play to All-Pro tight end Jason Witten but an inside slant against their best corner who has already picked off Tony Romo once. To quote Kevin Sherrington from the Dallas Morning News, “… Jason Garrett’s plan to make him the primary receiver on the game’s key play is a little like the Mavs drawing up Matt Carroll for the winning shot over Kobe Bryant.” He is 100% correct. To add insult to injury, Miles Austin was open on the other side of the field. (Granted, he ran the wrong route earlier in the game which cost Romo an interception deep in the red zone. I’m not sure I would’ve thrown to him either.)

Secondly, I don’t know if Tony Romo is hurt or not. If he is hurt, we need to bring in somebody else until he is better. Sure, Jon Kitna has been labeled the human turnover machine but at least we would lower our expectations. I’m not sure that this offense that was reportedly built for Tony Romo is any good. Romo has no touchdowns in eight quarters. What happened to his high powered Dallas attack? Where was this league leading running attack? There weren’t that many wide-open receivers but this is the NFL. The other guys get paid to. We need better accuracy out of Romo. He was missing guys high. He was throwing behind guys who were coming across the field. Maybe he needs new glasses?

Third. When the game was on the line, you couldn’t keep the triplets out of the game. Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman or Michael Irvin. Yet, our number one receiver, Roy Williams, was on the sideline. After the game, he said, “I’m 5200 feet above sea level right now with asthma, so I’m struggling a little bit. Never in my life have I been hit like that, from Pop Warner to sixth year in the league.” Look, this is football. If you have asthma, and you know you’re going to Denver to play a game, go see your pulmonologist and get your meds adjusted. There are no excuses come game time. Unless Roy Williams has a broken rib or clavicle, he should’ve put himself in position to be there for the final play.

I think it is time to realize that nobody is going to, in the football vernacular, “step up.” The Cowboys are good enough to play with anybody. But, time and time again, they miss assignments, they run the wrong route, they hold, they are offsides, they miss a tackle and we have a flood of excuses and platitudes at post game press conferences. Right now, the Cowboys are playing like a team with two wins and two losses. They are two games behind division leading New York Giants. It might as well be 100 games. Although the season is young, chances of getting to the playoffs with this team are getting slimmer and slimmer.

(How do you give up five sacks to the Denver Broncos?)

Tags: Sports by ecthompson md
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After the Dallas Cowboys laid a huge ugly rotten egg in Denver, I needed something to lift my mood. I haven’t heard Spyro Gyra in a long time.  They played in Atlanta a lot when I was in college(though that was some time ago). Enjoy!

Artist: Spyro Gyra
Tune: Morning Dance

Tags: Music by ecthompson md
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A friend of mine sent me the following relatively innocent e-mail:

Are you a Democrat, a Republican, or a Redneck?

Here is a little test that will help you decide.
You’re walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children.

Suddenly, an Islamic Terrorist with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, praises Allah, raises the knife, and charges at you.

You are carrying a Kimber 1911 45 cal. ACP, and you are an expert shot.

You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family. What do you do?

………………………………………………….

Democrat’s Answer :

Well, that’s not enough information to answer the question! Does the man look poor or oppressed? Have I ever done anything to him that would inspire him to attack? Could we run away? What does my wife think? What about the kids? Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand? What does the law say about this situation? Does the pistol have appropriate safety built into it? Why am I carrying a loaded gun anyway, and what kind of message does this send to society and to my children? Is it possible he’d be happy with just killing me? Does he definitely want to kill me, or would he be content just to wound me? If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my family get away while he was stabbing me? Should I call 9-1-1? Why is this street so deserted? We need to raise taxes, have paint and weed day and make this happier, healthier street that would discourage such behavior. This is all so confusing! I need to debate this with some friends for few days and try to come to a consensus.

………………………………………………………….

Republican’s Answer:

BANG!

……………………………………………………

Redneck’s Answer:

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Click….. (Sounds of reloading) BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Click
Daughter: ‘Nice grouping, Daddy! Were those the Winchester Silver Tips or Hollow Points?’
Son: ‘Can I shoot the next one?’
Wife: ‘You ain’t taking that to the Taxidermist.

So what’s the matter with this funny little tale? It plays to preconceived stereotypes. These stereotypes are not derived by Democrats or liberals. Instead, these are the stereotypes that Republicans have been using for years to label Democrats. Remember, Democrats can’t make decisions. Democrats are cappuccino drinking, Volvo driving softies. Liberals are completely incapable of making decisions according to these conservatives.

When you read this “humorous” tale at first, you might think you were reading about three different groups but with closer inspection that is not the case. Republicans and Rednecks seem to have about the same response. They both shoot first. So, one can reasonably assume that Rednecks and Republicans are two different flavors of conservatives. These conservatives, without hesitation, protect themselves and their families.

As with all stereotypes, there may be a hint of truth somewhere buried deep inside them. There may have been, some time in the past, when Democrats were unable to make decisions and were unwilling to use force. Fortunately, that time is long gone. I know I’m not one of those Democrats and neither is president Barack Obama. One just needs to look back to April of this year. Remember the Somali pirates? Republicans were salivating. They just knew that Barack Obama would try to have an extended and protracted dialogue with these outlaws. Fox News tried to downplay their glee by saying that President Obama had “no easy solution.” The National Review, the Weekly Standard and the Wall Street Journal seem to be rooting for a progressive failure. There were questions about whether we could protect the homeland as Democrats. At the appropriate time, Barack Obama ordered the use of lethal force. Our military expertly carried out his clear orders.

This brings me back to this little “joke.” To me, the joke is that I don’t know any Democrats like this. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t fight to protect their family if they had the experience, expertise and ability as in the scenario. It is good to know that in our Commander-in-Chief we have an excellent example of a thoughtful liberal who won’t hesitate to use force when necessary. Beware of these “jokes.”

Tags: Other Political Thoughts, Party Politics by ecthompson md
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Well, this is interesting. Both the Senate and the House supported a public option when it came to property; however, many in the House and Senate can’t support a similar public option when it comes to health insurance. Interesting.

Tags: Congress, Healthcare by ecthompson md
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Everybody said it was going to be a while before the economy started creating jobs. This wasn’t going to happen in a day or a month. It hasn’t. I was talking with an expert at the Economic Policy Institute, Heidi Shierholz, about four months ago. She was talking about adding jobs in the first or second quarter of next year. It looks to me as if she is on target.

From BLS:

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in September (-263,000), and the unemployment rate (9.8 percent) continued to trend up, the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics reported today. The largest job losses were in construction, manufacturing, retail trade, and government.

Total nonfarm payroll employment declined by 263,000 in September. From May through September, job losses averaged 307,000 per month, compared with losses averaging 645,000 per month from November 2008 to April. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, payroll employment has fallen by 7.2 million. (more …)

From Meteor Blades:

Another 263,000 jobs were lost in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced this morning, far above the consensus of experts. Last month, the revised figures show, there were 201,000 jobs lost. The unemployment rate rose from 9.7% to 9.8%.

The latest figures reversed what had been a steady downward trend in job losses since spring. In the 21 months since the downturn began, there has been a net loss of 7.6 million jobs. Currently 15.1 million Americans are officially out of work. Another 11.4 million are unemployed because their unsuccessful search for a job has discouraged them, or they are underemployed. because they want full-time work and can only obtain part-time hours.

The consensus of experts surveyed by Bloomberg last Friday had put the expected loss at 170,000. But after the privately compiled ADP National Employment Report released Wednesday contained higher than expected job losses for September, the 84 experts tweaked their estimates, which ranged from 100,000 to 260,000. That boosted  their consensus – the median of all their estimates – to 175,000. This still fell far short of the BLS figures. (more… )

Tags: Economy, Obama administration by ecthompson md
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The conservatives have stoked the right wing of their party to the max and have now run out of fuel. Need some convincing?

Exhibit 1: Phyllis Schlafly stated that the real evil in our society is feminism. It is the root of teen age drop out, joblessness and the hundreds of other ills of our society. Without a drop of evidence, she threw this out. Is this 1969? The problem isn’t dead beat dads who walk out and don’t take care of their business, but the problem is women?  The problem isn’t that our schools are underfunded because conservatives have defunded them for over 20 years, but is instead that women are standing up and saying that they won’t be punching bags any more? Schlafly has a typical conservative myopic view of the Republican party. See something you personally don’t like. Attack it. Blame it for all of the evil.

Exhibit 2: Representative Paul Broun (Republican, Georgia) held a town hall last week where a constituent suffering from major depression said he can’t afford insurance for his chronic condition. Being a good Republican, Representative Broun told this man that he needed to go to the emergency room. The stupidity of this statement cannot be emphasized enough. Treating chronic conditions in the emergency room is one of the reasons why we spent $2.2 trillion on health care in 2007. It is one of the prime reasons for escalating healthcare costs. Yet this representative is sending a constituent to the emergency room for a nonemergent problem. Secondly, chronic conditions, to be kept under control, need a long-term plan of therapy, especially mental conditions. This is the only way you can decrease relapses and increase this person’s productivity. (Original post is from Georgia Liberal)

Exhibit 3: Staunch conservative Senator Lindsey Graham appears to be “through” with the craziness from right wing extremists. He calls those who believe that Obama was born in Kenya “crazy.” Look for Lindsey Graham to back off of his strong statement in the next several days. I hope he doesn’t, but I bet he will.

Tags: Party Politics by ecthompson md
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