This is video of John McCain’s recent interview with the Des Moines Register’s editorial board, which asks some reasonable questions to which McCain does not respond well:
Katie Couric interviews Sarah Palin:
Compare that to Tina Fey’s parody of the interview. Sadly, there’s really not a lot of difference between the two:
Sphere: Related ContentI can repeat the same answer over and over again. How come I don’t get to be vice president? Sarah Palin says a whole lotta nothin’ in this interview with Katie Couric:
So I’m poking around PicApp because they’re running this promotion where they give you a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate if you post 20 of their photos before the end of the month. (Ahhhh, yeah; that’s what’s with all the photos!)
So anyway, I do a search for Minnesota Vikings and I come across all these photos of our spanking new deep threat, Bernard Berrian and I have to laugh because, apparently, in addition to being able to get past safeties, Berrian is something of a fashion stud.
Behold!
This was photoshopped by Cory Hollenhorst, a web developer at Meta 13 . Absolutely beautiful! (Via My Fox Twin Cities via dbrauer ).
UPDATE 7/23/08: I wrote about the traffic to this post at my Internet Marketing Blog: Brett Favre Saga In Search – Vikings Uniform Photo Drives Traffic.
Sphere: Related ContentThis is sad. Former Green Bay Packer tight end and Super Bowl I hero, Max McGee, died yesterday from a fall from his roof at his home in Deephaven, Minnesota, the Star Tribune reports. He was 75 years old.
McGee played 12 years for the Packers as a tight end and punter but he was most famous for his performance in the first Super Bowl. Having caught only four passes during the whole season, McGee figured there was no chance he’d see any action in the Super Bowl, so he spent the night partying.
Before the game, McGee told starter Boyd Dowler, "I hope you don’t get hurt. I’m not in very good shape."
So, of course, Dowler was injured, forcing McGee into the game. McGee responded by reaching back behind himself on a poorly thrown ball by quarterback Bart Starr, hauled it in with one hand, and scampered 37 yards for the first touchdown in Super Bowl history. At the end of the game, McGee had seven receptions for 138 yards and two touchdowns.
Borrowing from Kids In The Hall, Flickr user lolopop creates a brilliant commentary on Barry Bonds with this photo. Wonderful:
Sphere: Related ContentThe photo above is of Barry Bonds hitting the 755th home run, the one that tied Hank Aaron for the career home run record. Notice in the upper left hand corner: There is a person taking a photo who is wearing an asterisk shirt. Yesterday, he hit number 756 to take the record and I couldn’t care less.
I have nothing against Barry Bonds personally. I don’t hate him or anything. I just think he’s a cheater. Yes, I know, I’m supposed to presume innocence but that’s in a court of law, not the court of public opinion. And except for San Francisco, I think the public has returned the verdict on the overwhelming circumstantial evidence that Bonds took steroids.
I mean, c’mon! Some argue that every era has it’s cheating and this is just another part of that. But a corked bat or spit on the ball (or, if we’re talkin’ Twins baseball, here, an emery board) is a far cry from artificially improving your body, your power and reflexes, at the expense of your peers who are not taking steroids.
I heard an interview with Patrick Arnold, the convicted designer of the steroid Bonds is accused of taking, The Clear. The steroid is named that because it was specifically designed to be undetectable by steroid tests. Arnold was interviewed on Costas Now and he ridiculed Bonds’ claim that he didn’t know what he was taking. He also said that the steroid does improve reflexes and has the effect of putting athletes "in the zone."
There’s a world of difference between the manipulation of the physical objects within the game and the manipulation of the athlete’s body itself. I think ANYONE caught using steroids should be banned from the game and their records erased.
It is completely unfair to Henry Aaron, Willie Mays (though he’s not complaining), Harmon Killebrew, and the rest of the top non-steroid era sluggers on the career home runs list. I’d kick out not just Bonds, but Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire as well. I’m absolutely fine with that.
Historic Significance Of Hank Aaron’s Record
I’m biased also biased against Barry Bonds, I should disclose. And the reason I’m biased is Hank Aaron. Let me tell you why.
On April 8, 1974, the day that Hammerin’ Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s career home run mark, I was a ten year old kid living in the suburb of New Brighton, Minnesota. My best friend at that time was a black kid named Arthur.
Art’s family was the only black family I knew of in New Brighton. There were some white neighbors the next block down who had adopted a couple of black children, but Art’s was the only black family probably in New Brighton at the time.
The only time I’d see African Americans back then was if we drove into Minneapolis or occasionally there would be a black kid on a little league team against whom we’d play. Mine was nearly an all white world.
As a ten year old kid, I did not think of race at all. Art was my buddy and that was that. The only time I was forced to think about race was when some kid made a racist slur against Art and it did happen sometimes. It was a dangerous thing to do, I thought, because I was pretty sure Art could have absolutely kick those kids asses.
I knew. I played football against him all the time so I knew how punishing he could be just playing a game. All knees and elbows, Art was. But we’d talk trash back and that was the end of it.
So back to April 8, 1974. Art and I were at his house messing around and Art’s father was in the other room watching a baseball game, the Braves against the Dodgers. Art’s father called him into the room:
"You gotta watch this," he said.
And so we watched Hank Aaron’s at-bat. We watched as Aaron took his majestic swing that sent Al Downing’s ball deep, deep, deep as Dodgers outfielder Bill Buckner scaled the wall, hoping to pull it in, only to watch it drop in the Braves bullpen where reliever Tom House caught it. We watched as the crowd erupted and Aaron rounded the bases and a couple of college students left their seats to trot alongside him. We watched as the crowd around Aaron grew as he approached home plate where his mother awaited him.
And I watched as Art’s dad pumped his fists in the air and scream and dance with delight. I thought, damn, he must really like Hank Aaron! I knew that Aaron had just broken Babe Ruth’s record and I thought it was cool and all, but I was absolutely oblivious about the significance of the home run as a racial equality event. I didn’t comprehend the extent of what Aaron’s accomplishment meant to Art’s father.
Not until later, of course. I found myself thinking of the experience often when my family moved to Indiana during high school and I saw routine, undisguised, in-your-face racism. I was fortunate enough that my parents raised me to treat everyone as I would like to be treated myself. They didn’t say anything about race, they just said to treat people decently.
Because of that upbringing, I was baffled with racism. I couldn’t comprehend how anyone could hate–hate–someone they had never met and had done nothing to deserve a drop of vitriol. But my experience in Indiana taught me that racism was inherited, that the racist kids that I knew had racist parents.
So I will forever be thankful for having the good fortune to be in Art’s home at that time. The experience prepared me for later life in so many ways. I was able to understand a lot about people as a result.
So, yeah, I’d rather have the person who breaks Aaron’s record earn it. While Hank Aaron will always be my home run king, I can always hope that Alex Rodriguez stays healthy enough to surpass Bonds.
Go A-Rod!
See also:
I had a bit of culture shock this morning when I opened up the Strib and discovered three–three!–football stories in the sports section. Training camp is just around the corner, so it’s time to start talking NFL football again!
The biggest news, of course, is the news of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick’s indictment on federal charges related to dogfighting.
Man, did the Falcons make the wrong bet. Packing Schaub off to Houston doesn’t look like such a smart move after all. So the Falcons are almost certainly in the market for a quarterback and guess who would become suddenly available but one former Viking and current whiner to the press, Daunte Culpepper.
My money’s on Daunte going to either Atlanta or Jacksonville.
My buddy Rob Bauer decided to lend a helping hand to the Falcons organization by remixing their logo to more accurately reflect the franchise’s image. Go Atlanta Fighting Dawgz!
Pretty good, huh? Email me at deerickson@gmail.com if you’ve got any graphics work you need done, and I’ll hook you up.
Buy Atlanta Fighting Dawgz Shirts @ CafePress!
Okay, this is not actually David Strom playing a surprisingly good acoustic version of one of my favorite hip hop songs, Outkast’s Hey Ya, but it sure looks like him. And, by the way, Strom’s last name is particularly appropriate for this video.
For those of you who are not Minnesotans or are Minnesotans who don’t pay attention to our state’s public affairs or politics, David Strom is the spokesman and president of the conservative, no-new-taxes-despite-our-crumbling-infrastructure Taxpayers League of Minnesota.
Strom can often be seen on television on KSTP TV’s At Issue public affairs program and on Twin Cities Public Television’s Almanac program.
Strom blogs at his Our House blog. Anyway, as I said, this is not David Strom. It is actually Mat Weddle of Arizona band Obadiah Parker. But the thought that immediately popped into my head when I first saw the video was of Strom. Judge for yourself:
And, for comparison, the original Outkast Hey Ya music video:
Michael Vick